Name: Natasha

Race: Mandrill lvl 9

XP: 310

Size: 70

Type: Beast

Faction: Unaligned

Armor: 0

HP: 72/72

Strength: 6/Speed: 10/Endurance: 7/Magic: 5/Plasticity: 1/Luck 6

Senses: Vision 3, hearing 4, smell 2, taste 1, touch 2

Abilities: Balance 2, omnivorous 2, aposematism 1, innate magic 5

Skills: Bite 1, strike 3, grapple 2, throw 2, climb 2, sneak 3, hide 1, dash 1, dodge 2, block 1, discern weakness 1, mysticism 1, quickstep 1, tumbling 1

Spells: Bluster 5 MAX, windfury 5, jetstream 1, cloud step 1, thunder missile

I walked up to the group of four monkeys, three of which were virtually indistinguishable from the other. I’m sure they have ways of telling each other apart, but as far as I can tell, they didn’t have anything that could really stand out enough to be distinct. The only one that did was Lao, because of his beard being pointedly longer than the others. Come to think of it, my eyes weren’t fantastic to start with when I got here. Maybe they tell each other apart by smell? I sniffed my own arm, but as expected I can’t really smell myself.

Leaning over, I smell one of the other monkeys, they basically just smelled like sweat frankly. Though when I leaned over to smell Lao, he did smell like sweat, but slightly different. Not enough that I could tell them apart with my eyes closed, but it was different to be sure. Maybe this was how they told each other apart. I sniffed at another one of them and again, similar smell but distinct enough that I could tell. Though with that knowledge, it didn’t really help. I still couldn’t really tell which one was rich without memorizing their smells. Maybe if I upgrade my sense of smell next?

Still, even without any practical use, that was good to know. I have a whole new avenue of communication open to me. Though not a very complex one. I stroked my beard slightly at the thought. I’m sure I could come up with some sort of use for individual scent markers, but I’d need to give it some dedicated thought. Right now, I’d just settle for getting in the line of monkeys grooming each other, casually picking at little bugs and hesitantly eating them. Which I will say, still even after acclimating to monkey life… not pleasant, but it was sort of a requirement for grooming.

1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP, 1 XP, 1 XP, 1 XP

It was a sort of morbid misfortune that I know for certain how many bugs I ate. I had 310 XP to start with and now I have 323. So I must have eaten at least thirteen bugs. I did not want to know this fact, but the fact that there was a number going up just left it engraved in the back of my eyes. It didn’t help that they didn’t taste especially good either. A bitter taste that lingers on the tongue like crap on your shoe. Still, every little bit of xp helps I suppose.

Once one of the monkeys heard another group getting loud, they got up, the rest followed shortly after and started to disperse into other groups. I, having no idea how to monkey, just followed behind Lao to see where he goes and what he does. He moved to the loud group of monkeys that looked like they were gathered up in one circle hooting and hollering. I didn’t think much of it in particular, just curious to see what the commotion was worth the commotion. We came and joined the circle, and I saw two monkeys in the middle, wrestling with each other. My first impression was that they must be fighting over food or something, but seeing the little play bites they gave I realized they were just roughhousing.

Playing is a normal thing for animals. Dogs play together, cats play together. I should have expected monkeys to do the same, but I suppose it was more of a childlike behavior, so I wasn’t expecting it from full grown monkeys. Well, that’s hardly fair, for all I know, they are children. I don’t know how fast monkeys mature. I watched them roll around on the floor, wrestling and grabbing at each other roughly. One gripping by the arm to pull the other down, and the other pulling at the fur of his shoulders to wrench him onto his side. They both plunked over, short back legs bicycling in the air for a moment before flipping back onto their feet. The first one was also the first to stand, raising up to punch downward with both fists. The second one took the hit and bit at the other’s leg, pulling him back and knocking him over.

As the first one tumbled backwards, the second climbed up on top of him, and tugged his beard roughly, dragging the first one across the ground for a bit. It looked almost silly compared to even just my first fight with the lizard, but they were clearly just playing around, as evidenced by the first one letting out a yelp and the other letting him get up and trod away. I suppose it’s the monkey equivalent to crying uncle, as the winner puffed out his chest, reaching out to grab one of the tails of the onlookers. Which resulted in another fight, and they started to wrestle too.

I was never really the roughhousing type but I will admit monkeys do make it look fun. If it weren't for the constant threat of death, it’d probably be a paradise to live out here for them. Heck even with the threat of death it still might be, I don’t know if they enjoy fighting or not. I don’t imagine that there would be much more to life as a monkey besides eating, sleeping and playing. Oh, and leveling up. Or do they have any concept of that? Do they just have points sitting in a menu that they never spend cause they don’t know how? Or maybe they instinctively know how? I kind of stumbled across the fact that the menu existed, nothing says the others couldn’t do the same.

I intended to interrogate the thought a bit longer when I heard a deep hoot from behind, the bulky form of Boris wading over to the group that was fighting and breaking it up by simply interposing himself between the much smaller pair. He let out another few hoots and started pulling back his lips to show off his big fangs, throwing his head up and down like he was listening to some heavy metal. Which got the attention of all the other monkeys at once. Without any more prompting than that, he started walking and the whole group got up off their butts to follow him. Then the rest of the monkeys in the clearing started running after and catching up. I wondered if this was normal or something special, but either way I got up and followed along.

Now, I knew that there were a number of monkeys in our group, but I could never properly count them, but I was certain that the number had been cut in half after the cats came through and fought with Boris. Yet looking around there must have been at least fifty of us still. Which means one of two things. Either I vastly underestimate the number of monkeys, or we have more monkeys now. Which I will say, supports the whole “spawned in” theory. Though that makes the whole male/female question even more complicated. If they just spawn in, and don’t have babies, could they even really be called females? Equally, if they don’t… provide genes, could you call them male? It could be that we are just non-gendered, like bacteria. No wait, I already answered this question, Boris is definitely a male. I grumbled as my brain tried to parse how the heck this was supposed to work.

I huffed, leaning over to try and sniff one of the other monkeys, seeing if I could maybe tell males and females apart from smell. One sniff and I almost felt like I’d been punched in the nose. I did not get to smell the monkey next to me. Instead I was smacked in the face with the smell of Boris ahead of us. I was about ten feet behind him and down wind. No doubt about it, he smelled like a man. There was a very distinct difference between him and the rest of the monkeys I’d smelled before. That’s probably a sentence no one has ever said before.

I decided then, not to bother with the line of thinking any more, and instead focused on where we were headed. We’re going north, or what I guessed was north, traveling parallel with the cliff face to our right. I could just about spot it through the trees. I suppose we could just travel north further than I’d gone before and see if we find anything new out here, but I wonder what it is that Boris is actually leading us to. I assume he knows where we’re going, but still I can only imagine we will gather around a different tree and do the exact same thing we were doing before. I pick up a couple pickberries as we pass by and start popping them in my mouth, the monkeys behind me followed suit, only to regret it immediately The one behind me are one, only to spit it out and licked the bark of a tree as we passed by to scrape the taste off his tongue. Seems they don’t have a taste for sour things like I do. More for me then.

We continued walking for what must have been ten minutes before I heard a new sound coming from up ahead of us. A loud, constant rumbling noise which I recognized as a large amount of quickly running water. I assumed it must be connected to the stream that leads to the frogs, but I don’t know why it would be so much more active such a short distance away. Though that question didn’t bother me very long. Soon the white waters came into view, but not in the form of an impassable river. It was the foot of a short waterfall dumping out from the top of the cliff and into a small lake, or would you call it a large pond? Again the internet would be really useful here, but I’m just going to call it a small lake. Still, a waterfall is really cool. Not sure why Boris brought us here though.

I looked over to where Boris was standing looking back at the rest of the group as they all came onto the beach, most immediately grabbing up anything edible off the floor and chomping away at it, which I noticed a few things I didn’t realize were edible to add to the list. A couple of grasses, a couple of leaves, some roots, noted for later. Though as soon as monkeys stopped pouring in from the woods, Boris turned around, sauntering up to the water’s edge, and leaped forward into it with a loud splash. The other monkeys waited for a second before Boris resurfaced, shaking his head like a dog and huffing loudly. Then, seeing that it was safe, a wave of other monkeys darted for the water, jumping carelessly into the shallows of the water.

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I did not know monkeys could swim, but hey, I’m not complaining either. I took a running start and leaped forward, at the water’s edge, landing with a sharp splash and very quickly realizing just how cold the water was. For some reason I’d forgotten that part. The ripple of cold spread inward from my skin to my core all before I even pushed myself back to the surface, shivering once involuntarily before the heat from above brought me back to enjoying the cold again. It’s been forever since I actually swam. The last time was years ago when I went to a water park with my family. I wasn’t a strong swimmer, but I was a stronger swimmer than these monkeys were at least. They’re all basically doggy paddling around.

I ducked under the water, looking down to see how deep the lake was, and it was actually pretty far down compared to how wide it was. Must go down at least fifty feet minimum, but distance is hard to judge in water. Heck the water was clear enough that I can even see fish in here. There aren’t any fish I can recognize, but I don’t think that means anything. I could probably only recognize a handful of fish, and most of them are just because they were ones you learn as kids. Like sharks, swordfish, and piranha or like tuna catfish and salmon. These could be totally normal fish for all I know, but I’d never seen anything like them. There were three types I could see. The first were long, and silvery with black spots and had that same sort of salmon shaped head. The second were smaller, kind of goldfish shaped, but blue with these big fan-like fins that waved around them like they were made of fabric. The last ones were the largest, maybe as big as me, orange scales ang kind of flat looking with whiskers on the front. I’d say it looked like a catfish if not for the solid looking bright colored scales on the outside.

I came up for breath again and looked around at the other monkeys spread out across the beach and playing in the water, swimming a few feet back to where my hands could touch the ground again. This was nice, relaxing and enjoying simple monkey life for a while instead of constantly fighting for my life. No doubt I’ll be right back to fighting for my life again in a short amount of time, which is all the more reason to enjoy relaxing while I can. I took a deep breath in and kicked up, leaning back to where I could just float on my back. Another benefit of being by the lake, it’s much brighter here, the sun high in the sky, and the trees are far enough away that there was nothing obscuring it like usual.

The sound of my fellow monkeys' rambunctiousness was kind of comforting, but it was mostly drowned out by the white noise that is the waterfall. I looked over to it and saw it was a wide but not very deep river on top of the cliff, which made the waterfall more like a curtain than a spout, which my instincts as a gamer immediately said something must be behind it. At first I thought it was funny but actually started to question it after some consideration. After all, there are plenty of hallmarks of a game here in this world. It wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to say that there might be one more. There were dungeons and bosses and levels, something hidden behind a waterfall would be the least weird of the bunch.

So I flipped over onto my belly and started slowly paddling my way over to the waterfall. I swam up closer, but the closer I got, the more effort it took to fight the current. Once I was within about ten feet the flow of the water was pushing me away faster than I could swim towards it. I grit my teeth a bit, but saw a rock jutting out of the water in front of the waterfall, close to the center. I swam up behind it, and it cut the current enough that I could get that little bit closer, and climbed on top. Now, I couldn’t jump from this distance, it’s like eight feet away from right here. However, I am no ordinary monkey, I am a monkey gifted with the art of an extra lung! I took in one deep breath and breathed it back out again, feeling the rushing wind around me as I cast jet stream. One jump (and being careful to put my arms out in front of me in case I’m wrong and just bash my skull into a stone wall) I fling myself forward, leaping towards the curtain of water and splashing around me as I pass through.

Abandoned temple

Dungeon level: 0

I was right, there was in fact something behind the waterfall. A cave entrance that continued for all of about ten feet before it gave way to more water inside, in fact a second river it seemed. Though that wasn’t all too much of an issue, as there was a wooden bridge crossing over it. Now everything else I’ve seen so far I could compare to some other general style, like European or Chinese or something. I don’t even know how to describe the bridge other than the fact it must have been built by both an architect and an artist. Down the center it had normal wooden planks stretched horizontally across, but at the side it didn’t have the sensible railings, or the precarious ropes, or even the tall suspension bridge feel to it. No it had these long wooden poles to either side and curling up but not quite enough for them to touch. They were not connected to each other either, so they weren’t a railing or a tunnel. It looked more like a rib cage than it did a bridge.

On the other side of the bridge I saw what looked… well, like a temple. There were what looked to be four buildings. One small one to the left, a larger one to the right, one larger in the middle, and the largest in the back. The wind died down around me as I walked forward, the hollow clomp of my palm against the wood now sounding uncomfortably clear as I walked forwards. I was way too nervous for a place labeled as a level zero dungeon, surely that would mean that the place was either empty or at least relatively harmless. It took way too long to cross the bridge, and through an archway at the end. I turned first to the smallest building with the intent to go from smallest to largest. Once I got close though, it looked like it was less of a proper building as much as it was like a shed.

Once again the architecture befuddles me. This has those same ribcage-like beams at each of the corners of the building, and the walls curve with them like a dinner roll. Normally any building would have a sloped roof of some kind, or even a flat roof. The roof on this one slopes inward, kind of like an anti-pyramid. The doors are very simple, and don't even have a handle, just a hole in the middle to pull them apart like the doors on a saloon. And inside I see the results of the sloping roof, which was a hole. So it was like a funnel. And in the bottom was a shallow pool only about the depth of my finger to the second joint. If I had a guess, maybe some sort of wash basin?

The second building was the one on the right, this one looked more substantial. It still had those curved beams on the sides, and those same bulging walls, and a sort of roof. It was mostly flat but fanned out at the edges, and it looked like it was elevated slightly above the walls so all the rib beams are holding it up, leaving a gap less than a foot high at the top. Also, there was no door on this building, just a pair of beams forming an arch, with a huge bell hanging inside. Like maybe six feet high and three feet wide, and hanging from a central beam across the middle of the room. I take it that this was some sort of timekeeper. Like, time to pray, time to sleep, lunch time. That or it was ceremonial… or both, who knows.

Next was the center building, which did have a door, but mostly looked like a scaled up version of the previous building. I walked over to the door, putting my hands in the center hole and pulling them open. The floor plan was completely open. The only thing obstructing the view was the support beams placed periodically throughout. Though in the back of the room was the only thing worthy of note, which was something I did recognize. The thing people sit in and other people carry it on their shoulders. Ah, what was it called? It started with a P. Pa-, poli- palatin? Palanquin! That was the word. It had a lounging chair, and curtains on every side, all drawn up so I could see the chair. Absolutely no idea what this was for, I’m just happy I remembered the word.

I passed through that building quickly and pushed open the back doors to see the last building, the largest one. This one looked much more temple-y than the others. It had the same rib-like pillars but they were all holding up the overhanging roof outside the wall. The wall that did not resemble a loaf of bread like the others. It was a flat wall, and the wood looked like it was sort of overlaid in layers. The outermost layer was like it was crosshatched over the inner layer that was just an average wooden wall. Which made a cool design but I’m not sure if there was a practical reason or not. Then above there was a smaller second story but the roof to the second story flung out just as wide a s the first. Both looked like they were made of some sort of green tiles and had dozens of unlit lanterns hanging off them. I was standing in something like a courtyard where the roof overhang was larger just in front of the doors.

The doors were not the simple swinging doors the previous two had though, they looked thick and heavy, with two ropes tied to the front and handing down to the floor, which I only could imagine must be how you open them. I knew though that I was not strong enough to pull them open, but I am a clever monkey so I won’t try to. Instead, I will simply climb the pillars and climb in through the second floor windows. Without a thought, I scampered up the bowing pillar and hopped onto the tile, carefully padding up to the nearest window and hopping through.

The room I found was fairly bare bones, just a bundle of sticks, a mat on the floor, Some rags, and a small shrine with some symbol that I don’t know. It looked like a diagonal line, leading into a quarter of a crescent and passing through into a full crescent. Like an arrow shooting through one moon to hit another moon. No clue what it means, again, so I’m not going to bother it. No sense in getting cursed by evil ghost monks. So I pushed the door open, looking right first and then left down a long hallway. It looks like this second story is filled with bedrooms, given that the one I exited from looks the exact same as all the others.

I took a walk around, being careful to sneak, just in case I did find something, or if the number at the entrance was lying that it was level 0 and was in fact 100. Silly, yes, but better safe than a monkey shaped red stain on the wall. The rooms all across the second floor were all identical and similarly barren, but in the center between them sat two sets of stairs down and one central room. Unfortunately the door to that one was locked. And by locked, I mean there’s a bar over it from the other side. Something to work at later maybe.

I headed down the stairs instead, and came to what looked like the temple proper. A larger, more intricate copy of the small shrine was in the center between the stairs as I descended, curling around to where the sets of stairs both nearly met directly adjacent to a stone altar. Now down here the hall was much wider, and rugs were laid out in rows. Either there were chairs here, or they expected people to stand here, or maybe sit on the floor? Something like that. Next there were four last sets of doors. The very furthest door to my right looked to be an empty doom with several gutters in the floor and holes at the bottom. Kind of like a public shower, but obviously not that. Well, maybe, they do have magic here after all.

The next door over there was a number of tables arranged in rows, which I already knew from the design, this was a mess hall of some sort. You can change the shapes of the table or the chairs but a mess hall always has the same feeling to it for some reason. That “We aren’t going to make this even more complicated. So all of you sit down and eat.” feeling. The next door was across to the left side of the hall, but as soon as I opened it, my eyes snapped shut as they were slapped by a wall of heat. Slowly my eyes opened, then widened even further, still uncomfortable by the wave of steam billowing out of the room, but I didn’t care. Inside I saw a ring of stone surrounding an odd shaped pool of almost mint green water, steam rising from the surface.

I do not know or care how this is possible, I quickly run inside and test the water with a finger. It is certainly hot, almost too hot, but there was no way I could resist at this point. Holding myself up with my hands, I pushed my feet forward, stinging a little as it burned at the skin, but I soon acclimated, sinking in slowly at first, inching past the knees before very quickly melting entirely into it. I laid back, involuntarily letting out a sigh as I laid my head back on a rock.

This was more than I could have ever hoped to find out here. I couldn’t believe my luck. I was just lamenting earlier about not having a bath and lo and behold I found a perfectly good hot spring hidden behind a waterfall. I know something that will cause some dramatic irony is probably just around the corner ready to pounce and probably blow up the temple or something, but right now, I couldn't care less.