Name: Natasha

Race: Mandrill lvl 10

XP: 0

Size: 70

Type: Beast

Faction: Unaligned

Armor: 0

HP: 80/80

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 MAX

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 MAX, jetstream 1, cloud step 1, thunder missile 1

I’d hoped that I’d see this button eventually, ever since that MAX popped up. I don’t know what all an evolution will entail, but evolving is pretty universally a good thing. Plus it means I might be able to see what’s up with the titles they mentioned at the end of the dungeon. So without hesitating any more, I reached out and tapped the button. There, three screens popped up in front of me. The first one to the right showed the big heavy frame Boris was sporting, mane and all looking perpetually grumpy, and was labeled “Mandril patriarch”. The second one looked pretty much the same as the current mandrills around me, and was labeled “Lesser mandrill”. The last one to the left was slightly larger than the current ones but only barely so. Other than that there were no outer differences I could see, and the label said “Mandrill matriarch”.

Well this was interesting. Matriarch means it’s actually a female too. Wait, does that mean we have to evolve to become gendered? So right now I’m just some sort of neutered monkey. That’s… odd. I poked at the matriarch and the window expanded to give a more detailed description.

Size: +5

HP: +1

Strength: +1 Speed: +1 Endurance +1 Magic: +0 Plasticity +4 Luck: +4

Talent points: +2

Smell: +2 Omnivorous: +2 Aposematism +2

Voice: + 1

Ability points: +1

Ability upgrades: +2

Bite: +5 Strike: +5 Grapple: +5 Throw: +5 Climb: +5

Leadership: +1

Skill points: +2

Skill upgrades: +10

Boss ability unlocked: Mob boss

Well… that’s quite a bit of stuff to muddle through. You get a lot from just one level. So, let’s look at the lesser mandrill this time.

HP: +2

Strength: +1 Speed: +1 Endurance +1 Magic: +1 Plasticity +1 Luck: +1

Talent points: +6

Ability points: +2

Ability upgrades: +6

Bite: +5 Strike: +5 Grapple: +5 Throw: +5 Climb: +5

Skill points: +2

Skill upgrades: +15

Boss ability unlocked: Phase boss

Alright, so the lesser mandrill basically doesn’t get anything special, except his boss ability. Everything else is just free points to spend. And finally the patriarch.

Size: +10

HP: +3

Armor: +10

Strength: +4 Speed: +4 Endurance +4 Magic: +0 Plasticity +0 Luck: +0

Talent points: +1

Hearing: +2 Omnivorous: +2 Aposematism +3

Mane: +1

Ability points: +1

Ability upgrades: +1

Bite: +5 Strike: +5 Grapple: +5 Throw: +5 Climb: +5

Charge: +1

Skill points: +2

Skill upgrades: +10

Boss ability unlocked: Brute boss

This one looks like it’s the biggest difference, even giving armor. Which I wouldn’t have guessed Boris had, but it makes sense how he can just wade through so much damage. These are all good options, but I suppose these all really boil down to what these boss abilities are, cause they sound like the linchpins to these evolutions.

Mob boss: The boss has two minions that they command.

Phase boss: When the boss drops below 50% hp, assumes a more powerful form. Increasing strength by 5.

Brute boss: The boss gains 2 armor for each enemy they face.

Ok, so basically the matriarch uses two minions and has the voice ability and leadership skill to better command them. Makes sense. Plus teamwork has got to be a pretty strong ability in this world, even more if it’s built into the system. The lesser mandrill is that old fashioned boss that gets stronger as you fight him, but also can be built however you like. Then you get Boris. Which is just a living bulldozer. All of them are strong, but I will say I don’t want to be Boris. For a couple reasons, but mostly I don’t want to be male. That just feels weird.

The question becomes the lesser or the matriarch? The lesser gives more freedom, but the matriarch gives basically a bunch of stuff I just wanted anyways. Plus I was just talking about training the other monkeys and the option to just have them on my team is right there on my plate. I think the choice is actually pretty simple now that I think it through. The lesser looks alright, but I can’t turn down the matriarch…plus, I want to be a girl again, so that’s a plus too.

I clicked the matriarch, and felt a shudder run down my spine and a sudden realigning of my body, like I’d somehow popped all of my joints simultaneously. I sort of stretched out before curling my neck down, rolling both my shoulders as I refocused again. It wasn’t obvious at first, but I did realize eventually that the monkey I’d just been grooming a minute before was now a decent bit shorter than me. I raised my arm to look myself over, and for the most part it all seemed the same. Though shifting my weight slightly, I did notice one other thing. I stood up slowly, craning my neck around to try and get a look, but I really couldn’t tell. So I walked over to the water’s edge, and tried looking in my reflection, confirming my suspicions.

My butt is both big, and bright blue. I looked at my stats again, seeing aposematism had been raised from one to three. Silly me, I had been expecting it to mean brighter colors on my face, but this system seems to have a sense of humor. What is even the point of having a bright blue butt anyways? How does that help me survive in the slightest? I huffed slightly, shaking my head as I looked down to the bottom of the menu, seeing two new squares that looked the same as the inventory slots on the other page. I assume these are for my minions. Though, being empty, that means I need to actually fill them myself, as opposed to them just spawning in

My first choice naturally was Boris, so I looked over to where he was sitting and tried to kind of poke at my menu while thinking about him, hoping that would work. Nothing happened at first but I clicked at the square itself and it did eventually react. Good news, something popped up. Bad news was what the message actually said.

Mandrill patriarch level is too high to recruit.

Darn. So I need to recruit mandrills of a lower level than him to recruit. I scratched my chin but luckily for me there were only two other mandrills that I actually could recognize out of the group so I just had to do a little looking around to find them. First I found Lao by the water’s edge, eating something that looked like a potato. I brought the menu up and did the same thing I’d done before, but this time his portrait appeared in the square

Mandrill lvl 2

HP:10

Hmm, now that won’t do. So I selected the portrait and tapped at the name, and just as it did when I first got there, the keyboard popped up. So I typed in the name. Lao Tzu and confirmed. So now I officially have my first minion. As soon as the process was done, he looked over at me, potato(-ish?) in mouth and walking over to stand behind me. Alright, so he knows to follow without being told, that’s good. Now I just need the second one. Tony didn’t take too long to find, as he was playing with a stick over by the tree line with a couple of other monkeys. I reached up and tapped the free square again and Tony’s portrait appeared, filling the box. This time I went immediately to the name box to fill it out.

Tony Luciano

Mandrill lvl 3

HP: 15

And with that I now officially have two minions. I am a boss monster. Now to spend all of these points that I have. First, I have three points to put into my stats. I look at my menu, and think for a second. I got a pretty decent boost from that level up, but which of these do I really want to push up higher? I could raise my strength more I suppose, but I’m not sure how much that would help. My speed is high enough, and so is my endurance, and luck just got boosted to ten. Plasticity, I still don’t really know how useful that is. I haven’t really needed much in terms of resisting environmental hazards or magic, and besides five is plenty. So the main thing is, do I put points in magic, or strength? I scratched my chin lightly thinking for a moment. If I were to raise my strength higher, it would mainly boost my physical abilities, like my bite or climb, which I will be doing a lot of. As for magic… Actually what does magic do?

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Magic: The talent to wield and use magic, increases magical magnitude and precision.

Huh… so it’s not like a bigger mana pool or anything. It’s like the magical version of strength. Which means having a higher magic stat will give me better control of my spells as well as them being more powerful. That does seem useful, but at the same time, I’m not sure what would be more useful. The magic skills or the mundane skills. Would I get more use out of windfury, or climb. I ruminated on the thought for a moment as I looked up to see Tony and Lao both munching away at some leaves. Both of them as of right now are entirely physical. I’m the only one with magic. So I should probably focus on it a bit more. I’ll go with two points in magic and one in strength.

Next up is my one ability point. I haven’t had one of these since I gave myself a name. So, if I remember correctly, the two abilities that I was torn over, were tied between innate magic, and coordination. I gave the menu a look over once again to see if there was anything else either new or that stood out as more useful, and a couple did look good. Like camouflage was still there, but I only briefly entertained the idea, given camo here likely means being bright yellow. One that was definitely new though was bipedalism. Now that might be worth taking eventually but definitely not until after manual dexterity. Right now though, I put my point into coordination.

As soon as I did, I flexed my fingers, and the simple fumbling grip that I was able to manage before was gone in an instant. I was able to bend each finger individually without effort, and maybe now I could even hold a pencil if I wanted, rather than gripping everything like a hammer. So then the next thing to do was the ability upgrades. Which I have three of. So, the first thing I wanted to do was put one point in innate magic, just to see what happens when you get something above a level 5.

Innate magic has increased past a threshold. Elevate innate magic?

Elevate? Well that is interesting. So I tap it and see what pops up, and just like with evolution I got three options. Specialized innate magic. Generalized innate magic. Diversified innate magic. Naturally I tapped one to see what it said.

Specialized innate magic: The magic gland develops further, allowing for higher levels of magic beyond common.

Generalized innate magic: The magic gland sheds its attunement, to allow for casting of any types of magic.

Diversified innate magic: Grow a second magic gland and gain a second attunement.

Okay… so that’s a lot to think about. I can get stronger wind spells for one, which is good. Though the other two I don’t quite understand. For one, I can either get a second attunement, or get rid of it. I don’t know what that means or if either is a good thing. I don’t want to get rid of something without knowing what it is, and if it’s something I want to get rid of, then I don’t want two of them. So I take the safe bet and just pick specialized. Though as I did I took a breath in almost reflexively as my pseudo-lung refilled itself as I could feel it grow larger.

The next two upgrades, I needed to think about for a bit. I could just put the rest in innate magic, or I could put it in my new manual dexterity, or I could upgrade my senses even more. I flexed my fingers for a few moments, just enjoying the return of my digital freedom for a while. In the end I decided to split it. One in coordination, and one in vision. And in that second, things became so much clearer. In fact, I’m pretty sure now my vision is better than it was back when I was human… which means I probably needed glasses and didn’t know it. I look around and see the trees in so much more detail from so much further away. I might even be able to count the leaves from all the way across the lake.

Though with that done, I should move on to skills. I need to figure out what to put all of these upgrades into. Though before I did, I noticed that all of my first skills were highlighted, which I only realized what it meant a second later. They were all above level five. Which means they all can be elevated too. Huh, these are actually going to take a while. So I tap on bite first to see the options. Crushing bite, piercing bite, and ripping bite. Ugh, that last one sounds grim.

Crushing bite: Adds concussive damage to the bite to damage through armored surfaces.

Piercing bite: Adds piercing damage to the bite to deal damage to armor as well.

Ripping bite: Adds serration to the bite to deal greater damage against flesh, and increased bleeding.

Okay, so I could bite so hard that I hurt whatever is under the armor, I could punch holes in the armor, or just tear up unarmored things really well. All of them sound good, but something to actually damage armor itself sounds great. So piercing bite it is. Then next is strike. I click and three more pop up. Tackle, pummel, and jab.

Tackle: Puts the full weight into a strike, attempting to knock the target down or away.

Pummel: Strike heavily and repeatedly in quick succession, and deal greater damage.

Jab: Increase the speed of the strike, both in delivery and recovery.

So this one is a bit different. It modifies the strike much more widely than the bite. Tackling seems too much of an investment to me, throwing my weight around like that. Pummel and jab both seem good, but I haven’t often been in a position when I was really able to use the pummel, and jab just seems like a straight upgrade to what I’m already doing with the strike anyways. Then onto grapple. Grapple and throw, grapple and hold, or grapple and strike.

Grapple and throw: When grappling, more easily maneuver the target as one wishes.

Grapple and hold: When grappling, it becomes much harder to break free.

Grapple and strike: When grappling, it is easier to hold with a single hand

They all seem pretty good at first, each would probably be really nice, but then I notice something. A single hand. Technically, as a monkey, I have four hands that would apply to. Plus, grabbing something and stabbing it has been a pretty useful tactic for me so far. Next up I choose throw. Which again, breaks into three. Precise throw, powerful throw, heavy throw.

Precise throw: Throw with greater precision over a greater distance.

Powerful throw: Throw harder, dealing more damage on impact, and increased range.

Heavy throw: Throw heavier objects more accurately and further.

Huh, so you have what boils down to basketball, baseball, or shot put. This one is actually pretty hard. I haven’t really used throw enough to form a preference, so I’m just kind of neutral to all of these. Though really, the main thing, regardless of how hard I hit with a throw, I really don’t want to miss. A flashback of me back in the human town breaking a window flashed in my brain for a moment and I selected precision. So next, and finally is climb. Which becomes; swift climb, agile climb, or climb grip.

Swift climb: Increase the speed that one is able to climb with ease.

Agile climb: Allows for easier climbing over varied and irregular terrain.

Climb grip: Increase grip strength, and stamina.

Huh, one of these things is not like the other. Odd. Though not sure which is best. Climbing faster would be really helpful, but varied terrain means I could probably climb more things and in different ways. Whereas grip literally just gives me a stronger grip. Really though if I’m thinking about it, I do live in a forest, so agile is probably way better in the long run. Swinging between branches, vines and rocks. Gives more options for getaways. So I picked it.

Now, to actually look at the skills properly. So I opened up the new skills menu, searching through for a bit. I have three skill points to spend. I searched through for anything new first before coming to a stop at a cluster of new skills. Spell evasion, spell defense, adaptability, spell focus, mystic channeling, mithridatism, infliction, all of which looked interesting, and I wanted to go through and eventually get them all, but I did boil it down to these three.

Mystic channeling: A common skill that allows one to direct the flow of magic through the body.

Adaptability: A common skill which allows one to find one’s footing in various terrains.

Infliction: A basic skill which allows one an understanding of status effects and how they are inflicted.

All three of these sound extremely useful but more than the other two, what I’m wanting to see is infliction. Statuses and how they’re inflicted sounds like a seriously important bit of info. So I selected all three of them and I’m surprised to find that the info all seemed surprisingly simple and categorizable. Mystic channeling basically just played off the knowledge I’d gained from mysticism, but the statuses were all fairly simple, or at least the ones I know of. Poison, burning, frozen, fatigued, dazed and numb. I knew there were more than these, but it's still good to know how the basics work.

Next up, I had 16 skill upgrades to work with. Before anything else, I got sneak up to 6, and got the option to elevate it as well, but left it there for now, as I want to finish with these points first. So next I want to put the points in dodge, but I also have dash and quick step that could take them too. Thinking about it, I’ve used dash the most, but dodge has probably mitigated the most damage for me. I mulled it over for a bit, but seeing as how I’d spent more points in dodge already, so it seems the most efficient use to raise it to 6 as well… but I gotta choose dash, it’s useful for more than just avoiding damage and can still do that perfectly. Next, one I really wanted to upgrade was definitely discern weakness. It was a very useful skill to beat big things. The last four points I’m not sure about. Though one thing I thought about was the new leadership skill that I’d need to work with my fellow monkeys. May as well get that up to 4 off the bat. And so on to my three new elevated skills.

Graceful sneak: Sneak during normal movement, and without conscious effort.

Swift sneak: Sneak while running, and move faster while sneaking.

Nimble sneak: Sneak while jumping, climbing, falling and other such agile movements.

Interesting. Always be sneaking, sneak faster or sneak during loud movements. All seem useful, but really there was only one I could really choose. Nimble. I’m a monkey, and sneaking while climbing seems just a no brainer. So next I turn my attention towards dash.

Rapid dash: Dash can be done several times in quick succession.

Sprint: Dash over long distances at higher speeds.

Flowing dash: Quickly change direction mid-dash without the need to stop.

This was a hard choice. I didn’t really have a preference at first. Though thinking about it, sprint wouldn’t be worth it out here in the woods. Not enough straight lines to run The other two though, were hard to pick from. Flowing would be way better at dodging, but dashing multiple times would be great for a strike and fade strategy if I need it. I kept tapping my knuckle to my chin but eventually settled with rapid. Finally discern weakness.

Discern critical weakness: Pinpoint weak points to attack for massive damage.

Discern weakness and strength: Judge both the enemy weaknesses as well as their strengths.

Discern party weakness: Pinpoint the weakest enemies within groups.

Now this one was actually hard. Being able to spot weak points to get critical strikes sounds really powerful, but being able to tell how strong an individual enemy is sounds very exploitable. And for party weakness the idea that while outnumbered, I can just spot the weak link and turn the tides would be extremely useful, especially if I fight humans again. Or maybe I should say when instead of if. Either way, I really need to think. Which one will be the most useful in the long run? If I’m fighting more and more powerful monsters, groups will probably come up far less. So crits or strengths. Strengths will probably give me a better judgment on who I can pick fights with, but if I fight a boss, I’ll be really wanting that crit. Though there is the possibility that if I know my enemy better, they won’t be able to catch me off my guard like the last one did with the numbing breath. I almost reluctantly reached out and pressed strengths.

And with that the skills were done. Now I just need to move on to spells. So here I opened up the menu to look for new spells and just as stated, a bunch more new wind spells popped up. So I sorted through the menu again, eyes almost glazing over as I imagined these. Though eventually I did select one new spell that seemed too good to pass up.

Misty path: An uncommon spell that allows one to solidify air into invisible stepping stones.

There were many to choose from but the more I thought about it the more and more useful it seemed. I can just make a solid object literally out of thin air. I could use this for changing direction mid jump, or to cross large gaps, or as a shield. And that’s not even accounting for the fact it’s invisible so I can just pop it in anywhere and theoretically I may be the only one who knows it’s there AND it says stepping stones, meaning probably more than one. There were other more deliberately offensive spells, but nothing else was as versatile as far as I could tell. After I selected it, my last choice I needed to deal with was my one spell upgrade. So I decided to first upgrade bluster to 6.

Rapid bluster: Cast bluster several times in quick succession.

Heavy bluster: When casting bluster, one is able to affect heavier objects or throw smaller ones further away.

Wind drake breath: Cast bluster continuously for a short duration.

Well that’s new, and now I know that a “wind drake” is a thing. Out of the three options, I haven’t really had a lot of trouble with my bluster’s strength, so heavy isn’t really needed. Both rapid and drake however would be useful for hitting multiple people The question is, would it be better to cast it a lot, or all at once? It does say a short duration, which is what it says for all my other duration spells. So then it should be five seconds of continuous wind. The question then becomes what does Several times, or quick succession mean? Luckily for me, I’d chosen rapid dash, so I could probably test this.

I took a moment to stand up the other two monkeys watching curiously as I did. I rolled my shoulders to loosen up a bit before quickly dashing forward, then again dashing to the side, and again back to where I’d started. I landed back on the spot, huffing out a slight breath. Unlike my spells, dash doesn’t go on cooldown, but I could tell that it was intended to dash three times, one after another before I take a breath. Which means bluster likely would give me three shots. Which is good, but really it seems like if I’m going to use it on a group drake would be way more effective. I talked myself into it, selecting the wind drake breath.

I finally closed my menu after what must have been a half hour of reading and was met with the half interested, half confused faces of Tony and Lao who were probably watching that whole act and thinking I looked crazy. No matter though, now that the system work is done, it’s time to actually test out my new arsenal of abilities, and see how this new leadership works in practice.