Name: Natasha

Race: Mandrill matriarch lvl 10

XP: 0

Size: 75

Type: Beast

Faction: Unaligned

Armor: 0

HP: 100/100

Strength: 8/Speed: 11/Endurance: 8/Magic: 8/Plasticity: 5/Luck 10

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

Abilities: Balance 2, omnivorous 4, aposematism 3, specialized innate magic 6, Voice 1, coordination 2

Skills: Piercing bite 6, Jab 8, grapple and strike 7, precise throw 7, agile climb 7, nimble sneak 6, hide 1, rapid dash 6, dodge 2, block 1, discern weakness and strength 6, mysticism 1, quickstep 1, tumbling 1, leadership 4, mystic channeling 1, adaptability 1, infliction 1

Spells: Wind drake breath 6, windfury 5, jetstream 1, cloud step 1, thunder missile 1, misty path 1

Boss ability: mob boss

Lao Tzu

Mandrill lvl 2

HP:10/10

Tony Luciano

Mandrill lvl 3

HP: 15/15

I waited for both Tony and Lao to get up onto the came branch as me before I attempted my first actual communication. I hadn’t actually figured out how best to communicate my thoughts before, so I was going to need to go for charades at best, seat of my pants at worst. I crouched down as they landed trying to signal to them that I was trying to be stealthy, but the both of them just decided to sit down on the branch. I smirked slightly, lifting myself up and crouching back down again to try to emphasize my point, but they didn’t really respond.

Great, now I’ve got this puzzle to solve as well. I started sneaking forwards to try to get them to both do the same, and hopefully notice the lizard. Neither of these happened. I quietly crept onto the branch to get closer and Tony followed me, not even attempting to hide himself. I closed my eyes, fighting at the wave of frustration. The least he could do was read the room well enough to see that I was trying to be sneaky, but no, he was just going to be oblivious. Suppose I couldn’t expect more from a monkey.

So I turned around to get his attention, pointing a finger at him. He looked at my hand, cocking his head to the side like a dog. I then pointed towards the lizard, and his eyes followed my hand to the tree trunk. He didn’t notice the lizard at all at first, as evidenced by his curious expression, but as soon as he did spot the lizard, instead of crouching like I was, he started hooting and bouncing in place, and as soon as he did, Lao’s eyes followed and started to do the same.

My lips pursed tighter than if I’d bit into a lemon, frustration bubbling up in my core as the lizard turned its head slightly and started to slink away, climbing around the other side of the tree and quickly darting away, down into the brush. Alright, I see the issue now. I was going to be fighting their instincts to get them to actually hunt. Right now, they see other animals and their first response is to try and scare them off. If I want to get them to fight, I need to train them to actually hunt, but how? I suppose the main thing would be to lead by example. Show them what I want and get them to do the same.

So I sat down on the branch and waited for them to stop hooting and hollering. Once they calmed down slightly, I scanned about for anything else alive that I could hunt, but it looked like their hooting had scared off everything, not just the lizard. I rolled my eyes, getting up again and trotting to the end of the branch, jumping off to swing over to the next. I moved a bit slower to let them keep up, as well as to better scan around for potential targets. I jumped to one branch after the next, looking back periodically to make sure both Tony and Lao were keeping up. The next ones I spotted were the bees.

I looked up and saw the hive above, it was huge. Stuck to the base of three branches, the whole thing looked like it was about the size of a golf cart. The bees themselves were big, about fist sized, but there weren’t many of them. Instead of a swarm of thousands, I saw what looked like maybe ten at most, but no telling how many more were inside the hive. Maybe bees aren’t the best choice for who to pick a fight with given my desire to make them brave enough to fight. So I moved on past them, trying my best not to anger the giant bees. Luckily for me they were bees and not wasps.

Spotting the next target, I came to a stop at the edge of one branch, and looked down. There was something that looked fairly new. It was like another beetle, but one of the normal roundish kind instead of the flat ones. Actually, it was kind of familiar other than the obvious size difference. It looked like a junebug, but the size of a dog. It blended in with the tree bark pretty well, but ironically the green on its body sticks out here with all the leaves being yellow. This time I didn’t warn the others. Instead as they came up behind me, I knelt down, lowering myself below the branch to hang above the bug.

I looked at it from above, waiting for it to come up under me as I started using my discernment on it while I waited. If it was anything like a junebug that I’m familiar with then it shouldn’t be much of a problem. It is armored, but the armor can’t be that thick. It needs to stay light enough that it can fly. It’s moving at a decent speed so it probably has a higher speed stat too. More inclined to run away instead of fight probably, and with the domed shape of the shell, it’s probably resistant to head on strikes, but also a softer underbelly.

I let go, but having learned from last time, I’m not going to be trying to stab it mid-fall. Instead, I landed on top hand first, shoving its head down into the ground as my weight bared down on top. The wings reflexively opened and started to flap clumsily, but I was much too heavy to lift up. I glanced up at the other two who were above me, hooting and leaning over the branch to look down at me. They didn’t look like they were budging though, and didn't want to come down. Which makes sense. During Boris’ fight, none of the other monkeys were helping. They were all hiding in the trees like that.

The bug tried to crawl, dragging me forward with it, but I pushed my arm down, closing its wings and laying my chest across its back to try and weigh it down, but it was remarkably strong. Still, I looked up at the other two and tried to wave them down, gesturing to come to me. I was hoping to some extent at least simple gestures could be understood, but they didn’t react. So I started both gesturing with my hand and my chin. Still nothing. I’m really going to need to figure out how the heck to actually command them to do things, otherwise this leadership skill is kind of wasted.

I paused a bit, thinking about what had just crossed my mind. My leadership skill. Not just trying to lead, but the actual skill. I got it by default, so it must be how it commands them, but I never checked how it works. So while this bug slowly pulled me along with it, in the slowest escape attempt I could imagine, I opened up my menu, looked through skills and tapped leadership.

Leadership 4: A common skill that allows one to express authority and influence over followers.

Ok, well that is remarkably unhelpful. I’m supposed to just have my leadership innate into me now, but I don’t know how to use it? Or maybe it’s that I have been using it, and just failing. This communication barrier is going to be a consistent thorn in my side. Think, Natasha, think. How would I communicate to a dog what I want them to do? Well the best thing to do would be to lead them by the nose and then reward them after they got it right. I dug my heels into the dirt as I tried to stop the beetle from dragging me along any further. I brought my fist up and brought it down in a lightning fast jab to the head, but my fist just glanced off the armored plating. After so many failed attempts one after the other, my jaw tightened, pushing my chin down onto its back.

Maybe if I literally drag the beetle up to them and get them to hit it, then let them eat it after. It wasn’t foolproof, but it was better than what I was doing. The question then becomes how do I get it up to them? I looked down at the armored shell on its back and felt a knight in my stomach forming. I did recently get an upgrade that pierces armor that I still needed to test out. I really did not want to test out my new bite on a bug, but it really was the simplest solution I had at the moment. I wrapped my arms around the midsection, turning my head to the side, lining up my shot and just hoping this wouldn’t taste awful.

I lunged downward, jaw snapping just onto the shell, and at fist fought for a grip, but as soon as my first canine hit a joint, it sunk in just enough to get traction, and all the others felt that resistance give way, cracking harshly and reverberating through by skull. My fangs sunk into the hilt, and I dug my heels in again. I basically just blocked out the taste as best I could, the bitter goop pooling around my gums. This time my entire body was trying to lean backwards. It lifted the front half of the beetle up and I got my hands back on the ground. Though as I did, the strain just strained at my neck and shoulders, trying to lift the entirety of this thing's weight with my back and neck. It was twice as awkward because I couldn’t really see where I was going either.

So I looked up at where the other two were, and saw them hooting and bouncing on the branch. I gripped the trunk of the tree, and it felt like this thing literally doubled its weight as I leaned my head back. Though luckily the weight was at least more distributed to my arms now. I hefted it up, one limb at a time to bring myself to the first branches. The beetle was still alive as well, but I was trying to keep its legs away from the tree so it had nothing to grab onto. It took far longer than I’d planned to get up to the upper branches, hauling myself up onto it and dragging the beetle forwards.

I couldn’t see them at this point, but I could hear them scramble back away from me. I rolled my eyes slightly, reaching out with my arms to grab at the beetle’s side so I could pull it off my fangs. The weight dropped off my trapezius with an almost audible relief from me, flipping the beetle onto his back. I could finally see them both, and they were at the very edge of the branch together. I held the bug down with one arm as the legs kicked at me with surprising strength, so my free arm was sent keeping the closest one from trying to scratch me. I gave a hoot, throwing my head to the side in a sort of “come here” gesture, which they didn’t seem to get.

So I waited patiently for them to calm down, pressing my weight down onto the bug and eventually they started to grow curious, as monkeys tend to do. I spit out the bitter tasting gunk from my mouth while I waited for them to get closer, since they were approaching at a snail's pace. As they started to get closer, I sort of felt bad for the bug. From its perspective this must be horrible, but I didn’t have any better ideas as to how you’re supposed to train a monkey to fight. Hopefully I’ll only have to do this once. Tony brought his muzzle up to one of the legs to sniff at it, and wrinkled his nose but at least he wasn’t running.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I pulled on the leg that I’d been grabbing, using the other arm as leverage, and with a snap, the leg came off. I took the leg, and handed it over to Lao, who took it in hand and sniffed at it. He put it in his mouth and bit down with a crunch to break the chitinous shell. He started peeling away the cracked bits to get at the meat underneath, and didn’t hesitate at all to start eating. Now, I was never, ever going to eat bugs, but Lao seemed fairly pleased with the leg he was given, eating at it like it was a crab claw. Tony, seeing this, quickly reached out and grabbed one of the legs, and yanked at it, breaking it off with a bit more effort than it took me. Still he got the leg he wanted and started eating too.

Now that they have a taste of what hunting can get them, they should get why it’s worth it at least, but I still need to get them to actually do the fighting too, otherwise I just have a couple more mouths to feed, but I think this bug has suffered enough for now. I pulled out my knife, bringing it up to a joint beneath the neck, and wedged it in. All it took was one quick jab downward, and the thing stopped moving.

Creature level is too low. 0 XP

Lao Tzu leveled up.

Okay, well that is a new message, and also some good news and bad news. I didn’t gain any xp, meaning that there is a threshold for how low a level something can be before I no longer benefit from it. I wish I would have known that before leveling up. I would have stocked up on more xp from these lower leveled monsters while I still could. Though on the bright side, Lao leveled up, meaning that he still gains xp even if I don’t, for one. And also, it means that even if I kill it, he still gets xp. So that’s good. Though I wonder if this means our xp will be split up into thirds now? That is going to need some looking into later.

Though after I killed it, both Lao and Tony raised their heads, looking over at it. It was the same reaction that I’d seen from the humans before when they’d killed ol’ havoc before, meaning they had some notification of gaining xp too. Though this raised a couple questions. Given they were monkeys, no doubt that they can’t read. So that lent some credence to the idea that the menu and notifications might just be translated to your understanding regardless of language. But also, it means that they understand that killing gets rewarded with xp. Now I just need to get them to actually hunt, and not just mooching xp when I get a kill.

After it died, I slid the bug over to the two of them, and Tony very quickly pulled off another leg for himself. Lao hesitated a bit, but after Tony took his, he pulled another for himself. I suppressed a shiver at the thought of eating the bug but so long as it made them happy, I’m happy. Still I’m back to trying to get them to actually fight somehow. Now I am wishing I had the internet so I could look up some dog training videos or something, cause right now all I can rely on is good ol’ pavlovian conditioning. Actually, considering what Pavlov actually did, maybe I shouldn’t be saying good.

Maybe I could try a different tactic. Since I can’t really get them to run up and club something, I could try to get them to do something they already know. They seemed interested in skipping stones, maybe I could just get them to throw rocks at stuff, and that would be easier. So, I climbed down the tree again, searching around for a bit longer than I thought I’d need to, but I had a couple of stones in hand. Though while I was down there, I also found myself something to eat while the others ate their meat. I grabbed a pond radish and held it in my mouth as I climbed back up. Though with one hand full it was harder than it looked.

Once I got up to the top, I sat back, nibbling away at my… Is this a vegetable? It has to be right? Carrots are vegetables, so yeah, this would be too. Oh! Right, they’re called root vegetables. I’m dumb. There’s no such thing as a root fruit… Well, maybe there is, but not one that I’d ever heard of. Still, I crunched away at it, the faintly sweet taste cleansing my palate of the lingering bitter that had rooted itself in my gums. Honestly this is probably my favorite food of this new world, that or tied with persimmons, but that was hardly fair considering the persimmon also heals wounds. Though, thinking about it, I wonder if all the other foods give things too but don’t notify me. Like a boost to stamina or something. Or maybe they need to be cooked, or mixed into things like potions. Food for thought. Heh.

As I finished up my radish, I looked at the other two, which were finishing the bug, leaving only a hollowed out shell. It was frankly an impressive appetite from them, considering the bug was almost half their size. I approached after they knocked the shell off, dropping it to the forest floor below, passing by them to get their attention to follow after me again. Scanning through the jungle, I searched around until I found another lizard hanging onto the side of a tree. This time I stopped, pausing before they saw it, and held out my hand that held the stones to them. They took the stones without any prompting, and I made the motion for skipping stones again. Both of them mimicked the motion after me, and I felt like I’d actually managed the baseline of communication. Skipping stone motion means throwing rock.

After watching them repeat the motion back to me, I turned back to the tree the lizard was hiding on, reeled back my arm and chucked the stone hard. The stone flew through the air, beaming the lizard square in the head. Its grip on the tree loosened, but it wasn’t dead. After the throw, both Tony and Lao started hooting again, hopping up and down in place. Though I interrupted their display by making the throwing motion again. Tony was the first to get it, and threw his stone at the lizard as well, but missing just to the side of it. Lao, seeing this, went for a throw as well, and managed to hit it, but it hit more in the mid-torso region. The lizard didn’t die, and started scampering away after the hit, but it was still a good showing from both of them.

I didn’t have food to reward them with, but grooming should still count as a reward I think. So I came up to both of them and started petting them like dogs, which they seemed to enjoy, so I kept it up for a bit, scratching under their chins and behind their ears. It felt a bit odd, these two were technically my brothers and I was kind of treating them like pets, but hey, if it works it works. They are still just monkeys after all. I can’t expect them to be as smart as a full adult human. Especially considering they could have been born literally yesterday for all I know.

After about a minute of petting I turned to start looking for another target to see if we could get another go at it, and maybe get them another meal. Though with how much they just ate, I doubt they’re really hungry at the moment. My next thought was that if I am too high of a level to be fighting here, then I should probably actually go up the cliff face into the area filled with orange leaves above, but as I looked back at these other two, there’s no way they’ll be able to survive up there. A short sigh escaped me as I resigned myself to being stuck down here at this level for a bit. At least until I get them up to maybe level 6 or possibly 8, depending on how much hp they have then. I unfortunately don’t know what their stats are besides hp. Which, judging by the looks of it, they haven’t upgraded endurance either.

Which means at my level they’ll have… hold up. Looking at my hp, I have 100. My endurance is 8, 8 times 10 is 80, and there was always that weird extra one per level, that should be 90. Why is it 100? I stopped to think about it for a while. I knew it was probably due to my evolution, but… oh, that was what the +1 hp meant. It wasn’t +1, it was +1 per level. So you start out with a +1 and now I have a +2. Helpful at least, though now in hindsight Boris has a +4, so he’s practically swimming in hp.

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud sniff at my ear which made me jump slightly, looking over to see Lao sniffing at my ear. Guess I got lost in thought again. That really is a bad habit to have out here, but at least now I have an extra pair of eyes to look out for me. I gave Lao a pat on the head as I stood. I need to get back into the swing of things (heh) and start hunting. If I’m going to have these two follow me then they’ll need to be at least a few levels higher. 15 hp is barely anything. I nearly lost that much in a single attack a few times. In fact, that one time in town, that adventurer’s sword did 16 with one swing. That would take them both out in one go. So I really need to get to work. Getting xp for myself was… well I won’t say easy, but it was fast. Getting xp for these two will be harder when I have no clue how much they are actually gaining or how fast.

Still I started forwards, hopping from one branch to the next in search of a new target. I have introduced to them the art of throwing things at whatever you dislike, and this shall be the stepping stone towards punching things you dislike. I looked back at the two of them briefly as I landed on a branch, and both of them were getting more used to climbing and swinging around. I wasn’t leaving them quite as much in my dust as when we first started. I paused at the next branch over, scanning around to see if I could spot anything worth hunting for, when I spotted the shape of one of those flat beetles again. They didn’t give a ton of xp, but I’m not focused so much on xp as I am on actual experience. I need to acclimate both of them to actual combat; I say in my own head, knowing full well I have a combined half week worth of combat experience myself.

I moved to the edge of the branch, looking down at the beetle before turning back to the both of them. The next thing was to show them that they don’t need to get rocks from me to throw. I gave another look around, and spotted a tree some thirty feet away with a cluster of heavy nuts. I circled around where the beetle was so I didn’t spook it and came to the tree. Heavy nuts were interesting for the fact that they didn’t grow from the leafy bit of the tree, they grew from the base of the branch in big clusters. Also they’re big and heavy, good for throwing. Both Lao and Tony landed beside me as I reached up to a higher branch, grabbing some of the heart shaped nuts and plucking them off. Now this time I didn’t intend on letting the beetle live after hitting it, but I do need to give the other two an opportunity to actually get some hits in. So we’ll all throw these nuts at it until it starts to get away, then I’ll thunder missile it.

I gave the throwing motion again and the both of them mimicked it quickly, looking up at the nuts and picking out some for themselves. Then I pointed to the beetle on the ground before raising the fruit above my head, and chucking it at the beetle all in one smooth motion. As soon as they were looking at the beetle they started hooting as well, and tossed theirs shortly after. Mine hit, jarring the bug suddenly, but both of the other two missed, falling short of the target. I reared back for a second throw and managed to hit right on top of the head, cracking the nut open. The beetle looked very confused as it sort of ran in a circle to avoid the rain of heavy stone-like fruit.

After missing both of them had started hooting and hollering again, which I just pushed past to grab two more nuts and reared beach for another throw, this time I missed however as the bug made a sudden turn away from where I’d tried to lead the shot. Seeing this however, both the boys quickly turned and started plucking the nuts from the tree and chucking them forwards as well. Their accuracy wasn’t as good, but Tony managed to hit two in a row, which bounced off the shell. It started to bolt up the side of the tree and I hurled one again, smacking directly into its side, knocking it off the tree and onto its back. I went to go for more when I turned and saw Lao was piling up nuts between me and Tony instead of throwing. Smart monkey.

Once the bug was flat on its back hitting it was much easier. I saw Tony break off one thin needle-like leg when one nut impacted the underbelly and followed by my own, which hit the head again. I was throwing for accuracy, but Tony on the other hand felt like quantity was a quality all its own. Missing three for every one that landed, but still managed to get some good hits. I don’t doubt it’s effectiveness, though it does require a lot of ammunition. Eventually however, the bug did roll over again and run towards the bushes, which was the que for me to end it rightly. Or at least hopefully so.

I brought my arm back, swiping it sideways and snapping out my best baseball throw, a loud CRACK ripping through the air and barreling towards the bug, hitting it directly in the center of its back. The nut shattered completely, the shell splitting apart into a mess of fibrous dust, but the bug’s shell was cracked and the back half had come off completely, tumbling through the air in a spray of the greenish gray goop it called blood.

Creature level is too low. 0 XP

As soon as it was dead, the other two calmed down their hooting and looked to me again. I reached over to pet the both of them, both looking satisfied with the good job they’d done. I then hopped down to a lower branch, scuttling down to the ground again and towards the clearing where the body was. I grabbed a few of the scattered seeds from the nuts and popped them in my mouth as I went. Seeing me do this, Lao was the first to repeat the gesture, and grabbed up some of the seeds. Tony, not to be left behind, grabbed one seed to eat but he was much more interested in the bug. I have no clue why, but to each his own I suppose.

I grabbed another one of those egg shaped seeds and popped them into my maw as Tony, just like before, started ripping legs off the bug. Though this one didn’t have much meat in those legs, so he disregarded them and started peeling away the shell. After a few more seeds, Lao also came up to the other half of the bug and pulled it into his lap to start peeling as well. They both looked content, and to me it only made me wish I could have worked as a butcher at some point in my previous life, cause then I’d be roasting pork of that hippo pig I killed earlier. Hippig? I suppose it works but it’s not great. Assuming I could cook it without pans and it turned out as anything other than awful. Ah well, something I can work on later maybe.