Name: Natasha

Race: Mandrill matriarch lvl 10

XP: 0

Size: 75

Type: Beast

Faction: Unaligned

Armor: 0

HP: 1/100

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 4

HP:0/20 [DEAD]

Tony Luciano

Mandrill lvl 4

HP: 0/20 [DEAD]

A sharp sting. I just want to stay asleep, but this pain in my side hurts. It hurts, but I don't have the energy to get up. I'm just so tired, and cold. I want to pull my covers over me, but my arms won't listen. And that taste? Did I bite my tongue? Someone shut off that stupid alarm blaring out. It's so loud. I just want to go to sleep...

I opened my eyes again but everything was blurry. I was half expecting everything to have been a bad dream induced by drinking coffee before bed, but as my sense of the world returned, I was acutely aware of the metal at my back, and my vision once again came into focus. I see the dark gray hand, and the black fur of my forearm. No, not a dream.

My whole body ached. I knew I’d been hurt but I couldn’t focus on where. It was just a dull ache across everything, as if even my veins hurt. I turned my eyes from my arm to my surroundings to the world around me, gradually coming into focus. I could see the metal bars all coming up to meet at one point above me, and outside the bars was a metal hook, but not attached to anything. Like I was in a birdcage on the floor.

I rolled over, the cold metal hitting my shoulder as Ipressed my palms down, pushing myself up into a sitting position. The room beyond looked odd. Books by the dozen, chemistry tools, strange intricately made mechanical contraptions. One I recognized, but the name escaped me, ar- ard- arm-... something sphere, it’s a model of the planet and sky for judging the movement of stars and things.

I rubbed my face, trying to remember how I got here, but the dull ache filling my body distracted me too much to really focus. So I tried to recall the last thing that happened. I remember fighting that spider, and heading off through the woods. We got ambushed by those cats. Then… I paused, quickly looking around for the boys, but the room was empty other than me. I quickly opened my status window and down at the two names, my jaw squeezed so tightly that I could feel my teeth strain.

Lao Tzu

Mandrill lvl 4

HP:0/20 [DEAD]

The calloused nature that the system displayed shouldn’t have shocked me. It is literally designed for this. You get xp from killing monsters. Dozens of them die every day. What would be different about two random monkeys? Yet still, a reflexive twinge of rage made me ball my hands into fists. Then I remembered what happened.

After the arrows killed them both, the humans came after me. I didn’t know how to fight humans, but all I felt in that moment was anger. I should have run, but I didn't. I tried to take out their healer first, then move on to take out the pillow man, but that soldier was good with a shield. I remember surprising them with thunder missile, stealing a sword and finishing the pillow man. Then I had to use misty path to beat the soldier. But what happened after that?

I tried to remember. After I knocked out the soldier, I turned to the last one. Aragorn-ish. He hadn’t even helped his friends through the whole fight, and I didn’t know what he was thinking. Was he planning something, knew something I didn't? I questioned whether I should run, but I looked over at Tony. I just couldn’t. I used jetstream, but I suppose he was faster than I remember, because he must have beat me again. This is the second time now.

I felt empty. This was my fault. I didn’t need to fight. I could have just run. I shouldn’t have held it against them. They’re humans, why would they even think twice about killing a couple of monkeys? They couldn’t have known. Yet still, I was thinking of Lao moving that bug over to the tree, and I just…

Tears started to obscure my vision as my jaw tightened. I reached out and grabbed onto the metal bars, squeezing them tightly in my palms. I squeezed as tightly as I could, wanting desperately to break something. Though as I did, I noticed my ring was gone. I looked down and saw my skirt and pouch were gone too. Of course. Why would they let me keep anything on me that I could use? I bashed my forehead into the bars and let out a low grunt.

Why did they even capture me? They had no problem killing Lao and Tony. Yet here I am, left alive on one health. Maybe it was because I used magic? Did they want to cut me open and look at my pseudo-lung? Or maybe they want to sell me? I could go to some nobleman’s personal monster collection, or be some wizards frog to dissect. What a bright future. I swept my gaze around the room before noticing a window above. I hadn’t noticed it before since there was no light, so it must be night still. The light that was filling the room came from a chandelier hanging from above.

I looked around the room for anything that could be used to maybe escape from here, but my cage is only about three feet tall, and maybe two feet wide. There’s no way I can see up onto the tables or shelves from here. I paused for a moment as I grabbed the bars, giving them a slight shake. The bars rattled lightly and I thought I might have an Idea. I backed up into the bars behind me and took in a breath before leaping up towards the highest point in the cage and throwing my weight into my shoulder.

The cage tipped but didn’t fall, so when I fell it simply tipped back over. So as I fall down flat on my back, I feel the sting and then cold as I hit on the metal, and then the metal hit the floor, and I bounced off it. Okay. This time I need to hold on to the bars to keep the leverage going. This time I stood up, backing into the bars, jumped up, grabbed a hold and threw my shoulder back into the swing.

The cage rocked forwards, teetered slightly and eventually I felt the weight shift forward and then very swiftly fall forwards, though I didn’t react very quickly, as the iron pinched my fingers before I snapped them back up, shaking vigorously and then looking down at my fingers. I saw the scar across my knuckles and sighed slightly, thinking back to when I got it. It hurt worse than this, but I only have 1 hp now.

However, now that the cage was tipped over I can move it around now. I rolled the cage across the floor for a few feet before bringing myself up to the table. I reached through the bars, grabbed a hold of the leg and tried to see if I could lift both me and the cage, but that wasn’t happening. The bars aren’t exceptionally thick, but they were still solid iron. I grumbled slightly under my breath, rolling the cage in the opposite direction, and towards a bookshelf.

I came up to the bottom shelf, pulling the closest book out, and opened it. The books themselves were made of leather and the paper inside was thick, but again the writing was a language I didn’t understand. I started to put the book back when I heard the door fling open behind me. The man that threw open the door was older, wrinkled face with downturned mouth and heavily bushy brows.

He started yelling as he saw me and grabbed onto the hook at the top of the cage to drag me back into my original place. I didn’t bother resisting, as that was only going to prolong this process. It took him some effort, but he did overturn the cage and bring it back up onto its base, though his breathing was notably labored. The man was speaking in the same language I’d heard from the others, but in a way that I could just tell he was cursing.

I stifled my resentment from building but part of it lingered in the pit of my stomach. After the cage was up, I fell backwards and onto the floor again, leaning on my elbow before rolling back onto my feet. The man spoke some more, but still, there was no point to it. It was no different than if he were talking to a normal monkey, frankly.

Once he was done, he grabbed a rope from the wall, wrapping it around the hook. I hadn’t noticed this rope before, but following it up to the ceiling, I saw a series of pulleys and it came down again to the other end of the rope tied in a knot on the other end of the room. Now I doubt this old man was going to be hauling me up into the air, but that’s clearly what that pulley was for.

He kept talking, though frankly wasting his breath. I suppose he could be more talking to himself than to me, but even then he’s not exactly going to get a reply from me. Well, I say that. I can “reply” all I want but I can’t communicate with him. He kept going for a bit and I watched him, not really trying to decipher his words so much as judge his attitude. Was he the type that struck me as someone who would sell me or dissect me?

The man was recessed in some heavy woolen robes that looked fairly heavy. They were bundled up in the middle and hanging over top of something like a sash, but it wasn’t really visible. He looked at me, and in his eyes I could see at once something curious, analytical, but also resentful which to be fair, I did just make him lift this heavy cage, I would be resentful of that too. I’m not going to try to divine some man’s entire life story from his eyeballs.

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Though, then I saw him waving his hand a bit and chanting out a few words, which I recognized as a spell, though as soon as he finished, his voice filled my mind sounding like it were in an echoing cavern, but the word that he said, I immediately understood despite the language barrier.

“Stand.” He said, and I felt compelled to listen at first, like a reflex, but then sat down. I was not about to just follow orders. I wondered what sort of magic that was. Last time, as I recall, there were only four. Black, white, martial and elemental. What he just did doesn’t seem, at least seem, like any of those four. Meaning that there are other forms of magic than those I had seen, or that I really didn’t understand how they worked. The man looked at me stunned for a moment, apparently confused that his spell didn’t work on me. I won’t deny that the look on his face did make me the tiniest bit happier.

He mumbled something before repeating the spell again, and once again I heard the voice commanding me to stand. I once again shrugged off the mental influence, and began to emit an aura of smugness as he showed his frustration. I tried not to smile but it was hard not to when watching his brow furrows and his eyes practically disappear behind them. He tried once again to cast a spell, but this time it looked different from the commands that he had given me.

A contract has been created. Do you wish to become a familiar?

Accept / Decline

Become a familiar? Like becoming a wizard’s little minion? Not going to happen. Firstly because that’s just begging to be exploited, and secondly because I’m not signing any contract I don’t have the ability to read for myself. That aside, why would I want to be someone's pet monkey? No, I reached out and declined the offer, Though as soon as I did, he looked like I’d just slapped him. I grinned sarcastically, showing off my fangs as the man grumbled again. He shot me a glare, standing up quickly out of his chair, and sauntering over to the table.

I waited for him to come back, but I still didn’t know what to even expect. After all, he tried to command me one, and then subjugate me after, I have no reason to believe this is an uphill slope. He came back with a sort of crystal ball in hand, rolling it over across the floor to me. I was suspicious to say the least. Though after he did, he just stayed there, knelt down watching me. Maybe he wants me to pick it up?

I reached out of the bars, grabbing the crystal and picking it up slowly. It was heavier than it looked, but once I had a grip on it, it quickly turned a dark purplish red. I knew the name of this color… Not magenta, it was darker than that… Burgundy! That was the one. Though as I held it in the center of the red there was a swirl of white that became a white dot in the center. I have no idea what this means, but the man looks interested by it. I, on the other hand, was just confused.

I gave the crystal ball a squeeze before simply rolling it across the floor at high speed towards his toes. He was able to easily move his foot out of the way, but he could tell what my intent was. He picked up the crystal and set it back on the table before pulling out an instrument of some sort. Like an oversized pair of tweezers, or those things you use to draw circles on maps that I don’t recall the name of.

He walked up towards the cage hesitantly, likely worried I might grab him or something, which actually is fair, I might. Though he came up to where he was holding onto the hook on top of the cage, reaching the weird tweezer things in through the bars and poked me with the weird tool on the bicep and I flinched, reaching up to grab the thing from his hand. He tried to keep a grip on it, but I was the one who had leverage here, and simply twisted it out of his hands.

I could tell he was swearing as I took the tool and threw it away, towards the door. I was engaging in very monkey-like behavior. Mostly because I’m pretty sure that letting them know I was more than a normal monkey would be a fast track to the dissection room, if I wasn’t headed there already. The man kept talking as if I was going to be able to understand him, though I suspect he’s talking more to himself than me.

The next tool he brought up was one that looked like a little spyglass. He sat and looked at me for a little bit, which made me a bit uncomfortable. Especially given that I no longer had my skirt. So I sat, pulling my knees together and wrapped my arms around them. Though, as I sat there, I just kept thinking about how I was supposed to get out of here. After all, there is no way that I’m going to just sit around and wait for them to do whatever it is that they want to do. I looked around the room several times but I couldn’t see any key to open my cage or anything of the sort. Nothing to bust the lock, and I don’t know how to pick one.

The man went through his weird measurements and tests and eventually by the time he was finished the sun was starting to rise again. Shining through the window above us. I gave a slight sneer, squinting as the light came shining through. The man seemed satisfied with whatever it was he was doing, standing slowly and starting to cast another spell of some sort. He waved his hand in a weird motion and said some magic words before another notification appeared in front of me.

A contract has been created. Do you wish to join the faction “Tritannia”?

Accept / Decline

I have no clue what a “Tritannia” is. Is that some sort of religion? Or a guild? Or the name of the town? Either way, I’m not going to be joining any faction that nearly beat me to death and is keeping me in a cage. Though this does raise a question for me. Why are factions a part of this system? Is there some sort of benefit to loyalty to one group or another? Joining this group or that one and gaining more reputation for powers or something?

I declined either way and this time he didn’t look surprised by it. He likely saw it coming after the last one. Though as he got up to leave, I was reminded of the temple back behind the waterfall. It required that I use xp to upgrade it. Does that mean that I would have started a faction if I got other monkeys in there? The thought of it just made me think of Tony throwing rocks into the lake again and my jaw clenched.

This is no time for self pity though. I need to be focused on getting out of here. As soon as the man came up to the door, my attention snapped back to him, seeing him pull a keyring off the top shelf beside the door. He stepped out and closed the door, the loud clack marking how he’d locked it behind him. Now being locked in here, the only way out is probably that window, but I’d need to escape this cage first.

The only way I’m getting out is by either bending the bars, breaking the door, or getting the key, and he just left with the key. So, looking around the room, is there anything I can use like a crowbar or something? I took a quick scan, and there did look like a couple metal bars around but they were holding glass beakers and jars. Way too thin, they would bend way before the bars would.

Taking a look at the actual door of the cage, the hinges didn’t look that complicated. Basically just a peg in a hole. I gripped the door to see if I could push with one hand and pull with the other to try and bend it, but it was no use. It was solid iron. I was left scratching my head, and grumbling to myself. I was doing what was sort of a pace back and forth, but there wasn’t enough room to actually pace.

Think, Natasha, think. I was never all that great at puzzles. I was the type who tended to give it like two minutes of trying to figure it out before I just tried to look up the answer. In hindsight my impatience kind of shot me in the foot for trying to actually figure things out. So I guess I’ll try and brute force it again, but this time with windfury to see if I can get that extra bit of strength out of it.

I took in one long deep breath and then huffed out again, but nothing happened. Usually it didn’t take any effort to use my spells, but this time it didn’t come. I tried again, this time focusing entirely on my pseudo-lung and squeezing it tightly in my chest, but no, it didn’t work. Luckily I did have mysticism in my skills, so I could try and “diagnose” the issue.

I closed my eyes sitting back down on the floor as I focused on the magic in my body. I moved it around a bit and it seemed fine. Then I focused on the pseudo-lung and it felt fine too. And this was my first time actually trying to cast a spell while focusing on my magic to see what happens. I took a breath in squeezing the lung tight and trying to cast a simple bluster. I felt the magic pass through my throat, up into my mouth but as soon as it hit the air, it simply dissipated.

Ah, don’t tell me. Of course they knew I could use magic so they made some sort of protection against magic inside the cage or something? But the other magic stuff that he did worked. Maybe it’s a protection against elementalism? Does that mean this is like a dragon cage or something? I mean, it seems fitting, but still. This really does seem like overkill.

Over the next couple hours I just kept trying to figure out different ways to try and get out of there, but every progressive idea became less and less rational until I was contemplating seeing if I could find a way to get the cage up on top of the bookshelf, and drop it to try and bend the bars without dying immediately. It wasn’t going to happen, but it’s what I was reduced to.

After what I would estimate being somewhere between half an hour to an hour and a half later I could hear people talking again outside the door. Which, people mean bad things for me so far. So I sat back waiting for the door to unlock, and the door swung open. The old man was back and surrounded by about a dozen other people, all of which were dressed in robes of some fashion or another.

Most of them were wearing red robes with a weird symbol in it that I don’t even know how I’d describe except that it was like an art student’s attempt to simplify a shape twelve times and it becomes unrecognizable. There were two wearing green, and they looked older than most of the others. My guess it’s either denoting different sorts of groups, or ranks or something. The last bunch were all wearing blue, one of which looked familiar. The large hat and staff I'd seen before, and even with the face shrouded by the brim, I could see the bandages on the cheek from where I stabbed yesterday.

My nose wrinkled instinctively at the sight, our eyes locking on each other and exchanging glares. Though that moment was broken up as the old man spoke up and he began speaking with the two in green. They spoke briefly and gestured to me, and then to the group in blue. One of the ones in blue answered and stepped up closer to the cage. I gave him a sideways look but he didn’t seem to even pay me any heed, raising his hands to start casting a spell.

+10 hp

The pain that sat as a dull ache throughout my body faded slightly, and I visibly relaxed as it did. It was a relief that I didn’t even realize that I needed. He looked pleased in his efforts as he spoke back to the others behind him. The one in green seemed pleased as well, but I wasn't sold that this was some sort of act of charity either.

+10 hp, +10 hp, +10 hp, +10 hp, +10 hp, +10 hp, +10 hp, +10 hp, +9 hp

It took longer than I’d wanted it to, but eventually I did get healed completely as they spoke. While I healed I felt like my muscles just turned into butter. Almost ready to just fall off my body with how much they relaxed. I was sorely tempted at that moment to just close my eyes and fall asleep right there, but I kept on my feet.

The sound of wooden wheels however caught my attention again, snapping back to reality. I watched as they wheeled in a small cart, one pair of the robed figures reaching over to grab the hook on top and lift me onto the cart. Now this I know can’t be good. Never has a cage been loaded onto a cart and someone ended up happier by the end of it. Well, that’s not exactly fair, I imagine that it’s happened when someone bought a dog before, but now I’m just going on a tangent.

I watched as they wheeled me out of the room, passing through the long stone hallway. I looked out of the windows as we passed and I saw we were in fact in the same town I’d seen before. So that was one question answered. And I made a mental note of what the layout of whatever this building is that I’m in. Whenever I make my inevitable escape it will be important to know the way out of here.

They took me down a ramp and into a basement level before wheeling me out into a small separated room. The ground was covered in hay and there were no windows, but there was a second larger door. The door to my cage was unfastened and then opened quickly, the one in the red robe who opened it quickly jumping back and out the door.

Now, at any point I could have made a break for it, and tried to run, but escaping when presumably surrounded by magic users? Not the brightest idea. Better to try it when it’s significantly less dangerous to me. So I simply walked out of the cage as it opened, stepping out onto the hay. Though no sooner had I stepped out, had the larger door opened.

I watched the doors open, and revealed the wide open circular area ahead. The roof was high up, and well lit with lanterns, bathing the room in a deep reddish orange. The ground looked like it was covered in sand and a ring of windows surrounded the wall near the roof. Now, I’m not stupid, I know exactly what this is, and as if to confirm my thoughts, the door on the precise opposite of me opened as well.

This is an arena.