Chapter 2

So, in the end, I became a monkey.

I couldn’t believe it at first, but I’m definitely a monkey. Not some type of human variant with long hair and fur, nor one of those legendary beast men with characteristics of an animal. I’m a full fledged monkey. After all, I have a tail, my mother doesn’t wear any clothes, and we live in a jungle.

Yep, no matter how I look at it, I’m a monkey. It took me 2 weeks after birth to come to terms with this fact.

My breaking point was when my Mother tried feeding me bugs. Damn it Mother. At least feed me some bananas. Do monkeys even eat bugs? Maybe my mother’s not a normal monkey either…

Currently, I’m riding on that cursed mother’s back.  It’s comfortable, especially since her back fur is soft and slightly warm. But you know, the downside to this is that you have to constantly keep a grip on her back, unless you want to fall off and die.

I’ve been on Mother’s back ever since I was born, so if I can brag, then I’d like to say that I’m pretty experienced when it comes to piggybacking. Although at first it was a bit difficult. Even the other baby monkeys who relied on their natural instincts also had trouble. The ones that fell off naturally died.

That’s why grip strength is key. Luckily I have 4 “hands”, so it all works out. But still, grip strength is key! Grip strength is strength!

This especially holds true when Mother is climbing trees, which she often does. We usually travel around the jungle through the trees. The underbrush is dangerous after all, especially for monkeys. Things like giant cats appear, or the occasional gorrilla. It’s scary in the underbrush so that’s why we stick to the trees. That’s how we’ve traveled up until now. At this point, I’m just waiting for Mother to start swinging from the vines. After that, it’ll feel more like tarzan rather than monkey.

Oh! Wait, what if I’m actually not a monkey, but actually just a human baby who was abandoned in the jungle and ended up being picked up by monkeys?!

I touch my face, only to destroy my new found hope. The thin, and mega soft hair on my cheeks confirms I’m not a human baby. In the first place, I have a tail. I’ve already mentioned I had tail.

Sorry. Truth be told, I’m still running away from reality.

Mother follows the other mother monkeys. I don’t know where we're going, but I think Mother knows. If not, then surely the other mother monkeys know.  It’ll be bad otherwise.

Speaking of the other mother monkeys, they also have a baby monkey like me on their backs. One of them even has two. You know, it’s that. Twins.

Anyways, apparently, Mother gave birth to me around the same time the other Mother monkeys gave birth to their baby monkeys. I don’t know how they got the timing so right though. Was it a race specific trait or can all females do that? I’ve heard about something called syncing menstrual cycles in my past life, but I think that might be different

Either way, I think in total, there are about 30 mother monkeys and 27 baby monkeys. Naturally, the 3 baby monkeys that were missing were the ones that fell off and died. I haven’t seen any adult male monkeys so far, so I’m kind of curious about that.

Don’t monkeys usually live in groups? If so, where are the adult males? While I was thinking that, it seems like we’ve finally arrived. After 2 weeks of traveling, we’ve finally arrived. The reason why I know this is because the mother monkeys, including Mother, started howling.

Looking around, I realized that we were still on top of the trees. Honestly though, the space before us pretty much looked identical to the rest of the jungle. If it weren’t for the hundred or so monkeys that came to greet us, then I’d still have my doubts.

Well, regardless, we’ve finally arrived.

Phew.

Now that we’ve arrived, I feel tired. Although I haven’t done anything except train my grip strength, I still feel as if I just ran a marathon. Is it because I’m a baby? Well, whatever. Since I’m a monkey, I won’t push myself. I’ll take things easy from now on. I’ll live this monkey life without any trouble!

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Yeah, that sounds like a good goal. So, for now, let’s take a nap.

……

When I woke up, Mother fed me fruit.

Of course, I gladly ate the fruit. After having bugs and leaves nonstop for 2 weeks, fruit was a welcomed meal. Mother also didn’t do anything like breast feeding in those 2 weeks. Don’t monkeys breast feed? Isn’t it the same for all mammals?

Well, I also noticed that the other mother monkeys never breast fed their kids, so it might be normal not to. Either way, fruit is delicious. I don’t care about bugs, leaves, or milk, but this fruit tastes like heaven to me.

The piece of fruit that I was currently nibbling on looked like a red mango with green spots. It looked kind of poisonous, but since Mother recommended it to me, it's probably safe. When I ate it, I discovered that the skin of the fruit was unusually soft, and that it tasted kind of sour.

Well, either way, compared to my previous meals, this fruit was heaven. I ate it with as much excess vigor as I could muster.

[Ding!]

[You’ve been afflicted with status effect, Poison]

Ugh-  as I was eating, my stomach suddenly started hurting. Uwaa, it’s painful. Very painful. My baby monkey stomach can’t handle the pain. I think I’m crying. Did Mother poison me? Why? E tu, Mother?

Before I could continue complaining, Mother, who was looking at me intently with a passive expression, suddenly took away the red mango. I didn’t want it anymore after discovering it was poisonous, so I didn’t put up much resistance. From behind her, Mother then plucked another fruit from a nearby branch, this time it was a peach like object that was yellow with blue spots. Without pause, she immediately gave it to me.

My first reaction was to turn her down.

No. I do not want more poison. I’m quite content with the first poison, and I’d like my condition to not get worse. If possible, please overlook me, Mother, I don’t want to feel pain anymore. Oi. I said I don’t want it! St-stop! Mother! Keep that away from- bleh, it tastes so bitter….

My fierce resistance was pointless in the face of Mother’s merciless feeding. She stuffed the fruit into my mouth with that same pensive stare of hers. I couldn’t do anything but accept my fate.

After, swallowing the last piece of fruit, I noticed that I wasn’t in pain anymore. When I went to check, the aching in my stomach had disappeared. I’m positive I wasn’t poisoned anymore.

It was probably thanks to that bitter fruit Mother fed me. It tasted bad, but it was probably something like an antidote or something. Something that counteracted the poison from the red fruit.  Maybe Mother just made a mistake when she fed me the red fruit, so she tried her hardest in order to save her beloved son. Aww…. Mother, I can feel your love.

As I was celebrating, Mother did something evil again. She fed me the red fruit. Of course, I resisted, but Mother is too strong. I could do nothing but resentfully eat it.

[Ding!]

[You have been afflicted with the status effect, Poison]

Uuuu… I want to cry. I’m already crying. Mother, really? Again!?

While I was complaining, Mother skillfully fed me the yellow fruit. This time, I complacently accepted. In no time, the poison and the pain once again vanished, but I didn’t have time to celebrate. After two times, I kind of have a feeling as to what was currently happening.

Like I expected, Mother once again fed me the red fruit. And again, after that, she fed me the yellow fruit.

This cruel torture continued indefinitely. Always red, yellow, red, yellow, red, yellow. If this were a stop sign, I’d be complaining about the lack of green.

So, that was how my day passed. Tortured by my own mother. I’m thankful enough that I wasn’t the only one suffering. From around me, I could hear the other baby monkeys crying. I could feel for them, since I’m going through the same thing.

[Ding!]

[New Skill acquired, Poison Resistance Lv 1]

In the end, this was also how I gained poison resistance.