Chapter 3_Monkeys are Amazing Creatures , Aren't They?

Chapter 3

After being force fed poisonous fruits, I was currently lying down, next to my mother.

The sky had fallen, and night had finally come. To a frail and fragile baby monkey such as myself, the night was a dangerous existence. It was when all the nocturnal predators and hungry animals started coming out of the woodworks. And in this jungle, there were a lot of those lurking around.

In fact, while we were traveling, we faced no shortage of such predators. Truth be told, during our journey here, the original group consisted of about 70 mother monkeys and 70 baby monkeys. When we finally met up with the adult males, that number had dwindled down to 30 or so. More than half of us had died, and the majority of those deaths can be accredited to the predators. And those predators, most of them preferred hunting with the night sky as their backdrop

Definitely, the night is scary.

But even so, even the fear that I instinctively felt, right now, I couldn’t feel it. I was calm, serene, at peace. It was a similar feeling to the time when I was dead. A feeling as if nothing else really mattered.

My bloated belly, covered in thin black fur shivered slightly due to the surprisingly chilly night air.

Currently, Mother and I were at the top of a canopy of trees. We were using dense foliage and a collection of gathered twigs as our make shift bed. In this type of fashion, Mother was sleeping peacefully, her back facing towards me. If I concentrated hard enough, I could make out her faint breathing, which sounded in tune with the rising and falling of her chest.

In contrast to Mother who was in deep sleep, I was currently wide awake. My eyes gazed dazedly on the night sky above me. Like that time before, the moon was full. It stood out among the myriad of glittering white specs in the sky, and shined down its luminescent light onto the sea of trees around us. Gazing past those trees, I could see an even larger sea of… well, sea. Water, blue and reflective, an ever expanding ocean surrounded the sea of trees.

From what I could make out, it seems like I was on an island. The slight salty taste in the air only served to further ascertain that conclusion.

As I gazed out into the ocean, my mind wandered. I thought about the times back when I was a human. I thought about the times when I was a monkey. To me, a person with memories from my past life, definitely the times when I was human held the most importance, yet, the memories of my monkey past… they weren’t all that bad.

I mean, sure, eating bugs was gross, being force fed poisonous fruits wasn’t an enjoyable process either, and clinging onto dear life while mother constantly moved around and dodged predators was also quite traumatizing… actually, I take that back, being a monkey sucks.

I inwardly sighed.

I once again shifted my gaze up, towards the night sky. Ignoring the cool tropical breeze that shook my mega soft fur, I stared fixedly. The sky, for all intents and purposes, was beautiful. And endless expanse of stars, which twinkled endlessly filled my vision. I tried looking for constellations, but as expected, I couldn’t find any.

This wasn’t just due to the fact that I’ve never been star gazing even once in my past life, but also because I was certain that the night sky was different from the one I was familiar with. Subsequently, that also meant that this world that I’ve been reborn into was different from the world I left behind.

Why was I so certain of this? Well, simple really; Earth doesn’t have two moons. Aside from the full moon that blossomed in the sky, there was a smaller, less vibrant moon that gleamed a little bit to the side of the larger moon. It was a cliched sort of thing, but I couldn’t help but be fascinated.

After all, it wasn’t every day that you get to see two moons, although, considering I live in this world now, I guess it might be everyday...

While I stared, I once again went back to aimlessly thinking. My train of thought once again wandered, and before long, I finally came back to one important thing that had been bugging me ever since I reincarnated.

That was….

[Name: n/a

Pygmy Monkey - Lv 1

Strength - 3

Agility - 2

Intelligence - 50

Defense - 0

Magic Power - 1

Titles: n/a

Skills: Telekinesis Lv1, Poison Resistance Lv1]

….

Without a doubt, this was… you know, it was that.

This window panel was one of the first things I saw when I first reincarnated. It was their from the moment of my birth, and it was still their two weeks later. It was something that easily appeared and disappeared with a mere thought, and it seemed as if nobody else could see it other than me. Well, in short, this was a status panel.

And these were my stats.

Apparently, I ended up in a world with a game like system.

I don’t really have the power to complain at this point, but still, it's quite different from my previous world. And to add to that, looking at the [Magic Power] section of my stats, it seems like this world also has magic.

If I just think about magic, then I can’t help but get excited. Magic’s a man’s romance afterall.

Well, back on topic. If I just accept the existence of status panels as normal, then I can manage. With that, I can move on to the next order of business. Looking over at my stats, I can’t help but frown.

Being a baby monkey, these stats are undoubtedly ordinary, considering how weak and frail I always felt, but still, I can’t help but be unsatisfied. After all, aren’t I quite weak?

Aside from my intelligence, All my values are below 5. My Defense is even 0. Does that mean I’ll die if someone so much as sneezes at me? Well, the intelligence stat, that I can already presume is out of the ordinary for a normal monkey. I’m pretty sure its high value is due to my memories from my past life.

In either case, it's a good head start.

Next is my strength and speed. If you think monkey, then without a doubt, its speed. Monkeys are agile, fast, they’re cunning type of fellows. Even though, despite that, why is my strength higher than my speed? Is it because all my grip strength training? Or maybe it's because, since I was born, I’ve never really moved around much.

It's definitely odd, but if I view it as my strength being abnormally high rather than my speed being abnormally low, then I can somehow stomach it.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Next is… next is definitely that. The thing I’ve been anticipating, the thing that I’ve been saving for last.

Skills.

[Telekinesis Lv1] and [Poison Resistance Lv1]

Telekinesis was something I acquired before I reincarnated, and Poison resistance was something earned through Mother’s torture. If I take a step back and really think this through, then the existence of skills really makes this world so much more game like.

Either way, I can’t help but grin. Skills are also a man’s romance.

First up, let’s examine Poison Resistance. I’ll be saving Telekinesis for last since it sounds more entertaining.

Poison Resistance should be something that gives me resistance to poison. It’s an easy concept to understand, and honestly there’s only one way to test it out.

I quickly got up, and scurried down below to the canopy of trees. Shortly after, I came back to Mother’s side with a freshly plucked red fruit and a yellow fruit.

This red fruit… it's something that has given me trauma, but in the end, it's the only thing I have to test my theory. That’s why, I gathered my resolve and dutifully ate it.

I placed the mango like fruit in my mouth and began chewing. After a couple seconds of chewing, I swallowed the fruit with a large gulp, and burped in satisfaction.

….

Strangely enough, the sour taste that it originally had was somewhat diminished. I wouldn’t necessarily call it sweet, but it was less sour when I first ate it. In addition, there was no pain in my stomach, although I did still get a stomach cramp from eating it.

In the end, the Poison Resistance skill worked. It diminished the effects of the red fruit’s poison, but considering how it was only level 1, it didn’t completely alleviate the pain. If I eat more poisonous objects, will my poison resistance increase? Will I get something like Poison Immunity?

…

fufufufu, just thinking about it makes me laugh. What if I end up turning into an existence that can drink bleach with a straight face? How scary, how very scary...

After I confirmed Poison Resistance, I ate the yellow fruit. As expected, the stomach cramps were annoying. After eating the yellow fruit, I felt much better.

Now that the annoying feeling was gone, I can peacefully move onto the next order of business. Huhuhu, a skill I’m particularly excited to learn about. If you’re wondering what that skill is then I’ll reply back with, “It’s that, you know, that!”

Telekinesis!

Although I’m excited, I don’t know where to begin. For now, let’s start with something simple.

I plucked a leaf from a nearby branch and placed it gently onto my open palm. The leaf which shook with the sea breeze was undeniably light. It was perfect for the preliminary testing.

I stared intently at the leaf.

Mumumumu….!

I continued to stare but nothing happened. Even after I scrunched up my face and thought hard, nothing still happened.

Maybe I got the feeling wrong… In the first place, what is the “feeling” of moving objects with your mind supposed to feel like? As expected, I don’t know. I’m inexperienced.

While messing around with it, something changed.

Oh..?

It was slight, so slight, but I’m pretty sure that the leaf moved. Of course, the possibility that it moved due to the wind existed, but I’m an optimistic person. The leaf moved because of my ability. I’d like to think that.

With newfound vigor, I once again scrunched up my face and thought. I directed my brain waves over towards the leaf, of course, I tried emulating a “move objects with your mind” type feeling, but in the end it was hard.

It was difficult, but I will definitely succeed. I can do it if I try hard enough. I know, that I’ll-

Smack!

Ugyaa!

Ouch! It hurts, it hurts, my face sting! D-damn it, an unexpected enemy attack from out of nowhere! How sneaky! How conniving! Villain, show yourself!

Guu…

While I grumbled and complained, I gently stroked my reddenned face with my hands. You might be confused, but what happened was simple; I slapped myself.

The hand that had the leaf on top of it suddenly rocketed forward and hit me in the face. It would have been a perfect time to say “Why are you hitting yourself?”

From what I gathered, instead of the leaf, I had been inadvertently trying to move my own hand. In the end, I was able to do it, but the pain from my own slap was painful. I’m glad I didn’t die though. With a defense of 0, it wouldn’t be surprising if I died from a slap, although that would have been embarrassing. Dying from slapping yourself, just thinking about it makes my face redder than normal.

Well, a good thing about the incident though, is that I managed to grasp the “feeling”.

I could now float the leaf freely in the air, and if I thought hard enough, it was possible for me to move it around. It was a pretty surreal experience, on par with reincarnating as a monkey.

Using telekinesis- moving objects with your mind was unexpectedly entertaining. It was so entertaining, in fact, that I lost myself in playing around. I moved and floated the leaf for what felt like hours. Sometimes, I’d even float two leaves. I could float three if I stretched myself, but four seemed impossible for the current me.

A few hours passed before a strange wave of nausea assaulted me. The nausea made me dizzy and also made me more tired than usual. I felt like throwing up, but I also felt like sleeping. It was a disgusting feeling, and I did not like it.

For now I’ll sleep. Pushing this baby monkey body of mine any further would be bad. If I developed any detrimental defects in the future due to ill managed care as a baby, then I’d cry. I’ll sleep and wake up tomorrow. Hopefully, by then, this annoying feeling will be gone.

As my eyes, tiredly began to close, I caught a slight glimpse of my Status Panel once more. I didn’t even have time to marvel at its changes before I drifted off into a deep and unconscious sleep.