Sam barely had time to bring up his hammer to block before the monkey was on him, screeching in bestial rage. He parried two of the monster’s weapons, and thrust it backwards with a quick punch to the gut. The creature staggered, and then attacked again, a whirlwind of motion. Its movements started to speed up and grow more powerful, and soon Sam was hard pressed to keep up. He would have to get serious for this fight.
With a roar, the power of Fiery Justice blossomed within him, and he could suddenly keep up with the monkey. As its clubs crossed briefly in front of the monster, Sam raised his hammer, and brought it smashing down, turning the weapons into splinters. Reversing the strike with his prodigious strength, Sam caught the monkey under the jaw, flipping it ahead over heels. It tumbled onto the ground, and quickly scrambled to its feet, spitting out a broken tooth. It howled in anger, and its body started to glow with red light. Even worse, Sam could sense something that felt like a Dao skill being formed. It was not a true Dao skill, but it was still closer to one than the unconscious manipulation of most monsters. If this creature reached the top of F Rank, perhaps it would be fully sapient.
It ran towards him, bounding on all eight limbs like a gorilla, and it leaped into the air as it approached him. Sam rolled to the side, but the monster pushed at the air with all of his limbs, altering its movements enough to land directly on top of Sam. Sam punched it straight in the gut, but all that happened was the monster spat out blood, before lashing at him with its claws. Sam’s bones fractured beneath his armor, and he grunted. With his highly balanced build, sometimes he ran into situations like this. Still, it was better than straight up dying to a single attack because his stats were skewed.
Sam pushed the monkey off of him, and started to imbue his hammer with power. He didn't want to kill the monkey, as he would likely be swarmed, but he had to at least incapacitate it. The monster came charging at him, its feet carving furrows in the ground, screaming at the top of its lungs. As it approached, Sam lowered his stance, thus lowering his center of gravity and stability, and prepared for impact. As the monkey sent a punch flying towards Sam’s sternum, Sam grabbed its hand out of the air, and twisted his body, sending the monkey up into the air. As it came down, Sam pivoted his hammer, smashing the creature out of the air. It went spiraling towards a nearby tree, slamming into it with a thud. Even if the creature possessed immense strength, its weight was still negligible compared to Sam’s own strength. It was a critical weakness of almost everyone at this stage of power, and as far as Sam knew, beyond. However, he had a few inklings of ways to mitigate that disadvantage.
Even with all of those brutal blows, the monkey was still conscious, and it pushed off the tree, almost falling over as it landed.
“Give it up,” Sam called out. “It’s over.”
“It not over, human. Not until I say it is!” The monkey shouted, as it started to run towards him. Well, it tried to. Halfway across the distance, it fell over, and struggled weakly to rise.
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Sam raised one eyebrow at the monkey’s retinue, and they all sighed. Withdrawing a hundred thousand credits from his balance, he sent them to the creature lying in the dirt behind him. The monster spat bitterly into the dirt, and tossed the coin up at him. Sam frowned as he realized that he had been referring to the beast as a monster the entire time. Was it really one? Sure, it was not as intelligent as a normal person, but it was not just a dumb beast. Sam had been able to bargain with it, and it even seemed to possess a sense of honor, albeit a primal, hierarchical one. Sam was suddenly glad that he had not needed to kill it. Murdering a person defending their home in cold blood did not sit right with Sam. It was a good thing that had not come to pass.
“Alright. Come on then, it’s time to go,” Sam said to his companions, who trooped past the monkey, flashing it quick looks. It did not look up, too ashamed of its loss.
As they entered the monkey village proper, Sam made sure to display the token prominently, so that none of the monkeys would attack them. Of course, they could have been scammed, but there had been no way of knowing at the time. As it turned out, the monkey had been truthful, as nothing attacked them. With the balm of peace slipping down over Sam, he was able to take in the incredible city around him. The trees were all quite small, only rising up to a height of around 30 feet, but every inch of their usable space had been turned into platforms for the huts. Each hut was crudely, but efficiently, built out of pieces of bark and other sundries.
Multiple monkeys lived in one house, lying on the floor, or in the case of a few higher level monkeys, on beds of moss. As they moved closer to the center of the city, the levels of the monkeys grew higher and higher, until even the weakest of them were much higher level than Sam. Buying that token had been the right choice. With it, it was like they were almost invisible, and none of the monkeys even looked in their direction, let alone attack them. The only time that one of them had engaged was when Claude had unwittingly stepped too close to one of the houses, and had been met with a rumbling growl from a monkey resting on the porch. He had quickly retreated, closer to the center of the group.
“Why are there so many high level monsters here?” Ava asked. “Was it like this when you were looking for the hammer?”
"No, but there were some higher leveled monsters there too. The difference here seems to be that we are able to negotiate our way past. The System wouldn't make getting to the center impossible, as it wants someone to succeed, but it can make it pretty damn hard. I bet that there are even greater threats within the circle of this village, ones that cannot be bought off.” Sam looked over to the side, and spotted a small fleck of brown fur peering at them from behind a tree. “I think we have some company,” Sam said, not turning his head. “That baby monkey from before is watching us.”
A few minutes later, the monkey hopped out and started to walk towards them slowly, cocking its head in curiosity. Sam and the others kept on walking, not wanting to be seen as a threat. Baby animals were guarded viciously by their kin, and Sam didn't want to bring the wrath of the village down on his head if they thought that the party was messing around with the baby. A moment later, it jumped up and landed on Sam's head, cooing to itself. A few of the nearby monkeys flashed Sam looks of warning, but none of them did anything, seemingly content to leave the baby there. They all knew that none of the party members would antagonize them.