34-If it is against the rules, I'll change them!

5/2/5/4353 M.A.C - Great Western Rainforest- Early Morning

The trio woke up in the shelter which marked the halfway point of their journey as the light started peeking through the canopy. The road had been tough, as it was, in truth, little more than a path that weaved through the forest cleared of undergrowth by the repeated trampling of monkey feet and rolling of wheels over the years. They had not encountered any dangerous wildlife on their journey, and the weather had remained clear, so things could have been much worse. What had been the hardest for Emi was the boredom. Had they not passed multiple shelters on their way, Emi would have thought that they were walking in circles. The trees didn't seem to change much, and they could rarely see more than a few dozen feet on either side of the path due to dense foliage. The silver lining was that without anything to divert her attention, she and Arctic had diligently worked on their body tempering. As they had not had a chance to bathe since their journey began, the scent produced by the days-old sweat that clung to all of them had invaded every corner of the one-room building throughout the night. Emi was just about to point out the smell when she noticed something else that annoyed her.

I thought he understood when I turned him down a few days ago, but I might have to be more blunt.

"Hey! My eyes are up here buddy! Do you not remember lesson 6?"

The interior of the shelter was very dimly lit as the windows were small and the sun was still low at this hour of the morning, but Emi could clearly see Sun Hanukong staring at her chest with a confused expression on his face.

Wait, I'm an owl right now, I don't think I have boobs. Even if I did, there's like a foot of feathers in the way so...

Emi craned her neck forward and tilted her head down to see what he was staring at. Emi saw a soft glow emanating from between her feathers, above the center of her chest, and realized the monkey was not being lecherous.

Ooooh! I leveled up again! If this was Pokemon, then my level 3 Ability would probably turn out to be "Gust" or "Peck". Luckily, it ain't so.

"I know your eyes is up there but why your chest is glow? Also, you say lesson 6 was make sure you not too smelly."

"Yeah, Big Sis, the one about not staring at chests and bottoms was rule 4."

Huh, how did they remember that? Just figured that one would have come early so randomly picked a number between 1 and 10. Meh, not ready to lose face. Time to twist it around.

"Ah yes, sorry, mixed them up as I was also going to point out that you two are failing on that end as well right now."

Arctic walked closer to Emi and sniffed her feathers before straightening his back and tilting his head slightly backward.

"You are one to talk, Big Sis, you smell as bad as the two of us! Can't blame us if you still stink even though you don't help pull the cart."

"It is fine. If you no find a husband because you smell too bad, I accept you anyway. Just need make plug for nose and no problem."

Sun Hanukong had been making some progress, when it came to language, thanks to Emi and Arctic's help. As evident by his last sentence though, his romance lessons were going rather poorly. The three had discussed what they were going to do once they left the forest after stopping at a shelter for the first night of their journey. Emi and Arctic had decided they would try to track down the man who was supposed to have been her father, had there not been a mistake, by finding the person who Emi was meant to have been reincarnated as. Sun Hanukong had decided he would split from the other two and head south to leave the area under the jurisdiction of the Ashram of Inspiration. He had opened up about being confident in his strength, but that he felt lacking when it came to education after seeing how far ahead of him Arctic was while being under half his age. He had decided he would head south, to the lands of the Ashram of Innovation, and then keep going further east to reach the Ashram of Diligence, where he would settle down and study for a while. After hearing that, Emi and Arctic combined forces to help him make some improvements during their downtime. Emi couldn't actually speak Imperial common, but she had been a student most of her life so she had been able to help by giving study tips and finding ways to improve the lessons.

"It seems I leveled up. Small tip though, you might want to avoid telling a woman you'd "accept" her. Kind of gives douchebag vibes. But yeah, if you want to avoid getting slapped, or getting a drink thrown in your face, don't stare at a woman's chest."

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"Even if it is glow? What is word before vibe? Your power no work on it."

"Yup. Just one of the many usually unspoken rules of society, but since all the women in your village are either your sisters, your nieces, or your family's life partners, I'm not surprised it hasn't been a sticking point until now. Also don't worry about that word, there probably isn't an equivalent here."

Emi had been afraid that the tribe was a hotpot of inbreeding at first, but Majusculus had laughed and assuaged her fears. Every ten years, many of the mimic macaque tribes met up and held a week-long festival that was half NFL draft pick, half speed dating. They used the festival to allow new adults to find partners, but also to negotiate which tribe the new couples would end up in. Majusculus had a pained look on his face when he explained that the leaders would be stuck in never-ending negotiations at those times, as new couples were used as means of bringing new skills and trades to their tribe since each tribe had its own specialties.

"You say you level up? Good Abilities? Happy for you but I am jealous. You are two times spirit beast and I still try to be. I am good at body tempering so I have long time, no problem. Rest this morning we continue after eat lunch. Eat your kumquat now. Help recover and waste less if you can concentrate."

"Sure. Give me a few minutes though, I want to check what I got for leveling up, and Arctic still looks half asleep."

Alright, what did I get? [Borderless Empathy] and [Isolate Sound] huh? Both seem fairly straightforward and useful. [Borderless Empathy] takes the guesswork out of [Reciprocal Empathy] and lets me experience the emotions firsthand, even if I haven't felt them before. I can see how that could come in handy. [Isolate Sound] sounds pretty cool though. It should let me be able to hear quiet things even when they are being drowned out by loud noises. I should even be able to isolate instruments and voices from complex sounds, like undoing a mix and getting separate audio tracks. Nothing amazing, but neither seems to need much energy, and both look pretty convenient. The more I level in [Onomancer], the more I feel like I'm turning into a walking editing rig. If this keeps going I'll turn into a one-woman recording studio.

Arctic poked Emi's shoulder, bringing her out of her introspection.

"I'm ready to start, and I won't lose this time."

"Not a competition buddy, but if it helps you do your best, then you can keep thinking it is. Tell you what, if you manage not to waste any Vitality this time around, I'll come up with a reward for you."

---

"Hey, Big Bro Sun, got a minute?"

Sun Hanukong, who had been working on his body tempering alongside Emi and Arctic for the last two hours, opened his eyes.

"Concentrate. Do not waste the Kumquat."

"It's fine. Because I practiced gathering while moving for the last few days, I learned how to split my attention. I couldn't walk, talk, and gather properly at the same time at first, but all three together is fine now."

Sun Hanukong's eyebrows rose to show his surprise as he cleared his throat.

"Good effort. What you want?"

"I wanted to ask you about that thing you guys do with your fur. You can change its color completely, and you can change its texture to some extent, yeah? Can you do it only to some parts of your body selectively?"

Sun Hanukong's left arm shifted from its natural state to an oaken brown and took on a bark-like pattern.

"It do not become hard but yes can make it look like this on all body or only piece."

"Could you make it even smaller, and could you make more than one area change?"

Sun Hanukong concentrated for a few seconds and his body became a patchwork of colors and textures.

"More difficult, but yes."

"Ok, well here is my idea. Could you make black patches, in the shape of letters, and use your fur to write?"

Sun Hanukong's eyes opened wide and he immediately attempted Emi's idea.

"How we not think of this!? One cousin tribe good at make drawing but just to look good, we never think use like this. Most tribe only use for hide or for....find mate..."

Sun Hanukong made his fur shift into a collection of what reminded her of Polynesian tribal tattoos, only in many different vivid colors. He stopped signing for a few seconds, preening for Emi's sake.

Oh, please no... He is literally peacocking...

As Emi appeared unimpressed by his display, and Arctic had begun glancing at him with pity in his eyes, Sun Hanukong quickly shifted his fur back to a simple white, his new name written across his chest.

"When tell leader, he smack his head for not think this before. Most other tribe no write so have excuse, but we do not have excuse."

Sun Hanukong's aura was showing a mixture of shame and excitement as he wore his new name proudly on his chest.

"You can stop getting the butt of your spear dirty every time you want to write something now. Also, according to one of the letters we carry, I am now part of the tribe, so you could argue that this is a discovery made by the Majusculus tribe and you won't be lying, but it also means you and I cannot happen. You wouldn't try to break Majusculus's rules now, would you?."

"Big sister? Can you stop doing interesting things until I'm done with the kumquat please?"

Arctic complained with his eyes still closed and Emi chortled in response. She returned her attention to gathering as Sun Hanukong continued practicing his new skill to the side with his back turned to her. She was slightly worried by the colors his aura was displaying.

Damn stubborn monkey with a one-track mind. I just turned you down, why is your aura shining with determination!? Probably thinks he can make an exception to the rule if he becomes leader...