Silently, I pulled myself up onto the closest Tilla tree near me, and observed my new prey from above. There were 2 of them, with the smaller one focused on the rocks on the ground, while the bigger of the two was on the lookout for something, food I would assume. They stood at about a meter tall, but highly muscular and bipedal. Imagine if the monkey exhibit at the zoo had a bodybuilder culture and you'd understand. The thing to set them apart from normal animals the most though was their light grey skin and patches of stone-like armor that ran down their arms and along their back. While not having natural rocks on their chests, the skin there was a deeper grey, so I assumed it was sturdier. The tails which should have been covered in fur instead resembled grey whips with an odd stone structure at the end that was hollowed out in a semicircle, like a spoon almost. I focused my sight on the larger of the pair as gold circuits flashed.
[Race] Stone Howler Monkey
[Level] 13
[HP] 270/270 [MP] 60/60
[Vitality] 27
[Capacity] 6
[Strength] 30
[Agility] 36
[Intelligence] 7
[Charisma] 8
[Fortune] 4
[Stat Points] 0
[Skills] Unarmed Combat 2, Throwing 3, Acrobatics 2, Stone Skin 1, Blistering Howl 2
It seemed they were agile fighters, like the description had said. This one was level 13 and the other was level 10 with slightly lower stats. But why were their skill levels so low? I had noticed this before, but the creatures I had met so far all had low skill levels, maybe to coincide with their low actual levels? But this was a train of thought I could take after my current hunt. I decided to first take into account my current capabilities and my guesses on my foes.
[Name] Aura
[Class] Biomancer
[Subclass] None
[Race] Human(Half-Monster)
[Level] 4
[HP] 100/100 [MP] 150/150
[Vitality] 10
[Capacity] 15
[Strength] 15
[Agility] 25
[Intelligence] 12
[Charisma] 5
[Fortune] 2
[Stat Points] 0
[Unique Skills] Unsteady Life, Abnormal Growth
[Class Skills] Bio Analyze 2, Flesh Reinforcement 2, Notepad, Self-Modification 2
[Skills] Analysis Eye 2, Storage 1, Dagger Combat 1, Unarmed Combat 1, Water Magic 1, Claw Combat 1
I was certainly outclassed in the stats department, so tricks would be necessary on my end. With the level up in Flesh Reinforcement to level 2 it now gave me 10 stat points in Strength and Agility each for 10 minutes. With that I could somewhat close the gap, but not completely. Luckily I had water magic, which meant that I also had ranged attacks to counter the throwing skill they had, but I wasn't practiced enough to be sure I could hit them. I really was a dumbass, I should have practiced with all my abilities before coming out here again. Even if my brain was scrambled from the giant snake and meeting a shy dragon, I should have still thought of this. Maybe I should just retreat and practice before coming out again? Yeah that seemed like a good idea, to get the lay of the land and hunt some of these monkeys after getting a plan, I don't want to imagine the pain I'd have to go through trying to keep these things quiet after all. I mean they were a variant of Howler Monkey, they could probably call for backup anytime they wanted if I didn't kill them instan-
A terrible premonition entered my mind as I turned my attention back to the monkeys ahead of me. I ended up linking eyes with the bigger of the two who was staring directly at me with murderous intent and a seemingly cruel twist to its lips. It was smirking at me I could feel it. That flipped my switch for whatever reason. I couldn't stand my prey scorning me back. It had already noticed me while I was distracted, and more importantly I one-sidedly proclaimed this shit to be personal and put all thought of retreating on the back burner. Flexing my claws, I started making water blades in each palm and dropped from the tree. I was about 3 meters up, so while I fell I aligned myself parallel to the ground and kicked off the trunk of the tree in the direction of the smaller monkey that hadn't noticed me yet. I was launched like an arrow after casting Flesh Reinforcement on myself. I landed about 4 meters from the smaller monkey and 6 meters from the larger one. The small one was positioned crouched right in front of me, and the large one was behind it off to the right.
Surprised by my actions, the large one scrambled to grab a stone to throw at me but was interrupted by a water blade striking it directly in the chest and knocking it back. It quickly recovered its bearing though and stayed standing with no visible wound except a white mark running down its torso. Luckily though I had bought myself enough time to get close to the small one without covering fire hitting me. I sent the second blade at the bigger one as well to keep it occupied and leapt low to the ground at the small one as it turned up towards me bewildered. I was now within arms reach as my claws glinting in the low light aimed for the small monkey's eyes. In the corner of my eye however a flash of grey appeared and I was sent tumbling backwards with a burning pain in my left shoulder. I landed on my back and then flipped back onto my feet to not get hit by the rock thrown by the large one that impacted the ground where I had been with an ominously loud thud.
I brought my scrambling thoughts back into order as I assessed what had happened and narrowed my eyes behind the monkey that had wounded me. There the tail of the smaller monkey was leaning back with another stone loaded into the cavity it had. It was a catapult, that likely worked off the Throwing skill as well. I hadn't been expecting living monkey catapults in my wildest dreams.
"Fuck, that one stings." I complained while digging out the stone about 3 inches across with multiple sharp points across with my claws. It had been launched deep enough to inhibit the use of my left arm and fractured the bone. My senses seemed to heighten as the blood trickled onto the ground from my hand. My water blades didn't have enough penetrative power to cut them, and I wasn't keen on dealing with the aftermath of another failed assault with my claws. But first those tails had to go. They were my biggest obstacle, since they seemed to be usable even in close range, which meant I couldn't just fight hand to hand with them either.
Making up my mind, I decided to test something I had thought about when first getting water magic but hadn't tested yet. I pointed a single claw at the smaller monkey while dodging the stones being thrown at me at uncomfortably high speeds and gouging new holes into the stone trees around us. I focused and my mana began to flow to the tip of my claw as it lit up in blue light and a ball of water the size of a marble formed. Instead of cutting off the supply like with a water blade, I continued supplying it while imagining a water cutter from machining shops from my old world. While imagining this, a laser seemingly made of glowing water shot out at the smaller monkey not giving it a moment to react. Screams rung out as it clung to the stump of its right arm, bleeding profusely onto the forearm lying on forest floor. Not even a second later the stream of water spluttered out in front of me, unable to maintain itself.
I grinned savagely as it had worked just like I wished. I needed more practice to increase the time it stayed stable, but I confirmed that I could make new magic depending on my imagination.
[Water Magic has Leveled Up!]
As water magic leveled up, I could feel that it had become easier to manipulate the water mana in my core. I had no time to celebrate though as I was still bleeding profusely so I had to end this quickly. The good news was that the body map I had been compiling on them the whole time was now detailed enough to show the weak portions of their skin. I kicked off the ground while watching the muscles in the tail of the small monkey I was charging and dodging the occasional stone from the large monkey that had only begun to move towards me when I had wounded the smaller one. Whipping my head to the left I heard a sharp hiss through the air at the stone that would have pulverized my skull had it landed from the tail in front of me, I had finally reached my target. I stomped down onto the tail to keep it from moving and swung my claws up from the lowest my arm could go with my palm up, so my claws dug directly beneath its ribs on its left flank, just below the heart. I used the tail to keep it down as I kept forcing my hand up with a shout and suddenly the rib cage I was pulling up against shattered and my claws exited the body next to the armpit, going right through the heart. The panel showing my level ups appeared but I had no room in my mind to pay attention to it as I rolled along the ground to escape the stones still hurtling towards me from the big brother monkey.
Breathing heavily, I used the same strategy as before to charge the larger monkey while watching its tail. I was able to dodge each of the stones in time, however it seems it was smarter than I had given it credit for. As I drew close it decided to instead use its tail as a whip to keep me at bay so I couldn't stomp on it like the other one. I was unable to dodge properly and ending up taking the whip to my left arm again and felt more bones breaking. I cried out in agony but grit my teeth grinned as I brought my right hand down in an overhand swing and dug the claws on my pointer finger and middle finger into its eyes down to my knuckles. I wasn't unscathed however, as it had had shattered many of my ribs with a punch and howled directly into my face. The howl was certainly worthy of being a skill, it was charged with mana and burst both my eardrums from the force. However it was cut short when it died, so I didn't take even more damage from it.
I struggled to pull my fingers back out of the skull, so I tried to just place it in storage and that seemed to work. I stumbled over to the other one and also put it away in a nick of time, as when Flesh Reinforcement ran out I crumpled to the ground in a heap and bleeding from my shoulder and ears. I tried to get up but my body completely refused to budge with all the broken parts it had. Since reinforcements would soon arrive due to the last howl, I decided to make a gamble here. Since Safi had said I seemingly had a natural affinity for life magic, I decided to try to use it to heal myself. If it didn't work, I wasn't seeing a real bright future for myself as a Stone Howler Monkey punching bag, so I gave it a shot.
Closing my eyes, I imagined that green light that had flowed out of me when treating Safi, I imagined it flowing into the wound on my left shoulder that was still bleeding. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but slowly the blood stopped trickling out and the pain faded. I sighed with this small bit of relief, but couldn't understand why it didn't heal beyond that. I focused with Bio Analyze and saw the green mana floating in the wound, like a lost child in a store without a parent. It simply had no idea where to go. I decided to give it more detailed instructions now that I could properly see the damage and the fractures slowly mended together and the muscles rejoined. Blood was rapidly reproduced to replace what had been lost and my shoulder was good as new within 10 seconds. It completely flabbergasted me. The life mana was far easier to handle than water mana and it healed incredibly quickly, but it came at the cost of high MP consumption and needing detailed orders to repair the damage, so it wasn't a cast and forget healing option, and not something I could do constantly. I quickly healed my eardrums next and hurried back towards the cave as I could now hear the sounds of many monkeys howling and charging towards my location. As I ran back I healed my ribs and the two fingers that I had jabbed into the monkey's skull with that had fractured.
I retreated around the first bend in the cave and sprawled on the ground, staring at the ceiling trying to get my breathing under control. I closed my eyes and allowed my body to relax and the exhaustion hit like a truck. I struggled to keep my eyes open and made my way back to the study where Safi was. As I neared, I began to feel something I hadn't before in the past because of either the hurry or the insensitivity to mana, but I could feel the mana outside the dead zone where the study was flowing into the ground outside the dead zone, creating a hard interior and exterior where the mana levels suddenly fell to nothing. Following it back to confirm my suspicions, the mana contained in the ground ran all the way to the study without leaking out a bit. I supposed this was what was powering the various magic tools in the study while also creating the mana free environment the mad alchemist had wished for.
[Name] Aura
[Class] Biomancer
[Subclass] None
[Race] Human(Half-Monster)
[Level] 11
[HP] 100/100 [MP] 136/150
[Vitality] 10
[Capacity] 15
[Strength] 15
[Agility] 25
[Intelligence] 12
[Charisma] 5
[Fortune] 2
[Stat Points] 35 (+35)
[Unique Skills] Unsteady Life, Abnormal Growth
[Class Skills] Bio Analyze 2, Flesh Reinforcement 2, Notepad, Self-Modification 2
[Skills] Analysis Eye 2, Storage 1, Dagger Combat 1, Unarmed Combat 1, Water Magic 2, Claw Combat 2, Life Magic 1
