Chapter 3: Life with the Red Monkeys

Chapter 3:
Life with the Red Monkeys

 

Part 1

 

WHERE AM I? What’s this soft thing? My fur carpet?

I sniffed. I could smell the stink of animals…the faint scent of piperis.

“Kssh! Kssh! Kssh!” I opened my eyes to find the black lizard right in front of me.

I was in our cave. I rubbed at my forehead. My memories felt vague, although I wasn’t sure if it was because I’d used up all my stamina or because I’d totally passed the heck out.

Let’s see, I proposed a duel to the Giant Orangurang… We got into a punch-out and it knocked me out…but then I got experience points…

If I’m alive, that must mean I won? Guess I should check my status…

 

Species: Young Plague Dragon

Status: Normal

Lv: 39/40

HP: 55/167

MP: 144/163

 

I wasn’t fully healed, but I had recovered quite a lot, and evolution was right within my grasp. So I did win.

The orangurangs seemed to have kept their promise, because they’d left. No more stealing my jerky. The experience of watching their boss die in front of them would probably be enough to keep them away from my cave from now on.

“Kssh!” The black lizard jumped happily on my chest.

I pet its back as it curled up. The site of the battle was close to the cave, but I was still surprised it managed to get me back here. As soon as I’d had that thought, the black lizard let out an uncomfortable “Kshh…”

Hm? What is it?

It got up and looked across the cave. I rolled over to follow its gaze. Four orangurangs stood all lined up in a row.

“Ahh!”

“Ah! Ah!”

“Ah-oh, ah-oh!”

“Ahh!”

The monkeys swung their arms up and down emphatically, whooping with excitement.

Huh? What do these guys think they’re doing in my home? Hang on a second, something’s not right here.

The black lizard glanced at the monkeys and then back at me. Not in confusion but more like, “What the heck are we gonna do with these clowns?”

I had the same question. Why were they even here?

“Raar!” I jumped up with a roar, but instead of running away, the orangurangs drew closer. They formed a line and went to their knees, bowing their heads to me.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Knock that off. What kind of weird prank is this? What should I do, knock them all out at once for the experience? That should give me plenty to hit my evolution conditions.

Seriously, though. Why are they acting so weird? Almost like…I’m their boss or something.

W-wait a second.

I appeared to have overlooked a crucial detail.

“Duels are traditionally reserved for choosing new leaders or resolving conflicts with other clans.”

I thought back on my telepathic conversation with the Giant Orangurang. If the clan boss lost during a duel, did the winner become the boss of that clan?

Giant Orangurang: D+ Rank Monster. Evolved orangurang who has won a duel against the previous leader. That is the only method for evolving into a Giant Orangurang. Since they are so closely linked to evolution, orangurangs regard duels as sacred. Learns many Recovery Magic skills to support the group.

So its evolution pattern changed after a duel? It seemed unlikely to me, but I had a feeling that was right. Evolutions depended on a monster’s skills—especially their title skills. The Giant Orangurang had the skill Clan Boss: Lv 5. And if it earned that title skill because it won a duel, then… I hastily checked my own skills.

 

Title Skills:

Dragon King’s Son: Lv —

Walking Egg: Lv —

Klutz: Lv 4

Just an Idiot: Lv 1

Infighter: Lv 4

Pest Killer: Lv 3

Safety First: Lv 1

Liar: Lv 2

King of Evasion: Lv 1

Protective Spirit: Lv 5

Itty-Bitty Hero: Lv 2

Wrongdoer: Lv 3

Calamity: Lv1

Chicken Runner: Lv 2

Mr. Chef: Lv 3

Dastardly King: Lv 1

Stalwart: Lv 1

Giant Killer: Lv 1

Ceramic Artisan: Lv 4

Clan Boss: Lv 1

 

Welp, there it was. Right on the bottom. I didn’t even notice it before.

“Ahh!”

“Ahh-ooh! Ahh-ooh!”

The orangurangs whooped noisily. They must’ve been celebrating their new boss. I doubted turning down the position was an option. After all, they regarded the duel as a sacred ceremony.

“Kssh…” The black lizard watched me sadly. Did it think the orangurangs would take its place in my life? Apparently…and it didn’t like that one bit. Well, we had fought a life-or-death battle before teaming up.

The weirdest thing about this was that the orangurangs just…accepted me. All over some silly duel.

“Shh! Ksshh!” The black lizard opened its mouth and showed me its fangs. Then it tipped its head to the side and narrowed its eyes at the orangurangs. It was trying to ask me if it should get ready to fight. True, the minions would be super easy to pick off now that their boss was gone.

But they didn’t seem to want to fight us. And as long as I had this new title skill in my back pocket, I doubted they ever would. They were a lot physically closer to humans than I was; they could be pretty handy for doing chores and keeping this cave tidy, not to mention their hands were probably better for ceramics.

I’d ply them with a bunch of jerky and work them like dogs. Wow. This might actually be the best thing that could have happened.

“Raar.” I told the black lizard that I’d decided not to fight. It shot the monkeys a threatening look but reluctantly hid its fangs.

 

Part 2

 

THE ORANGURANGS were surprisingly useful. All four of them went outside and hunted monsters for me. Apparently, boss orangurangs didn’t do much of their own work.

“Ahh!”

The orangurang bowed its head and lay today’s spoils in front of me. A bunch of graywolves, giant rabbits, and fruit. Hey, not bad!

“Ahh, ooh.”

I looked up the details of the fruits, interrupted by one of the orangurangs happily reaching out toward me. I thought it was trying to shake my hand or something, but instead it let its gaze linger outside the cave. Ohh, the jerky. They really liked that stuff.

“Raar.” I gave them my permission and the four of them scrambled outside.

Immediately I felt uneasy. They wouldn’t take all of it, right? If they started eating more than they brought in, I’d have to kick them out.

I tore my claws into the fresh meat, tossing the innards and bones into a pot to discard later. I was an old hand at this by now; I put the meat into the jerky pot, added salt and piperis, then mixed it around.

“Ahh?” One of the orangurangs approached, holding out some jerky. It had two pieces in its left hand and one piece in its right. Well, I guess three pieces is okay. It bit into the one in its right hand and chewed noisily.

The monkey appeared highly interested in what I was doing. Maybe I should teach it how to make jerky for me. I explained the process with gestures and demonstrated how to salt and dry the meat. I showed it the pots containing the salt and the piperis, going through all the steps.

“Raar.”

“Ahh?”

“Gaa!”

“Ah-ah!”

“Raar?”

“Ah-oh!”

After I was sure it understood, I cut up more meat in front of it, added salt and piperis to the pot, and mixed it around. Then I stepped back and pointed to the pot.

“Ah-oh.”

The orangurang jumped to it. It got a little haphazard with the pots, so I pretended to use Breath as a threat. Perfect. This is how you train a monkey.

Once the pots were full of salt and piperis, I lined them up in the corner of the cave. The jerky had to sit for a while before I could string it up. Once I taught them how to do that, the monkeys would know the entire process.

Now that they were hunting and cooking for me, what would I do? I guess I just have to use Monkey Whistle and they’ll come running. Well, nothing wrong with an easy life. It was good to be the boss.

Didn’t have to lift a finger to get my dinner. Once I had all my HP back, the black lizard and I could go out and focus on leveling. All that had changed was that our lives were getting a little more stable.

My HP wasn’t going to replenish completely today, so I figured I’d use the claybear’s magic clay and work on some pots or something. Now that I had four more roommates, I needed more containers to store the extra food.

I took the magic clay outside and began to knead. And once again, a monkey came up to me. This one had little bits of jerky stuck all over its fur. Well, whatever. Making jerky was way easier now, so I didn’t mind if it ate a bunch. More pressing was its sudden interest in ceramics. The orangurangs had the Nimble skill, their fingers long and narrow. They were way better equipped for ceramic artistry than I was with my scaly, lumpy hands.

It was frustrating that these hands would hold me back from becoming a true artist. I hated to give up on the dream, but it made sense to let the monkeys do it instead.

I combined some regular clay with the claybear’s magic variety, showing the orangurang how to make a pot shape. After it was molded, I brought out some charcoal from the cave, buried the pot, and fired it with Baby’s Breath. Once the coals glowed white, I smothered the fire with sand and pulled out the finished pot.

Now that I’d shown the orangurang the process, I urged it to give it a whirl. But the monkey just couldn’t seem to get the pot shape right. I gave it a step-by-step tutorial, but it still didn’t turn out great. At least it could handle the basics, and I could overlook the aesthetics for now. We could still store stuff in it even if it looked like garbage.

“Ah-ooh…” A tear ran down the orangurang’s face as it looked back and forth between my pot and its misshapen one.

H-hey now, there’s no need to cry! I practiced tirelessly to get to this point. Everyone’s like this at the beginning. You have the Nimble skill! You’ll surpass me in no time.

I had the orangurang fetch charcoal from the cave before burying the pot. I fired the whole thing with Baby’s Breath and had the monkey pile sand on top. Finally, once the coals cooled off, it dug out its pot.

We took our creations down to the river. Once there, I got a prickling feeling, like I was being watched. I turned, expecting to see a monster. But it was just the black lizard, glaring hatefully at the orangurang from among the trees. It saw me watching, then vanished back into the brush.

What the heck was that about? Could it have been a different lizard? Nah, probably not. It was the exact same size as my lizard. We’d spent so much time together I was sure I would recognize it anywhere.

Well, at any rate…time to wash the pots. I rinsed off sand and soot, watching it swirl away in the current of the river. The orangurang mimicked me, doing the same with its own pot. The shape was pretty warped, but now that it was clean, I was surprised to find that the color of it was actually perfect. The monkey appeared to notice as well, patting the finished pot happily and nuzzling it against its cheek.

All right. I’ll put this guy in charge of pottery. I was confident this monkey would become a great artisan. I’d just have to get it all trained up.

So, if I had one orangurang in charge of food and one in charge of pottery, I should figure out some responsibilities for the others. Maybe I could get them to paint a mural on my wall or something. Or a smiling picture of me as a dragon that I could carry around so humans wouldn’t attack me.

I idly poked at the magic clay and thought about all the other improvements we could make to the cave, when I noticed the black lizard across the way, frantically trying to mix up clay on its own.

What’s it doing? Playing? I could walk on my hind legs, but the black lizard was still very much a four-legged monster. Pottery really wasn’t in its skill set.

“Raar…”

The black lizard leapt up guiltily, dropping the clay and streaking towards the forest. Huh? Wait, is the lizard interested in crafting, too?

 

Part 3

 

“KSSH! Kssh! Kssshhh!!” I woke up to the black lizard’s cries. Morning already? It sounded so agitated that I wondered if a monster had wandered into the cave. I tried to sit up but found I couldn’t move. Something was constricting my breath. And it smelled, too.

Huh…?

The four orangurangs were all sleeping on me in a pile. Come on, guys. Give me some space! First the black lizard, and now the monkeys were getting all clingy? Seriously?

All four of them were snoring loudly and showed no signs of waking. C’mon, get up! Their limbs were so entangled with mine that I could barely move.

“…ah-ah, ooh.”

“…ah-ooh…”

Yeah, they’re not gonna wake up. Might as well just go back to bed.

“Kssh!” The black lizard let out another cry as I closed my eyes. I opened them back up in time to see it bite one of the orangurangs.

“Ahh-oh!” It jumped to its feet, the other three jumping up in solidarity. The orangurang’s status now said “Poison α.” Aw jeez. It took some doing, but I persuaded the lizard to cure the monkey.

The black lizard really did not like our new housemates. I needed to resolve this conflict, but I wasn’t sure how. I couldn’t just kick the orangurangs out—not after I promised one of them that I’d make it a master potter.

I took the orangurang in charge of food over to the pot and showed it how to brush the salt off the meat and carry it outside to string up on bare branches. We ran out of room on my usual tree, so I used Baby’s Breath on one nearby to strip the leaves. I showed the orangurang how I cleaned the burnt leaf litter off the branch and removed the smaller twigs, then strung up the rest of the jerky. We’d be good on food for a while.

The pottery orangurang came outside and started to knead some clay. Yeah, that’s the spirit! I can’t wait for the day you surpass me.

For my next project, I wanted to start expanding the cave, but I definitely couldn’t dig at the earthen walls with my claws; I’d trigger a collapse if I wasn’t careful. What I really needed was a tool, some kind of shovel. I guessed I’d just have to make one.

I sat beside the potter orangurang where he was hard at work and started making a shovel out of the magic clay. It would’ve been better to use metal or something, but I doubted that sort of resource was available out here in the forest. None of the pots had so much as a scratch on them so far; hopefully a shovel made out of the same material would hold up. I just needed to make sure the tip was very sharp.

The potter orangurang didn’t seem to be having much luck with its project, so I alternated between forming my tools and helping it out. Altogether, I made five shovels and a hammer. The memory of the dog-girl whacking me was still fresh in my mind. I just copied what I could from memory.

When I was done, I buried them all and fired up Baby’s Breath, noting that I was starting to run low on charcoal.

While the shovels were cooling, I took everything valuable out of the cave—the wolf pelt rugs and the bricks lining the walls. I swung my hammer against the rock, encouraged when cracks appeared. I ordered the four orangurangs to help me, and we got to work.

This dirt is strangely hard to dig.

As we continued, it steadily became clearer that I was the worst at this. My claws just weren’t made for using tools. Darn primates and their opposable thumbs!

All this was doing was tiring me out, so I compromised and carried the displaced dirt outside. The black lizard was sulking in the corner of the cave, eyes closed like it was sleeping, though I caught glimpses of it watching me. It wasn’t fooling anybody.

I’m sorry, black lizard. But once this expansion is over, we can go out hunting again! I wanna search the forest for something I can use as ink, anyway.

We finished digging out a section of the cave and moved on to the ceiling. I flipped over some unused pots and had the monkeys stand on those to reach, digging until light started pouring from the ceiling. Hmm, looks good.

If I made a chimney out of brick, I could do my cooking inside. Plus, it would look cool. I started stacking up the bricks, sealing the gaps with magic clay. Finally, I fired it all to strengthen it.

I made the chimney and fireplace, then laid down an extra graywolf pelt in front of the hearth. There. Done. Honestly, the orangurangs were pretty impressive. They had human hands and monster bodies, and once they raised their skill levels, they’d be as talented as any master engineer.

Now that they’d left off their work, I could tell they were tired. Three of the orangurangs were yawning and sweating.

Great job, great job! Eat as much jerky as you want. You ended up doing all of the physical labor, after all. And you made all the food… You really don’t need my permission.

The potter orangurang ambled out of the cave. I thought it was just going to get the jerky, but instead it settled down to quietly make pots. Wow, it was so serious about its craft!