-Vol 5: A New Life-

-The Monkey Chief-

Kenshin continued killing monkeys one after another without stop. The EXPs accumulated but was not enough for him to level up, in fact, he had already lost his hope to be able to level up in a mere level 3 dungeon. For him, any dungeon below level 5 wasn’t enough to fill the gaps in his teeth.

A level 5 dungeon wasn’t something that was easy to enter. Even before entering, there is a problem of finding it first. Near Mito, in fact in the whole Ibaraki Prefecture, there were no level 5 dungeons, although there were two level 6 ones. The current him had no confidence of clearing a level 5 dungeon, let alone level 6. Though level 4 pose no threat for him.

‘Okay. After today, I will find the nearest level 4 dungeon and challenge it. I heard a level 4 dungeon had a good drop rate, I wanna see if it's true or not.’ Kenshin thought of this while killing the monkeys in hoards. If it were not for being these monkeys being the best source of exercise, he would have long since left this dungeon.

Suddenly a few monkeys came his way, with maces as weapons, but with simple punches, he sent them flying and killed them at the same time. At the same time, a few more came in to fill in the gaps left behind by those monkeys. But they also suffered the same fate of being crushed under Kenshin’s fists or kicks.

This continued for quite a while, and Kenshin slowly felt mundane. His flexibility was already maxed out for the current exercise, any more wouldn’t be of any use for him. just when he was thinking of pulling back, suddenly a huge shadow cast upon him, temporarily cutting off all light source. Looking up, he found the source, it’s a monkey but it an unusual one. Its size was huge, like more than twice of normal monkeys of 2 meters. Its body was filled with tight muscles as well as adorned with various skulls belonging to monkeys. It had an elephant tusk mace in its hand and was now glaring at Kenshin. its three eyes looking at Kenshin as if it's looking at an ant.

Even without opening his system, he knew it’s the rumoured chief of the three-eyed monkeys. Not only its size but the prestige it emitted was also different from normal monkeys he fought so far. They were also huge and looked more powerful. But the thing that gave away the status was the changed demeanour of the monkeys that was like a frenzied beast just earlier. They were currently kneeling on the spot while looking down, not daring to look the beast in its eyes.

*Roar!!

The massive monkey chief roared as if to warn everyone about its presence. For a moment, Kenshin felt like the whole forest had turned silent. Not a single creature dared to utter a sound.

The chief cast a glance everywhere and felt satisfied by their subservience. After that its gaze landed on Kenshin who was standing arrogantly in the middle while half naked. This monkey had sene many humans in its life, but none of them ever came this deep into the forest looking like that!

Usually, they would be wearing some pretty colourful dressed in armours on them, or some long clothes with various tinkets attached to it. Never had it sene someone coming this deep wearing only pant and leaving upper body naked. For a second the chief felt undecided to what it should do. This chief’s intelligence wasn’t half-assed. Although it couldn’t be comparable to ascended or semi ascended types, its intelligence was still comparable to a ten years old child.

The chief would always determine the strength of a human from the way it dressed and behaves in this part of the dungeon. But from what it observed till now, this human’s behaviour was like that of a beast that fights with anything in its sight while the way it dressed was like a poor weak human that came into this place for the first time.

This contradictory information threw the monkey king into a loop. It couldn’t decide whether the human was strong or not. If it's too strong, then it wouldn’t have shown up, but if its too weak, a simple swing would have enough to kill it. But this contradictory information forced it to come out in the open. After all, it couldn’t see its brethren getting slaughtered like this! A king couldn’t exist without its subjects in the end.

Kenshin sized the monkey from up to down, trying to guess the power level of it without the usage of his system. He wanted to see if the experience he had gained till now would be of any use to detect the power level of this monster.

He wasn’t disappointed.

Though he wasn’t accurate, he somewhat guessed the strength level of this beast. He reckoned that this beats although couldn’t compare to those level 70 monkeys he fought inside that facility, it shouldn't lose to Roxe.

Among that group of cloaked person, Roxe was the only one that he has succeeded in the killing. The rest were just too strong. That snake woman was also very strong, on top of that, she was a summoner, that means she could easily call in outside help to aid her in battle. One beyond level 100 was bad enough, what would adding another one would do? If it were not for that miraculous take over by that unknown force, Kenshin would have killed by the monkeys, let alone confronting the woman and killing one of her snakes.

*ROAR!!

The beast roared again, this time as a warning to Kenshin. Its as if the creature was unwilling to fight and was warning him to leave this place. The intelligence of this creature frankly stunned Kenshin for a few seconds. Although he knew these monkeys were a little intelligent, the chief’s had surpassed its limit and was exhibiting intelligence and perseverance of a fifteen years old.

This time it was Kenshin who became nervous. He couldn’t understand why things that shouldn’t happen was happening around him. Was he suffering from a protagonist's curse? Is it because of this goddamn system?

Although he felt nervous, it was only for an instant. He knew nothing about it and had never encountered a chief before, so ultimately he considered it as normal to have anomalies when you are a chief monster. His face broke into smiles as excitation glazed his eyes. He can now envision himself breaking a few barriers after he fights this monster. As such, he wasted no time and jumped at the chief.

His actions surprised not only the chief but also the kneeling monkeys around. They would have never expected this hairless creature to actually dare to have designed for their chief. Although they felt angry, they couldn’t do anything as they were suppressed by the prestige of their boss.

Forming a few air rings in the sky while he flew at the chief’s face, Kenshin clenched his both fists and aimed it at its head. But the chief and prepared, it also brandished its own fist and proceeded to meet Kenshin’s punch with its own.

When their punch connected, a huge shockwave was generated as well as space around them started to twist and turn, as if it would collapse at any moment.