“Cough… Cough!”, the two coughed uncontrollably and moved back a few meters. The smoke coming out of the dried leaves and weeds was too much even for them! “Whatever is in there will definitely come running out!”, Zeke exclaimed sarcastically in an attempt to relax while tightening up the grip around his axe.

“Surely! Cough!”, answered Reizel opposite of him. Having lost his kitchen knife during the bear encounter, he was only left with the butcher’s knife. Add the bloody ragged clothes he donned into the mix and you have a madman straight out of a horror movie. But was there anything he could do about that? Seeing how he no longer had any spare sets of clothes, he just had to make do with what he had on hand. And don’t even mention shoes! He hadn’t seen a pair of those since forever! Literally…

Anyway, it had already been a minute or two since they started operation ‘smoke them out’ and Reizel felt something was amiss, as nothing of concern came running out of the cave. The only thing rushing out of it was a bunch of small dazed bugs flying or crawling out, clearly irritated by the smoke. ‘This isn’t right… Could the cave actually be empty?’, he guessed and immediately dismissed this way of thinking.

“Why isn’t anything coming out?”, Zeke asked, expecting Reizel to answer as he hooked his gaze on him. “I don’t know… There might be another way for the smoke to escape?”, he said while shaking his shoulders before adding. “We’ll wait five more minutes like this and, if nothing comes out, we break in.”

“Ok…”, nodded Zeke and put his focus back on the cave’s entrance.

Five minutes later, the two put out the fire and waited for the grey smoke to clear out before they once more picked up their weapons and slowly but steadily entered the cave, each with a torch in hand.

With the fiery torchlight illuminating the surroundings, the two didn’t have to worry about being ambushed in the dark. Reizel took the lead while Zeke followed closely behind him. Amidst the silence, all one could hear other than their muffled breathing were the occasional drops of water falling down from the ceiling, as they slowly formed in stalagmites.

The cave was quite the chilly place to be in, further assuring Reizel that most hibernating predators wouldn’t go out of their way to choose this as their place of resting. Alas, no matter how careful one might be, they never would have expected what was to follow. “Uwaaaaa!!”, Zeke screamed and fell backward as something pulled on his leg from down below.

Reizel turned around and, almost instantly, a rock swept through the air flying straight for his head. Luckily or not, it barely missed the back of his head and gave him a light scratch on the side of his cheek.

Assuming a fighting stance for now, Reizel inspected the battlefield. A rough hand made out of stone held Zeke tightly by the leg, in an attempt to pull itself out of the ground. The creature had yet to surface, making it easier for Reizel who was right above it to kick. With a swing of his right leg, he kicked the rocky hand with all his might.

“Arghh!”, not one of his smartest moves as he winced in pain from the rebound. ‘Is this f*cker literally made out of stone?!’, he thought of the obvious and backed away, dodging another stone flying in his way. The stone creature let out a loud screech as its rocky hand slightly fractured, releasing Zeke’s leg from its grasp while at it.

“Sh*t!”, Zeke cursed while trying to stand up. Alas, the stone creature was not done with him as it finally pulled itself out of the ground and immediately jumped on him. With the axe tightly in his grasp, Zeke tried to fend the creature off as he shouted. “GET OFF ME!”, needless to say, all he received back was another screech from the eyeless creature as it revealed a mouth full of jagged teeth.

Reizel wanted to give him a hand more than anything, but the unceasing rocks flying his way were more than enough to block him from assisting. ‘There are at least two more…’, he analyzed and tried to pinpoint their location. ‘Found them!’, disregarding Zeke who, although on the ground, seemed to be doing fine, for now, Reizel closed in towards the creatures while dodging rocks.

Seeing how this was a relatively wide corridor, it wasn’t hard for him to move about as he dodged and, before long, he could finally see the assailants with a wave of his torch.

The stone creatures screeched in alarm as soon as their figures were illuminated. They were either scared of the fire or they just didn’t like the light coming out of it. As for which one it was? Neither did Reizel want to know nor did he care enough to know, for as long as it slowed them down, he would be content with it.

‘The heck are those?’, he couldn’t help thinking as he waved the torch around, screaming at them from time to time in an attempt to scare them off. If he had to make a guess, they looked awfully similar to monkeys, only without the tail part. They had no nose on their snout and the eyeless black sockets they had for eyes only made for a creepy addition… At least to Reizel.

“You good back there?!”, Reizel shouted back as he tried to distract the two monkeys long enough for Zeke to free himself. “This f*cker is tougher than he looks! C’mon you little pie- ahhh!”, Zeke was interrupted as he screamed.

“Zeke!”, Reizel shouted and almost turned around, disregarding the little buggers that were ready to jump at him the moment he made a mistake. Sidestepping a rushing monkey while fending off the other one with the hilt of his butcher’s knife, Reizel regained the initiative as he shouted Zeke’s name once more.

“I am good! Don’t worry about me!”, the late response came a bit raggedly, but came none the less. Inwardly letting out a sigh, Reizel placed the entirety of his focus back on the eyeless monkeys before him.

‘Now then, how can I kill those things?’, he wondered while a familiar, devilish grin surfaced on his mouth.

⚔ ⚔ ⚔

“Gentlemen, the time has finally come.”, Lucas Tenenbaum, the chairman of NANO Games announced as he smilingly glanced at everyone around the table. The council members looked reverently at the chairman while nodding at his words.

Looking at his old school, golden wristwatch, a gift passed down from generation to generation in the Tenenbaum family, Lucas said. “It is now three minutes past six. In less than three hours our servers will be up and running, ready for the public to join.”, pausing for a moment, Lucas took a deep breath and exclaimed in the most joyful voice he could muster.

“Gentlemen! We have finally made it! Congratulations!”

He said, and everyone in the room stood up as they all started clapping. ”We made it!”, someone shouted while another exclaimed “It’s all thanks to chairman’s efforts!”, all the people inside the meeting room couldn’t help feeling excited. They had gone through one of the most hellish months of their lives just then, but finally, in just three hours, the results of their efforts would be ready to harvest!

Coughing lightly to grab their attention, Lucas picked up the champagne glass off of the table and spoke to the now silent crowd. “A toast!”, everyone picked up their corresponding glass and raised it to their lips waiting for the CEO to continue.

“Everyone! We have come this far together, let’s not screw it up now.”, he said and a few people chuckled. “Things will only get tougher from here on! I want everyone to hold tight. We are making history here!”

Glancing at the now sober and serious council members, Lucas nodded and continued. “Good! This is a toast to a great start! To making history, and above all… To the future!”, having said all he had to say, he raised the champagne glass up and downed the fuzzy bubbling liquid in one gulp.

“To the future!”, everyone exclaimed and followed suit.

⚔ ⚔ ⚔

“Chairman, everyone has already left. Why are you still here?”, asked a woman in her early thirties. She was Monica Anderson, the personal secretary of Lucas and the one responsible for his daily schedule.

Lucas looked away from the projection on the wall and turned to regard the especially attractive Monica. Her long brown hair was neatly done in a bum, while her big, captivating brown eyes were more than enough to attract men’s attention. Alas, Lucas wasn’t lost in her eyes but in her chest! His gaze couldn’t leave those perfectly bouncing…

“Should I file a complaint for sexual harassment?”, Monica added in a cold, emotionless voice. And to that, Lucas answered. “What can I do when you try to seduce me with those things?!”, he pointed clearly at her chest area and the two laughed.

“Isn’t that Reizel?”, she asked as her gaze fell on the projection on the wall. There, the video that had gone viral a few weeks earlier seemed to be playing on repeat. “You know I could open up some time in your schedu-“, before she could finish the sentence Lucas interrupted her. “It’s fine; he has already joined another group. If we make a move now it will look bad for us.”

“But…”, Monica wanted to add something but stopped midway. One of the reasons why Monica was never offended by the president’s casual sexual harassment was because the man before her loved his family more than anything in the world. He would trade anything and everything if it meant for their happiness.

Monica couldn’t help feeling respect from the bottom of her heart for a man like that. As for why Lucas was still watching that video? It was simple. His one and only daughter would be meeting him in-game in less than a few hours; he couldn’t help feeling worried at that!

‘If that scumbag hurts my daughter in any way, I swear I’ll…’, he thought as Reizel’s last moments played on screen.

At that moment the secretary’s words resounded. “It’s getting late. Since tomorrow is going to be a big day, I have cleared up your schedule for the afternoon. Go and get some rest, president, I’ll see you early tomorrow morning.” and, with those last words, Monica’s attractive figure turned around and made her way out of the meeting room, leaving Lucas alone once more.

‘Mark my words, you little rascal!’, he thought and stood up, closing the projection that played on repeat.

⚔ ⚔ ⚔

“Screeeech!”, the monkey-like stone creature roared, having received a downward slash from Reizel’s knife on the head. Alas, little damage seemed to be done to it. ‘Damn it!’, Reizel couldn’t help cursing inwardly as he swept the butcher knife with his gaze. Not only did he fail to damage the stone monkey, the blade of his weapon seemed to have chipped a little bit as well.

‘Since slashing doesn’t work, what about blunt attacks?’, he thought and scanned the surroundings for anything he could use. A club would be perfect to have in hand for the occasion… But, where could he find one? The stalagmites could make for a perfect makeshift club, but, stupid as the monkeys might be, under no circumstances would they give him time to arm himself.

Reizel wondered whether he could somehow bait them into crashing there and decided to give it a try. Slowly but carefully, he positioned himself in front of what seemed to be a stalagmite mesh and lowered the torch in his hand, waiting for the monkeys to rush him.

“Die! Die! Die!”, right then, the sound of Zeke’s voice resounded in the distance, drawing both Reizel’s and the monkey's attention. A few meters away from where they stood, Zeke’s figure could be seen bashing the stone monkey on the floor with his axe. He repeatedly brought the axe down on the stone remains as he screamed.

Thankfully, from what Reizel could see, other than the few scratches he had on his arms and legs, Zeke didn’t seem to be injured in the slightest. ‘How lucky…’, he thought and turned his attention back to the monkeys before him.

The two creatures looked at each other and screeched loudly. Having failed not only in ambushing their prey, but also finishing them off in a three vs two duel, the creatures decided it was better to rush Reizel before Zeke could join hands with him.

With that being said, they screeched loudly in his direction this time and immediately jumped at him. ‘Good! Come and get me if you can!’, Reizel thought and rolled to the side. The monkeys crashed heavily on the stalagmite mesh behind him, breaking everything in their way as a cloud of dust rose up.

Amidst the rubble, one of the monkeys stood up and screeched loudly as it turned tail in an attempt to run away. Little did it know, in its blind escape it was running straight towards Zeke, who was more than ready to receive the lump of experience points jumping straight at him.

“Ya ain’t goin’ nowhere!”, he shouted and swung his axe vertically, effectively breaking the creature into countless stone fragments. “Phew…”, he exhaled and left a ‘serves ya right!’ before glancing back at Reizel, his expression telling him everything he had to know.

“Don’t drop your guard yet, there might be more.”, Reizel uttered in a solemn manner and prepared for the worse. Tightening the butchering knife around his waist, he picked up what resembled a stone club the most from amidst the rubble pile and swung the torch around warily a few times.

Zeke’s torch had gone out when the monkey grabbed him from down below. Having been surprised by the sudden pulling force, he had actually managed to throw the torch inside a small pool of murky water, effectively ruining it and leaving them with only one source of light.

A few breaths of time later, “Do ya think we’ll be fine now?”, Zeke said in a low voice and glanced at Reizel’s figure. Letting out a mouthful of air, Reizel sighed in relief and answered. “Yea, we should be fine… At least for now. Let’s go back and prepare for the little badgers better. Then… We are storming the place!”, he said and grinned like a devil.

“Great!”, exclaimed an excited Zeke and Reizel questioningly looked at him. ‘Since when did he have those guts?’, he wandered, but Zeke’s next words made him shake his head left and right. “I leveled up!”, that’s right, there was an exclamation mark going on and off in Reizel’s vicinity as well but he had chosen to ignore it until now.

[Congratulations! Stone Monkey Lv.2 has fallen. Experience points will be awarded.]

‘Even the system recognizes them as stone monkeys, I guess?’, he thought and asked. “How many did you kill?”, the answer came almost instantly. “Two. You got the last one?”, Reizel nodded and guessed the system didn’t share the experience between them. “Did you also level up?”, asked Zeke with a guilt-ridden expression.

“No, don’t worry about it. I have already reached level 2.”, he let out another long sigh as he recalled the fight against the giant frog. It felt like ages since he fought against it but it had only been a day actually.

“Anyway, let’s move out for now.”, Reizel added and took the lead as he illuminated the way. “Give me a minute.”, a light bulb seemed to go bright in Zeke’s mind as he recalled something. He quickly reached the stone monkey’s remains and began searching as he mumbled. “Where is it… Where is it?”

“What are you looking for?”, Reizel placed the torch above him further lighting up the area as he asked. “Ah! Here it is!”, exclaimed Zeke as he fished out a pebble-like brown gem from amidst the stone fragments.

“What’s that?”, Reizel asked curiously from the side. “I don’t know, I saw its shine when I finished off the monkey but didn’t have time ta check it out!”, Zeke answered as he passed the half-a-pinky gemstone for Reizel to inspect. “It might be valuable.”, Reizel said, passing the small gem back to Zeke.

“It could be.”, returned Zeke with a frown before adding. “For when we find civilization at least.”

“Anyway, let’s quickly search the other ones and be on our way.”, Reizel added solemnly and lightened up the area of the second monkey, the one that had crashed into the stalagmite mesh.

“It might take a while…”, answered Zeke with a short laugh.

“It will… Sigh…”