As dawn broke, the rainforest's clearing was still dark. Thick foliage halted the Brighton Sun's rays from further illuminating the crowded campsite. Many people were cooking breakfast, closing up camp, and re-entering the rainforest's hinterlands.
A certain campsite had been cleaned up and its residents were ready for action. Everyone was more friendly with each other, the night opening them up to conversation. The group approached one of the exits from the open area to the jungle's interior.
A few short lines queued before the entrances. Calm chatter filled the air as people discussed their family life, drama, and the like. Meng Min leaned out of the line to peep the process and saw what seemed like a Pugilist in front of his group holding a little square charm of sorts.
Before the Elf could see further, a feminine voice sounded from below.
"Um, are you new to adventuring in the Eldor Rainforest?"
Looking down, Min could see the face of a rather adorable Elven mage. Her eyelashes batted up at him… but that couldn't be appreciated due to the eyeballs he clearly felt on his back. Those companions of his weren't happy!
"Ahem, yes, I am. Are you going to explain the function of that charm thing?"
He pointed ahead to the warrior and received a quick nod from the girl.
"Mh! It is a tome that recognizes who belongs to your party. The party leader writes down the names of everyone and only those people can accompany said leader in and out of the veil. If you tell me your name, I can give you an example."
As if planned, the girl brought out a tome and simple pencil lacking an eraser. Min suddenly found himself pulled back by Angela, who was giving the girl quite the nasty glare.
"Such blatant poaching! Have you no shame, young lady?!"
The Elven girl quickly discarded the cute act and frowned. Her hands went to her waist as the two began to bicker…
"He is clearly out of place with you people! This Elf would do better with professional adventurers, not impoverished scavengers like you."
"You just want him because he's a Super! We have made a deal with this Elf. Scurry away already."
"Mh, he really is such a strong and handsome Super~"
The girl glanced at him again, fluttering her eyelashes. Min, who hadn't been paying much attention to the argument, felt disgusted by her intensity. He wasn't machinofillic like Han Xiao, but he also didn't have open legs. There was only one way to turn this gross woman off…
"E-yah! You're buttering me to use my body for nefarious purposes. Preying on my innocence… the world is too cruel. I won't let you take advantage of me, lady!"
Meng Min hugged his body and squirmed dramatically as if being some pure maiden who was thrown to the dogs. Despite the cringe, he prayed that his "impeccable" acting skills would work!
This Elven girl became stone-faced at Min's effective rejection. Why was he making it look like she was some pervert preying on him?!? She inevitably got frustrated and turned back to her group with puffed cheeks.
'Score! She gave up!'
Min partied within his mind while receiving a few slightly weirded-out and concerned stares. His teammates quickly grabbed him and trapped him in a huddle.
"Are you okay, Min? She was only trying to seduce you…"
"Tsk tsk, you don't know the shameless strategies, Young Angela. They were all outlined by the Great Black Star in his Eighteen Theses on Shamelessness. It's a great read."
The concern in these teammate's faces vanished and was replaced by confusion. Angela eventually sighed and shook her head.
"You are STRANGE."
"Tell me something I don't know."
The young man chuckled casually before glancing at the gate.
"Yo, it's our turn."
In the time it took for them to discuss, the two groups ahead of them had already passed through the veil. The group behind them was even trying to cut ahead!
Like someone rushing for a sale, Angela practically materialized at the veil. She retrieved a plain-looking charm from her pocket and pressed it against the veil. It was like a foam wall, and she began to write down their names in Brighton's language. It auto-translated from Min's perspective.
Angela did offer Min to write his name down, but he declined. Even if the translation chip helped him understand language, written language was likely an entirely different story. He didn't think his hands would just write the proper words despite it not being impossible.
With everything in order, the group passed into the veil. The canopy's light quickly vanished and left Min with the darkness of the rainforest. The entire group simultaneously became serious. As leader, Angela spoke up first.
"Look out for Lizard's Nail and signs of territorial marks. If we find any other valuable herbs then take them- but remember to consider what it may attract."
She paused before glancing at a helpless-looking Min. A small frown crossed her face.
"Keep a look out for any stalking or ambush predators. That will be your function in our deal… got it?"
Min heaved a sigh of relief. He ain't know how to tell plants apart! He was basically a suburban boy, never joining the Boy Scouts. Being a walking nerd emoji and not Mr. Jock hardly helped either.
If not for being forced into the Esper role, he might really have had to become a Pugilist. Such a terrifying fate made him almost thank the drug addict that had this body before…
In any case, this was an acceptable deal to him. The young Elf nodded. Since everything was settled, the group delved deeper into the rainforest.
…
'...'
'...'
'This is so boring!'
Min exclaimed in his head while stoically keeping watch as the others were gathering herbs. Since they had gone out on a clearly less explored path and were a decent ways from the veil, he thought at least a creature would encounter them. But it had been three hours with nothing!
Due to the beta test's closing, the forums were down. None of the Players could provide entertainment.
Before he could mentally complain further, a frown dove on his face. Wishing for trouble? Just whose luck do you think you have? Sure, it would be good to fight and get some exp, but what if there was something like that Caiman earlier! These little teammates of his would probably get eaten and his deal would fall through. Also, it would be very tragic…
He cleared his throat to himself before looking back at the teammates. Since he had been on lookout, he was too far to chat with them or hear them chat. So, he was stuck in this limbo of sorts.
Bleh, whatever. Work was work, they'd get done soon enough. Focus, little TikTok child. You avoided short-form content for this very reason!
To Min's Super senses, he suddenly detected something in the distance. It sounded like a monkey call. He squinted harder and saw a familiar shade of hair.
Is that… Green Monkey?! It is! Did they follow- no, it just seemed to be a roving band of other Green Monkeys. They were probably a common race within the rainforest. Seems to be around twenty of them?
"Guys, Green Monkeys to our north!"
Extending his hand, an ethereal bow formed within seconds. At the same time, an arrow was forming in his other hand. The Green Monkeys, who neared their group, recognized his intent to fight and began to charge.
Angela, Joseph, and Mark all put their herb baskets down to prepare for the threat. Mark rushed to the front while drawing his sword, standing by Min.
"These are tough enemies- go to the middle!"
The commanding tone behind Mark's words made Min a little irritated, but he obliged and took a few steps back. He wasn't about to disregard a unified strategy simply due to ego.
Each member of the party got into place, the spellcaster at the back, rogue in the middle with Min, and the tank up front.
"Skin Hardening!"
Angela pushed forward her staff, from which a small, tan bolt shot out. It entered Mark's body and his skin seemed to form a light, translucent crust. This caused him to seem ever-so-slightly bigger. Angela gave a buff to both Joseph and Min, it being a DEX boost.
[Recieved spell buff: Minor DEX boost. +2 DEX. 5:00 minute duration]
'This actually isn't a bad buff…'
A non-Super's buff spell couldn't be amazingly effective, but this bonus was around an 6% increase to his current DEX stat. It must have used a sum of energy since Angela stopped casting spells and watched from the backlines as the monkeys approached.
A bowstring appeared as Min pulled the arrow back. In a swift motion, he aimed and fired the projectile toward a monkey. This one happened to be on a branch and got plugged in the face.
–
The enemy has been successfully eliminated by a fatal attack. You have dealt 98 damage to Lv. 10 Green Monkey!
-
Based on the system stats shown to him, these monkeys didn't have that much HP. The arrow embedded in the monkey's face faded into the world as the target fell to the ground.
'They really aren't very strong…'
It was quite tempting to just draw his sword now and charge at the monkeys, but it wouldn't be smart. It was better to use his energy, even if somewhat limited, to pick off monkeys before they got to them. It was difficult to fight against a numbers advantage even if one was stronger.
Plunk! Woosh! Plunk!
The group was already in the best position around them, so Mark had to wait for the monkeys to approach him. Min had shot five arrows but only picked off four by the time the group arrived. Cursing about needing to train more, he let go of the bow, which began floating and migrated to a very specific spot next to him. This was something he had discovered while doing a bit more testing at the camp site. The bow's floating didn't cost energy until he tried to control it, though, so he felt that it was a fair enough deal.
Mark held his shield and bashed the first approaching monkey before counter attacking with a slash. It took him only a few precise hits to kill the monkeys. Joseph's performance was similar- though his function was more to watch Mark's back and make sure no monkey got a surprise attack on him. Their tactic was a lot slower but more safe. As for Min…
His approach to the monkeys was a lot faster. More had approached Joseph and Mark, so Min had freedom of movement. He practically danced through the group, sword tearing through them like a thin slap of meat. One bigger monkey had climbed a nearby tree and tried to jump down onto the Elf, but, noticing the descent, Min held his sword with both hands and hopped into the air, spinning himself and the blade to cut the monkey in half in one motion. The two halves fell to the ground while he avoided the splash. The remaining monkey attacking Min, which had been hanging in the back, made a call to the other monkeys before running away in fear. The other monkeys also began to scramble away. They didn't want to fight to the death, after all!
Seeing them run away, Mark and Joseph calmed down and looked over to Min's… mess. Angela went over to them to make sure they were fine. Meanwhile, Min was reflecting on the results of the skirmish.
The battle had been surprisingly… easy. Logically it made sense- he was 10 levels higher than most of these animals, and being able to dominate them was pretty congruent with what he knew about the universe. With people, it felt different- he usually had an edge in terms of strength or skill when fighting people both now and in his previous life. But animals had always been a different story.
All in all, he had got around 500 exp from each monkey, totaling 5,000 exp. Very easy math, even if it was averaged between 10 monkeys!
Min internally shook his head to get rid of unnecessary thoughts and turned back to the group. Angela and Mark were staring at the slaughtered Green Monkeys in a slight daze. Min walked over and tapped their shoulders.
"Hey guys, are you going to get back to collecting the herbs?"
"Oh, right… we should wrap up. More Green Monkeys could be coming here soon. We must be on the edge of their territory."
Angela sighed and returned to gathering herbs. Mark, however, pulled a skinning knife from the back of his belt. He squatted down at the nearest corpse and began taking the body's valuables…
While a little unsettling, Min had seen worse at the Arena. He almost had worse on himself before. He glanced back at Angela and Joseph- they seemed to be wrapping up the gathering.
"So, Mark, are Green Monkey parts actually so valuable that you would carry around a skinning knife?"
"It's for other monsters too. I have found a few dead Magical Beasts before and got some good things from them. For us, any method to make additional cash is important."
It was a fair mindset, especially in a dangerous business like this. Based on their conversations from last night, these guys were kinda desperate for money, and not just because they were poor. But Angela danced around the topic when Min tried to push it… in an effort to justify her not pushing into his business, he didn't dive into hers. She had the right to not tell a practical stranger her entire life story.
Before Min returned to help everyone out, Mark spoke up, though.
"Your… skills. They're not bad. How'd you learn to fight like that?"
Mark couldn't care less about Min's power specifically. He had seen stronger people in action and, frankly, been beaten up by stronger people. But it was the way he moved that intrigued the warrior. It felt like watching a steady stream of water flow between every rock in its way, finding the path of least resistance. As a fellow warrior, he was intrigued!
Min paused before turning back, smiling at Mark. The tendency to advertise his grandfather's martial arts studio from his previous life almost flared up, but the Elf maintained his amnesiac story.
"I guess I learned it while fighting in the rainforest. Watching every wasted movement from dueling creatures is probably what caused it… do you want to train later and exchange pointers?"
He had always been a martial artist, so this request was natural for Min to make. Unlike Han Xiao, Min planned on training even outside of maintaining his skills. Not only did he mostly enjoy the act, but it was also useful for skill exchange, and it allowed his combat mind to remain on edge. In any case, Mark looked to the side in contemplation before sighing and nodding.
"It would be rude to decline… let's do it after we take care of business back in Arshle."
Min shot Mark a smile and thumbs up before looking back at the other two. The herb collecting had concluded and Mark was being quick while looting the Green Monkeys. Angela and Joseph returned with full baskets of herbs. After accounting for everything, Angela nodded to Min.
"We should head back now. Would you carry some of the skins?"
The Elf quickly nodded, taking some of the skins in his arms. The system only told him cursory information about them, like durability, origin, and the like. But there was nothing about the monetary value! How did the system expect him to get excited?!
The group made it back to the veil with surprisingly no trouble. Due to the short length of their expedition, there was no need to camp at the entrance again. The group traveled down the paved road that led there, back to civilization as the sun began to lower.