Ossan, studies the ecology. *DISCLAIMER: I DON"T REALLY KNOW j.a.pANESE, THESE ARE MACHINE TRANSLATIONS THAT I TRY TO PUT INTO PROPER ENGLISH. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.
The Crazy Ape, the white-haired natural enemy of all men. This monster attacks human males and performs the so-called **** (-T.N: censored in the raws).
It"s uncertain why it has such habits, but at the moment, the men, including the knights, were at risk of losing their chast.i.ty.
"I can"t help it… Let me kill it, I hate it."
"Well, at least you have your sanity Zeros-dono… he is…"
"A hero… here is a hero."
"Oh… G.o.d."
"You guys, just fight…"
"Are you even a man?"
The female knights are looking coldly at their co-workers. However, they weren"t brave enough to accept their opinions.
If their opponents are bandits, they at least can stick with their own pride as knights. But, the Crazy Apes are dangerous creatures in a different sense. It"s not wonder why they"re so terrified.
Their captain, Alev, is also amongst the frightened knights.
"What the h.e.l.l?!… It"s discrimination to be a man!"
"Even we have things we"re scared of!"
"It"s… It"s the worse! You guys fight it, I don"t want to!"
""These guys…""
The knights were useless… in a different way.
In reality, Zeros didn"t want to be the only one fighting this monster, but if they don"t defeat it here, the damage will expand in various way, because the level of the Crazy Ape was the problem.
Crazy Ape Ｌｖ２０４
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"Its level is higher than the Chimera but its HP is lower… What does it mean?"
"Maybe it"s a pre-evolutionary sub-species? From there, they"ll probably evolve into a different creature."
In other words, if they become a higher species their level will be reset to 1, and in exchange, their strength will be leagues above what it was before evolving.
Since the Chimera was stronger than the Crazy Ape, it probably had evolved at least once. After all, despite the fact that it was being attacked by a large number of people, the decrease in HP was insignificant.
(Monster evolution exists? I thought it was quite a game-like world, but it looks like it was because of the G.o.ddess.)
Zeros did not fully believe what was written in the G.o.ddess" email from when he arrived to this world.
That is, because there"s a condition for living beings to suddenly evolve, and a world that immediately makes you evolve once you reach a certain level cap, is far from the natural providence.
In most game worlds, evolution is a phenomenon in which creatures who have acc.u.mulated experience points and met certain conditions turn into more powerful monsters.
In this world, evolution is likely to depend on the environmental conditions in place, Zeros considers based on this world"s reality.
If the levels are the condition, it"d be strange if there are not many high-ranked monsters around here. After all, Far-flung"s deep greenbelt is home to many powerful monsters waging a fierce compet.i.tion for survival amongst themselves. Weak creatures can"t possibly survive here.
"In other words, the average level of monsters here is between 100 and 300…"
(Then… if I don"t raise my students" and the knights" levels they won"t survive. Well, in the next four days that won"t be a problem.)
Further problems arises. Zeros" disciples and the knights who leveled up had a severe fatigue.
That is a side-effect of a fast level-up, and it occurs because of the rapid increase in power, which, the body can"t catch up with. Levelling-up is a phenomenon in which, part of the soul of the defeated monster is taken in by the individual who defeated it. The body grows stronger accordingly, but rapid changes would affect it in that way.
They are now exhausted to the extent of not being able to protect themselves if they were attacked, and at the same time, because of the continuous forced level-up, their bodies are not responding freely to their will.
"Even so…"
Zeros looks at the Crazy Ape(female)…
"Ahaan ♡"
(I wanna cry right now…)
…It was a lost hope.
The Crazy Ape wipes out the drool coming out of its mouth and crosses its arms with a *pakon* *pakon* sound. It seems that everything is ready, the Crazy Ape is like a maiden in love.
"Huh… I don"t like where this is going."
As he said that, he puts his hand on the handle of the sword hanging on his waist… gradually increasing his speed and rushing towards the Crazy Ape.
The Crazy Apes jumps backwards, with the jumping strength characteristic of its race, trying to widen the distance between the two in a panic. However, Zeros didn"t miss the opening.
"Flying Slash!"
Flying in the air can be advantageous depending of the situation but it can"t be said it"s very effective in a 1v1 combat.
That"s why, an attack that could"ve been avoided with a simple back-step, it"s unavoidable while in mid-air without any sort of scaffolding.
Before touching the ground, the Crazy Ape is. .h.i.t with Zeros" Flying Slash, a flying blade made of magic causing it to die instantly spilling its internal organs and scattering blood everywhere.
Luckily for Zeros, he stayed still avoiding getting showered by the gruesome body fluids.
"I"d like to dismantle it and sell it at a slightly higher price…"
"""Ohhhh!!! Hero banzai!!"""
Without realizing the feelings of the person himself, Zeros was applauded by the knights. They were so terrified of the Crazy Ape that feelings of deep admiration flowed towards him as he started to dismantle the monster while feeling depressed.
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【White ape fur】
The Crazy Ape"s fur is of the highest quality and sold at a high price.
Primarily used for making coats for the n.o.bility, it is especially popular amongst the n.o.blewomen.
Its main characteristic is its beautiful, glossy hair and pristine white color.
To merchants, the price of this fur is always fluctuating because of the unstable supply of it, being out of stock more often than not.
Hunters that aim for it to get rich quick are famous for disappearing all of a sudden and never coming back.
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"Its main feature is its pure white hair without impurities…?"
(I"d like to add a tsukkomi to the appraisal…)
The fur, the main commodity of the Ape, seems to have a different value from the creature itself.
It"s a product that merchants continue to look for while shedding blood, but it seems they don"t know that this 【White ape fur】 comes from the Crazy Ape. On the contrary, they often live in places with few monsters so their knowledge of them should be quite scarce.
In addition, the Crazy Ape doesn"t come out from the deep greenbelt of Far-flung, so there"s no way they would know. And, as a result, merchants commission mercenaries to get this fur but they don"t come back.
Sporadically, there are people who sell this fur to merchants, but most of it is what people manage to scavenge in the forest. So, merchants have no choice but to bundle up the fur they"ve managed to obtain and process it to make a new commodity.
Because of this, mercenary delivery quests of 【White ape fur】 are famous for being the devil"s quest.
"That 【White ape fur】, no way… it was from such a monster."
"I was envious of that person who wore a white fur coat at the academy… but I don"t think it"s that enviable anymore."
"The reason mercenaries don"t come back… they"re all eaten by them… in a different sense."
"That"s awful… I"m glad I became a knight."
"Indeed, at least my salary is stable, I don"t have to worry about my income like mercenaries do."
They heave a sigh of relief for the fact that they were knights.
Some of the knights climbed up from being mercenaries with a certain amount of skill, and are elites who have pa.s.sed a rigorous examination and a.s.sessment of academic abilities.
If they were to take this job as mercenaries, there was a good possibility of seeing h.e.l.l… They"ve never been more delighted to have pa.s.sed the knights" selection test.
But the knights have forgotten… This is the demonic forest where the Crazy Ape lives.
"But… we"re in trouble. There"s almost no food left."
"I don"t think that Ape lived alone. Where did it come from?"
While suppressing his hunger, Zeros began to examine the surroundings of the base. And, after a while, he found that a hole was dug from the outside of the wall. They carefully filled up the holes to destroy the evidence and fled with the food. They were smart monkeys despite its outward r.e.t.a.r.ded appearance.
"These guys… they filled up the holes."
"Did they come in a troop… imagine coming across them… scary."
(*T.N: apparently, a group of monkeys is called a troop.)
"Rather than that, What about the food!?"
"We"re getting picked up in four days, right?"
"With nothing to eat and drink until then!!?"
"Ouch… can you not hit me?"
They were starving on the second day already.
Looking at the knights, Zeros had a cheerful smile on his face that was also coming from the bottom of his heart…
"Hey, Sensei? Why do you look so happy?
"Huh? Did I have that expression?
"Shishou… you, are you really enjoying this situation?"
"That"s… well no, it"s just that I"ve never really had anyone whom I"d consider a comrade in bad luck before…"
Remember, a month ago Zeros was wandering in this vast forest. Although there was water, the only thing to eat was meat, and you"ll end up starving if you don"t keep hunting.
(It"s good that I was lucky enough to find a highway, but if I didn"t, there"s a high possibility that I would still be trying to survive in this forest…Incidentally, I was one step from becoming a cave man.)
Zeros was genuinely happy to have been able to make friends.
And so, it was decided that the knights, including the two disciples, would live from meat for the remaining four days… Though, they still didn"t know that.
"You are rotten…"
"Sensei… that"s terrible."
Their cold gazes sting but Zeros keeps smiling.
"So… let"s all share our misfortune, shall we?"
“””No way, You have to be kidding me!!!"""
"unchaining, conjuring, awaken thee."
(T.N: No clue what this is, I guess it"s like gibberish or just mumbling random words: アナタニモ、コノフコウ……ワケテアゲタイ I just made up some words. )
"""Dangerous!!… his eyes are serious!!"""
Because of his week of survival in the forest, he became emotionally unstable like this. This transformation, which is a psychological state of him, will end up being called ‘Zeros of that time he was wandering around in the forest for a week" in a couple of days.
And the knights were already determined to follow the same path as Zeros. From now on, everyone will get along and live a life of survival in the forest.
On this day, Zeros had the best smile he could make… It was already too dazzling.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Two days after that, the knights are living in h.e.l.l….
Go find prey, kill it and then eat it… A primitive, more barbaric life ensued.
They"ll awaken to their wild natures by the fourth day on this harsh forest. They beat Wild Wolves that tried to take their preys, slaughtered the Goblins that tried to attack the women, and turned the tables against the Orcs that considered them their prey.
Their eyes have no sanity in them anymore. A dangerous glint dwells in the back of their eyes, fighting only to secure food. When they catch prey they raise their cries, share a small amount of food with each other, and dance around the flames.
The monsters that attacked the base exposed them to their primitive instincts to such an extent, that they started an excessive counter-attack on them with not even a sliver of mercy.
Far-flung"s endless and dense woodlands were so dangerous that, they could not survive otherwise.
In the two days they"ve been surviving in this forest overrun with dangerous predators, they have realized that they are lucky to have survived thus far.
There"s no room in the knights" hearts to be upset now.
―――― Zash! !
A single arrow pierces the body of the Slasher Rabbit. It convulses and leaks a single shallow breath.
"Ufufufu… I got meat."
"Tch… Where"s the next prey?"
"There"s meat over here!"
"Yossha!"
This is the edge of a relatively safe area in this boundless forest.
They should now know how harsh was the environment in which Zeros had to survive.
The knights, who fell into these extreme conditions, realized that they could not survive without exposing their bare instincts. No, they had to realize.
A carnivorous monster attacks roughly every hour, and most of them are not really edible, making them to be frustrated because of the waste of time and energy. There"s no time to rest and take it easy either, the monsters keep attacking in waves.
This situation is repeated constantly in a short amount of time. And… their anger exploded all at once. They"ve become crazed warriors.
"S-scary… what happened to you guys?
"I"ve adapted to this vast forest. I realized I can"t survive without being ruthless… kukuku…"
"… You too… that"s unexpected…"
"Ufufu… after all, in this world the strong devour the weak. Ordinary people used to the conveniences of civilization won"t be able to survive in this harsh forest."
"That"s not it! No matter how you look, there"s something wrong with your head!"
"Search and destroy… if you don"t kill, you"ll die… ufufu"
As if looking at nostalgic things, Zeros laughs heartily. He was reminded of how vulnerable he once was when he was living in a civilized society.
In the day after his reincarnation, his survival skills had created a beast in him. And, that beast has awoken once again.
"Captain! There are Crazy Apes over here!!"
"What!? Yoshi, I"m going to settle the scores with them!!"
Alev also became a beast. There was no part of him that was afraid of the Apes. He was a beast who would kill its enemies.
The knights begin to move towards them without hiding their killing intent.
"Let"s go! Revenge!"
"Ah… people are beasts once you take away their masks" (*T.N: As in, we"re all beasts deep inside.)
"No… this is different. There"s something wrong with them."
Zweit"s words don"t get through…
There"s only pure violence in this forest. It"s not as easy as to manage only with wisdom and courage. It"s a world of violence infested with heinous monsters, and where pure instincts reign supreme.
Crazy Apes settle down on rocky areas just like monkeys.
As far as they could see from the shadow of the trees, it was a troop of 23 animals.
There"s a hierarchy, with the boss on the top and where, the high-ranked ones around it, can breed with the females.
Or at least that"s how it should"ve been…
"What"s going on? Aren"t there too many females?"
"If you look closely, there are some strange ones, right?"
"Oh… I can"t tell whether it"s a male or female."
There were rather hard to identify individuals among the white-haired monkeys.
The Crazy Apes" gender can be distinguished, in the first place, by whether they have b.r.e.a.s.t.s or not, and secondly, by the slightly yellow mesh on their heads.
Males are smaller in size and more smart than the females whereas, they are more muscular and, in general, rather bulkier.
However, these hard to identify ones were a mixture between both genders, possessing b.r.e.a.s.t.s and both genitalia, making them hermaphrodites. But, above all, the boss was the real problem.
【Queen Arienne Kong】 Ｌｖ１５
It was a gorilla, moreover, a female one.
With glossy green hair, it was 5 meters taller than the Crazy Apes.
Although, it seemed to be a evolutionary form of the same monkeys, its giant body was strange. In addition, it knocks down the male Crazy Apes and spends all its time breeding.
"That gorilla… Do you think it can cross-breed with other species?"
"It"s the same as Orcs and Goblins… disgusting."
"Doesn"t it seem that there are some bandit-looking middle-age men over there?"
"""I don"t want to see that!!!"""
Certainly, there were a couple of bandit-looking people, but it"s not like someone was going to save them. That"s because they were trash to begin with.
At the same time, it"s also the same from the back and front (*T.N: no clue. Maybe it"s referring to a s.e.x position or something?)
There is no light in their eyes, only panting with an empty expression.
"Maybe there aren"t male Crazy Apes…"
"What do you mean, shishou?"
"Probably they are just females at first, and they become males depending on the situation."
""Hah!?""
The Crazy Apes are troops of only females. There"s a hierarchy given that they"re still monkeys, but as it was said before, the higher-ranked ones can breed, whereas, the weak turn into males.
Such behavior is okay in animals like fishes, but it"s a problem when mammals, in this case, monkeys have it.
A certain amount of stress alters the genes leading to the change in gender. In the case of the Crazy Ape, the cause of that stress is the presence of the boss of the troop.
Because of their relatively weak position within the group, the boss" commands are absolute, and given that they can"t win against it in terms of strength they are, thus, used as breeding tools.
The weak individuals are stuck being males, so they attack human males in order to return to being females. If they can somehow show that they are stronger than the males, they can move up in their social hierarchy.
It"s possible that the hermaphrodites ones were in the middle of the process of transforming form female to male or vice versa.
In short, they are born as females but transform into males depending on the circ.u.mstances. If you compare it to humans, there wouldn"t be a more frightening thing.
"So, are we going to attack to get back at them?"
"Yeah, that"s right. For animals that act in groups, hierarchies are important… specially in regards to food."
The bosses eat more than the underlings, whereas, they can"t eat until the boss is finished with its meal.
So, the order of their meal is, first the boss, the ones on the top and then the monkeys on the bottom who might not even get to eat anything. Even a small amount of food is important for the weak monsters in this forest.
Because of that, they relentlessly attack other males and even males from other species to show off their power. If they win, they can rise up, stop being males and even be able to breed.
The bandits were taken to the bottom of the order because they lost.
"That"s… are we supposed to be the same as them?"
"…Do you really think that?"
"Isn"t that right?～ One would get used like that when you lose." (*T.N: Welp, I just found out there are katakana to hiragana converters midway through editing this, although, I"m still not sure what it"s supposed to mean: デショウネェ～……。マケタラ、アンナフウニナッチャウヨ)
There was the miserable figure of the bandits in the direction where Zeros pointed his finger. In another sense, they were in the midst of their metamorphosis…
"Why don"t they attack women? Wouldn"t that be the same as overthrowing their boss?"
"Probably…the risk is way higher…"
"Whatever… but your tone is strange, Shishou."
"Strange? Me? Strange!? hahaha!"
Zeros" eyes were dead. If he had not reincarnated into this world with a cheat, he would"ve been in the same position as the bandits.
Because it was so plausible, the reality in front of him stopped registering in his mind. It was an unacceptable truth that his heart rejected.
"Did he eat something bad…?"
"Me? I-I love women, baboons ahhh ♡"
"Isn"t he completely broken?"
"Isn"t it dangerous if sensei keeps being in that state…?
"""He"ll kill you!!"""
—
Grudges over food are scary.
Food is necessary even on the battlefield, and it"s also important to properly cook and distribute a fixed amount of it to every soldier.
It was the most important thing that was beaten into the knights during their rigorous training. Having a little luxury with their meals could lead the troops to starve.
And these monkeys, have eaten such an important food. It"s unacceptable, and most of all, the food they were deprived of came from the people"s taxes.
The knights" anger has reached critical ma.s.s.
"Surround them! Each knight, go on standby, at my command, throw that at them!"
"""Yessir!"""
With a coordinated movement, the knight split up into small groups and went from where they were in hiding to the rocky area around the troop of monkeys.
Their movements were quick.
They"ll use their physical strength that has quickly grown in the past few days and their newly acquired combat skills to defeat the enemy.
"Celestina, give the signal."
"Yes. 『Flash』 !"
Celestina"s light magic exploded in the center of the troop. With their vision suddenly deprived, the knights threw something in unison.
Yellow and purple smoke cover the area. The Crazy Apes are paralyzed and poisoned.
It"s a hunting strategy they learned in these past couple of days, and it was their usual way of restraining their preys" movement. Although, it"s not a knightly way of fighting.
"『Wind』 !"
Zweit manipulates the wind with his magic to disperse the poisonous and paralyzing smoke amidst the whole troop of monkeys.
The knights who confirmed that, unsheathed their swords and jumped out all at once.
"Dieee!!!"
The Crazy Apes, that can"t move due to the smoke"s effects, are slaughtered by the knights. In a battle, it"s crucial to seep away the enemy"s strength, and it"s not different when faced against a group of monsters.
However, since monsters don"t know what kind of power the smoke has, they can be defeated with such cowardly means. In this forest, even the slightest lack of awareness can be fatal.
"『Flame Arrow』！！"
"『Lightning Bullet』！！"
In order to defeat them in a more reliable way, it"s better to use magic for additional damage.
When the flames. .h.i.t their bodies, they stop fighting to roll around and extinguish the fire, and the lightning further increases the paralyzing effect of the smoke. It"s not a fight between humans, that meant they could thoroughly use such cowardly strategy.
"Make sure to thoroughly exterminate them, these guys have higher levels after all!"
"Third one, defeated"
"Is this the seventh then…?"
Although their levels have risen, the knights were still weak. However, they"ve succeeded in creating a reliable attack method with the use of tools. Well, this is a dangerous zone, so surviving was the priority. There"s no need for a knight"s pride. There"s no hesitation in using cowardly means.
The Crazy Apes go down easily, but there"s a much troublesome foe…
Queen Arienne Kong.
At the sight of its troop being attacked, the Arienne Kong threatens the attackers by drumming. (*T.N: I guess she"s like slapping her b.r.e.a.s.t.s or smt)
"Hey… Is the poison not working?"
"No way! It had no effect!?"
The Arienne Kong, who jumped high in the sky, landed on the ground with a loud sound sending vibrations through the earth and swung its long arms side by side.
"Gruuuuoooaaaa!!"
One of the knights wielding a shield was blown away a few meters.
It kept swaying its arms towards another nearby knight to blow him away.
"Woah!"
Although the knight managed to avoid the attack by a short margin, with a blast, the shockwave it generated sent him flying.
"Guooo!!"
"What an incredible strength! So this is a high-ranked species…"
However, it was blowing away every Crazy Ape in the troop without distinction between friend and foe.
The weaker Crazy Apes were unable to defend against its attacks and died instantly… what a terrible boss.
The Arienne Kong wasn"t smart but it had a seriously terrifying strength.
Seeing their fellow knights being blown away, the rest became even more enraged.
"Focus on avoiding its attacks! You"ll die if you take even a single hit!!"
The knights were getting more fired up. Before the knights could subjugate the Crazy Apes, the boss was kicking its underlings around.
The boss wasn"t just a little dumb, it was ridiculously moronic.
"This guy is an idiot but it"s really strong!!
The knights also try to counter-attack but their swords can"t cut through the boss" hard skin. The Arienne Kong swung its fist again and shields were scattered in the air.
When it flew in the air again, with an agility you wouldn"t think it can come from such a gigantic body, it trampled down one of the bandits whose short legs gave out.
The man sprays blood and guts everywhere and goes dead.
"I don"t want to die like that…"
"In many ways… it"s a miserable death."
Being trampled to death by the Crazy Apes" boss, the Arienne Kong it"s a bad way to go.
Because its bandit victims were already insane, they were just blankly staring at the distance without moving from their spot. The Arienne Kong"s fist struck there and they immediately turned into a pile of flesh and guts.
Rather, it"s hard to tell if the bandit who died first had a more merciful death…
"『Light Chain』!"
The Arienne Kong is bound by a shining chain and suspended into the air. It was hanging there like a sinner being nailed to the cross.
"Zeros-dono!?"
"Attack it right now! Be careful, there might be an special attack!"
"Alright! Those with medium range skills, hit that female gorilla with all your power!!"
"Light magic 『G.o.d"s Blessings』"
Wide-range, group strengthening magic 『G.o.d"s Blessings』. In this world, it"s considered as holy magic and a legendary magic as well.
It greatly increases the attack power, defense, evasion, magic attack and magic defense of allies. Furthermore, HP and MP recover gradually for a short while.
Supposedly, it"s one of the most effective magics against undead, but of course, there are exceptions…
The knights looked at their prey all at once with a violent and voracious smile.
""" We"ll kill you with this now!!!"""
…Screaming loudly.
- - NEXT CHAPTER