The Black Monkey Duel (2)

Story quests. That was the usual name for this sort of thing. Farming World had the shape of an open world, and while it never leaned on any grand, sweeping plot, a main quest did exist in the strict sense—and because it was an open world, all that freedom meant countless small story quests lay hidden away in every corner.

Most players treated every monster as an enemy that simply had to die. In truth, Farming World was full of cases where you worked monsters as slaves, or used them as NPCs. Monsters with intelligence didn't always have to be killed. Meet the right conditions, and they could turn friendly toward a player instead—or, just like this, hand you the chance to step into their own people's story.

I had no idea why a story quest had surfaced as a Black Monkey chieftain selection, but a proposal had come flying in out of nowhere as a quest, and I had no reason to turn it down. Not with a reward that good.

"I'll take it."

"Kiki... Human. Human who killed our chieftain. Thank you for accepting a fair duel. Kiki."

"Ah... so I..."

The monkey in front of me kindly explained why the sub-quest had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠popped. Apparently their chieftain had been among the countless Black Monkeys I'd killed yesterday. With the chieftain dead, the Black Monkeys had to choose a new one, and that meant going through this selection—and then I'd come charging in again, so a quest like this had probably triggered for me as well. A Black Monkey band with no chieftain was bound to lose its cohesion, and once that happened, they had no way of stopping the me from yesterday.

From where I stood, there was no downside. They called me a coward, but there was nothing cowardly about the way I fought, so the jab didn't so much as scratch me—and it wasn't as if I'd dodged a head-on fight for lack of confidence. On top of that, whether for the sake of this quest or not, today's eight-hour sleep buff had already handed me Strength plus one full grade. I was sitting at S+.

"So how does this work? I just beat to death whoever comes at me in a mob?"

"Kik... No. Human. You fight the challengers for the chieftain's seat, and you win. Kiki. But you may not use the weapons humans use."

"Bare-handed?"

"That is correct. Human. Kiki."

"Fine. Come at me."

I didn't particularly care to learn every little detail of how it would proceed. What mattered was that someone was going to come at me anyway, and however many times they did, I was sure I could win every last one.

The Black Monkey who had spoken to me first stepped forward.

"Ki. If no more challengers come forward, the human becomes the first human chieftain of us monkeys."

"You're up first?"

"I will go. Human."

It had been walking on two legs. Then it planted both feet on the ground—a fighting style for open ground, not the trees, by the look of it. Papapat! In a blink it was sprinting in on all fours, shockingly fast. They weren't called one-trick physical monsters for nothing. It wove between the trees, scrambling my sightlines, and before I knew it that massive body was crashing down on me, pouring out an overwhelming pressure.

I didn't use a special skill. If this had been before I'd put my gear together, it might have been dangerous. My stats were higher than this thing's, sure—but if a gap in stats alone decided every fight, then a hunter's level, skills, and items would have no reason to exist. Right now, though, I was wearing them. Solid armor, and accessories that dragged my stats up as high as they'd go. Above all, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bare hands counted as a melee weapon.

I torqued my waist back and drove a fist into the chest of the Black Monkey as it leapt to smother me. Thwack! From the outside, it might have looked like a wasted attack. Even if the hit landed, shoving back a Black Monkey that was piling its whole body weight onto the speed of its charge, with nothing but a single punch, didn't look easy. But that was only how it looked.

Whump! The fist that met its chest didn't merely answer the momentum the thing was carrying. It erased it, and drove the monkey into the ground. That was the force of S+ Strength. Stacked on top of it, the bonus attack power and the blown-up final damage completely caved in its chest.

"Krrrrk."

Blood ran out mixed with the froth at the corner of its mouth. The body shuddered as if in a fit, then went slack. The result of the duel was plain to see.

"Kkiki..."

"Kiki..."

The instant the Black Monkey had charged, the others up in the trees had been shrieking and cheering in every direction. Now their forest had turned into a library. They couldn't hide the shock, and in a way it was only natural—yesterday they'd been furious, certain that if they could only collide with me head-on, the outcome would change. I was supposed to be a human with nothing but quick reflexes. Get in close enough for body to meet body, and their superior physique and strength would smash me to pieces. That was what they'd believed.

They were wrong. The human had dropped the strongest Black Monkey short of the chieftain in a single blow.

"Next!"

I felt them flinch at the shout. If they'd ended it here, they wouldn't have been Black Monkeys. They'd have been Gobrings. They flinched, but the ones who refused to look reality in the face came down, one after another.

I didn't dodge. So long as there was a reward—so long as the reward stayed satisfying—I was perfectly willing to invest my time and my effort. More than anything, this feeling of S+ Strength was too good. The sense that I could smash whatever stood in front of me. Part of it was the effect of Master of Melee Weapons, but it was also the illusion that my body had become a superhuman even beyond that. And sure enough, the Black Monkeys made wonderfully obliging punching bags.

I knew full well that the Sewer Sword hit harder and was the better option. Even so, this felt like a chance to get used to fighting with my fists. Two-Fold Strike and Leap Slash weren't sword arts. They were melee-weapon skills, so the name changed with the weapon, and they stayed usable all the same. Bare hands could use them, obviously. Turned into Two-Fold Smash, the skill laid in an effect that struck the exact same spot a second time, dead on, the instant I hit. The sensation of swinging four fists at once—I figured anyone who loved infighting couldn't ask for a sweeter impact than that. There was a reason some people, with a perfectly good sword sitting right there, still went chasing the romance of it, hunted down a pair of gauntlets, and insisted on fighting at a disadvantageous range with nothing but their fists.

When the duel started, I'd thought it would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be over quickly. The Black Monkeys refused to quit because, from their side, I fought like a coward, and they had no intention of submitting to a human like that. Duel them fair and square, the way they wanted, and I figured they'd fight for a while and then admit they'd lost. It took longer than I'd expected.

Today, too, right around the time the sun went down, the Black Monkeys still standing came flooding down in a mass. Honestly, it pissed me off a little. How do I put it—it felt like I was catching, secondhand, off these pitch-black monkeys, a taste of the racism we East Asians run into in America. I'd given those bastards the duel exactly the way they asked for it, and now they couldn't accept the result, so they'd come swarming down to jump me in a mob. That was what ran through my head. Fortunately, I was wrong.

"We acknowledge defeat. Human. Kkiki..."

"Kiki. A new chieftain."

"A human chieftain... We are not pleased, but we must follow."

"Kkik... The new chieftain, the human, is strong. Half our monkeys are dead."

"We cannot afford to lose any more. Kiki."

The Black Monkeys ringed me, set all four limbs to the earth, and pressed themselves flat against the ground. A perfect oath of submission.

Territory was exactly what it sounded like: a land grab. Open the Map that had activated last time, and the places I'd mapped, centered on my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cottage, were filled in, while the regions I still hadn't mapped were painted black. Now that Territory had come online, within the completed portion of that map, my land was marked and shining.

What currently fell inside my Territory was the sewer stretch where the Big Rats had been, the Gobring Forest to the east, and—after I'd crossed into the level-2 biome—a slice of this place, the Black Monkeys' region. Among the areas I'd mapped, my Territory was spread fairly wide. Not that simply painting a territory broad meant anything on its own.

The Former Master's Orchard was in there. So were the Sunro Mushroom trees. Now that I'd picked up the Black Monkey territory, I could plant Sunro Mushrooms in one continuous run—and if I also sowed the Hairgrowth seeds I'd received as the quest-clear reward, a Hairgrowth orchard would be standing here as well.

"No. Wait a second."

Now that I thought about it, the memory was a little hazy, but the name Hairgrowth was pretty famous in Farming World. It had every reason to be. The hairgrowth fruit borne by a tree with the word hairgrowth sitting right there in its name did exactly what it said—it was a fruit that made hair grow. And if you looked at a Black Monkey's body, it was covered in fur.

"Don't tell me this is a Hairgrowth tree."

Trees carpeted everything around me. At my question, one Black Monkey lifted its head and answered.

"Kkiki... Yes. Chieftain. This tree is a Hairgrowth."

"...Holy shit."

I struck my forehead, shut my eyes, and tipped my head back.

"A bloodstorm is about to sweep the world."

How many trees was that? A hundred seeds to start with, and the trees already in sight outnumbered even those.