Reject Humanity, Return to Monke

"So, what are we gonna do now?" Prixais asked as she held the spear in her hand tightly. Her snake-half was slithering on the green grass, making sounds as she moved.

"What we are going to do is…" I said with a hum, my eyes scanning the area around us, before settling it on a sizeable tree large enough to make for a good spot for a fort, providing we have the materials on hand. "Hold up in an area and wait for the time to pass."

"But, isn't there a ring that will slowly shrink towards the center?" Prixais stated, forming her doubts about my plan.

"And we'll use that to our advantage." I said, recalling the memories of battle royale games back on Earth. How the Gods managed to come up with this incredibly familiar challenge was anyone's guess. Actually, maybe they pried out of some reincarnees' memories. "Most of the Dungeon Masters would probably rush into the center of the arena just to run away from the ring to lower their chances of disqualification."

I said as I checked the surroundings once again, using my arms to grab a sizeable branch and break it off from the tree.

"That's a quick way to be disqualified and risks the highest probability of being killed in combat." I broke another sizeable branch off another tree and hefted both branches on top of my shoulders. "Sure, some might realize that making allies is a loophole in this event, which I'm sure the Lord Chythos left for us Dungeon Masters, but would that be enough if several common Dungeon Masters such as humans, goblins, orcs, and kobolds, fight against a single dragon, who also happened to have the same idea of running into the center of the arena and making it their base of operations?"

Prixais cringed at the view I gave her.

"Yeah, don't remind me." She shivered, probably recalling some memories she had from the last Dungeon Event about lower rabble fighting against a higher being. "So, all we're going to do, is move when the ring is visible, as well as avoid fighting as much as possible, gathering allies along the way if they agree to it?"

"Pretty much, yes." I said and looked at the giant, but not humongous tree in front of me. Using my arms specifically made for climbing, I scaled the tree in record time and arrived at a branch that was thick enough to support about five of me with a bunch of weights strapped on. "Remember, we're here to survive and ensure we can get to the next event. Sure, you can increase your Dungeon's size as well as monsters if you kill another Dungeon Master, but are you really willing to fight against another Dungeon Master who you have no prior information about? Plus, we can't even get the top spot in the first place. To do that, we'll have to fight the strongest being in the entire arena, and I'm pretty sure we're like insects compared to them."

After my lengthy rant, I look at Prixais, who is staring at me with a dumbfounded expression that quickly changes to an accepting nod.

"... I don't have anythin' to say about that."Prixais sighed and shrugged, using her snake-half to slither across the tree trunk and scale the tree like a snake would. "By the way, what are you doin'?"

"Just gathering some thick and strong branches so I can start building our temporary shelter." I said while I dropped the branches on top of the very thick branch. "Though, I'm pretty sure I've fucked up somewhere…"

"Yes… Those branches will not be able to support our body weight…" Prixais sighed as I facepalmed due to my idiocy.

What? I died when I was still a young adult, who had no experience with carpentry other than the basic use-nails-to-stick-wood-together. Although, I should've known that branches would not support my weight as I am right now.

You would think that living as a gorilla for a few weeks would get you to learn about your weight, but I've been pretty busy just surviving the weeks to give a shit.

And that's showing my complete and utter stupidity to this female lamia. It wasn't my best or worst moment, but it wasn't my worst either. That was when I didn't accept Lennon's and Kayla's apology…

I was a stupid asshole that time, what with being close to death a few days earlier from their companion…

Anyway, the past is the past, and no matter how much I would want to redo it, I had to accept the fact that I fucked up and had to live with the consequences. Too bad, I could've gotten two more humans as manpower and DP income, plus some leadership tutoring for the various monsters in my Dungeon.

I climbed back down and looked up at Prixais, who was giving me a disappointed glare. I had the right to look a little embarrassed at that.

Shaking my head off of those thoughts, I looked for a tree that wouldn't be that hard to topple.

A few minutes later, a tree was uprooted from the ground and was now serving as logs for the foundation of our tree house.

"You done over there yet?" Prixais called out from her spot, perched up on the very thick branch.

"Just give me a moment." I shouldn't show her this, but hey, it's just a fraction of what I can do. If she turns traitor in the future, I'll show her what I'm completely made of.

Grabbing an iron axe from my inventory, I hefted it up above my head, and swung it down with an application of my [Gorilla Go Smash!] skill.

MP: 2312 / 2322

The log was cleanly cut where iron met wood, and separated into two parts. The axe went through the wood like it was paper, and the blade sunk itself a good few-inches in, the pole also somehow sinking into the dirt, the earth shaking slightly as a result.

"Holy shit, that was loud!" Prixais exclaimed from her porch on the thick branch, her snake-half gripping the branch tightly.

I had to wince at that exclamation. That was indeed, loud. About as loud as a bomb going off…

"Get ready, we're probably going to have some visitors pretty soon." I warned Prixais as she glared at me due to my fuck up.

"Gah… So much for bein' quiet and not kickin' up a fuss…" Prixais sighed as she kept a look-out, in case any Dungeon Master would want to try their hand against me.