Reject Humanity, Return to Monke

Alright… Even with my crap standards, even I could tell when a solid foundation was built for a treehouse.

It's been an hour since I started working with building the foundation, using some rope from my inventory I stored (just in case) as the bind that held all the wood together. Prixais was impressed by my work, even if she was extremely disappointed earlier with my embarrassing showing.

"Well, I'll say that's lookin' as stable as it'll ever be." Prixais shrugged as she glanced at the wooden foundation that was a few meters in the air, clinging onto the tree trunk tightly and firmly.

It was about 15-feet high, with a bunch of leaves covering it, so unless a Dungeon Master looked up and squinted their eyes to get a good look in between the leaves, it would be near impossible to see.

"I just need to make the platform and add some walls." I hummed to myself as I looked at the foundation that was large enough to accommodate me and Prixais with still room to spare. "After that, we'll just hold out here until the ring is visible, and look for a new place to hide."

"Sounds like a plan, 'xcept that you forgot to take into account food and water." Prixais stared at me with a deadpan. I chuckled at her rebuttal, nodding at the fact that we also need food and water to survive.

"Don't worry." I said with a shrug, causing her to glare, then raise her eyebrow in confusion due to my dismissing voice. "I have about enough of a week's supply worth of food right on me at all times."

"… Do you mean [Spatial Magic]?" She asked, trying to hide her fear by stiffening up and not causing her body to tremble.

"You could say that." I chuckled, internally reprimanding myself for unveiling one of my tricks so early. 'Bah, my inventory will be enough to reveal for now. Plus, she's overestimating my abilities, which will get her in line and make it less of a probability that she would stab me in the back.'

She went silent as I went back to gathering some wood to make flooring. Planks would be easy enough to make, but the problem lies within the sound it would produce when making them, or more specifically, toppling down trees to use as the source of said planks.

"… No choice but to do it…" I sighed as I looked for a tree far enough from the treehouse and began to topple it with the axe I had on hand. A few swings and loud echoes of falling wood later, a tree was now ready to be processed for making some wood planks. With the thickness and length of this log, I'd say I'd be able to make about 15-20 planks, with each plank being big enough to cover the entire length from one side of the foundation to the next.

Yep, these are some big-ass trees…

Hauling the logs back to camp, I heard a snap of a twig coming from the direction of a bush.

"Show yourself!" I dropped the two logs and took a fighting stance, quickly bringing up my Monke Staff in case an enemy decided to go on the offensive. I glared at the bush as it started to rustle, shake, move.

A moment later, a figure came out from within the shrub. It was a kobold, that much was certain, but it was no ordinary kobold.

In fact, it was as large as a normal human.

"What do you want?" I asked, but there was no use in asking what he was doing there. It was a no-brainer that this kobold was a Dungeon Master participating in the Battle Royale.

"…" The kobold was silent as he regarded me with cautious eyes. I narrowed my eyes at him and began to open my mouth once more.

"If you won't state your business, leave." I snarled out as I gripped the Monke Staff tightly, my eyes never leaving his body. "I will not hesitate to kill y-"

I wasn't able to finish my sentence as the kobold leapt at me with frightening speed, his claws ready to tear a chunk out of my throat. I quickly brought up my staff to push the clawed hand out of the way, before injecting mana into the staff and lengthening it towards the direction of the attacking kobold.

The kobold was hit on the nose, a crack resounding across the trees. His face was full of surprise at the suddenly lengthened staff, blood spilling out of the broken nose.

Not leaving him any sort of recuperation, I quickly used my free hand to grab the kobold's body, which was not pushed that far due to his collision with the staff while he was charging, and brought him close to my face.

Using one of the gorilla's strongest forms of weaponry with its natural body, I bit down on his jugular and ripped his throat out of the kobold's neck, his screams of pain going silent as he choked on his own blood.

I let go of the kobold, who collapsed on the ground, trying to keep the blood from pouring out of the fatal wound, but I cut it short by slamming the staff at his head again, this time enlarging its thickness as his head was crushed beyond repair.

The kobold twitched once, before it succumbed to its injuries and ceased to move, the grass and ground beneath us soaking up the blood gushing out of the headless kobold, its gray matter sticking to the end of my precious Monke staff.

250 EXP gained!

I cringed in disgust. The smell of urine and feces assaulted my nose as I tried to wipe the brain matter and blood off of my staff.

It wasn't long until Prixais came and looked at the body with her jaw dropped.

"Is he…" Prixais trailed off, her nose picking up the scent of the bowel discharge of the kobold before he died, and barfing out the contents of her stomach on a nearby bush.

"What do you think?" I replied, a bit moody due to the smell, and the sight of the ruined log that was supposed to be wood planks by now to place the flooring on our temporary base. "Come on, finish your retching and get back to the treehouse. I think we're not out of the woods yet."

I said while looking at the screen that popped out in my vision with grim, but joyful eyes.

Dungeon Master Killed!

Rewards:

7 Rooms

12 Wild Boars

23 Rabbits

12 Deer

8 Wolves

53 Kobolds

12 Humans

3 Elves

4 Beastmen

4,995 DP

The Dungeon Master's entire treasury    

'Shit… If this is held every year, then…' I shuddered at the thought of Dungeon Masters killing one another to strengthen their Dungeon by this much. Imagine what would happen if a low-tier Dungeon Master was able to accidentally kill a high-tier one… 'Yeah, there's going to be a lot of killing, but I doubt the high-tier ones would do such a thing, only the low-tier ones would. They probably have a code of some sort.'

I'll have to ask Prixais about this later, right after we return and she feels good enough to stop looking so green. She probably lets her monsters and defenders do the work for her, so she should probably be a bit more like a ruler than a front-line fighter.

"You good?" I asked her as we headed back towards the treehouse, which would be put on hold for the moment while I sorted things out with Prixais.

"I'll live." Prixais said while still looking green, her eyes refusing to meet mine.

'Welp… She's scared to do anything now, so that's a plus…' I sighed internally as I regarded the scared lamia slithering beside me.

It didn't take too long for the both of us to arrive at the treehouse, which was still a foundation without any type of flooring and walls.

"I'm going to have to ask some questions about the other Dungeon Masters. That okay with you?" I looked at Prixais, who was still looking everywhere but at me, but suddenly snapped her gaze back at me when I asked her a question. Her body trembled slightly as she slithered a few inches back.

"Y-yes? What t-type o' question you askin'?" She asked with a stutter, her metaphorical fear meter rising by the second as she looked into my impassive gaze. You would think that as a returning Dungeon Master, who would've probably participated in this Battle Royale event a decade ago, would be a bit tempered, but all I see is a girl too scared of a monster before her.

"I want to know if there is any code-of-conduct, any unwritten rules, hell, anything that the returning Dungeon Masters follow in these events." I asked sternly. Prixais trembled a bit more, before getting her shaking body under control as she stared at my eyes with determination.

"Y-yes…" The lamia squeaked out, but was able to regain her voice a few seconds later. "The returning Dungeon Masters do have an unwritten rule. They are not allowed to kill, unless they are attacked first."

"That's all?"

"Yes, that's all…" Prixais once again went back to the shivering girl she was. In the end, I tuned her out in favor of thinking up my next move in this event.

'I can work with that. Plus, as long as I don't antagonize any Dungeon Master, I'm good. All I have to do is survive until the last day and I reach the top 300. Killing Dungeon Masters for their Dungeons will only happen if they attack me without any reason.'

I mused to myself as I stared at the foundation of the treehouse.

This was going to be a long week…