133 Some Monkey Business

"So what now? I don't see any clear path to take?" I ask

"At first glance, there isn't a clear path to take, but I found a pathway hidden from sight by yet another illusion. See that large rock over there," Aurelia says, pointing towards a boulder leaning against the nearby cliff, "that's nothing more than an illusion, it's a really good one at that. If you didn't know that it was an illusion, you would be able to still interact with at as if it were a real rock. But knowing it's an illusion will allow us to pass through it, now follow me."

With Aurelia leading the way we walk along the beach for around five minutes before arriving at a tall cliff with the boulder. Just as she said, we pass right through the boulder, revealing a flight of stairs leading up the cliff. Following the stairs, they eventually come to an end as we arrive at a plateau and not too far away is a pair of two giant stone towers with an arch connecting them and right underneath is another set of stairs, this time leading up the mountain.

Aside from the stone stair pathway, as far as we can see, the entire mountain is covered in heavy forestation, essentially making this place a jungle. As we continue our trip up the mountain, several javelins come flying at us from the treetops but are quickly deflected by Aurelia's barriers.

"There are ancient weapons used by the Empire in its early days. I'm surprised to see so many antiques in such good condition that they could actually be used in combat, but who threw these?"

While Aurelia is looking around to see the source of this attack, the trees shake as several figures jump down from the trees to stand in our path... several monkeys? A quick look and according to the System, these are called a Twin Tailed Monkey. Their stats aren't anything impressive and they stand at around the height of a child, but what sticks out is that the System says they're a species that's on the cusp of intelligence, being proficient in tool use and are great at mimicking the movements of others.

"Okii! Ukee, oOk, Ookyii!" one of the monkeys yell.

Hearing this one's uhh, words or sounds, around a hundred more monkeys reveal themselves, brandishing old tools and weapons from the Empire's days of antiquity.

"Oh! Now I understand what those reports meant," Aurelia says.

"Why are you so calm right now, we're surrounded! We can talk about whatever it is your thinking after we deal with this!" Lia yells.

"Well, I mean, have you looked at their status yet, Lia?" I ask.

"No, I was just about to, oh, now I see. Yeah, this isn't really a problem."

The highest stat these monkeys have is just barely above 400, and it's their DEX. Guess it's important for tool use but their next highest peaks at half of that. These guys really aren't a problem despite their numbers. Is what we thought until one of the monkeys walk up to Aurelia's barrier and shatters it with some strange fist technique.

"That monkey can use Divine Energy!? How could I have not noticed!?" Aurelia yells in surprise.

Without Aurelia's golden barrier around us, the swarm of monkeys begin to rush towards us. Even so, they still don't pose too much of a threat as I return to Dragon form and fight back. At least I thought they wouldn't be a problem until I realised I was suddenly missing nearly half of my health. With my Draconic Insight, I can see a small handful of the target's abilities with each check, but on my first look through there wasn't anything standout that could do this. Going through, again and again, I finally find the cause of all this damage, 'One Hundred Strike Kill', according to the System, with the use of Divine Energy, damage calculation is removed and each strike will do 1% max health damage that can't be healed for 24 hours.

Damn, my large size is working against me here, giving them an easy target. Realising the issue, I quickly return to my humanoid form to continue fighting, creating a blast of air to throw the monkeys away. This actually killed a few of the already weakened ones as they don't have much health to begin with.

Given how weak they are, between Aurelia, Lia and myself, we manage to kill around half the monkeys before the rest runoff. And as soon as the battle ends a new one begins between me and Aurelia for the souls, but with her being more experienced in this field compared to me, Aurelia grabs up 38 souls while I only get 14. But despite obtaining more than me, she doesn't seem particularly happy is she wasn't able to obtain the skills she wanted from the monkeys and only got a bunch skills related to tool use but she can at least use them if need since the worst one of all was a skill relating to tail manoeuvrability so she can't even use it.

"What a scam! Next time I see those monkeys I'll kill them, their friends, their family, and their family's friends!" Aurelia yells.

"Aurelia, calm down, your starting to sound like Cory when she gets upset."

"Putting aside the fact that your luck is as bad as ours now, did you find anything out from this encounter?" I ask.

"A little. The old battle records never explicitly stated what enemy the Empire fought in the mountains, describing them as using a strange language and having the weapons of our forbearers. The general consensus of everyone who read the records was that they were just some strong barbarians, but it seems the records were purposefully vague to conceal the fact that the imperial army lost to a bunch of monkeys. How embarrassing."

"Is that all?"

"I found out a little bit in regards to the Divine Energy. In most cases, when one wants to use Divine Energy, they have to create it themselves, but these monkeys don't do that, instead, they use the Divine Energy that permeates through the air here."

"You mean to say that we are surrounded by Divine Energy right now?" Lia asks.

"Yes, although the amount isn't much. Since most people can't see Divine Energy nor do they know what it feels like, they most likely wouldn't notice, especially since the amount here is so thin. But I noticed that the more we move forward, the more Divine Energy is in the air. I believe that once we reach the inner parts of the continent it will only be a matter of time before you find a way to harness obtain Divine Essence for your evolution."

"Then let's keep moving, I really don't want to get surrounded by those monkeys again, at least not until my health comes back."