12 First Trip Outside The Village

Not too long afterward, Cody and Riki left Initial Village with a 'Drone Fishing set'; one bamboo pole with a magnet tied to a long string.

Having reached Level 3 in a single day, Riki was looking a lot more cheerful and relaxed than Cody had ever seen him. "You know… once you know the trick to it, this Academy isn't so bad."

"Sure, Riki. Whatever you say." Cody grunted, angling to haul the wrecked drone in without snagging it on some outcropping rock.

"In fact, I don't see what the trouble is." Riki scratched his head. "I mean, they went on and on about not going anywhere alone, but there's no danger here or anything. Just look around. Do you see anything dangerous?"

Cody had the wreckage halfway up the cliff when he turned around to reply (not to look for danger, per se) when he actually spotted something that looked dangerous. "Uh… Riki…? What's that?"

"What?" Riki turned and saw it.

Coming their way was a zebra-striped monkey with red eyes. "Ukkekekeekee!"

"Sorry, I don't speak monkey." Cody said, hurrying to drag the wreckage up before that primate could try to steal it.

"Is that considered dangerous?" Riki asked, curious.

The monkey glared, and then bared fangs roughly four inches long. Claws extended from its fists, and it charged at them.

"Okay, it's dangerous! It's dangerous!" Riki yelped, even as Cody hurriedly drew in the wreckage. "Run! Just drop it and run!"

Cody dropped the rod and the newly retrieved drone wreckage on the cliff, and then turned to dash off, but then he noticed that Riki was just standing there, fists balled at his side. "Why aren't YOU running?"

"Just RUN!" Riki yelled over his shoulder, and dashed out… toward the monkey.

"Riki…!?" Cody gaped. It wasn't hard to see what Riki's intentions were. He was going to try and block the monkey so that Cody could get away.

In response, Cody grabbed the rod…

***

Riki was howling, making as much noise as he could as he made his move.

"HERE! Over here, you dumb monkey!" Riki roared, aiming to take all of the monkey's attention so that Cody could make it away safely. He stopped, waved his arms, and…

A still-smoking chunk of drone wreckage went tumbling right over on his right side, crashing straight into the oncoming monkey. "Wha…?"

Stepping up to stand beside him, Cody wielded the fishing rod, trying to draw the wreckage-on-a-magnet back for another hit. But the monkey grabbed it; between the monkey's grasp and the magnet, the magnet proved weaker, and separated from the wreckage in short order.

Cody didn't hesitate; he drew back the rod and cast it again, swinging the magnet itself at the monkey.

The monkey dropped the wreckage and grabbed the magnet. It stood there, in a weird sort of tug-of-war with Cody, glaring and baring its fangs…

Cody charged. He stabbed out the fishing rod itself; the monkey dodged, grabbed at the rod, catching string as Cody hurriedly maneuvered the fishing rod to the left, to the right, going in and out…

Riki didn't know how he did it. Even Cody probably didn't know how he did it. The monkey definitely didn't, but somehow, between the monkey grabbing the strings and dancing about, and Cody's wild looping, he actually managed to tangle the monkey up in the 'fishing' string.

"Give me that!" Riki snatched the bamboo pole from Cody, and whacked the monkey with it. He held it in both hands, braced his feet, bent his knees a little, raised it sheer vertical as high as he could with the other end of its string still tangled around the prancing monkey, and whacked!

"Ironheart Heavy Sword Style! Mountain Crusher!!" Riki roared repeatedly whacking the monkey on the head with the bamboo pole.

"Uh… I don't think the Ironheart style was meant to be used with a fishing rod…" Cody mentioned.

"Anything can be a weapon!" Riki exclaimed, whacking away as hard as he could. Somewhere, between one whack and the next, the string broke off, and then he was able to swing the pole around much more freely. "HiYAAA!"

Finally, the monkey collapsed. It lay there on the ground, eyes closed, bleeding a little, breathing heavily, but staying still.

"Um… did we win?" Riki asked, panting.

"I think so." Cody went over and observed the monkey. Then he gingerly took back the wreckage, but left the string there entangling it. "Let's just take this and go."

"What about the magnet?" Riki eyed it.

"Just leave it." Cody shook his head. "Let's not wake the monkey up."

***

On the way back to the village from Windy Cliff, Cody and Riki met Oren and Kenneth.

Oren was limping, and was relying on Kenneth's support to hobble back to the village. Kenneth himself seemed a bit battered and bruised.

"What happened?" Riki asked, holding on to the bamboo pole tightly.

Cody glanced about, looking for whatever hurt them.

"Zebra-monkey." Oren grunted. "Came out of nowhere."

"You, too?" Riki grimaced.

"Yep." Kenneth said. "Is that… drone wreckage? You're doing the level 3 mission?"

"Yep." Riki answered in exactly the same tone. "You?"

"Level 5 mission." Kenneth grinned. "We had to go into a dungeon to retrieve a treasure."

Riki scowled.

"It's just a rock, and we only went into the mines." Oren scoffed. "Nothing to be proud of."

"Not just any rock. It's a rare ore." Kenneth said. "And we had to fight through a series of crazy, oversized moles to get it."

"They did warn us." Cody pointed out. "Crystal said to get armor and everything."

"Yeah, well, now we know why." Oren grimaced. "Everything out here is out to get us. Even the birds seem to want to poop on us."

He sounded like he spoke from experience.

Cody and Riki accompanied Oren and Kenneth all the way back to the village. They didn't encounter any further dangers on that trip, and Oren's 'injuries' had recovered enough for him to walk on his own by the time they reached safety. Apparently, the pain would just fade away over time.

"Look at that! Somebody got beat up by the monkeys!" Na'Sar crowed at them from the side. He and Kalen were buying something from Spec's stall.

"How did you know we were fighting monkeys?" Kenneth asked.

"You're coming in from the north. Of course it would be monkeys." Specs supplied. "It would be snakes if you went east, and cats if you went west, birds if you went south. Unless you went really far north?"

"Monkeys." Oren admitted.

"That's pathetic. Four guys and you still got beat by a monkey." Na'Sar shook his head in disdain.

"Oh, we weren't together. We just met up on the way back. And we didn't get beat. We won." Kenneth shot back. "Mission accomplished."

"Same here." Riki added, puffing out his chest.

"Uhuh. How nice for you." Na'Sar snorted, rolling his eyes.

"You're one to talk! You haven't even left the village!" Riki shot back. "What level are you at?"

"Five. Same as everyone else, I'm guessing?" Na'Sar raised an eyebrow. "I don't think any of us have managed to reach the 300 credits requirement to advance yet."

Riki stared, stunned. "T-three hundred…"

"You didn't know?" Na'Sar stared, then grinned. "That means… you're not even level 5 yet?"

Riki went a bit red. "I'll get there soon enough! Just you wait!"

"No way, I'm not waiting for a slowcoach." Na'Sar snorted. "Go wait for yourself, you tortoise. I'm not going to waste my time for you."

Riki frowned. "Tortoises are cute."

Na'Sar rolled his eyes. "So even you agree that calling you one is an insult to cute tortoises everywhere? I mean, you could match their speed, but you're not even cute!"

Oren tugged at Riki. "Come on, Riki. Just leave him alone."

"But…"

"It's not worth it. Just ignore him."