The Golden Monkey
The next morning, Ye Qin and Wang Tao met up at the principal's office to request a leave of absence from school. "What? You want to be away for how long? The exams are in a month and you want to go now?" the principal said worriedly.
"We have permission from our parents, it won't affect our overall performance in the exam. As for theory, I'll teach Wang Tao during the journey." Ye Qin said.
"..."
After thinking for a while, the principal reluctantly agreed to their request.
Afterward, the two boys received a call from Father Wang telling them that their passes are ready. They quickly went to Wang Tao's house to collect them then went to the supermarket to buy the necessary items.
…
"Boss, what'd you buy?" Wang Tao asked in a set of new clothing.
"Not much, a pot, pan, wok, meat, veges, salt, pepper, spices. A few packets of matches, an emergency charger, and other miscellaneous things." Ye Qin replied.
"..."
"Well, I bought two sleeping bags and a tent…" Wang Tao said.
"Alright, throw them into your smartwatch, and then let's go." Ye Qin said as Wang Tao nodded then the two of them headed towards the local teleportation checkpoint
A smartwatch not only carried the details and information of a person, it can also be used as a storage space due to it having its own dimension within. Humanities technology advanced by leaps and bounds leading to things that could only be dreamed of coming into reality within a short span of 1000 years.
This also leads to humanity being able to create teleportation gates that send them to and back from the Abandoned lands, almost every city had its own checkpoint allowing anyone with a pass to come and go freely. It doesn't matter which checkpoint one took as all of them connected making it convenient for all with passes.
As they arrived at the New Jiangnan City's checkpoint, the two got off the cab and directly entered the building. Before they could step past the front door, two men in uniforms stopped them "Halt, only those with a pass may proceed past this point."
Ye Qin and Wang Tao each revealed their passes whilst the guards felt quite shocked as they allowed the boys inside the door.
"Tsk, Kids these days, thinking they're so great even though they are still in school. Once they face the true terrors of monsters they will know." one of the two guards said.
"Be quiet, just do your job." the other one said.
"..."
…
Ye Qin and Wang Tao stood in front of one of the gates then placed their passes over the ID scanner and waited for it to approve before putting them away and entered.
Woosh! Woosh!
Inside the space, everywhere is all the same, a vast green space along with strips of white beams of light passes through as Ye Qin looked around. After a few minutes, the two boys stepped foot in the Abandoned Lands.
Taking a look around, the two boys could see a large military base filled with soldiers either on patrol or training. Proceeding forwards and out from the base whilst facing the gazes of dozens of soldiers, the two boys noticed a large barren space in front of them.
The once-flourishing cities of China over a thousand years ago had now become a wasteland filled with crumbled walls however no monsters were nearby. The two boys looked at each other before calling out their monsters then sat on them as they flew off into the distance.
…
"Boss, couldn't you have let me ride on your other dragon? Think about it two young men riding on dragons during their first journey, how domineering!" Wang Tao asked.
"I could but your partner can fly so why should I? Ye Qin teased.
"..."
After flying at a low altitude for a while, they finally spotted some monsters. Ye Qin scanned them and took a look at the information displayed before him.
[Monster- Rocky Earthworm]
[Type- Insect]
[Level- 15]
[Element- Earth]
[Details- a type of worm that lives deep beneath the mantle of the planet with large bodies that can vary from 5 to 30 meters in length. They attack their prey by diving deep into the ground then surprise them by jumping out from anywhere and bite into their prey using their razor-sharp fangs]
[Weakness- Water, Ice]
Seeing three large Earthworms going after a single prey, the two boys flew in on the monsters and attacked without hesitation as if they are veterans in battle
Ye Qin called out his Yinglong as he rode the Qiulong and battled against two earthworms whilst Wang Tao fought against the last one.
The Earthworm noticed their presence and tried to use its large tail to slap them out of the air however they dodged with ease. Ye Qin told both his dragons to keep their distance and attack using their breath attacks.
After evolving into dragons, the two dragons learned new attacks including breaths of their respective element, and can also shoot out a ball of their elements.
Roar!
The two dragons' breath attacks rushed out of their mouths like rushing waves that shot towards the Earthworms and caused instant critical damage even with a difference in levels
The earthworms taking serious damage tried to dig underground however Ye Qin's dragons rushed forward and coiled around the worms and strangled them
Crack! Crack!
Shriek! Shriek!
Sloosh! Sloosh!
The earthworms being unable to break free were crushed into pieces as blood dyed the skies and ground around them. As for Wang Tao, he sat on his tigers back as it flew at great speeds and cut down the earthworms using just its powerful wings and similarly ended the fight quickly.
Ding! Ding!
[+600 xp]
[+700 xp]
Seeing this, Ye Qin's eyes glistened as he watched the exp bar increase by a good margin just from a single battle. However when he saw the total amount needed to level up once he wanted to puke a mouthful of blood.
[600/25000]
[700/25000]
"What the hell? At just level 10 they already need so much exp to level up!" Ye Qin shouted internally. Seeing the bleak and slow journey ahead of him, Ye Qin could only sigh.
The two boys then flew in closer to collect the materials gained from the carcasses of the earthworms whilst their initial prey, a single scrawny looking monkey that had previously escaped came back and looked at the two boys whilst they collected their rewards
[Rocky Earthworm scales x8]
[Rocky Earthworm legs x13]
[Rocky Earthworm fangs x 6]
"Not bad, these can fetch a bit of cash. We haven't ventured far but have already found a few monsters." Ye Qin thought.
After picking up the remains of the Rocky Earthworms, Ye Qin turns to look at the scrawny monkey they had saved from the earthworms. The monkey is slightly golden in color and if one looks carefully they would be able to see a peach-shaped mark in the area between its eyes
[Golden Peach Monkey]
[Grade: Mythical]
[Level: 1]
[Type: Beast]
[Element: None]
[Evolution: ???]
"What the f*ck? This scrawny thing is a Mythical grade monster?" Ye Qin screamed internally, he then looked at Wang Tao and said "Fatty… Do you trust me?"
"Huh? Why are you asking me that? Of course, I do! If you tell me to walk through fire and water I wouldn't hesitate to do it!" Wang Tao replied confidently, pounding his chest.
"..."
"Well, you see this monkey?" Ye Qin asked.
"Yea?" the latter replied
"Well.. It's a Mythical Grade monster…" the former said.
"..."
After a moment of silence, Wang Tao laughed out loud "Hahahahhaha! You're hilarious boss. This little thing? I'd rather believe you telling me you could fly to heaven!"
"..."
Seeing Ye Qin's serious expression, Wang Tao paused before saying "Seriously?". Ye Qin nods.
"..."
"..."
"What the f*ck!" Wang Tao cursed loudly slightly scaring the monkey in front of the two. "Well there's nothing we can do about it, so let's just take a picture of it before leaving." Ye Qin said as the flash from a camera shines.
Chh!
The two boys then turned and jumped on their monsters as they slowly took off. As they grew further away, the Golden Monkey screamed at them making them look back at it. "Huh? What's wrong with it?" Ye Qin wondered as he flew back down towards it.
The monkey then jumped happily as it attached itself to Ye Qin's shoulder, he tried to pull it off using all his strength, however, Ye Qin found that he couldn't budge it at all so it let it do what it wanted as the two boys flew off.
…
After flying for a while and not seeing any monsters, the two boys found a small cave to stay in for the night. The cave wasn't too big or too small, being able to fit both of them along with their tent and other things.
Wang Tao took out the tent and let it set up automatically as Ye Qin took out some firewood and lit it up. Placing a frying pan over the fire and spreading oil around the pan, Ye Qin took out some beef and cooked it then threw in some green peppers.
Woosh! Woosh!
As he made the meal, the golden monkey jumped around him for a bit then went off on its own and sat down crossed legged and closed its eyes as if it were meditating. Looking at its strange behavior and stats, Ye Qin thought to himself "A golden monkey with a peach mark… Along with its grade, it can't be that right?"
Suddenly, golden light seeped outside of the monkey's eyes as its body started floating up slowly. The two boys watched it for a while as the food cooked, then when it finished cooking, the monkey stopped meditating and ate along with the two boys/
"Hmm, a monster eating human food? Must be a special trait of a Mythical grade monster." Ye Qin thought as they ate peacefully.
…
After dinner, Ye Qin gave Wang Tao a minor test to check his knowledge. Looking at his best friend getting 3/30 correct, Ye Qin sighed as he face palmed himself and thought "How did he make it to the third year with results like this?"
Wang Tao laughed as he looked at his score and said "Ah well... I like to play hooky so um.. Yea.."
"..."
Ye Qin then transferred over his notes on monsters he learned at school and the information from scanning textbooks and monsters during his private time.
Leaving Wang Tao alone, Ye Qin went to bed as he made sure Wang Tao studied and warned him before covering his head and slept soundly until morning whilst the Golden Monkey slept outside the tent.