Grey felt a light slap on his face and heard a gruff voice telling him to wake up. He grumbled, still wanting to rest awhile. But then he heard a deep sigh, followed by a heavy slap on his face.
Grey's eyes shot open. And He held his cheek in surprise, his expression turning into a frown.
He activated [Voltedge], ready to slice up the bastard who had rudely woken him.
But he froze on seeing a monkey standing before him.
"Calm your horses. You wouldn't wake up, so I had to use force."
Grey's mouth dropped open at the sight before him. It was a talking monkey, about the size of a small cat, perched on his shoulder.
The creature had bright blue fur, a face framed with a short mane of tufted fur, and large, expressive eyes that sparkled with intelligence and curiosity, and its tail flicked back and forth playfully.
"What are you?" Grey asked in a fascinated tone. It's not every day one sees a talking monkey.
"I'm Apollo, a Liberator, Knight of the Celestial Wardens, whatever that means. I took a monkey as a host because my body was too damaged by zombies. Now, I'm here because of you, Grey Adamas."
Grey frowned in confusion.
He couldn't begin to make sense of what the monkey was saying or how it knew its name, and it seemed too overwhelming to even bother trying, so he simply asked, "So, what do you want with me?"
"You're the necrotic heir, and my goal is to kill you for existing," Apollo said with a serious expression on his face.
Grey's eyes narrowed.
Then he sprang up to his feet.
Balling his fist, as flickers of lightning crackled around him.
His energy had recovered. Meaning he was ready for anything, but Apollo raised his slender hand passively.
"Listen...I mean no harm. Though your aura tempts me to kill you, I won't. You are not to be killed, that much I remember. You see I don't remember much after waking up from a coma."
"That doesn't make much sense. Explain things in order." Grey said annoyed by Apollo's rambling.
"Alright, I know I'm a liberator, I woke up from a coma thanks to the system's descent. But zombies ate my body, so I removed my soul to search for an empty vessel. Then I found the monkey, possessed it and now I'm here to do my job."
"Which is..." Grey asked.
"To monitor you."
"You said you wanted to kill me."
"To monitor and then kill you."
"Because I'm the necrotic heir?"
"Yes."
"Why should I believe you? Who knows you can stab me in the back when I let my guard down." Grey asked, feeling nothing but doubt. Something about the monkey face wasn't trustworthy.
"I could have killed you in your sleep if I wanted to, but I didn't," Apollo explained. "Also, you're too weak right now. Battling you would be boring."
Boring?"
Apollo then released his aura, and Grey froze in his tracks. He could sense the massive amount of energy the blue-fur monkey possessed. And knew he meant what he said. The difference in their strength was quite large.
"So I'll wait by your side until you're strong enough, then I'll kill you," Apollo said, almost too cheerfully. Like a toddler promising murder.
"But you said you were simply going to monitor me."
"Do you have a hearing problem? I said until you're strong enough."
Grey sighed, he certainly wouldn't be able to chase away the monkey at the level he was, so he had no choice but to endure the monkey's shenanigans.
"So you want me to take a monkey with dementia as a pet?"
"Yes...No. Take that back. I'm not a pet," Apollo yelled, not refuting the dementia part. He had indeed lost his memory.
"You're definitely a pet or used to be. You have a name tag on the chain around your neck. It says Peanut."
Embarrassed by the cute name, Apollo yanked the tag off at a speed akin to light.
"You will never call me that," Apollo threatened, pointing his monkey finger at Grey.
"Understood Peanut."
"You piece of shit. I'll just kill you right now," Apollo yelled, releasing his aura, to intimidate Grey, but was pleasantly surprised when Grey didn't even flinch.
"As expected of the necrotic heir," Apollo muttered seemingly impressed.
This statement got Grey curious, and he asked, "From the way you mentioned my title, it seems like it's something important. Do you know what it means?"
He knew being an heir meant he was entitled to something—a position of power or an inheritance. Whatever it was, it was most likely left by someone important, but for what reason?
"It means you're special. Enough to get the attention of higher powers who would most certainly deem you a threat. That much I remember. Which is why you need to get strong fast."
Apollo said and then leaped onto the decapitated zombie.
"Almost getting killed by a zombie of this level shows your strength is low. Pathetic." Apollo spat.
Grey frowned. Apollo was totally looking down on the zombie's strength, but when he thought about it, why wouldn't he? Grey felt like an ant facing Apollo, as the monkey was levels beyond him.
But pathetic or not, he had fought a hard battle and won.
He didn't care about impressing a stranger. Especially not a monkey with dementia.
This reminded him of the reward he had gotten from defeating Veincrusher, so he checked out the notifications he had gotten.
[Battle Quest Completed]
[Kill Veinvrusher: 1/1]
[Reward now available. Would you like to open it?]
"Yes."
Ding!
[You unlocked inventory]
[You have received shard stones:]
[Strength: +5] [Agility: +5] [Stamina: +5] [Vitality: +5]
[You have received a healing potion +50 health]
[You have received weapon: Bane sword]
[You have received skill: Rageborne]
Grey let out a wide grin. As expected, the rewards were bountiful.
The shard stones were even different, containing more stat points than the ones he got from regular zombies, and he got one for every single one of his stat.
He would have to kill hundreds of zombies to get this many shard stones.
He clicked on the new skill, [Rageborne], and a description popped up.
[Rageborne: Double all stats for one minute]
[Side effect: Drained stamina and a temporary halt in stamina recovery.]
[Effects get better once proficiency increases]
"Hmm..."
Grey wasn't sure about the skill, as the side effects seemed rather dire. Losing stamina in a fight and being unable to recover it, meant death in a fight. This means [Rageborne] should only be used as a last resort, and only when you're sure you'll be able to defeat your enemy.
But since it'll get better once the proficiency increases it wasn't so bad.
The higher the proficiency of these skills, the stronger the ability and the fewer the restrictions.
Grey was sated, glad he took the risk.
Instant gratification was the best kind of motivation, and it worked wonders for Grey.
So much so, that he wanted to get back into hunting zombies.
Especially after Apollo showed him how weak he was.
"You said there were higher powers, right?" Grey asked.
"Yeah," Apollo replied, leaping onto Grey's shoulder.
Grey didn't mind this and continued talking. Pretty much accepting Grey as a companion.
"Are they as strong as you?"
"No, they're much more powerful. Emphasis on the powerful." Apollo said with all seriousness.
"Good. Then I won't lose motivation to grow stronger."
Grey responded, much to Apollo's surprise.
The blue-fur monkey let out a grin, finding the Necrotic heir more...