n

n

nThe island's warm tropical air temperature slightly dropped as its sun slowly sunk into the ocean, falling asleep to await a new dawn.

nIts last light passed by Aito's face, who was standing outside his cave's fortification, a torch made of a single piece of wood in one hand and his weapon in the other.

nHe had been on his guard since the monkey escaped. Training and crafting had been put on hold because it could leave an opening for his enemy to exploit.

nBut he considered it a real waste of time. The monkey had not appeared at all. Aito had been looking for it the whole day, to no avail.

n

"Fuck… I can't sleep until that thing is found.

" He said his anger about to blow up.

nHe then remembered that he had forgotten to feed a certain wrecker of bamboo stands and headed for Jack's dwelling, still on the lookout for an eventual surprise attack.

nHowever, he did not expect to find what had troubled him until now, dead in a pool of its own coagulated blood, riddled with holes.

nAito brought his torch closer to examine the wounds.

n

"It looks like a stabbing wound, but the flesh is shredded. The weapon wasn't sharp enough to leave clean cuts.

" He said, piecing the clues together with a knowledge he had acquired after one month of bloodshed.

nApart from him, only one other living being had a weapon on this island. A weapon that could have made those kinds of wounds. But that was impossible. Jack never attacked other evol monkeys before.

nAito had seen it observe him while he was fighting other groups of evol monkeys and Jack had always stayed on the sideline like a referee on a football field.

nBlue particles rising for the corpse took him out of his reverie. Since the grey space, he had been more aware of his surroundings while pondering, because of what it had cost him; a certain not so enjoyable holiday on a godforsaken island.

nThe corpse progressively disintegrated, morphing into small blue bubbles randomly spreading in the air. Aito had never observed this phenomenon before, or rather, never thought of observing a dead body until it disappeared.

nCurious, he tried to poke one bubble with his ax, but it passed through as if it did not exist in the material world.

n

"What… is this?

" He said, his inquisitive face lit by the particles' warm blue lights that basked the surrounding trees of its weird, yet unique hue.

nAito stared at the phenomenon, at a loss to what to think of it, and simply appreciated its sight.

nThen the lights scattered to enter the earth, trees, bushes, and rocks, ending the show.

nAito stood still, his torch occasionally dimming with the passing cool winds of the night. For the first time since his arrival, he couldn't find an explanation to… well, something.

nIt seemed so weird, so magical, so… out of this world. But again, he wasn't even on Earth, nor on that other world supposedly called Iris. He wasn't even sure if he had been truly resurrected.

nTired after going around all day to find a single monkey, Aito sighed, left a piece of meat for Jack, and headed back home.

n

"At least I can sleep soundly now.

"

n***

nPerched on a tree branch, Jack's sleeping face frowned, sweat profusely erupting from his pores. His every muscle had ached all day long. The sore progressively increased to the point he couldn't move any longer.

nPain gnawed him to the bone, but despite that, he slept. As if forced into some kind of self-preservation system against the unbearable pain.

nTaking advantage of their host's current comatose state, the body's every cell moved at incredible speed. Building new muscles, bones, and nervous systems. Discarding the old and useless cells to improve the body's overall performance.

nSlowly but surely, Jack's body was ongoing evolution.

n***

nBlood covering the floor.

n

"LeT ## #### ##.

"

nBruises on his face.

n

"YoUr ###.

"

nBottle of alcohol in hand.

n

"YoUr #########.

"

nBroken skull.

n

"I ### ##### ### ### ########## ### ####.

"

n***

nAito jolted awake, gasping for breath, and drenched in sweat. Panicked, he drew his weapon.

n

"Who's there!?

"

nHe searched in front of him. Darkness.

n

"Show yourself!

"

nBehind him. Darkness.

n

"I said, show yourself!

"

nRight and left. Darkness.

nFeeling insecure, he stood up from his bamboo bed, opened the inventory, and the basic materials to build a fire.

n

"Hurry.

"

nHe quickly organized the dry sticks in a pyramidal way.

n

"Hurry.

"

nPlaced coconut fibers inside the pyramid.

n

"Hurry.

"

nGrabbed his flints and lit the fibers.

n'Quickly, quickly.' He thought, blowing on the ambers.

nThe heat spread to the fibers then sticks. Surrounding darkness progressively dispersed by the fire's orange light that suddenly turned glacial blue.

nAito tried to move, but his body refused to obey. His breath became visible to the naked eye as the air turned cold.

nParalyzed, he could only gather his courage when a freezing hand grabbed him by the shoulder.

n

"CoMe tO mE, AiTo WaLkEr.

"

n***

nAito was shocked awake and, this time immediately rushed out of his cave. The outside was still dark as he passed the fortifications. He kept running until he reached the beach. Only then did he dare to slow down.

n

"What… what…

" He said, panting.

"What the… ** was that!?

"

nOut of breath, he walked towards his rock protruding out of the sand, sat on it, and attempted to regain his calm while still on the lookout for a potential supernatural phenomenon.

nHis mind was in shamble. That, whatever it was, could be just a dream. A very bad dream.

nThe thing in there had played with images of his past. It could have been a manifestation of his regrets, but… that blue fire. The freezing hand. The chilly air. And that venomous, deformed, rock voice.

n

"It felt so real. So **ing damn real.

"

nHe couldn't be sure of what he had seen. But one thing was certain, he was scared but also pissed.

nEvery time he finished a preparation to counteract a new danger, another unpredictable event happens, leaving him no time for a break.

nIt felt like the trial was spitting on his hard work, or slap his face telling him that what he did was a just waste of time. That he should just let himself die and end the suffering.

nInside him, anger overwhelmed the fear and soon proved to be impossible to contain.

n

"Fucking island!

" He shouted, in need to vent out his frustration.

"Fucking goddess! Fucking monkeys! Fucking…

"

nHe paused, realizing he didn't know how to address the thing that had appeared in his dream.

n

"Fuck you, whatever you are!

" He said, his anger slightly subsiding.

nThen he thought about the thing's last sentence. It wanted him to come to it, which meant that it had to be somewhere on that island. But he had visited every corner of it and never found anythi—

nA realization washed over him like a bucket of cold water when he remembered two places he hadn't visited yet.

nOne of them being his cave's depth.

n***

nAito watched the dawn to calm his agitated spirit. It was clear to him now that if he wanted to survive the three months, he couldn't take the risk to stay in the cave. Whatever that thing was, Aito dreaded it. If it was powerful enough to invade his dreams, he dared not imagine what it could do physically.

nBut abandoning his cave would leave him with no shelter. He could still build a new one, but it will take some time. Time he could spend training.

nHis predicament quickly cleared when he decided to make the shelter his priority. With nowhere to actually sleep and rest in with a minimum of fortification, he was certain to die sooner rather than later.

nWith a goal in mind, he stood up and headed back to the cave.

nThere, he found an evol monkey standing on all four in front of the entrance as if it was waiting for him.

nIt looked… different from normal ones. It was shorter, with leaner toned and dynamic muscles that seemed to hide explosive strength. Its brown fur hid strands of black hairs, indicating that it was slowly changing.

nAito felt a sense of familiarity with the monkey. When his gaze shifted to the stone dagger it had in hand, something clicked like the last piece of a puzzle had been found.

n

"Jack?

" Aito said, drawing his ax in case of an eventual attack.

"Is that you?

"

nBefore he could get an answer, stepping sounds coming from three different directions alerted him. He equipped his shield, turned around to face the threat, while slowly retreating to the cave entrance.

nFive evol monkeys started to encircle him. Aito quickly noticed three differences. Obviously, they increased in number and size, but the most alarming was the appearance of a monkey with bigger features.

nIt was taller, more muscular, held an iron ax, and most importantly, it appeared to be their leader.

n'Really?' He thought when finally realizing it was the start of a new week. 'First a nightmare, then Jac—'

nAito quickly glanced back—remembering that there was a potential enemy behind him—to find nothing. The monkey was gone.

nA monkey shout brought his attention back to the front.

n

"Wooo!

"

nThe leader stood on two legs, hit his muscular chest to show his status, before launching an assault.

nAito picked a spear from his inventory, aimed at the leader, intending to bring it down as soon as possible for obvious reasons, and flung it with all his strength.

nThe projectile violently pierced the air, causing whistles, and struck true.

nBAM!

n

"Woah!

"

nThe leader screamed in pain from the wound on his left shoulder, then grabbed the spear and pulled it to take out the stone tip.

nBut Aito wasn't stupid enough to wait for it to recover and sent yet another spear. This time, however, it deviated from the intended trajectory to strike a monkey in the chest.

nBAM!

nThe force of the impact sent it flying two meters backward. Aito clicked his tongue, taking a mental note to focus on spear throwing the next time he trains marksmanship.

nBy the time he took out another spear, he felt a draft to his right. He glared sideways to see a spear lodged in the earth.

n'Are you kidding me?'

nAito shifted his attention towards the leader and could swear the creature was smirking.

nHe then threw a new projectile and didn't wait to see the results to flee behind his defenses. Judging by the lack of a screaming sound, it probably missed.

nMore agile, the monkeys were quickly closing on him. Aito pulled out a stone ax from his inventory and launched it at the nearest one.

nBAM!

nThe stone ax bit into its left shoulder shredded the bone and cut off its arm. The monkey fell from the pain, grabbing its gaping wound while shrieking.

nAito finally reached the bamboo wall's entrance, turned around, blockaded it with his shield just in time to deflect an ax strike. He quickly followed by a shield bash and a deadly diagonal slash.

nHe kicked the beheaded corpse aside to free his vision, then turned towards the remaining monkey and gave him a warm welcome

n'Where is the big one?' He thought, dislodging his ax from the monkey's skull.

nHe quickly found his answer right where he had been standing before the attack.

nThe leader was lying in its own blood with a slit throat. On top of its corpse sat, bloodied stone dagger in hand, the small monkey from before.

nPuzzled, Aito carefully walked towards his mysterious helper. The monkey eyed him warily but showed no sign of aggression.

nHe slowly placed his ax on the ground, opened his inventory, and he took out a piece of roasted meat.

nThe monkey's eyes shone like the brightest stars. It snatched the meat and happily chewed on the food.

nAito smiled, recognizing the familiar voracious appetite.

"So… we are buddy now, Jack?

"

nJack paused, looked at him, and stuck out his tongue.

nAito chuckled, brought out another piece of meat as a bonus reward, and tossed it to Jack.

n

"Thanks for the help.

"

n