Chapter 55 - Evergreen Monkeys

As the sun came to rise, Ellena prepared the food she bought a while ago after her morning training routine. A bag of bread and smoked meat were what she bought, enough for a week's journey.

It could be even useless since she can just hunt some animals or monsters. However, she insisted on having it as security since she won't know when will be she needed it.

Aaron just shrugged at her. They started to venture in the direction where a famous city is located, outside the county.

"This is your official adventure as an adventurer," Aaron remarked.

Since there are no people around, Ellena opened her mouth to answer him. "Yup! And it's exciting. I wonder how many monsters I could fight in this area.

Aaron just chuckled after hearing it. "No wonder you were excited. I must let you know, monsters in this area are at least B-rank. They are thrice stronger than C-rank monsters."

"I know, I will be careful. Please assist me with the surrounding." Ellena said as soon as they entered the woods, mostly covered with green.

'This is the rainforest. It means we're at least 10 miles away from the city.' Aaron thought as he observes the surrounding.

Moments late to their venture, monsters started to appear. They similarly looked like animals, however, they have unique features.

A green-looking monkey appeared, just a size of a toddler. However, it wasn't alone, it has a group with it and releases a menacing gaze.

"Our first group appeared. Do you have the courage to fight Evergreen Monkeys?" Aaron jokingly asked.

"What kind of remark was that. Are you purposely trying to tease me?"

"Nope. Just be careful. They are at least B-rank monsters."

People may wonder why a young lady entered this area. Well, since she discovered that it would take less than a week to pass through the rainforest, she challenged it.

Ignoring Aaron's warn, Ellena still chose to pass through the shortcut available on the map.

'If we could only exchange for [Flight] ability. However, it cost too much. Imagine where we could get that thousand points.' Aaron cried inwardly as he gets nervous Ellena fighting the monsters.

The monkeys appeared to have algae-like fur. Almost moist and slimy, they can still jump through the branches without any effort.

One monkey attacked Ellena, it swung from above a branch, then aimed to land to her with its hands still in the air.

Instinctively, Ellena unsheathed her sword, raising it in the monkey's direction. But, to her surprise, the sword just slipped through the slimy fur. Fortunately for her, she reacted abruptly, dodging the jump of the monkey.

She was still left surprised, it was as if she was fighting with a water slime that is resistant to physical attacks.

Before she could think more, another monkey appeared to tackle her from below. She swung her sword, hitting the monkey but with a slight impact because of the slippery fur.

'What a bothersome!' She hissed.

Aaron who was spectating the scene above tried to calculate and study the monkey's behavior. They appear to move like normal monkeys, however, they are more aggressive and defensive, thanks to their fur's help.

'How could be a fur became that slimy?' Aaron infuriated.

More into his thinking, he remembers a certain monster that is invulnerable to physical attacks --- water slimes. If she were to use a magic attack, she'll perhaps have a way of defeating those monsters. But before he could say it...

"I think I know how I can defeat these monkeys," Ellena mumbled which made Aaron's eyebrows raise into surprise.

"You noticed it too. Nice of you!" He exclaimed before Ellena was surrounded by tens of monkeys.

"These are plenty of monkeys. But why just they are too eager to kill me with these numbers?" She muttered before covering the sword with a minimal thread of lightning reach up to 0.1 Joules.

But before she could think of everything, the monkeys tried to tackle her.

'Let's try this.'

"Lightning Manipulation." She chanted to control it completely.

Hitting one of the monkeys, a flickering sound echoed, similar to a sizzling sound.

As they want, the monkey reacted to it. It even burned part of its fur, to its surprise, it screeched, making others attacked her at the same time.

"Oh shit." Aaron cursed as he wasn't anticipating that will make them trigger.

Even with powerful abilities, Ellena can't use them nonchalantly. She must have reserved stamina for her to be safe and defend herself.

Panicking, Aaron remembered that he can bless, but he doesn't know how to activate it.

Meanwhile, Ellena tried to defend herself using [Pressure Aura] to weaken them and attack them with a strong impact. However, it wasn't enough to reduce their number, she just at least knocked down 3 monkeys and there are still plenty of them.

"Did I just dig my own grave?" She mumbled as she nonstop swinging her sword covered with lightning. 

"Oh, forget about it. I'll just use all of my stamina."

Ellena started fueling up her lightning, raising its volts. More threads of lightning appeared, sparking, and burning the previous wet surrounding.

She swung her sword to her surrounding, making a space of electricity, hitting every monkey around it. But just when she was near to exhausting herself, even with the effect of [Pressure Aura], few monkeys remain.

She looked at the damage she made. At least twenties of monkeys were defeated, burned from the lightning. However, the remaining monkeys are unscathed, appeared to be difficult to manage since she was breathing heavily, almost draining her stamina.

Aaron, who was still panicking, thought of any possible activation to bless Ellena. He noticed that she was exhausting herself and it wasn't enough. As he anticipated, B-rank monsters are still strong despite Ellena's improvement. And more to it, they were moving in a group that he wasn't expecting.

"I was too overconfident. Even I kick these monkeys, it will be useless. I need to bless her." He freaked out.

Then, he continued, "If I could just understand the other system. But, how should I call it?"

He dug up his memory to find something useful. Seconds later, he finally found an important information.

Recalling of everything from that night when he evolved, he discovered the word appeared in front of him.

'Pixie Root Access.' He mumbled, and just a few seconds after he said it, a light appeared around his skin, covering his entire body.

After more seconds, he finally understood how to bless. With the help of the information he dug, he finally can bless Ellena.

"Target: Ellena." He continued before looking at Ellena, facing his palm towards her.

Sometime later, Ellena felt easiness in her breathing. She was perplexed by it, unable to control her dazing look, she searched for Aaron which she saw glowing.

'This is the blessing?' She thought before understanding the mechanics of it.

'I can control my breathing completely. More of it, I can feel my stamina slowly recovering from the proper breathing.'

"Now, use it, Ellena. Your stamina control improves drastically as I activated my blessing. Defeat these monkeys.." Aaron muttered before Ellena stood up from the ground.