CHAPTER 271: MIND STALK APES I

They saw more of the monsters scattered across the forest floor like broken dolls. Just looking at them, it was as if the monsters had engaged each other in a serious fight and killed each other.

Almost all of them lacked heads, and of those that did not lack one, their skulls had been pried open and their brains excavated.

But what type of fighting would cause them to kill each other so brutally? It was obviously the work of the mind stalk apes! And those monsters weren’t the only ones.

The more they walked, the more monsters they saw, in different stages of decomposition. Some were still relatively fresh but were now gathering buzzing flies, while some were rotting and some held together by strips of tattered flesh.

And some were already skeletons. Even some human skeletons were mixed within.

One thing they all had in common, apart from being dead, was that their heads were either missing or heavily damaged.

’...yeah. This is definitely the work of those monsters. How terrifying...’

They continued walking until they reached a clearing, but it was empty. What could only be found in the clearing was evidence that some large group had stayed there not too long ago, perhaps a few months past.

Vacuse assumed it was a former lair of the mind stalk apes before they moved to another location. He sighed as they continued onward again.

One thing he found strange was the fact that there were no monsters around. Everyone was silent apart from the insects screaming to their little bodies’ content.

’...those bastard apes have eaten all the monsters around...’ Vacuse came to the conclusion in his mind.

A few more minutes of walking, then the hunters slowed down, their faces becoming slack as they gave up pretense.

Vacuse quickly followed them. He made his face slack and his body slump while standing. Then he followed the whole lot of them as they passed through another clearing and finally arrived at the new lair of the mind stalk apes.

The lair is a crude thing. A massive hole in the ground had been dug out, and the inside cushioned with crushed leaves that the apes used as their resting place.

There were hundreds of them in the lair, all screaming and playing while their enslaved slaves either gave themselves up to be eaten or worked for them.

The apes were almost like the normal ones, but their fur was a dirty yellow, and in the middle of their forehead were gems. The gems were of different sizes and colors. Some were large and some small, but all the apes had one.

’...is that where their mind came from?...’ Vacuse couldn’t help but think.

Then he noticed something strange. There were apes coming and going through tunnels created in the sides of the lair. And from the edge where the dragon hunters were standing, one ape suddenly came from a tunnel and looked at them with cruel intelligence.

Vacuse finally got an answer to one of the puzzles that had been picking at his mind for a while. How did the mind stalk apes get them so fast without them noticing? Well, he got his answers!

The apes were using tunnels!

But what chilled him the most was the fact that a single ape was able to control the minds of twenty-nine third circles! Admittedly, the ape was one of the bigger ones, and its gem almost took the entirety of its forehead in size.

Now that Vacuse knew what to look for, he saw a few of the bigger apes as well. As big as Harkon and filled with muscles, and their gems were also black.

’...those apes with black gems should be the leaders or something. But where exactly is the boss? And isn’t this type of power just too frightening? There are at least seven of those apes with black gems, and with that power, they could rule a large chunk of the Dark Wilderness if they wanted...’

’...something must be stopping them from doing that...’

Just as Vacuse was thinking this, the ape in front of him moved forward and dropped into the lair with a grunt. The dragon hunters too began to walk forward, and one by one, they also dropped into the lair.

Including Vacuse.

As the bigger ape walked through the lair, almost all the other apes gave way to him as it walked forward like some kind of lord. The only apes that did not behave in a submissive way were those with the black gems of their own.

The lair seemed to be divided into different sections, each under a bigger ape with a black gem. And each of the bigger apes had controlled forces of their own that tended to them and their ’family’. But not only tended, because as Vacuse was watching, he saw monsters that were under control being casually eaten.

’...ah fuck. I have to get us out of here before that bastard begins feeding us to his family!...’

But even as Vacuse was walking with the others, he began to set his plans into motion. Monsters, especially those at this stage, might be smart, but in the end, they did not enjoy the evolution that humanity has in regard to intelligence.

And so he waited until the ape led them to his own family and went to sit in the middle while grunting in satisfaction.

’...what are you looking satisfied for! This place smells like shit and piss! You think you’re some kind of king?...’ Vacuse sneered in his mind.

But before he knew what was happening, the ape family had crowded them, hollering and shouting, each pointing at the human they wanted to eat while the leader barked grunts from his place.

If Vacuse was to guess right, then he would say the bastard had eaten the last of his monsters and went out to capture new ones, only to be met with thirty humans at the same time, all of them strong humans.

In a way, it was worth being satisfied about.