These Familiars Are Strange

Once Iris was ready, I had the Fanged Wolves take us to the territory of one of the Elite Monsters that they found.

I had some of the Fanged Wolves scout out the area while I was looting the corpses of Yu Xiang's group, which is why I knew about this Elite Monster.

It turned out that even though Iris had come into this dungeon looking for an Elite Monster, she didn't have any information about this dungeon at all. It seemed that she had been relying on Yu Xiang's group for everything, which was why she had hired them.

Though in the end, all that resulted in was her being betrayed.

While we were heading to the territory of the Elite Monster, I couldn't help asking, "Do you know why they chose to betray you?"

Iris didn't say anything at first as if she was lost in thought, but she eventually shook her head and said, "There's too many reasons why, so I can't tell. I'll have someone look into it when I get back."

I didn't ask anything else after this, but it did tell me something about her and her family.

For there to be so many reasons, it seemed that her background really wasn't shallow that there were so many culprits.

I really couldn't help wondering just who was behind her…

But for now, there was something else to focus on.

Once we reached the edge of the territory of the Elite Monster, the Fanged Wolves gave us a signal to show that we were getting close.

After that, they suddenly started moving in a different pattern.

They were moving with their bodies low as if they were stalking something.

It was the order that I gave them before we arrived in this place, I wanted them to sneak into the territory of the Elite Monster to see if we could take care of them in an ambush.

As we snuck forward, I heard Iris say, "I've never seen this kind of precise control before. Just what kind of familiar is this?"

A trace of bitterness filled me after hearing this.

If I were to tell her the truth, I was sure that she would find it hard to believe.

With the Fanged Wolves leading the way, we soon found a clearing that was in the middle of the forest. However, this time, it wasn't an empty clearing. This time, it seemed like there was some kind of crude village that was in this clearing.

There were huts that were made of sticks and leaves that were in this clearing.

And walking among these huts were some gorillas who were the ones that had created this village.

Naturally, these gorillas were monsters as well.

These gorillas were known as Power Gorillas and they were E Rank Monsters just like the Fanged Wolves, but they wouldn't gather like this for no reason. Even if gorillas had higher intelligence than normal monsters, they were still monsters that wouldn't gather together for no reason.

The only reason they gathered together was because there was a leader that brought them all together.

That leader was the Elite Monster that we were looking for.

That Elite Monster was known as the Kong Gorilla, a higher evolution of the Power Gorilla and a D Rank Monster.

After approaching this village of gorillas, we didn't attack right away as we watched the village from behind the brushes. We were looking for the Kong Gorilla since we didn't want to waste our energy with the Power Gorillas.

It was just that it didn't seem like the Kong Gorilla was in the village.

After a while, Iris asked, "Are you sure that it's here?"

I said with a slow nod, "The Fanged Wolves followed the scent here, so they're sure that it's here. It's just that it doesn't seem to currently be in the camp…"

No matter how we looked around, it didn't seem like the Kong Gorilla was here.

It seemed like the Power Gorillas were the only ones that were here.

But that didn't make sense since the Power Gorillas wouldn't gather unless there was something holding them together. Just the fact that they were still in this village meant that there should be a Kong Gorilla nearby leading them.

Where was this Kong Gorilla.

There was a part of me that was wondering if we should just leave, but I decided against it in the end.

The Kong Gorilla had been chosen not because it was the closest, but also the easiest one to take down. If it wasn't this Kong Gorilla, then it would be another Elite Monster that we would have to take down.

And the other Elite Monsters were anything but easy to take down.

So it was best if we could take down this Kong Gorilla.

Only…where was it?

"Snap."

The moment that the sound of this branch snapping was heard, we immediately turned in the direction of the sound.

It was coming from above us.

"Ook." That was the only sound that we heard before large rocks started falling from above.

We could see the one that was throwing it.

It was a gorilla that was bigger than all of the other gorillas in the village.

This was clearly the Elite Monster, the Kong Gorilla.

Only how did it get the jump on us when we were the ones that should have snuck up on it?

The other question that was on my mind was…

"Just how are you able to climb up there without making a sound when you're so big in the first place?" 

This was the bitter complaint that I wanted to make when I saw the Kong Gorilla.

It really was just too big to be balancing on the branch like that.

The Kong Gorilla seemed like a monster that used brute strength, but to also have this kind of agility just simply wasn't fair.

But it didn't matter if I wanted to complain about it since it was already attacking us.