Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

Jack followed the Gymonkeys into their territory.

They jumped from branch to branch, from trunk to trunk. They didn’t have the patience to walk, apparently, and Jack jogged to keep up. The branches above creaked from the weight of those beefy bodies.

As they dove deeper, more monkeys appeared. Some stared at Jack warily and held dry poop in their hands, ready to throw. Others made faces at him, or approached to inspect him. One lifted his arm and sniffed his armpit.

Jack laughed; he wasn’t afraid of these little guys, of course.

A gorilla appeared from behind a tree. Its entire body was covered in dark fur, unlike the monkeys’ brown one, and its yellow eyes stared Jack down from below a wide, wrinkled forehead.

Of course, the gorilla was full of muscle. Even its fingers had biceps. Jack was certain that below its fur hid a perfect six-pack.

The monkeys guiding Jack stopped, beginning a series of uu-uu-aah. The gorilla ignored them; walking on its knuckles, it approached Jack and stared. From this close, it reminded him of a grumpy old man. It could have been funny if it wasn’t vaguely threatening.

Brorilla, Level 16

A gorilla variant from planet Green. Brorillas live with Gymonkeys and train them in the ways of working out. It is due to the Brorillas’ unmatched pecks that Gymonkeys use poop to fight—they consider themselves too weak for anything else.

Brorillas are usually calm, measured animals. However, if anyone harms their little cousins or invades their territory, they go bananas.

Hmm… Not the boss, then.

“Hello, I’m Jack,” he said.

The gorilla looked him in the eye for a moment, then turned to the rest of the monkeys. Their conversation comprised of various monkey sounds Jack couldn’t bother to decode, as well as very expressive jumps and body language. One monkey mimed that Jack was strong by flexing its biceps, and another smashed its fists together, conveying a message that Jack didn’t get.

The rest of them got it, though. After a series of wondrous exclamations, they began walking again, heading deeper into the forest. The gorilla was leading, Jack was following, and about ten monkeys trailed behind him.

Jack began to suspect this was not a good idea. He kept going.

However, he was a biologist at heart. As they walked, his previous questions about the gymonkey evolutionary traits resurfaced. Why did they work out? Natural predators? Mating preferences?

Looking around, he spotted something alarming. All the gymonkeys around him were female. The brorilla was—of course—male.

Oh, hell no.

His brows spasmed. If all brorillas were male, as he suspected from their name, and all gymonkeys female, that was ridiculous from an evolutionary standpoint. They seemed too different to mate. Sure, cows and bulls had their differences, but they were the same species. Were these ones, too?

Is that why the System called them cousins in the brorilla description? Oh, come on. This is just ridiculous.

Jack began to suspect that their habit of working out was based on mating competition, but he wasn’t in the mood to care anymore.

At least, their antics were cute. It wasn’t every day he saw flexing monkeys and gorillas. His non-scientist self was having fun.

The forest got sparser. More monkeys arrived to take in their weird visitor—all female—making the thick trees groan under their collective weight. One more brorilla showed up, joining its bro after a few questioning growls. When the two brorillas met, they flexed their muscles at each other in greeting, while the surrounding gymonkeys stared in awe.

Jack held back a chuckle. The more ridiculous these monkeys became, the less danger he felt, and the smaller his desire to harm them.

Eventually, the forest gave way to a clearing, and Jack could only stare.

A massive gap in the trees was occupied by a series of instruments. There were sticks with heavy rocks on both their ends, inclined wooden surfaces, benches with rows of weights above them, as well as a primitive machine that allowed one to pull weights with their legs.

You have got to be kidding me.

It was a forest gym, and Jack could see a dozen monkeys working out on the various instruments. Sweat dripped down their bodies, and their muscles shivered as they completed one repetition after another. A brorilla was also working out, raising multiple stone dumbbells with one arm, and a few gymonkeys surrounded him, possibly admiring his gains.

Another brorilla stood in the middle of everything, watching the gymonkeys with a sharp eye and barking out corrections when they messed up their stance. Occasionally, its gaze would go at its bro, and it would nod in manly acknowledgment.

When Jack entered the clearing, everything went silent. The brorillas both struck him with stony gazes, and the various gymonkeys all rushed to equip themselves with poop—there was a reserve pile at a side, as many were already pretty clenched from working out.

The brorillas leading Jack initiated the greeting ritual with the other brorillas. Each of them nodded at every other brorilla individually. Then, all together, they assumed various bodybuilder poses and flexed their muscles, while the armed gymonkeys forgot all about Jack and were blinded by this demonstration of gains.

Done with their greeting, Jack’s brorillas explained to their bros what the situation was—unfortunately, Jack couldn’t understand them, but he was fine enjoying the show.

A brorilla motioned at Jack and indicated his lack of muscle. Another shrugged, while Jack’s brorillas looked at him questioningly. One threw him a dumbbell, which he caught easily—or tried to, as the blasted thing must have weighed more than the average man. He settled for gritting his teeth and raising it above his head a couple of times.

The brorillas nodded approvingly. To be precise, they all nodded at him, and he nodded back at each of them individually. When in gorilla-land, do as gorillas do.

Suddenly, a low, commanding growl cut through the clamor. Jack turned his gaze to the edge of the clearing. A banana tree stood there, looking completely out of place in the forest, but he hadn’t noticed it behind the monkeys’ homemade forest gym.

From behind that tree, munching on two bananas at once, came the largest gorilla Jack had ever seen.

Big Brorilla, Level 25

A gorilla variant from planet Green. Brorillas usually live with Gymonkeys and train them in the ways of working out. It is due to the Brorillas’ unmatched pecks that Gymonkeys use poop to fight—they consider themselves too weak for anything else.

Brorillas are usually calm, measured animals. However, if anyone harms their little cousins or invades their territory, they go bananas.

This particular Brorilla is larger and stronger than most, righteously becoming their big bro. It is the group boss of the ape monsters of the Forest of the Strong.

It stood a head taller than Jack even on its knuckles. All over its body, muscles bulged underneath its fur, and it walked with the confidence of a multiple-times Mr. Olympia winner. Its large hands, easily able to squeeze a human head dry, now held a banana each, and it chomped down on them alternatively while its yellow eyes took in Jack.

Through all the chaos, Jack’s mind insisted that banana trees had no place in this forest. Moreover, these bananas bulged oddly, as if they were flexed biceps instead of fruit.

Bananarm Plant (F-Grade)

A resource guarded by the apes of the Forest of the Strong. Commonly found in the plains of planet Green, the bananas produced by this plant are so rich in nutrients they can instantly develop one’s muscles. They are also said to be a rare delicacy.

The stat increase is a one-time bonus.

Of course it would be bananas. Why the hell not? We already had a gym forest and gorilla bros.

The big brorilla slowly made its way to the center of the clearing and stopped. The four brorillas nodded in respect, and the big brorilla only returned a single nod at all of them. It was clearly the big bro, and its eyes were solemn. It didn’t look very friendly.

Jack nodded, then tried to be polite.

“Hello, big bro. I’m Jack. Wanna team up against the wolf? I’m sure it will start eating you guys soon, if it hasn’t already.”

The brorilla stared, not moving a muscle—of which it had many. Jack wondered if it could understand him. The monkeys could—why not their big bro?

The brorilla finally replied. It let out a series of noises that Jack couldn’t make heads or tails of. It flexed its gigantic pecks, pointed its thumb at itself, and finally gave a thumbs-up.

“Are you saying you’ll handle it yourself?”

The brorilla shook its head, then spread its arms to indicate the entire pack.

“All of you are going to handle it?”

A nod.

“Oh. Is that why you’re training so hard?”

A brief pause, a shrug, then another nod.

“Okay. Can I help, too? I’m strong.”

The big brorilla looked at him. It clearly had its doubts. Jack lifted the dumbbell above his head again, but the big brorilla wasn’t impressed. It picked an entire benchpress off the ground and tossed it at him.

“What the—”

Jack barely jumped aside as the massive gym instrument crashed into the ground. He rolled back up.

“Bro! That wasn’t nice! I can’t catch a fucking benchpress!”

Every single gymonkey and brorilla gasped. The big brorilla frowned in dissatisfaction.

“What?” asked Jack, looking around. “Was it something I said?”

He suddenly grew worried. He was strong, sure, but he wasn’t confident in taking on every monkey in this clearing and their big bro, especially when said big bro threw gym instruments around for breakfast. Maybe coming here was unwise.

The big brorilla stood on its hind legs, reaching nine feet in height. It pointed a finger at itself and another at Jack. The two fingers then came together, and when they did, one was clearly higher than the other.

“Ohh, it’s because I called you bro before. You’re the big bro and I’m the little one, right? That’s what you’re saying,” he tried. The big brorilla stared. “I don’t mind. Still, though, can I help against the wolf? I don’t know if you guys can see Levels, but it’s pretty strong… I don’t think you can handle it just by yourselves.”

The big brorilla’s frown deepened. It did not reply. Jack continued, “Okay, maybe you can do it, but it will be easier if you let me help. I’m about as strong as you; with me here, imagine how many of your little bros will be saved.”

A second collective gasp. The big brorilla’s body shivered, flexing every muscle it had at once. It stared Jack deep in the eyes, then beat its chest and unleashed a loud, deep roar.

The monkeys went bananas. They started throwing poop into the air, pushing each other, and jumping in place. Jack was lost. He had no idea what was happening, but he didn’t like it.

Calming down slightly, the gymonkeys and brorillas ran around and formed a large circle around an empty part of the clearing, then kept hollering at the top of their lungs like monkeys often did. The big brorilla jumped over them to land in the circle. It pointed a finger at Jack, then himself, then smashed its two large fists together.

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean to challenge you. I’m just saying—”

The brorillas behind Jack pushed him, sending him stumbling into the circle, which then closed behind him. “Hey!” The big brorilla growled, then assumed a boxing stance and hopped in place. Its large fists rotated around each other like a mill.

Jack frowned. “Will you guys listen to me? I’m not a monkey!”

They did not listen to him. He snorted.

“Fine. Fine! You think I’m afraid? If you guys don’t want to play nice, I’ll show you who’s the boss around here.”

More frenzied hollering, more wild cheers. The big brorilla leveled its stare at Jack, who also adopted a boxing stance.

Jack could take this gorilla. It was at Level 25, while he’d calculated his current battle prowess to be in the mid-thirties thanks to all the stat bonuses. If this big bro wanted to be taught a lesson, he would oblige. Becoming the monkey leader would make things easier in the long run, anyway.

Can I become a group boss? he mused, eyeing the gorilla from between his fists.

For a moment, he wondered what they saw. His muscles had developed as he got stronger, eventually covering his entire body in fine, symmetrical lines. He was like a perfect barbarian, and he faced down a massive gorilla. He was a warrior.

The image lit a fire in his heart. Something drew him in. Maybe it was the incessant hollering that filled his ears; maybe it was the battle lust around him, or the allure of winning a public fight; maybe it was the excitement of boxing a fucking gorilla.

Whichever the case, Jack felt himself dropping into a state of mind he didn’t often reach. All his battles so far had been desperate life-or-death struggles. There was no room for anything else.

Here, where he was called to prove his might against a worthy opponent, things were different. Honestly, even if he lost, he felt that the monkeys wouldn’t kill him. His primal instincts didn’t take over instantly and completely, as they always did. There was room for other things.

He felt the stress of the coming battle. The anticipation. The fear. The anxiety. He was more aware of himself, and thanks to that, he saw a side of battle that normally stayed hidden.

For the first time, he wasn’t fighting for his life, but for himself. To prove his worth. To achieve things. To become great.

And, as Jack explored this aspect of battle, a wall in his mind cracked a little. He had experienced the bald man’s world-ending fist in the waterfall world. He’d seen it from many angles, pondered on its secrets, and from the sight of a single punch, he’d drawn so much inspiration about what it truly meant to fight.

He was on the cusp of something great, something titanic, but there was still a thin barrier stopping him. Something had been missing. Now, that barrier was cracking, and the big brorilla would help him open it up completely.

The gorilla attacked. So did Jack, and they began to box.