Reject Humanity, Return to Monke

After bringing the logs back to camp, it took another hour to turn the logs into planks and have Prixais meld them with the edge of the flooring.

Looking up at the treehouse I made, with the help of Prixais, of course. I almost shed a tear from the wailing child spirit in my heart about wanting to build a treehouse once in my life.

Even if it wasn't my human life, what mattered the most was that I was able to make my very own treehouse, no matter how shit or temporary it looked.

I'm gonna build a treehouse in my Dungeon without using the Dungeon's auto-place building feature, dammit. Then, me and Domino could move in there, with my trusty hammock hanging from a thick branch strong enough to support my weight multiplied ten-times over.

"Well, it's not the most eye-catching building I've seen in my life, but it'll do." Prixais commented as she stared at the temporary shelter I had made with her help.

"Then it means I've done my job perfectly." I replied with a glare, my inner mind raging at the thought of this scaredy-cat lamia dissing my work, even if I knew and accepted that it was indeed dogshit levels of design. "It's supposed to be not eye-catching. We're supposed to hide there, you know?"

"I get it." Prixais sighed as she once again scaled the tree like a snake would. Once she was up there, she peeked through the gap I provided to get a good look at the ground below, which was hard to see due to the thick foliage and leaves. "By the way, do you have anything we could use to sleep in? I'd rather not lay my back on hard wood if I can help it."

I hummed, my mind agreeing with her words. "Yes, I have. Luckily, I found this earlier when looking for some wood to chop down."

I scaled up the tree with my modified gorilla body and arrived at the entryway of the treehouse. It was a door hidden by leaves that was located beside the trunk. Entering the treehouse, I inspected the surrounding area with my eyes. It was barren, but at least the walls and floor were smooth.

"Here, help yourself out." I grabbed a sleeping bag from my inventory that I had indeed found inside that supply crate, and tossed it to Prixais. She caught the bag and looked it from top to bottom, her eyes giving me a deadpan stare once she was done.

"You expect me to fit in this tiny bag?" She gestured towards her snake-half with her eyes still bearing on mine. I shrugged, slipping into the sleeping bag and trying to test out if it had a feature for the comfort of any user.

And I was right.

"Wow, this is comfier than my hammock…" I said to myself as my giant body fit perfectly inside the seemingly cramped sleeping bag, which enlarged itself to accommodate my giant gorilla body.

Prixais looked at the scene with her jaw dropped, an amusing sight for me, if my grin was any indication.

"… You win this round…" Prixais muttered under her breath as a light-tint blush covered her cheeks, an obvious giveaway of her embarrassment.

"Aw. Look at that, she's blushing." I said this with some kind of false-mocking in my voice. The blush on the lamia's cheeks turned into an even darker shade of red as she stuffed herself into the sleeping bag.

Her blush soon faded away until a relaxed and dreamy expression took over her face as she lied down on the floor, still inside her sleeping bag.

"You know, this bag isn't all that bad…" Prixais said with a yawn, her eyes fluttering. A few moments later, she was in dreamland, with light snoring coming out of her.

"… Welp… I guess I'll take first watch…" I sighed to myself as I pulled myself out of the sleeping bag without much effort, my eyes staring into the sleeping figure of the lamia wrapped in a sleeping bag like a cocoon.

I shook my head and headed towards the window where I could see the ground just fine with minimal risk to me being seen.

'Time to play the long game… Let's see how much time it would take for the Dungeon Master I let go earlier to come looking for me.'

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I scanned the area once more, before sighing and going back to resting inside my sleeping bag.

It's been a few hours already since me and Prixais started rotating our sleep, or watch schedules to determine who would watch and when. It was currently my turn and the sun was long gone from the sky. In its place, a pale moon was accompanied by thousands of stars.

It's been getting boring lately, what with nothing to do but hold out and check to see if any Dungeon Master would pass under the treehouse and determine whether they would be a threat or not.

Thankfully, the Dungeon Masters who did pass under the treehouse, who we counted only two, were in a hurry. Probably making it to the center before anyone else does, or maybe just running away from whoever's chasing them…

Yeah, probably the latter, which made me keep my guard up almost all of the time when it was my turn to keep watch. I'm also 100% sure that even when I was resting, I kept a single eye open, just in case something happened, which I'm also sure that Prixais is doing right now.

God, don't you just love paranoia.

I decided to peek once more through the window, and this time was awarded with something exciting, as well as terrifying. Exciting because it won't be boring anymore. Terrifying because it was looking straight at me, I think…

He was a Dungeon Master, no doubt about that… But his form was what creeped me out the most: pale skin, a thin as a stick but tall body, and a faceless head that was pure white.

All that was left was static and a business suit and the Dungeon Master would be cosplaying as someone from a well-known horror franchise.

It tilted its head, then vanished from its spot, leaving no trace of it being here. Hell, there wasn't even a sound when it vanished nor moved there.

I frantically took a look around the area (even the treehouse) in case it was anywhere nearby. Minutes of searching flew by and Prixais started to stir from her sleep.

"Jionni, time to swap." The lamia spoke groggily, her eyelids partially open. "Jionni?"

She looked at me once more and noticed my state of distress.

"What's wrong?"

"We may be compromised."