Guardian Of The End

[ Keep up with us if you can. ] The monkey king explained and launched himself towards one of the trees.

The other monkeys followed his example and started retreating to their home. Jason watched them go before taking a deep breath.

He activated his lightning steps and directly jumped on top of one of the branches. The sudden change in weight almost made the branch snap yet Jason had already jumped on another branch.

He continued to jump from branch to branch and in no time, Jason had caught up with the monkey king.

[ You are quite good. ] The monkey king said with a surprised expression. He had been expecting Jason to slowly jog and follow them.

He had been planning to leave behind some of his members to guide Jason but there was no need to do it.

"So we can reach there in fifteen minutes now?" Jason casually questioned while traveling beside the king.

[ If you can go even faster, we can reach the place in less than ten minutes. ]

"Sure."

[ Then let's go. ] The monkey king opened his mouth and released a low shrill shriek. For some reason, the shriek didn't hurt Jason as much as he had expected.

On the other hand, the monkeys started swinging faster. It was almost like they had been holding back from going to fast.

The monkey king increased his speed too. Jason struggled to catch up for a few seconds but managed to stabilize his position after a minute.

His eyes observed his surroundings carefully.

The canopy had grown thicker which made Jason wonder what kind of habitat the monkeys lived in.

He could only conjure up the image of what he had seen in 'The Forest Book' movie. Perhaps the red-butt monkeys lived in a similar place.

[ Uh, probably no… ]

'Let's just wait and see how things progress.' Jason replied.

Five minutes later, he was standing in front of a huge overgrown canopy with houses built around it…

Jason had to rub his eyes multiple times to make sure that he wasn't seeing things. Since when did monkeys live in houses?

[ The principal of your academy did teach us some things. This place makes it easier for us to bring human children here who got injured or some monkeys brought to have some fun.

Its also a good and peaceful way to live life here. Don't worry, you are not the only one who was surprised by seeing this for the first time. ] The monkey king explained with an amused expression.

Jason closed his mouth, which he hadn't known was open ever since he saw the entire place.

"Does this place work similarly to human things?"

[ Of course not. We still have most of our monkey things here. Anyways, lets head to my palace. ]

Still in a daze, Jason silently followed the monkey king. He walked through the monkey village situated on the overgrown canopy and headed towards the biggest house present there.

It was clearly seen in the distance. Most monkeys had already dispersed and had went to live in their houses.

[ I thought that your imagination would be wrong but now I wish that it was true. This is a whole new thing. ] The system admitted.

'I mean there are intelligent creatures out there.' Jason shrugged.

He arrived at the monkey king's residence soon and went inside to find the place infested with female monkeys.

The only reason he was able to tell their gender was due to the system. Otherwise, he had zero clue which monkey was a female or a male…

"KUKUKUKU!" the monkey king said to one of the female monkeys, most probably a maid, in monkeynese.

[ I don't think that's a word. ]

Jason was about to reply before he realized something. He had understood that the monkey king had ordered the female monkey to bring some fruits to the guest room.

"Um, can you speak something in monkeynese?" Jason asked with a confused expression.

[ Once again, that's not an actual word. ]

'If it isn't an actual word, I just invented it. Go ask the copyright god to make a copyright of this. I don't want others using this word for free.'

[ I am not some portable god phone which you can use to contact gods whenever you want. ] The system sighed. It decided that instead of trying to argue with Jason, it should utilize the time to simply observe the surroundings.

"KUKUKUKU!" The monkey king obliged.

"So you can tell that I am calling you stupid?" Jason repeated with a frown. "Who you calling stupid, red-butt."

[ So you can understand what I am saying, ] The monkey king replied with a pleased expression. [ I thought correctly. ]

Suddenly, the monkey king lowered his legs and knelt on the floor of the house. All the female monkeys present their hurriedly followed his example.

Their king didn't kneel to just any person so the silver-haired human kid must be someone pretty important.

'Any of you wanna explain what is going on?' Jason questioned both the system and Hestia.

[ Uh, I think its because of me. ] Hestia admitted a second later.

The guardian was still in the middle of figuring things out so she wasn't sure about what she should tell Jason.

It was the first time she had become a guardian so she didn't know all the details of the bond between her and Jason.

Since both of them were new to this, they would have to figure things out along the way.

[ Animolis is known as the land of animals or beasts. Most of its inhabitants are half beast or animal, which are referred to as demi-human in Clover. All living beings there can understand each other so maybe that ability was transfered to you as well? ]

'That does sound reasonable.'

[ Also, animals like you a lot. That might have helped you out in a way and would have upped your chances of  receiving this ability. I don't have a lot of information on this so I can't say anything without concise research. ]

'Well, I can speak Monkeynese for the time being.'

Jason's eyes focused on the monkey king who still kneeling on the ground. Since the talk between Hestia and Jason was done telepathically, it had only lasted for a few seconds.

Suddenly, the monkey king stared directly into Jason's eyes.

"This lowly being greets the guardian of Animolis and her vessel."