Mason grabbed his sword off the ground and turned towards the monkeys. "Round two motherfuckers."

  The non-injured monkey broke off from the other to try and get behind Mason, it climbed on the ceiling by digging its hands into the rock so he couldn't hit it. But that left its injured friend alone for the time being. Mason sprinted towards the injured one at full tilt. Knowing it couldn't get away with its injuries, the monkey ran towards Mason arcing its arm backwards for a swing.

  Trusting in his stat investments, Mason didn't try to dodge the monkeys hit, instead he activated [Inner Grit] and [Power Strike] And ran straight into the monkeys blows. He could feel the monkeys fists slamming against him but it felt far away. He slammed down his sword right onto the monkeys head while it wailed on him. It split open with a sickening squelching sound, the corpse falling to the ground.

  [Stone Fist Monkey (Level 12) defeated]

  With one dispatched Mason looked around trying to find where the other monkey went, straining his eyes to see in the dark. Then with a pop like your ears clearing after landing on a plane, he could see perfectly.

  [Skill notification:

  Dark Vision (Common): Allows the user to see in the dark in grey-scale. Cost: N/A Type: Passive

  ]

  With his newfound sight, he saw the monkey was hanging on the ceiling above him, so he pretended that he still couldn't see it.

  Thinking it still could ambush him, the monkey dropped rom the ceiling directly on top of Mason. Before it could reach him, he grabbed its ankle mid-air and slammed it down onto the ground, the monkeys head hitting the ground with a loud thunk. Following up on his gain in momentum, Mason used [Power Strike] and stabbed the monkey through the chest.

  [Stone Fist Monkey (Level 13) defeated]

  [Level up!]

  Mason sheathed his sword and collected himself after the fight before smiling. He realized that this was the first fight he's had in a while against a new enemy where he didn't almost die. He's making progress.

  He wasn't sure what to invest his free points into yet, and he only levelled once, so he decided to save it for later. Then he went back to the room with the monkeys in it. His new skill was helping out a lot already, it was much faster to navigate with his improved night vision.

  He walked over to where the monkeys had been fighting to see what they had been fighting over. He looked around and saw their was moss growing on the ground and part of the wall. Mason picked some of it up and inspeccted it.

  [Refreshing Moss: This moss is considered a delicacy among the Stone Fist Monkeys and they will fight over it. Increases stamina regeneration for 30 seconds when consumed.]

  While Mason wasn't exactly enthused by the idea of eating strange cave moss, he did want more stamina regen just in case. he grabbed some of it and shoved it inside one of the pocket of his backpack for safekeeping.

  Standing up, Mason continued onward. He found more marks from Stone Fist Monkeys in the tunnels. He must have been missing them before since he couldn't see as well without his [Dark Vision]. However, what he came upon next was not what he expected. there was a large stone double door built into the cave wall.

  Not seeing any other path forward, Mason shrugged and tried to shove open the doors, they didn't budge. He planted his feet on the ground, leaned into the stone doors and shoved with everything he could give. *Creeaaak* With a loud grating cry, the stone doors slowly slid open.

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  Looking up, Mason stopped and stared, mouth agape at the sigth in front of him. There were dozens of Stone Fist Monkeys in front of him all staring at him, some of them different variants than what he had seen before and clearly more powerful. He pulled out his sword and held it in fron of him nervously, sweat dripping down his brow.

  But the monkeys never attacked, they all just stared at him. Until, one monkey walked towards him, it was the biggest of the bunch with stone running up its whole right arm instead of just its fist.

  [Stone Arm of Grammach (Level 22)]

  Mason stared at the monkey as it slowly sauntered towards him, his sword still held in front of him. When it was about 5 feet away, it stopped and jerked its head towards the back of the cave then turned around and started walking. Not seeing much of a choice, Mason sheathed his sword and followed the monkey deeper into the cave.

  The area was much larger than he originally thought, there were multiple rooms where it looked like the monkeys slept. Though it looked like there were way more beds than monkeys. maybe most of them were out?

  After a few minutes of walking they arrived at a circle dug out in the ground surrounded by stones. On the other side of the circle was a throne, and on that throne sat the biggest Gorrila Mason had ever seen. It had to be at least as tall as Mason even when not standing up on just its legs. Each of its arms were as thick as Mason's torso, and its entire body was covered in stone.

  [Grammach Lord of Stone (Level 24) Boss]

  Mason stood there, looking at the boss when it did the last thing he thought it would do, it spoke to him.

  "What are you doing in my domain human? Did Mirstra send you here, what did she promise you for my head?" Grammach asked. His voice sounded heavy like a mountain, and you could hear the stone in his mouth grinding when he spoke.

  "Mirstra didn't send me, I dont know who that is to be honest." Mason said, even more nervous now facing down this giant beast.

  "So you come alone then? No matter, it will not change anything either way." As he said that Grammach climbed down from his throne and walked into the circle below. "You will face me in ritual combat to the death for breaking into my domain. If you win, none of my kin will attack you and you may leave, unlikely as that is. When I win, you will be food for my bretheren. Now come."

  The monkeys started howling around us. Mason had been so pre-occupied looking at Grammach that he hadn't even noticed they had surrounded him. He stepped into the ring and started trying to shake off his nerves while staring at the probably 800 pound gorilla made of stone standing in front of him. Yeah, it didn't really work.

  Grammach stared at Mason and let out a snort of derision. "We will take turns striking each other until one of us can no longer continue. You may have the first strike human, you will need it."

  Mason took a deep breath and drew his sword, he could feel the bonus from his Big Game Hunter title but in the face of this mosnter it didn't feel like enough. He walked up to Grammach, nervous from just being this close to him. He let out his breath and activated [Power Strike] and slicing down at Grammach's neck as hard as he could. *TINK* His blade bounced off, barely a scrath left on the surface of Grammach's stony skin.

  "Pathetic, I expected more from someone who killed two of my kin." Mason's eyes went wide as Grammach reared back his arm to hit him. [Inner Grit] *CRUNCH* Mason barely activated his skill before grammach's punch landed and he went flying into the opposite cave wall with a sickening crunch of bones being broken.

  Mason slid down into a heap on the floor, quivering and spat up blood and a few teeth onto the floor. Shit that fucking hurt. What can I do? How can I win against this guy? Standing up shakily, Mason made his way back to the circle trying to come up with some way out of this situation, but he couldn't think of anything.

  He leaned down and picked up his sword, left behind when he was sent flying. He lined up with Grammach again, this time aiming for his eye. [Power Strike] it didn't matter. His blow did even less damage this time since he had so much less power behind his strike.

  Grammach reared his fist back again and slammed it into Mason. He was sent flying again and crashed into the same spot as before. He took even more damage this time, he could feel his organs hurting, he felt like it would be easier to figure out which bones weren't broken at this point. But his gambit had paid off.

  He hadn't activated [Inner Grit] on this strike so he could use [Retribution] as a last ditch effort. He slowly walked over to Grammach and lined up with his neck one more time. he didn't trust himself to be able to hit his eye with how bad of shape he was in. He raised his sword up as high as he could and swung it down. [Retribution] [Power Strike]. He felt all of the power leave his muscles, this was it. His blade landed on Grammach's neck and... it broke. His sword broke in half as soon as it connected with Grammach's neck.

  Mason's stomach dropped, this was the end, that was his last chance. The last thing he saw before he passed out was Grammach staring down at him. Then everything faded into darkness.