Chapter 42 Monkey King

Paul: " Really~ and who might you be."

The person that appeared in front of them was a man that looked around 18-20. He was 6ft (182.88 cm) tall and had a lean muscular build. His hair was orangish-gold and messy. He did not wear any upper body clothing and only had on a loose pants and was bare-foot. He also had a light scar that ran across his forehead.

???: " I am Wukong."

When Paul heard of this, Paul was thinking, 'seriously? Wukong? He had to recruit this guy no matter what."

Paul: " Wukong huh, if the fighting here is done, can't you tell us a little bit more about this island?"

Wukong: " I have noticed your arrival since you and your people have come here. Since you didn't cause any harm to my people then, I will allow you guys entry to our village."

Paul: "You will allow us? Are you the king or something?"

Wukong: " Yes I am actually. The name Wukong is given to the person/monkey that becomes the strongest on the island and becomes King of the island."

Paul: " Interesting. What was your name before you became king then? "

Wukong put a solemn face on and said, " I can tell you guys later. I also have a favor to ask you."

Walking with Wukong, the group walked deeper and deeper into the forest. Soon the group walked into a large area that was filled with large and thick trees.

Wukong turned around and said, " we're here."

Everybody then looked at him with a curious expression. Seeing their expression, Wukong smiled and pointed up. There, the crew was amazed at what they saw. If they were still kids then they would've been really amazed and excited. It's almost every kids dream to have a tree house as kids like to have some sort of secret hide out. There were several well made structures that looked like tree houses made with trees and branches. There was several thick and strong vines hanging down from the tree top and old bridges that came across a the area that connected a few tree house to another.

Wukong then grabbed a large vine and started climbing up the vine. Following behind, Paul, Vlad, and Daz also grabbed a vine and started climbing too, while Sera and Robin flew and followed along. Paul did not want to fly because he had always wanted to climb a large and towering tree like this. In his past life, he was amazed at how Tarzan the Disney character was able to climb and swing on the vines and had always wanted to try that out too. He was surprised when Daz and Vlad started climbing with him instead of flying too and immediately thought that they had also had a similar dream of doing this when they were little kids.

However, what made them even more curious during this climb and reaching the top was that there were no humans at all. All they saw were monkeys. Entering a large hut, Wukong sat at the main seat and then looked at the group knowing that they would have some questions.

Robin: " Wukong-san I noticed that there are no humans here. Are you the only human on this island?"

Wukong face grew slightly sad and then turned angry and clenched his fist. " That's- That's a long story."

Wukong then began his story of how he reached to this point.

Wukong was once a part of a low-class noble family. 10 years ago, he was traveling with his family to another island to meet some of his father's friends and perhaps arrange a marriage when the time of age came for him. However during their travels, they ran into a celestial dragon that had gotten lost while out at sea. Being part of a noble family and being part of the World Government, it was their duty to help the celestial dragons. Therefore, they took the person with them on the trip and continued on their way. However, after the celestial dragon's previous group reunited with him, instead of rewarding their family, he turned his back on them and ordered for them to be destroyed. The family did not know the coveting eyes that the celestial dragon had for his mother at the time and he destroyed his family and captured her and took her as a slave. His father tried his best to save her but, the other party was too strong for them to handle. His father told him to escape and find a way to rescue his mother another time and try and survive for now until he was ready. His father then continued to fight and buy time for him to escape. During his escape however, as a 10-year old boy, he did not know how to navigate a sail boat nor was strong enough. When a storm came passed, it wrecked his ship and landed him on this island.

From then on, he made it his goal to train and get stronger. Once he gets strong enough he will try to go back out and find that celestial dragon again and then rescue his mother. However, he didn't know how to fight well. It wasn't until he met the monkeys that he learned how to fight. However, the monkeys only knew how to fight and nothing else. He couldn't understand them at all. So his relationship with the monkeys was nothing good. It wasn't until he fought them one on one for the next coming years. He learned their habits and martial arts. Until finally, eight years in did he beat the strongest monkey on the island and was crowned king. Since he believe that he is now strong, he wants to sail out to sea again but still don't know how.

Sera: " But surely, there must've been others who came before us."

Wukong nodded as he said, " Yes there have been some pirates that came on this island. However, they were not like you guys. They were barbaric and weak. The first thing that they did when they saw the monkeys was trying their best to kill them instead of sparring like you guys. I don't know how strong you guys are but I just have a gut feeling that I can't win against you guys and you guys seemed pretty decent as people as you have healed your animals that fought against and lost the match against my apes."

Paul: " I see. I understand your situation. I also understand a little of your personality based on what happened earlier and the fact that you didn't just attack us with every one of your subordinates. We will rest for tonight first and then I'll see whether or not you are qualified to travel with us. After all, a person who wants to fight against a celestial dragon, must be prepared for the forces behind them."

Wukong clenched his fist in anticipation and nodded his head, " Alright."

The crew then walked off and headed into an empty hut that the monkeys had shown them.

Sera: " Paul, are we really gonna recruit him just like that? What if he lied about his story and set us up for a trap."

Paul: " Hmm according to my intuition... I believe that we can trust him. Let's test his strength tomorrow."