Becoming a Monster

Chapter 40 What’s Wrong With Me?

Of course he went into the boys locker rooms, and he was already surprised to hear a few people in the showers, unless they were just as dirty as him, but he wasnʼt very fond of the discussion they were having.

”Do you think theyʼll get enough food for all of us?”

”What do you mean all of us? We came here first, itʼs first come first serve. They can go get their own food then.”

”Say, what if they donʼt come back then and keep it to themselves?”

”Ha! Why do you think I suggested for her friend to stay here? She definitely wouldnʼt leave her here to starve. And she thought we wanted her to stay so she could be protected. I swear, women are so gullible haha.”

The showers they were using were closed ones so they needed to talk loudly over the sound of running water to talk to the other. Because of this, they also didnʼt hear Noah come in, but the sound of Noah walking on the hard tile echoed in the room, causing them to quickly go silent.

”Hey, who just came in? Did you not hear that itʼs our turn? I swear itʼs like weʼre surrounded by idiots.”

But Noah wasnʼt going to bother with the voice. But after hearing their discussion, he decided that he would block off the door leading to the area heʼs staying in after cleaning himself. These people will definitely be a nuisance. He might have pitied the girl being used, but what does he get out of helping them? A clear conscience? He has already been made to feel guilty for being alive most of his life and that has gotten him nowhere.

And he couldnʼt forget about Isabelle, even though he saved her for what he considered an equivalent exchange. Look where that left him, his ʼgoodʼ deed didnt make him feel better about himself, he just felt used and stupid for letting himself be used. He kept himself to the closest shower stall, before turning on the water in hopes itʼll drown out their talking. But while he removed his clothing he realized the water had the opposite effect.

”DID YOU NOT HEAR ME? I SAID GET OUT ALREADY OR ARE YOU DEAF AS WELL AS STUPID?”

The voice rang clear as day. The noise was beginning to feel like tiny stabs to his brain. His body already felt drained from the constant fighting, not to mention the mental fatigue that has been accumulating since the start of it all. He found out that if he left his head under the running water then the voice wasnʼt as grating on his ears. ʼToo bad I didnʼt bring any soap, but I doubt it would solve the smell. I would need a couple washes before I no longer smell like blood, but it actually smells surprisingly good when I get used to it.

He tried to distract himself with random thoughts while the voice continued.

”Well thereʼs a lot of stalls here, it shouldnʼt be a big deal if one more person uses one right?” He heard someone trying to appease the hostile voice. But one thing Noah learned in his life is that thereʼs no reasoning with an emotional person, especially if that person believed they were privileged.

”ARE YOU KIDDING ME? IF YOU LET THEM DO WHAT THEY WANT THEN WHATʼS STOPPING THE OTHERS? YOU BASTARD! JUST WAIT TILL I GET OUT.”

ʼOk thatʼs it…ʼ Noah just about had it with this guyʼs constant yelling. He turned off the water before he quickly put on his new piece of gear with the addition of the chest piece he received earlier . He didnʼt have any extra clothing to wear anything under it, but it was surprisingly still comfortable. Yet he wasnʼt able to enjoy that feeling or determine the stats that were increased.

That voice was infuriating to listen to and he felt that he needed to do something about it or his head would explode.

Boom!*

He flung open the door, leaving his bloodied clothes while he headed over to the stalls where the voice was still ongoing.

”See? Just let them know their place and they become obedient. Donʼt let them walk over you an….wha-what? What are you doing in here? Robe-Robert….?

The guy wasnʼt prepared for someone to walk into his stall, let alone when he saw the pair of dark pupils in both his eyes. He has yet to even kill a zombie, which is probably why he treated everyone as if nothing has changed. Now that he felt threatened, his body was briefly paralyzed from fear while he attempted to call for help.

POW!* Noahʼs fist slammed against the manʼs chin, leaving him flying back into the wall. His back was the first part of his body to make contact with the wall. The impact knocked out any air left in his chest.For a short time, he couldnʼt move his body, but when he saw Noah approaching him with his arm cocked back, his body somehow found the energy to move.

”Arrghh! N-no st-stop! ROB-” POW!* this time, a fist connected to his mouth, breaking a few teeth and leaving him with a busted lip.

The guy was choking on his own teeth and saliva, but Noah left the guy no room to even breathe. After the first two quick swings to the manʼs decently handsome face. He quickened the tempo using his other fist after realizing how much relief he felt with each impact.

Unknowingly, his killing instinct skill activated on its own, but because the effect was so minuscule Noah didnʼt seem to realize it.

Swing after swing, Noah continued to rain down punches. Everytime the guyʼs body reacted then another blow followed until his body fully went limp.

”WH-WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHAT DID YOU DO?? Hel-help….SOMEBODY HELP! HEʼS KILLING HIM!!”

The shout awakened Noah from out of his trance. He looked down and finally witnessed what heʼs done. Blood constantly seeped out from every direction of the personʼs face. His nose was completely broken while he could clearly make out the bone poking out. The right eye socket was completely broken, leaving the visible hole in his face now that his eyeball was no longer being held in place, meanwhile his cheek bones were pulverized, making his face appear flatter than the damage Noah already caused. .

Honestly Noah couldnʼt realize how he couldʼve done this much damage in such a short time.. His eyes looked down towards his hands before he understood. He never took off the gloves and considering that the guy was still on level one, he was a walking glass cannon in Noahʼs eyes.

But Noah felt conflicted now, he wasnʼt horrified with himself for killing someone that didnʼt try to kill him. Honestly, he was a tad bit worried that he didnʼt care. What left him conflicted was the fact that he wasnʼt aware of what he was doing until now.

”Somethings definitely wrong with me. This isnʼt good…” he quickly got up and bolted to the door. Just as soon as he was closing the door to the locker room, he heard another door open with a bustling of noises following behind it.

When Noah barged into the room, Arachne and Grim, who were fast asleep after all they had been through were startled out of their sleep. The two both became vigilant, ready for another fight, but all they saw was Noah. They were curious of Noahʼs odd behavior, especially when he began to start shooting his webs, covering the entire door before not even the frame could be seen.

It appeared that the group that entered the showers needed some time to deal with the unexpected dead body before they tried to enter through the door, which gave him time to finish what he needed to do.

”Gu-guys! What the hell is it? I thought they said it was a human! Then what did this?”

”How would I know! Larry was the only one there and this wasnʼt here before, try touching it I guess…”

”He-help! Iʼm stuck! Somebody help me already!”

”Why did you touch it with your hands?”

”? You were the one who told me to!”

The chatter continued on the other side. However Noah was too mentally tired to care as he slumped on one of the mats to lay down. Seeing this, his two companions ignored the noise on the other side of his webs to join him. Grim laid on his belly while his chin was planted on the mat. Arachne didnʼt feel comfortable standing on the cushion material so she only sat near them, before folding her legs close to her to re-enter her slumber.

The current scene wouldʼve been a heartwarming moment for Noah. However his thoughts were still reflecting about earlier.

ʼSigh…Noah, what to do, what to do…At this rate I donʼt think itʼll be possible to be in the same room as people, but….did anything really change? I donʼt feel wrong about what I did, but I feel wrong that I donʼt feel wrong. Ugh! Life is easier when I can just kill things…ʼ Noah lamented over his complicated feelings.

He planned to fully figure out the way he felt about the situation since he needed to rest anyways, but an annoying sensation has been egging at the back of his mind since he met the recent trio. He decided to put his feelings on the back burners for now, the notifications were a good escape from having to deal with his emotions.

[Noah Level Up! +5 attribute points!]

[Noah Level Up! +5 attribute points]

[Arachne Level Up! +5 attribute points]

Receiving the good news lightened up his mood. Leveling up was expected, but he realized something was off moments later.

ʼWait a minute…I ended up leveling up twice? Hold on! thatʼs not right….unless the way we share experience is different from what I thought before. Do my creatures not share experience with each other at all or is it just with me? Tha-that means monster tamers are kinda broken no?ʼ Originally he chose being a tamer so he could have companions he could trust and maybe later in the future could treat as family.

Thinking the class was overpowered was nowhere on his mind when he chose it, but this new revelation surprised him. When the tamer doesnʼt have to share an equal amount of experience with his monsters then that makes them a leveling machine.

ʼWell I guess the downside is that my monsters will be lower leveled than me, hmmmm…but all I need to do is adjust the way the sharing works and I could help power level them too right? Oh man! I think I already found a bug! If I donʼt bring it up then god shouldnʼt patch it right? No…that would be admitting he messed up…I need to take advantage of this, but first thing first. He then proceeded to check his status.

[Player: Noah

Race:Human Chimera

Class: monster tamer

Gold: 195->748

Lvl: 5->7

Exp:267/400->751/1600

Health:90%->92%

Stamina:62%->26%

Mana: 4/24->3/28

Attributes

Defense: 25

Strength:14->18(19)+5

Agility:14->18(19)+7

Constitution:30->36(38)+10

Stamina:17->22(23)+5

Magic: 11->13(14)

Spirit:72->75(78)

Unassigned Points: 10

Skills

Active

Monster taming(lvl 0)progression:50%->75%

Killing instinct (lvl 0) progression:4.5%-4.8%

Undead Webbing(Lvl 0)0.7%

Passive

Rodelros(lvl 0) progression: .6%

Soul cage(lvl 0) progression: .76%

Stamina regeneration (lvl 0) progression:5.15%->5.9%

Immortal body (lvl 0) progression: 1.48%->1.76%

Genetic Synergy(lvl 0) progression:25%->50%

Taming proficiency(lvl 0)N/A

Insatiable Hunter(lvl 0): N/A

Spiders Alertness(Lvl 0)1.3%

Sensory Spines(Lvl 0): .9%

Titles

The Fallen, Subjugator]

ʼEverything is slowly coming along. But that experience jump is insane is it not? If it doubles every time then I will have to change to a new farming target. Just what else is out there and how much will these zombies grow? Will they somehow mutate into huge grotesque monsters? That just means I need to keep on grinding then.

But now that I have these new skills, maybe I donʼt have to continue building the way I have so far…the webs seem to have the best potential in terms of usage, but these eyes would do so much better if I had more agility. So far I can keep up with the zombies that are faster than me, but how much can I keep up with something as fast as Arachne?

Screw it! I already started building as a tank, I might as well work my way to get it to 50 to see what skill Iʼll obtain and then decide from there.ʼ

After deciding, he unhesitatingly spent his points, putting two points into his constitution and the other seven into magic. If his webs were strong enough that the current grim couldnʼt cut through them easily then he could prove to be a great support if they came upon an enemy that was harder to deal with. It would be his contingency plan in case they happened to come upon a difficult enemy during their farming.

After he finished allocating his stats he then waited….and waited some more, a bad premonition soon began to rise in his heart.

ʼWhereʼs my notification??ʼ He quickly checked his stats again.

[Attributes

Defense: 25

Strength:14->18(19)+5

Agility:14->18(19)+5

Constitution:30->38(40)+10

Stamina:17->22(23)+5

Magic: 11->20(21)

Spirit:72->74(78)]

ʼForty plus ten is definitely fifty! Donʼt cheat me…does equipment stats not apply then? Ugh stupid Noah! Just stupid! I keep comparing this to a game. But we can still make this work…my webs should at least be strong enough now that Grim shouldnʼt be able to cut through it at all if I supply enough mana. I may not even have to apply much anyway since magic increases my magic abilities…..but is it considered one?ʼ

Instead of putting himself into another cycle of questions, he went ahead to check Arachne status next.

[Player: Arachne

Race: Jumping Spider

Class: Arachnid

Lvl: 5->6

Exp:196/400->248/800

Health:63%

Stamina:19%

Mana: 4

Attributes

Strength:21->23(25)

Agility:38->42

Constitution:17>18

Stamina:21->22

Magic: 2

Spirit:25->26

Unassigned Points: 10

Skills

Active

Paralysis Venom(Lvl 0):progression-2.4%

Cursed Silk(Lvl 0):progression-1.7%

Passive

Spider Sense(Lvl 0)]:progression-3.7%]

Satisfied with how Arachneʼs stats were developing, he became curious to what ability she would obtain after reaching fifty points in her agility stat. With that thought in mind, he couldnʼt help but go through with it, as well as putting the rest of her stats in her stamina since it seems she used more stamina then all of them when she has to jump really far distances. As soon as he finished, it wasnʼt long before he received a notification.

———

A/N: Had to make sure I keep up with 5 chapters a week. For those who may have questions regarding the experience process because it was a big jump.

Noah receives 50% of what Arachne kills, 80% of what Grim kills and also 30% of what he himself kills.

So if the average walking zombie gives 5 experience and Noah kills it then he would only gain 1.5 out of it while 2.5 goes to Arachne and 1 goes to grim.

And if Arachne kills one then she would get 2.5 and Noah will receive 2.5 while Grim receives nothing from what she kills.

If Grim kills one then he would receive 1 exp while Noah would receive 4 and Arachne would receive nothing from what he kills.

It would take a lot of time to lay out all the numbers of what they killed individually and include the calculations in the story so just wanted to let everyone that Iʼm not just making up the experience gain, there is actually a process lol.