Becoming a Monster

Chapter 109: Chapter 109: The First Abomination

”Noah? Noah??”

Ailetta’s voice pulled Noah from his reverie. He turned to see her approaching with a questioning expression.

”Noah, I was able to get these items from my chest... After everything you’ve done for me, I thought I should give them to you.”

She took out the items and placed them near him. Noah was surprised, especially when he saw the orb and the upgrade stone. When he had received his orb, he hadn’t hesitated to use it, increasing his magic by 25. Despite considering himself strong, he had called Ailetta weak. Yet, even after that, she hadn’t used the items to strengthen herself.

Though he hesitated, Noah reached down and used the orb to increase his strength. As he picked up the upgrade stone, he glanced back at Ailetta.

”Are you sure about this? Are there any skills that you have that are close to leveling up?” he asked, unable to ignore his concern. Considering the orb, it felt more like she was repaying him. However, the upgrade stone held significantly more value than he suspected she knew.

Hearing his question, Ailetta blankly stared into space as she checked her stats before addressing him.

”No...” She looked down embarrassingly, realizing her progression was lackluster compared to his.

Noah had momentarily forgotten that his skills had advanced significantly due to the mana cores. The idea of his new skill flickered through his mind, but he quickly pushed it aside. He understood that forging a bond with her could drastically enhance her strength. She would not only receive attribute buffs but also gain access to one of his skills and utilize his cores without needing those specifically designed for humans.

However, the risk was too great for Noah to gamble on. He recalled the danger he faced after Grim’s demise. He desired any creature he tamed to be strong in their own right, serving not only as an asset to him but also capable of protecting themselves. Had Noah not assumed that her sole motivation for growing stronger was saving her friends, he might have considered it further.

”Fine, I’ll accept it for now. We’ll acquire more as we continue to fight. In the meantime, use this; it will benefit you more than that rod you’ve been carrying.” A staff materialized from his ring, and he handed it to her.

She was uncertain about this gesture; a staff wasn’t something she found particularly useful. Yet, the uncertainty dissolved once she held it in her hands. Something within her shifted, and she felt more at ease in her body than before. Checking her stats, she noticed that the staff increased her spirit by 30 points.

”Don’t worry about thanking me; it’s something I wasn’t going to use, and this stone is worth more than that staff,” Noah interjected, cutting her off before she could become sentimental.

His remark brought a wry smile to her face, and subconsciously, she averted her eyes at the somewhat depreciating comment.

That’s when she noticed Noah’s creatures suspiciously interacting with the corpses.

”Noah? What are they doing?”

Noah turned around, observing his creatures’ actions with curiosity. While he initially wasn’t sure what they were up to, Fenrir’s advanced hearing picked up their conversation, eliminating the need for speculation.

”Arachne said to retrieve the snacks!” Fenrir exclaimed excitedly. Even as he spoke, he delicately pried the hearts out with one claw, contrasting with Arachne’s method of thrusting her hand into their chests and ripping out their hearts. It seemed their roles had reversed now that Arachne had acquired hands.

”They’re retrieving the cores that I mentioned earlier,” Noah explained, trying to suppress a half-amused smile. Ailetta’s expression shifted as she noticed his smile. She enjoyed seeing him happy, but she couldn’t help feeling a twinge of disappointment that she couldn’t evoke the same smile from him. Her gaze soon wandered toward some of the bodies she had dispatched. The temptation to consume the cores to accelerate her growth emerged in her mind.

”Don’t even think about it, unless you want to end up like them,” Noah warned, noticing her interest in the bodies.

”If I weren’t what I am now, I wouldn’t be able to absorb those cores either. Unless you have a way to avoid infection, you should get rid of any thoughts of consuming them.” Noah attempted to quash her concerning thoughts before they took root. Even after his warning, he wasn’t certain if he had gotten through to her, so he decided to change the subject.

”Sigh, forget about it. In the case of the scroll, I’ll hold onto it for now. It’s a warrior’s skill meant for spears. None of us can use this, but maybe we can find someone we can trade it with later” He said, while placing the scroll within his ring.

Scanning the surroundings, Noah analyzed the scene, confirming that there was nothing else demanding his attention at the moment. There was a growing anticipation within him to further enhance his strength as he delved into his new notifications.

[Level up! +10 attribute points!]

[Player: Noah

Race:Human? Chimera

Class: Monster Evolutionist

Gold: 3751->6923

Lvl: 10->11

Exp:3865/12800->780/25,600

Health

:100%
Stamina:94%->99%

Mana: 320/320-> 240/380

Attributes

Defense: 40>80

Strength:53>80(88)

Agility:75>88(97) +7

Constitution:159>162(178)

Stamina:103(113)

Magic: 145>173(190)

Spirit: 160>164(221) +25

Skills

Active

Blood pact(lvl 0)progression:100%

Bloodline Extraction(lvl 0)progression:0%

Blood Essence(lvl 0)progression:0%->.074%

Grant Lesser Strength(Lvl 0):0%->.3%

Grant lesser Magic(Lvl 0):0%

Rulers Fury (lvl1) progression:8.4%

Infectious Leader(Lvl 0) progression: 0%

Eternal Vassal(Lvl 0) progression: 0%

Monarchs Armory(Lvl 0) progression: .02%

Dominion Webs(Lvl 0)7.1%

Elusive(Lvl 0)progression:0%->.9%

Manabolt(Lvl 0)progression:.8%

Passive

Genetic Synergy(lvl 0) progression:50%

Rodeleros(lvl 0) progression: .6%

Meditative Temple(lvl 0) progression: .76%

Guiding Pathways(lvl 0)N/A

Undying Vigor (lvl 0) progression:100%

DeathLord’s Domain (lvl 1) progression: 10.9%->

Sovereign Devourer (lvl 0) progression: 100%

Muscle Tempering(Lvl 0):N/A

Tendon tempering(Lvl 0):N/A

Bone Tempering(Lvl 1):N/A

Organ Tempering(Lvl 1):N/A

Imparted Linguist(lvl 2):N/A

Efficient Tamer(lvl 2)N/A

Monarchs Vigilance(Lvl 0)16.7%->17.1%

Sensory Sentience(Lvl 0): 14.3%->14.6%

Mana regeneration(Lvl 0):1.9%->2.4

Titles

The Fallen, Subjugator, Insatiable Hunter]

Despite his desire to specialize in a few attributes, Noah felt an urgent need to allocate the rest of his unassigned points to agility. Every attribute was important, but when he could barely keep up with Arachne’s speed, what would happen if he faced something as fast or even faster? His abilities wouldn’t be enough to compensate. With the skills he possessed, he should at least be able to react to the threat, but could his body truly keep up with his reaction time? Noah doubted it, and he wasn’t arrogant enough to believe that his sensory abilities alone would suffice.

After distributing his stats, Noah remained rooted in place, retrieving two stones from his ring in preparation to upgrade two of his skills, reserving the last stone for insurance.

”I haven’t encountered a creature yet, but there’s no way I’m not upgrading Blood Pact. But what other skill should I enhance?”

He reviewed his skills eligible for an upgrade, his brows furrowing in deep contemplation. He hadn’t given much thought to when he gained his new traits, especially when deciding to relinquish his zombie lord trait for Fenrir’s. Not only had he lost the associated skills, but now the skill he had leveled up was officially gone, wasting an upgrade stone!

With deep, forceful breaths, Noah struggled to maintain a sense of calm before losing sight of what truly mattered. Reminding himself that his newly acquired skills were significantly better and more suited to him, he attempted to quell his frustration. Though he had wasted a stone, he now retained three, effectively taking one step back to advance three steps forward.

Trying to maintain a positive outlook on his situation, Noah returned to selecting his next skill, noticing that his options were fewer than anticipated. Even then, the skills eligible for upgrade were ones that wouldn’t have a significant impact on his development, at least compared to his other skills still at level 0.

”[Blood Pact increased to level 1! You can now form a bond with an additional creature!]”

After careful consideration, Noah decided to upgrade only his Blood Pact skill, gaining the ability to bond with an additional creature. He set his sights on upgrading his newly acquired skills from his mutated traits in the future. With the cores he had obtained from his recent battle, he was confident that all of his zombie skills would reach at least 100%. Noah’s optimistic thinking lifted his mood momentarily, until he glanced over his newly advanced skill.

”I can only get one? But I started off with two! This will only make it harder for me to choose my next creature now...” Noah lamented to himself.

His renewed expectations were dashed once again, leaving him relieved that he hadn’t tamed Ailetta when she asked. Otherwise, he would have felt truly wronged by the God who created the system. His path to obtaining absolute strength would have been much smoother if he could have acquired two more creatures on the same level as his previous two.

Resigned, Noah sighed before returning the unused upgrade stone to his ring. Seeking to channel his depressed feelings into something that could ease his discomfort, his gaze shifted towards the supposed abomination that Fenrir had Frankensteined into existence.

Just the initial assessment was enough to achieve his goal.

”Holy moly... no wonder the skill calls them abominations...”

The transformation was complete, and what lay before Noah was a nightmarish abomination that bore a twisted resemblance to Fenrir’s were-beast form, yet it was far more grotesque and horrifying in its lifeless state.

Covered in patches of coarse matted fur that seemed to move with the slight breeze, creating an eerie semblance of life. Its limbs dangled on its sides, elongated and distorted, ending in massive, gnarled claws.

The abomination’s skin, slightly visible from the patches of fur, was a sickly, mottled gray, corrupted with pulsating veins that glowed faintly with an eerie, dark purple hue. These veins seemed to pulse with a life of their own.

Its face was a grotesque imitation of Fenrir’s. The maw was filled with jagged, uneven teeth that jutted out at odd angles, each one looked unnaturally sharp. The eyes were dark orbs of a deep purple pool, the lack of pupils gave the creature a more haunting impression.

Spines and bony protrusions jutted out along its back, each one tipped with a dark, venomous ooze that dripped onto the ground, sizzling upon contact. The stench of decay and corruption clung to it, a nauseating miasma that made it almost difficult to breathe.

As it lay there, a guttural, unearthly sound seemed to echo from deep within its chest, though no breath moved through its body.

If Fenrir was a freak of nature, Noah could only consider the abomination as a perversion of natural order.

As he scrutinized the beast, each new layer of detail only served to amplify the deep sense of awe he held for it. However, his admiration for the abomination caused him to overlook a glaring observation.

”Is that? No....that can’t be...” Noah slowly edged closer to the beast, his secondary eyes instinctively opening, showing just how viliginat Noah currently was.

Unlike Fenrir, Arachne was always attuned to Noah, especially to his surface-level feelings that she could sense through their bond ever since she began to feel emotions of her own.

Becoming just as attentive, Arachne hyper fixated on the direction Noah was heading in, instantly locking on to the movement on the corpse that she was the one to put down. A mixture of surprise and uncertainty rose in her heart. Doubt surfaced as she wondered if the prey she put down was the same one she was witnessing now. She vividly remembered puncturing the prey’s brain, its body went limp just like all the others. There was never a time that her ”technique” failed her, and yet she could sense ”life” pulsing through the supposed corpse.

Each step Noah took only solidified his disbelieving assumption: the abomination was alive.

His stern gaze narrowed as he analyzed the creature. The puncture wound in the center of its head was easy to locate. However, now that he hovered over the beast, he noticed more than just visible pulsations; the creature was actually breathing.

”What in the world...” Noah breathlessly muttered, trying to make sense of the reality before him. A notion began to take shape in his mind, growing more surreal the more he considered it. He needed to verify his thoughts. Moving dangerously close to the beast’s face, he further inspected its wound. Now that he was directly over it, looking through the supposed pierced wound, he noticed a pinkish substance squirming within.

”This fucker... is it regenerating its brain?” Noah gasped in disbelief, taking a step back to process everything. By this time, Arachne had moved past him, making her way towards the ”corpse,” but for a different reason than Noah.

Splurt*

A disgusting squelch interrupted Noah’s thoughts. He looked up to find Arachne standing over the beast, attentively examining her leg and then the creature before nodding to herself. When she noticed Noah’s dumbstruck gaze, she tilted her head, seemingly unsure if she had done something wrong. She glanced again at her leg, now coated in the beast’s brain juices, and abruptly stabbed it through the creature’s brain for good measure.

”It’s dead,” she nodded to herself reassuringly, though the intensity of her stare at the beast’s chest suggested otherwise.

Noah was still in shock at what he had just witnessed. His eyes darted between Arachne and the beast. He couldn’t comprehend how Arachne didn’t ask questions or try to understand the bizarre scene. She had unhesitatingly ”killed” something she supposedly already killed and now acted as if this wasn’t the second time she had to do so.

He wanted to say something, but the words failed him as he noticed a slight movement. The same pulsating as before, though far less exaggerated.

It seemed he wasn’t the only one to notice. Arachne, who had been obsessively eyeing the corpse, picked up on its movements first. A series of stabs quickly found their way into the beast’s body. Each stab was wild and undirected, driven by Arachne’s heightened emotions and the humiliation the corpse had inflicted upon her. The fact that she couldn’t permanently put it down, especially after Noah had directed her to, made her feel unworthy; even more so when she still failed to kill the insufferable creature in Noah’s presence.

Each jab with her lethal legs caused the body to jolt violently, making it seem as if it were having a seizure.

The aggressive scene soon caused enough disruption to gather the attention of the others. The only one confident enough to approach was Ailetta.

”Noah, what’s going on?” she inquired worriedly, confusion and the unknown mixing into fear as she looked at the abomination.

”It’s....complicated..” Noah replied with uncertainty of his own. Narrowing his gaze now that Arachne was done with her charade.

Seconds passed with no one moving, Arachne and Noah remained rooted, holding their breaths in suspense. However, soon, the abomination showed signs of recovery.