Becoming a Monster

Chapter 229: Chapter 229: Terms and Promises

Noah’s lack of excitement when announcing the tree’s introduction created an awkward atmosphere. No one knew how they should respond, but all eyes were quickly directed to the supposed new member. The tree didn’t understand embarrassment, however it felt at a loss as it perceived their stares and yet it was unable to communicate with them, not everyone could feel its intentions like Noah has.

Even the natives of the forest were unable to communicate with it even on the most basic level. The only reason its past host, the spider, was able to communicate with it was because it had already consumed the fruit, allowing the two’s consciousness to link. Without such a bond, the tree found itself isolated from the group.

A faint stirring from Fenrir broke the tree’s concentration. The wolf was still sniffing around its base, pawing at its roots in an almost playful manner.

”You’re weird,” Fenrir declared, his head tilting to one side. ”Why don’t you talk? Everything that joins the pack talks.”

”Dummy...” Arachne hissed behind him, the moment she spoke, Fenrir’s ears instantly perked up, and his head snapping in her direction with such an intensity, one would believe that he was about to attack.

”You can’t call me that, ’He’s’ Dummy now!” Fenrir directed its snout towards his follower, who had finally crawled its way to Fenrir’s leftovers. Its strength had yet to come back as it struggled to nudge its body on its side so it could eat.

’What should I do?’ The tree thought to itself. Having always been an observer, it had never had to interact with anyone before. The relationship it had with the spider was just as strained, distant at best. The two had set their terms where they respected each other’s existence and stayed out of each other’s way.

As far as the tree could recall, it has never grown lonely, nor had the desire to socialize despite its curiosity to the life it constantly observed. But now, there was a greater sense of purpose besides just growing. The tree was unsure what that purpose was, but it felt a connection to not only Noah, but also the other creatures that held a special bond to him.

It attempted to extend its consciousness, hoping to convey its thoughts in the same way it had once done with the spider. But to its frustration, there was no response.

However, there was still one person who was now able to understand it completely. Yet even with Noah, the tree felt a sense of imbalance; he gave it purpose but no clarity. What they had was a bond without structure. To the tree, this was unnatural. It needed terms to go by, rules to establish the boundaries of their relationship and the tradeoff that would be established for their bond.

The tree hesitated before reaching out to him, not physically, but with its consciousness, a tentative brush of thought against Noah’s mind to understand its role.

Noah, who had been focused on the others, suddenly paused. His head tilted slightly, he then redirected his attention for the confused faces and looked towards the tree.

’What do I want from you?’ For a brief moment, Noah said nothing, his thoughts churning as he considered the tree’s question.

For a moment, Noah was unsure how to answer. The tree was undeniably a valuable asset, but was that all it was? A tool? A means to an end? That thought didn’t sit well with him, but he couldn’t ignore the practical truth either.

He crossed his arms, his gaze narrowing slightly. ”What do I want from you?” he repeated aloud, his voice was soft as he mused to himself in deep contemplation.

The others fell silent, their attention drawn to Noah. They didn’t fully understand what was happening, but the intensity in his demeanor made them hesitate to interrupt.

”I want you to help me reach my goal, my goal is simple, to grow stronger to keep what’s mine.” His eyes softened as he continued. ”But this bond we now share isn’t one sided...now that you are with us, it’s not just about what I want. Our bond is different from the one you had, you’re not a tool to be used and discarded.” He stepped closer, his voice was firm but the tree could sense his kindness layered in it. ”So tell me, what do you want?”

The tree faltered at the unexpected question. It had never truly thought about such a thing until now. Its every decision, every action, every thought seemed to be ingrained into it that now that it thought about it, its goal didn’t feel like its own. For a moment, it didn’t know how to respond, the harder it tried to ponder about its actions up until now, its goal for bonding with the spider, its goal for creating another fruit in the attempt to gain another ”host”, a weird sensation seemed to stump its thoughts at every turn.

”I...” The tree hesitated. It wanted to say it desired growth, to do what it’s always done, absorbing the life around it to promote its growth even faster. It didn’t understand why it was in such a hurry to grow, and the moment it was about to voice its answer, the answer to Noah’s question clicked.

”I want to understand what I am. I want a purpose besides growing.”

Noah’s gaze remained steady, placing a hand to rest on the tree’s stump. ”Then that’s your first step,” he said firmly. ”To discover who you are and what you want beyond survival. But! You are misunderstanding. Growing isn’t wrong, wanting power isn’t wrong either. You’ll have to survive so you can have the time to explore who you are. You’ll have to have power to protect your freedom, and I will help you with both.”

The tree pulled faintly as it absorbed Noah’s words. Its consciousness stirring with a sensation it couldn’t quite identify.

Survival...power...freedom, the tree repeated in its mind, as if to ensure what it heard wasn’t its imagination. It didn’t understand how Noah would grant it all of those things. Despite his words deeply resonating with it, they also seemed distant. It wanted to ask how. But then its senses were struck by a heavenly sensation. A power, no, a scent was beckoning to it.

The tree wasn’t alone. A powerful surge of mana that spread throughout half of the forest, mana that carried with it a scent more alluring than the tree’s fruit. If the fruit offered them power, then the mana their senses picked up guaranteed them evolution. No matter how many times his creatures were affected by the sensation, they still were unable to curb the desires created from the seenstation. However, because the skill Noah was using was no longer able to be used on them, the intensity of the effect was lessened.

The snake on the other hand, found itself hungrily staring down Noah’s figure. If it could, if the webs weren’t preventing it from opening its mouth, it would’ve swallowed Noah right then and there. Its thoughts no longer entertain the tree’s fruit.

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The tree hurriedly searched for the cause. Scrutinizing Noah with just one glance, its ”vision” centered on a drop of blood that built up from a self-inflicted wound. This...this is how? The tree thought, overwhelmed by the sensation. What the tree, and what any other living being wouldn’t know is that Noah’s droplet of blood contained a skill that will not only share the skill with them, but will have the probability of promoting a change within them to accommodate the skill.

Although Noah had a plethora of skills to choose from, there weren’t many that would fit the tree’s circumstances. Out of all of his abilities, there were three that he felt were the most appropriate while keeping the tree’s unique trait in mind. One was his ’dominion devourer’ abilities, an ability where it would further aid in the tree to gain more energy from what it absorbed. Unlike other creatures, the tree’s limited mana wasn’t exactly limited. It held the ability to exceed its mana reservoirs, but the feat wasn’t done so passively, the exceeding mana could only be accumulated by the absorption of both mana and life essence of other beings.

The mana needed for just one fruit amounted to a staggering five thousand mana, a feat that made Noah wonder just how many beings did the tree absorb when he recalled that this should be the second time it had created a fruit.

The second ability he had in mind was his ’Essence core’ skill, a skill that he felt the tree would better utilize in his stead. Along with its fruit, the tree would be able to use what it absorbs to create countless cores overtime that could be used to provide countless boost to their power.

Noah’s eyes glinted with purpose as he considered the tree’s potential. Both skills would be useful, however there was still one that he felt was still a cut above the others.

”This will mark the start of my promise to you,” Noah announced, as he took a small step forward, his slime hand that now held the droplet of oozing power was brought to the tree’s truck, placing the droplet against one of the tree’s veins, where the droplet was absorbed the moment it made contact.