Becoming a Monster

Chapter 294: Chapter 294: Learning to Be Useful

The chest’s unique appearance no longer interested Noah’s creatures. Each of them was in complete unison as they ignored Noah’s intense focus. Only Kratos seemed to be the most interested in Noah’s actions.

Although once human, Kratos was just like Fenrir, a creature that was reborn with a new consciousness, and had little to no knowledge of the world outside of killing and consuming. His body was tense as it took in the heavy atmosphere that was surrounding Noah.

His body was tense, his tail poised, ready to attack the chest that made Noah stare so intensely.

Noah was oblivious to his new companions’ antics, if he would’ve noticed he would’ve been heavily reminded of Grim.

But while Noah was finally ready to open the chest, he first noticed movement in large waves that disrupted his earlier focus. The others must have finally calmed down after recovery from their earlier fear.

Instinctively, Noah only gave a brief glance because of the movement. His trust in his companions was absolute, unbothered by what the people who feared him would do. From what he could tell from the earlier battle, humans were officially on the bottom of the hierarchy in this newly formatted animal kingdom.

Under Mark’s lead, everyone began to spread out to the available chests. There was still disorder, but this time no one overextended their reach when others sought the higher value chest for themselves.

All those who still stayed by Mark’s side during the life and death defensive siege and after witnessing just a glimpse of Noah’s strength; those people weren’t those who would jeopardize the safety of others from sheer greed.

Because of this, Mark left the role as the distributor to the person whose popularity was as influential as his own, maybe even more.

Isabelle’s contrast from a cold, mentally strong woman and a saint that helped cure many from their infections, not only just from this battle but since the time they have established their presence on the base.

She had easily earned the admiration and the trust of nearly everyone.

As the person who didn’t directly have to fight, yet having to maintain awareness of everyone’s situation. Making sure to anticipate who would need healing, assessing and prioritizing injuries within seconds.

Isabelle was able to differentiate many of those who contributed the most in the fights and determine which out of those people were able to loot from the higher quality chest.

Her decisions were met with almost no resistance. Those who doubted her and wanted to voice out their indignation faltered when having to remind themselves that Isabelle not only healed them but even cured most of them from turning into zombies.

What helped the division of chests was also due to the fact that there were chests that were unaccounted for. Chest that originally dropped from those who had perished. So even if someone was left with a lesser quality chest, they were able to make up for it with quantity.

”Kratos, leave them alone.” Noah had to stop what he was doing when Kratos was unable to hide his bloodlust. Noah stopped him just in time before Kratos caused a scene.

However, Kratos was left completely confused as to why Noah stopped him. He recalled how Fenrir protected this very chest from the others before and witnessed the passion Noah had towards it. Kratos was under the impression that all of the chest lying around behind to Noah, or at least Noah had laid claim over them all.

”Kratos, at the end of the day we’re monsters, but we aren’t savages. We take from our enemies, and we claim what’s rightfully ours. Just as when you didn’t want Fenrir to take your prey, we also won’t claim other trophies.”

Once Noah finished speaking, he lifted the chest open to reveal the shiny contents within. The imperceptible glint of greed reflected in the corner of his eye as he spotted the coins the chest contained that was even more than when he obtained the obsidian chest. That was the key difference when killing multiple zombies compared to simply killing powerful zombies. Often, the powerful zombie would reward someone with higher tier loot, but multiple zombies had the possibility of rewarding them with a larger percentage of gold.

Kratos continued to watch silently. He understood what Noah had said but couldn’t grasp the meaning. Why weren’t all the chests theirs in the first place? He felt that he was missing something important.

To the side, he glanced over to someone that could possibly help.

”Yo-you.” A rough, almost demon-like voice came out of his mouth, a voice that was horace and uncertain from disuse.

Arachne, who was standing over the corpse of one of the regular evolved zombies that was left untouched by Ailetta, stopped in the process of removing a core with practiced movement.

Her eyes narrowed, wondering why the new recruit was addressing her, her legs twitching after thinking that Kratos was choosing this time to challenge her.

Kratos wanted to ask her why the chest was not theirs because he noticed that even Fenrir didn’t bother to guard any of the chests. In fact, the beast was no longer a beast, but his appearance was strangely similar to the humans while he was gathered alongside Arachne, aiding her in retrieving the cores.

He was hoping that the others would have an answer that he could understand, however, his curiosity was instead directed towards their actions.

”What?” Arachne straightened slowly, her tone impatiently, yet defensive when Kratos still didn’t direct his question. Her body was slightly getting into position, ready to strike if provoked.

She looked over to see that Fenrir never once stopped to listen into their conversation. He simply hovered over a corpse, slamming his clutched palm into the creature’s chest, retrieving another core that was soon tossed into his own little pile that was slowly becoming bigger than her own.

”Why?” Kratos finally voiced his question, but his question now was filled with knowing, why were they taking the cores without eating them? But Arachne couldn’t understand such a vague question. Noah’s creatures weren’t able to sense the feelings and instinctual understandings like he could with them.

”Why? Why what?” her expression tightening with irritation building with every core Fenrir was gathering during their conversation. Her annoyance was gathering, quickly amassing into a threat of an aura of violence that Kratos quickly reacted to.

Once again, he couldn’t understand, but what he did understand was that Arachne wanted to fight. And he didn’t care about the reason, as long as it was a fight he would gladly welcome it.

”Now, now, Arachne. I guess patience is the next virtue we will have to work on.”

Kratos was still prepared for battle, the new voice meant nothing, but when Arachne’s aggressive aura completely disappeared and she turned away from him, his lust for a fight died with it.

He looked over to see the slime creature standing walking towards him before stopping in the middle of both of them. The weird creature that always maintained its position by her side was silently following her, its eyes still remained closed besides the lonesome eye that obediently followed her.

”If you keep this up, then you’ll continue to be treated like a little princess instead of being taken seriously.”

Arachne clicked her tongue softly, annoyed not at Kratos anymore, but at herself. She backed off without another word, returning to her pile of cores, but sneakily she glanced towards Noah to see if he noticed her behavior.

”Hmm, I’ll take that as progress,” Ailetta smiled to herself. Her sights then traced towards Kratos who was patiently waiting.

”You wanted to know why they are collecting the cores, didn’t you?” She asked with a smile that showed that she already knew.

Kratos’ eyes glinted after finally being properly understood. The glowing veins around him brightened. He grunted, giving a small nod.

”Why not eat?”

His question made the smile on Ailetta’s body grow even wider. Kratos couldn’t pinpoint it, but he felt uncomfortable under her gaze. It was almost as if she saw him as a child.

”You just haven’t experienced it yet.” As she spoke a tendril emerged from her body to stretch towards a nearby corpse to retrieve a core.

”You see this simply as a way to grow stronger, but in Noah’s hands, he can make these into something so much more.”

”I see that you won’t fully understand until you experience it yourself. If you want a simple answer then they are making themselves useful to Noah....More useful than someone who’s just standing around doing nothing.”

As she walked away Kratos didn’t catch the mischievous smile that was eerily playful in nature. His gaze snapped towards Fenrir and Arachne, noticing the piles next to them quickly growing higher.

He then looked towards the corpses still untouched on the ground, then back to Noah whose upper half vanished inside the chest. He still didn’t understand but something inside him stirred. He didn’t understand why, but he wanted Noah to see him as useful too.

Slowly he made his way towards a corpse nearby, glancing towards the others to make sure they didn’t lay claim over it.

Boom! His hand completely destroyed the zombie’s chest and the ground under it.

All the while, Ailetta stood by Eve messing with her hair while looking at the scene with amusement.