Becoming a Monster

Chapter 425: Chapter 425: Too Far, Too Late

The goblin leader froze the moment the shaman drove the blade into its own chest.

It wasn’t the suicide that stunned it, shamans had always been capable of such madness when cornered. It was how quickly the shaman had decided to use that ability.

The Last-breath Hex.

A shiver rippled down the leader’s spine. It could already sense that Noah was powerful, far beyond the monsters it had fought before, even stronger than the drake, the strongest monster in the forest. But for a shaman to resort to this so soon...

Shamans were feared for many reasons, but this was the reason they were respected even by stronger tribes. Humans, trolls, and lizardmen, creatures who scoffed at goblins, would still grow cautious when a shaman stepped forward with that dagger in hand.

Only the drake showed little concern. Its mana coat was too potent. A single shaman’s curse could barely breach its instinctive mana barrier. It would take a full sacrificial circle, nearly five shamans sacrificing themselves to overwhelm the drake’s natural defenses. And no tribe would ever allow such a loss unless the stakes exceeded survival.

Shamans were more than spellcasters; they were the tribe’s healers, poison-brewers, threat assessors, and strategists.

Losing one was already a heavy loss. Losing several would be devastating to the safety of their tribe. They could help grow another hobgoblin, but shamans relied on luck and natural talent to become one. Out of hundreds of goblins, only one would be lucky to become one.

Which is why the leader’s heart clenched in its chest. The shaman shouldn’t have used the curse yet. Not when the battle hadn’t even truly begun. And especially when the leader of all of them had yet to make a move. Did that mean that the shaman had already determined that it wasn’t strong enough?

Yet... as black energy erupted from the shaman’s mouth and lunged toward Noah, the leader couldn’t continue to lie to itself.

It turned its gaze to the slime pool. Nearly twenty goblins were gone in an instant.

Devoured. Only the sound of their cries echoing in their minds was the only sign that they had existed. Not a speck of blood was left.

The leader’s stomach twisted in anger. But as it instinctively glared at the monster who had done this, its thoughts were filled with hesitation.

And now, watching the curse, the shaman’s soul streaked toward Noah, the leader’s shock morphed into bitter regret.

It should have ordered the curse earlier. Before they wasted soldiers. Before their confidence was shattered.

But now there was nothing left to do but watch...

...and hope the curse worked.

The other goblins watched anxiously while the cursed soul closed the distance. They were worried that the oni would do something to intercept it. Their helplessness escalated to anticipation when they saw the oni just standing there.

The soul moved with a speed capable of reaching Noah in seconds. Its ghostly appearance was intended to immediately enter Noah’s body, corrupting both his body and soul.

But moments before it collided into him, the crazed shaman’s face became afraid. There was a tug on it that should never have happened. Its soul shouldn’t be touched!

Its eyes fairly shifted to the cause, and the eye on Noah’s chest was staring back at it. A wail overtook the lingering screams before. Every goblin watched as the cursed soul was pulled into the oni’s eye.

And then... silence.

Although they witnessed it, no one wanted to make sense of what they saw. They waited, hoping that the oni would suddenly grow weak, to show any sign that the shaman’s curse had worked.

When they waited with bated breaths, their gaze was quickly attracted to the pool of slime that began to show movement. Six blobs rose up from the slime. Each blob contained no significant traits at first. But as the blobs grew in size, the goblins’ eyes widened in horror.

Each blob quickly took on the shape of goblins. And each looked more menacing than the very goblins they consumed.

And if that wasn’t enough, two giant figures appeared from the pool...

____________________

Noah off-handily watched the two creatures emerge from the pool, alongside the six golems he created.

With their fusion, both Nightmare and the ice troll’s appearances had subtly changed, yet the shift felt anything but small. Nightmare’s form was larger than before, the shadows thicker than before. Its very presence exuded an oppressive aura that pressed on the goblins’ minds the same way his Nexus Eye did... even without direct eye contact.

The ice troll, by contrast, was terrifying in a quieter way. Its frost-blue armor no longer resembled ice so much as a crystalline mineral, dense and refracting light like a diamond. Its presence bent the atmosphere around it, the way a mountain distorts the air at its peak.

”Is the reason you’re not going to finish them off yourself-?”

”The others are already finishing up on their end,” Noah replied before Ailetta could finish. ”If that’s the case, then I want to see exactly how powerful these golems are now. I need a comparison point for the ones I’ll be making on my own.”

As he spoke, his hands moved in a constant action. Every second, a core would magically surface out of his hand before being drawn into his ring. This action reoccurred for as many times as the goblins he killed. Only six were missing.

Even without their bodies, he could absorb the creature’s souls from the cores alone. But the time limit was strict. If he didn’t remove the souls soon enough, the residual conscious soul would disappear. To where? Noah’s thoughts instinctively drifted toward Anubis.

However, he resisted the urge. He wanted the souls so he could grow stronger, but he also needed the cores for his creatures’ growth. And by devouring the soul directly from the core, there wasn’t a way to extract only the soul.

Because he had learned the soul’s imprint is part of a layer that makes up the core’s energy. And when the soul departs naturally, the imprints loosen, slipping away without destroying the balance, allowing the core to remain stable. But if Noah devoured the soul before the imprint fully detaches, it leads to the soul pulling everything with it.

And he wasn’t fighting simply to survive. It was so he could live with his family.

_______________________

As Noah responded to Ailetta, his golems went through the next stage. The six goblins paired up with one another, eventually becoming three more dominating goblins than before. Each of them grew a bit taller. Their faces still showed traces of their origins; however, their bodies now wore armor similar to Noah’s.

Each wielded a dagger pulled from the corpse it was born from. Slime coated the blades, stretching and hardening into elongated, lethal swords.

The moment they finished forming, they attacked. Not only them, but Nightmare and the troll had attacked the army of nearly thirty goblins.

Even outnumbered and knowing that Noah was the one to summon the creatures, the goblins barely entertained the thought of attacking him directly. No one dared to cross the death trap of slime after what happened before. And before they could get past him, they needed to be able to look at him first.

The looming thoughts of death slowly overwhelmed them every time they looked in his direction.

But some had found a way around it.

While Noah’s summons attacked, a stream of arrows were shot at him, orchestrated by five archers led by a hobgoblin. The goblins further away weren’t as affected as the others. And as long as they didn’t stare too long at those eyes, they were able to take action.

One arrow reached Noah faster than the others, the accuracy was deadly efficient, aiming directly between Noah’s eyes. Yet, the attack amounted to nothing. Noah didn’t pay attention to the attack, nor did he consciously move. Slime tendrils shot out to knock the arrow away, and then more followed as the other arrows descended, only to achieve nothing.

”Attack!”

The goblin leader ordered its troops, who still haven’t responded to the golems’ advance.

The goblins responded instinctively, their confusion twisting into obedience. They believed it was a final push. A desperate stand to fight the enemy together with their leader.

They didn’t realize they had been used as bait. As the horde rushed Noah’s summons, the goblin was already preparing to move the opposite direction with the last shaman in tow.

It once believed that they were capable of fighting the soul devouring oni. But after their trump card failed, it instantly gave up. Their shamans were useless, and numbers were useless. This was never a fight they could win. It should’ve brought everyone.

The goblin thought the others could at least buy time for its escape. However, how could Noah allow that to happen when it possessed a skill that he wanted?

”Tch!” Noah clicked his tongue the moment he noticed what the goblin planned to do.

’So that’s how it wanted to play this.’

His eyes shifted, locking onto the leader’s retreating figure.

Suddenly the forest gave the illusion as though it grew darker. A powerful force washed through every goblin in the area. The goblin leader was no different.

The goblin leader’s pupils shrank as it finally understood the mistake it had made.

It should have been satisfied with the territory it already had.