Becoming a Monster

Chapter 537 - 536: An Existence Hidden by the World

For the first time since Dobby’s transformation began, there were no distractions pulling Noah’s attention elsewhere.

His tendril remained connected while Noah carefully observed every reaction occurring within his body.

Noah wasn’t merely interested in seeing Dobby become stronger. What he truly wanted to understand was whether his blood transformed every creature through the same principle.

Alexandria’s transformation focused heavily on her physique. Her body adapted into something faster, sharper, and more suited toward predatory instincts.

But Dobby was different. His existence had never revolved around physical strength. His greatest traits were his spirit and his mind.

So Noah watched carefully, wondering whether his blood would still prioritize strengthening Dobby’s body or if it would instead focus almost entirely on his mana and spiritual aspects.

Alexandria’s attention wasn’t much different from Noah’s. If anything, she was even more focused than he was. Unlike Noah, she only cared whether Dobby would wake up afterward.

The first visible sign of change appeared across Dobby’s skin.

The unhealthy paleness covering him gradually regained some of its color while his chest began rising stronger than before. The shallow breathing he had while unconscious slowly stabilized into deeper breaths, as though his body was finally recovering from the lack of air he was receiving earlier.

Several joints visibly shifted out of place to accommodate the transformation.

Dobby’s arms and legs lengthened slightly. The loose skin hanging around portions of his body gradually tightened as lean muscle began to form beneath it.

His overall size barely changed. At most, he only grew a few inches taller before the growth abruptly stopped altogether.

Noah’s blood wasn’t emphasizing Dobby’s physique nearly as much as it did Alexandria’s. At least now Dobby looked less like a cat awkwardly standing upright and more like something genuinely humanoid.

Then came the most drastic physical changes.

His ears nearly doubled in size while his fingers elongated enough that his hands immediately became unsettling to look at. Long fingers tipped with thin claws rested against the ground. His hands appeared disproportionately large compared to the rest of his body.

Yet beyond those changes, almost nothing else about Dobby’s appearance changed. Compared to Alexandria’s transformation, the difference was almost underwhelming to witness.

Noah, however, paid little attention to the physical side of the transformation anymore because the true changes were no longer occurring externally.

They were happening within Dobby’s mana.

Noah could already sense the difference growing stronger with each passing second. The old feline’s mana reserves were nearly doubling before his eyes.

Compared to his own companions, it wasn’t the most overwhelming increase he’d witnessed so far, but compared to what Dobby originally possessed, the change was absurd.

Especially considering mana was never Dobby’s defining trait to begin with.

His greatest strengths were his spirit and his wisdom, yet despite that, his mana increased more drastically than Alexandria’s had.

Unfortunately, because Dobby wasn’t directly connected to Noah through a bond, Noah had no way to determine what changes were occurring within his soul itself. That frustrated him more than anything else.

The physical transformation itself finished quickly afterward, yet Dobby still hadn’t stabilized.

That alone told Noah the greatest changes were happening internally. And if it was no longer Dobby’s mana that was changing, then that could only leave his soul.

Alexandria’s anxiousness steadily worsened the longer Dobby remained unconscious. All they could do was wait, but waiting only caused her thoughts to spiral further. Every second Dobby remained motionless, her fear grew stronger.

Then her eyes suddenly focused on something she somehow had ignored this entire time.

Noah’s tendril still hadn’t withdrawn from Dobby. And now it was moving again.

The tendril slowly lifted toward Dobby’s mouth again.

Shock immediately filled Alexandria’s face.

”Wha-”

What was Noah trying to do? Dobby still hadn’t even recovered yet.

Her body instinctively shifted forward before she even realized it herself. Even though it was Noah, when it concerned Dobby, she wasn’t willing to quietly suppress her doubts anymore.

But before she could question him, the scent hit her. Alexandria’s thoughts abruptly vanished. The smell was even stronger than before.

It overwhelmed her senses so completely that Dobby’s well-being instantly stopped being her priority. Her widened pupils locked directly onto Noah’s tendril while her breathing rapidly roughened.

The others reacted even worse.

The restrained cats and dogs immediately descended into madness. Their cages violently shook as they slammed themselves against the restraints without hesitation.

Growls and desperate snarls sounded while several creatures clawed hard enough to tear apart their own nails, trying to reach Noah’s blood.

And this was even after Noah masked the scent with his illusion.

Noah observed every reaction. Nothing could be overlooked when it came to the creatures under his responsibility.

It had nothing to do with the fact he was also curious how his blood would affect them...

The moment he realized that they were harming themselves without restraint, Noah immediately compressed the cages further. The slime tightened inward until most of the creatures could barely move at all.

Only one creature received the same treatment as Dummy.

Digger.

Even while losing himself to instinct, Digger still retained enough awareness to attempt digging beneath his cage instead of attacking it directly. Noah noticed him first among all the others.

The slime instantly locked around each of Digger’s limbs until even scratching became impossible.

The sight of the others began to slowly drag Alexandria out of her delirium.

At first, Noah’s blood still dominated her thoughts completely, but the more she watched the others throw themselves against the cages, the more something else gradually surfaced within her mind instead.

Understanding.

Her breathing slowly steadied while her widened pupils gradually narrowed.

Seeing how they reacted filled in all the blanks that surrounded Dobby’s situation.

Alexandria’s ears lowered slightly.

Among everyone present, she was one of the few who truly understood what Dobby was capable of. Even then, she only discovered it because she investigated it herself long ago.

Dobby never willingly explained it.

In fact, once she learned the truth, he made her promise not to tell the others.

Back then, she didn’t understand why. Even now, she still remembers his exact words clearly.

”If others know someone will always carry their burdens for them, then eventually they stop respecting the weight of their own hearts.”

At the time, the words barely made sense to her. It was only when they arrived in this world, when they were hunted down, that she roughly gained understanding.

If someone constantly removed your pain, your fear, and your despair, then eventually those emotions would no longer feel important.

Others would become reckless. They would ignore life’s lessons and consequences because they would forget the harsh emotions that came with that lesson.

And Dobby hated that thought.

He never wanted the others to stop experiencing life as themselves.

Which was why he carried those burdens silently instead. And never too much at one time. He only took what they couldn’t bear themselves.

Despite Alexandria never fully understanding his reasoning back then. There was one thing she always understood clearly.

She never wanted him to use that ability.

They didn’t deserve it, none of them did.

They continued burdening him with their weakness while giving him nothing in return.

Her thoughts abruptly stopped when Dobby’s body suddenly convulsed.

This time, the transformation became far more pronounced than before. His body began to grow, nearing over four feet, almost double his original size.

And yet, his rapid growth was completely ignored, as all eyes were directed to an abnormal change in his body.

Thin lines suddenly began carving themselves into Dobby’s skin.

Alexandria’s eyes widened immediately, fear overwhelmed her shock.

The marks spread rapidly across his arms, chest, neck, and face alike as though invisible blades were etching symbols directly into his flesh. Strange sigils twisted across his body one after another while thin trails of blood slowly followed behind them.

No one could see what was doing it. Not even Noah.

His Nexus Eye was already activated, and witnessing the cuts made him infuse a massive amount of mana in his Eye to uncover what was happening.

Yet all Noah could perceive above Dobby was a blur.

A shape hidden behind something even his eyes struggled to pierce. It looked less like invisibility and more like the world itself was concealing it.

The figure appeared distorted, almost camouflaged by reality itself to the point that Noah couldn’t even properly determine its size or appearance.

And only Noah could see it at all.

The blurred figure slowly moved above Dobby while more invisible cuts carved themselves into his flesh. The markings spread without any errors, forming strange symbols Noah had never encountered before.

When the figure finished its purpose, it stopped moving.

Noah felt it look directly at him.

Every instinct inside him exploded into warning so violently that he couldn’t even muster the tiniest bit of effort to try to defend himself. For a brief moment, Noah genuinely felt as though death itself had just brushed past him.

What terrified him most was the fact that the figure wasn’t doing anything.

It was merely looking at him.

Instead of retreating, Noah immediately poured more mana into his Nexus Eye.

But the moment he attempted it, the figure disappeared.

Noah’s eyes narrowed sharply while he spread out his aura to cover the rest of his creatures. For several long seconds, he remained completely still while trying to determine whether the being was truly gone or merely hiding itself again.

Nothing.

Whatever it was, it only came for Dobby.