Becoming a Monster

Chapter 619: Chapter 618: The Missing Piece

After the first surge of mana erupted from Noah’s lair, Morvyr should’ve anticipated something like this happening again.

The fact that Noah still hadn’t emerged should’ve been enough to tell him that whatever was taking place inside wasn’t over yet.

And after everything he had witnessed since arriving here, another impossible occurrence shouldn’t have surprised him nearly as much as it did.

Even so, none of that prepared him for what happened next.

The moment the second surge of energy erupted from Noah’s lair, every thought within Morvyr’s mind came to an abrupt halt.

The aura itself was considerably stronger than before, yet Morvyr barely noticed it.

Morvyr, as an elf whose bloodline was purer than the others, could sense an overwhelming amount of life within that energy.

His senses had always allowed him to remain faintly connected to the surrounding vegetation, perceiving subtle changes that most beings would never notice. Yet the vitality erupting from Noah’s lair was so immense that his own body instinctively severed much of that connection before it overwhelmed his mind.

Yet even through that overwhelming vitality, Morvyr still sensed something else hidden within it. Beneath all that life energy was a presence he knew all too well.

“Another drya-“

The words instinctively left his mouth before he stopped. His gaze shifted all around him.

Every tree, every root, every blade of grass seemed to respond to the aura.

For a dryad to do that while another one was present meant this sudden arrival of life energy was even stronger.

Moryvr’s eyes soon shifted towards Noah’s lair.

There was only one person inside capable of producing such a change.

“…Noah?”

—

Inside, Noah had already taken a part of Pandora’s “flesh” that initiated his transformation.

By the end, Noah’s body was filled with so much life energy that plants and vines began to grow out of his skin.

Half of his hair had turned into vegetation.

Strands of black hair gradually gave way to thin vines and curling roots that continued to flow past his shoulders, as though they had always grown from his scalp. Dark leaves spread between them, while clusters of narrow violet flowers hung from the vines in long strands, their petals giving off a faint glow.

The same vegetation had emerged across the rest of his body.

Vines wound between the scales covering his chest and arms, slipping through the patches of black fur wherever they could find space. Flowers bloomed along them in shades of violet, black, and deep blue, while darker plants pushed outward from several places along his shoulders and back.

Those were far less beautiful.

Often they would then slowly spread apart, revealing several rows of curved thorns lining the inside of each bloom like the teeth of some carnivorous plant.

A faint stream of miasma constantly drifted from every plant growing across Noah’s body.

It spread through the air like pollen, gathering around him in a thin violet haze before gradually dispersing a short distance around him.

None of the vegetation remained still. They moved as though they possessed instincts of their own.

Despite their ominous appearance, none of the vegetation looked diseased or withered. They were filled with an unnatural vitality nurtured by Noah’s necrotic energy.

His appearance wasn’t as exaggeratedly changed as the others’. When comparing bloodlines, Pandora’s wasn’t weaker than the combination of two other powerful bloodlines.

However, the change brought him a cumulative increase in his strength that was far more drastic than he thought was possible.

Without his knowledge, gaining Pandora’s genes had somehow triggered a change that awakened something within him.

The first change was with his Nexus Eye; the eye’s pupil now had a subtle golden halo around it. The Eye had experienced another growth; that growth now enabled him to merge an additional soul inside one being.

While the second change had something to do with his instincts.

Noah couldn’t quite put it into words.

Ever since obtaining the Evolutionary Guardian class, he had always possessed instincts that subtly guided many of his decisions. They were never intrusive, nor did they force him toward a particular choice. More often than not, they simply gave him the feeling that one path was somehow… right.

That feeling had now become considerably stronger.

As he looked around, he found himself instinctively evaluating everything.

The condition of the surrounding vegetation.

The quality of the mana flowing through the soil.

Even his companions.

His mind naturally wandered toward how each of them could be nurtured, what they lacked, and what they needed in order to continue growing stronger.

It went beyond that.

Simply looking at them now gave Noah a vague understanding of where they currently stood in their growth. He couldn’t see everything, but he could instinctively sense what was holding them back.

Whether they lacked mana, experience, a stronger body, or some outside catalyst, his instincts naturally drew his attention toward the greatest obstacle preventing their next step.

At the same time, he found himself able to roughly judge how close a creature was to reaching that next stage, whether they were still far away, only one opportunity away, or already standing at the threshold of another evolution.

Because of this, he also understood why this change only occurred now.

At first, Noah thought it had something to do with Pandora’s bloodline.

But he now understood the true cause. Reaching the maximum number of bloodlines his body could currently support had finally allowed every part of him to catch up.

Over time, Noah’s soul had grown far beyond what should have been possible. Absorbing the Archon’s soul, merging a pure magical and spiritual being to his soul, and every other opportunity that strengthened his soul had gradually pushed it to heights his body could no longer properly accommodate.

Without realizing it, his soul had gradually reached a point where his body and even his mana could no longer keep pace.

They hadn’t stopped it from growing. However, it did stagnate his soul, preventing his abilities that depended on it from advancing to the next level.

Only after completing this latest mutation did that restriction finally disappear.

In its place came the instinctive understanding that his soul could once again continue growing without being held back by the vessel containing it.

—

Noah wanted to stop himself from wanting to observe everything, because everything he saw triggered the sensation of wanting to understand how to improve it, how to spur its growth.

It became so distracting that he was forced to close his eyes.

The action raised caution from the perspective of the three females opposite him. But no one was willing to distract him.

Pandora was the only exception. The dryad couldn’t stop herself; something about knowing drew her in. Every time the plants would open across his body, releasing a mist of miasma, she would draw her roots a bit closer.

Before she realized it, roots were already extending from the ground, softly beginning to wrap around him.

Noah’s body twitched the moment her roots first made contact with him, yet Noah still didn’t open his eyes.

Instead, his body untensed, and before everyone’s eyes, his body started to emit a higher dose of that same mysterious miasmic mist that began to seep into her roots.

It was an instinctive action. One that, after realizing what he had done, didn’t make Noah worry in the slightest.

Instead, understanding naturally surfaced within his mind.

The mana and miasma entering Pandora’s roots weren’t harming her. They were assimilating parts of her roots into something Noah instinctively recognized as his Necrotic Biome.

The process could occur almost immediately as long as Noah supplied enough energy. However, the amount each plant required depended upon its natural vitality and how much mana it could safely contain. Weaker vegetation would need far less before the change took hold, while larger and more powerful plant life would require a considerably greater investment.

Once assimilated, the plant would develop an affinity for Noah’s mana and miasma. It would continuously nourish the vegetation surrounding it with traces of that necrotic energy, gradually drawing nearby plant life into the biome as well.

That meant Noah didn’t need to personally assimilate every plant.

The plants within the biome would also continue changing long after the initial assimilation. His mana and miasma would strengthen them, increase their resilience, and gradually deepen their affinity for necrotic energy.

Before long, those changes would progress until the plants became entirely new species of necrotic flora.

The first ability came as a nice surprise. Suspiciously, it partially answered one of Noah’s greatest concerns.

This ability was one whose true value would only become apparent with time. Give it several months, or perhaps a year, and Noah doubted this forest would resemble the one it once was.

But that was his goal from the moment he claimed it as his own.

More importantly, the greatest benefit came from being able to convert natural plant life to sustain itself through miasma. It was a far greater deal than his own ability cared to mention.

These necrotic plants will use miasma to absorb and break down mana in order to grow.

That doesn’t make them fire-resistant. But it does mean that fire created by magic could turn into nourishment if the fire couldn’t destroy it outright.

Now that Noah has awakened an improved Evolutionary Guardian lineage, expect many power-ups. But in future chapters, when he makes a mass change, the results will probably be skipped to the final results.