Becoming a Monster

Chapter 4 Playing With Fire

ʼYes! Fuck yes!ʼ He cried when he saw what the notification was informing him of.

He probably wouldʼve broken out in a dance if he wasnʼt in his mind space, not only did he find out he wasnʼt going to die but he also benefited from his recent ʼbad luckʼ.

[Body has fully transitioned into that of a Chimera, skill ʼgenetic synergyʼ obtained.

Genetic Synergy- allows you to incorporate your genetic makeup with another species gaining their strengths and sometimes their weaknesses.

User has been contaminated by a corrupted substance. Due to ʼbirth of the chimeraʼ the user has now incorporated the corrupted blood and has now remodified his body traits.

Additional skills and stats have been obtained as well as the new additional title of ʼthe fallen oneʼ.

Passive, stamina regeneration(lv1) gained- permanently restore an extra 1% stamina per 5 mins.

Passive, immortal body(lvl1) gained-permanently increases all base attributes by 5 percent.

Active skill acquired, ʼKilling Instinctʼ(lvl1)- similar to bloodlust, you give in to your instinct to kill. Doing so gives you a surplus to your body attributes while losing your sanity for the skills duration. Stat boost is determined by a ratio of 5-25percent based on the amount of your sanity is lost during the activated skill.

Title, the fallen- losing more and more of your humanity, you have fallen to the point of no return while slowly achieving the body and mind of a true monster. Improves your instinctual affinity for magic.]

ʼNever in my life would I have thought I would say Iʼm glad I got infected by a zombie! I was even able to get abilities! But does this mean Iʼm now immune to being infected?

Ah who cares right now! Letʼs just check the new stats baby!ʼ Noah didnʼt waste any time before he hurriedly and excitedly brought up his status.

Player: Noah

Race:Human->Human Chimera

Class: monster tamer

Lvl 1

Exp: 0/25->10/25

Health: 100%

Stamina:95%

Mana: 10

Attributes

Strength:11->12

Agility:13->14

Constitution:14->15

Stamina:10->11

Magic: 5

Spirit:38->40

Skills

Active

Monster Taming(lvl 0)

Killing instinct (lvl 0)

Passive

Soul cage(lvl 0)

Hunters sight (lvl 0)

Stamina regeneration (lvl 0)

Immortal body (lvl 0)

Genetic Synergy(lvl 0)

Titles

The fallen

The smile Noah previously wore had instantly disappeared from his face when he noticed the negligible change to his stats.

ʼWhy did I think that 5% would make any difference to my stats?ʼ The fact that he felt stronger than what his stats signify disappointed him, but when he remembered that the skills were only level zero, he was motivated even more to upgrade all of his skills to increase his strength.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Interrupted from his thoughts due to the thudding sounds coming from the other side of his door caused him to panic slightly because he still hasnʼt solved his problem from earlier. He still has yet to figure out what to do about a weapon since he unconsciously sabotaged his present one.

”Shit….” He swore out loud before looking at the broken bat that was now lying on the floor in the puddle of blood.

”Well, I guess I could still maybe use it…I mean they are only zombies for crying out loud…but thatʼs only if Iʼm really immune to being infected. Iʼll never know if too much of their infections would actually overpower my Chimera trait and kill me.”

Quickly trying to weed through his options available to him at this time, he then began to roam his eyes over the dorm room hoping that maybe he would spot something since he still had the observation skill that always seemed to be active.

ʼHuh?ʼ

Not really believing he would find something just from a quick glimpse of his surroundings but what he did find left him bewildered, following with a confused chuckle escaping his lips.

”Ok this is definitely becoming too much…Class change, Status panel, attributes, zombies and now this? If thereʼs a god whoʼs behind this, then he must be a man of great culture.”

The object that Noah found that he would have never expected to see in this situation just happens to be a small chest lying beside the two zombies he killed. It wasnʼt just any chest otherwise he wouldnʼt have been so caught off guard, but the chest appeared to be a wooden chest you would obtain from fighting monsters in a video game!

Noah had very little reason to suspect the chest to be dangerous nor did he second guess that this was still a dream. Even if it was a dream, he just wishes to never wake up from it and enjoy his life for the first time.

For someone who was never given anything in his life, he wasnʼt picky about what he would get but that didnʼt stop him from being curious as he slowly opened the chest as if opening it too fast would cause the chest to be empty.

What he saw wasnʼt below his expectations, but more than anything it confused him. Inside the chest appeared to be a one-handed double-sided hammer and next to it laid three gold coins on the bottom of the chest. He wasnʼt confused much by the contents inside; it was when he pulled out the hammer that caused the confusion. The chest was only two feet long and a foot high yet when retrieved the hammer, the hammer turned out to be two handed one from what he first assumed when he thought it was one.

The hammer was about four feet high, the handle seemed to be made of wood he couldnʼt determine the origins of, but he knew that the wood isnʼt normal just based on how hard the material appeared to be.

He held the hammer in both hands to get adjusted with the weight, just holding the hammer made him feel as if he was given a burst of strength. ʼDo equipment drops actually give stat bonuses!? Diving into his mind space where he was able to check his stat panel, he tried to see if he was also able to check for equipment details which he considered should be common to be able to do in these situations. Alased, he was proven wrong. The solace he was given was the fact he could at least see his states to tell what attributes were increased. His stats werenʼt high numbers so he could instantly see that his strength went up by two points.

ʼOk…so maybe Iʼm regretting not having that analysis skill right about now...ʼ if he had chosen that skill then not only would he be able to view the stats and potential of monsters, but he wouldʼve also been able to see the information of his equipment. But how was he supposed to know that a chest filled with gear would appear out of nowhere?

He wore a wry smile before peering back into the chest to retrieve the coins that at first felt normal to what should appear in a chest. It was only after he pondered about it that he realized what was wrong. Where was he supposed to spend it?

He wanted to get to the bottom of what the money was used for, maybe he hadnʼt explored enough of his status panel or maybe there was a shop option, but the noise behind the door suggested that he was out of time.

”Was this game made with no tutorials? I didnʼt get time to learn anything!” He momentarily complained as he readjusted himself and made his way to the closest bed near the door, even while he complained he still adorned a smile on his face while he stuffed the coins in his pockets.

”Well, who am I to complain? Just having the opportunity to have powers to fight monsters is the best thing I could ask for.”

Bang!

As he dragged the bed over to the door another impact was heard from the other side but this time unlike his expectations of the door getting pushed off its hinges or the doorframe getting broken in, the zombies managed to puncture through the doors with bloody outstretched hands trying to claw their way through.

If there werenʼt so many of them at the door trying to get in at one time, they may have been successful in making their way into the room but instead they constantly were stumbling over themselves which gave Noah enough time to finally move the bed in front of the door.

By the time he moved the bed in front of the door, there were two holes big enough for the zombies to climb into, one particular zombie already had its body up to his shoulders in already as it clutched onto the bed to pull its body in faster, slightly shocking Noah.

ʼIʼm not sure if these things compared to the zombies, Iʼve read up on actually have intelligence or they are doing that based on instincts. Heck! Maybe I should have my first tamed creature be a zombie if thatʼs the case, but thereʼs no time for that now and besides, there was supposed to be a penalty if they died. I need to be smart about this.ʼ

”GAME STARTTT!” He yelled out as he didnʼt bother to hide his excitement to what would be others hell. He had no experience when it came to any kind of martial arts, but he had enough experience fighting where his instincts were enough to get him by in this situation let alone just to fight low leveled zombies who were seemingly giving him free exp.

The scene that transpired was familiar to the game of whack a mole, the zombies were taking turns shoving their heads through the door while Noah planted his hammer into their skulls, plastering their brain matter across the walls and himself. Due to not knowing how his new skill works, he decided to activate his killing instinct considering the fact that he felt relatively safe during this encounter against the supposedly slow zombies.

If it was before the Chimera changes then this scene would be a cause of alarm for Noah because even though he wasnʼt being bitten or scratched, some of the blood still manage to get on his face and into his mouth since he was beginning to lose stamina from swinging the hammer constantly with enough ferociously to splatter a zombieʼs skull. But now as the events occurred, you could sometimes glimpse Noah who still swung with an exhausting smile occasionally lick away the scattered blood that was near his lips savoring the taste without him realizing it.

His eyes were dilated while he seemed to be in a frenzied trance. Even though his body was beginning to slow he still felt rejuvenated as if he was growing stronger overtime. Due to the skill killing instincts and the joy he was experiencing from gaining an otherworldly strength, it slipped his mind that the increase in power was from leveling up and also meant that he was losing himself more to his skill in order to gain more strength.

Thankfully this worked to his advantage since he was unaware of the number of students that were now turned zombies that were on his floor. He doesnʼt know how long he was out when he went through his body changes but during those 15-20 mins a lot happened during the chaos. The students who could run were already gone or were eating and became wandering zombies looking to feed and those that could fight were already beginning to form small groups to aid in their survival. Then there were the ones who managed to barricade their rooms and hoped for help to come.

Out of every scenario it still left Noah with his only choice of fighting the rest of the zombies on his own who were attracted to his heart wrenching screams from before.

Swing after swing he continued to mow down the zombies with the same intensity as before if not more. After he killed about 8 zombies who managed to climb through the door over their zombiesʼ compatriots who now laid dead on the bed. Noah then proceeded to move the end of the bed to allow the rest of the door to open since zombies were no longer able to come through.

This may have seemed like a stupid decision on his part since he wasnʼt thinking about anything other than killing as much as he could but the effects of killing instincts shouldnʼt be compared to the instincts of a mindless zombie. His body was instinctively finding a suitable situation to continue to kill as much as it can which wonʼt always be the smartest option but in the case of killing mindless zombies the situation worked out perfect for him.