Becoming a Monster

Chapter 75 Are Zombies Growing Too Fast?

”Grrrr” When they made it to the door, Noah heard Fenrir growling off to the side

”Can we just get a break already?” Agitation was building in Noahʼs voice. Thankfully he had Fenrir to depend on who seemed to never grow tired, but he and Arachne were still affected!

It was hard to ignore his injuries right now and even though he healed Arachneʼs leg, he could tell she was growing tired too. The excessive jumping she had to do was taking its toll.

”Fenrir, itʼs up to you boy.” He patted the wolfʼs side before motioning towards the door preparing to open it. To be safe, he retrieved his small dagger to defend himself, he couldnʼt be too sure if there could be an unknown factor. The sudden emergence of the giant zombie has him a little paranoid.

Before Noah opened the door, he switched the amount of experience he shared with his creatures to 10-90% from the 80-20% before. Having reached his goal of reaching level 10, his next focus was to have his creatures get a new class or what he believed to be an evolution, just like the zombies.

It was also the reason he was waiting to use Arachneʼs points. He knew the description of the class he was going to get, but he didnʼt exactly know how he was going to help his creatures through his skills. So just to be safe, he wanted to get his skills first before he distributed her attribute points.

When he was preparing to open the door, he noticed Arachne was edging closer to the door as well, eager to fight still even though Noah could tell that she was growing tired. He wanted to stop her, but he hesitated. He was beginning to realize even more that his spider was very proud and didnʼt like to feel like she wasnʼt useful. Her behavior encouraged him, knowing that the class he was going to choose would help her in her goal.

”Go!” Noah ordered while forcing the door open. It was a tight squeeze, but Fenrir rushed in immediately, unintentionally knocking the door off its hinges. Noah didnʼt have to look in to see what was in there. The heavy stench of blood already filled his nose, causing his nose to scrunch in distaste. He usually enjoyed the smell of blood, but the blood smelled as if it was spoiled.

On top of the blood, he could hear the growls on the other side of the door, before the sound of flesh and bone being chewed through followed.

Right behind Fenrir, Arachne quickly followed, but the area wasnʼt big enough for her to jump so she ran in while Noah trailed behind.

The first thing Noah noticed were corpses on the ground and mangled zombies without a lower body still moving. Fenrir still hasnʼt fully learned his lesson that a zombie isnʼt dead if the brain wasnʼt destroyed. However Noah did notice that the zombies who incurred more blood loss were a lot less active than the others.

But it was difficult to make that case when the more injured ones were probably moving slower due to having more difficulty to move.

Arachne was eager to clean up the zombies left behind by Fenrir like she always did. She would swiftly walk over to any movie corpse and pierce their skull with her leg. With the small area given to them, it was almost impossible to tell if the zombies here were regular walking zombies or if any of them developed the ability to run.

Either way, The trio took care of the zombies in the first floor lobby area quickly. However there were still zombies further in the hallway, but it would be counterintuitive for Noah to send Fenrir into an even smaller space to fight them.

That didnʼt mean he couldnʼt wait it out, the noise they created was a trigger for the zombies and the halls to make a break for them. There were only about 8 zombies left in the hall and even then, five of them were runners while one was definitely a sprinter.

ʼAt this rate will all the zombies evolve by tomorrow?ʼ Noah couldnʼt help but think. The ratio of running zombies to walking zombies was increasing by the hour. But it made sense when he once again saw the corpses on the floor missing their hearts.

Why the cores were able to allow zombies to advance so fast while everything else had to kill in order to grow, Noah just couldnʼt place his finger on it, but deep down, he felt that his skill ʼBudding Feederʼ might have the answer.

ʼOr I can try to talk to them now that I have that skill, but are they even capable of communicating yet?ʼ While deep in his thoughts, Noah didnʼt bother to pay attention to the zombies coming to give him free experience. Just the huge increase to Fenrirʼs strength caused him to be unmatched to any zombie under level 10 unless it turned out to be some form of unique zombie like the Zombie King from before.

After clearing the first section of the floor they were on, Noah felt that he should at least go up one floor before initiating his class change. He wasnʼt sure what was going to happen and didnʼt want to reduce the chances of a creature of some kind being attracted over and coming through the window. Granted something could still come through the second window if it could fly or was as large as the zombie outside, but the chances of that were smaller.

ʼBut before that…ʼ Noah arrived in front of the silver chest that dropped. He was half expecting a gold chest since most of the zombies they killed seemed to be runners and some sprinters, but it didnʼt upset him in the least.

ʼThis is probably what happens when the fight is too easy…or maybe it has to do with me being level ten…Hmm, I wonʼt really know until Fenrir and Arachne reach that level too.

He continued to open the chest while he was thinking and saw that the chest only had three items, not including the gold. But he was already satisfied when he saw one of the times being another mana potion. He looked towards the other two items. One being a dark green cloak that Noah could wear and it goes down towards his elbows. The cloak had a hood attached and one similar large button to keep the cloak holstered on.

He first tried the cloak on, but just as quickly took it off when he didnʼt see his stats increase. Looking good was fine and all, but he didnʼt want to wear too many things that could get in the way.

ʼMaybe if It came with an ability or effect of some kind then I can still use it…Iʼll just save it for later, maybe I can get that skill to identify items or find someone who can.ʼ He placed the cloak in his ring before going to the last item.

When he saw the last item, his face turned into a frown but his eyes held a hint of nostalgia. He pulled out a relatively long weapon that looked exactly like the hammer he obtained when everything started.

In a daze, he thought back to the moment everything happened leading up to here as he held the hammer before also putting it into the ring.

ʼI may not ever use you, but Iʼll carry you with me for a little longer, old friend.ʼ

While he was busy collecting the gold, he realized he had another notification. This time he just quickly glanced at it since he had a gut feeling that he knew what it was pertaining to.

[Your tamed creature Fenrir Leveled Up! +5 attributes!]

[Your tamed creature, Fenrir, has achieved the first limits of 50 stats in agility, perk based on class Lycan obtained; ʼPredatory Accelerationʼ]

[Predatory Acceleration-You enjoy the thrill of the hunt and a nice chase. Agility is increased by 20% when your prey is running away or hiding in fear of you.]

ʼI almost forgot that he was close to getting 50! This skill wonʼt help much against the zombies, but if humans planned to mess with me….Well letʼs see them try to run, wait? What am I saying? They would have to escape Arachne first.ʼ

Noah smiled to himself as he was reminded how strong he was becoming, but he knew that time waited for no one and if he became complacent then he could see himself being left behind before he realized it.

The thought made him in a rush to find a room to advance his class, but the cores of the zombies still had to be retrieved.

The area was too small for Fenrirʼs ʼdelicateʼ touch so he had Arachne help him retrieve the hearts. She couldnʼt help him extract the cores without hands so he had to just settle with what she could do. It took them another few mins to accomplish the task and the night was quickly becoming darker.

Noah was becoming paranoid retrieving the cores while the door was completely open, but he was low on mana. However with one command to Arachne, she was able to set up a wall of webs to prevent most creatures from wandering in.

And this time, Noah tried to begin his new take of creating better habits. For every core he removed, he just stuffed them in his mouth in one motion. The time required to do so would just be a little bit longer than just collecting them, but at least he wouldnʼt delay using them.

”Iʼm sorry Fenrir, but youʼll have to stay down here. Weʼll just be one floor, youʼre just too big to follow us. If youʼre hungry then anything you see down here is yours.” He talked to the wolf patiently as if he was saying goodbye to a family pet.

Noah could tell that Fenrir wasnʼt sad in the slightest, maybe it was because Fenrir could tell how close they were still through their bond. But Noah still decided to coax him to stay without going anywhere intuitively since he has always wanted a pet dog.

Arachne led the way towards the steps while Noah followed, but not without glancing one last time towards Noah before heading up. He saw that Fenrir was still up on all fours silently watching the two leave before he laid down in the same spot when Noahʼs figure disappeared up the stairs.