Becoming a Monster

Chapter 98 What Have You Been Doing?

”Arachne…I know youʼre awake, go stop Fenrir please or I wonʼt forgive what you just pulled just now.”

He wasnʼt really upset that she was lying on him, he was upset that while the racket was going on outside, she still pretended to be asleep. That still didnʼt stop Arachne from bolting off of his body and quickly darting out of the window. Even with her size, somehow she still managed to get through the tight squeeze as if it was natural.

”And you, you either let go or follow behind me so I can see whatʼs going on.” He turned to Ailetta before he got up himself. When he got up, naturally she chose the latter. Fenrirʼs skill was much stronger than Noah was giving it credit for.

Smack!*

But when he arrived towards the window, he just couldnʼt, he was lost for words, and astonished so much that he could only palm his face forcefully to make sure he was believing what he was seeing. The slap was enough to stir Ailetta from Fenrirʼs roar.

Noah was lost for words when he saw how high the grass grew overnight, the grass was now high enough to reach his knees. And he was astonished to the scene concerning his creatures.

ʼI told her to go ʼstopʼ Fenrir…what in the world is she doing? I didnʼt stay to help him.ʼ He looked dumbfounded at what was going on down below. Half a body laid next to Fenrir while another was lifeless, punctured in the lower back by one of Arachneʼs legs.

”I-is that really Arachne and Fenrir?” Ailetta managed to say over the mental strain. She was more surprised over the two creaturesʼ appearance that the fact they killed two people didnʼt register with her.

Before Noah said anything, first he observed what was going on. They only killed two so it should be fine, what was more important to Noah was why. Thatʼs when Noah saw at least seven chests placed a little further behind Fenrir. The chests werenʼt that great, they were only bronze and silver, with one being gold. But what wasnʼt great to him was a literal treasure to anyone else.

He could already hypothesize a few reasons for why they were here. But he noticed that just like Ailetta, they were stunned from Fear, but there was one that wasnʼt. The fact he didnʼt see them all this time while traversing the campus already had his mind set on them being weak, but that one must have a unique skill at least.

He was about to jump down, but he needed to grab the cores he spent so much time working on. If his creatures killed a few more then they could only blame themselves.

”Fenrir, Noah told me to stop you. Because of you I got in trouble!”

”But, but what did I do?”

”It doesnʼt matter, it only matters that Noah believes you did something bad, you owe me now.”

Noah arrived jumping out of the window to hear his two creatures talking. Just from the conversation alone he could already tell the personality of the two after evolving. He was also surprised that unlike Fenrir, Arachne actually was calling him by his name.

”Arachne youʼll be in further trouble if you donʼt tell me why you have that under your foot.” The two stiffen when they heard Noahʼs voice.

Arachne panicked since she felt that she was going to get in trouble again.

”The food tried to touch me, food should know itʼs place.” She said with a shaky voice but her demeanor showed just how emotional she felt towards the subject.

ʼOh no…ʼ Noah felt a headache coming on when he heard her. ʼHer arrogant Queen mentality is starting to bloom.ʼ

”Wait! These are your creatures?”

”Ah! Heʼs a monster too!”

Someone shouted when Noah turned to face the new arrivals.

He couldnʼt tell who they were, but he knew they were students too, given their age and number.

They werenʼt aware of Noahʼs existence so they werenʼt prepared to see a human with four shining purple pupils, nor were they prepared for the instinctual fear they felt when looking into his eyes, it was almost on the same level as the two monsters before him.

”Fuck! Why did you tell us to follow that beast? Look what it lead us to! You need to get us out of this!”

Noah noticed the group getting upset at both him and a…little girl? No It was just a short woman. In her hand was a bow and on her back was an open book bag being used as a quiver. Unless she found the mystery shop keeper, Noah didnʼt understand where she obtained the arrows. But the girl was apparently very sheepish. She seemed to cower when the students yelled at her, but that didnʼt seem right. If she didnʼt have the qualities of a leader then why did the group follow her?

”N-no, I…I said that it mig-might belong to someone, b-because it was collecting the chest…”

”Wait thereʼs other people here! Please save us!” The group ignored her trying to defend herself when someone shouted.

At this time Ishii and the rest came out of the dorm, they saw what was happening outside and rushed to come out before Noah killed them all. That result may not happen, but deep down, people like Ishii and Jasmine all felt that way. They were just late coming out because Fenrirʼs roar had affected them too.

”Noah let m-” Ishii, who was the most relaxed to interact with Noah tried to remove Noah from the interaction, but was met with a cold stare.

There were a lot of things going on in Noahʼs head, but the only emotion he had was of annoyance as he faced the new group.

”Youʼre lucky I have more important things to worry about right now…”

The new group were left dumbfounded when they saw Noah turn away from them and left to his two monsters.

”Thatʼs it? What about our friends?? You killed them!”

”So? Itʼs only food, you all die all the time.” Arachne spoke in Noahʼs place. She didnʼt make the situation any better, but at least with that, they would at least avoid them.

During this time Jasmine, who was standing besides Mark, watched Noah with a conflicting gaze before she, along with Ishi, addressed the new people.

When Mark awakened, she cried in happiness. Mark was confused about what had happened and felt that he died. Jasmine explained to him about how Noah was going to leave him to die and then defeated the zombie, just to give them the cure to save him in the end. But it was the question that Jasmine asked Mark that made her see Noah in a new light.

”What was that skill you used? The one that made all of the zombiesʼ attacks slow down? Why didnʼt you tell me about this before?” But she was only met with confusion as Mark looked towards her in bewilderment and said.

”What skill? I didnʼt use a skill like that, I was just movi-!”

The two seemed to finally realize what had happened. During that time, Mark believed he was going so fast that time would seem to slow whenever the tentacles approached, but if Jasmine could see it too then that could only mean one thing.

”He was helping you all this time.”

”He was helping me all this time.” They both said in tandem before looking at each other in disbelief.

....

Noah wasnʼt aware of the new development between the two, he was more focused on his creatures.

”Why canʼt you ever behave? He asked impatiently towards Fenrir whose demeanor became downcast until he heard Noahʼs following words.

You two are always creating trouble when Iʼm not watching you. Either start trouble when youʼre around me or donʼt start it at all.” Noah didnʼt realize it, but there were still curious people that were focused on what he was discussing. They could only gain more distance from him as a result.

”Donʼt forget me too!” Ailetta came out of nowhere before entering their circle. Fenrir remembered her from before and looked to Noah for orders, while Arachne stared her down.

”Calm down Fenrir, sheʼll be with us for a while. That reminds me…” he pulled out the space bag from his inventory and quickly dumped the valuables inside into his ring before giving her the bag.

”You can help me by sorting through these chests.” He specified how he wanted it to be sorted. The attribute orbs would be collected and sat next to each other for later, and skill scrolls would be placed in its own pile while potions would be put in the bag. Everything else will be put into a pile so he could check individually.

It didnʼt take long for the two to quickly empty the contents. Thankfully, Fenrir traveled back and forth through the area so many times that the grass in the area was flattened considerably. In the chest, there happened to be only one skill scroll, mundane weapons that he didnʼt bother to collect that was obtained from the bronze and silver chest and two potions. One was a tier 0 mana potion while the other was a tier 0 cure for the infection. Within one of the silver chests they found armor resembling the full body one he currently had. Not only was the defense meagre to Noah, but so were the stats. He planned to just give it to Ailetta before they left.

Out of the orbs, there were 6 of them, but 5 of them were only the attribute orbs that increased the stats by 5 while the other one increased it by 10. Two of the five happened to be mana, while two of the others were strength and the last being agility. The +10 attribute orb was for spirit.

He looked towards Ailetta who happened to be staring towards him, wondering what to do next. ”Whatʼs your level and stats?” He had to ask to figure out his next steps. If her steps were truly abysmal then he would distribute some to her if he was gonna allow her to follow him for the time being.

”Well….Iʼm-”

[Player: Ailetta

Race:Human

Class: Arcanist

Gold: 320

Lvl: 7

Exp:1231/1600

Health:100%

Stamina:100-%

Mana: 96/96

Attributes

Defense: 5

Strength:12

Agility:15

Constitution:12+2

Stamina:12

Magic: 45+3

Spirit:24+2

Unassigned Points: 0]

Noahʼs eyes winced when he heard her tell him her stats and level. He thought that she was just playing a bad trick, but when he saw her cheeks turning red, along with her eyes not being able to stop looking towards the ground, he knew that she was telling the truth.

”What the hell have you all been doing??” His voice caused everyone to turn towards them. But no one dared to go over.

”W-well…we all agreed that those orbs should go to the people who need them, so strength, constitution and stamina would go to the fighters. The magic and spirit to magic base classes and…yeah…” She poked her fingers together innocently while taking brief glances to Noah, who just couldnʼt believe what he was hearing.

”Wha-what are you doing?” Ailetta became startled when she saw Noah place all of the orbs in front of her. But each time he placed one, the strength of how he placed it became more aggressive.

”Never again.” His single phrase caused her to become confused.

”Not giving those orbs to yourself is essentially saying that you trust those people with your life more than you do yourself. Iʼve seen the few times you couldʼve been killed. Where were those people then? You canʼt be so naive, not if you plan on following me, strength comes first, because without it youʼll only die. Use these now so we can go.”

Defense: 5

Strength:12->22

Agility:15->20

Constitution:12 +2

Stamina:12

Magic: 45->55 +3

Spirit:24->34 +2

After using the orbs and seeing her stats, Ailetta looked towards Noah with watery eyes ready to fall.

”Sniff* I promise to get stronger soon Noah…”

When she was getting emotional, Noah noticed that she paused, he thought something went wrong until she unfroze and looked at him again.

”I got something called a perk…itʼs a skill for getting my mana to 50.”

Noah was shocked once again, not by what she said, but how she said it.

”Donʼt tell me no one in your group has received a perk yet?” He hoped that she would say they had, otherwise he would question how they stayed alive so long. But her question only made her more emotional.

”I donʼt know….are those things youʼre supposed to talk about? No one shared their skills with me…Jas has Mark, Bailey has Ibby and Paul, Ailicia has Ishii and Isabelle rarely talks…I…I…I donʼt know..” She began to tear up when she realized that even though she was surrounded by so many people she was more alone than she had realized.

Noah didnʼt know how to react to this. But he knew that he shouldnʼt press her anymore.

”Sigh…well thatʼs in the past, Iʼll help you get stronger along the way.” He helped Ailetta to her feet to finish going through the rest of the items. He had her place the armor in her bag to wear later while he emptied the chest of its gold.

”Well what skill did you get from the perk?” He couldnʼt help but ask, all of his perks have benefited him, he hoped it would be the same for her.

”Itʼs called ʼSummoners conservationʼ. The skill lets me save 10% more mana on skills that use my summon creature.” She said, astonished at the fact she was able to get a free skill for free.

He nodded his head in satisfaction before bringing his attention to the skill scroll. The skill happened to be a taming skill. He appreciated the fact that the skills he get are now based on his class, but he also has the mage class too, he wanted more mage skills, his monsters were already fine without him.

Even though he felt this way, he couldnʼt say no. His creatures were his greatest asset and strength, and he would always have to rely on them when he encountered something he couldnʼt handle. However he just didnʼt know how this skill would benefit him at the moment.

[Grant lesser magic confirmed!]

Grant lesser magic-Increase the magic stat of a tamed creature by 10 percent of its ʼtotalʼ strength for 15 seconds. Increases after the usage of the skill will still apply. Can also be stacked with the same skill, but the usage in mana will increase with each stack of use. Skill is also influenced by spirit.]

He felt that he would have to search for a creature that could use magic in the future or at least find magic skills for his creatures. On the topic of skills, he looked towards Ailetta, half tempted not to ask.

”How many skills do you have? Donʼt tell me you shared those too?” He was already expecting the answer, but he could only frown when he saw her silently nod her head.

”…They said that the skills should go to their required roles, it sounded right to me..”

”I just canʼt…..you guys are really treating this like a video game. And they call me crazy….wait…” He stared at his ring, his eyes seemed to have gone in a trance. To others, thatʼs what it would look like, but Noah was in the middle of searching through his ring for an item.

”Hear learn this, itʼs not something I can use. However I donʼt know how your class works so I canʼt tell you if itʼs good, but for now any skill would be good for you.

He gave her the scroll to use. She looked towards the scroll and then to Noah before looking towards the scroll again, more determined than before.

”The skill is called ʼmana flowʼ and it allows me to reabsorb 20 percent of the mana that was used to summon it after I end the skill.” She said excitedly. But then she looked at Noah, clear shock in her eyes.

”Has the system asked you if you want to integrate your custom skills into it? Iʼve been meaning to ask you since you are probably the best person to ask. Jasmine decided not to, but I have two skills that I could integrate and I feel that it might be better to do so.” She ranted without even knowing the mini explosion she caused to go off in Noahʼs head.

”Wait, wait, wait…you can create your own skills?” He asked impatiently, gradually he came to realize how stupid he sounded. ʼNow whoʼs comparing this to a game, of course you should be able to make your own skills!ʼ

Ailetta felt that something wasnʼt right, ʼhe was so strong and he never once made his own skill? Then how did he get so many skills?ʼ Even though she felt something was off, she was gonna answer him anyways, but Noah beat her to it.

”Nevermind, that was a dumb question. I would say if itʼs a skill you feel that you can upgrade on your own then you shouldnʼt integrate it. You might not even need an upgrade stone if you do it that way. But some skills might be better to have in the system just for tha-”

”Noah? Noah? The food is waiting for you”

Noah and Ailetta soon became aware of what was going on around them when Arachne nudged his shoulders with her hands; it was the only part of her limbs that didnʼt have the glowing green color, which he assumed was poison.

He turned to the direction she was facing and noticed the ʼfoodʼ she was referring to.

For some reason the people there were looking towards them with dumbstruck expressions and some even had looks of jealousy and envy. Noah wouldnʼt know that they all had stopped what they were doing when they saw Noah give Ailetta a small pile of attribute orbs and even a skill!

The worst part of it was that Ailetta was just average! This was only bound to set off the women who would kill to be given resources like that.

Coughs* Jasmine became aware that Noah and Ailetta had finally noticed them, even though she was originally only calling for Ailetta, but Arachne for some reason had to say they were calling for Noah.

”We are all planning on leaving soon after we collect some things from the dorm, are you two coming with us?”