Becoming a Monster

Chapter 112: Chapter 112: Despreation

The last evolved bird seemed to grow frantic after it realized the danger they were in, it tried to give the call to retreat. Its original nature began to resurface as it tried to flee from the danger, but as it was in the middle of trying to give the command to escape, the last sound it heard was a small explosion coming from one of the buildings before its vision grew dark.

Arachne prioritized eliminating the two evolved birds that posed the greatest threat to Noah before concerning herself with anything else.

With both of their leaders gone and still recovering from the effects of Fenrir’s roar, the remaining birds attempted to flee. Even the birds attacking Ailetta decided to retreat, but not without being taken down by Noah. Although Noah initially lacked the speed, after activating Ruler’s Fury and continuously using the skill ’Elusive’, along with the effects of his sword, he became unstoppable. He didn’t stop until he had taken down every bird surrounding Ailetta.

Noah’s spider traits fully bloomed under the effects of Ruler’s Fury. Using Sensory Sentinel, his body reacted instinctively to every gust generated by the birds’ wings. His time-bending vision tracked each movement, allowing his strikes to achieve uncanny accuracy.

Time seemed to stop after the fighting was over. Noah, Arachne, and Fenrir remained on high alert, scanning for any remaining targets. If Noah could fly, he would have chased after the birds that managed to escape.

Just as Noah seemed about to rampage against the dead bodies, the soft crying of Ailetta reached his ears. Her cries were barely enough to wake him from the trance induced by his skill.

Seeing her bloodied body, Noah’s worries shot to the sky. He didn’t know what to say as he made his way toward her, using the time to frantically assess her injuries, which were far worse than he had anticipated.

Clumps of her hair had been torn out, and her glasses were completely broken. Deep scratches marred her face, and small holes were etched into her hands from her attempts to protect her eyes. Besides these injuries, pieces of flesh had been torn from her body where the birds’ beaks had pierced through her armor.

Noah wasn’t one to cry, but his heart ached seeing her condition.

”Why didn’t you call for me? I would’ve come to help you.”

Even in his arms, she couldn’t hold back her tears. The pain seemed to hit her fully as her cries grew louder. Her response filled him with a sense of guilt even greater than what he already felt.

”I... I di-didn’t want to ho-hold you back... I d-don’t want t-to be weak...” she cried between sobs. Each word, coupled with the pain, made her cry harder than before.

Noah’s guilt led him to seek a way out instinctively, causing his troubled mind to wonder why she hadn’t used the abomination to defend herself while being attacked. Then it hit him! He remembered one of the main reasons he decided against becoming a summoner in the first place. ’I should’ve had her summon it much sooner! Stupid... How could I forget...?’ Inwardly, he admonished himself for his blind arrogance. It wasn’t that he ”forgot” about the drawback of her profession; he simply didn’t consider it, believing he was strong enough to defend them both if the need arose.

As he dwelled on this, his eyes filled with self-hate. However, seeing Ailetta’s tragic state helped him regain a slim sense of clarity. Despite calming down somewhat, his blind rage shifted into a mixture of emotions as he thought about the fact that she still hadn’t called for his help.

”Stupid! You just have to get stronger! That doesn’t mean to let yourself be killed!” Noah yelled as he stood up, Ailetta still clutched in his arms.

Noah’s outburst startled Ailetta, her tears momentarily pausing as she looked up at him, her eyes filled with a mixture of hurt and confusion. His words pierced through her already fragile emotional state, adding another layer of pain to her already heavy burden.

”I... I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the sound of her own sobs. ”I didn’t mean to... I just...”

But her words faltered as she struggled to find the right words to express herself. The weight of Noah’s disappointment bore down on her, leaving her feeling helpless and lost.

Noah’s anger began to ebb, replaced by a wave of remorse as he realized the impact of his words on Ailetta.

”I’m sorry, Ailetta,” he said softly, his voice filled with genuine regret. He placed his free hand above her cheek, wiping away her tears. The rare gesture trumped Ailetta, her surprised face made her pain seem like an illusion.

As Noah took the time to fully assess her injuries, he noticed that her life wasn’t in immediate danger, but if she continued to bleed, there was a real chance she could die. Though he couldn’t heal her directly without taming her, he realized he did have another option.

With just a thought, Noah made a bottle filled with red liquid appear in his hands. He didn’t hesitate to remove the cork before forcing all of its contents down Ailetta’s throat. While waiting for the potion to take effect, he couldn’t help but think, ’Just what am I going to do with you?’

He watched helplessly as the tier one potion worked its magic. The potion was faster than any healing power he had seen so far, even surpassing his own healing abilities when he had healed Arachne. He saw the wounds close, leaving no scars, with fresh blood covering the surface. He wasn’t sure if the potion was this effective because it was a higher tier than the person using it or if these could be considered superficial wounds.

Looking at her, he couldn’t help but recall how helpless she was without her skills. ’It’s only a matter of time before she actually dies... If those two evolved birds had decided to attack her instead of me, she would’ve been a goner. Should I form a pact with her? Or is there another way? If only we could get her some more... skills?’

His inner dialogue reminded him of the place where he was able to get skills. The mysterious shopkeeper’s appearance was still fresh in his mind.

’I need to find it again, but how am I—’ Noah was cut off from his thoughts when he felt he was receiving a notification. He wasn’t sure if the notification had been there since the fight ended or if it had just appeared. He assumed it must be the former, but the sensation was different now. Instead of the usual prodding, it felt like a pull.

When he tried to visualize his notifications like he usually did, all he saw was darkness, as if looking at the back of his eyelids. Opening his eyes, he realized the pull was gone. His brows furrowed in deep thought. He didn’t like when something happened that he couldn’t explain. He didn’t notice that Ailetta was staring dazedly into his face with an embarrassed and troubled expression.

As he pondered deeply, he recalled his last action and thought. When his mind touched upon the subject of finding the mysterious shopkeeper again, the pull reappeared.

As Noah concentrated on the feeling of the pull, he was shocked by what he thought it meant. It seemed as though his thoughts were somehow connected to the mysterious shopkeeper, and the pull was leading him towards that connection.

’Is it pointing me in the direction of the shop?’ was his initial thought, but he wasn’t a hundred percent sure. If that was the case, then why would it require him to think of it just to show him the way? And is it something he could always do, or did it only become available to him after he advanced his class?

”Ack!” Ailetta was startled when Noah suddenly looked down towards her, anxious that she may have been caught staring. But now that he could tell she was better, his preoccupied mind wasn’t worried about anything else.

”What happens if you try to think about finding the shop?” Noah asked, his curiosity trumping any concern for her well-being at the moment.

At this time, the others were finally withdrawing from the nearby building, their confidence even more slumped than before. Not only were they not properly equipped to fight off flying creatures, but they also weren’t prepared for birds to attempt to eat them!

Unlike the mindless zombies that ran in a straight line, birds moved sporadically, making it difficult for the new addition of the small woman with the bow to keep up with them on such short notice. Ailicia had used the majority of her knives in the previous fight and wasn’t able to retrieve the ones lodged into the zombies’ heads, drastically reducing her fighting ability.

The mages weren’t able to perform their magic within such a short amount of time, while the combat specialists were mostly suited for one-on-one direct approaches.

Their eyes instantly went towards the buildings’ rooftops, fearing any other birds waiting to ambush them again.

Meanwhile, Ailetta looked at Noah with a puzzled gaze. Even when she tried thinking about the shop, nothing worth mentioning occurred. She wasn’t sure exactly what he was asking for, but her lack of an answer was enough for Noah to come up with his own conjectures.

’If it’s really pointing me in the direction of the shop, then that should be my first priority, but is it really just a coincidence?’ Noah thought as he looked in the direction the pull was directing him. It happened to be the same direction they were heading in now, coinciding with the street where the zombies ahead of them were behaving strangely. They were quite a distance away, but even the noise from the earlier fight wasn’t enough to grab their attention.

”Coughs*”Noa-Noah? Can you let me down now? I think I should be able to stand on my own,” Ailetta spoke softly while bashfully looking away.

Noah’s worried switch seemed to turn off in an instant. Now that she was out of danger, his mind was solely focused on two things: his loot and finding the shop. Reacting instinctively to her words, he set her down immediately without addressing her, proceeding to the chest that had dropped.

Ailetta couldn’t comment on his blatant disregard, especially after he had just saved her life. She was somewhat familiar with his one-track mind, feeling idle and self-conscious of her uselessness as she watched Noah’s creatures move towards the birds one by one, removing the mana stones one by one.

Ailetta felt that if anything, she should help out to be considerate, but when she approached one of the fallen birds and proceeded to bend over, a tall looming figure suddenly approached her. The threatening growls and heavy breathing told her everything she needed to know about who it was.

It’s hard for anyone not to panic when approached and intimidated by such a creature, whose gaze alone can send shivers down your spine, let alone Ailetta, who had two life-and-death encounters against the beast. Her trauma memories triggered an instinctive reaction for her to clutch her arms to her chest, backing away while avoiding eye contact.

”Fenrir, that food might be Noah’s possible ’mate’... let her be for now,” Arachne stepped in to diffuse the situation. Ailetta wasn’t sure if she should feel thankful, embarrassed, or insulted concerning the tone and contents of what Arachne said about her. Who would like to be regarded as food? But the word ”mate” was enough for her mind to offset the insult, although she couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the way Arachne’s tone implied it.

Ailetta had a vague suspicion about Arachne’s thoughts concerning Noah. She couldn’t help but recollect how many stories consisted of situations that were comparable to this, tales of forbidden attraction between human and monster. But when did the interest begin, and was Noah aware of it? She felt there was no way it could happen; there was no way Noah could be with such a monster, even if Arachne could be considered part human as well. Yet, when she thought about the subtle changes already happening around him, she was reminded that her thoughts had yet again to catch up to reality.

’It’s not that he could be attracted to a monster as a human... but he’s actually becoming a monster...’ Ailetta’s heart felt heavy as she fully accepted the realization. She reflected on the advice he gave her before, realizing with a start that she had interpreted it metaphorically.

With a sinking feeling, Ailetta realized that to stand by Noah’s side, she not only had to grow stronger but also had to find a way to transform herself into a being capable of competing with someone like Arachne for Noah’s affections. Her thoughts spiraled into a maelstrom of desperation, consumed by the belief that she needed to metamorphose into a monster to have any chance of holding onto Noah.

Meanwhile, lost in his own world of disappointment, Noah remained oblivious to the events unfolding around him. His focus was entirely consumed by the contents of the golden chest, or rather, the lack thereof, leaving him unaware of anything else happening in his vicinity.

Noah’s disappointment surged as he desperately yearned for another upgrade stone. He envisioned consuming a few cores from the campus’s gate, confident that with an upgrade stone, he could potentially upgrade the majority of his racial skills. However, to his dismay, the golden chest didn’t yield an upgrade stone this time. This was one of the few instances where he hadn’t received an attribute orb either, leaving him feeling cheated by his luck.

Despite this disappointment, he found solace in the two items out of three within the chest that did bring him some contentment.

The least practical item proved to be a torso armor piece. Its design featured metal plating along the upper midsection, complemented by an unfamiliar grey leather material covering the lower midsection. Long sleeves of the same grey leather, adorned with metal plating along the entire forearm, completed the ensemble. Adding a distinctive flair was the feathered collar, extending from the back of the neck to the shoulder pads, imparting a unique and ornate finish to the armor.

Noah was drawn to the armor’s aesthetic appeal, but he ultimately dismissed the idea of equipping it. His silk-made armor, with its flexibility and durability, resonated more with his artistic sensibilities.

Moving on to the last two items, he examined a pitch-black sword with a handle resembling wings, its silver seam running down the middle. Though he didn’t anticipate replacing his current sword anytime soon, he couldn’t deny the allure of this blade’s design.

The final item gave him pause. It wasn’t what he had expected to find, yet it seemed to be the most valuable item in the chest. Retrieving it, he discovered a collar, adorned with feather motifs similar to his armor. But it wasn’t the appearance that puzzled him; it was the purpose of a dog collar that left him perplexed.

He turned the collar over in his hands, searching for any clues or markings that might offer insight into its use. Perhaps it held some hidden functionality or power that he hadn’t yet discovered. Whatever its purpose, it was clear that this collar was more than just a simple accessory.