Becoming a Monster

Chapter 164: Chapter 164: Its Changing as I Do

There was a budding fear that somehow that entity was interfering with Noah’s soul again, but Ailetta could feel it, Noah’s consciousness was still awake, still ’him’. However, she still wanted to be sure, and as she was connected to his soul, she ventured into their realm; the eye representing her opened.

Almost everything was the same, if not accounting for the intense energy spikes erupting from his soul. Her gaze ventured to the one that was her true reason for coming here, and that’s when her eye widened with horrified awe.

The entity’s silhouette was changing, its shadowed limbs growing and stretching, while the intensity in its four eyes were glaring even more ominously. It wasn’t the entity’s entire body that was going through a transformation, the changes were only occurring towards the limbs that held a greater resemblance to a spider.

Back outside, Ailetta scrutinized Noah’s transformation even more. By this time, his spider appendages had fully emerged from his back, moving sporadically as if they held a life of their own. His exoskeleton encased him fully as before, while his skin became a tint darker but not as dark as it once was before. The suspense was killing her; she wanted Noah to hurry and finish so she could question him already.

She waited, and Arachne waited. Now that both his spider legs and his exoskeleton was fully transitioned, Noah’s intense vigor when drinking Arachne’s blood quickly dwindled to small sips, his actions were akin to a newborn drinking the last few drops out of the sense of comfort it brought.

Although his appearance appeared endearing, something about him was unusual. Both pairs of his eyes were tightly shut, and if one weren’t disillusioned by the blood covering his face, they would notice the trails of blood seeping from each one of his eyes, continuously traveling down his face, mixing in with the last few drops from Arachne’s blood.

Time passed with no one interrupting, not even speaking until Noah was done.

Droplets of blood continued to freely fall from Noah’s face. Although his metamorphosis appeared painful, he felt rejuvenated at the same time as he exhaled a deep, refreshed breath.

The transition resembled a hazy dream, but a dream that Noah was aware was real. His body straightened up so he could see what changed about him, his muscles adjusting to the familiar yet strange sensation coursing through his body. A series of resounding cracks echoed with the snapping of his bones snapping into place, and his height noticeably grew by almost half a foot.

He wanted to inspect his changes quickly, but as soon as he opened his eyes, he winced. The natural light around him was more blinding than before, harsher, as if his senses had sharpened to an intensity he wasn’t yet prepared for. His vision blurred momentarily, overwhelmed by the brightness that felt unnatural compared to what he remembered.

Slowly, Noah opened his primary pair of eyes, wincing as he adjusted to the searing brightness. Once fully opened, his eyes widened in disbelief. The world appeared more vivid, more... real. It felt like his senses had been enhanced, as though someone had replaced his vision with a far more advanced, upgraded version. The colors in his surroundings were sharper, more vibrant. Textures, even from a distance, were crystal clear; every surface, whether stone, wood, or fabric, retained its unique texture, even at impossible distances. But it wasn’t merely a change in color and texture. While an average person might see five shades of color, Noah could potentially see the entire spectrum. Even if someone were to camouflage with the safety shadows, Noah would easily be able to pick their figure apart when even those who were adapted with vision amplifying skills could not.

If his primary pair of eyes had unlocked this new world, what would happen when he opened his more powerful, more perceptive eyes? With a deep breath, Noah braced himself, mentally stabilizing as he prepared to unlock what those eyes would reveal. Slowly, he began to open them.

Almost immediately, he was hit with a dizziness spell. Eight different perspectives awaited him as he opened his eyes that were constantly changing. Subconsciously, he was using them to look as he would normally view things, but that only caused his disbalance to grow worse. Despite the unsettling perspectives, he was both amazed and a bit worried about the prospect of his new vision. Every movement, every subtle shift in the environment, seemed to generate waves of information he couldn’t ignore. Birds flying at the far reaches of the city, the barely noticeable flutter of a curtain miles away, even the faint swaying of tree branches, all of it registered, layered in a way that flooded his mind with details. Nothing escaped his attention.

Ailetta found herself lost in both of Noah’s eyes. Noticing his first pair appeared almost the same as before if one were to just look at his eyes on the surface. The irises still held their familiar deep purple hue, the kind that once made him seem more human. But as her gaze deepened, she noticed something new. The whites of his sclera had a glossy, almost translucent quality, revealing faint hexagonal facets beneath, like the hidden structure of an ant’s compound eye now subtly embedded within the tissue. The reflection caught in them shifted and shimmered, giving his eyes an unnatural sharpness.

Then she saw his second pair of eyes, which were more monstrous in appearance than its predecessor. Both still had the same purple irises, but now each eye contained four glowing red pupils, each able to move independently, shifting and darting about as they scanned their surroundings with an eerie intensity that reminded her of her slimes.

As Noah adjusted to his visions, he never once planned to test out the secondary effects of his eyes. Instead, he quickly began to inspect himself, and that’s when his eyes narrowed.

”This is...”

”It’s just like when that ’thing’ was fully connected with you, right?” Noah’s thoughts were finished by Ailetta who was now standing by his side, analyzing his ’new’ changes with both intrigue and suspicion.

Seeing that Noah was allowing Ailetta to freely examine his body, Arachne finally gave in. Unlike Ailetta, Arachne couldn’t keep her hands to herself as she began to caress over Noah’s spider appendages. The unique feature really drove home the fact that Noah was now more like her into full perspective.

Noah only spared a glance to Arachne’s actions before his gaze redirected to what Ailetta had just voiced. Just like her, he also ventured into the realm of his soul, and naturally, his eyes went towards the entity looming above. He regarded it with a serene composure, as though the sight didn’t disturb him in the slightest.

His thoughts only raced to what the change signified. There was an inkling in his very being that his initial thoughts to what was happening wasn’t too far off from the truth.

The scene changed to Noah looking deeply towards Arachne, his eyes slowly pandering over to Fenrir not too far away who was laying down, waiting as patiently as he could. Yet, his eagerness wasn’t able to be hidden as long as he held a tail.

Noah observed Fenrir with an almost distant look.

Although his eyes were looking at Fenrir specifically, his thoughts were predicting what would most likely happen after gaining Fenrir’s blood. And if that was the catch, he had the feeling that his previous full transformation had most likely manifested into something more....monstrous.

”It’s the same, but not the same...” Noah murmured, glancing towards Ailetta before his eyes wandered towards his back. His legs were now half a size longer than in his earlier full transformation, resembling Arachne’s legs but without the faint markings. ”Obviously, these things are much bigger than before, and I don’t recall my eyes being like this either. I have a guess what might be happening, but I’ll have to wait to see if my assumption is right..”

With that, Noah said his piece and went back to ignoring the others. He was already aware of the mutations in his abilities but seeing them firsthand brought a sense of satisfaction that simple awareness couldn’t provide.

Majesty’s Essence Core- Harness your regal authority to create powerful essence cores, each imbued with the essence of the creatures you have consumed. These cores provide temporary boosts, reflecting the potency of your past meals and the mana invested in their creation. The skill’s effectiveness grows with your mastery, unlocking additional effects and enhancing the cores’ attributes. The amount of mana used determines the potency and effects of the core.

Minor Core: Created with 1-50 mana, this core provides a small boost of the consumed creature’s essence, generating a random effect at 5% of its usual potency.

Enhanced Core: Using 51-100 mana, this core grants a random effect at 10% potency while temporarily manifesting one physical trait of the creature.

Superior Core: With 101-150 mana, this core grants a random effect at 20% potency, temporarily manifests a physical trait, and also grants one of the creature’s skills.

DreadWeaver’s Convergence- Channel the full potential of your Dreadweaver powers to forge dread-infused constructs that combine attributes of different traits of your being into creations, adding various effects like poison, paralysis, or enhanced physical attributes. Mana consumption is based on the amount of webs supplied for creation while also taking 1 mana for every second manipulating the webs; While also consuming 1 mana per second for every second maintaining the construct when special traits are added.

Dreadweaver’s Marionette- By embedding your webs deep into the flesh of those ensnared, you transform them into puppets under your complete control. The webs penetrate the skin and reach the nervous system, allowing you to manipulate the movements and actions of your victims as if they were mere marionettes. Each use of the skill costs 20 mana, extending the usage by 5 mana for each second per victim to continue control.

Ethereal Sentinels- The sensory hairs can instinctively move your body in response to threats without requiring direct instructions from your brain. This grants you supernatural reaction speeds, allowing you to evade or counter dangers with remarkable efficiency. Your webs can be imbued with sentience, enabling them to act autonomously to protect you. When activated with mana, the surrounding webs can sense incoming threats and react defensively, creating barriers or launching counterattacks as necessary. To activate your webs sentience, you must channel mana into your surrounding webs. Each activation costs 15 mana that lasts for up to 5 mins. The consumption of the time is expended faster based on the number of webs imbued and active activity in which the webs are moving to protect you.

Threaded Gaze of Prophecy- Your eyes are the pinnacle of perceptual mastery. Not only is your perceptual prowess amplified, but each pupil within your gaze can now be imbued with mana to enable them to perceive the flow of time a tenth of a second faster. The cost of the skill remains the same, using 5 mana per second to maintain the skill. However, each pupil costs 5 individual mana to activate and maintain. For each pupil that is activated, the flow of time is amplified by a tenth of a second more.

Looking at his skills, he confirmed one of his earlier assumptions. His tamer ability to inspire further mutations within his creatures was the key to advancing his strength, even with the system’s leveling mechanics holding him back.

Each time he obtained skills from his creatures’ newly mutated forms, his skills evolved into abilities that anyone would greedily desire, even. Just one of them. But this was only the beginning, and for Noah, it wasn’t enough. Becoming complacent was what almost caused him and his creatures to die, he needed to keep growing stronger. For now, he could still progress. His eyes once again pandered over to Fenrir, whose ears perked up when noticing his gaze.

”Fenrir, it’s your turn now.”