Becoming a Monster

Chapter 388: Chapter 388: A Fool’s Poison

The forest had fallen quiet again, though its silence no longer carried the same suffocating weight as before. Time passed in uneasy stillness. Noah’s visage was blocked by the confines of his home, while deep within its cavern, the drake had retreated to slumber without being annoyed by the unwelcome noise of its neighbor. Only the slow, echoing rumble of its breathing showed that the cave was inhabited.

Above the den, high in the trees, a presence too large to ignore slithered among the branches. The serpent had returned. Its massive body rested across the trees, its upper body was rooted on Noah’s home. Its body was tired, though shrouded by the forest’s darkness, it was clear that anyone could see that something was missing from its head.

Outside their home, the entrance was being guarded. Dummy laid completely sprawled on his belly, a little farther from the others. His nose constantly sniffed the air, each breath louder than the drake’s. Beneath him, a pool of saliva already formed as his hungry gaze looked in a certain direction.

Next to him Fenrir lingered close by, his large body was nearly tucked in a ball. He lay directly next to the entrance, his expression was of utter annoyance. He had been forced to remain outside to keep Dummy under control. Kratos, never wanting to be outdone, prowled outside alongside Fenrir. From Kratos’s perspective, Fenrir was trying to overthrow his own role as Noah’s weapon. Choosing to wait outside and defend their master’s home. So he too decided to dutifully perform his role.

Among them now stood their newest addition.

At Pandora’s quiet insistence, Noah had healed the creature’s grievous wounds, though not even his power could restore the eye it had lost.

Larger than Dummy and rivaling, if not surpassing, Fenrir in size, it stood as a werewolf, the epitome of fearsome ugliness. Its limbs were massive, its chest and shoulders unnaturally broad, its entire form was made of developed muscles that were barely being hidden by its fur. Once a troll, now twisted into one of Fenrir’s kin, it no longer resembled its original form. Instead, it became a fusion between a giant ape and a wolf, a beast designed for power alone.

From their places at the entrance, the creatures kept their eyes fixed outward, toward the open fields where the humans had gathered.

They sat in circles, five large groups divided across the clearing. In each, a small fire burned beneath suspended pots, steam rising with the faint scent of broth. Food being passed around freely, bowls handed from one pair of tired hands to another.

The strange part wasn’t that there was food. It was the sheer amount. More than enough for everyone gathered. It wasn’t physically possible. Not when not a single soul had been seen carrying supplies.

One would believe it was a miracle.

The food didn’t come from nowhere, though to most it might as well have. People from each group would step away from their fires and walk toward where Amara had finally awoken. They spoke quietly with her father, and each time he raised his hand.

Grains spilled as if pulled from thin air. Cuts of meat followed, they weren’t fresh, but they weren’t contaminated or inedible either. Each time, he materialized more than enough to fill the waiting pots before sending them back.

Noah wasn’t here to see it. If he had, his eyes would’ve immediately locked onto the ring on the man’s finger. He would’ve noticed the detail, the subtle glow, and he would have recognized it for what it was.

But even then, what would have caught his attention more wasn’t just the ability itself, it was that this ring was better than his own. His ring couldn’t avoid the passage of time.

Amara watched the people with a faint, tired smile. It was rare to see the people who followed her like this, with a moment of peace. She could tell by the way their eyes constantly flicked to the sound of the tiniest noise that they were still afraid.

But even inside that fear, she saw something she hadn’t seen in days.

Smiles. The kind of smiles born from warm food in an empty stomach, from the illusion of safety, even if just for a night.

Her thoughts, however, couldn’t help but drift back to the shadowed creature that made this moment possible.

She didn’t share Anubi’s memories, but what he did to that goblin had been told to her by her father and the others. Unlike them, the story didn’t inspire fear in her. If anything,it confirmed her suspicion. The creature’s ability to interact with souls was proof enough, it had ties with Anubis. And it was for that reason that her God sent her here.

But now the question was... what should they do next?

It didn’t take long for the conversations to shift. At first, it was whispers, passed between small groups as they ate. Then, slowly, the voices grew louder, gathering into a chorus of uncertainty that Amara could no longer ignore.

”Do we stay here?” someone asked.

”What if the creature decides it doesn’t want us tomorrow?” another pressed.

”Even if he spares us, what about the other monsters in this forest?”

Amara listened. She always listened. Every concern, every fear. They weren’t wrong. None of them were wrong for their feelings. But their talks began to weigh heavily on her. In the end, they won’t have to share her burden of making the decision.

Her father sat quietly beside her, his eyes fixed on the fire as though the flames might give him an answer. He wasn’t planning on saying anything, but when he saw his daughter turn towards him, he looked to her before turning back to the fire and began to speak.

”Amara,” his voice was calm, the same as it had always been when the world around them seemed to crumble. His steadiness always made Amara feel as though he should’ve been the real leader.

”You can doubt the world, but you shouldn’t doubt your gift. If not for you, death would’ve embraced us long ago.” He stopped looking at the flames, warmly looking into her eyes that began to grow blurry with her tears.

”Your doubts exist because you have a goal but without a clear destination. You want to save us, but save us from what? The monsters we came across are not the same kind from the world that we know. You want to find a place where it’s safe, but we don’t know where we are. We don’t even know if such a place exists...” His voice softened, but a fire was now lit in his eyes, a rare sense of resolve that Amara had seen in him before.

”You’ve been searching for safety as if it is a place we must reach. But maybe safety is not where we are... maybe it’s who we are with.” His gaze flickered briefly toward the construct glowing with ominous vines where Noah had vanished earlier. ”Maybe your role is not just to guide us away from danger, but to guide us to the one who can give you a destination to your goals.”

Before Amara could respond to her father’s words, a voice broke through the quiet.

”Enough of this.”

It was Yossef, the same man who had run at her side through the forest. Strong in body, yes, but it was the kind of strength honed for himself alone. His shoulders were broad, his arms carried the tone of a man who had trained, but his eyes betrayed him. Narrow, shifting, always searching for a way to avoid being the first into danger. His dark hair clung to his forehead in sweat despite the night’s chill, and his lips curled in a sneer that had nothing to do with bravery.

[Class Awakened: Dreadstalker]

Born of fear and sharpened by selfish instinct, the Dreadstalker thrives when overlooked. Their power is drawn from shadows, their cunning from survival, their strength from the suffering of others.

Yossef couldn’t keep calm, not after hearing them speak of the shadowed monster as if it were some kind of savior. His words came out in hushed whispers first, each syllable full of spite.

”Have you all lost your minds?” he spat, his voice just loud enough to catch the attention of those closest to the fire. ”You speak of that creature as if it’s the reason we’re alive, when in truth it’s nothing but a devil sheltering us because it got something out of it. You think it did this for free?”

The bitterness in his tone spread like smoke. Slowly, their hushed discussion grew louder as the discussions around them became silent, ears pricked as everyone couldn’t help their curiosity.

What happens when it no longer has a reason to keep us alive? Then what? You’re all so eager to throw yourselves under the mercy of a monster!”

His eyes gleamed, a glint of hunger overtaking his sneer. He vividly recalled to them, the sight he could never unsee, the moment he had strayed too close to the creature’s home.

A mystifying light floating within the center of the room. And within that room, a chest, one unlike anything he had ever seen.

His voice lowered, almost to a hiss, but no less desperate. ”Whatever’s inside... It’s not ordinary. It’s not something that belongs to a monster. With it, we wouldn’t need to depend on that thing anymore. With it, we’d have a chance to survive the morning.”