Becoming a Monster

Chapter 445: Chapter 445: The First Real Day of Training

”How long do you think he’s going to sulk?” Ailetta asked. Her tone was light-hearted, almost playful. ”Maybe you should’ve struggled a bit more?”

She didn’t bother lowering her voice. She didn’t really care if the drake heard her. In fact, she hoped it did.

Almost every one of Noah’s creatures had gathered around him. After Noah finally understood the essence of what he needed to further strengthen himself, he now brought the others together to gain insight into what everyone should do to train.

Noah had called them together after his realization, wanting to speak about training and about what everyone needed to do moving forward.

Ailetta, however, was more entertained by the aftermath.

She tilted her head slightly, her gaze drifting towards the cave’s entrance. Inside the cave, the drake lay with its back to them. Only its backside, along with its tail, was visible.

It hadn’t even bothered to retreat fully. But it refused, absolutely refused to show its face. Every so often, its tail twitched against the ground, scraping softly in irritation.

Noah glanced in that direction, then back to the group. A faint smile tugged at his lips, though he wisely said nothing.

He wouldn’t ignore the fact that the drake had still helped him.

”Alright,” he said, shifting his attention back to the others. ”Enough teasing.”

Noah glanced once more toward the cave’s entrance.

”No one grows stronger than everything around them for years... and comes out of it normal.”

He returned his gaze to his companions.

”We would be no different. If there were nothing to challenge us, then arrogance would be the natural result that follows.”

A small pause followed. And two figures slightly shrank back under Noah’s gaze.

Both Fenrir and Arachne understood that look without Noah having to explain it.

Arachne was already prideful. Her pride excelled further after merging with the Queen’s soul.

If not for the multitude of times where they encountered stronger foes, encounters where their life hung on a fine line, the pride she exhibited would be colder than before.

Fenrir was no different. However, besides his pride, his recklessness would have been the first thing to spiral out of control.

He met Noah’s gaze for half a second before looking away. A quiet huff left his nose, somewhere between accepting that he wasn’t the best in the past and that he didn’t want to acknowledge it.

Arachne lowered her eyes instead. The faint tightening of her fingers was the only sign that she understood the implication.

Noah didn’t press them further.

Ailetta didn’t comment this time. The amusement from earlier had softened. She understood what Noah was doing. He wasn’t defending the drake’s arrogance. He was using it as a lesson for them.

”Now,” Noah regained their attention. He lifted his hand and formed the small mana sphere again. This time, it didn’t flare or pulse. He was able to feed and restore mana at will.

However, he learned that he couldn’t restore everything. There was still mana that was used to protect from the mana in the air, as well as not having perfect control. At least not yet.

”You all saw what happened earlier.” The sphere began to change shape, compressing and elongating into a spear that hovered over his palm.

There was a time when he struggled with this task. But now, developing the shape was no longer the issue.

”I’ve realized that before we can grow stronger, we need to understand ourselves first. We need to test what our limits are, and we need to break through them with effort.”

Noah extinguished the mana, materializing one of the last remaining cores. The atmosphere changed accordingly.

”This is not training... We have grown dependent on easily accessible power. That fault lies with me, but it ends here.”

He closed his fingers, and the core vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. ”From today onwards, only those who work towards improving themselves will be rewarded.”

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Nearly an hour had gone by, and the drake hadn’t budged an inch. No matter how much it wanted to.

Ever since Noah and the others began training, their ears were constantly filled with the sounds of small scuffles, miniature earthquakes, and Noah’s voice.

How laughable. The drake mentally exclaimed.

Despite the lesson it gave, it didn’t believe in actual training. Its earlier words were all theatrics. It had the blood of a dragon; as long as it lived, it would grow stronger. And if it fought, its strength would grow even faster.

Mana control also came naturally. If it were to actually attempt to show Noah how to train for mana control, its bluff would’ve been exposed.

However, here it was listening to the Devil and their lackeys training. No matter how much it prided itself on its genetics, the reality was that the Devil and his followers would surely surpass it.

And if that happened, would the Devil still honor his agreement to make him stronger? Especially when it vividly recalled Noah saying he would now only reward those who trained.

What happened to what he said before?!

The drake felt that it was being cheated. Training? What would training do when it had already reached its limits?

The question echoed back at it. Had it? Or had it simply grown comfortable?

It told itself it didn’t care. It told itself that it was above this.

And yet its ears still perked up as it listened to Noah speak again.

”Arachne, you’re thinking too much again. It happens every time you are put under pressure. Your strikes are faster than mine, but you still lose momentum the moment you feel that you are losing. This is the best time to infuse more mana into your legs... Again!”

The sound of metal began to cling again, mixing with the other chaotic noises.

_____________

Out in the middle of their territory, Noah squared off against Arachne. The two were only using their spider legs to attack one another.

Their legs moved in a blur. Sparks flickered with each exchange, making it appear as if their legs were creating fire.

With each flurry of attacks Noah sent, Arachne would initially respond with a deflection and an attack of her own.

Noah had only created another leg to match Arachne’s own, but whenever Arachne breached past his defenses, a tendril would sprout from his body to intercept. At the same time, his previous attacks continued to progress unhindered.

It was in those moments that Arachne’s momentum would crash, leaving her only to defend.

This time, she was more determined. Her attacks were more fierce than before.

Earlier, she had been reluctant to harm him.

That hesitation cost her.

And now, what worried her more than hurting Noah was seeming like a failure.

Again, she fell under Noah’s sudden, aggressive attacks. No matter how prepared she was, Noah still managed to disrupt her flow.

Her jaw tightened, but this time she didn’t panic. She tried doing what Noah instructed.

She could feel her mana funneling through her, but using it the way he said was harder than done. The mana infused into her legs and body, but it didn’t make them faster. Instead, she saw another way out.

One of Noah’s legs came down at an angle meant to collapse her stance. This time, she didn’t intercept it. She allowed the leg to strike so she could land an attack of her own.

A sharp vibration shot up her side. But she also felt a collision on the other end of her leg.

”See? You can do it if you put your mind to it. We can almost start the next phase.”

Arachne didn’t understand why Noah’s tendril didn’t block her attack like before. She was satisfied enough with receiving his praise.

She immediately glanced to her side.

Further away from her, a battered Fenrir was recuperating from his barbaric training, using the time he had to spare to watch her.

He didn’t mock her earlier failures; he only cared about whose progress was better. And right now, he felt that he was doing worse.

His training was different than hers. Words wouldn’t be enough to point out his flaws, and Noah knew that better than anyone.

For now, he was forced to spew out flames in one setting until he ran out of mana completely. Each time, he was to aim for a longer time frame than before.

And when he was left with barely enough mana to go again, he focused on the next goal, to be able to burn down the golem that Noah had prepared for him.

Both goals had ended in failure. And now he was mentally preparing himself for the next phase.

With his mana running on empty, he had to fight against Baka and Dummy, who just finished squaring off against each other, with Dummy unable to use its mouths to fight, matching Baka fist for fist.

For the first time, Fenrir understood how important mana was. His body was even more sluggish than before, and his regeneration was nearly non-existent.

Despite his subordinates being significantly weaker than himself, he was struggling to maintain his physical superiority, having to dig deeper within himself than he ever had before.

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The drake’s gaze drew to everyone trying to improve themselves.

No... not trying. It could tell that they were improving.

And for the first time in a very long time, the drake wondered whether its limits had truly been limits... or the cage of its own complacency.