Becoming a Monster

Chapter 572 - 571: The Coming Storm

Noah had no way of knowing that events inside Ashenveil were already beginning to move beyond anything he had anticipated.

From the very beginning, he had already considered the possibility that Varkesh could reveal everything once he returned to the city.

If anything, it would be preferable if the tiger beastkin only spoke about the things Noah permitted him to.

That way, the guild would continue viewing him as nothing more than an unusually powerful monster.

A dangerous one, certainly.

But still a monster.

After all, creatures like Bolas had existed within the forest for years without the city mobilizing everything they possessed. Powerful monsters were threats that could be monitored, contained, and dealt with whenever they became too troublesome.

That changed the moment a monster became capable of creating more monsters.

It changed even further once that monster began establishing a territory instead of merely occupying one.

A creature capable of expanding its own forces while fortifying its position wasn’t something any city could afford to ignore.

It became a threat that had to be eliminated before it grew beyond anyone’s ability to stop it.

Noah understood that from the very beginning.

That was why he only cared about two things remaining hidden.

The existence of his territory.

And the ability to transform people into monsters.

Everything else was expendable.

Whether the guild underestimated him or immediately recognized him as an existential threat, Noah had already accepted both possibilities.

If they believed he was simply another powerful monster, then the city would likely dispatch only a handful of its strongest adventurers.

Even then, Noah believed they still wouldn’t understand what they were walking into.

Varkesh had witnessed only a fraction of what his companions were truly capable of.

On the other hand, if the guild somehow learned the full extent of his abilities, then a small army would become the least of Noah’s concerns.

Fortunately, that was also the kind of battle Ailetta excelled at.

Unfortunately, the possibility Noah never considered had nothing to do with Varkesh.

It came from the people he had saved. The people who knew Noah before he ever became a ”demon”.

How much they would ultimately reveal was another matter entirely.

Because the Noah they remembered... And the Noah who now ruled the forest was no longer the same person.

—

Hours had passed since Dobby informed everyone about the growing threat.

The first half of the day was Noah filling everyone in on his thoughts on the matter.

Rather than allowing the looming siege to discourage anyone, the knowledge that their home would soon come under attack had the opposite effect.

Those who had only just learned about Noah’s intentions became even more determined to grow stronger before that day arrived.

Training would have to be harder for the next few days. For those like Fenrir and Kratos, they were focused on strengthening the traits that were improved by Noah’s blood.

In Noah’s words, their bodies were telling them what they needed to complete if they desired to evolve.

Meanwhile, the ones who already understood Noah’s plans shifted their focus elsewhere.

Strengthening themselves alone was no longer enough.

If they wanted to survive what was coming, then every improvement had to strengthen the territory as a whole.

Arachne was the first to act.

Creating more soldiers had originally been her main priority. However, the time required to birth each one had grown noticeably longer than before.

She didn’t know whether it was because her own evolution had raised the standard of every spider she produced, or if their bodies simply demanded more before they could be born.

And there was still the possibility that the potency of mana in their territory had an effect on them.

Either way, the possibility meant the same thing.

She would have stronger offspring, but longer births.

Despite this also being a good thing, it hindered her ability to do something ’now’. So her priority shifted to what she could control.

Using her current soldiers, she would ensure that no enemy could approach their territory unnoticed.

With the mutation of her blind spider, the task became considerably easier.

Unlike the rest of her brood, that particular spider could use webs in a way that made vision obsolete.

As long as every web was eventually connected together, it could perceive anything that disturbed the network.

The other spiders could do it too, but not like this particular one. The others could sense the direction of the triggered web, but this one could ”see” what triggered it the instant it was touched.

With such a creature, Arachne quickly ordered her brood to begin weaving a far larger web network throughout the forest.

Their territory had already expanded beyond what could realistically be covered in a single day, so she limited the project to the side where the adventurers had previously appeared.

If another group entered the forest, she intended to know the moment they crossed into range.

—

Ailetta chose a different approach.

Instead of reinforcing the territory itself, she periodically dispatched groups of slimes into different parts of the forest.

Their range wasn’t as wide to explore everything, unless she was willing to put more mana into each individual slime. But what she needed them for was enough.

She wasn’t quite looking for enemies, but potential souls for Noah could make use of.

However, unlike Noah, she perceives another creature’s skills simply by looking at them.

The only thing she could rely upon was her intuition, judging them by their appearance and behavior.

The stranger the creature appeared, the more interested she became.

If one of her slimes encountered something that caught her attention, they would quietly observe it until she was certain it was worth Noah’s time.

What she wanted to avoid was something that Noah had spoken to her about before.

The monsters that attacked us, like the trolls, the goblins, and the lizards, can die for all he cares. But creatures outside of that shouldn’t be killed without reason.

She could picture what Noah was trying to do. He truly was taking up the mantle of the role as the ”ruler” of the forest.

His goal was not just to strengthen their home, but the forest as a whole.

That way, not only would the future potential of creatures increase, resulting in obtaining a wider variety of abilities from the creatures they used as food.

The forest as a whole would grow stronger, serving as a safety net to prevent beings like other humans from entering.

She found the route Noah decided to take amusing. Instead of blindly taking what he wants, he was, in some ways, more humane than humans claimed to be.

But that wouldn’t stop her from doing what she set out to do.

Her goal was simple.

If Noah could acquire more useful souls before the battle began, then the cats and dogs could receive stronger abilities.

The stronger every individual within the territory became, the fewer weaknesses remained for their enemies to exploit.

Despite searching for potential souls, she wasn’t particularly interested in finding one for Eve.

Noah had already promised her that the coming battle would provide more opportunities than they could ever need to find the perfect soul.

—

Everyone else proceeded to do what they could.

Then there were those who remained almost completely unperturbed by the news.

Bolas was one of them.

While everyone else busied themselves preparing for the coming battle, the drake continued sleeping whenever the opportunity presented itself.

The more Noah observed him, the more convinced he became that dragon bloodlines were an incredibly strange species.

Ever since Bolas’ transformation, he had become noticeably more lethargic than before. If left alone, he would easily sleep over half the day.

Naturally, Noah brought it up.

With a battle quickly approaching, he couldn’t help but feel that Bolas was taking everything far too lightly. If anything, Noah believed the drake had simply become arrogant after gaining so much strength.

But what Bolas told him was more surprising than Noah was prepared for.

”The blood of dragons is not something an ordinary creature can comprehend.”

At that, Bolas lifted his head slightly. The unmistakable pride in his voice was something Noah had long grown accustomed to whenever the conversation drifted toward dragons.

If there was one thing the drake never grew tired of, it was reminding everyone else just how inferior their bloodlines were compared to his own.

”Ordinary creatures need sleep to restore their body and mind to their original state.”

”But a creature with the blood of a dragon? Sleep is the way we commune with the ancestors within our blood.”

Seeing Noah’s confused expression only seemed to amuse him.

”Every dragon species carries the blood of countless ancestors.”

”The purer that blood becomes, the easier it is to perceive what they left behind.”

”It’s their wisdom that is etched into our very blood. And it was only after my glorious rebirth that I became worthy enough to sense them.”

Noah decided to ignore the haughty beast for now. As long as he didn’t sleep through the day of the attack, then it should be fine. Bolas and Ailetta were his secret weapons after all.

He had just begun walking away when an annoyed huff escaped the drake.

Bolas immediately looked elsewhere, pretending nothing had happened.

Unfortunately for him, Noah knew him well enough to recognize the poorly disguised tantrum.

The drake still hadn’t given up on learning the meaning behind his name.

He just was too proud to admit it.