Becoming a Monster

"My exp, my exp…."

Noah felt conflicted when seeing the zombies that could net him so much experience. But in doing so he would be doing exactly what everyone wanted which bothered him greatly since it wouldn't feel like his decision.

"Master, let me show you how strong I am!" Fenrir spoke as if almost begging, his paws were already itching with excitement.

"Noah, I also want to prove myself, and I haven't eaten yet." Arachne followed behind.

Hearing his creatures helped to clear Noah's internal struggles. 'What do they have to do when it comes to what I want to do? My goal has never changed, I'll continue to keep getting stronger. If they believe that I'm saving them then so be it, if they want to hide behind me then that's even better, and if they die? Well then they should've been stronger..'

[Player: Arachne

Race: Jumping Spider

Class: Arachnid/Rouge

Lvl: 10

Exp:234/12800

Health:100%

Stamina:100%

Mana: 34/34->90/90

Attributes

Strength:114(121)

Agility: 303

Constitution:150

Stamina:105

Magic: 17->45

Spirit: 100

Unassigned Points: 0

Skills.

Active

Sinful Decree(Lvl 1):progression-.8%

Wrongful Judgment(Lvl 1):progression-.8%

Embodiment of Sins(Lvl 1):progression-.8%

Paralysis Venom(Lvl 1):progression-1.8%

Cursed Silk(Lvl 1):progression-1.1%

Coated arms(Lvl 0):progression-0%

Passive

Spider Sense(Lvl 1)]:progression-1.6%

Stealth(Lvl 0):progression-0%

Queen's unfair gaze(Lvl 2):progression:N/A

Tainted demise(Lvl 1):progression-N/A

Reconstructing limbs(Lvl 1):progression-N/A

Gracious offering((Lvl 1):progression-N/A

Danger sense(Lvl 1):progression-N/A

Human tongue(Lvl 0):progression-N/A]

Noah's eyes gleamed when he went over Arachne's stats and skill progression after devouring the mana cores. But he didn't plan on using the few tier one cores. Just the tier 0 cores he had already was enough to inspire huge changes in both Arachne and Fenrir.

Arachne was able to increase the level of six of her skills to level one. He was beyond excited when he learned that his creatures wouldn't need to use upgrade stones just like him. But he wasn't sure if her human skills would be the same.

All of her skills were able to give her a relative increase in strength after leveling. Her biggest change, in Noah's opinion, was that the Sinful Decree went from 10 mana per use, down to 8. And Embodiment of Sins now lowered the enemies stats by 1.5 stats per second.

That doesn't mean that the improvement of her other skills were any less useful. The same was said for Fenrir.

[Player: Fenrir

Race: Werewolf

Class: Demented Lycan

Lvl: 10

Exp: 1574/12,800->9,933/12,800

Health:66%->100%

Stamina:58%->100%

Mana: 16/16->38/38

Strength:200(207)

Agility:88

Constitution:210

Stamina:73

Magic:8->19

Spirit:75

Skills

Active

Killing Instinct(Lvl1):N/A

Demented Reckoning-(Lvl 0)Progression:0%

Bloodlust(Lvl 0) Progression:3.4%

Storing Strength(Lvl 0)Progression:0%

Passive

Decimating Trance(Lvl 1)Progression:0%->.2%

Blood Fury(Lvl 1)Progression:0%->.2%

Lunar Empowerment(Lvl 1)Progression:0%->.4%

Supernatural Senses(Lvl 1)Progression:18.8%->2.1%

Lycans Regeneration(Lvl 1)Progression:9.3%->1.1%

Double-edge curse(Lvl 1)Progression:N/A

Demented Bane(Lvl 0)Progression:N/A

Speed Kills(Lvl 0)Progression:N/A

Berserkers adrenaline(Lvl 0)Progression:N/A

Howling Savagery(Lvl 0)Progression:N/A

The same with Fenrir, all of his racial skills had leveled up as well. But every skill that leveled up for him was important to mention. Everyone, in some way, increased his stats even more. He was really becoming a powerhouse in his own right.

Seeing how quickly Fenrir was growing after his nightly adventure made Noah remember that he still had to change the way they were sharing experience. Since his creatures were now getting bonus experience, he chose to do a 60-40 split for each. The extra experience would make up for the difference while allowing him to grow stronger.

Turning towards Ailetta, he noticed that she was already looking towards him with the intent to fight.

"Are you willing to fight with me?" His question caused her eyes to widen in shock before she eventually smiled.

"That's what I've always wanted!"

Noah couldn't help but smile in return, his smile faded just as quickly as it came before addressing her.

"For now, just stay close to me and use your skills. We will slowly raise your level as we go. Do you think you can control one of the special ones after we bring it down?"

"Hmm I should be able to if I try hard enough. But…is it fine?" She asked while shifting her gaze towards everyone ahead of them.

Noah was quick to catch on to what she was referring to since he was just thinking about it not too long ago.

"Yes…its fine…." He stated with a calm mind and looked at his creatures once again.

"They may think they are using me, but in the end, when the words of that 'God' transpires, they will soon find out why they should've been fighting this entire time."

Ailetta appeared to be hit by a sudden revelation. 'How could I have forgotten?'. Everyone, including her that were within their group paid any heed to the 'Gods' words after they got over his ominous declaration. She couldn't help but look over to Jasmine and the people she still considered friends.

"Shouldn't we tel-no….is it fine if I tell them?" She asked with an expression full of worry. If she planned to leave them like she said she would then wouldn't they become fated to die if they continued like this? But Noah could only shrug.

"It doesn't matter as long as they don't try to tell me what to do. But you need to wake up." Her face showed that she was confused but internally, she felt a tinge of shame.

"I'm not going to tell you to stop caring about them, but you need to focus on yourself more because they are doing the same thing. They will do any and everything to try to keep themselves and the people they love alive. And because they are weak, that could mean sacrificing the people around them to make sure they survive." He didn't have to say anything else to make Ailetta understand.

It wasn't something that she wanted to accept, but it wasn't something she could deny either. But the words 'because they are weak' constantly replayed in her mind before she found herself another goal to grow stronger.

"That's the look you should have, as long as you are strong then you can do whatever you want. Fenrir, Arachne, it's your turn now.

...….

"What should we do? Should we turn back?" Bailey was the first to ask, the recent trauma of losing Blake was making her more fearful to lose anyone else. Everyone was also beginning to have cold feet as they looked towards the group of zombies loitering about. Their eyes were not able to move away from the zombies that Noah would consider to be evolved.

"And if we turn back then what? What if we encounter even more? Should we then just stay in the dorms and wait for these things to find us? He was right to call us pathetic." Mark argued, irritation was in his voice, but unknowingly to the rest, he was more angry with himself.

"This isn't something we can just charge into. I'm not sure about the weird ones, but do you think those other zombies would be like the rest and start ru-"

"Awhhoo!"

Jasmine froze in the middle of her sentence when they heard a beast howling behind them. Just like before, the others were also frozen in place.

"Just one time can you not start a fight without making so much noise?"

In everyone's panic, they were able to see a blur and a giant wolf making their way past them while Noah's figure followed behind while carrying Ailetta in his arms.

....

'Is there no way to stop her from being affected by that? Ear plugs maybe? Or…..' Noah stopped when his thoughts seemed to be going down a drastic route, the fighting had already started. What he thought of as a fight, wasn't a fight at all.

Any zombie or creature that didn't evolve yet wouldn't stand a chance against Fenrir and Arachne. Those were the first few to be taken out quickly.

With a swipe from Fenrir, if their bodies weren't broken apart from his overpowering strength, then they were either torn apart with his claws.

Arachne was even fearsome, for every zombie she passed, a hole was spotted in the center of their head. It was only until the next one was killed that the one prior would eventually succumb to gravity.

Fenrir held off on using his killing Instinct, just like Noah, Fenrir wasn't fully conscious of his actions and he couldn't allow that when he wanted to fully enjoy himself while also showing off to Noah. But that didn't take away from his prowess in the least.

It was only when he arrived at a Zombie that Noah hadn't seen before which gave Fenrir trouble. The zombie appeared like one of normal zombies when it came to size. But unlike the others it's legs seemed to be reversed from the knee down to its ankle. Two huge pupils could be seen for its eyes and its feet and hands were sharp and pointed like blades. Its bladed feet had pierced through its shoes.

Noah and Ailetta approached close enough to allow Ailleta to perform her spell, but just when she was about to, they noticed the zombie disappear away from Fenrir.

To the current Ailetta, the zombie appeared to have briefly vanished, but Noah was able to catch what happened. The zombie was unbelievably fast, at least faster than what they had encountered so far. It was at the same speed as the past zombies tentacles.

Since he was able to keep up with the zombies speed, Noah noticed a disturbing fact. 'That thing is coming here, will even evolve zombies target us first?' Noah thought as he brought out his sword while confusing Ailetta in the process. What Noah didn't recognize was that it wasn't 'them' that the zombie cared about.

Noah braced himself and stepped forward to confront it. With his skill that could possibly control zombies, as well as the skill to transfer a percentage of Fenrir's stats.

But just as he was about to activate the skill. He noticed the blur from before passing by before slamming into the zombie approaching him. When the blue stopped, everyone could see Arachne towering over it with two of her legs planted inside of it. On those two legs, the emerald green pattern that is on the tip of each of her legs began to glow and secrete a liquid that flowed into the zombies wounds, making it squirm as she looked down on it in disdain.

"Arachne wait?" Noah called out to her, stopping her from doing anything more. He called her just in time when he saw that she was about to reach for the center of its chest, most likely in the attempt to remove its core.

"Just finish it off, but don't damage it too much, I'll need its body."

...

A/N: Just want to thank everyone for supporting me so far! I haven't had the chance to read and respond to everyone's comments the past two days, but I'll be sure to do that later on today after work.