Becoming a Monster

"Well let's see how you'll look in the morning Queen…" He muttered as he layed in bed and stared at the comatose Arachne standing in the middle of the room.

Soon his eyes drifted towards the ceiling and his thoughts returned to the cores from earlier.

'I can at least try my skill on a few of these as I wait."

[Mana:290/370]

He checked to make sure that he had enough mana.

'If it costs only 5 mana for each tier 0 then this will be perfect! Maybe the effect will be lower on them since they will now be considered a tier one creature, but every little bit counts.'

The first thing he needed to do was draw some blood, which was easy for now since he had his sword. That's when his mind finally recollected the transformation during the use of his skill.

"I wonder." He stared towards the sword, a moment later a change occurred on his face, his eyes held a slight savage glint, but it still held clarity at the same time. Doing so he saw the mist emerge from the handle of the sword while the blood red traced around the edges of the blade. During this time he had activated his Killing Instincts skill, but he didn't go the full 50% but only chose an amount that was more like 10%.

Even though the amount was small, it was still enough to activate the sword's effect. A wry smile appeared on his face due to shame.

"There's just so much more I can be doing better…"

He took a moment to self reflect before he made a cut on his finger. He noted that he couldn't easily cut through his hand like before and had to put slightly more pressure. Of course that was without the sword being activated.

After doing so, he placed his finger slightly above the core and activated his skill, blood extraction. Similar to blood pact, he stirred his mana to mix with his blood at the area of the cut. However the scene played out differently. His blood seemed to have come alive as it mysteriously turned into vapor and began to be absorbed into the center of the core and merged with the mana inside.

Each mana core was essentially different from what Noah could tell for different species. The shape of the cores were the same, but the inside was where they differed. Human cores were a faint blue and white while zombies were faint black and red and then you had animals like the spiders that were a faint grey. Noah used the word faint when describing them because the color was barely noticeable, maybe because there wasn't enough mana or maybe because the entire core itself was the mana, he couldn't say for sure.

But as his blood was being absorbed he noticed that the current orb, which was that of a zombie, was turning from black to a dark purple. The process only took a few seconds, maybe five at most before the skill was finished. Noah couldn't help but scrutinize the core in his hands after the anti-climatic event.

'Well if it works then that's all that matters…' He sat the core to the side and took out another. This process went on for a while until he lost track of time, he was so focused on what he was doing that he forgot to observe Arachne's changes and he didn't notice the noise at the door.

Creak*

Although he wasn't aware of the noise, the sudden movement was caught out of his periphery and caused him to stare menacingly towards the door with his hand ready to grab his sword.

The first thing he spotted was auburn hair that seemed to be repeatedly being lifted before he saw Ailetta's face appearing from under it. He was so caught up in his work that he had half forgotten about her. Even though he was initially surprised to see her come in 'unannounced', he was more surprised to see the changes Arachne was going through. Even Ailetta didn't bother to address Noah as she slowly closed the door behind and gawked at the current display. Unconsciously, she slowly made her way around Arachne to not only get a better view, but to also be near Noah where it was safe.

"Wha-what's going on?…" She asked, her eyes still haven't budged from Arachne's body. Noah wasn't sure how to answer, because even he was unsure at the moment.

Arachne's body seemed to be moliting, they could clearly see another layer emerging from within her own body. Her entire body seemed to be splitting apart.

If it was only this happening then their shock wouldn't have lasted for so long. It was what was happening at the head of Arachne that was causing their irrational behavior.

At her head layed a cocoon, but unlike the cocoon that she surrounded herself in during her mutation. The cocoon now appeared to be made entirely out of flesh and was even pulsating! Ailetta was barely keeping her composure, the more she stared, the more nauseous she became, to the point that her hand couldn't help searching for Noah's, it contradicted her current actions because she couldn't turn away.

Unlike her, Noah was half tempted to touch the flesh like material, but he held his rising curiosity back. This could be an important step for her that he didn't want to interrupt. After a period of time passing, both Noah and Ailetta mindlessly sat on the same bed together and continued to watch.

"Is what's happening what I think is happening!" Ailetta couldn't help but ask another question.

"Un huh…"

"Is she really gonna become half human and half spider? Will she have the body of a beautiful woman?"

"Un hu-wait…why does she have to be beautiful" Noah mindlessly responded again before catching himself. Everything was happening in real time, it was hard for him to pay attention to anything else.

"Well in situations like these, don't they usually become beautiful Women?" Noah wanted to answer, but he was lost for words when he thought about a scenario to dispute her claims.

"But those were just stories…this should be her evolving, I don't see how being beautiful wou…..Nevermind.." He decided to quit before he dug himself a whole. In his mind evolution shouldn't bother about sexual appearances since the goal was to become a better predator or in most cases, give the creature attributes and traits that would further improve their chances of surviving. However when he thought about it, having a high sexual appearace would help in both cases.

Seducing potential food to come to you and catching them unaware and causing predators to become less wary of you or even cause them to hesitate to do you harm. The only problem with these theories of his is that they all required humanoids to be the food, and the predator.

Enough time went by to the point that they could finally see the cocoon take shape as it began to rip apart, revealing a glimpse of her torso. Unlike the silky smooth skin both of them were expecting to see. What was instead emerging out of the flesh was a back that resembled a tight fitted exoskeleton. They could already make out the spine and the shoulder blades that poked out as Arachne was slowly bringing out the rest of her body.

But the process was so slow! At Least two hours has passed since the start of Noah making enough cores that were compatible for his creatures, that he was close to empty on mana, up until the present point now. Thankfully for them, the process, no matter how long they watched, continued to hold their attention, but Noah was soon getting a notification.

"AWWHHOOO! Master, come look! I've changed, I'm stronger now!"

Just as he felt the prodding, hinting that he had received a notification, Fenrir's loud howl reverberated through the dorm invoking a few screams along the way. His howl was deeper than before, and the impact it caused on the people situated in the dorm was similar to the results of a skill that inspired fear. Unlike the Arachne, Fenrir didn't have the ability to speak in human tongue which left Noah being the only one to hear what he said, which would have greatly relieved the tension if everyone knew just how doglike Fenrir really was.

Boom boom!* Not only could Noah hear it, but he could feel a slight tremor in the building in the direction of the stairs. It seemed that Fenrir wanted to climb the stairs but was having a hard time achieving his goal.

"Sigh…" Noah palms his face due to Fenrir's antics, but when he removed his hand from his face he revealed a big smile that he couldn't hide. Just the thought of an overgrown, threatening wolf, wagging his tail and asking for attention was enough to constantly put Noah in a good mood.

Noah proceeded to stand up from the bed before Fenrir decided to try to bring the whole place down to get to him, but that's when he felt a tug on his arm and then he finally came to notice a warmth around his hand. He looked down to his hand and noticed Ailetta's in his. The feeling was so comforting to him that he couldn't recollect when this happened. But that comfort and warmth made his heart unsteady, causing him to quickly loosen his grip from hers.

It didn't cause a rise from Ailetta at all, nor did she appear sad, but fear was written on her face. He wasn't sure if she was genuinely afraid of Fenrir's howl or if Fenrir's howl really did have some kind of effect on people.

He really wanted to inspect everything that he gained from his evolution, but he had something to do first.

"Come outside Fenrir!"

Boom!*

Noah didn't think the whole thing through before another loud impact was made and a tremor bigger than before shook the building. Fenrir didn't think twice when he heard Noah's voice and zoomed out of the building, effortlessly taking parts of the rest of the wall with him.

Thinking that he was already prepared to see the new and improved version of Fenrir, he was proven wrong when he saw Fenrir standing on his four paws under the moonlight. The bulging muscles and the thick coat of fur made Fenrir's presence astounding to say the least.

But what made the scene even more spectacular was the faint translucent white aura hovering around his body, making his silver mane and claws appear to glow.

"Master?.." Fenrir's energetic exterior began to subside when he didn't get the reaction he wanted. Even the wagging of his tail gradually came to a standstill while he watched Noah look towards the moon that he realized was full before looking back to Fenrir.

[Lunar Empowerment(Lvl 0)- Under the full moon is when a Lycan can exhibit their full strength, increasing all of their body attributes by 50% for the entire duration thay the full moon is out.]

"Lunar empowerment huh?"

He muttered to himself as he was trying to find the reason for Fenrir's glow. That's when he noticed Fenrir was beginning to look downcast, but continued to stare towards him with an anticipating gaze.

"You look better than I had hoped, Fenrir, I'm proud of you."