Becoming a Monster

"Sigh...." a lone individual was standing in the void with stars littered in the background. In front of him was a portal that resembled a black hole but instead of pitch darkness, there was a planet that resembled earth, yet this earth was strange. The earth he was looking towards had layers of different earths stacked upon the original.

"I wanted to give humans a chance...I didn't think they would damage their own home to such an extent!! At this rate, I'll have to combine all the realms into one again. Still I must take responsibility for leaving earth's main core to humans, I thought they would have the least potential to endanger it, considering the nature of the beings in the other realms..." The lone figure lamented at making the tough decision.

"Still, all life should have an equal chance to live, humans would become extinct if they were to live in the same space as the other realms beings. I'll give them a chance to pave their own path at least." Finally making up his mind, he began to put his thoughts into action.

Present day earth

A young man was getting out of bed, a groan escaping his lips as he did so. He looked down towards his bruised ribs, he didn't wear a shirt and he forgot to bandage it last night because he was too tired. If you take a closer inspection you would notice bruising spread throughout his body with some light cuts on his face. He shifted out of bed to get a shirt before his roommates woke up, but it seemed fate just wasn't on his side. He saw two figures getting out of bed, but he couldn't spot the third, who wasn't in bed at the time.

"Mhm?" Noah I see you're up…what? Did you get into another gang fight? Haha!" The third roommate arrived from the bathroom while he attempted to make fun of the bruised Noah.

Right now Noah was living in a dormitory with three other students. The term friends or even roommates couldn't be the best choice of words to use to describe the three students in Noah's case. To him, they were just a waste of air and an annoyance that wouldn't let him be.

There was Dom who Noah considered a pig, he had a heavier build than most in the school and was proud of it but was also a huge suck up. Then there was Jarred, he would be what Noah would consider the lackey of the three. He was of smaller height and would usually run the errands of the other two students and somehow always knew the gossip going around the school. And lastly, was Logan, who had the young master vibe going for him but when it came to the actual higher class students he became meek.

If it wasn't for his 'parents' forcing him to go to this crappy prestigious college where everyone had a sense of superiority then he would have never taken a step within its vicinity.

But growing up with 'rich' parents who only cared about their prestige wasn't the best thing that could happen to little Noah. It all started when he was younger. His parents were wealthy, as wealthy if not wealthier than most in their circle of cliques. But one day that all changed when they lost a part of their wealth through their business. The loss wasn't enough to change their rich status but because the parents didn't want to change their lifestyle to allow themselves to lose face to the other wealthy families they continued to spend their wealth as if nothing changed.

It didn't take long until they started to secretly take out loans and enter into debt slowly yet surely, yet the more they lost themselves in their delusions, the worse it became for Noah. They stopped seeing him as their son and only saw him now as an investment that they could cash in after he was older.

Forced to go above and beyond those in his grade and to have a proper image to the public, his freedom was stripped away from him. They instilled in him early that his life is not his own, all the while not caring about his mental care. Forced to be someone he wasn't in public and also when his parents were around, slowly caused him to have an identity crisis. He was now considered too weird to have friends and he wasn't allowed to do anything that his parents determined as 'fun' since it could distract him from their goals.

This went on for years, that was until a certain event took place, causing his personality to take an extreme shift. During this time, he still went to a prestigious private school that included the sons and daughters of the rest of the wealthy circle his parents were a part of. Growing up having always been outcasted, he was then greeted by the school's number one beauty. Reluctant at first as to why she would talk to him, he tried to stay distant from her. It was only after a few weeks of her constantly trying to interact with him that he started to let his guard down. Why wouldn't he? He always longed for some kind of pure social interaction.

Before he knew it, he was falling for her, the only person who treated him as if he wasn't a tool. It was until one day when he finally worked up the courage to ask her out that he realized that everything was a lie. Apparently they had a bet that involved the students in his class for how long it would take for him to fall for her. The truth crushed him and most importantly, it broke him. He didn't feel despair nor was he upset, but tears ran down his face regardless, and while that happened…he smiled.

Maybe the thought of not having to worry anymore if he was dreaming caused him to smile or maybe his emotions were confused after the constant years of faking who he was. Ever since being turned down tragically and publicly, he became the laughing stock of all the kids his age and then even the parents got involved.

This dealt a shameful blow to his parents who valued face more than familial love. Since then he's been ignored if not being insulted by them or beaten if he still didn't get good grades which was the last thing keeping them from disowning him. Four extra years is how long he had to deal with the isolation, abuse and loneliness. Ever since then he gave up on trying to find a place to belong, as long as his future involves other people then he will never obtain meaning in this life.

Instead he immersed himself into reading fantasy stories of reincarnating or transmigration, imagining that he too would be lucky enough to leave this world. He thought about suicide everyday but with how unlucky his life has been so far, he was afraid that his luck would even follow him after death and he would just reincarnate here and suffer again. At least now he could have some fulfillment of being able to escape reality in books.

It was until he became the age of 18 that they gave him the decision to go to one of the best schools in the nation known as Pelown University. It was either that or they really would disown him and leave him homeless.

Realizing that he wasn't given much an option, he decided to go to the university, but it soon became a prison for him. The school's beauty from young as well as the other rich children from his childhood were there. Why wouldn't they be when it's considered the best college to attend? It would not only help secure them a more successful future but it will also gain them and their family prestige. Most of them obviously bought their way, but ever since they became aware of Noah they never let him live in peace.

At least once a week he would get jumped by 'gangs' of people who wore masks and it always happened when he would go out from his dorm. In the back of his mind, he was aware that it was the three wastes of air living with him that were selling him out, more specifically the one named Logan who seemed to be more familiar with the wealthier cliques.

He used to be beaten everyday, he realized that he couldn't leave his dorm except for class and he didn't want to stay in his room. He started spending most of his time reading in the common area and when he wanted to release his frustrations, he stayed in the gym.

Life like this went on for the remaining years of his college life. Today like any other day was no different, he was beat up again the night before. Unlike the gangs that beat him up in the beginning, the gangs now looked more like hired thugs since the groups from before could no longer easily gang up on Noah who appeared to have a couple of screws loose whenever they ganged up on him.

——-

Ignoring the empty words of ridicule, Noah still wore a shirt over himself while making a painful expression as he did so. He mentally prepared himself for another round of endless ridicule before a voice that would become a nightmare for others, but become Noah's salvation voiced across the room, but in Noah's opinion, it appeared that it sounded more like it was in his mind.

"LOWLY HUMANS, LISTEN WELL!! YOU WERE GIVING A CHANCE TO LIVE A LIFE OF PEACE AND SUPERIORITY BUT NOW THAT LIFE IS OVER. JUST LIKE THE PAST OF HUMANS WHERE YOU LIVED IN BALANCE IN NATURE AS BOTH PREDATORS AND PREY, YOU'LL HAVE TO EXPERIENCE IT ONCE AGAIN BUT THIS TIME YOU'RE ON THE LOSING END. SHOW ME THAT YOU DESERVE A SECOND CHANCE OR DIE IN REGRET KNOWING THAT YOUR LIFE MEANT NOTHING!"

As quickly as the voice came, it appeared to end just as fast. Everyone across the world including Noah wanted to decipher what he meant, but after the voice spoke, everything became dark.

Out of the darkness Noah could spot a bright light just ahead of him out of the empty space. Within that light stood a hologram of himself staring back at him. The replica was so lifelike and identical to him that he believed the body would soon move on its own as he took a better look at 'himself'.

His avatar had an above average face, with short messy jet black hair that had a few wild bangs that went past his forehead. Adorned with thin lips and a straight, delicate nose and sharp facial features, his face could stand out from a crowd but it was more of his temperament than his only slightly higher attractiveness. Even though his face was slightly appealing, his lifeless hazel-like eyes would cause many to distance themselves from him. His eyes, no matter what emotion he showed, would always show the same dull expression.

Other than his face, he possessed a well developed body from the few years of working out, but he only used working out as more of a stress reliever than a passion. Therefore his body was lean with not a lot of muscle mass but his muscles could still be considered defined.

During his observation of his avatar, he was soon interrupted by a mechanical voice he wasn't expecting.

"Greetings player! You will be guided on your first step of obtaining power. Here you will choose what route you would like to develop your power, otherwise known as your characters 'class'. You will then choose one beginner class skill besides the one that comes with choosing your class! You may begin!

"This is it! This is it!" Noah screamed out like a little kid going on a field trip. He's read many fantasy novels that dealt with transmigrating, reincarnation and the apocalypse that the situation right now felt heaven sent. "Ahh I have to be smart...Protagonists are only in books, it'll be sad if I was one of those people that died in the prologue!" Surely if any of the more emotionally affected people were to hear him, they would all try to beat him to death thinking 'if you want to die, go die on your own!'

Going to his avatar, not sure how he was supposed to get started, information began to appear in his mind. He first saw options and descriptions of classes.

Knight-known for fighting up close and personal, experienced with many weapons but most efficient with the sword. Best attributes 'all rounded'

Rouge-good at hit and run tactics, efficient with daggers, throwing items and short swords. Best attributes: strength, agility, spirit

Apprentice mage-specializes in long range skills and various types of magic. Best attributes: Magic and spirit

There were a lot of classes to choose from, but Noah only searched for a specific type of class. Out of all of the novels he read, there was only one type of role that suited him the most and that was being able to have contracted/bonded monsters. Looking through the list he found two classes that suited what he was looking for, since he was more interested in these classes he focused on them more, giving him more information.

Arcanist-Uses mana to summon low tier monsters to fight or support. Summons can only be summoned for short periods of time. Summons are set to a fixed strength and will become stronger and last longer with class level and do not share experience with summoners. Can obtain stronger summons of different varieties as spirit increases. Best attributes: spirit; +1 magic and spirit per level.

Monster tamer-fight alongside tamed beast/monster. Tamer uses skill to supply buffs to the monster and help their monsters become stronger. Monsters and tamers share experience while monsters have their own level system. Since monster and tamer share a connection, the tamer will be penalized if said monster dies. The degree of penalty differs per situation. Best attributes: constitution, agility and spirit. +1 spirit and constitution per level.

"Tsk" Noah clicked his tongue when he noticed the description of a summoner. "Aren't summoners supposed to be able to summon permanent creatures! What the hell is this bullshit nerfing! So I'm basically left with only the tamer class....there's no way I'll try to become a summoner, it's too mana focused and to have job classes means there should also be monsters right? I may even die before I can perform a summon in the middle of battle. Besides! What I really want is a companion I can trust..." Noah's eyes glazed over thinking about the loneliness he's suffered till now.

Choosing Monster tamer, he received the class passive 'monster taming(lvl1)' that also had an added ability called 'soul cage lvl1'. Monster taming enables him to be able to tame monsters obviously, but it relies on the strength of his willpower to dominate over the monster he's trying to tame and and the higher level it achieves, he can tame stronger monsters and provide benefits to them as well.

The added addition of a soul cage allows the user to store his bonded creatures within his soul.

"Well monster taming was kind of a given but soul cage is a nice unexpected bonus, now let's see what skill I should learn!" Excited that he could possibly use magic, he excitedly looked over the skills he could learn but his smile soon turned into a frown. It's not like the skills were bad because he learned from his passive skills that skills can level up. What made him frown was choosing.

All if not most of the skills he could choose from were skills that only applied to his monster. There were a few others that differed that he took notice of, one active skill in particular caught his attention and that was the skill 'analyze'. With the skill, from what he could tell, he can check the best stats of monsters and their potential. He was very interested in this ability because he would have the potential to find the best monster to tame as his first, but there was two skills that he deemed more important at this moment.

"Hmm 'lesser cure wounds'...It's disappointing that I can't heal myself but this is one of the best skills at the moment. What's the point of getting the best monster if it still dies!? At least with this I still have a chance of getting a decent monster and I can keep it alive..."