Becoming a Monster

For someone who was feeling pretty annoyed with the person at hand, the sudden request from Ailetta caused Noah's mind to stir. He blinked rapidly as if trying to compute that he heard her right. It wasn't that the idea wasn't talked about before, it was the time and place she decided to bring it up.

Noah momentarily didn't respond, but he just observed her, trying to figure out what's her reason for wanting to become a tamed creature. From what he's seen so far he slightly felt that it had something to do with her friends again.

Because he couldn't tell what she was thinking or feel her emotional state, he found this predicament to be rather suspicious. And because of that, it reflected in his answer.

"No.." He reluctantly said while shaking his head. You could see Ailetta wasn't prepared for a flat out rejection. She was blatantly shocked and quickly became dejected when she thought about the fact that Noah had offered Jasmine the opportunity but he denied her. But Noah wasn't done with his answer.

"I only get to tame up to a certain amount of times per level, and if I would use it on you just because you want to become stronger then what about me? Fenrir and Arachne are my strengths, but I won't be able to consider you when you are not strong enough."

His words left a huge impact on Ailetta, but unlike the troubled feelings she had originally, she now felt that she still had a chance.

"So as long as I get stronger then you will consider it right?" She asked with a newfound energy that caught Noah off guard. He slowly nodded, while he was inwardly confused about her sudden change, he also found it pleasing.

'I won't let you take that back Noah…' Ailetta said to herself, a dangerous plan cooking in her mind what she could do to grow stronger fast enough so she could be accepted.

Noah wasn't aware of what he started, nor what was not fated to happen in the future. He was already mulling over his recent findings from the fight from earlier.

'I was right, the zombies are really advancing at a fast pace. I'm pretty sure almost every single one of them was a sprinter. But they aren't my goal, it's what that God said will happen that I should be preparing for. The zombies and animals are just preparing me for what's to come.'

"Noah? Noah??"

Noah was brought back from his thoughts and saw Ailetta walking close to him with a questioning expression.

"Noah, I was able to get these things from my chest…After everything you've done for me, I thought that I should give them to you."

She took out the things she received from her chest and placed them near Noah. This action surprised Noah, especially when he saw the orb and the upgrade stone. When he had received his orb, he didn't think twice about using it for himself, increasing his magic by 25. And he had considered himself to be pretty strong, but even after he called Ailetta weak, she didn't attempt to use the things to make her stronger for herself.

Although he hesitated, he still reached down to grab the orb and used it to increase his strength, but when he arrived at the stone, he looked back towards her.

"Are you sure about this? Are there any skills that you have that are close to leveling up?" He couldn't help but ask. Considering the orb, it was more as if she was paying him back. However the upgrade stone was a lot more valuable than he suspected she knew.

Hearing his question, Ailetta blankly stared into space as she checked her stats before addressing him.

"No…" She looked down embarrassingly, her progression was lackluster compared to Noah's.

He had forgotten that the only reason his skills have progressed so much were because of the cores. The thought of his new skill had crossed his mind, but he shook the idea away quickly. He knew that if he wanted to, forming a bond with her could easily increase her strength exponentially. Not only would she receive a buff to her attributes but she would also obtain one of his skills and she could use his cores without having to use a core that was only for humans.

But the risk of that was too high for him to take. He remembered how much of a risk he was in after grim died. He wanted whatever he tamed to be strong to not only be an asset to him but they could only protect themselves. If Noah didn't assume that saving her friends was her only source of reason to grow stronger than he may have considered it more.

"Fine, I'll take it for now. We will find more if we continue to fight. Anyways, use this for now, it will help you more than that rod you've been carrying around this whole time." A staff appeared from his ring before handing it to her.

She didn't know what to think of this gesture, a staff isn't something she found useful. The uncertainty lasted until she held it in her hands. Something within her just felt different. She felt more comfortable in her body then she had before. When she checked her stats, she noticed that the staff increased her spirit by 30 points.

"Don't worry about thanking me, it's something I wasn't going to use, and this stone is worth more than that staff." He cut her off when he noticed she was about to become sappy.

The action put a wry smile on her face, making her avert her eyes when she happened to come upon Noah's creatures interacting with the corpses.

"Noah? What are they doing?

Noah turned around and noticed what was going on, even he didn't know what they were up to at first, but Fenrir's hearing was already more advanced than normal as he responded.

"Arachne said to retrieve the snacks!" He spouted excited, even while he talked, he continued to use one of his claws and attempted to carefully pry the cores out, unlike Arachne who just thrust her hand into their chests and ripped out their hearts. Their roles seemed to have reversed from last time now that Arachne has hands.

"They are getting the cores that I told you about before." Noah explained while trying to hold in a half amused smile. Ailetta's gaze changed when she saw that. She enjoyed seeing him smile, but she didn't like that she couldn't make him smile that way. Her eyes soon gazed over towards some of the bodies that she had killed. The urge to try the cores so she could grow stronger faster emerged in her mind.

"Don't even think about it, unless you want to turn into one of them." Noah noticed how she was eyeing the bodies.

"If I wasn't what I am now then I wouldn't be able to absorb those cores either, unless you have a way not to turn then you should get rid of any thoughts of consuming them." Noah tried to nip her concerning thoughts at the roots before they began to grow. Even after he said it he wasn't sure if he was getting through to her so he decided to change the subject.

"Sigh forget about it, here, you can have your skill back. It's a low mana skill and there could always be a chance that you won't have a corpse to use so you can only fend for yourself." He handed her back the scroll which distracted her for the time being.

Noah then left everyone to their own devices now that he had a couple things he needed to do.

[Level up! +10 attribute points!]

[You have achieved the first limits of 50 stats in strength, perk based on class Monster evolutionist obtained; Fiber Tempering]

Fiber Tempering-increase the ratio of your tamed creatures strength from 1:1 to 1:1.5]

After receiving the orb, Noah was finally able to gain a perk for every attribute, making his creatures even more lethal than before. With every fight he felt that he was growing stronger and leveling up was just the icing on the cake. He couldn't wait to hurry and spend the rest of his attributes.

[Player: Noah

Race:Human? Chimera

Class: Monster Evolutionist

Gold: 3751->6923

Lvl: 10->11

Exp:3865/12800->780/25,600

Health:100%

Stamina:94%->99%

Mana:185/370->370/424

Attributes

Defense: 25->40

Strength:61(67)+5

Agility:54->66(73) +7

Constitution:104->107(114)+5

Stamina:65(73)+5

Magic: 168->199(212)

Spirit: 257->263(289)+25

Skills

Active

Blood pact(lvl 0)progression:100%

Bloodline Extraction(lvl 0)progression:0%

Blood Essence(lvl 0)progression:0%

Grant Lesser Strength(Lvl 0):0%->.3%

Grant lesser Magic(Lvl 0):0%

Killing instinct (lvl1) progression:8.4%

Decree of Equivalent Exchange (lvl 0) progression: 100%

Undead Webbing(Lvl 0)7.1%

Elusive(Lvl 0)progression:0%->.9%

Manabolt(Lvl 0)progression:.8%

Passive

Rodeleros(lvl 0) progression: .6%

Soul cage(lvl 0) progression: .76%

Guiding Pathways(lvl 0)N/A

Stamina regeneration (lvl 0) progression:100%

Immortal body (lvl 1) progression: 10.9%->

Budding feeder (lvl 0) progression: 100%

Subservient Hierarchy (lvl 0) progression: 100%

Genetic Synergy(lvl 0) progression:50%

Fiber Tempering(Lvl 0):N/A

Muscle tempering(Lvl 0):N/A

Bone Tempering(Lvl 1):N/A

Organ Tempering(Lvl 0):N/A

Imparted Linguist(lvl 2):N/A

Efficient Tamer(lvl 2)N/A

Insatiable Hunter(lvl 0): N/A

Spiders Alertness(Lvl 0)16.7%->17.5%

Sensory Spines(Lvl 0): 14.3%->15.6%

Mana regeneration(Lvl 0):1.9%

Titles

The Fallen, Subjugator]

He decided to put the rest of his attributes into agility. Every attribute is important, but when he could barely visibly keep up with Arachne's speed then what would happen if he went up against something with a speed similar to hers or even faster? His abilities wouldn't be enough to compensate.

Even after spending his stats, he still didn't move, but he withdrew two stones from his ring in preparation to upgrade two of his skills.

"I haven't found a creature now, but there's no way I'm not upgrading blood pact, but what other skill should I do?"

He looked over his skills that could be upgraded, but only one of those he felt would be the best for him at the moment.

[Blood pact increased to level 1! You can now form a bond with one extra creature!]

[Decree of equivalent exchange increased to level 1!-state increase has been improved to 20 percent!]

Noah had decided on the equivalent of exchange over his subservient hierarchy since he could use the skill in any given situation, unlike the other where it could only be used against zombies. He was satisfied with the 20 percent when 20 percent is a lot when he uses it after Fenrir buffs himself.

However he wasn't satisfied completely with his taming skill.

'I can only get one? But I start off getting two! This will only make it harder for me to choose my next creature now…' He lamented to himself.

He became relieved that he didn't tame Ailetta when she asked or he would really have felt wronged. His way to obtain absolute strength would be a shoe-in if he was able to obtain another creature on the same level as his previous two, so his next choice needed to be considered carefully.

Now that he had to be more considerate of his choice, he went back to check through his skills one last time to help him determine what he lacked or what should be considered when he chose his next one. However, while he was going through the list that seemed to be growing longer each time, he came across a certain piece of information that had to be investigated immediately.

'The chimera skill went up to 75% progression??'