Becoming a Monster

Noah’s gaze remained on the two cocoons.

He couldn’t see what was happening inside, but his Nexus Eye didn’t need to. Their auras were steadily rising, undergoing changes significant enough that Noah found himself nodding in appreciation.

Eventually, his attention shifted toward Arachne.

She remained focused entirely on the cocoons, watching them with an intensity that made it clear she had little interest in looking away until the transformations were finished.

Noah took the opportunity to observe her instead.

He already understood what she had done. But after finally seeing the ability in action, he couldn’t help looking at it again with considerably more interest.

Fallen Broodmother.

The ability allowed Arachne to sacrifice one of her eggs nearing maturity, absorbing the life and soul essence of the offspring developing within, along with its traits, abilities, and potential.

That essence was then refined within her body into the single drop of Brood Nectar Atlas, and the newborn had consumed it.

Any member of her brood that drank it would become one of Arachne’s Fallen, retaining everything they already possessed while inheriting whatever compatible traits and potential had been preserved from the sacrificed offspring.

What made the ability considerably more useful was that the process wasn’t limited to happening once.

A Fallen could consume Brood Nectar again whenever Arachne produced an offspring with something better to offer. The new essence would replace what had previously been inherited, although compatible traits could remain if they didn’t interfere with what replaced them.

Their own growth would never be lost in the process.

That meant Arachne didn’t have to create the perfect Fallen from the beginning.

She could continue improving the same ones as her brood grew stronger.

And after seeing the two cocoons in front of him, Noah could already envision what would happen when she proceeded to do this with the rest of her soldiers.

Now that Noah had seen the ability in action, there was no reason for him to remain there. With the main preparations for the storm taken care of, he wanted to spend the rest of the time preparing for the inevitable battle.

Perhaps because Noah’s attention was no longer on anything or anyone in particular, Pandora chose this moment to interrupt his thoughts.

—

"So you’re saying there are too many creatures trying to take shelter here and you’re worried that they would only get in the way when the fighting starts?" Noah summarized everything that Pandora told him, receiving a slow nod in response.

Noah took a moment to think the matter through. It was true that he didn’t imagine so many creatures taking refuge in their territory, but from what Pandora was describing, nearly half the forest was trying to get inside.

Before, Noah had half a mind to let them into the inner parts of the territory.

At least once the storm started and the shelter they currently had proved ineffective, they would have somewhere safe to stay. Beyond that, Noah hadn’t put much thought into what would happen to them. He was invested in those he allowed to live in his territory, but not invested enough to also extend that same concern to every wild creature seeking shelter.

If the fighting reached them, shouldn’t they behave like any other creature and run away?

They should at least be smart enough to do that.

Noah nearly told Pandora not to worry about them when another thought caused him to pause.

He thought about how he had taken in Dog, Alexandria, and the rest of their kind. None of them originally belonged here either, and yet now they were indispensable to their home.

After this battle, he planned to continue stabilizing his home. This would be a good opportunity to determine who, among those wild creatures, actually valued the place that had given them shelter. Those same creatures, if they were loyal enough, could be the next batch of creatures Noah chose to invest in.

Although he had those thoughts, he didn’t act on them yet. Now that he had the idea, he had to make the decision that mattered most before he could give Pandora an answer.

Should they still wait to fight the humans inside their territory, or take the fight outside of it?

The problem before was that Noah didn’t feel their strength was adequate enough to ensure there wouldn’t be casualties. At the very least, as cold as it might seem, Noah wasn’t willing to risk those closest to him.

His dungeon core only encouraged that decision. At least if they fought within the range of the core, then all of his main creatures would be able to gain an edge in the battle. That alone would relieve some of the burden from the weaker creatures whose strength wasn’t up to par for a battle of such magnitude.

If the common cat or dog was unable to stand their ground against one of the humans’ A-rankers, then a fight involving potential S-rankers would be no different than delivering themselves to die.

The same could be said about his main creatures. If they were unable to defeat an A-rank human with relative ease, then the probability of one of them dying in this battle was far higher than Noah was comfortable thinking about.

But things were different now.

Not only his own strength, but the strength of nearly every creature there had increased significantly since he originally made that decision. Several of his strongest creatures had undergone changes that Noah hadn’t even anticipated when he first learned the humans were coming, while many of the weaker creatures had also become considerably stronger after receiving his blood.

The advantage provided by the dungeon core was still valuable, but Noah no longer felt as though they needed to depend on it just to have a reasonable chance of making it through the battle alive.

And once that was no longer necessary, there was little reason for Noah to willingly allow the humans to enter their home before the fighting even began.

Just as the humans were coming to his home to avoid a situation where Noah would eventually come knocking on theirs, Noah was also unwilling to actually fight inside his home.

Even if they won, how would it feel to win at the cost of the home they had spent so much effort building? To end the battle with nearly everything around them burned down or destroyed?

Their territory wasn’t something Noah had created alone. Allowing an enemy into the middle of all of that when they were no longer forced to seemed unnecessary.

He wasn’t willing to let that happen.

In this fight, he and everyone else needed to give their all. And those like him, Fenrir, and Bolas couldn’t do so while also worrying about destroying their home themselves.

With these thoughts, instead of immediately giving Pandora an answer to her earlier question, Noah set out to inform Morvyr of his new decision.

Although Morvyr was a temporary ally, Noah wouldn’t give the elf a say in where they would fight. This was his home; Noah believed he was already being considerate by at least letting him know beforehand.

—

It didn’t take much effort for Noah to find him. The elf never strayed far enough to allow Noah to escape his notice.

It was hard to tell if Morvyr was monitoring him to uncover more information for his Queen, or if the elf was worried that the lack of his presence would make Noah believe he was no longer needed.

Either way, the spark in Morvyr’s eyes that lit up the moment he saw Noah was as genuine as it was creepy.

Perhaps Morvyr noticed his own behavior, because a moment later, his demeanor suddenly changed, along with his excitement.

Noah’s eyes narrowed slightly; he was becoming uncertain whether this world contained only tsunderes. At least it felt as though every powerful being he encountered had the same tendencies.

Before Morvyr’s slip-up, Noah had noticed that he was about to approach, but now the elf was behaving as though that hadn’t been the case at all. Even more absurd, he didn’t budge from his location either, fully devoted to his pretending game.

Noah stared at him for another moment before resigning himself to Morvyr’s personality.

Calling attention to it would probably only make the elf deny it, and Noah had no interest in dragging the interaction out any longer than necessary. It was probably better for both of them if he acted as though he hadn’t noticed anything at all.

He allows Bolas to get away with it because he is a dragon. A dragon tsundere has been recognized by all otaku as a trait that was normal amongst their kind.

With that decided, Noah began making his way toward him.

Not even a second after he started advancing, Morvyr behaved as though he had only just noticed Noah approaching. His eyes widened slightly before his feet began carrying him forward, briskly closing the distance between them.

"Devil." Morvyr greeted him as though everything that had happened over the last several seconds existed only in Noah’s imagination.

Noah didn’t comment on any of it. Instead, he went straight into the reason he was looking for him.

—

Morvyr went into the conversation nervously, but halfway through, all his worries went away.

If the devil didn’t bring this up before, then he would’ve done it himself.

Originally, Morvyr had been in favor of fighting here. However, after finding out that nearly all of the plant life within the territory was under Pandora’s control, his opinion had changed.

He couldn’t risk fighting against S-rank humans while nearly half of his skills were locked away.

If they were going to fight, then Morvyr wanted to do it somewhere he could actually use everything at his disposal.

For that reason alone, taking the battle outside of Noah’s territory was something Morvyr was more than willing to agree with.