Becoming a Monster

Chapter 431: Chapter 431: Sometimes a Good Thing Isn’t a Good Thing

One of the few sounds left in the forest was the stubborn crackles of dying flames.

The trees in this world didn’t burn easily. Their wood, reinforced by decades or even centuries of mana, resisted the heat of most flames. The fire burned the nearby grass until none was left, blackened the earth’s surface, and only provided substance for new growth in the future.

Only flames produced by stronger creatures could ever turn this place into a true forest fire. Even the drake could only burn a small part of the forest unless it provided consistent flames.

But alongside the fading fire came another sound.

The ragged, uneven breathing of the creature who was forcibly put through a seemingly agonizing transformation.

The drake stood frozen; it had witnessed the scene from beginning to end.

It had thought it had a basic grasp of the Devils’ potential. The drake even believed the reason his other creatures were so strong was exactly because he was constantly fusing souls into them.

Now? It understood that it barely understood anything.

The once weak creature was now entirely different from before. Not just its appearance, its aura was different. The beast was now leagues stronger than it was before.

The drake’s gaze passed along the rest of the Devil’s companions. Many were uniquely different from any monster it had come across before.

"Is this why they are so strong?" The truth felt as if it was right in front of it. And in the end... the drake didn’t feel as afraid anymore.

There were still many questions left unanswered.

______________

Noah looked at the finished results. He was pleased that he had made the decision to check the collected cores before it was too late.

Out of the nearly 50 cores recovered after the battle, only nine still had souls. And of those nine, three were still strongly stable. Those three were cores from the troll elites. The other six were the souls of hobgoblins.

The hobgoblins’ souls were weak. Noah gave it just a few minutes before they would most likely disperse entirely. So he made the decision to devour them all.

Each core, stripped of its soul, could no longer hold the balance of energy within, and within seconds, whatever energy was left began to dissolve, alongside the cracking of the core’s shell. By the time the cracks festered all over and the energy completely dissolved, the shell dissolved along with it.

With each soul consumed, Noah felt a qualitative change unlike before. It was different from when he devoured the goblin’s soul yesterday. These souls’ qualities were all individually more powerful.

He had yet to even finish consuming them all when results suddenly manifested. His soul realm expanded further than it did the previous night.

In fact, the realm expanded to the point that Noah had the impression that another location was opening to house another soul. But no matter how much it expanded, that space didn’t budge any further.

When he continued to consume the remaining souls, believing that the space only needed a little more to finally give way, nothing changed.

The expansion stopped. No matter how much energy flowed in, the boundary refused to move.

Noah frowned. It wasn’t a success, but it wasn’t a failure either. The sensation was unmistakable. Something was missing.

That something made Noah’s thoughts churn. His thoughts went back to the system. He had already begun to sense that the system was more than just a path to power; it was a guiding teacher for when they were to be sent out on their own. If he wanted answers, then the system would surely leave hints.

And that led him to what the system required to upgrade any other ability. He didn’t think about the upgrade stone, but it was the requirement needed before being able to use one.

His mind returned to the last time he had seen the upgrade conditions for his bonding-related skills. He couldn’t remember the exact wording, but he remembered the implication.

At least two of his bonded creatures needed to undergo another evolution. And in total, his creatures needed to consume a massive amount of cores.

Noah dismissed the first condition almost immediately. If evolution was mandatory every time, then how would the other tamers progress? Not everyone had abilities like his. Not everyone could force mutations and provide external means to increase the chances of evolution.

That left only one possibility. The cores had to be the answer. Or more precisely, the effects the cores had on his creatures were the answers. If the cores affected his creatures in the same capacity they did when he had eaten one, then that would mean that they could achieve the same results as long as they had time.

The mana in the air, the sustenance in the prey they eat, and consistent training. Even without the cores, they could achieve the same effects.

’I have a general direction. Next time we divvy out the cores, I can check to see if I’m right.’

He remained hopeful, despite not achieving the results he wanted.

But it still wasn’t all in vain. Consuming the rest of the souls no longer expanded his realm; his spirit became stronger, and the strengthening of his own soul gave him a better understanding of his Eye.

Instinctively, he felt as if he crossed a threshold, a layer that unfogged his mind, opening it to information that was right in front of him, yet he never realized it.

When he fuses creatures with souls, creatures who weren’t already bonded to him, those creatures who became his "Fallen", their presence has been within his soul the entire time.

Below his core laid two shiny lights in the form of stems. They were reminiscent of his vassals, however, these stems didn’t feel as if they were being benefited by his soul. In fact, Noah didn’t have a clue for their presence at the moment. But he felt that as long as he continued to consume more souls, he would obtain his answer.

Noah’s focus was about to return to the drake when something felt... off.

He felt a gaze on him that shouldn’t have been there. A gaze that was in his soul. The moment the sensation registered, he already knew who it belonged to.

His awareness turned upward. Above his realm, the entity’s eyes were glued to his core. They were much livelier than before.

Normally, the entity was dormant, remaining uninterested in what was going on ever since the runes protected his core. Noah had grown used to it existing in the background, but this time was different.

It wasn’t merely the fact that the entity was active. It was common sense that such a large change would attract its attention. The problem was the fact that the creature appeared much larger than before.

No...

It was closer!

’Was it always able to get this close?’ Noah inspected his own soul. The runes were still there. Nothing suggested they had weakened. In fact, the energy being released was even stronger than before after his Nexus Eye was strengthened.

Noah’s sense of crisis was high, alerting Ailetta to become active within his soul to find out what was happening.

She didn’t say anything to distract Noah, only taking the time to go through his thoughts to understand what was happening.

Meanwhile, Noah braced himself for whatever would come next, not that he could do much if the entity made a move, but with his soul having grown, he hoped to be able to resist better than before.

Time seemed to go on endlessly within his soul. During this time, the entity had still not moved. Its gaze didn’t get any less intense from before. When Noah finally calmed down, he soon began to feel under the impression that the entity held a sense of expectation in its eyes rather than hostility.

That realization should’ve made Noah uncomfortable. But strangely, he felt better. If the entity was looking at him this way, then that meant he was growing stronger on the right path, and the entity wouldn’t interfere.

He didn’t want to go through another situation like when the entity threatened to destroy itself and Noah’s soul just because it wasn’t getting what it wanted.

"Wh-Who even thinks that way?" Ailetta exasperatedly voiced. The question was rhetorical; however, she wanted to make sure Noah heard it. Here she was using the power of her two consciousnesses at full power to find a way to understand what the entity was planning and how to combat it, and Noah was thinking it was a good sign?

Even as she complained, her own thoughts had begun to settle. She had made up her mind to be there the next time Noah consumed more souls. Unlike Noah, she didn’t have the faith to let the entity do what it pleased, not when it concerned Noah.

"You can do what you like, but don’t do anything stupid without telling me." This time, it was Noah who read her thoughts.

This caught Ailetta by surprise, eventually swallowed by warmth as she felt his concern. However, that warmth strangely morphed into an angry woman.

"Hmph! Hypocrite... you don’t have to tell me that. At least one of us has a hint of common sense."

Despite the situation, Noah still managed to smile.

He turned his attention to the entity one last time before leaving, after the experience, he was determined to strengthen the Eye, only then would he have assurance to defend himself properly.