Becoming a Monster

Chapter 358: Chapter 358: When a Crutch becomes a Shackle

Noah stumbled as the forest around him continued to stretch. Trees were drawn away from one another, as if even their roots were being relocated along with them without any damage. The clearing they stood in grew wider and wider. It made one feel as if they were the ones growing, making everything else seem smaller by comparison.

At first, the trees simply displaced themselves. But then, they multiplied.

New greenery filled the gaps that were created. Towering trees magically manifested from empty space, appearing as if they were always there. Some reached higher than any tree Noah had seen before, their tops nearly vanishing in the sky. Others were even smaller than the trees already there, some hung with clusters of thorny leaves or ivy looping down to the ground. In some places, the ivy overtook entire trunks.

Giant bushes appeared from the underbrushes, some barbed, others were clustered with unknown berries and varying flowers.

And then, mountains appeared on the horizon. Even with the massive trees, the mountains, no different than canyons appeared above them.

And close by, sharing the same open space as them, a cave had opened.

The mouth of the cave was wide, nestled at the base of a sloped hill that hadn’t existed minutes ago.

The cave’s entrance was blackened, with charred stone. Unlike the lush, freshly grown forest, the ground around it lost its greenery, becoming barren; its soil reduced to grey ash.

And it wasn’t just the forest Noah was in that was experiencing a change. The entire world was going through the same phenomena.

Far beyond the forest where Noah stood, cities warped and shifted as if the very concept of space was unraveling. Roads and neighborhoods stretched apart at impossible angles. Some telephone poles simply disappeared entirely, swallowed by great cracks in the pavement. Power lines snapped, their cables unraveling midair and vanishing before they could hit the ground.

Factories, power plants, oil facilities, and monuments to modern industry, vanished as though they never existed.

Refineries that once coated the world in smoke were erased without explosion or debris. They simply were removed from existence, leaving behind a new untainted habitat. Even the offshore oil rigs disappeared beneath the crashing waves.

Skyscrapers split apart, their upper halves rising, tilting, crumbling over its own weight before vanishing in the same fashion as the telephone poles. Cliffs and new terrain took its place.

In place of streets, vast rivers snaked their way through the remains of parking lots and districts, flowing with water far too clear to be natural.

And it didn’t stop at cities.

Across oceans, massive landmasses appeared. New continents manifested that shifted the ocean’s currents, settling within the space as if they were always there. Some had jagged peaks like dragon spines, others dotted with ruined towers, and massive fortresses. Stone cities appeared in seconds, fully built, and looking as if they’d always been there.

Kingdoms and settlements appeared without warning. Massive walls that protected them, cobblestone streets, stalls, and grandeur constructs appeared.

However, not everything was erased.

The shelters that housed people remained, anchored to the new world by their occupants, as if some ancient rule was forced to respect their sanctity of refuge.

Homes, even the humblest of apartments, stood untouched, standing out from the rest of the world that appeared. Hotels, schools, shopping malls and crumbling shelters, anywhere someone had sought safety, were left standing, unless the place they sheltered in was one of the refineries. Those people were magically transported elsewhere or left on the ground while the construct around them vanished.

Entire neighborhoods were erased where no one lived.

But it wasn’t simply a matter of buildings being occupied, but by who occupied them.

Structures that housed the living remained. People with a conscious mind and an untainted soul were allowed this specific benefit. But those same protections didn’t extend to the dead, the tainted, or to monsters.

Zombies, regardless of how many infested a structure, were not allowed this privilege. If the school was overrun by the undead, it was whisked away.

And the people... the creatures... the monsters of the new world.

They appeared at the same time.

They appeared, looking around in a daze. Confused, curious, and afraid. They looked around just as Noah and everyone else in the modern world was taking in their surroundings.

Armored knights on horseback rushed through their territories. Kingdoms blew their horns to seek an audience of all their important figures.

Elven caravans emerged from the newly grown forest, their eyes glistening with a sense of awe and a subtle knowing, as if they were aware that this was going to happen but didn’t believe it.

Winged beasts soared between the mountain peaks that hadn’t existed an hour ago. Monsters, some small, some large enough to eclipse buildings walked among the new world, their eyes scanning the unfamiliar terrain.

The world was choosing what stayed, what left, and what was useful. The changes weren’t all random; they were purposeful, as if a being above even gods were creating a world that would lessen the jeopardy to the Earth and all its inhabitants.

And just as the modern humans experienced the other world merging with theirs, not all of them were fortunate enough to take in the new changes.

There were people who found themselves suddenly fighting against monsters they had only read in stories.

Goblins.

Mean, evil, malicious creatures.

But those who knew what goblins were, felt as if life had been a lie. These goblins weren’t the same goblins of lore. They weren’t short green freaks that even children could stand toe to toe with. These goblins were tall, nearly the height of a man. Most of them had lean developed muscles over their slender frame.

They coordinated with each other, and reacted with an intelligence that opposed their childlike brains in folklore. They were smart.

And the crude weaponry they used wasn’t just made of wood and stone. Metal and animal parts also made up their tools, and almost every weapon they used was doused with a liquid that was no different than poison. These weren’t cannon fodder; they were hunters.

If that wasn’t enough, the humans of the modern world couldn’t fight at their best. The world was different, not just in its appearance, but in the very foundation of the world itself. Their bodies felt sluggish. Only those with a significant number of points in their Strength and Constitution could quickly keep up with the new world’s gravity.

The shift in gravity wasn’t crushing, but every movement felt heavier, every breath dragged just a bit more.

For those without any proper attributes, they couldn’t put up a fight. Their bodies didn’t move at the same speed as their minds.

And it continued to get worse.

Those who relied on magic attempted to use their spells, but they realized that too was being affected by the world, making spellcasting much more difficult than before. The world was richer, denser in mana. They could feel it in their cores, their bodies naturally responded to the influx of mana around them. That should mean when they used that mana to circulate it within them, their spells should be stronger. But they weren’t.

In fact, they had to expend much more of their mana to even manifest an ability that was weaker and smaller than its original forms.

What should have been a blazing column of fire was reduced to a flickering stream. A barrier that once deflected bullets now barely held against a thrown stone.

Many grew desperate, frantic, not understanding what was happening. Only those whose abilities were at least level three were able to quickly catch on to what was going on. The rich mana was working against them. They needed to exert more control or energy to manipulate the already heavy mana. Only magical abilities that resided within themselves were able to remain unaffected.

Many realized that having too many spells had finally become a weakness. They strived too hard to have a plethora of spells at their disposal, believing in the quote of "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one." What they failed to realize is that they failed to meet the bare minimum to be considered a jack of all trades.

They had become collectors of spells rather than wielders of them. Using the system as their crutch to maintain a false sense of power. They never truly understood the essence of what they were wielding.

And that brought about an even bigger discovery. One that rattled the minds of humans young and old, the weak and the strong.

Their system no longer existed.

This fact alone brought about more chaos than the emergence of a new world. Some refused to believe it. They shouted into empty air, screamed commands in vain. Others fell into denial or madness. Some even resorted to killing another human, just to see if it would trigger a notification or drop a chest. Yet only the cries and outrage of those nearby responded to his madness.

Only those who didn’t hide from danger were able to respond to the new changes. The ones who grew powerful enough to offset the physical changes, who earned enough rewards to level up a few of their most useful abilities.

And then, there was Noah.

He faced the changes with a calm mind. Or as calm as he could be.

Because he, too, had to face a monster. A monster far stronger than goblins.