Becoming a Monster

Chapter 400: Chapter 400: Evolutions’ Hidden Requirement

Noah continued to stand next to Eve still asleep, but this time he inched closer to her side.

His mood had settled, and the tension in his shoulders continued to ease as he watched her peaceful face. In her slumber, she looked almost innocent, reminding him back to when she resembled a naive little zombie.

But his eyes also flickered while watching her, thinking about the time she drank his blood. If he hadn’t already been watching for any irregularities, he might’ve dismissed what he saw as nothing.

At first, it had been her eyes. The physical shape of her pupils hadn’t changed, but the aura they emitted had shown a change, for only a moment.

It was faint, but Noah felt it the moment her gaze met his during the feeding. It wasn’t hunger alone. There was weight behind her presence. For that instant, Eve bore the look of a true vampire, one whose bloodline radiated a power so absolute that even her gaze could bend others to her will.

Noah doubted Eve even was aware of it, but it was better that way. If she also knew that she could get closer to that state by drinking his blood, she would be even more dependent on him. That kind of growth wasn’t healthy, and he feared that she would lose herself along the way.

He reached out, brushing a strand of her hair from her face. Her skin was cool to the touch, yet beneath it pulsed the faint warmness of his blood still flowing through her.

His blood wasn’t fast acting, but he could sense it was harmonizing with her essence. A part of him wondered if that was also why she desired his blood so much. Not just because of its taste, but because it made her feel closer to him.

"You’re growing too fast..." He murmured.

"That’s what happens when she’s surrounded by monsters whose strength continues to make her feel left behind." Ailetta’s amused voice came from beside him. She walked past him, her fingers slightly raised Eve’s upper length, a flicker of interest appeared in Ailetta’s as she observed Eve’s fangs.

"You know...your blood continues to amaze me."

Noah glanced at her before he looked to Eve with a hint of inquiry. "I feel like there’s more to it than just that... Did you notice something?"

Ailetta merely smirked, but then she looked towards him with a curiosity of her own. "Of course I did, but it wasn’t just because of her. This isn’t the only time we’ve had your blood. Did you notice anything when you consumed that

"What do you mean?" Noah’s head tilted slightly, his eyes narrowed with extreme focus. He wasn’t asking her directly but as he voiced the question, his mind started thinking back to last night. Before he drifted off to sleep, he faintly remembered a vague feeling. A feeling as if his body felt more stable than before. It was a feeling as when a numb body part was slowly recovering its function.

While Ailetta watched, fixed to let Noah unravel his thoughts. Noah’s palm generated a small amount of mana within his palm that slowly compressed. His eyes furrowed as he felt the mana in the air colliding with his own, but at the same time he realized the difference from before. It was a difference that wouldn’t have been discernible without the aid of his abnormal spirit.

His control over his ability had improved, barely, but considering he’d only consumed one core; that alone was significant.

Without fueling the mana sphere with enough mana to counteract the world’s mana interference, he could feel the ability about to break down on itself. With no other reason to keep the ability going, he deactivated the skill.

He pondered for a while, thinking about the sensation before looking at Ailetta patiently waiting.

"I can tell that my control over my abilities has improved. No..." He briefly closed his eyes, circulating the mana within himself before opening them again. "It’s more accurate to say my control over mana improved, rather than the ability itself."

Ailetta’s gaze deepened. "That was my initial thought too. But... You have only eaten one of those cores. After having my fair share, and seeing how it’s affecting the others, I started to believe it was something else."

Without Noah’s prompting, two slimes extended from her body, floating in front of her with each having one large curious observing eye within both of them. However, the two weren’t the same. One was half a size smaller than the other, and while they both only had one eye, the larger one contained a mouth.

"What I began to understand is that your blood, just like your class implies, is to help us evolve. It doesn’t differentiate between us; its effects on how it affects us are consistent, amplifying our skills and traits." She paused, making sure Noah didn’t have any questions before proceeding.

"If we think about it with that in mind, how does improving our skills help us evolve?" Her gaze shifted from Noah to her slimes.

"That’s when I began to realize that your blood is giving us the requirements that we need that are missing for our evolutions that we didn’t even know we had. For instance, take this little one here. It doesn’t have a mouth. In fact, it’s not able to. Not only is it too small, but it lacks the mana to do so either."

She lifted a finger and stabbed into the slime. Within seconds, it began to grow larger, and over time, when it reached the same size as the larger one, miraculously a mouth appeared.

"When I use my mana in place of your blood. It gave the slime the requirements to exceed its base form. However... the same can’t be said for this one."

She hovered over to the other one, stabbing it just the same. The slime’s body grew larger, but then after a few inches of growth, it suddenly stopped growing, and no changes appeared.

"This is where the problem lies. After a while, no matter how much mana I pour in, this one won’t be able to adapt any further because this is its limit. But with your blood... It doesn’t happen all at once. Slowly it adapts us, changes us." She absorbed the slime back into herself. And afterwards, another slime, almost the exact same one appeared, but it was the same size as the other one after the mana injections.

"After a while, our bodies’ base form would be our old limits. And when everything else falls in line." She injected mana into it just like before. This time the slime changed. Instead of growing bigger, its teeth grew sharper. Another eye formed, and more importantly, its eyes seemed to gain a hint of sentience.

"It will evolve..."

With a gesture, the two slimes entered back into her body.

"Just like with Eve, she received so much of your blood, but the changes weren’t that noticeable, considering how much she absorbed. But over time, your blood will change her, prepping her body to fill in the requirements to transcend what she already is. Just like it’s doing for the rest of us. Maybe, improving our innate abilities is just one of the hidden requirements to fulfill it."

Noah stayed silent for a moment, his gaze fixed where the slimes had been. The world went silent around him as he absorbed every word.

Everything made sense. Too much sense. But now, if he used her sense of reason to plan ahead, he wondered just what would be the best course of action.

"So, do you think I need to start giving everyone more of my blood than I am already?"

Ailetta didn’t answer the question initially, she also looked to Eve, realizing that Noah was wondering if he should continue to let her feed on him like he did earlier.

"I don’t think you should... If it’s not draining on you then I would suggest that we should have a drop of your blood infused with your mana or with cores at least once a day, if not twice a day. Our bodies would still need time to change. I believe it’s a process that we shouldn’t rush."

Noah nodded in acknowledgment.

"Then we’ll start now."

Noah rose to his feet. He didn’t bother to go out to look for everyone, he could already sense those who were bonded to him were already nearby.

With just one call, everyone quickly began showing up inside. The only ones who didn’t were Fenrir and his two pack members. Fenrir and Dummy could fit inside, but Pandora refused to let Dummy come in, Fenrir stayed behind to make sure Dummy behaved, as well as the new recruit.

At first, they were curious as to what was going on, but when they each saw Noah’s tendrils breaking off, hovering over their heads, their bodies reacted before their minds caught on.

Noah was about to start forming the drops when Pandora’s illusion form suddenly appeared in front of him.

She was silent, as usual. Noah was having trouble discerning what she wanted besides that she wanted to tell him something. It was only when he looked up that he realized what was wrong. His eyes caught the giant snake enviously looking down on them.

Seeing the snake’s unblinking eyes, Noah realized what Pandora was trying to say and why she struggled to speak up. The snake was still without a name.