Becoming a Monster

Chapter 406: Chapter 406: A Kingdom Takes Root

A pressured note hummed through the air. The dungeon’s core was changing beneath Noah’s gaze. The spaces within the core that once only showcased empty voids were now being filled with a mixture of energy that deeply resonated with Noah’s own.

Light leaked from those cracks, a washed violet that swirled with green mana. That mana continued to swirl while it funneled into the core’s own abyss. With each rotation, the core’s containment stretched a fraction further, pulling in mana faster and purifying what it released. And with that energy, the heart’s containment expanded beyond what it had ever held before.

When the core’s pulse finally steadied, Noah understood that the changes for now were done. The core’s glow now held a cleaner edge, and the pressure in the room was stabilized.

Noah’s body finally relaxed. His intuition had been right, and his gamble had paid off. He could feel the changes more than anyone else. His control over mana didn’t improve, but the potency of his mana had increased by half. Potency didn’t mean quantity, his reserves were the same, but the strength of his magic and any mana-based skills would become more powerful than they were before.

He felt that even if he were to create a manasphere right now, he could use the same amount of mana as before the core’s upgrade and there would be significant differences.

The effects didn’t stop within the lair.

Everything inside the dungeons reach stirred. The trees’ leaves seemed to silently stir, absorbing not just the sunlight, but the new budding mana with relish. Every creature bound to Noah felt a pressure budding from within them. The ordinary beast, the mutated and evolved animals, froze where they stood, trembling as their instincts screamed in confusion.

The air wasn’t just clean, it was too pure for most of them, too potent for their energy to adapt to. To them, it was no blessing, their bodies rejected it outright.

The weaker creatures began to scatter, abandoning their burrows and nests as they fled to different parts of the forest. Birds broke from the treetops in flocks, and the sound of rustling sounded in every direction.

But not everything fled.

The monsters that had left behind scouts along the edges of Noah’s territory, those still observing the demon who now lived beside the strongest creature of the forest, froze in awed silence.

The trolls had none among them; patience wasn’t in their nature. But the goblins and the lizardmen... they felt it first. They sensed a shift in the air. The unnatural purity. They couldn’t feel the dungeon’s direct influence, yet something within the mana itself called to them.

Unlike the weaker creatures, the mana they could feel tugged at their own mana. Even from afar, they knew it wasn’t natural. And all of the changes began happening after the demon appeared. Whatever the demon had done within his nest, they wanted it. They could feel that the territory was turning into the greatest nesting ground within the forest.

From scattered directions, the scouts began to move. Some turned back toward their camps, eager to report what they’d sense. Those who remained still lingered, their eyes fixed on the territory, half tempted to walk past that invisible line so they could feel the changes for themselves.

Among those who lingered at the edge, one figure remained still. It was the same hobgoblin that had stared Noah down the previous night, when he’d given out his warning.

It had chosen to remain after that night, not from courage, but from something deeper. Fear. Reverence. The demon’s presence had scarred itself into its instincts. Even now, it stayed where its instincts screamed at it not to.

But this time, the air was different. The scent that drifted from the forest ahead was heavy, sweet, and wrong in all the right ways. Its instincts urged it closer, clawing at its mind to move. It didn’t understand why, only that something inside its body demanded it obey.

Step by step, it drew nearer to the invisible line that marked the edge of Noah’s domain. The closer it came, the more violent the pull grew, until its legs trembled with the effort of holding back. And then...

It crossed.

The instant its foot touched the ground within that boundary, its breath hitched. The air around it grew thick, saturating its lungs and skin with energy that pulsed through every vein. Its body spasmed under the purity of the mana.

It gasped. This was different from anything it had ever felt. It wasn’t the same feedback Noah and his creatures received, but even so, the goblin knew.

If it remained here, it would grow stronger. They all would. Every goblin born within this land would draw power with its first breath. More would ascend into hobgoblins, more shamans would rise among them, and even those who had already evolved, like itself, would surely advance beyond their limits, just as their chieftain once had.

Seeing its reactions, the other goblins who stayed were more tempted to enter, but then suddenly, the hobgoblins body tensed. Its head snapped in two different directions. I could feel something watching it, just like last night, but now this feeling was even more intense than before.

It barely had time to register where the presence was coming from when it suddenly sensed movement. It cried out in pain, lifting up its foot that was suddenly punctured by a nearby root.

The pain inflicted on it came secondary as it quickly realized that the forest was moving toward it.

The absurdity of such a case happening didn’t stop it from moving as it hastily made it out of Noah’s territory. It didn’t stop until it was yards beyond the boundary, then glanced back, eyes darting in fear; even the grass beneath its feet ended in scrutiny.

Moments passed, nothing happened. Finally it began to relax. Its goblin kin didn’t understand what was happening, but seeing their strongest reaction in such a way, their trepidation to what was going on grew. By then, none of them were willing to indulge in their curiosity anymore. Unlike before, they even moved back a few steps from the border.

The hobgoblin didn’t understand how lucky it was. The first time it entered, Pandora only saw them as intruders. But after last night, Pandora had marked the goblins and trolls as enemies.

If Pandora could have, she would have killed the hobgoblin the moment it crossed her master’s boundary. Her roots could only reach so far.

Instead, the forest moved at her will, but not like her. Mana didn’t run through them like they did with her. They were alive, but they lacked sentience, making their reactions and strength slower and weaker as a result.

Once, her awareness had stretched across the forest, far beyond where Noah’s home now stood. But when she was bound to him, her essence became tied to his mana and to his dungeon. She couldn’t sense anything else past the border like she could before. Everything beyond his territory resisted her will; the rest of the forest repelled her senses like a body rejecting an intruder.

But Pandora wasn’t disheartened by this change, her curiosity didn’t need to be satiated like before, not now that she had Noah.

Back at their home, Pandora’s mood was sour; she had failed to put down Noah’s enemy. Yet her mood instantly switched when she saw Noah moving away from the dungeon’s core.

Noah was calm, calmer than usual. After the dungeon’s upgrade, the renewed security of his home and family eased one of his many burdens.

He was about to head outside to check with everyone else and let them know that he was done, but then he turned towards Pandora.

"Pandora, we should expect more company soon. Maybe it’s time that you rebuilt our wall... like before."

The moment Noah spoke, Pandora stirred. She didn’t hesitate, she didn’t hesitate, didn’t question his meaning. She had been waiting... waiting for him to ask something of her, to entrust her with another task.

Far away from their home, at the very edge of the dungeon’s border, the ground trembled. From the soil, massive roots began to rise, thick as tree trunks, slowly weaving together in coiling layers. The roots twisted around each other, forming a barrier that was even higher than the previous one.

From the edge of Noah’s territory, the goblins watched in stunned silence.

At first, they thought another battle was happening, just like when the demon first appeared. But as the tremors grew stronger, their eyes caught movement coming from the ground as it was splitting open.

Thick roots burst from the ground. They coiled and stretched, linking together with the roots of trees across from themselves.

The hobgoblin that had already experienced the danger of the forest was instantly alerted, preparing to run away if the roots did anything else. But as time passed, it realized what was happening. The roots were creating a wall.

The wall kept rising, layer upon layer, until it towered even above the largest troll.

A few of the goblins began to retreat. Even as its kin vanished into the trees, the hobgoblin remained, watching until the last of the roots settled and the ground stilled again. Only then did it turn away, heart pounding, to deliver the message it knew its chieftain would not want to hear.

The demon was building a kingdom.