Becoming a Monster

Chapter 438: Chapter 438: The Limits of Birth

Barely an hour had passed since the battle.

The troll returned to his tribe. It was first questioned, subtly ridiculed. But with an ironclad fist, the chieftain used his strength to quell their ridiculing questions.

It was a temporary measure, but it just needed time. Despite the tribe’s anger and their scrutiny, as long as the chieftain could make them relocate, then it could eventually rein in its rule again.

However, there was a problem with its plan. Although its strength was enough to quell the masses, it wasn’t enough to convince them to relocate. It wasn’t because of their pride; it was due to the fact that they were well aware that humans frequent the outer parts of the forest to train their warriors.

The trolls haven’t fought against Noah, and they couldn’t believe the chieftains’ stories either. What they did experience was humanity’s strongest warriors. It was this reason alone why they never hunted past the west side of the forest.

At first, the trolls were adamant about not leaving. But when the chieftain threatened them with an ultimatum of either dying or culling under its authority, the chieftain wasn’t prepared for the trolls to rise against it.

The chieftain had failed to fully acknowledge the fact that it not only lost, but it had lost all of its warriors without gaining anything in return, and what that meant to the tribe.

How could they trust the chieftain to protect them from the humans when it had failed so miserably?

Without a tribe, the chieftain knew that it would only be a matter of time before its end came. If not to the humans, then to the monsters it had just escaped from.

Since it had come to this, the chieftain made a decision that it least wanted to do.

It decided to go south to the demon’s territories. With or without its tribe, if the only two options it had were to die, then it might as well give up its freedom and its free will for strength and the chance for revenge.

The tribe wasn’t really expecting the chieftain to actually leave. The thought of following in its footsteps lingered longer than they desired. Their tribe was strong, but not strong enough to retain their dominance and safety within the forest without their strongest.

But when they realized the direction it was going in, none of them took the step forward to follow.

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While the trolls watched their leader desert them, the goblins’ village had erupted into chaos. The sole goblin, who Noah let live, had returned.

Unlike the troll, the goblins didn’t doubt the goblin’s recount of what transpired. In fact, the glorification of its experience was further exaggerated by the time it spread through their ranks.

An Oni that not only devoured souls but also flesh. And whatever the Oni devours, it returns them from the dead to serve him forever.

The goblins didn’t know what to do. Their fear of the Oni took precedence, yet the loss of their leader was comparatively demoralizing. Their leader was more than just a capable warrior. It was also the most capable of reproducing goblins with the highest potential for growth.

With the leader gone, they could still make up for their loss numbers, but the number of hobgoblins and potential shamans would diminish.

They never thought about relocating. Within the forest, the number of areas they could relocate to weren’t favorable at all. And without their leader, it wouldn’t be smart to change locations until they were able to re-elect a new leader.

So, all they could do was bide their time and devote most of their resources to the top five strongest hobgoblins so a new leader could be born.

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Out of the three losers, the lizardmen, who had the least amount of losses on their end, should’ve been able to return with a better mindset. However, on their return, their receptance was met with a cold silence.

The reproach should have been unwarranted. Even if it was because they failed, the others knew just how strong the drake truly was, not to mention if the drake also had a helper.

But the returning lizardmen understood why this mission was so important. The drake’s scales were for their leader to overcome its bottleneck, its bottleneck to evolve. And right now, they needed their leader’s strength to overcome the new enemy.

Their enemy wasn’t like Noah.

The creatures they fought weren’t strong, but they weren’t weak either. When the lizardmen took three down, the enemy would only take down one.

With the math, the lizardmen’s victory should be assured. The tension shouldn’t be as heavy as it is now. The problem lay in the fact that their bodies were never able to be recovered. Those of the lizardmen, or of the enemy.

When the enemy appeared again, their numbers didn’t jump indiscriminately, but there would be one stronger enemy in the mix. An enemy that had the traits of their fallen warriors, an enemy that was stronger and faster than before.

Their leader wasn’t willing to risk the exposure of their elites. Not just out of fear of losing them, but also out of fear that their elites would be used to birth a creature stronger than what they could already contend against.

And with the returning lizardmen’s failure to retrieve the drake’s scales, the lizardmen had to give up on the other side of the forest, despite the fact that the creatures on the other side possessed a higher quality of meat and cores.

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Noah may not have known how the battle had affected the three tribes, but he was aware of the fact that unless another enemy appeared, the three would not interfere with him anytime soon.

He would relish this peace, not only so he could spend time with his family, but also to secure themselves in this world, where their livelihoods could be in jeopardy at any moment.

He was already in the middle of the first step to achieve this. The sun was already setting as shadows stretched longer across the clearing. All of his creatures had already eaten, yet the drool slowly dripped from more than a few mouths suggested otherwise.

Noah was preparing as many cores as he could.

It wasn’t only to reward everyone. The urge to discover whether cores consumed by his directly tamed creatures would affect his soul realm was too strong to ignore any longer. He had felt changes before, subtle ones, but never with enough certainty to confirm anything. This time, he needed to know.

And while he was preparing the cores, he finally asked the drake the question that had been sitting in the back of his mind since the fight ended.

"How do we grow stronger?" The drake repeated the question slowly. The question itself was simple, yet the answer clearly wasn’t.

"For myself," the drake began, "drakes and wyverns alike grow stronger as we age. Our dragon lineage is simply superior in that regard."

As it spoke, its eyes never left the batch of cores Noah was preparing.

"But if we want to grow faster," it continued, "then we must fight. We stimulate the cells and mana within our bodies until they are forced to pass their natural thresholds. Training alone will never bring the same effect."

Its voice hardened slightly.

"Only when life is on the line, when the body believes death is imminent, do instincts force it beyond its limits."

The drake paused, watching as a core was tossed toward the one called Kratos, before continuing.

"Even so," it added, "this rule does not apply to everyone. The limits to power are normally determined at birth. Limits set by the limitations and genes of the species and dilution of blood."

Noah stopped to take a proper look at the drake. There was a subtle shift in its tone now, he could tell it was speaking from experience. But his concern was more focused on one particular word the drake said.

"Normally?"

"Yes," the drake replied, nodding once. "Normally."

"Nothing in life can be created from nothing, and that truth applies here as well. Strength that surpasses the body’s genetic limits cannot be obtained from nothing. Training cannot create it. Fighting cannot create it. Neither can give a body potential it was never born with."

This time, it stopped again, its pupils dilated as it zoomed in on a core being tossed in its direction. This time it took extra precaution not to swallow it all at once, savoring every bit of essence that took root throughout its body.

"It is only through a catalyst can creatures overcome the hurdle of their birth. That rule applies to everyone. Humans, Elves, Demons, noth-nothing is exempt." There was a momentary pause.

When it came to Noah, the drake wasn’t certain how his existence fit into that truth. It felt both right and wrong at the same time.

Noah, meanwhile, was fully absorbing every word. He compared it to what he already knew, aligning it with his own experiences.

If what the drake said was correct, then what he was already doing was the right way to make his creatures stronger. He wasn’t worried about life-and-death battles yet.

What mattered now was creating a solid foundation first.

The battles will come.

They always did.