Becoming a Monster

Chapter 536 - 535: A Soul Built for Curses

Noah knew that his gut was right.

Fundamentally, he could understand why he should unquestioningly trust it.

Still, simply understanding that wasn’t enough to explain how his instincts functioned.

He still didn’t fully understand how his body could instinctively perceive evolutionary compatibility before his own thoughts consciously caught up to the answer. Sometimes, as with Kratos, he didn’t understand his gut instincts until after he saw the results.

Yet after watching Dobby endure that flood of negativity without collapsing beneath it, Noah quickly began identifying the similarities between Dobby and the shaman soul he had preserved all this time.

"Negative energy..."

The words quietly left Noah’s mouth as his thoughts drifted back toward the goblin shamans they had fought before.

At first glance, the shamans appeared specialized in primitive magic and poisonous herbs. But that wasn’t their true defining trait.

Their defining trait was curse magic.

Magic born directly from resentment, hatred, killing intent, and vengeance.

The shaman weaponized negative emotions themselves and converted them into power that made them capable of directly attacking the soul.

And Dobby...

Dobby naturally absorbed others’ negative emotions constantly, yet lacked any real outlet for them afterward.

That made him the perfect vessel for such abilities.

The more Noah thought about it, the more horrifyingly compatible the combination became.

A creature capable of carrying overloading amounts of negative influence and energy without collapsing beneath it, combined with a soul specialized in converting negativity into power.

Noah gained an understanding of why his instincts settled on Dobby so strongly.

By the time Noah reached the gathered felines, the atmosphere had grown noticeably heavier.

Several cats instinctively moved aside once they noticed him approaching, while others lowered their heads nervously.

Only Dobby remained kneeling in the center.

His eyes stayed tightly shut while small tremors continuously ran through his body. At least now his tail was no longer thumping against the ground; it was battered, with open gashes.

Alexandria finally reached Noah’s side.

The moment she properly saw Dobby’s condition, her chest tightened painfully.

The feline looked far worse than before.

His body remained unnaturally still despite the occasional tremor passing through him.

If before it looked as though he was locked in a losing battle against inner demons, now it felt as if even that struggle had begun fading. Dobby no longer looked like someone actively resisting what he absorbed.

He looked like someone using the last remnants of his strength to remain conscious while those burdens slowly crushed him from within.

"Dobby..."

Alexandria’s voice came out quieter than she intended.

The old feline didn’t react.

Not even slightly.

Her chest tightened further.

"Dobby?" This time her voice rose slightly as she stepped closer toward him, but once again there was no response waiting for her.

That was when Alexandria finally snapped her attention toward the others surrounding him.

"What happened?"

The gathered felines immediately stiffened beneath her gaze.

Several looked toward one another uncertainly, yet none of them seemed capable of giving her a proper answer.

"We don’t know..."

"He just suddenly-"

"He stopped moving after helping us..."

None of the answers sounded certain.

That only worsened the rapidly building fear and frustration within Alexandria.

"How do none of you know what happened to him?" Her voice sharpened noticeably as she bared her fangs. "You were all standing right here."

The surrounding felines instinctively lowered themselves beneath her gaze. None of them knew how to answer her properly.

Because the truth was that everything happened too quickly.

One moment, Dobby had still been standing there supporting all of them like he always did, and the next, his body suddenly gave out beneath the pressure he had taken onto himself.

What was worse was the fact that their minds weren’t in a state where they could remember because of Noah’s blood.

And none of them realized how bad it truly became until he stopped responding entirely.

Fear was already beginning to turn into anger inside her, not because she truly blamed them, but because nobody could give her the answer she wanted to hear.

Before the atmosphere could worsen further, Noah finally moved.

Several tendrils extended from him before gently wrapping themselves around Dobby’s body. Soft green energy immediately began flowing through Dobby as Noah’s healing spread through him.

The effect was immediate enough for Alexandria to notice.

Dobby’s strained breathing gradually eased while the tension locked throughout his body loosened. Even his tightly shut eyes relaxed faintly afterward.

Yet Dobby still didn’t wake up.

Dobby looked less like someone recovering and more like someone sinking deeper into exhaustion now that his body no longer had enough pain forcing him to remain awake.

Alexandria noticed it too.

Her ears lowered slightly as she stared at him. Even after Noah healed him, Dobby somehow looked more fragile than before.

Noah himself didn’t appear surprised by the result at all. His healing could only restore physical injuries.

Dobby’s mind and soul buckled under the intense emotions he absorbed from too many creatures. What he suffered from now went far beyond physical damage.

Ailetta could likely heal him if necessary. But for her to do that, she would need to take those burdens directly onto herself.

And Noah doubted even she could withstand that kind of toll without consequences either.

Fortunately, there was a much simpler solution.

Alexandria noticed Noah’s expression subtly change afterward.

Then one of his tendrils slowly extended toward Dobby again.

This time, Alexandria’s eyes brightened slightly when she realized what Noah intended to do.

If Noah used his blood to strengthen Dobby, then there was a chance it could help stabilize him as well.

Using one of his tendrils, Noah carefully pried open Dobby’s clenched jaw slightly.

But before administering it, Noah paused.

Then dozens of tendrils suddenly erupted outward from his body once more.

The surrounding cats and dogs immediately startled as the slime rapidly spread around each of them before hardening into small individual cages.

Confused cries immediately erupted throughout the clearing.

"What’s happening?"

"Why are we being restrained again?"

Even Alexandria looked startled by the sudden action.

"Did you all forget what happened when you smelled my blood already?"

Noah’s voice wasn’t loud, yet the coldness behind it caused the clamor to die down gradually.

His eyes slowly passed over each cage one by one. And every creature he looked at quieted afterward.

None of them forgot.

That was exactly the problem.

Earlier, the madness consumed them so completely that once it ended, it almost didn’t feel real anymore. The memories felt distorted, as if they were someone else’s.

Several of the restrained beasts lowered their heads afterward.

No one complained anymore.

Alexandria’s expression gradually changed as she watched their reactions, realizing that perhaps it was their fault that Dobby was like this.

Noah ignored them all afterward.

He had already learned earlier that he was right to assume they wouldn’t be capable of resisting his blood properly. There was no reason to allow the same chaos to repeat itself.

At the same time, he also wanted to test something.

Noah’s gaze lingered on Dobby silently.

Under normal circumstances, the most efficient option would’ve been obvious.

He could directly fuse the shaman’s soul into Dobby immediately.

But the idea didn’t sit right with him.

The shaman’s soul was far too powerful compared to Dobby’s current condition. Even if Dobby possessed a stronger soul than Noah originally realized, that didn’t automatically mean his body and mind could safely withstand a direct fusion immediately afterward.

Dobby’s soul was already strained. Introducing another powerful soul into that unstable state could easily create consequences Noah couldn’t properly predict yet.

And even if it worked? The results would be less than what he expected. Instinctively, he believed that only by giving Dobby a stronger foundation would he gain the greatest benefits when the soul was merged.

So instead, Noah chose the safer approach.

Just as Alexandria did before him, Dobby would first receive Noah’s blood, then use his infused blood right after.

Using one of his tendrils, Noah carefully pried open Dobby’s clenched jaw slightly.

Only after making sure every creature was restrained did Noah finally allow the drop of blood to fall into Dobby’s mouth.

His eyes flashed faintly around the same time he released the blood.

But his attention wasn’t focused on Dobby. It was focused on the others.

He had simultaneously attempted to create an illusion that completely masked the scent of his blood from the surrounding creatures.

And almost immediately, Noah realized it failed.

Their bodies still stiffened, and their pupils dilated just like before.

Heavy breathing came from the cages as desire rapidly surfaced on nearly every face.

Yet, unlike earlier, none of them became driven to the point of losing themselves completely.

It was closer to how they normally reacted toward Noah’s infused blood in the past, rather than the complete madness from before.

Noah sank into contemplation. The illusion clearly worked to some extent. Otherwise, their reactions wouldn’t have weakened this much.

But it still wasn’t enough.

He was convinced that his illusion would’ve worked on creatures whose spirit wasn’t close to resisting him.

Yet their instincts reacted regardless. Which meant the attraction didn’t stem solely from scent.

Or the scent was so strong that even his illusion couldn’t mask it completely.

The information he gathered outweighed his failure.

It was successful enough to allow him to focus completely on Dobby.