Becoming a Monster

Chapter 580: Chapter 579: A New Variant

The hobgoblin couldn’t understand the way the others were looking at it.

It was rare for it to receive any gaze from them that wasn’t filled with contempt or mockery.

And now? They looked at it with something the hobgoblin had never expected to receive from its own kind.

Gratitude.

The feeling only left it more confused.

It hadn’t saved those children because it wanted the tribe to survive.

When the other goblins abandoned the children, its body simply moved before it had the chance to think.

There was no way of knowing that acting to save them would lead to the Oni using that action to let the others live.

Long before the Oni ever appeared, it had always found itself looking after the young whenever the opportunity arose.

Someone had to.

The adults were too busy fighting one another, hunting, or proving who was stronger.

No one cared whether the children were actually prepared to survive once they were forced to “prove” their worth outside in the forest.

It did.

It cared because when it was just an ordinary goblin growing up, it remembered how hard everything was alone.

It remembered desiring for someone older to help it hunt, to help it understand the forest so it can grow on its own.

All just to be ignored.

Ridiculed first, and then ignored.

Yet that concern was exactly what made it different. The other goblins mocked it because of it.

They called it weak. They laughed whenever it chose to spend its time teaching the young instead of fighting alongside the warriors.

Even worse…

The very children it tried to help rarely remained grateful.

As they grew older, they slowly became no different than the rest of the tribe.

One after another, they eventually joined in the ridicule.

Even after experiencing that countless times, the hobgoblin never stopped looking after the next generation.

It didn’t understand why it continued to do so.

Every time another group of children came along, it found itself teaching them how to hunt, how to survive, and how to better understand the forest all over again.

When those same children eventually grew older and became like everyone else, the hobgoblin simply stopped paying them any mind and turned its attention toward the next generation instead.

It never expected anything in return.

Helping them simply felt like the right thing to do.

That was why it couldn’t understand the Oni’s words.

The Oni spoke as though everything that happened afterward had been because of its actions.

As though it had deliberately tried to save the young, as if it knew that it would save the others.

Just what was the Oni trying to accomplish by saying such a thing?

Only after that thought settled did it gradually realize that the look was even more than gratitude.

They were now looking at it as though it had become their savior.

—

The hobgoblin didn’t know what to say. Its mouth opened slightly before closing again.

In the end, it could only swallow nervously before looking toward the Oni.

Its eyes silently asked the only question it could think of.

What did the Oni want it to do now?

It found itself, instinctively waiting for another order.

Strangely, that didn’t bother it. If anything, it was a relief.

Having someone to stand above it meant there was no need to constantly wonder what the correct decision was supposed to be.

The burden of deciding no longer rested on its shoulders.

For perhaps the first time in its life, the hobgoblin felt as though it wanted to be told what to do.

Noah, however, didn’t address the hobgoblin immediately. Instead, his attention shifted toward the rest of the tribe.

“If you are going to serve me, then I will first show you the benefits of giving me your loyalty.”

He slowly gestured toward the hobgoblin standing behind him.

“This goblin showed me its devotion long before the rest of you ever considered doing so.”

“So I will reward that devotion.”

“I will bestow upon it the strength and the title to become the one who will lead over the rest of you and to lead directly under me.”

The surviving goblins struggled to understand everything the Oni had said.

They understood that the Oni intended to reward the hobgoblin for showing that loyalty.

They also understood that the reward would be strength.

What they couldn’t understand was how such a thing was even possible.

How could the Oni simply grant another creature strength?

And if that strength truly came from loyalty, then what exactly did the Oni expect from them in return?

By now, not a single goblin spared another glance toward the former chieftain. Its miserable appearance had already been forgotten.

Instead, every eye remained fixed upon the Oni.

Noah retrieved the translucent goblin soul he had extracted moments earlier from his Nexus Eye.

Without the slightest bit of warning, he pressed it directly into the hobgoblin’s chest.

The soul disappeared before the affected goblin could blink. And almost immediately the hobgoblin’s body began to change.

The first changes appeared within its posture.

Its back gradually straightened until it stood completely upright, while the slight bend that had always remained within its legs and arms slowly disappeared as its joints naturally realigned themselves.

The changes continued as its body adapted to the growing strength within it.

Every muscle gradually became more defined than before. Yet nothing about its physique became bulky or disproportionate.

Its body was being refined into lean, symmetrical proportions. Each change appeared as the complete opposite of what the goblins expected a true goblin chieftain to look like.

The goblins watched without blinking.

None of them had ever witnessed an evolution such as this happening before their own eyes.

Yet even those changes paled in comparison to what happened next.

The rough, coarse features that had always defined goblins gradually softened.

Its face slowly lost the harsh, unsightly appearance of its former self as something noticeably closer to a “human” began to take shape.

Its ears lengthened. The feral look in its eyes faded, replaced by a calmer, more focused gaze as its pupils slowly settled into a deep, blood-red shade.

Then, the sparse strands of hair that had barely covered the top of its head rapidly spread outward before darkening into a charcoal-black hue.

The hair continued growing until it flowed well past its shoulders, gently swaying despite the complete stillness surrounding the camp.

By the time the transformation came to an end. Very little of the hobgoblin’s former appearance remained.

Quiet murmurs immediately spread throughout the tribe. Those murmurs quickly grew louder with every passing moment.

Many of the goblins stared with unconcealed envy.

The change in appearance itself meant very little to them. The goblins’ soft features, to the males, didn’t have the essence of a warrior.

While the female goblins couldn’t stop them lusting over its body. Besides the new goblin looking more appealing in their eyes, the pheromones naturally being released struck at their cores.

But unlike the females, what truly captivated the males was the aura now radiating from the goblin.

The pressure it released had increased so dramatically that many of them found it difficult to believe this was the very same goblin they had mocked so often before.

An unavoidable thought quietly surfaced within each of their minds.

If someone as weak as that hobgoblin could become this strong…

Then what about them?

Would they become even more powerful if they earned the Oni’s favor?

Behind Noah, Ailetta and Arachne quietly observed the transformation.

Their expressions were somewhat complicated.

The hobgoblin was undeniably stronger than before. There wasn’t any doubt about that.

It had even surpassed the former chieftain by at least double its aura.

Yet they couldn’t help thinking about all of the goblins used to create that soul, leaving them wondering.

Was that all?

Both women found themselves reaching the same conclusion.

If this hobgoblin fought someone like Alexandria, who had yet to have the chance to become a fallen…

They couldn’t help but feel it would still be defeated within moments.

Something about the transformation felt incomplete.

Despite those thoughts, neither of them voiced their concerns.

If anyone understood what had just changed, it would be Noah.

Ailetta quietly glanced toward him. Seeing that eye on his chest glowing and the intensity in his eyes.

Whatever had just happened had completely captured his attention.

—

Ailetta wasn’t that far from the truth.

Noah could easily sense that the amount of strength the goblin gained didn’t match the strength contained within the soul.

That was because the soul had affected far more than its physical capabilities.

This was the first time he had ever witnessed something like this.

As he thought about it, Noah realized this was perhaps the first time they had ever taken the combined souls of multiple members of the same species and returned them to one of their own.

The change in the hobgoblin’s appearance had already led him to suspect as much.

His suspicion was proven the moment he examined its newly acquired skills.

None of them had existed within the hobgoblin beforehand.

Even more surprising, the soul itself didn’t possess those abilities either.

That left only one possible explanation.

This wasn’t merely a mutation.

It was a forced evolution.

An evolution that had purified the very bloodline of its species.

The hobgoblin was no longer simply stronger than the rest of its kind.

It had become the forerunner of an entirely new generation.