Becoming a Monster

'This….this is mana!'

The overpowering feeling of harnessing mana almost caused Noah to ruin his chances of targeting the approaching mantis. His adrenaline rush was kicking in at an all time high. When he placed everything in this moment, he wasn't consciously aware of it, but he was now using all four pupils in complete cohesiveness that everything appeared in slow motions during the moment of him tracking the mantis movements.

Soon a jet black stream of webbing shot out of his wrist in the mantis directions. The speed was only so-so, but even then, because he was able to discern the mantis movements down to the smallest detail, he placed the webs in a positioning that it couldn't avoid.

Noah wasn't aware of it, but the mantis was similar to his spider in a sense that they couldn't freely maneuver their bodies while in mid flight which is the reason why it had to stop briefly when it passed him before taking off again. Because of this particular flaw and how fast the mantis was approaching, it left itself with no way to avoid the incoming webs.

Hiisssss!*

After tumbling on the ground, the mantis hissed in frustration as it tried to remove the webs around it. Its front legs, which were its driving force to move around, were bound. And above its legs, close to the base of its wings were now covered in black webs. The mantis frantically tried to use its blade-like claws to remove the webs but even it was having a tough time to do so. Maybe if given enough time then it would be able to cut through the mesh.

At this moment, Noah couldn't give up this opportunity. He could feel that his stamina took a small hit from using his webs and he even felt a little lightheaded from his first time using mana. But he could also tell that he had enough stamina in him to finish the job. He didn't want to kill the mantis, if he could tame such a creature then it would increase his chances of getting stronger on his own.

With his arms still raised, he let out another load of webs onto the mantis, this time targeting its upper portions. Both strings of webs shot out of his arms to form a tight hold around the mantis main weapons, making it cause an even bigger fuss than before.

While quickly making his way to the captured mantis, he looked over to check on Arachne's situation. When he looked over he saw her no longer towering over the mantis but was now in the process of wrapping it into a cocoon? This would be the first time Noah didn't see her immediately start feeding, but after thinking about it, maybe she has already eaten too much for now.

The mantis still had a lot of energy and fight within it but Noah couldn't afford to use webs anymore.

'That skill is definitely making me feel a bit sluggish, not to mention the small headache I'm having right now. I guess that makes sense since it's using up whatever is in my body to create them. But I wish I could at least know how much mana each cast cost. Wait…I can just check my status right?' He quickly went to his panel, if he could use a little bit more webbing on the mantis then he would feel more assured to get close to it.

[Player: Noah

Race:Human Chimera

Class: monster tamer

Gold: 195

Lvl: 5

Exp:165/400->267/400

Health:89%->90%

Stamina:64%->62%

Mana: 24/24->4/24]

His attention was only directed towards his stamina and mana before he refocused back to the mantis, but he couldn't help but frown.

'That's not right…there's no way I would feel this way if my stamina only went down that much…maybe it's only showing me from the last time I opened my status. My stamina should've definitely risen more by then, especially with my skill. In that case, let's just use the webs without supplying mana.'

This time he chose to use one arm to shoot out his webs, aiming towards the mantis face. He could probably touch any body part to initiate the taming process but it would probably take longer to activate the skill.

During the process of shooting his webs, he tried to stop the circulation of his mana being supplied but he realized he couldn't cut it all off. The most he could do was to allow the bare minimum to be mixed into his veins before shooting out, causing his headache to worsen.

'Fuck! Either I'm not proficient enough to use it without mana or there's no way for me to use it without it. I might need to build my magic if that's the case. At Least it got the job done, let's see if this will be more difficult than Arachne.

Approaching from the backside of the mantis, he placed his palm on its head to initiate the taming process.

Noah re-emerge in that black universe-like space that was being illuminated by the balls of light just like before when he was taming Arachne, but he noticed a change immediately. The ball of gas that represented him, now had more specs of black, unlike before and there were small wisps of red. The white itself was stabilized but the black and red would flare out occasionally.

There was no way for him to understand what the colors meant, but he knew that it was most likely due to his unique body changes. It was a necessary change and he knew that it wasn't going to end there after he began to develop those traits even more.

Instead of focusing on something he could no longer change, he focused on the ball of light in front of him. The ball was almost completely identical to Arachnes, except the white was a little bit more noticeable. He wasn't planning on having an epic battle like he did with Arachne, his plan was to completely dominate it fast. Even though he wanted another creature, he didn't want to have to share an equal amount of experience 24/7. He wanted to be able to adjust the amount shared in the future given by the situation, so he needed to be in full control of the bond in order to do so.

Moving forward, he felt the force from before trying to push him away, but he continued to progress nonstop. When he approached the boundary where he was almost stumped by an emotional attack before. The small wisps of red started to glow more intensely, any feeling that was being projected to him was partly absorbed and intensifying his own.

"Schree….."

By this time, the mantis lost any desire to fight just like the spider before, but this time Noah didn't bother to spur it on. It didn't take him much longer to enclose himself around the mantis ball of light and have it submit to him.

During the process, his ball emitted appendages of the three colors making up his 'body'. And when they tethered themselves to the mantis, he noticed that a change occurred that didn't happen to Arachne. The parts that were secured by the red appendages also turned red but no other color influenced the other side.

Noah still couldn't process what the red meant so there was no way he would know what was happening but there was just one thing that occurred to him after witnessing the change.

'Is this only for the mantis or has Arachne been affected too?' He made a mental tone to observe Arachne more after this. Since he's been with her long enough, maybe he could notice any changes that occurred. He just wished he knew exactly when he was influenced by the red wisps.

Soon he was brought out of the space and back to reality. The mantis was no longer as frantic as it was originally but it still struggled to remove itself from the webs. Arachne was now standing a bit away from him while she dragged its prey behind her with her webs.

Noah could sense that he had another notification. Most likely regarding the fact about the amount of experience shared between the two. Before he planned to check, he wanted to release the mantis from its bondage. He pulled and tugged at the webbing but it wouldn't budge with everything he tried.

"How the hell is it so strong? I know my stats aren't that ridiculous besides my spi-of course! Spirit influences spells by increasing their effectiveness. But this is just too exaggerated…Arachne I need your help with this!"

He decided to leave this type of work to someone with more experience, but he didn't know how spiders dealt with this kind of situation so what she did almost caused Noah to faint.

"No! No! I said help with the webs, not to eat the bug dummy! Do you know how hard it'll be until we finnnnnndd…" He stopped when he noticed that Arachne really wasn't trying to devour the mantis but was actually eating the webs. What he didn't know was that spiders would sometimes eat their own webs as a form of recycling so they could replenish their energies after spinning.

"Haha, I didn't mean to call you a dummy, I was trying to say 'not to eat it, it's not yummy'." He caressed her backside while he tried to make it up to her.

"Humph!" Arachne wasn't interested in what he had to say. She had something more important on her mind and that was the delicious silk her master was able to spin. And while she ate it, her own webs were having a qualitative change.

"Hehe~" Noah tried to laugh it off, but he realized two things. Arachne was developing a personality and two, for some reason she was really enjoying herself while she was eating his webs. He decided to create a bit of distance from her in case she tried to ask him for more. In the meantime, he used the opportunity to check the notifications.

[Taming of mutated Praying Mantis successful. Because the Mantis was completely subdued, you are now given the option of the amount of experience to share.

Would you like to set the shared Experience to the standard 50/50 or custom distribution?]

He didn't need to think about this, he set the experience to 80/20. Arachne will be his primary monster while the mantis could get most of its experience by eating. But he couldn't neglect his own level. He noticed that after the fight with the running zombies and now the mantis, that his stats were lacking. He was about to atleast check the mantis status but the notifications didn't end there.

[Arachne has successfully mutated her webs with hosts undead webbing. Arachne's Spiders silk has changed to 'Cursed Silk'.

Cursed Silk-Unlike its original natural ability to create silk, the spider's webs are now mixed with an unnatural mana that shouldn't co-exist. Webs can now be infused with that mana, making it tougher than before. Grows stronger with strength and mana infused.]

"….Why is it that everyone is gaining skills by eating? INCLUDING ME? I'm just waiting to gain the skill of gluttony anytime now. But…" He relooked over her skill and then compared it to his own.

"Does that mean I'll also have to raise her magic stat now so she can use her webs? No…If that was the case then her skill would be more of a nerf then, I don't want to believe it. She still has the five unassigned points, I'll just have her try it later and then we can use the points then.

He continued to wait for Arachne to finish, so he took this time to quickly check his mantis stats.

[Player: Mantis

Race: Praying Mantis

Class: Mantodea

Lvl: 6

Exp:73/800

Health:94%

Stamina:87%

Mana: 8/8

Attributes

Strength:33(35)

Agility:32

Constitution:16

Stamina:21

Magic: 4

Spirit:29

Skills

Active

Burst flight(Lvl 0)

Camouflage(Lvl 0)

Passive

Echo location(Lvl 0)]

Noah's eyes lit up when he saw the level and stats of his new creature. He felt lucky that he was somehow able to overcome them, let alone tame one. He felt that both he and Arachne were a direct counter to the mantis who were clearly stronger than them based on stats.

"Oh? You're done?" He noticed the moving of two figures behind him and saw that the mantis was able to stand on its own. The mantis curiously sizing both Arachne and him up and down. It felt that they were friendly's, but part of it was unsure because it was just trying to kill them. And even then, it still felt a connection between the two that made it feel closer to them than it did its fellow mantis.

"Hey, even though we started off on the wrong foot, let's get along!" Noah said with a smile, he was excited to obtain another ferocious creature, that he didn't realize how cringe he was at this moment. Thankfully, the mantis wasn't yet accustomed to human speech and could understand from Noah's intentions that he was welcoming it, clearing up its earlier confusion about them being friendly's or not.

But Arachne had enough understanding to notice his awkwardness and began to shuffle her legs repeatedly, making her own imitation of laughter.

"Hmm well that odd one would be your older sister you would have to listen to, but clearly somethings wrong with her so you don't have t- okay okay! Sigh…Nevermind, make sure you listen to your older sister." He chose to give in when he saw her attempting to do her 'threatening' poise, where she would lift her front legs and her upper body in the air. Obviously she was throwing a small tantrum, hierarchy meant a lot to her so he decided to give in.

He looked around while the two attempted to get used to one another, which was hard to do since the mantis wasn't as expressive and appeared to come off as a strict soldier after learning its place. But Noah was sure that Arachne would rub off on it sooner or later.

Now that he had an extra accomplice, he felt that their farming should be much easier now. But he still had to solve one last issue, he pondered while he turned back to the mantis with one of his most serious expressions that he rarely wore. Both Arachne and the mantas sensed that he had something to say while they waited in suspense.

"Are you the fucker or the one that gets fucked?"