Becoming a Monster

They all silently followed Mark who quickly headed to the sound without any regard of the people behind him until they came upon the scene.

"What??"

The current scene left everyone speechless. A man with two giant bugs was fighting off hundreds of zombies swarming them at once. But the words fighting wasn't the right term for what they were watching. It was more of a one sided massacre.

The more they watched, the more the scene turned more incredulous that their emotions couldn't keep up.

It wasn't just the fact that there were only three figures fighting, it was also the large amount of corpses at the scene. The headless bodies, some dismembered and then the rest were perfectly intact if the state of the zombies bodies before they were zombies were disregarded.

A few unprepared students weren't ready for some of the gore they've witnessed. The zombies still resemble humans and were once humans not so long ago. The state of their corpses and the intense smell of blood overpowered the food that they were so desperately trying to hold in.

The surprises didn't stop there, the biggest surprise was the new companion following Noah. There was not a chance that anyone would forget the bug that instilled so much fear into them not so long ago. But the most surprised of them all about this fact was not Ailetta, but Mark. He gripped the handle of his sword that barely gained much action. He was only level three, not only that, the bug that Noah tamed was the first opponent that made him feel completely hopeless.

Did that mean Noah was better than him? He didn't want to accept that. Just like now, Noah was able to go off on his own and level up as much as he wanted when he instead was held back. 'I said time and time again that we should focus on leveling up, but no one listened! If someone like him could reach this level then just imagine how strong I could've become if they listened to me.'

With that thought he stopped watching from afar and chose to join in the fighting. There were still a lot more zombies in the vicinity so the two groups wouldn't be in the way of each other. His group could only reluctantly follow after him.

But what they didn't notice was the irregularity of some of the zombies that would launch themselves in a sprint to reach Noah only to be shut down by Arachne or Grim after they both agreed that they would share the meals of the stronger zombies.

It was when they approached from the other side that they encountered their first unique zombie.

"Mark! Don't go off alone, we don't know what these things are capable of!" Jasmine's shout fell on deafs ears. Mark wanted to prove to them that he was right in his decision to fight before and what better way to do that than to fight a seemingly powerful enemy and two of them at that?

Before everyone's eyes, Mark's body radiated out a small incandescent bluish glow. Suddenly he became much faster than before and more agile, his speed was even faster than the running zombies. He had obtained an achievement as well and his was called 'Hero's Aura'. The skill had a multitude of functions ranging from support and attack.

Using his mana, he could increase any one stat up to fifty percent temporarily, depending on the usage of his mana. Or he could choose to coat a weapon in his aura to increase the durability, sharpness or to increase the range by adding a blue layer that was used as an extension of that weapon.

This was also the reason he thought he was clearly better than Noah, who he now perceived to be worse than a common villain. The world itself branded him as a hero, he has the acknowledgment of god! How could he not be better?

He neared the first zombie before he stabbed forward with his fiveish foot claymore that was almost as long as him.

Pah*

His sword pierced through the zombie's cheek and reached its brain. Because he was trying to prove a point, he also expended more of his mana to coat his sword in his aura to increase its sharpness. He was able to quickly and cleanly retrieve the sword from the zombie's head to perform a horizontal swing to the next zombie, removing its neck.

The quick succession of taking down the two new zombies stunned his group members who looked towards him in awe. But Mark wasn't content with their stares, his head snapped in the direction of Noah, hoping that he had witnessed how he easily slew the advanced zombies and he did it by himself.

Yet Noah wasn't paying attention to their group at all, he almost doubted that Noah knew they were even here, which caused his anger to flare. His eyes soon turned back to his group now that they had caught up.

"We've already wasted time, kill as many as you can, stay in groups if you have to but let's all level up before we leave!"

...….

Meanwhile, Mark's group finally confronted the zombie hoard as a whole. While Noah and his insect companions were almost prepared to retreat. They've already been fighting for what seemed to be half an hour and were running low on stamina. Noah didn't plan to fight till he was empty when there could be other predators waiting, like the vulture for example.

"Grim, Arachne we're leaving! Arachne take me with you." He yelled while hacking down another encroaching zombie. The zombies were endless, even if he and his creatures killed a hundred a piece, the hoard would still appear never ending. Noah didn't want to risk getting caught out, they were slowly getting overran and surrounded while they tried to kite the zombies away.

Both Grim and Arachne were quick to respond. He wasn't worried about either of them being in danger. They both had ways to escape crowds and the zombies rarely focused on them unless the zombies no longer had him in sight.

Whoosh!

He soared through the air on Arachne's mid-section, it wasn't comfortable by any means but it didn't ruin the thrill. They quickly escaped the hoard but they didn't go too far. There was something that he was constantly looking for and that he feared would never appear.

After motioning Arachne to stop where he dropped his bag, which was only about 50 yards from the zombies. He waited for the last bit of runners that were able to keep up. But this time he chose to sit out and let Grim and Arachne finish them all while he wiped off the blood and brain matter from his axes in the grass.

During the initial stages of the group fight, Arachne was far behind them in kills, using her venom to take out each individual zombie. She was becoming agitated that everyone was outperforming her. Always keeping one eye on both Grim and Noah at all times, she observed how they were beating her at every turn. When she realized that they would just attack the head and move on. She felt that her horizons had been broadened exponentially.

Instead of jumping on a zombie, she crawled to one and stabbed at its face with her pointed leg. Her leg went cleanly through its mouth, reaching the other side and so she was about to move on. Then she noticed the zombie continued to move! She felt that she was being tricked, in her frustrations she stabbed at the zombies face repeatedly until it stopped moving. Since then, she's been gradually learning where to attack the zombies to easily take them out, now Noah could easily say that she has become a better zombie farmer.

There were four runners in the approaching group, but were taken care of by the bug duo. Grim didn't rely on using his wings this time around, his wings consumed his stamina more, but his speed was still nothing to laugh at. In a short distant exchange, his powerful front legs were enough to quickly close the distance. The same could be said for Arachne, as she ran over to the zombies instead of her usual leaps.

But just as he expected, the chest he was waiting for finally appeared. Looking up into the sky, he wondered if he could catch the figure of the person watching them. How whoever it was decided when the chest would drop, he would never know, but his appreciation for that being was undoubtedly growing.

"Hey hey hey! Don't touch it, what if you ruined my lucky street?" Noah hurriedly interrupted the curious Grim, who didn't know where the chest suddenly appeared from, but he couldn't help from wanting to interact with such a shining object. Even when Noah intercepted him, Grim

stood rooted to his position without showing a hint of moving and watched his master with an intense gaze. But it waited and it waited and his master didn't do anything yet.

'?????' The questioning tone rang in Noah's mind, distracting him from his trance. He quickly spun his head around just to be startled, Grims face was now inches from his own. Those large beady eyes stared into his and because it couldn't blink, it made Noah feel more uncomfortable until he pressed his hand against Grims face and moved it facing Arachne.

"You, you see her?" Both looked towards Arachne carefully wrapping her meals in her webs.

"Be more like that glutton and let me enjoy myself." He returned to his superstitious rite of opening the chest. He was lucky enough again to gain a gold chest, but maybe luck had nothing to do with it. If it was like he thought about before, then the chest depended on the number of beings killed and the quality of those figures. When he thought about the overall amount of zombies he and his creatures killed, then it would be even more unreasonable if he didn't obtain a gold chest or higher.

Opening the chest, his eyes strained from the reflection of light on the huge collection of gold before noticing the glow of two different color lights within. His heart was beating in excitement, hoping that he was once again lucky enough to obtain a skill, but his standard for loot was too high.

His four pupils observed everywhere in the chest and quickly spotted all its contents. The quality of the loot satisfied him but it was the quantity that was lacking.

"How come I killed so many and yet this is all that's in here? Where's the rest? Don't tell me there's a limit to how much a chest can hold??" The thought left him crushed. If he had known that, then he wouldn't have farmed so many zombies at once. As he tried to process the situation, he brought out the rest of the chest contents. There were three glowing orbs, two of them were red while the last was a yellow that was half a size bigger than the others.

[+2 strength]

[+2 strength]

[+5 stamina]

He was easily able to perceive the large changes in his body, the physique may have not changed but the power was suddenly there. He instinctively clenched his fist while flexing his muscles and noticed that he had a lot more energy than before. If he thought before that he didn't gain a lot of loot then now he is beginning to understand. His thoughts completely tilted to complete understanding when he retrieved the last item.

"What is this?" He brought out a full suit of what appeared to be armor, but it wasn't the type of armor you would find in the setting he was thinking of. It was something that was used even today. What he held in his hands resembled the kind of gear that police would wear in riots, minus the helmet and the shoes.

There were thin guards supported by a silver metal alloy around the knees, forearms, shins, chest and the back area. It didn't appear as supportive as the original counterpart, but it definitely seemed to not restrict his movements. Yet he did notice a difference and that was the dark grey portion that wasn't metal, it felt elastic but firm. He doubted that even with his increased strength, he wouldn't be able to tear it apart.

He wanted to put it on right now but that would also mean having to remove everything else he wore which might take longer than needed since his clothes were obviously stuck to his skin due to the amount of blood he soaked in. Which didn't get any better since he was now covered again in fresh blood.

"Man, I can't wait to try this on…I wonder what kind stats it'll give! Maybe that's why there's less in here. Instead of getting items of lesser value, the value increased, but that means less items as well…I need to remember to test this out more when I get the chance." While he pondered the rules of the chest, he busied himself with gathering the pile of gold, but he was interrupted when he was just about to finish.

"Hmm what's wrong?" Arachne appeared beside him pulling along four bodies completely wrapped up in its new black webs. But Noah couldn't concern himself with the webs for now when he noticed the questioning gaze she had while looking at the chest. 'I thought she wasn't interested in these things'. Noah thought while waiting for her response. He watched her observe the chest curiously gaze while thinking deeply before she pointed towards the chest and then towards Grim.

'Did you not want the other one?' The question caused Noah's mind to go blank. 'The other one? When did I have another what and does Grim have to do wit-!'

"Nooo we forgot the other chest! The loot! The gold! Hurry up, hurry up before someone else takes it!"