Becoming a Monster

"I'm sorry, but your father is dead Regina…"

Everyone else was shocked to hear that some of the guards there were guards of Regina, but Regina herself was focused more on the death of her Father, who spoiled her unconditionally. Just the fact he came all this way to try to save her showed how much he doted on the egotistical woman, but that may be the reason she turned out the way she did.

Plop* Regina fell on her knees in disbelief while she muttered to herself words that no one could hear. She seemed to grow crazy, but then she looked back anxiously towards the guard.

"And my mother? Where is my mother??" Her eyes screamed 'Please tell me that she's here with you.' But the darkened look on Pam's face broke Regina's obnoxious barrier.

"Your mother….your mother was the first of the people to turn…she's dead t-"

"Who gives a shit? Are we gonna sit here talking while that monster you brought to us makes its way here? You all could do that later!" For once Mark's arrogant behavior proved useful. Even while the two were having a heart wrenching moment, the zombie didn't stop to allow them to have a heart to heart talk together.

To the students waiting, it appeared that the zombie was moving faster due to their fear.

"He's right. Alicia, everyone? I don't want to say this, but it seems we'll have to stay the night here. Leaving from this direction doesn't seem like an option anymore, we either need to make a detour from the side lots or find a way to get around that zombie."

Ishii's suggestion was accepted immediately by the masses, the guards who were lucky to survive against the monster still heading for them were becoming more emotional by the second, they were willing to accept any suggestion if it meant getting out of there.

"It doesn't matter where you decide, just decide already!" Spoke to one of the more paranoid guards, his gun still pointing towards the zombie, the action alone provided him some mental comfort.

"If we have to stay another night here then I suggest either the cafeteria again or one of the dorms. The cafeteria would be a better option since we wouldn't have to worry about conserving food we already have. But the dorms would provide us with much needed clothing and anything else we forgot after everything started."

The group decided to talk on the way there since the directions for both were almost the same and the zombie was approaching closer and closer. They had come to a consensus to visit the dorms, much to the displeasure from the guards, but the women were more vocal in this regard to visit their rooms for undergarments and extra essentials that they could use for themselves.

....

After entering the first door on the second floor, Noah quickly closed it while Arachne lightly barricaded the door with her webs. As soon as the room was secured Noah plopped onto one of the nearby beds, the exhaustion of all his earlier experiences hitting him at once. The adrenaline that helped him ignore the pain was gone, making his body feel heavier than it really was. He felt the need to sleep even though his body wasn't tired. Yet his eyes shone in excitement, contrary to how he felt.

[Proceed to advance class 'Monster Evolutionist'? Y/N?]

There was no hesitation, he confirmed without caring that he didn't properly situate himself on the bed, his legs were still dangling off to the side.

His body quickly entered into a state that resembled a deep sleep. There were no notifications for him to hear or see anymore, but his body was slowly changing. The stats he accumulated were finally taking effect on his physical appearance. Because of the situation where people would get an influx of stats per level, it was impossible for their bodies to adapt to the changes in a non harmful way, especially when their bodies were still getting accustomed to the mana being introduced in the world.

The definition of his muscles were becoming more noticeable. His muscle mass increased slightly and he grew an inch taller. His bone density had the most obvious changes. If his constitution helped him with his recovery and gave him more vitally, now his constitution would help him fend off attacks that his body before couldn't. If one of the regular zombies tried to bite through his flesh, they would barely get past his skin and the runner zombies would never get past the bone.

This is what the Divine Being meant when he said to pass your limits. Reaching level ten was surpassing the race you were before. If a level ten zombie was considered a tier one zombie then a level ten human would be considered a tier one human, no longer just a lowly human.

The armor that he was wearing was becoming more constricting for him to wear, but the uncomfortableness didn't reflect on his face while he was going through the changes. But something more was happening with Noah now that he was advancing. His body would be the source of aiding his monster's evolutions and for that to happen, the most important aspect of the skill would be his blood.

From within the center of his heart where all blood goes at one point to be circulated to the rest of the body, the mana that could not be said to be human or even any of the two creatures he had assimilated with began to emit a thick murky purple substance that mixed with the circulating blood.

It would take the entirety of the time he was in his slumber for every drop of his blood resembled the purple substance coming from his core. His blood was already a dark red from obtaining and improving his zombie trait, now his blood couldn't even relate to them. His blood would literally bleed purple blood if cut.

But the difference in blood wasn't the only change his blood went through. His blood was being assimilated with his mana which means he could channel his mana through his blood that will be required to use his skills. The red glow in his eyes shimmered before the color slowly changed to the same purple as his blood but lighter in color.

Cracks of bone sounded loudly in the room with his bones being readjusted in place after growing. Arachne waited at the end of the bed watching curiously as the sounds constantly caught its attention. However as the changes were occurring in Noah, Arachne's curious eyes were changing to greed. The change in Noah's blood was beginning to attract her, she didn't view the blood as food.

The food inspired an instinctive feeling just like the mana cores in the spiders did. She just knew that his blood would allow her to grow and her instinctive desires couldn't help but be influenced. But she stayed in her spot and waited, no matter how enticed she was from his blood, she managed to control herself, but her gaze never left his body.

...

Two hours went by since Noah was going through his change and the large group of students had finally arrived towards the dorms. The dorm Noah was currently in was used for the new arrivals so many of them didn't have a reason to go to that particular dorm.

That didn't stop them from seeing the monster of a beast outside its building, well what was left of it.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT??" Yelled one of the students before they were glared at but the people around them.

They silently looked at the remains, there was still meat and flesh attached to parts of the corpses and the face hadn't been touched. But the massive bones were still in place, not counting a femur missing from one of the legs, but they could still get a clear image of what kind of monstrousity it was.

"Do you think another monster did this?"

"Keep a look out…whatever did this could still be here."

"No…" Ailetta rejected the murmurs going around when she saw something to confirm her original thoughts.

"Look, there's a chest. 'Someone' was here, but it wasn't a monster…" Her eyes shined with pride and comfort, thinking about the person she knew was here and how strong he must be to take down such a creature, but her eyes also projected the sadness she was feeling from being left behind.

Jasmine noticed that look on Ailetta's face and even she had considered that this was Noah handiwork considering the fact that she hasn't seen him in awhile.

"You think it's Noah don't you?" She asked to confirm her previous thoughts, while receiving an immediate nod from her friend. Bailey also chipped in on the conversation.

"It has to be him, look! There are webs still on the monster's legs. It has to be from his spider. I wonder if he's still here."

"Who's Noah? If you're saying one person did this then you are fools" one of the guards interrupted the group's chat much to their displeasure.

As the time went by with grouping with the guards, the students quickly found out that the guards thought they were the leaders of their group. There hasn't been any heated arguments yet, but it was surely a ticking time bomb.

Regina, who was devastated at the loss of her parents, was slowly recovering when she realized that some if not most of the guards still followed her. With the old man out of the picture, she was the one to inherit all of his money and so she would also be the one to pay them, they were banking on that fact alone. But just having guards with guns to do her billing was a huge safety net for her, she mourned her parents, but her life was more important.

"Guys lets just go, if he's here then he wouldn't be hard to notice. We need to find our own shelter and prepare to leave first thing in the morning." Ishii, being the mediator, spoke. He also had felt uncomfortable with the new addition of the guards, but he also didn't like the fact that they were trying to downplay his role models achievements. A part of him wished that Noah was still in the vicinity.

Cautiously, they made their way through the dorm's courtyards, their destination was the dorm that housed the upperclassmen which made up the majority of the female students there. But their eyes soon spotted something.

"Look!, it's more webs, but it's blocking the door." Everyone was quick to respond to the voice, but the people who were on the lookout for the voice turned faster.

"It has to be him, he should still be in there."

"Should we meet him? He doesn't know about zombie we saw right? If he knows, maybe he'll join us." Bailey couldn't help but voice out her hopeful thoughts. Many of the people who saw Noah's achievements became more hopeful at the thought of having Noah with them, but they also shuddered when they pictured his monster-like appearance and his weird 'eating' habits. They had half a mind to avoid someone as insane as him.

"Why do you still care about that guy? We made it this far by ourselves, we don't need him. We gave him multiple chances to come with us but he doesn't care if any of us live or die. What's wrong with you all?" Mark vented out his feelings. He hated the fact that now when he was able to showcase his strength to everyone, he was still being overshadowed by Noah's past exploits. He wished Noah would just disappear from the world already.

Mark attempted to head to their designated building in an attempt to herd the rest along with him. But people he didn't think would disagree with him.

"I want to see what all the talk is about this Noah."

"Yeah! These kids think he could beat that thing when even we couldn't. I'll deck him in the face as soon as I see him if he looks like a punk. He better be at least half as strong as they make him out to be."

Three of the guards became riled up. They all had a lot of pent up stress and anxiety from almost losing their lives and realizing their self worth isn't as high as they thought it to be. Hearing that a college student could take out such a creature when their entire group couldn't win against one creature and made them flee with their tails between their legs angered them without any logical reasoning.

They immediately went up to the door of webs and grabbed at it to tear it down.

"Fuck im stuck!"

........

A/N I said I would do shorter chapters this week, but couldn't help myself.