Becoming a Monster

Chapter 512: Chapter 511: The Dungeon’s Influence

There was nothing else holding them back as they finally returned.

The forest parted at their approach, the gate formed from the interwoven roots and branches opening to receive them.

The moment they stepped through, the air saturated with pure mana hit them all at once.

As they moved deeper into the domain, the tension that lingered from the battle began to ease from their bodies, naturally fading as the mana settled into them.

With that, it was clear. They were home.

The creatures that had settled on the borders of the domain reacted as they passed, lowering themselves or shifting aside to clear a path without needing to be told.

Their eyes followed them in a way that didn’t go unnoticed.

No... their gaze was only on Noah.

Noah picked up on it immediately, and even with everything else on his mind, his Nexus Eye flickered on instinct.

The sudden glow drew sharp reactions from some of the weaker creatures as they recoiled under his gaze.

He didn’t slow his steps, but what he saw was enough to make him release a small, amused chuckle, which drew questioning looks from those beside him.

"I didn’t notice before, but the mana being released by the dungeon is more unique than we thought..."

He didn’t elaborate because there was no need to explain it yet, especially with the tigerkin tagging along, but the answer had already become clear to him.

Within the mana that filled the domain, there was a faint trace of his own essence woven into it. It was something so subtle that it would have gone unnoticed if he hadn’t undergone the changes prior to this.

That same mana was constantly being absorbed by everything that lived within the forest, feeding into them as they grew.

As he continued forward, witnessing the same behavior in nearly every creature that had no allegiance to him, he became certain. The creatures here weren’t just responding to the dungeon. They were responding to him.

—

They continued past the gate and into their domain, the shift becoming more apparent the deeper they moved in.

Varkesh had already been caught off guard by the gate itself, how it resembled something familiar to elven design while still feeling entirely different. But that was nothing compared to what he saw beyond it.

As he was led further inside, the sight in front of him unsettled him in a way he hadn’t expected.

The structures weren’t crude, and the creatures weren’t mindlessly scattered as he had imagined. There was an order to it and a level of civility that he would have associated only with his own kind or the other three nations.

A tightness formed in his chest as his thoughts shifted. For the first time, the way he looked at everything began to change.

All this time, he’d only seen it from the outside, from the perspective he had always held, but now that he stood within it, that perspective no longer felt as certain as it once did.

What he and his group had come here to do wasn’t so different from the way his own kind had once been treated.

These weren’t monsters at al-

No!

He rejected the thought immediately, shaking his head as if that alone would force it out of him before it could take root.

Because only a monster could do what Noah had done.

Vampires lived in castles and carried themselves with elegance and lavish lifestyles, yet none of that ever changed what they were in the eyes of others, and Noah was no different.

A monster with intelligence, but a monster all the same.

They passed the surrounding structures and moved into the open stretch of land where the battle had taken place, the ground still bearing the marks of what had happened.

Scorched lines carved through the dirt from Ethaniel’s spell, and the areas where Pandora’s roots had burst through remained uneven, the earth not yet settled.

"There’s no need to worry about it. I already dealt with it," Noah said when he noticed their vigilance rise at the sight.

"Arachne," he continued, glancing toward her as they walked.

"I plan to start immediately with finishing what we started. It’s probably best to have your spiders watch the perimeter so what happened before doesn’t happen again."

A dangerous glint surfaced across her face the moment she was reminded of what her subordinate had done.

She gave a small nod without speaking, but the shift in her expression didn’t escape Noah, and the way her thoughts turned toward her spiderlings was something he didn’t like.

"Hey," he said, reaching out to lightly poke her cheek, which earned him an exaggerated look in return.

"When did a queen start blaming her subordinates before blaming herself? Did you somehow forget all the trouble you caused me when we first met?"

Even if she didn’t want to, Arachne’s face darkened further as her gaze shifted away from him.

"Being a queen is more than just having subordinates you can order around," Noah continued. "You have to understand them, and you have to guide them. If this were you back then, that glutton would’ve probably behaved the same way your underling did."

That remark struck deeper than she expected, and she came to a halt without realizing it. As her thoughts drifted back to how she had acted before, her fist slowly tightened at her side.

The more she compared herself to what she had been, the harder it became to deny that what she did to her subordinate hadn’t been the right call.

She hadn’t acted as a queen.

She had acted out of anger.

In the midst of her thoughts, she felt something wrap around her wrist, and when she looked down, she found a tendril gently coiling around it.

"You only need to remember what you’ve done and make sure that it doesn’t happen again," Noah said calmly.

"It’s better to rule with your creatures’ best intentions in mind rather than to rule them through fear and order. That way, their growth will make up for your weaknesses without you having to force it. That’s what all of you have been doing for me this entire time."

His words didn’t just reach Arachne, because the others faltered in their steps as well, their gazes shifting toward him with something far stronger than before.

Whatever unease they had felt from the change in him didn’t disappear, but it no longer held the same weight, because the way he spoke reminded them he was still the same Noah.

Varkesh felt a knot form in his chest as he watched, unable to reconcile what he was seeing with what he had already decided Noah was.

He couldn’t understand how someone capable of what he had witnessed could speak like this without hesitation, and that contradiction left him unsettled.

They continued the rest of the way in silence, the atmosphere no longer tense.

By the time they reached their destination, they stood at the entrance of Noah’s home.

The doorway was sealed shut by Pandora’s roots, the thick weave of them forming a natural barrier, and just outside of it...

"Gwen!"

If not for the monster that always remained by his side, Varkesh would’ve bolted towards the elf that was standing there unarmed.

—

In her last moments before everything went dark, she had been inside Ophis’s jaws, with nothing but the certainty that she was about to be devoured.

With no other option left, she had placed herself into stasis, using the pendant from her homeland to preserve herself at the cost of it dissolving the moment it was activated.

What she hadn’t expected was to awaken where she did.

When her senses returned, she found herself in an unfamiliar place. Her body, besides the damage from the initial ambush, was untouched.

Her breathing was steady, and before she could even process what had happened, the serpent that had brought her there had already withdrawn into the depths of the forest without a trace.

She didn’t know what to expect next. She first proceeded to turn in place to get a grasp of her surroundings, only to be startled by a monster standing silently behind her.

Instinctively, she wields her mana to defend against it, yet the creature didn’t rise to the provocation; it merely stared at her.

Behind those eyes, Gwen didn’t sense any emotion. It was as if the creature were alive at all.

But very quickly, to connect the creature to the monster’s leader from before. The substance of their armor was nearly the same. And the creature held no facial features besides its eyes.

’A golem?’ She quickly arrived at the conclusion. A golem with the sentience to only follow orders. It wasn’t that different from what her own kind created. Dwarves were also known to create many golems to guard their most treasured belongings.

It didn’t take long for her to connect it to the monster’s leader from before, because the substance that made up its form was nearly identical to the armor he wore, and aside from its eyes, it held no defining features.

A golem.

She reached that conclusion quickly, seeing it as something created to follow orders without question.

It wasn’t unfamiliar to her, because her own kind had created similar constructs, and dwarves in particular were known to craft golems to guard what they valued most.

But just because she was aware of what it was didn’t make it any less dangerous.

Because that golem continued to watch her every move.