Becoming a Monster

Chapter 576: Chapter 575: A Necessary Reset

Inside the largest hut, the newly appointed chieftain paid no attention to the commotion outside.

Its focus remained entirely on the female goblin beneath it.

The sounds outside the hut had become far too common over the past several nights.

Just as it was about to continue, the entrance to the hut was violently thrown open.

Three shamans stumbled inside one after another, nearly tripping over themselves as they frantically pointed back toward the entrance.

The chieftain’s face immediately twisted in irritation. Every insult its mind could muster was already prepared to be unleashed for being interrupted.

Before its insults could fully leave its mouth, the shamans began shouting over one another.

"Oni!"

"Oni is here!"

"Oni has come!"

The chieftain’s body reacted before it registered what was being said. The irritation that had filled his face only moments ago disappeared almost instantly.

Fear quietly crawled back into his heart instead.

That name...

Every time another goblin caught sight of those monstrous eyes watching from the forest, the same scene of that monstrous demon surfaced.

"Oni."

There wasn’t the slightest hesitation.

It immediately shoved the female goblin away before scrambling to its feet.

"What happened?"

It didn’t even bother hiding the unease in its voice.

If it were the regular goblins, even the hobgoblins who barged in their panicking, perhaps the chieftain wouldn’t feel as uneasy.

But these were the shamans.

Among the entire tribe, they were the ones who were supposed to remain the calmest whenever the camp fell into disorder.

Even during the previous false alarms, they were the ones calming everyone else down, despite their own hearts being in disarray.

"Did someone see the eyes again?"

There had been too many nights where frightened goblins screamed about the Oni after seeing those cursed eyes staring at them from the forest.

The lead shaman struggled to catch his breath, its entire body trembling as it tried to force the words out.

" It’s... It’s the eyes!"

The chieftain already felt the knot in its chest loosening. If it were only the eyes, then that still meant the demon itself wasn’t here.

However, the following words were enough to shatter that brief relief.

"It eats everyone!"

"They eat us, and they become us!"

"Thi- this is the Oni you fought? Why you no tell us sooner?"

Their frightened gazes shared a hint of madness underneath it all. Those cursed eyes had watched them for days. If they had known what those eyes could do, they would’ve accepted everything the chieftain had told them before.

Fear is a miraculous thing. It drives a creature to do, or focus on, the most nonsensical things to regain a sense of control.

In this case, when they should’ve been more focused on the threat itself, they were more concerned with assigning blame.

However, their actions did nothing to stop the yells and terrified screams that continued pouring into the hut from outside.

The cries were now far closer than before, and far more frantic.

Within moments, ordinary goblins were already forcing their way into the hut, desperately trying to escape whatever was outside.

Throughout all of it, the chieftain barely registered their existence.

Its thoughts had already become a tangled mess.

It stared toward the entrance with vacant eyes. It knew exactly the scene the shaman was describing.

That was exactly what happened the day the demon massacred their elite forces.

The creatures it created... They wore the faces of their dead. And those creatures were even stronger versions than before. Forms that couldn’t be killed with ordinary means.

Its body instinctively stepped backward. The memory it had spent every day trying to bury resurfaced all at once.

Why now?

If the Oni wanted them all day, it could have done so the day it killed their original chieftain.

For the past several days and nights, the eyes had done nothing but watch them.

Night after night, they disappeared without harming a single goblin.

So why had that changed? Did one of the goblins unknowingly offend the Oni?

Had they crossed some unseen boundary?

Or...

Had it misunderstood those eyes from the very beginning?

Perhaps they were never meant to frighten the tribe, but a warning to abandon the camp while they still had the chance.

The chieftain’s thoughts became increasingly frantic. It had tried to convince them all to leave that very same day it survived, and no one agreed.

With no one willing to listen, was it supposed to leave on its own?

But leaving the camp, wandering the forest alone, was no different than choosing death.

At least here, there was a slight hope, even if it stayed here.

Hope that a being as strong as the demon wouldn’t see them as a threat as long as they recognized their place.

Only when an overwhelming aura suddenly erupted outside of the hut did every thought disappear.

The chieftain gulped hard; its body was shaking harder than ever.

Now that it’s come to this, there were only two paths it could take.

Submit... or die.

—

Outside of the hut stood the three who caused the chaos. Ailetta and Arachne stood proudly beside one another.

It wasn’t the slaughter itself that filled them with satisfaction. It was the fact that the plan they had come up with together had worked almost exactly as intended.

Noah, on the other hand, couldn’t accurately explain what he was feeling.

He distinctly remembered Ailetta wanting to bring in the entire tribe. And it was ’he’ who told them that it would be enough to eliminate roughly half of them.

Apparently, somewhere along the way, the two had taken one of his offhanded remarks far more seriously than he ever intended.

Nearly seventy percent of the population, gone, just like that.

For a brief moment, Noah wondered if the two had forgotten why they came here in the first place.

Then he remembered.

The original plan had always been to exterminate the tribe so Ailetta could strengthen herself.

Whether they killed half of them or nearly all of them changed very little in the end. If anything, leaving fewer survivors would only delay the tribe’s recovery.

"...Remind me to be a little more careful with my suggestions next time."

Neither Ailetta nor Arachne seemed to understand why he suddenly said that. But they were too focused on the hut to ask.

"Only one’s left?" Arachne glanced at Ailetta.

When Noah heard that question, he wondered whether they had accidentally killed so many without realizing it.

"These are all that’s left. There were too many who tried to run away instead."

Ailetta’s tone remained as light as ever, though there was a faint trace of exasperation beneath it.

"My babies aren’t at the point where they can distinguish between capturing without killing and capturing by consuming."

"I didn’t expect so many to try to run away. Where’s the unity within the group? I thought this was supposed to be a tribe?"

Arachne didn’t think about that before. Her face squunched up in deep contemplation. To her, it didn’t feel beneficial to have such creatures in their group after all.

If they couldn’t even fight for the survivability of their own kind, would it even be possible to have them do the same for their home?

She instinctively compared them to her own children.

If her spiders ever found themselves in the same situation, and they abandoned one another, she would see the ones who fled as betraying both their siblings... and herself.

Looking toward the hut where goblins stumbled over one another trying to force their way inside, while those already within made no effort to help, Arachne understood Noah’s decision even more.

If anything...

She would’ve preferred to cull a few more.

These goblins needed a complete reset.

"You’re giving these creatures too much credit."

Both women instinctively looked toward Noah, expecting him to explain.

After all, it would be the two of them responsible for shaping whatever remained of the tribe.

But as they turned in his direction, their attention couldn’t help drifting toward the hobgoblin quietly lingering several steps behind him.

The moment it realized their attention had fallen upon it, its head immediately lowered toward the ground.

Its entire body fidgeted uncontrollably, as though merely standing there required every ounce of courage it possessed.

It was terrified... That much was obvious.

Yet despite that fear, it never once tried to move farther away from Noah’s side.

Neither woman had expected Noah to take an interest in any of these creatures.

Yet when this one had thrown itself in front of a group of goblin children, Noah stopped one of Ailetta’s slimes from consuming it.

And if that wasn’t enough, he spared the children it had been trying to protect as well.

Why did he do this?

From what Noah had told the goblin, it was because it had the makings of a true leader. And if he wants to see the continuation of his tribe after this, then it should do exactly what he says.

Ailetta and Arachne could both see what Noah intended for the goblin. But they also believed there was more that was left unsaid. From their perspective, nothing Noah did was ever simple.

That, however, would have to wait. For now, they were more focused on what Noah was about to say.