Becoming a Monster

"Wait….that's a zombie isn't it? And they were just running right? What the fuck is happening?"

Nothing seemed to make sense in this scenario. He could clearly make out a lone zombie feasting on a body right in front of him. But how did this happen?

There could only be two reasons that Noah could think of at this moment. It was either the zombie was a straggler from earlier and got lost after chasing people in this direction before. Or…the zombie in front of him was capable of running. That thought actually made him more worried than the animals gaining experience from eating.

"You all were supposed to give me easy farming…." He mumbled depressingly. He was already planning on avoiding the harder enemies and slowly gaining levels killing the zombies but if they were growing this fast then what should he use to grind his levels?

Tap tap* he felt something hairy hitting his back. He turned around to notice his spider trying to comfort him.

'Don't worry, you said it yourself, I'm strong!' It seemed to be saying. It's beady eyes were beaming with pride

Noah had almost forgotten that not only could he sense the others emotions but it also goes both ways. It left him wondering if that was also where it learned its attempt to comfort him. Even still, it helped to lighten the mood.

"Haha that's right, I don't doubt you at all, but I also need to fight. You can't become strong and still have a weakingly for a master right? Let me go check it out. The more information we have, the better. You can attack if you feel that anything is wrong.

His words made sense to Arachne, she wouldn't want to follow along someone that she felt was weaker than her. It was just that he had already proven to her that he was superior during their battle of the souls so she already was determined that he was stronger.

Noah didn't try to hide his presence, he openly walked to the zombie feeding and while doing so he took notice of his surroundings first. A little bit behind him stood a statue of the school's founder and other than that there was just one tree a little behind the zombie, with neatly trimmed bushes lined up behind it.

He had enough vision to feel assured that he would spot anything that could interfere during this time. He continued to walk towards the zombie and as he did so, he tapped the tip of his axe against the ground with each step. Apparently that was enough to get its attention, it seems the zombies first priority was to eat anything alive then to satisfy its stomach.

Its growl was much more livelier than the ones Noah spent killing from before. And during the mix of its growls it ran straight towards Noah without any hesitation. The situation should be worth being serious about, but Noah was having a hard time taking the zombie seriously when it was running with its arms stretched out the entire time. He wondered if all zombies would run this way in the future. But even though he thought that way originally, his attitude quickly changed.

'Tsk! It seems this won't be as easy as it looks, the damn thing is faster than me.' Even though Noah hasn't put much of any of his stats into his agility, he was still at least faster than the average human. So seeing the zombie, which was clearly faster than him, also made him wonder what other stats were improved.

Thud!*

Choosing to play it more defensively, the zombie slammed right into his axe that Noah held out horizontally in front of him, but the impact that Noah was expecting was way more than he anticipated.

'Fuck! Its strength is ridiculous too.'

The zombie's arms were already outstretched so when it collided into the axe, it mindlessly gripped the bar and stretched its neck out to take a chunk out of Noah.

He may have been out muscled, but his body was on full alert to respond to the sudden choice of attack. He couldn't push away the zombie who was clearly stronger than him and he didn't want to let his weapon go either, he leaned his upper body backwards while still attempting to hold the zombie back.

It continued to snap its jaws savagely towards his face, but then it did something that Noah wasn't expecting. Spontaneously, it turned and latched onto Noah's forearm with its teeth. Because of the sudden pain, Noah groaned loudly while simultaneously kicking the zombie in its stomach before the zombie could take off any skin.

The blow was enough to relieve him of the pressure for just a moment, the zombie apparently felt no pain and got back up. But then it made the same repeated attack as last time and rushed towards him in a Frankenstein manner.

'Fucker… I can't tell if this thing is smart or just extremely stupid, maybe I was being cautious for nothing.'

He repositioned himself again with the axe in front of him, waiting to see if the zombie learned from the last altercation. Noah already knew that he has somewhat of an immunity to zombies. With that in mind, he decided to use this chance when the new zombie was alone to observe any additional changes that may have occurred besides just being able to run.

With what he just witnessed, he felt that he didn't need to see anymore, he learned that the zombie was faster and stronger than most humans as of now. But if it was still a mindless zombie then it still was useful for grinding experience, at least when it wasn't in groups.

"Grrrrrrrrr"x3

Thud!

He wasn't aware of the multiple sounds of growling that sounded around just before the clash. They collided again but this time, Noah timed the collision and retreated a few steps back, lessening the impact. Just before the zombie could attempt its crazed bites again, he kicked the zombie back with a little more force which caused it to fumble to the ground. This time, he didn't allow the zombie to get back up.

"Ugh!" He grunted while he hacked the axe into the zombie's skull, instantly killing it.

"Ok, so they shouldn't be that difficult then. I don't think I need anymore strength but I do need to increase my agility…or I can just make myself more tankier and maybe their teeth won't be able to breach my skin…"

Noah waited for a bit but he noticed that the chest has yet to appear.

"Wha? Where's the chest? Where the hell is m...fuck me…."

As he was looking around, he finally heard the sounds of growling in the distance and on top of the growls he could also hear the sound of multiple people running. It didn't take a genius to know that there were more running zombies like before. He figured that they were most likely ones that were chasing down the group from before. They had probably caught someone else from the group and were busy eating them while the zombie he just fought chased the rest down.

He knew that this time the fight would be a bit difficult and he was planning on using his killing instincts skill if needed. But when he looked back to Arachne, he thought of a way to make the fight a little bit easier. Only if it worked out the way he thought it would in his head.

"Arachne! Attach your web to that and stand over there! And don't move!" The bushes still had slight gaps in between them so by now he could easily see three zombies rushing towards them from that direction.

He quickly ran on the other side of the statue and threw down his back pack to lighten the burden. Arachne still chose to shoot out her web to the statue even though it didn't make sense to do so. It mainly used its webs to make a nest or to jump, which in this case it was doing neither, hence the confusion.

"Ok move a little bit further! Ok stop, once I attack then you can help me out and of course I'll let you eat them!" He motioned Arachne until its webs were hovering over the ground just below the knee so there was no chance to step over it.

He wasn't sure how strong the spider's web was but it should at least hold enough to trip them up right? Well he wasn't sure, but he was willing to try. With that said, Arachne was now fully attentive to the situation and started to take its job seriously.

The zombies by now had already cleared the bushes and were passing the dead body. Sadly, because of the bushes, the zombies weren't running adjacent to one another so if the web doesn't hold then he needs to be prepared. At Least two of the zombies in the lead were running side by side so that'll leave him with one that could possibly still attack.

They covered the distance in seconds and finally came upon the webbing and it worked better than expected. Both zombies got caught up in the webs and fell over, but not only did the web not break apart but they were now stuck to it! This far surpassed Noah's intentions, but he couldn't let his guard down. He needed to quickly take out one of the down enemies before the last one joined the fight.

He already took note of the webs and how they were no longer being held up. Either Arachne chose not to support it anymore or she couldn't support the momentum of the two zombies.

Once the zombies fell, he quickly struck at the closest one with his axe. Thankfully, he didn't need to worry about hitting the dead center of its head to kill it. It was much harder to do so when it was struggling about, but he managed to pierce the side of its skull to reach its brains, finishing it off.

But he wasn't given time to pull out his axe before the last zombie was upon him so he let go. He didn't plan on confronting it immediately, so when he dropped his weapon he circled around the zombie that was further entangling itself on the ground.

And when he did so, the zombie that was running towards him didn't plan on making a detour around its fellow zombie and tried to run over it. Apparently even though they could run now, their motor skills were still worse than subpar. It easily tripped over the struggling zombie. Noah wasn't planning for this to happen but now that it did then he wouldn't let up, but he forgot about just how tunneled vision the mindless zombies could be.

Even while it was falling, it didn't feel fear or confusion, its sights were still set on Noah and because of this it didn't stop reaching for him and grabbed his leg mid-fall, causing Noah to trip over as well.

"Oh no you don't!"

Whack! Whack!

"Arachne? Where the hell are you?"

He rained down kicks on the zombies face when he felt his body being pulled. Even as he repeatedly kicked the zombie, it refused to let go of his leg, but he at least bought himself time. He was beginning to become a little worried because the zombie that was struggling to rise off the ground no longer cared to anymore. He could see it trying to now turn its body to get to him since he was now on ground level with it.

But resembling a superhero, Arachne came in just in time to support Noah. It didn't know the difference between a human and a zombie so it did the same thing to the two legged creatures like it did the rest. It sunk its fangs into them to not only paralyze them, but to also prep them to feed on.

The poison wasn't as fast acting to the zombies than it was to the humans before. But it was enough to allow Noah to quickly scurry away from the zombies' once vice-like grip before the remaining zombie could reach him. It seemed that Arachne forgot about the last zombie and was slightly surprised when it saw it moving under the body it just injected its venom into.

Stab!*

It penetrated the sharp ends of two legs into the zombies body to try to hold it in place while it injected more of its venom onto the previous zombie. Noah used this opportunity to retrieve his axe to finish off the last one before his body released all of its tension and flopped on the ground.

"Ok….that was harder than I thought! Maybe if I used my skill then it would've been different, but everytime I use it, I always end up in some kind of predicament…" thinking about the first time he used it and he was bitten in the shoulder and then the time after that when he was literally being squished in Derricks palms, he already realized that ability had its cons.

He always realized being by himself would allow him more freedom and experience but it also comes with its own dangers. After this fight he felt even more, an unhealthy need to be stronger so he didn't have to rely on anyone but his strength and that included the strength of his monster companions. His thoughts were soon interrupted when he noticed something odd.

"A notification? But I'm sure both of us aren't even close to leveling up. What could it be now?"

[User has been contaminated by a corrupted substance. Genes have been detected to already exist within the host, trait 'zombie' is now being modified.]