Becoming a Monster

[Continuing to absorb the new substance, merging has commenced! Incorporating the host body with the 'spider' genes]

"?? Spider genes? Where the he- Noooo! Her poison!"

To say he was shocked is an understatement, he wasn't expecting this outcome at all. Furthering his zombie genes already caused him many conflicts with himself, now he had to worry about what kind of 'side effects' he could possibly obtain from this.

'….Come on Noah, this won't stop you. Maybe the skills are just as good as the other ones.' Even as he tried to encourage himself, he didn't have high hopes. The reason he was in this situation to begin with was because of one of the traits he didn't want, but at the same time, he knew that the trait helped him to overcome his moral reasoning. With that thought in mind, he gathered his courage to play it through, it already happened so he will make the best of it.

[Merge is completed! Host growth rate has been modified due to synergy of multiple genes detected. New traits and skills have been achieved.]

[Growth rate: +2 agility and +1 constitution per level added.]

[Active 'hunters sight' has been modified according to the traits of spiders into 'spiders alertness']

[Passive, Spiders Alertness- The nature of a spider is to always stay vigilant and be aware of their surroundings. Known for their bad eyesight, that weakness has been overcome and improved due to the skill 'hunters sight'. Improving your vision and dynamic vision and enabling you to notice minute details to track objects in motion. Always active]

[Active, 'Undead Webbing' obtained-Able to project out webs from your silk veins. Your webs have been mutated from your zombie trait and now contain your corrupted mana, making it stronger. Your Webs strength is determined by your constitution and mana supplied.]

[Passive, 'sensory spines' obtained-The microscopic fine hairs on your body provide extra grip and the ability to climb surfaces. The spines are also sensitive to air movement, giving you the ability to even sense threats in dark environments.]

"This is…." Frankly, Noah wasn't prepared for the amount of information he had just gone through. Obviously he felt the changes happen to him in real time, but to see so many benefits it brought him seemed unreal. He couldn't say any of these skills were better than the other, but what he did know is that he needed to familiarize himself with them. He didn't want to have a repeat, limiting himself in a fight because he forgot an ability.

It felt as if a lot of time had passed because of everything that just happened, but it's only been a few minutes. He couldn't risk wasting too much time when he was on a tight schedule. There was the shop and more importantly, there were the zombies and who knows what else approaching.

"Whoah!" How the hell do you even get around with so many eyes?" He couldn't help but complain towards Arachne while he struggled to find his balance. He tried using his hand on the ground to prop himself up, only to miss the placement and fall back down. Instead of embarrassing himself in front of Arachne who was now silently watching him. He decided to remain seated to let his body adjust to the changes.

'I just don't get it…I clearly see what I'm trying to do but my body isn't reacting properly…is the hair thingys what's causing my body to want to move differently? Then should I follow my body or follow my eyes? Urgh! What's the point in having so many eyes then if these hairs work better than them??' His frustrations only increased the more he struggled to understand.

Obviously both were important, but it wasn't logical at all to him and that's what was frustrating. In the end he turned his attention to Arachne, apparently since he was no longer doing anything interesting, she felt the need to finish off the last zombie.

'It's not making sense…she obviously has eyes even behind her but it doesn't affect her at all, is she able to see behind her at all times or only when she focuses with those eyes? Wait…if I think about it that way then…' Returning his gaze back towards the ground, he only focused on the first image towards the center. What he was envisioning right now was comparable to having two monitors almost overlapping in front of him.

One of those screens was what he could always see and the other was similar to having a higher resolution and more zoomed in. He felt that if he thought about it this way then he can tune one of them out to focus more on the other. Of course, the other form of vision is always there but if he handles it this way then he can buy himself time to naturally get used to it in the future.

Putting on a solemn expression, he tunneled all of his attention to one goal and that was standing up without tilting over. He didn't allow himself to get distracted with what the rest of his eyes could see while he placed his hands firmly on the ground before standing up.

'Well that's one thing down, but what about the webs? Does it work the way I think it does?' He thought about the movie series of the young hero who was bitten by a spider and would press two fingers down into his palms to shoot.

He wanted to test it out himself, but before he could, he noted something from afar that he normally wouldn't before gaining the extra set of pupils.

"Isn't this a little bit too soon?" Off into the distance from the dorms, he could see a small portion of the zombies heading in their direction. Noah knew it was going to happen eventually, but this was quicker than he expected.

Assuming that the zombies were too slow, they should lose track of whatever they were chasing and head to whatever source of noise was nearby.

'Wait! Noise?' He thought back to the constant groups running in this direction and screaming while doing so. They were quite a distance away from the dorms, Noah didn't believe that the zombies' hearing was that developed, but he was still comparing the zombies to human standards.

He already witnessed the faster growth ones to be faster and stronger to regular humans so having heightened hearing shouldn't be impossible.

Straining his eyes as much as he could, he noted that even though the groups of zombies were enormous, they weren't organized in the least. They were only heading to where they last heard the sound but they weren't following the same path to get there. Instead of having to fight thousands, only a few hundred would probably head their way, while the others would go into the direction of the parking lots where the majority of the action was pursuing. Or they might pass them up all together if they weren't distracted.

Noah didn't like the idea of being passive but he wasn't sure how long it would take for him to get used to his upgraded vision which could prove fatal.

"Screw it! Arachne it's time to go hunting, I'll take care of the slow moving ones and you can handle the main threats.

'Maybe by fighting I can adjust a lot faster and there should hardly be any risk encountering the zombies that aren't able to run. The animals are what I really need to be concerned about, but for some reason I haven't been seeing them as much.' When he thought about it, it didn't make sense why he's seen so few creatures, especially insects since they easily outnumber basically everything. But maybe there's someone who would know.

"Arachne, what happened to the other spiders like you? Are there any others that grew bigger?" He asked while they both made their way back towards the zombies. He would rather fight them away from the gym so he would have a place to go back to so they could rest. When he asked the question, the spider seemed to ponder about his question but then she also became confused.

'Many dropped dead while others found new hunting grounds.' It seemed to say, but it didn't show any emotion about its kind dying except that it didn't know why. For them, dying suddenly happened often; from being stepped on, to freezing, being eaten, the list went on.

The information he obtained from his spider was already enough for Noah to make his own conjectures. 'Maybe whatever turned people into zombies may have killed the animals that would turn into one instead…' it seemed kinda absurd but it was the only thing that made sense to him at the moment. All he needed to know was that he wouldn't have to worry about an army of spiders.

Buzzz*

But on his way to his destination he heard a buzzing sound. He was gonna warn Arachne to stop but it appeared that she also became vigilant after hearing it.

Sadly his hearing wasn't enhanced after gaining his new traits, yet he could 'feel' what direction the sound was approaching from due to the small hairs on his body.

Swish!*

Before he could register what was happening, he felt the need to duck. And he was glad he did, he felt something fast approaching the back of his neck and after he lowered his head, he became aware that something just attempted to attack him around his neck area. Instinctively he rubbed his neck in fear that he could've just died without a chance of fighting back.

"Ok….spider powers are OP, but this seems too much for me to handle. What the fuck was that? Arachne! Do you think you can handle it?" He didn't take the time to look to her for an answer, he needed to keep his head on a swivel. But he did notice that when the sound flew past him, it stopped for a moment before flying again. This time he was ready.

He felt as if he could see the figure in the distance just barely, but it was too out of focus to him. Yet that wasn't cutting it, he wanted to know what was attacking him.

'Come on! These eyes should be a lot better than this.' In an attempt to use his new pupils, Noah widened his eyes as wide as he could in the figure's direction. Slowly the figure began to come into focus, he thought he was seeing things at first. While he was able to make out the shape he first thought he was being attacked by what appeared to be a human sized leaf, but gradually the details finally began to come into his view.

"Is that a mantis??" He exclaimed in shock, not because he feared it, but because that sounded more badass than having a spider. He tried not to let his disappointment show on his face. He couldn't distract Arachne in this situation, but now that he found such a creature, any thought of running away was gone.

'Right I can use the webs! Hopefully it wor-!' When he came up with a solution on how he could possibly deal with the mantis, he heard another buzzing sound from behind him again. He could probably handle one but he wasn't sure about the other if they decided to attack in succession. Their odds of losing were high if Arachne couldn't participate in the fight, but not long after the buzzing sound occurred, he felt something large blow right past him.

"Schrreeee!" Noah quickly reacted, turning around to see what brought about the sudden noise. When he turned he saw Arachne towering over one of the mantis, repeatedly piercing its frontal legs into its prey. This was a new scene to Noah because it rarely attacked with its legs after it caught hold of its prey with its fangs. That's when he noticed the blood coming out the side of her head. The mantis was digging its scythe-like arms into her causing Arachne to become impatient in finishing it off.

Buzzz*

Even if he wanted to help her, he couldn't. Maybe the insects' bonds weren't strong even after mutating. He thought as much because the previous mantis was approaching Noah again instead of helping its partner even when it was clearly in danger.

There was no chance for Noah to compete in speed against the creature so using his axe was out of the question. Attempting to block was denied as well, the thing has two blades that could probably attack in two different directions simultaneously.

'It's all or nothing!' After dropping the axe, he raised both arms towards the mantis direction. He has yet to practice the skill so he wasn't going to risk it and use one hand. At first Noah was worried that he wouldn't be able to get the skill to work but when he was prepared to use it, he realized that the skill naturally came to him as if he always knew how to use it. The key was to flex the muscle that was located on the underside of his forearm which could be easily flexed by just squeezing his hand into his palm.

But that just felt like the lame way to do it so he chose to use the two fingers like every geek would. When he began to flex his muscles to shoot out the web, he registered that his body felt as if something was beginning to drain from his center, located around his heart. He wasn't quite sure what it could be until whatever it was began to circulate through his body and ran through his veins meant for his webs.

'This….this is mana!'

...............

This is to make up for not uploading yesterday, next chapter will be on Monday.