"You thought you were better than me. In fact, you even wanted to kill me for no reason! And yet you dare beg me to spare you? You dare look at me with your pathetic existence? You're even worse than the worthless; at least they know their place."
"Ahh! Wa-"
Noah's thoughts were filled with contempt after realizing why he despised people like Phil. Phil served as a heavy reminder to never allow himself to be reduced to his level, which only added to the disgust he felt for him growing stronger for every moment Phil continued to struggle. Fearing Noah's abrupt change, Phil fervently begged again for Noah to stop, only for Noah to unhesitatingly stomp Phil's head into the ground.
Before Phil could attempt to plead any longer, Noah lifted his mallet and slammed it into the back of Phil's neck, causing his face to bounce off the ground. Everyone assumed the one-sided fight had ended. However, to their horror they watched as Noah raised the mallet again and struck it down into Phil's skull once more, and then again, and again.
The strikes continued relentlessly, the sickening sound of bone shattering echoed through the air with each brutal blow. It wasn't until Phil's skull and face were no longer recognizable as human that Noah's savage onslaught finally ceased. The disgust Noah had been feeling finally subsided. It wasn't until he looked at the mess he created that he had to recognize that something may be wrong with him. He realized that his feelings had been intense since everything started, he couldn't figure out if he was always so unhinged or if it was perhaps a consequence of his newfound title.
'Well…it's not like I mind it. It feels so damn good to be able to vent out my frustrations. Besides…' He then looked over to the mixed expressions of the horrified and sickly spectators; the unsettling scene caused many of them to empty the contents of their stomachs.
'I'd rather be how I am now than like them.'
His gaze then landed on Dave, the first victim to be put down by the spider, and then to Ken. The sight left him speechless; Ken's body now closely resembled a mummified corpse after the spider's feeding.
"You gluto- Nevermind, you can wait!" Noah was preparing to chastise the spider and its voracious appetite, but he noticed a chest, and not just any chest, but a GOLDEN chest.
Any thought he had previously didn't matter; everyone, including his spider and the people around him, no longer existed as he hurriedly made his way to the chest.
He didn't forget his usual ritual of opening it slowly, but he was unprepared to be blinded by the golden light. He wasn't sure if it was the abundant amount of gold or something else. That didn't hinder his excitement from overflowing.
'God, father, Supreme Being, Daddy! Whatever you want to be called, I take back all I said before about you not being fair about the drop rates; I love you!'
Luckily for Noah, the god-like being wasn't keeping a conscious effort to pay attention to minor things such as human thoughts, or he would probably put in effort to rig drop rates for Noah even more to prevent Noah's 'love' from becoming a creepy obsession.
As Noah focused on opening the chest, he wasn't aware of the attention brought upon himself due to the radiant glow emanating from within. Even though many of the people there were hopeless individuals who were scared to fight, they still had killed a zombie or two just to be able to reach here or they at least followed someone who had.
Naturally, they all knew the significance of the chest by this time and the benefits obtained from them. The looks towards him varied between envy and jealousy, but their fear of him never subsided. There were only a small number of those stares that looked on with a different emotion. They looked at him for protection.
Despite some onlookers casting hostile glances, none of them dared to make a move, particularly as they noticed the giant spider now hovering around Noah, also being attracted towards the light. It felt the excitement from its master and was curious about what could make him feel that way. Its initial thought was delicious food, only to become confused when it couldn't spot a hearty meal inside the small container.
Its initial curiosity waned, so it curiously looked around for something else to alleviate its boredom. Soon, its eyes spotted Dave farther on the side.
Its own emotions mirrored Noah's excitement when it realized it could consume another fresh meal. Its master did say it could have the prey that ran away, as well as the shorter one, so it unhesitatingly made its way towards Dave to enjoy itself once again. Its loyalty to Noah started to rise; it was repeatedly stopped from feeding by the other humans, but now it was able to feed without any interruptions since it followed him. But most importantly, it could feel that both it and its master were helping each other grow stronger. It rubbed its fangs in joy before sinking them into Dave.
"HaHAhaHAHAHa!"
Meanwhile, Noah found himself consumed by laughter as he gazed upon the item causing the glow. It was a sheet of parchment, similar to the others that held the stats and skills that he could roll for, but this one was unique. The writing was written in a golden ink that shimmered and would glow when reflecting the light. And that wasn't the only change; instead of having to roll for a random skill, Noah discovered that he could directly obtain the skill received as an achievement.
He was ecstatic beyond belief; part of him honestly wanted to go around hunting down people for the chance to acquire their skills, however he calmed himself down to not be blinded by greed. He already had to survive against monsters and the few vile humans he would surely meet in the future. He didn't want to have the entire world as his enemy. How could he fully enjoy himself if everyone wants to kill him?
Now that he was able to withhold his laughter, he put forth all of his attention to the parchment, his smile never leaving his face.
[Unique Skill 'Insatiable Fighter' confirmed! Would you like to learn the skill? Y/N]
"Yes, of course, I want to learn the skill! Why even bother asking?" He admonished the system in his excitement. He was becoming impatient at the idea of becoming stronger and the fact that he couldn't see the description of the skill except what he could decipher from the name itself. It intensified his restlessness, which made him slightly irritable.
'WHAT THE HELL?'
And yet, the following notification didn't help his rising temper.
[Insatiable Figh- Error! Error! Because the kill was Achieved by your tamed monster, due to the class Monster Tamer, the achievement has been changed to title 'Insatiable Hunter']
Noah didn't like where this was going. Instead of overthinking, he made his way to the skill to view its description.
[Insatiable Hunter: Your thirst for battle empowers your tame monster's strength by a proportion of your stamina. Ten percent of your stamina transfers over to your tamed monster's strength.]
After reading the skill and then reading it over once more, Noah could only blankly stare into space. He was happy that he achieved another title, but it wasn't what he wanted, at least not now. Not only did the title not benefit himself personally, the effects that were supposed to be 'unique' didn't feel so unique from its description. He felt that he was being cheated again, and he didn't like this feeling. He had to rack his brain for a reason why everything turned out the way it did. Even if the reason he came up with wasn't the truth, he at least wanted an answer that left him satisfied so it wouldn't continue to weigh on his mind.
"Is it because the achievement wasn't achieved by me, so the skill got nerfed?" He thought back to when he received his class change. The system had talked about choosing out of three choices that catered to the user. His eyes regained focus when he remembered that important detail.
'I'm sure I'm not wrong…It's either that or God is being petty again for me celebrating too early…Oops! I didn't mean petty, I meant picky! Wait, no! Just don't listen to me; I didn't mean it.'
He tried to quickly correct himself, his thoughts tumbling out in a flurry from his rising panic; he still hasn't finished checking his loot, and he will have to open more chests in the future. He didn't want to paint a target on himself and curse his luck.
He quickly proceeded to check the rest of the chest's contents as he whistled innocently; the constant mood changes and his weird behavior confused many of the onlookers who still haven't stopped watching him.
Sadly, no matter how much he shuffled through the gold, he wasn't able to find anything else. He was hoping for more since this was his first gold chest, but when he thought about it, the skill alone was worth it. It may be nerfed, but it was still a unique title that will still be proven beneficial in the long run.
His gloominess over the lack of items was only temporary; he became excited once more as he stored the large amount of gold into where it went, whether his mind, soul, or system; it didn't matter to him as long as it was his.
He wasn't sure how much he gained; he wanted to check his status to see how much gold he accumulated now that he was no longer distracted. He also realized that slight disturbance in the back of his mind again, signifying another notification; unsure what it could be.
[Tamed Spider Level Up! +5 Stat points!]
[Player: Unnamed
Race: Jumping Spider
Class: Arachnid
Lvl: 5
Exp:50/400
Health:70%
Stamina:44%
Mana: 16/16
Attributes
Strength:21(23)
Agility:38
Constitution:24
Stamina:31
Magic: 8
Spirit:25
Unassigned Points: 5
Skills
Active
Paralysis venom(Lvl 0) progression: 0.7%
Spider silk(Lvl 0) progression: 0.2%
Passive
Spider sense(Lvl 0)] progression: .9%
"!" The first set of information that caught his attention was the differences in stats compared to himself. Despite factoring in his augmented genetics from his chimera trait and absorbed potential orbs, the spider still surpassed him in terms of physical attributes, excluding magic and spirit stats.This revelation didn't come as a complete shock, given the impressive display of the spider's physique earlier. He assumed that most of the animals out there would be the same way, but seeing it was still unsettling. Not only were its stats a little surprising but also its level.
"It's already level 5? How did it level up so much when I had to kill so many damn zombies? Wait….Maybe killing humans gives more experience than mindless zombies. Did I also get a lot of experience just now then?" He quickly opened his status to check.
Player: Noah
Race:Human->Human Chimera
Class: monster tamer
Gold: 934
Lvl: 5
Exp:165/400
Health:89%
Stamina:64
Mana: 44/44
Attributes
Defense: 10
Strength:18(19)
Agility:14(15)
Constitution:28->34(36)+5
Stamina:25(26)
Magic: 21(22)
Spirit:48(62)
Skills
Active
Monster taming(lvl 0)progression: 50%
Killing instinct (lvl 0) progression:1.8%
Passive
Soul cage(lvl 0) progression: .76%
Hunters sight (lvl 0) 10.4%
Stamina regeneration (lvl 0) progression:5.15%
Immortal body (lvl 0) progression: 1.48%
Genetic Synergy(lvl 0) progression:25%
Taming proficiency(lvl 0) N/A
Titles
The fallen, Subjugator, Insatiable Hunter
'So it's true! No wonder it leveled up so fast…It seems like we're meant to be the monsters' stepping stones to get strong faster. I think I was at fifteen exp before…and I killed these three plus the dog at that time…wait, I can't forget about the other guy the spider killed just after I tamed it. It's easily over 30 exp for a human kill. If I knew how much that dog was worth then I could be more sure. But this doesn't change the goal of leveling up; I have to be careful if humans are buffing the monsters with their deaths.
'And with the amount of gold I have now, I better be able to buy something good. One of the guys before mentioned that he was close to being able to buy something he was interested in, so I'm sure I have more than enough now to get something. I should hurry and check it out before more people have the same idea to come here.'
Now that Noah checked what he needed to see, he prepared himself to leave. He's noted before that his skills show the progression of what he assumes should be when it will level up, but since he isn't close to leveling up any of them, he hasn't been in a rush to check them as of yet. Now that he thought about it, besides the time he waited for the vulture to leave, he's never really had the time to rest.
Having collected his thoughts, Noah's gaze quickly scanned the area in search of his spider, which he felt helpless to find finishing its next meal.
"Sigh….I may have the only spider that has the potential to become fat." He muttered exasperatedly; he's never heard of an overweight spider before, but he was sure that his would be the first. He decided to start collecting the weapons of the three people they killed instead of nagging it for only thinking with its stomach for the time being.
It only took a few minutes to gather his spoils of war. He now wore the two metal gloves while carefully stowing the two axes into his bag, alongside his blood-stained mallet.
Standing up, Noah gripped Ken's two-handed axe firmly in his hand. His bag of loot was strapped to his back while the contents of his bag were visible to all. It was an impossible task to fully secure the weapons in his bag, although he deemed it was better than leaving them for someone else.
"Hey!" He turned towards Henry who had yet to move from his original spot. Fear and awe held him in place without any desire to move, fearing that his existence would be noticed.
"H-HUH? Wh-what do you want? I didn't help them; you saw I didn't help them, don-"
"Will you shut up? Just point me in the direction of the person that owns the shop." Noah's annoyed stare nipped Henry's dramatic emotions before he became overbearing.
Nervously, Henry pointed to the top of the staircase leading to the door, which just happened to have Zack still cowering near it. Zack was probably the most fearful out of everyone in the group. When he noticed that Noah was planning on coming up, he hurriedly rushed down the stairs, fumbling along the way and ultimately tumbling down the rest. Despite the fall, he quickly picked himself up, limping hurriedly towards the safety of the cafeteria where the others were gathered.
Noah was satisfied with Zack's display, at least more so than Henry who always tends to talk excessively when he panicked; a tendency which never fails to grate on his nerves.
"Hey, glutton!"
Noah yelled toward the spider, his voice and intent making the spider aware that he was needed. It stopped what it was doing, diverting nearly all of its focus to Noah. Though it couldn't entirely resist still eyeing its food but, that's what its other eyes were for.
"Sigh…." Noah noticed this and could only feel that the spider was a helpless case when it came to food, but he could use this.
"I'll let you have the other one too, but you have to keep a lookout for me, alright? Go up there with me and keep watch."
Noah gestured to the stairs before ascending himself; he didn't have to hear confirmation from the spider when he could tell from the spider's excitement that it agreed. Now all his thoughts were on the hooded man and what he could buy to improve his strength.