Chapter 8 - A Monster

He was there breathing heavily clear fear and terror in his eyes. And in those eyes reflect a monster, a tree, a Treant.

And I was the Monster.

I was the one whose going to kill his friends. I was the one who caused him those feelings and most of all I was the one who will be ending it.

With these thoughts in mind I prepared my attack using Tree Editing I forcibly made tips of my roots sharp and ready to pierce.

He hastily dodged the attack from upfront but I already expected that. My attacks were slow and steady but that steadiness really isn't to my advantage because it makes the course of my attack predictable. But all of that was within my sloppy predictions because right after he evaded I sent another to his side, catching him off guard but still managed to survive and then right behind him aiming straight into his heart was a sharpen root.

I felt as if I was pointing a loaded gun on a person and with a pull of a trigger could end their life, and I was their pointing my sharpen branch at him and with a pull of my mental trigger I could end his life.

I never really thought about killing the three of them I just thought that at worst I would Indirectly kill them by trapping them and leaving them to die while the roots absorb them but here I am about to end a person's life.

Does this guy have a family?

A daughter? A son? Friends?

But I killed those line of thought and pulled my mental trigger and killed him.

I immediately felt things I never thought I could feel in this body. Maybe It was all in my head? Maybe I was just Imagining them? But that doesn't change the fact that I felt nausea, disgust to the point I was about to barf, and the emotion I hated to feel the most was Pure Joy.

The feeling and joy only made me feel more sick. I felt my brain taking an intense amount of damage from this.

And after gaining even the tiniest bit of my composure I immediately threw the body into the boar trap it wont fit but I didn't care I used Tree Editing to enlarge It and put the man's, Barain's remains into the cave-like part of my body. The boar trap.

I knew what I did will take me one step further away from humanity which seemed like something I lost long ago now. The guilt from ending the man's life and the deeper and stronger guilt from feeling joy in his death.

Minutes felt like hours. They felt longer than the 5 hours I spent with them.

"Haaah…" I sighed internally to try and calm myself

It was just until now that suddenly I heard Maya talk to me. I was so caught up in my thoughts that my brained filtered out all sounds and noises. After realizing this, sound returned to my world and there I heard Maya chirping in a fit of panic.

"Chirp! twee!"

"Yeah yeah I'm ok I just need to rest my mind" I said telepathically

After a hesitant nod Maya was freed again and I tried to rest my mind. Something akin to sleeping but not for my body but more for my mind.

I can't sleep at all especially because I heard their talks filled with happiness, talks about their goals, their dreams and even them happily teasing each other. I never thought about those at that time heck I didn't even considered I was going to end them the only thing I thought about was revenge and punish them for their Ignorance. But turns out I was the ignorant one.

As I was about to fall asleep I thought one last thing. That is what would my friends and family think about what I did? What would Katie think?

Year 1 Month 1 Week 2 (Day4)

After "waking up" my thoughts immediately returned to last night. Because of the incident I would not do anything like killing today I just want rest. But something inside of me is pushing me to be efficient.

"Uggh why do I feel being efficient at times like these?"

Maya was still sleeping which I thought of as weird cause birds are usually up early in the morning. Now that I think about It I never really saw any big birds around here like maybe an eagle or a hawk I don't know why I at least want to see them In this life specially the eagle since I never really was an outdoor type of guy. I distracted myself from yesterday by thinking of these things. The went by slowly and with me trying to find more of those mushrooms and maybe even farm them.

I tried filling all of my traps with birds and caught 3 but I didn't absorb them I was only absorbing the small boar which I thought was a small wild pig. The difference between the two is that small boars are monster while wild pigs aren't but the bigger ones are "Monsterized" which is a cool sounding way to say that they are part monster.

After being cruel enough to kill them I knew that I was slowly turning a monster at heart which is something that I don't want. I don't want to be a crazed monster that kills for power and for thrill I need to be a decent person because If there aren't any decent people among Intelligent Monsters then I will become the First.

And to end the day, I prayed for the souls of the three of them. I apologize for what I did but maybe that sorry was empty? Why? Because I don't regret what I did, I only did what was necessary for survival, my survival I only considered It necessary to eliminate the risk of me be the one being eliminated.

The first thing I will do tomorrow Is absorb the fallen adventurers and reach rank two and get stronger. I already am nearing the limits of being rank one the only saving grace was my intelligence and then for the adventurers foolishness.

With my renewed will after saying all those words Internally more for convincing myself than as a daring statement from someone who made up his mind.