Chapter 34 34: Obtaining More Than I Bargained For

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

[Level progression from skills gained through the zombie gene has been increased]

[New trait gain, 'budding feeder'- Zombies main priority is to feed and their one and only goal. That same desire has been awakened in you, whether the temptation consumes you will depend on your will power.]

Moments flew by with Noah blankly looking off into space before he finally came to.

'I don't know if I should be happy about this or not…Corrupted substance?….Is that when the zombie bit me? At least let me choose when I want to use the skill for goodness sake! Maybe I would feel better about getting such a trait if it was at least my own decision…sigh.'

Before he picked himself up, he decided that he should at least see how much his skills progressed in their levels, hopefully it would make him feel more at ease about his situation.

[Skills

Active

Monster taming(lvl 0)progression: 50%

Killing instinct (lvl 0) progression:1.8%->4.3

Passive

Rodelros(lvl 0) progression: .6%

Soul cage(lvl 0) progression: .76%

Hunters sight (lvl 0) 10.4%

Stamina regeneration (lvl 0) progression:5.15%->11.2%

Immortal body (lvl 0) progression: 1.48%->3.5%

Genetic Synergy(lvl 0) progression:25%

Taming proficiency(lvl 0)progression:N/A

Insatiable Hunter(lvl 0): progression:N/A

Budding Feeder(lvl 0)]progression: 0%]

When he saw the progression, a frown immediately appeared on his face.

'The progression barely went up at all! Well it did but that's not enough after I had to be bitten to get it. I would have to be bitten like….' He raised his hands to count on his fingers before giving up. 'Well a bunch of times before it got to one hundred, I'm not a masochist!'

While he lifted himself up from the ground, he continued to think about any other options he could take to take advantage of the new discovery. He retrieved his bag and then his weapon before he turned towards the zombies again. When he faced them he just happened to find Arachne doing what she was best at.

Noah only shook his head this time, he did promise her that she could eat them all, but what got him was that she didn't waste any time to do so.

Since she would also gain back stamina and experience points for this, he decided not to rush her, they wouldn't need to rest long if she could recover faster. And he could use this time to check something he has always been curious about.

[Stamina regeneration (Lvl 0) progression: 11.2%

Progression- Recover over 10,000% of stamina with only stamina regeneration: 37/10,000 in progress

Can also be aided with increasing the zombie gene.

Upgrade stone Lvl 1 required for upgrade]

[Killing Instinct(Lvl 0) progression:4.3%

Progression-Let yourself be absorbed in your instincts to kill while in the middle of combat for 100 hours: .25/100 in progress

Can also be aided with increasing the zombie gene

Upgrade stone Lvl 1 required for upgrade]

'….'

After looking at just two progression requirements, he was once again left speechless. The requirements were durable but the amount of time required to do them were a lot longer than he was hoping. It would take him more than a month to achieve 100 percent with the stamina skill alone, and that was if he was constantly gaining stamina. If he happened to fall asleep with his stamina full then that would be about eight hours he wasted that could've been used to progress his skill.

'….This is just insane, maybe getting that feeding skill isn't too much of a clutch after all as long as I can still improve my skills faster. But what the heck is with this upgrade stone being required? Is it supposed to be a rare drop? What if I don't find one, what should I do then?…..wait!"

He thought back to the shop and the never ending items that it carried. He was positive that the stone would be in there, but the price itself is what he was unsure of.

"I swear, you can do everything with money no matter where you are, the only thing that'll change is the form of currency. But that reminds me, that chest should've dropped by now…"

The first place he looked was near the last zombie that was killed and there it was. He was disappointed to find that it was only bronze but at least it was a step up from wood that he received constantly from killing zombies. He wished he knew the criteria that needed to be met to determine what type of chest appeared. As of now it seemed that it depended on the number of monsters/creatures killed and the quality of said monster/creature.

Not expecting anything grand from the chest, he casually opened it to find a short bow with no arrows and a small pile of gold. He didn't plan on using the bow, but he also didn't want to discard something he worked hard to get so he still decided to place it within his bag. When he gets the chance, he would try to find someone who would want to buy it from him. He had less than ten hours before the shop disappeared so he needed to quickly amass enough coins to get himself that healing skill for Arachne if he was going to abuse his class more. But more importantly, he could probably buy himself an upgrade stone or two if he wasn't able to find one by then.

Now that he had a specific goal in mind and he was done recovering the gold. He walked over to the zombies, there was still something he had to determine. He peered down over two of the zombies that weren't being eaten while he pondered. He thought about how he should progress his zombie trait skills without being bitten, but the only thoughts that appeared were eating their flesh and drinking their blood.

Just the thought of eating human flesh made him feel repulsed, even drinking their blood caused him to grimace. Yet, he continued to bend down towards the zombies anyways. While he was more than hesitant about what he needed to do, he knew that he needed to at least try, running around and letting zombies attempt to eat him wasn't something he wanted to do and he didn't have the necessities to wait a month to grow his skills.

Surprisingly, he noticed that the closer he inched to the bodies, the less unwilling he was becoming about the idea. In fact, the stench he thought he would abhor actually smelled a little enticing, causing him to lip his lips in anticipation.

"What in the world is wrong with me? Please tell me it's the skill causing this, I swear I'm not that messed up…now I'm worried I'm actually going to start enjoying this smell, please don't let it taste good too…"

At this point, Arachne stopped what she was doing to watch her master, which is very surprising in her case. But her curiosity peaked when she felt the rising hunger stimulating his emotions when he looked at her food. Her eyes showed an intense gleam, she always wondered why her master never ate his own kind when they were so delectable. Spiders ate each other even though the taste wasn't near as impressive as what she ate now.

The gleam in her eyes held a feeling of expectation to share more with her master, but she was also conflicted. There was a part of her that was unwilling to share her food with anyone. 'What if he starts to eat my share? Does that mean less food for me?' Were some of the thoughts going through her mind. She couldn't figure the answer to her own question so she decided to eat faster. If he couldn't eat as fast as her then that would mean she can still eat her fill.

So far, Noah was completely in his own world to mind about his spider's weird worries. He was still on edge about eating their flesh but he felt that drinking the blood wouldn't be too objectionable. Even though he loathes humanity, he couldn't possibly throw away all of his human morals so quickly so he made a compromise with himself.

He tried not to delay it anymore and placed a finger in the small puddle of blood of the zombie. He paused briefly when his finger neared his mouth before he closed his eyes and consumed it.

"Mmm!"

His eyes abruptly opened when he savored the blood that was surprisingly sweet. Unknowingly, his body reached out for more, it wasn't because of the taste itself. Noah has yet to realize the significance of the skill 'budding feeder', his body was craving for more. It started off with another finger and then two, soon he was using his palms to form a cup before he lacked all decorum and face planted himself into the blood spill.

Both human and spider silently fed until Noah broke out into a coughing fit after drinking too fast, that action allowed him to awaken from his hypnotic like state.

Gasp!*

He looked at his hands in shock and then down to the ground, the blood around his mouth continued to fall, splattering on the blood below.

"This is bad…..Budding feeder my ass! The skill obviously bloomed already, what would happen if it leveled up? There's no way I cou- WHA-WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO ME?"

Noah stood up in fear when he realized something was wrong, but it wasn't the feeding skill that caused him to become so emotional. When he looked at his hands, his vision seemed to be splitting, but surprisingly he didn't feel any pain. Yet, he could feel what he believed were tears running down his face, but it was actually his eyes bleeding from the changes. In real time, he noticed everything was becoming double, he observed, as an extra pair of hands entered his vision and not only that, his field of vision was a lot wider than before. The amount of information his eyes obtained started to give him a headache as he felt like he was extremely intoxicated.

But the changes didn't stop there, his body began to feel extremely itchy, itchy to the point that he wanted to rip off skin, but the feeling didn't last long before he felt a prodding pain throughout his body. He could literally perceive 'something' protruding out of his body all at once. The pain wasn't too severe and was comparable to pulling a splinter out but when that pain was occurring all over his body, he couldn't stop himself to observe the changes, he was too preoccupied with bracing himself to the pain.

When he thought he was about to be given a break, he realized how naïve that thought was. Another sensation was happening to both of his arms simultaneously. The pain from before slowly subsided which gave him the opportunity to see what was transpiring.

While observing his arms, he witnessed his veins squirming and branching off, forming new ones. When the veins branched off they began to branch off again before rearranging themselves on the underside of his forearms and intertwined to form a more intricate and thick tunnel that started to block off his blood in those vessels.

He wasn't able to feel that his blood was being cut off, but he could tell that the vein was losing all of its color before being refilled with a black substance. Believing that the changes were over, his first thought was to check his notifications, he was sure that it knew what was going on. But before he could, he felt a stabbing sensation where the new vein developed, puncturing through his skin. Yet when he looked down, nothing was poking out, his skin was only left with a hole that was blocking off from whatever the black substance was.

After some time, he waited for something else to happen, after a minute of waiting he finally felt relieved that it was all over. But it didn't relieve his worries, he took a deep breath to mentally prepare himself for the information he wasn't ready for.

[Level progression from skills gained through the zombie gene has been increased]

[Level progression from skills gained through the zombie gene has been increased]

[Warning, New gene discovered! Merging will commence, do you wish to continue? Y/N?]

[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!""