Chapter 36: Mutated Beasts and Subhumans

-----

Now that Arthur had regained his legs in just a night, most of the students within class glanced at him with disbelief.

Arthur smiled gently as he saw down on his chair instead of replacing it with a wheelchair, and now that Timassa did not have to be behind him at all times, she decided to sit down at his side by Arthur's request.

"Master is it really prudent to sit at your side?" asked Timassa while flushing a bit.

"Yeah, why not? You're also a student at this school, Timassa, and my good friend too," said Arthur.

"Arthur-sama…" muttered Timassa, glancing at Arthur with enamored eyes, she was indeed quite in love with her master, although it seems that their relationship was still strictly of master and servant.

The teacher noticed that the students kept babbling about and that it had already been over ten minutes since classes should have started, so he decided to shut down the students and begin classes.

"Silence everyone, enough of your comments. Now that Arthur has his legs back, all of you should be happy for him. Now, let's begin classes, take out your Monster Bestiary Books and go to page 23," said the teacher.

All of the students sighed, taking out their Monster Bestiary Books and glancing at page 23.

There, Noah noticed the drawing and pictures on these pages.

They were strange and malformed creatures, some looked oddly humanoid, while others resembled a horrifying mutant creature made up of many corpses.

However, these creatures were real and not a work of fiction, they existed just a few kilometers away from Noah's current position, in the outskirts of Sector D, the wastelands, as they call them.

"Mutated Beasts…" muttered Noah.

"As you can tell, tomorrow we will go on a quick trip to the wastelands outside, so you can get more used to that environment. After all, not all threats are inside Dungeons, but in our own world there are countless natural enemies, Mutated Beasts," said the teacher, as he began to write a few things on the blackboard.

The teacher seemed particularly good at drawing, as he drew a humanoid figure.

"Mutated Beasts can range from normal animals, plants, and well, us, humans," said the teacher.

"Teacher, how did Mutated Beast came to be?" asked a beautiful and tall girl with a slender figure, sharp clear blue eyes, and long azure hair, one of the stoic and silent beauties of the class, Clementina Icespear.

"Clementina, I was about to explain that. But Mutated Beasts came to be when the waves of miasma hit our world, twenty years ago, animals, humans, and plants began to mutate randomly. Those that survived the mutations became like us, awakened, acquiring abilities which we employed against the monsters. And well, those that were not so fortunate… became mutated beasts, undead, or other entities," said the teacher as he began to add multiple limbs, masses of flesh, and eyes over the human figure he drew.

"This is your typical Human-type mutated beast. They have humanoid figures but are mutated and grotesque, they often possess multiple limbs, eyes, noses, and large mouths to engulf prey easily. All of them possess superhuman strength, and some had even been seen to be capable of using Abilities like monsters… Mutated Beasts do not give us Cores, however, their bodies are precious resources for the creation of items. Unlike monsters who disappear when we kill them, Mutated Beast's corpses remain, and are one of our major resource points aside from extracting materials from the dungeons, such as Magic Crystals that often grow inside Dungeons such as the Goblin Caves," said the teacher.

"Mutated beasts were former humans, right? Is it okay to kill them, teacher?" asked Arthur as many of the students glared at Arthur's innocent question with annoyed expressions.

"Of course it's fine to kill them, idiot! Do you want to get eaten by them or something? Well feel free to go and die," said Fernand Firebrand, as he provoked the laughter of many students.

"Don't dare insult my master!" roared Timassa.

"Tch, shut up subhuman slave," said Fernand.

"You…!"

Timassa was about to blow away Fernand with a bolt arrow but was stopped by Arthur.

"Calm down," said Arthur.

"Master…" muttered Timassa.

"Ahem. Yes, Arthur. Mutated Beasts that used to be humans had been mostly exterminated at this point, however, their eggs had remained, and they multiply incredibly quickly, those that were former humans had died, but their grotesque offspring are still going around. Although they might have human-like features, they are in fact monsters, and they will try to kill you if you get near them. Make sure to remember that, they are not humans anymore," said the teacher, repeating several times over the 'they are not humans anymore' words.

"I-I see…" sighed Arthur.

"I do wonder though, are Subhuman considered Mutated Beasts?" asked a bratty student.

Subhumans.

A word that only existed in fiction before the apocalypse.

However, subhuman existed in real life now.

Aside from awakened people who remained as humans with powers, subhuman are humans that mutated and became half-beasts, acquiring the power of mutated beasts while remaining their human-like intelligence.

There have been many subhuman species detected through these twenty years, but they are often discriminated against and not seen as humans, often slaughtered as resources similarly to monsters.

The surviving tribes live in the middle of the wastelands, making such dangerous places their home.

"Subhumans? Although they possess a more advanced intelligence, they are the same as mutated beasts. They might be intelligent, but they employ such intelligence to hurt us and prey on us. Subhuman only see us as food and nothing else, and just like Mutated Beasts, they should be exterminated at sight, and if you are not strong enough to kill them, make sure to escape as fast as you can from them," said the teacher, as Noah began to think something.

"Subhumans… Could I and my converted vampires considered Subhumans then? I wonder if there might be others like me…" thought Noah.

"It's impossible, you are a unique existence due to my Blood Core! Measly Subhumans cannot compare to your power and talent… because it was all mine, to begin with!" said the Blood Progenitor.

"No one told you to speak, Dracula, shut up," said Noah while being mildly annoyed with Dracula.

"Noah-sama… Are we Subhumans?" asked Iris through telepathy.

"I don't know, but it could be said that we are… However, as we can remain in the appearance of humans without any issue, our powers can also be simply masked as a new type of Ability," said Noah through telepathy.

"I see…" sighed Iris through telepathy.

"Teacher, if Subhumans are so dangerous, why do people keep them as slaves?" asked another student.

"Well, that's simple, similarly to how we keep monsters as pets sometimes if you discipline them well, they become loyal and valuable allies in battle. As long as they wear an Obedience Necklace, it should be safe to own them, although they are not cheap at all, and I would recommend you to simply have reliable friends instead of Subhuman slaves at your side," said the teacher.

"In my house, we have like five of them!"

"I like how stupid they are, if I ask them to bark for me, they do!"

"Yeah, Subhumans are fun pets, I like to take mine out for a walk sometimes, although she gets crazy sometimes,"

"You guys sure are rich, we cannot even get more than two Subhuman Slaves,"

"Damn, I wish I wasn't so poor, I would surely get myself a sexy one,"

Amongst the students, most of those that belonged to rich families held many Subhuman Slaves, seeing them as pets and not as people.

Even Arthur was not the exception to this rule, although Timassa was half-subhuman and mostly had human traits.

However, Arthur knew that she had a small cat-like tail hidden below her clothes.

The classes continued until break time came and then resumed once more until late, where the students were finally freed from a military education.

"Come to my room in one hour, make sure to be well prepared," said Noah telepathically to his vampires, as he walked back to his room.

-----

If you are enjoying this novel please make sure to check my other novel: "My World Traveling System: The Harbinger of Death"!

It has similar genres than Vampire Overlord but it is more about personal growth, the main character changes a lot over time until becoming a ruthless anti-hero! Check it out!