Becoming the King of Magic in my Brother's Novel

Alec sat and stared at the thing that was not Milo until Dario returned after putting Millie to bed. He still wasn't pleased with Alec, but for Millie's sake, he dind't say anything unnecessary. Instead, he pointed at Rita.

"Is she…?"

"She was the fucker's lover when he was young. She transformed into a monster, prompting him to do the same."

"..."

Alec caught Dario's expression.

"The fucker was a geezer. I'm guessing monsters don't age the same as humans since their physiques are very different. Like dry, polished hardwood not rotting as fast as damp softwood."

"I see. Wait, I thought you were kidnapped about the same time as Milo? Did you research monsters before that as well despite how young you are?"

"I had barely gotten started."

Dario wasn't the leader of a group of orphans for nothing. He slowly pieced together Alec's situation.

"Does that mean you've been down here studying monsters since…?"

"Since Milo killed that fucker? Yeah." Alec didn't look away from the monster in the cell and answered with a dull voice.

"How…?" Dario asked, confused more than anything.

"How much progress have I made?"

"No. How did you do it without going crazy?" Dario asked with sincere concern. The underground lab was not built for mental sanity. Even without the monsters and all the traces of the atrocities committed within, it was a place that gave Dario the creeps. He couldn't imagine Alec staying down here for extended periods of time without his mentality taking a hit.

"I had to do it. So, I did it. Simple as that."

"What do you mean you 'had to do it'? There's no way you had to stay down here all that time."

For the first time since Dario returned to the room of monsters, Alec looked at him. His eyes were tired beneath his unkempt hair. Dario almost didn't see his dark eyes through that bundle of a charred bird's nest on Alec's head.

There was only one reason why Alec would be left without a choice, even after his captor was dead.

"Are you saying…?" Dario started asking before trailing off and taking a step back.

Alec had eaten monster meat. And if it had happened at about the same time as Milo…He could turn at any moment!

Dario frowned.

Milo had been missing for months.

Even taking into account the fact that he likely hadn't ended up in Shim's hands at once, it had still been a long time ago. As far as Dario knew, it didn't take that long to turn into a monster.

All the ones he had seen or heard of being desperate enough to try just a bite to sate their hunger transformed in less than a month.

"But it's been MONTHS?!" Dario shouted in utter disbelief. How had Alec not transformed?

The fact that Alec, a kid younger than him, had solved or fixed a problem that had the entire world stumped didn't even enter Dario's head.

Transforming into a monster after eating monster meat was as absolute a rule as an apple falling to the ground from its rightful place in the tree.

But an apple can be caught.

"I solved it," Alec said simply, and turned back to the monster without arms.

"Almost, at least. I don't know how to prevent it. But I know what causes it."

Dario's face widened and contorted in ways that made it fortunate Alec wasn't looking as he tried to comprehend what he had just heard. But after doing that, he frowned.

"But if you haven't figured out how to prevent it…?" Dario started walking backward.

"It's fine. I have a unique constitution. I won't transform into a monster regardless of how many I eat."

"There's no way that's true."

"You are the master of the beliefs in your heart. I can't tell you what's true or not. Only you can."

"Alright, tell me. What is monsterification? How does it work? Why doesn't it work on you?"

Alec glanced to the side, looking not at Dario but at Millie standing in the door. She looked with puffy eyes, desperate to know.

"I guess you could call monsterification Aether poisoning. It is a spontaneous reaction between living organisms and Aether exposure. I don't have all the details down pat, but I assume individuals have different sensitivity, which triggers random monsterification, even without the ingestion of monster meat.

"The reaction combines organic matter with Aether, turning them into one. This transformation, when applied to structural tissue like bones, muscles, blood vessels, et cetera, results in a product greater than the sum of its parts. That's why monsters are ridiculously strong.

"I have a feeling that the difference in growth of strength between human monsters and animal monsters is the fact that the human body is filled with imperfections and impurities, due to the evolutionary path and daily life of humans. Animals have evolved with a focus on their physical forms, compared to humans who rely on their intellect.

"However, when it comes to more advanced tissues, such as the brain—I actually haven't found any other tissue that fits the requirements—The transformation is too much.

"The brain is disgustingly complex and filled with countless narrow, sensitive pathways, which carry thoughts and commands, conscious and subconscious.

"The transformation, which turns cells stronger, denser, and different, contorts and disrupts the brain, ruining countless pathways, leaving only base functions. It is one step away from brain death, essentially. If it had happened without the transformation's reinforcement, it would have been instant death is my guess.

"Eating monster meat and, more importantly, digesting it, frees the Aether trapped in the meat during the transformation, setting it free in the eater's body. Different metabolisms and toughness of consumed monster meat determines how long until transformation after consumption.

"That's why I'm immune. When my body digests monster meat, it transforms the Aether into mana."

Dario and Millie stared at him in silence with their mouths hanging open slightly and wide eyes.

Alec sighed.

"Drugs. It's like drugs that give you a crazy body but fry your brain. The air is filled with this drug. Some animals have it in higher concentration, which makes them dangerous to eat. I have an innate immunity toward this specific drug, I guess you can say."

Dario and Millie nodded in understanding.