Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-220

.

.

.

When we finally reached the 46th floor, I decided to butcher some of the countless monster corpses on my Item Box with the help of the Fire Oni tea and some of my Aura and Slime Clones, which were better to do a task that required a lot of strength.

Meanwhile, my wives began to prepare the pots filled with boiling water, vegetables, and other types of food. Some of my children were also interested in helping like AIline and Vudia, while others decided to just slack off, for the time being, I noticed Amiphossia who was once again talking with Evan through the System Direct Message Interface.

This interface is very convenient, but it has a lot of limitations, only those who are deeply connected and also are in the same [Party] can use this system. If you have strong enough magic you can find the location of someone that you want to talk to like Redgaria did with me months ago, but that it's usually rare and not many know how to do such a thing, so people talking through the system all around the world is not really realistic in that regard, even if this world is already incredibly unrealistic by Earth's standards.

The Venomous Desert Tyrant meat was incredibly tough but held immense flavors if boiled correctly, and its meat can act like a sponge as well, absorbing the essence and flavors of the vegetables and spices added to the hot pot. I made sure to cut the meat in big chunks, enough for them to absorb a lot of flavors. I ate most of the skin and internal organs, some of my wives liked the tongues and brains, so I gave it to them. Amiphossia, Nixephine, and Nesiphae liked to punch on the massive heads like snacks.

Afterward came the Six-Clawed Crabs, which exoskeleton was made of iron, steel, and copper, boiling it would create a delicious metallic soup, it wouldn't really be healthy to drink if we were normal humans, but all of us possessed incredibly durable stomachs, with a few exceptions on Ismena, Acelina, Charlotte and Altani, so those just decided to eat the meat inside of the claws and not the delicious soup. Lilith had already awakened her Dwarf blood enough to be able to withstand most foods, this also included alcohol, as Dwarves were incredibly resilient with liquor, perhaps this forged her stomach to be able to enjoy the crab soup without problems.

The tender white meat inside of the massive claws was sweet and had a hint of saltiness, naturally given by the mineral exoskeleton of the monster. The meat was so tender, juicy and plentiful that I couldn't stop eating it, I even munched on the exoskeleton without any problem, they were crunchy and tasted just like the minerals, which were not a bad flavor at all, at least for me. After eating hundreds of whole claws and exoskeletons, I moved to the Lesser Winged Sand Wyverns, a subspecies of the Sand Wyvern Boss that was able to fly with their front limbs that became wings. Their meat was red and tender, and tasted very similar to the Wyvern Boss, but with less flavor. Nonetheless, they were delectable, and if I would have never tasted the Wyvern Boss before, I may think that this was the best meal I've ever eaten after the Human Heroes.

Accompanied by Boiled Forest Grains, Pickled vegetables, Walking Mushrooms, and different types of Beer and Wine, this feast was incredibly rich and joyful. The variety of meat was outstanding and all the flavors complemented each other. After three hours of feasting, everyone had their good fill but some of us saved space for the Boss of this floor. Before I moved from my seat, a system notification popped out of thin air.

Ding!

[Kireina] learned the following Skills]

[Iron, Steel and Copper Exoskeleton Generation]

[Corrosive Venomous Bullets]

To think that I got some Skills once again, this started to happen more often as we descended through the floors, perhaps the monsters are more filled with Dungeon Energy and Life Force, after eating hundreds, a Skill was bound to appear sooner or later I suppose.

[Iron, Steel, and Copper Exoskeleton Generation] let me form a beautiful exoskeleton armor over my body, which resembled the spiky armor of the Six-Clawed Crabs, it also transformed my arms into massive Claws, but it didn't give me six. It was fairly inferior to my newest Armor Skill, but it was a nice component to fuse it over the Skill. But not for now as I want to accumulate more Skills before that happens just fusing two Skills won't do much…

[Corrosive Venomous Bullets] gives me the ability to instantly generate green-colored corrosive venom bullets that can easily melt walls. Although it can't melt indestructible items of course. I think I was already able to do something similar with my [Poisonous Abyss Body] using my own blood as venom bullets, but this was a welcomed skill, as I was able to generate bullets without thinking at all, just by activating the Skill.

Once again for safety measurement, I decided to inspect the fourth boss room just like in the previous floors. Using my small Slime Clones to infiltrate inside of it through the cracks in the old dungeon walls.

The first thing that my Slime Clones saw was a massive sphere of flesh, covered in light brown skin and rock scales, the being was of around one hundred and twenty meters tall and two hundred meters wide. Its head was connected to its body without a neck, and it actually resembled a massive whale. However, it possessed crab-like legs, hundreds of them, and a long and thick tail. Its jaws were incredibly big as well and it also had a long white horn on its forehead, it had six eyes, three on each side, forming a strange v pattern. It was currently sleeping over a pile of sand.

I could assume just by its body that it was some kind of Sand Whale, but that it also possessed the ability to walk possibly at high speeds due to its incredible amount of crab-like tiny legs, that somehow were able to take on all of the monster weight. I decided to Appraise it as well, and it seemed that it didn't notice when I did.

[NAME: Manon

[CLASS: ---

[RACE: Ancient Wisdom Sand Whale Centipede

[LEVEL: ---/--- EXP: ---/---

[STATUS: Excellent.

[HP: 17500/17500

[MP: 1870/1870

[STAMINA: 3500/3500

[STRENGTH: 1660

[DEFENCE: 3700

[MAGIC: 1562

[RESISTANCE: 3190

[SPEED: 1220

[CHARISMA: 0

[LUCK: 0

Well, that's an absurd amount of HP, Defense, and Resistance! I couldn't expect less from such a colossal creature. Its Stamina was also insanely high, meaning that even with such a massive body, it was very hard for it to get tired. This monster wasn't something that my children would be able to kill on their own, so I decided to help them out with my wives, teaming up just as we did with the Ancient Sand Wyvern in our last expedition.

Although this monster seems more resilient than the Wyvern, it doesn't have as much power and skills as the Wyvern, so it will more of a battle of attrition, slowly decreasing its HP as we attack it. I was a little bit worried about its regeneration abilities but thought about some ways to cancel it. The easiest way was to curse it my [Eye of Demise] included on my [Mystic Eyes], inhibiting its ability to regenerate by inflicting a [Anti-Heal] Curse that I obtained after eating so many ghosts in the Water Shrine Dungeon.

I also did the same with the Wyvern, but the bastard had a skill that could heal him back once again to full HP and the curse only cancels things like natural regeneration while worsening wounds. This whale doesn't seem to have a very strong healing spell, but I can as well inflict him with an [Anti-Magic Seal] so it can't use such magic, hopefully, its stupid enough to not destroy it or I will have to cast the seal every ten seconds on it.

Satisfied with my plan, I explained the course of action to my family, including Oga and her group as well, although they won't have a very active role in the fight, they can still throw Fire Magic and slowly help out with the killing. I will take the role of Tank alongside Nesiphae and Nixephine, while Brontes, Valentia, Ryo, and Lilith attack from the sides in close combat. The rest will stay in a good distance, led by Rimuru and Zehe, everyone will cast Tandem Spells using each other magic affinity and attack the boss with powerful multi-elemental spells. Alongside this, Amiphossia with the help of Ismena and my Slime Clones will dedicate to healing and buffing.

Satisfied with the plan, everyone began to use their buffing Skills, while I also buffed them with my own skills, which included [Lovely Boost], [Emerald Tree Arts; Morale Boosting Fragrance] and [Emerald Tree Arts; Status Boosting Fragrance], all being able to stack with each respective personal buffs, even Luck was increased temporarily, and everyone felt like their strength had at least doubled. To top it all I also put on more Tattoos on the Fire Onis and each of my wives. Although some didn't want to burden my MP Pool, I didn't accept a "no".

I also released my Azure Sand, which gently floated around all of us, this floating sand will be the second layer of defense and also partial healing. To end it all I decided to use the Ancient Sand Wyvern Titan Armor, which I released using the two Orbs on my forehead and chest, enhancing its structure and giving it a dark color with more "demonic" features and lighter weight. It still possessed its amazing defense but it was also enhanced 1in other areas with the help of my Orbs.

I wielded one weapon in each hand, these were; [Nether Sword of Undying Pain], [Thunderstorm Glimmer Odachi; Raiu], [Longsword of Unraveling Winds: Óvindandi Vindar], [Heaven Slaying Sun Piercer Claymore; Laevateinn], [Sea Guardian's Dragon's Annihilator Spear; Veles] and [Ollathir Demon Sword]. With all of these weapons, I could feel an incredible aura made of different elements engulfing my body in a powerful strength, which ended up being assimilated by my own Aura and Armor, giving each colorful weapon a slight black color and an eerie aura. Perhaps I was being overly cautious by Earth's standards, but one is never cautious enough in this world.

To top it all off, we decided to enter in an explosive and fast way, instantly targeting the boss body with our weapons and Techniques, while the backline group went around the room and flew towards the ceiling on a "safe" space.

The Whale instantly woke up from its slumber the moment we crashed through the door, but because of its massive body and poor Speed stat compared to other Bosses, it wasn't able to intercept our first attack. I raised my six massive titan-like arms as I released a powerful barrage of different energies colliding with each other using my Six Legendary Weapons and the Skill [Ultimate Claymore Technique: One Hundred Cross Smashes] which released exactly one hundred slashes of different colors that formed into cross shapes, slicing the thick skin of the whale.

The whale did not expect our attack so suddenly and yelled in pain while trying to get into an attack position with its small crab-like legs. However, Nesiphae jumped from my back while I was releasing my powerful techniques, and raised her massive ax as she began to clash it over the beast's left side with maddening speed. Thunderous sounds were released from the impact of her Axe to the beasts' thick skin and rock scales, each impact released powerful purple flames that started to slowly corrode the beast skin and scales.

The Whale Centipede then tried to use its massive horn and a strange technique, that gives it a sudden propulsion speed, jumping from its position and trying to stab Nesiphae on her chest. I jumped right in time and intercepted the monster's lunge with my six weapons and armor, a thunderous sound made the entire floor tremble as the colossal horn wasn't able to pierce through me or my weapons at all, only the [Ollathir Demon Sword] started to crack, but it was suddenly covered on my armor to stop its cracking.

CLASH!

Using another technique that released a powerful horizontal slash of powerful energy, the beast was thrown away into a short distance, while Nixephine finally joined in accompanied by Valentia, Ryo, Lilith, and Brontes.

Nixephine user her six humanoid arms in a similar fashion to me, attacking with her six golden weapons, however, the moment they impacted on the whale's thick skin and rocky scales, the weapons shattered into pieces, the beast noticed Nixephine and tried to chomp her with its colossal fifty meters wide jaw, but was stopped by a tandem attack by Valentia's [Monster Hand] shaping into a massive hand and Brontes Club, enhanced by a strong Orange Thunder, as her body was bulging with intense and shining muscles, greatly increasing her size to over five meters.

BAAM!

The Whale was once again taken aback, and threw some small meters away, while Nesiphae and I jumped towards its massive jaws and ravaged its mouth with our techniques, releasing powerful shockwaves of massive power, making the dungeon barely handle our onslaught, trembling endlessly.

The Whale suddenly opened its mouth wide and began to charge a powerful concentration of magic, and in three seconds, a massive beam of magic was shoot from its mouth and impacted us. Although it didn't do much damage, it was enough to throw us away like bullets and make the beast gain some safe distance to heal its wounds.

However, just at this moment, Valentia, Brontes, Ryo, and Lilith attack its crab legs and successfully sliced them off. Although the Whale immediately began to heal them back, it was good enough for it to lose balance and fall, on its desperation, the Whale shoot countless beams all around the room. While the backline team was preparing to cast massive spells, some of the beams came their way but were easily countered by the teamwork of Acelina with her Heavenly Gold Sand Shields, Nanako's All-Seer Psychic Barriers, Rimuru's Rainbow Spirit Barriers, and Zehe's Shadow Gravity Shields, dispersing the immense force sent from the jaws of the crazed beast.

I quickly multitasked and used my [Mystic Eyes; Eye of Demise; Anti-Heal Curse] to cancel the beast's ability to regenerate, suddenly stopping the growth of the crab legs that helped it walk around. The beast suddenly felt the power of the curse and yelled in pain, while expanding its aura into a thick domain that held immense pressure and changed the gravity around.

"Wait… Is this a Zone Skill?"

.

.

.