Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-224

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As I moved with Valentia towards the camp where the food was ready, I greeted the rest of my wives and children. Rimuru and Zehe suddenly jumped over me and hugged me tightly, I was a little bit surprised over their sudden show of affection, but I suppose they need it from time to time. Ailine, Vudia, and Aarae jumped as well and hugged my legs up to my hips. Aarae was still very small even after having born just after Valentia, I wondered if he would grow more or stay small.

After giving each one of my wives a kiss on the lips and each of my children a hug and several kisses on their adorable faces, we finally went to have breakfast.

While having breakfast, I was updating myself with what has been happening back in my Kingdom. Jirou had already come back and was patiently awaiting my arrival. Although I could send a more advanced Slime Clone with a strong mind to Azuma, I wanted to visit the place myself, and the Azuma Empress didn't seem on a rush for my visit for now, as I have been spying her with my small Slime Clones since Jirou came to the capital of the Empire.

Hmm, I have seen her whole family as well, and even had investigated her library and even saw her having sex with his husband, she likes a lot of positions. I discovered in the libraries that there is a lot of info that wasn't in Athetosea, like different Realm Menaces that I've never heard of, it was very interesting.

My small Slime Clones also tasted some of the delicious Japanese-like candies of Azuma, they were all delicacies. I've been also spying on the Heroes and Warlords; they are very strong compared to Athetosea, and the Heroes here make the Hero of Raging Winds seem like a clown.

The Heroine of Alchemy is a very cheerful girl and I've managed to infiltrate one of my Red Slime Clones into her life, as a small pet that she thinks it is. She feeds it and adopted it no long after, she even introduced it to her family, what a foolish girl. It shouldn't be too hard to take over her mind using [Parasite] and [Symbiosis] whenever she lowers her guard. The other Heroes are too strong for just my small Slime Clones and have stronger sensory abilities.

Going back to my Kingdom, Redgaria had recently breakthrough on one of his experiments and had generated an artificial Magic Core inside of his chest, something that he has been working on for very long. Alongside engraving thousands of magic circuits over all of his old and mummy-like body, he connected them to his new artificial Magic Core alongside his soul and is slowly nourishing his body back to a good condition using the Magic and Soul Energy, making it nourish both his soul and body.

He's using his incredibly high MP Pool for it, but he has also found other ways to obtain MP by transforming Low-Level Souls into Magic. He's killing two birds with one stone as he is nourishing his body and making it recover its strength and youth while also slowly increasing the power of his soul, possibly being finally able to break through Rank 3 Soul.

I reached Rank 3 soul some months ago, but it hasn't increased at all since then, and I've been wondering what do I exactly need to make it stronger. I will have to ask the expert, Redgaria, about some methods we could figure out.

In other subjects, a lot of the promising rookies have been leveling up steadily thanks to my big group of Summoning Clones. I think the idea of creating clones that work pretty much as summoning machines was the best thing I've ever thought since I was born in this world. With their help, they have been steadily summoning more and more Familiars, Undead and so on, fusing them together or using them as food. Even after my soldiers kill armies of thousands of undead, there is always more and more.

As they keep on accumulating, they are also being fused by my Lesser Slime Clones using [Bone Fusion], and thereafter creating stronger evolved Undead, some of them have mutated and become stronger variants. The army of super-evolved Undead is already pilling over thirty thousand! I can already conquer Thanatos Kingdom if I want to, but I am too cautious and fear that they may have something that I cannot predict in time. For that, I want to put Azuma in front and weaken them enough for me to absorb their power as well. The less risk I take, the better.

Alongside the Undead production, the other projects are also going well, there has been a steady increase in the production of Floating Slime Vehicles. There is also already a prototype of what I would call a "spaceship", a super armed floating carriage with a cool futuristic design. I left a lot of blueprints for my workers and Slime Clones to imitate. These "spaceships" are using the magic circuit technology and the Magic Gun technology as well, they are incredibly complex, more than one would imagine. In the future, I'm planning to use these massive ships to invade other Kingdoms and quickly absorb them into my own, and possibly use them against the Central Continents.

Another thing that has been doing very well is the Slime Wall project, it's already covering over 30% of the Grand Forest! I never thought that it would expand so quickly, and about the one in Athetosea, its already done, so Athetosea is completely safe from any outside forces for now. Alongside their own Slime Wall, which is a monster of terrible power, defenses, and intelligence, they also have a massive army of Undead and Familiars protecting them and some of my Elite Goblin, Troll, Monkey and Wolf troops.

Talking about Slime Walls, their power is way more than one would imagine, and they can even rival or overpower Guubo, my strongest monster. Slime Walls can shape themselves into incredibly hard material, mold themselves into spikes, swords lances, and even Magic Guns, which were added in the latest upgrades. They can also cast very strong Spells, absorb MP from the environment, and can self-regenerate. They don't need any food because they can make their own using [Photosynthesis].

Even Guubo is ashamed of his weakness alongside the two Chimera Guardians and the three are working incredibly hard to surpass the Slime Wall, I never knew that a rivalry like this would surge. Perhaps the Slime Wall is acting cocky with them to increase their growth so they don't slack off.

Guubo is very strong, but he can get even stronger, he should be able to evolve someday, and I can't even imagine what kind of being would he turn out to be… The Chimera Guardians are getting strong as well, and are developing more unique abilities and higher intelligence, the two are very promising.

My subordinates and Slime Clones have been upgrading and modifying the Giant Undead Guardians of the Kingdom as well, giving them new equipment, weapons, and cores. Alongside stronger souls and more magic. The group is growing to be unexpectedly strong as well, and are very passionate about protecting my people.

Another layer of defense that my subordinates and clones are working on are different types of Undead "Machinery" using the bones of summoned Giant Undeads, modifying them and fusing them with Magic Technology, new types of vehicles, towers, and living weapons are being born, walking fortresses or houses, giant centipede carriages, spider-like houses filled with magic guns, and more. The possibilities are almost endless, but time is needed to make corresponding creations, a lot of the prototypes have notorious flaws, so it will take some time before actual walking fortresses begin to appear around the world, invading and absorbing everything.

The previous "wars" that I had with humans were mere experiments to see how things could go, the casualties were expected as I made those soldiers exclusively to die in war. But now that I know more and are more informed, its better to patiently build up an overwhelming force and then strike the Thanatos Kingdom with it, the living soldiers are also included in this army, and their potential is greater than the Undead. These "wars" could be a nice way to filter the untalented, the ones who died were just weak, and the ones who survive and evolve have the possibility of joining big groups and evolve further, becoming important generals of my army for future wars.

Anyways, not all the newborns need to be soldiers as well, a big number of them are being assigned to other different tasks as well, like expanding the farm, mining, hunting, raising cattle, crafting, forging, alchemy, cooking, business and more. All of the work hand is welcomed.

As the Blood Sacrifice Dungeon expands, its power and monsters also begin to change and become more deadly, due to this the influx of new citizens exploring, and farming inside of the Dungeon is very helpful as well. The humans that we obtained from Athetosea are being very useful with their amazing talents in crafting, blacksmithing, alchemy, and cooking. Even after absorbing Aquaria, its crafters weren't as talented as Humans! Humans are really on another whole level and are even teaching the Aquarians better methods.

After assessing all the information and news on my mind, I didn't notice that I had already devoured plenty of food, perhaps I was on "auto mode" and some of my split minds moved my body on my place, eating the food while I distributed all the information.

When breakfast was done, everyone quickly packed their things as we crossed the floor 47 and slowly descended through the stairs of floor 48. There were some immediate changes on the dungeon, as the sudden arid and old tower made of clay-like bricks was now suddenly filled with what seemed to be dead marine life. Specially corals, although they weren't colorful anymore and seemed to be pale white or yellow, they were already fossilized. There was also fossilized seaweed, which seemed to be more like petrified as it was completely covered in stone.

There were hundreds of bones everywhere, of long-forgotten sea species, there were some massive bones that towered over fifty meters, possibly from a Whale Centipede. There were also petrified sea stars and various strange monuments depicting strange languages. Although I wondered for a moment on why there were such things in an underground and arid place like this, I quickly remember that most of the monsters here were based on a desert area, and deserts used to be oceans… Well, its actually pretty vague, but it was the only explanation I could think at this time.

And just as I imagined, the monsters that we encountered here were also based on sea life! Or at least, seemed like… Because these monsters were mostly an interesting species of floating fishes and sharks. The fishes were massive, being over ten meters long, with different colors and characteristics. They had a dry rock-like scale skin with sharp blades coming from their fish tails and fins, their eyes were ferocious, scarlet-colored, and most of them had over six eyes…

The sharks were not much different but were as big as fifteen meters each, thick and muscular bodies with massive jaws filled with sharp fangs and incredibly long fins on their backs, which helped them to move faster through the air. Their skin was also rock-like with dark brown colors mixed with other shades of light brown.

The Fishes were named Water Seeker Desert Tuna, and the sharks were named Ferocious Predators of the Sands, the names were very lacking in imagination, but that's how the system called them. My children, led by Amiphossia intercepted the first shoal of Desert Tunas, who rushed voraciously towards us, opening their massive toothless jaws. Some knew magic as well, casting several magic circles and summoning powerful boulders that impacted from the skies.

However, my children were more than enough for this shoal of fifty Tunas and made quick work of them. I noticed as Valentia was practicing her new Aura control and [Monster Hand] transformation, doing excellent work, she was able to burn the Desert Tunas with her Black Flames and even discovered that she could eat them with her hand as well, she had plenty of fun, as I noticed that her [Monster Hand] had somehow its own Aura, which was blazing with enthusiasm and danced around with Valentia's Dominating Aura, it seems that both auras indeed had compatibility, just like multiple blessings on a newborn, the blessings always complement each other somehow, creating something anew.

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