Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-235

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The Giant Golems covered in spiky cactuses didn't waste any time as they ran towards us, some in the back decided to stay still while casting strong magic, several green colored magic circles appeared in the air was they released powerful spiny vines that devasted our surroundings.

As my family was on my back, I would never let them get damaged. I expanded my Aura as I released strong thundering winds that hit the golems in the frontlines with tremendous force, creating small craters whenever a golem was destroyed into pieces.

The magic from the Golems on the back was completely futile as it vaporized the moment it entered on my Aura Domain of Thunderstorms and Winds. After killing a few of the frontline Golems, my family wanted to do some exercise as I let them kill the rest of the Golems scattered around.

On the other side, I devoured the Golem Cores with my Armor and Aura, strengthening it even more. Each time a Golem Core was devoured, I could feel the attributes and spirits of the armor becoming wilder and stronger, while constantly merging themselves with my flesh. It was a very good feeling, almost an ecstasy.

The Orbs on my body shined brightly as they made the magic flow through my body and the energy slowly expanding itself, my body was slowly strengthening itself. Suddenly, another small enlightement appeared on my mind, as I discovered the true meaning of this feeling, I was, in fact, doing something very similar to the "Magic Meditation Technique" that Aarae was using, but it was as if it were adjusted to my own level of power and body. The Armor and Aura served as a catalyst to maintain the energy and magic flowing through my body while containing it from not going anywhere, slowly refining any impurities.

After devouring a few hundred more Cores, I felt a new change on my armor as it became even wilder and beastly, I now resembled a massive serpent-like dragon, with two long feathered wings made of green and golden metals. My Aura was slowly strengthening the Armor as the Armor was strengthening my body and Aura, it was a perfect balance where everything was constantly increasing while mutating… My Soul suddenly connected to these three elements as it began to draw power from them, refining itself as well.

When I glanced at my family, they had already devastated most of the one hundred Mini-Bosses without much effort, while slowly killing the ones that appeared in the Spawn Points. After they asked me to get rid of these, I quickly commanded my Aura with my own mind, infusing it with Magic and Soul Energy, releasing a powerful blast of Thunder and Wind in each of the hundred or so rooms, blasting them into piles of debris.

I wondered if I could use this ability in the outside world coupled with more magic and other skills… I could perhaps shape the environment to my liking. However, I was still discovering the full extent of such powers, and even the insights I received from my [Heart] Skills wasn't enough as my potential was vast like the sea and there were many possibilities, I just needed to test and use the most convenient ones.

Half an hour later most of the rooms that weren't destroyed were looted and any monster that came our way was instantly blasted into pieces by my "Automatic Aura". At a good pace, we descended towards the next floor through the stairs that connected floor 61 to 62. We need to reach floor 69 was the sixth Boss was waiting for us, I hope it doesn't disappoint me as much, I want to experiment with my Skills some more with it, hopefully, it has some good resistances like the Whale Centipede.

[Calculating EXP gained…]

[Kireina] gained 94.655.924 EXP]

[LEVEL 041/250 EXP 151.961.051/770.000.0000 EXP]

It seems that these ten floors were themed around Golem Species because just as we reached floor 62, we encountered a new group of Golems, this time they were gigantic titans of over fifteen meters, they had humanoid shapes but made out of cubes. However, these cubes were not simple rock, stone, or minerals, but were made of colorful corals and filled with different types of seaweed. The colossal Golems harbored hundreds of small critters inside of their bodies as well, which would attack at its command. These monsters were simply called Colossal Coral Golems and had multiple aquamarine Cores inside of their bodies.

I released my Aura as I infused it with Magic and other Spells and Skills, shooting a powerful blast of Thunder and Wind towards the Golems, however, I was surprised as the Golems were able to take on the attacks with relative ease. It seems that they had some very good resistance to Wind and Thunder, however with my Aura, I can constantly shoot powerful blasts of elements and after the tenth attack, some of the Golems suddenly started to fall apart in pieces. The others that survived in the back commanded their creatures inside of them to attack while releasing a powerful onslaught of Ice Spears towards us.

My children quickly descended form my back as they started to destroy the Golems with incredible skillfulness. Combining their attacks and forming devastating results, Ailine, Vudia, and Aarae combined their magics and created powerful spells that even surpassed my Aura for some moments, vaporizing the Golems mercilessly.

Ryo and Valentia joined hands in a melee attack, using their powerful techniques, the sturdiness of the Coral Golems was nothing against their powerful skills. Ryo destroyed the Golems legs, making the fall, and then Valentia would jump and devastate the Golem's chest and Cores with her bare hands. She was still practicing her [Monster Hand] and with the help of her [Dominating Aura], she was able to strengthen her muscles beyond what merfolk could ever achieve.

Amiphossia in the other hand played around with the Golems and tried out some of her Phantasmal Spells, quickly finding out a way to "possess" some of the Golems, she then commanded them to kill each other while taking care of the small monster that came from their bodies, which she sliced into pieces using her Icy Slashes and Strokes.

My wives watched as our children put on a lot of effort, I invited the rookie Fire Oni group to join in but they were quite intimidated by the massive foes which were hundreds. I then forced them to get to work if they ever wanted to get stronger. Oga suddenly forced the group to obey me as they descended from my back and while using teamwork and some strategies, they started to destroy a Coral Golem. Oga was the strongest of the group so she used her powerful blows and muscular body to lute the Golem while the other Fire Onis concentrated their strength in creating a strong blast of fire, slowly burning the Golem.

When they saw that the Golem body had suddenly turned stiff for being so burned, Oga would jump and with a powerful kick enhanced with her abilities, she could kick the Golem head, making it shatter in pieces. Of course, this took them way longer so they were very tired just after taking on one Golem, but they didn't have any time to rest as more Golems noticed them and tried to kill them. Amiphossia helped them in my place, healing them from time to time.

Getting excited by the fights, my wives decided to join in the fight as their amazing teamwork took countless of Golems by the second. Noticing the weakness of the Golems to Fire for some reason, Kaguya took the spotlight as she conjured powerful fireballs that vaporized the massive Coral Golems in seconds, she took a hundred herself without any effort and quickly leveled up consecutively.

Noticing that the Golems were decreasing I decided to take action while using the Fire Attribute on my Armor. Suddenly the long snake-like winger dragon turned red as it grew hundreds of horns on its massive head. My wings were set on fire that was enhanced with the Thunder and Wind, releasing strong sparks and burning winds. Using the enhancement of Thunder and Wind, my speed was incredibly fast as I flew around the floor destroying the span points just as before. Although repetitive, this was the best way to get rid of these. This Dungeon was really trying its best to overwhelm us but it was just making things boringly repetitive instead of anything really challenging.

These Golems just became food to me as they nourished my body and soul through the powerful energy assimilation abilities of my Armor and Aura. I could feel my entire body reinforcing itself while releasing even more impurities, my flesh transformed and mutated inside of my Armor, possibly attaining a new transformation similar to the [Giant Thunder Dragonoid].

As I devoured their Cores these Golems would sometimes drop special equipment based on them, it was all above [Mythical+] and held amazing stats and skills, so I decided to take them and to distribute them through my family afterward. I devoured a few of this equipment myself but I only got energy and magic power instead of any Skill, sadly.

It was quite strange that to nourish my ridiculously strong body I had to pair it up with my unique Armor skill and Aura while also using my Blessing that granted me [Devour], constantly eating things was my way of "cultivation", but I could also see that having sex would instead make my [Lust] Sin kick in. Each time I had intercourses I could feel my soul and mind evolving as well, possibly being another type of "cultivation". However, the safest and best method of gaining strength was still to forcefully break the Life Walls by leveling up using the System.

When the Goles was all taken care of and all the rooms destroyed, we swiftly descended through the Stairs towards floor 63. New traps were appearing each time as well, these traps had increased in power exponentially with the Dungeon, being able to release powerful magic attacks like a Thunder or a Fireball, or even a blast of Cold, freezing anyone weak enough instantly.

I was able to detect them in time by sensing them inside of my vast Aura, using the lighting senses I quickly destroyed them instead of disarming them using small sparks. My Slime Clones gathered some as well and brought them to me, I only saved them for now as these strange Artifacts could be studied and used in my Kingdom. I was also saving a bunch to devour later on if I accumulate thousands, I'm sure I will get some Skills.

[Calculating EXP gained…]

[Kireina] gained 112.938.023 EXP]

[LEVEL 041/250 EXP 264.899.074/770.000.0000 EXP]

While we traveled through the massive stairs across the air, I checked on my Aura Domain, which had expanded over two hundred meters. The Aura was extremely thick, combining Red, Green, Golden, and Dark colors, creating a chaotic look. And this was just by combining three attributes. How chaotic could it be if more Attributes and armors were stacked with each other? Just like the Armor description said, the Armor power was split into five forms for its power to not overwhelm me.

However, I was really curious if it was even possible for this Armor Skill to really overwhelm me, perhaps if the Five Sacred Beast Spirits tried to take over my body, my Split Minds and Soul would not be able to resist, even with my Mind related Skills, this could be a possibility. To maintain their pressure, I would need to strengthen my mind in some way first, something like Psychic Powers perhaps? Now I really regretted not eating some Dodomekis.

If there was a way to evolve my Skill [Brain Share] so I could have more Split Minds, but I have not found a fitting Skill for it, unless I just fuse it with my other Mind-Related Skills, but I don't know what mess could come from it and I really didn't want to mess with such useful and vital Skills, more than just some offensive ones.

I had some ideas about creating Mind Potions, which could reinforce one's mind, and with the help of Charlotte and Kusuri, it could easily come into reality. However, because I tend to forget these important things, I decided to tell Charlotte my plan immediately, while contacting Kusuri as well. He quickly answered me with excitement about a new and interesting project to work on, Charlotte also started to theory craft with Kusuri through the System Direct Message Function.

In no time, we reached floor 63, and there, we were greeted by something strange. A golden forcefield was protecting the entire floor and we weren't able to enter. Beneath this massive force field, several walls towered over the Ceilings of the Dungeon…

Using my lighting senses, I could detect thousands of living organism not originated from the dungeon inside of those gray walls, using my [Mystic Eyes], I saw a massive city with several houses made with the Dungeon Bricks, there was small markets, guilds, inns and even a big castle in the middle with a notorious Arabic aesthetic. The people inside seemed to be various Desert Demi-Human species, from Girtablilu, Desert Cat Beastmen, Coyote Beastmen, Crow Harpies, Lamias, and more…

"Just what is this place… A city inside the Dungeon?"

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