Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-254

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After the massive feast that was our everyday breakfast, we packed things up and then proceeded through the Dungeon, this time, crossing the empty boos floor, which was the floor 77, and entering the floor 78.

On floor 78, the atmosphere was still that of a phantasmagoric graveyard and there were plenty of evolved forms from previous monsters. Specially Dinosaur Skeletons, who had evolved and become incredibly strong, now covered in several coats of Black Miasma, they had incredibly thick bones and each step created powerful tremors through the dungeon floor. They were named Black Raptor Lich, some of them had brilliant scarlet spheres as their cores, inside of their sturdy ribcages.

Some created a symbiosis with the Sentient Dark Matter monsters, these beings lived inside of the Dinosaur Lich ribcages and enhanced their strength by fusing themselves with their cores. These ones were quite rare but held immense power and magic capabilities, however, they lacked the speed of a Sentient Dark Matter. Still, nothing that some Fire, Light, and Holy magic couldn't blast away, however, I tried to maintain their bodies intact so I could eat them, so I mostly ate them with my Aura or body, shapeshifting it into a Red Slime.

As we walked through the entire floor, we came across big groups of these Dinosaurs Skeletons, and each time we found a new group, they would be even stronger and have even sturdier bones and cores. To the point that even Valentia wasn't able to break their arms or legs with her punches, so all of us had to get a little bit more serious, after some time, some Dinosaur Skeletons covered in black flames would show up, these were named Hell Dinosaur Lich and could spit soul-melting blue flames, they also were immune to Fire and not weak to Light, only Holy remained as their weakness, and it was still difficult to beat them with it if they weren't very strong Holy spells.

I had to use my Aura enhanced only with Holy, and when I did, it shined incredibly bright, as if it were about to make us all blind for eternity. However, with it, I managed to deal great amounts of damage in these raptors. Immobilizing them while destroying their limbs was the best course of action, as my wives and children did this, we were able to easily finish them off by ganging on their cores. Their cores were especially delicious, so I ate plenty of them.

These beasts were "rare", according to Geraldine, but they were coming in big numbers now, and the Dungeon was obviously plotting against us once again, it really doesn't want to give up. In a race, we rushed through the floor and only commanded the ghost obeying us to bring us the loot.

Afterward, I blasted anything following us with a powerful Ray of Holy Magic made by my Aura. Their bodies vaporized but their cores were especially resilient, so they remained on the floor, alongside some small dropped items and equipment, I then devoured the hundreds of cores, and shared a big amount of them with Amiphossia, who benefited the most from them.

[Calculating EXP gained…]

[Kireina] gained 316.882.593 EXP]

[Kireina] gained one level!]

[LEVEL 046/250 EXP 0.239.294.389/2.100.000.000 EXP]

[Kireina] learned the following Skills]

[Dark Miasma Enhancement]

[Infernal Core of the Blazing Dinosaur Lich]

Reaching floor 79, the mist of the dungeon became thicker, and the monsters were being affected by this environment, growing stronger and more tenacious. Alongside the previous floor monsters, who were different subspecies of Dinosaur Skeletons, there were evolved Phantom Foxes, the previous Phantom Foxes only had two tails and were small and cute, but their evolved forms had three tails and had stronger, bigger bodies were agile and get very ferocious, instead of the playful nature of the smaller foxes.

It seems that these monsters become stronger depending on their tail's number, these foxes were named Three-Tailed Phantom Fox King or Queen. These foxes could control other ghost and used them as small armies as well, a group of foxes working together came at us controlling over a thousand lesser ghost. Thinking that they could win, they comfortably sat down in the back, where I appeared out of nowhere and killed each one with a hit on their heads. The ghost suddenly stopped obeying them and began to gather around Amiphossia, naturally captivated by her Phantasmal Charm, and then she devoured them easily without them offering any resistance.

There were also Greater Sentient Dark Matter, this time they were not only a sphere made out of pure dark magic, but also had several red shot eyes in their spherical bodies, while countless of black tentacles sprouted from their bodies, they were rather rare, supposedly, but we encountered several groups of these monsters gathered together, something that shouldn't happen as these monsters don't like to cooperate, and sometimes even predate their species mercilessly.

A group of over thirty of these beings surrounded us and immediately started to shower us with their powerful magic and tentacles, which they could shapeshift into incredibly sharp needles, being able to impale someone within seconds. Without the protection that I settled before, my family was able to overcome this group without many injuries, being very minor in comparison to being impaled alive or blasted into pieces.

Seeing how Amiphossia can nourish her soul and physique with ghosts of her affinity, I wanted to try out feeding these beings to Valentia and Zehe, the two girls which had a naturally high Shadow Affinity, while also having blessings from gods possessing this divinity. Ryo may have an inherited affinity from Zehe, but I thought that other types of monsters may be more beneficial.

In Zehe, there wasn't any effect, even after she ate several of them, although she found them rather delicious. In the other side, Valentia, by eating them with her mouth, didn't found any change, but if she shapeshifted her [Monster Hand] like the head of a Wyvern, Wolf or other monster and ate the corpses of the Living Dark Matter, she would indeed feel a small increase in power, especially in her [Monster Hand], so we ended up feeding all of the corpses to her.

I wonder why my children can have this function, but not my wives, perhaps something related to inheriting my [Devour] stronger than the shared blessing to my wives, coupled with their unique species, blessings, and Aura… well, it's all just theory, I can't confirm much, it's just something that they can do, I guess. I will try to find Thunder and Gold Monsters for Vudia, Color, and Magical Beast for Ailine and Water Beings for Aarae.

Valentia's Shadow Aura became greater as it nourished her body, her [Monster Hand] suddenly went through an Evolution all out of a sudden, and it became more refined but reptile-looking, its scales now covered her entire arm and it became a [Monster Arm]. I wondered if she would end up being completely covered on black scales, resembling a Shadow Dragonoid woman, but with the giant shark tail she has, it would seem like a chimera. Thankfully, she can control her [Monster Arm] and make it go back to its original size. Whenever she uses its full potential, it would once again become an arm.

Reaching the stairs to floor 80, we encountered another army of Foxes controlling ghosts but they were not accompanied by the Sentient Dark Matter. However, they were nothing more than food for us, as I destroyed all of the spawn points that were hidden beneath the mist and then ate as many foxes as I wanted.

[Kireina] gained 324.923.700 EXP]

[LEVEL 046/250 EXP 0.564.218.089/2.100.000.000 EXP]

[Kireina] learned the following Skills]

[Ferocious Phantom Bite]

[Phantasmagoric Tails Creation; 3]

When we got to floor 80, we found fewer monsters around and we were able to relax for some time, walking around while hunting down the beasts and strange monsters that could give me interesting Skills.

On this floor, the mist obtained a lesser purple color to it, and from time to time, we would encounter small groups of poisonous mushrooms, it seems that these things poison was causing the mist to become this color… Wait, then isn't this whole mist poisonous, how could normal adventurers cross this? Thankfully, everyone in my family had either Poison Immunity or High Poison Resistance even the pure Humans, and the Fire Oni had Poison Resistance alongside Intoxication Resistance, and with their big and vigorous bodies, they were just fine.

Nesiphae and Amiphossia felt especially at "home" here, probably because of the high Poison affinity both have. I ended saving a lot of this Mist on my Item Box by their request, what will they even do with it?

The monsters here began to take on Poisonous or Venomous elements. Although there were classic weak ghosts around, there were also Poison Ghosts, ghosts in which phantasmal bodies were made of poison that can affect its prey souls. There were Venomous Purple Skeleton Soldiers, humanoid skeletons which bones were purple-colored, and were obviously poisonous. These monsters also had poisoned weapons like daggers and arrows.

There were also Phantom Foxes, now evolved once again, they were named Four-Tailed Phantasmal Foxes, these beings were even stronger, having big bodies over three meters tall, their tails served them to conjure different spells at the same time, and it also increased their magic powers. I also found some of their subspecies that specialized in Poisonous Phantom Spells.

And lastly, we found new species of superior Walking Mushrooms, like the ones in the Grand Forest, these walking mushrooms were larger, having more humanoid bodies, with a defined torso, long arms, and legs, and wore leather armor and weapons. They had big purple mushroom caps over their heads, which were featureless outside of the two small black eyes, they also lacked mouths.

The Empress however was a beauty, with a humanoid body and a mouth, of course, she was rather petite but very beautiful, her fair white skin and scarlet eyes made her resemble a vampire instead of a Walking Mushroom. She had very low intelligence though and only commanded the Walking Mushrooms to do her bidding. The whole colony of Walking Mushrooms was easily killed and eaten by us, their flesh was delicious when grilled, having both the qualities of mushroom and meat.

Reaching the stairs to floor 81, we encountered a group of Poisonous Ghosts being controlled by three Four-Tailed Phantom Foxes, a new meal for all of us, that's it. Amiphossia found these Poisonous Ghosts especially helpful to increase her powers and nourish her phantasmal soul, as they had two of her element affinities.

After the feast, we rushed towards floor 81 without any problems, the traps were easily disarmed by the Ghosts that were following us like loyal dogs, while the loot was also gathered by them, I then saw that having Ghost Clones for a task like these could be more beneficial than Slime Clones.

[Kireina] gained 343.490.577 EXP]

[LEVEL 046/250 EXP 0.564.218.089/2.100.000.000 EXP]

[Kireina] learned the following Skills]

[Phantasmagoric Flesh and Bones]

[Venomous Ghost Psyche]

Instead of just eating the small ghosts that followed us, I enslaved them and put them into a "Rest" state, saving them inside of my Item Box. I wanted to experiment with them in the future, and maybe find a way to create my own Ghost Clones as well with my own means. At most, I can create Aura Clones, and enhance them with my Slime and Flesh, but that's something entirely different. I was surprised but happy to find something that I lacked still, Ghost Clones would be very useful and I cannot solely rely on my daughter for her to create them to help me out.

Although I felt like if I ate some of her Ghost Clones, I would get something… A skill, perhaps. But I feel wrong to ask my daughter, "Ami, can I eat some pieces of your soul?". It just feels as wrong as asking my family or servants to donate their blood for me to get on some free skills, it may seem convenient and very easy, but it just makes them seem as expendable things, and that's not my intention. There needs to be a line between food and family…

When Amiphossia began to explore floor 81, she came across a strong presence… No, various strong presences. Suddenly, hundreds of Undead rushed towards us, they were hundreds, no, thousands.

"Sigh… Here we go again…"

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