Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-257

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The Nine-Tailed Phantom Fox Chief roared in anger, its three heads overlooked us as its muscles started to bulge and tighten. Its six eyes, two in each head, became completely red in anger, as its usual purple-colored Aura became bloody red, the pressure in the air suddenly increased as the beast roared and its nine tails moved around like furious snakes.

At the brink of death, the Fox Chief entered on a berserk state and its strength multiplied, its aura was now scarlet, filled with bloodthirst. However, this wasn't enough as the Dungeon trembled all out of nowhere, and from the walls surrounding us, powerful white-colored energy flew towards the enraged Giant Fox.

Flash!

The energy covered the beast as it howled in pain, its fur burned to ashes as its skin was covered in white flames. Was what just going on?!

I called on my children, who gathered behind me, as I flew using my powerful Holy Seraph Armor, the golden metallic wings flew through the air while leaving small white feathers, while using [Illogical Propulsion Speed], my speed increased and in less than a split second, I appeared in front of the Fox.

I'm not just going to sit and wait as this beast possibly becomes stronger by some godly intervention!

The Fox howled in pain as the white flames quickly covered its body, reinforcing its physique and psyche, new eyes began to shine in scarlet red. What this energy was going is forcing evolution on this monster, something that only a God could even do.

"Roooaarr!!!"

"Not going to let you!"

I raised my six golden metallic claws as I enhanced them with my shining Holy Aura, a sudden burst of light completely illuminated the entire room. Molding the aura at a speed that a normal eye couldn't see, a massive punch appeared, hitting the evolving Fox at full force.

BOOOM!

"Awoooo!"

The Fox flew through the air like a bullet, the sudden burst of energy lost its connection to it as its body clashed with the dungeon's walls with immense force, creating a thunderous sound that made the whole floor tremble.

Clash!

"Awwooo…!"

The Fox quickly forced the power flowing through its body, and skillfully devoured it, quickly changing its appearance. It seems that such a process was too fast, even with my speed, it still managed to draw on a lot of Dungeon Energy.

"Groowwwl!"

The Fox's body size had increased within the spawn of a second, now towering over thirty meters, its entire body bulged in sturdy yet slim muscles, its three heads howled in anger, each head gained one charcoal-colored horn on their foreheads as their ears also grew in size, their fangs sprouted outside of their jaws and their entire white fur was now recovered and covered in countless red and purple tattoos, instead of nine tails, it had twelve tails, each one being white-colored, with the tip seemingly having a different scarlet tattoo. Its claws became incredibly large and intimidating, and its aura as a whole was something completely different than before.

"Could it be? A Nine-Tailed Phantom Fox Chief can evolve again? This power is very similar to a true Boss! I guess it's not so bad that you managed to evolve, now become my snack!"

Taunting the Fox with my words, the beast howled in anger as it pounced towards me with incredible speed, enhancing its body with incredible skillfulness with its Aura, it flew like a bloody scarlet bullet.

"Grrooowwl!"

Flash!

"Let's see if you can take another of these!"

I enhanced my Aura, molding it like a giant hand, and then formed a powerful punch in the spawn of a quarter of a second, the Fox met the massive glowing punch made of my Holy Aura at full force.

Baaam!

Due to the rashness of the berserk beast, it couldn't predict my move, getting its middle head squished with my Aura fist, the middle head was completely blasted into pieces as phantasmal blood flew through the air. The other two heads cried in pain while howling, however, they were in a berserk state, so even the heads didn't felt as much pain, while in air, one conjured a giant magic circle that summoned a massive hand made of phantom while the other conjured hundreds of small scarlet-colored magic circles, summoning thousands of Blood Needles.

The giant phantom hand seemed to be from a massive being that was resting beneath that magic circle, its power was devastating, for a moment, it managed to tie with my own Punches from my Holy Aura, but I managed to outpower it due to my higher strength as I infused more intent on my attacks, the hand then dissipated after two seconds of appearing. The Blood Needles were nothing, as they vaporized the moment, they entered my Holy Aura Domain.

The Fox fell to the ground again, as it quickly stood up, the middle head quickly grew back as if nothing, howling once again in anger.

"Ah, you're tougher than I thought. Should I go all out, then?"

The giant Fox opened its three jaws with anger, as the three combined their powers to conjure a powerful triple beam of phantasmagoric scarlet energy, it flew at an incredible speed, indecipherable to the normal eye, however, my [Mystic Eyes] let me see it clearly.

To receive such a beam, I activated my Skill [Logic-Defying Army Annihilation Catastrophic Onslaught], without even wielding a weapon, the power of the technique was still showing on it almost full potential, as powerful rivers of energy gathered on my six metallic claws, colliding with each other, I threw my six claws in a single punch, enhanced with my Aura, the force released flew through the air and towards the fox, breaking the air itself and creating countless ripples on the Dungeon's walls.

The force released completely overpowered Fox's triple beam as if a godly force appeared to judge the sinful, the powerful energy clashed over the Fox, its body suddenly started to become flattened, as if the gravity of an entire planet clashed over its entire body, the Fox started to vomit blood from all of its three heads, howling in pain, it tried to move away, but its bones were already shattering inside of its flesh.

"Grrooowwwl…!!!"

The energy was suddenly released completely over the Fox, flattening its body with immense pressure, the gigantic thirty meters tall beast was converted into a puddle of blood, minced flesh, and shattered bones…

"Hm, I guess you couldn't take that"

If it couldn't take at least various of these attacks, then it wasn't near as strong as a Boss, at least compared to the Turtle, the Chimera, or Zakon when he had its full power, that guy was able to take multiple of these without moving an inch.

My children rushed towards me with seemingly angered expressions, however, their eyes still shined in admiration over my almighty power.

"Mama, so strong! But you stole our prey!" (Vudia)

"Mommy, so strong! Mommy punched that evil fox!" (Ailine)

"Mother, couldn't you let us fight it off at least? Sigh…" (Ryo)

"Hehehe, mommy you didn't give him any opportunity, poor guy~!" (Amiphossia)

"Hahaha! That's mommy for you!" (Valentia)

"Mommy, amazing…" (Aarae)

I flew towards my children as I took off my armor.

"Hahaha, I guess I got carried away, I was scared that it could have endangered your lives… Well, it may have been stronger if I would have let it bathe in the Dungeon Energy some more, but I've learned that it's not good to let my enemies shamelessly boost their strength in front of me… (Spider Empress fight flashbacks)"

"I think that even if it would have taken all of the power, we would have been able to manage a victory… Next time, don't be too cautious, mother…" (Ryo)

"That's true… Well, anyway, let's have a feast" (Amiphossia)

"Mama, I want to sit on your shoulder!" (Ailine)

"No! Choose Vudia!" (Vudia)

"Hmm, I wonder how does this Fox taste" (Valentia)

"It must have a strong flavor; I detect a lot of Mana from its blood… Looks tasty" (Aarae)

"Alright, Ryo, I'll let you guys handle the next big thing we come across…" I said, so my son could stop complaining.

Afterward, we feasted on the countless of Foxes corpses, Undead, Wraiths, and the Fox Chief. After dying, its body created a massive puddle of scarlet blood, its blood also released a powerful phantasmagoric essence, and its taste was incredibly rich and tasteful. All of my children alongside Alice drank this to their heart's content, I also drank a lot, so much that my Blood Strength and other skills increased in power due to the quality of the blood.

[Supernatural Blood Vitality Level 9] gained one level!]

[Supernatural Blood Vitality Level 10] has evolved into [Etheric Blood Vigor Level 1]

[Kireina] gained +50 Blood Strength]

It's been some time since I gained any Blood Strength from drinking blood, I even managed to level up this Skill I had stuck at level 9 for so long… My blood received a direct upgrade with it, it now feels way stronger and warm, while having some ethereal or phantasmal properties…

While Fox's meat was being cooked and seasoned, I sorted my System Menu.

[Kireina] gained 611.882.554 EXP]

[LEVEL 047/250 EXP 0.998.641.091/2.450.000.000 EXP]

"Not even a level… Oh well"

Wait… Should I assimilate this Fox's meat, I feel like I would get something, if it even increased my Blood Strength, then perhaps…

I swiftly flew where Fox Chief's meat was being sorted, I selected a big chunk, which was part of its back, alongside a whole tail, and a paw, each piece was gigantic. I then used my Skill [All-Purpose Genetic Assimilation and Absorption]. The pieces of the fox slowly assimilated themselves to my body, it seemed rather easy compared to other times, as I could easily assimilate things while slightly shapeshifting into a Red Slime. In a matter of seconds, the assimilation was done.

Ding!

[Kireina] learned the following [Assimilation] Skill]

[Giant Twelve-Tailed Scarlet Phantom Fox Chief Shapeshifting]

"I really got something again… Haah, its been so long… A fox shapeshifting…"

Ding!

"Huh?"

[All-Purpose Genetic Assimilation and Absorption Level 3] gained two levels!] [Current Level; 5]

"I can gain levels in this skill by assimilating as well? It seems that if the monster is strong enough… But in the previous bosses, this didn't work, I didn't gain anything…! There must be some trick here"

I began to think about why was this happening, and then came to a half-assed conclusion, perhaps the Bosses cannot give me anything in assimilation because they're not "natural" monsters, while all of these Foxes were a family, naturally breeding and growing in numbers, different than Dungeon Monsters that just spawn endlessly, being "unnatural" in a sense.

Well, this is just a theory, I'll leave it at that, there is no point on trying to figure out something that I cannot even understand very well. I just need to assimilate very strong beings that aren't Dungeon Monsters in the sense of being born from spawn points, I suppose. I wonder if there are even "natural" places that aren't dungeons where such strong monsters appear.

While waiting for the food to get ready, I tried out my new Assimilation Skill, activating it, my body suddenly changed into that of a giant Fox, resembling the monster that I just killed. Although I didn't have its abilities, I had its full physique, agile, and strong, while being a giant being. I could use my other skills just fine. I also discovered that "beastly" skills obtained from Beast-Type monsters could be used more dexterously with this form, especially skills like Claws or Bite attacks.

Going back to my original form, I tried creating Flesh and Slime Clones by shapeshifting into a slime partially, I then thought about the idea of adding this shapeshifting power, and instead of Red Slimes, I created small scarlet-colored foxes. They were incredibly adorable and fluffy, but they also had all of the properties from Slime Clones, being able to shapeshift if they desired into pure Slime. I don't know if this is even an upgrade from the previous Slime Clones, as I don't feel much of a difference in strength, but its more like an aesthetic thing, perhaps… Eh?

Suddenly, the small Scarlet Foxes that I created played around with each other, and while playing they randomly transformed into Phantoms, scarlet-colored phantoms that could easily go through walls and be undetected…

Could it be…? Ghost Clones?!

And indeed, they were. Scarlet Foxes were slightly weaker than Slime Clones, but they had a greater scouting potential as they could easily turn into phantoms and fly around while bypassing physical objects. I quickly commanded them to bring me all the loot on the floor while disarming all of the traps, and they did so in one minute, it was way more efficient and faster than my Slime Clones.

When the Foxes brought all of the loot, their size had increased a bit, as they only expanded their bodies and held all of the items inside of their Slime Bodies. In truth, they were more like Ghost Red Slimes that could take the form of Foxes…

The mountain of items was surprising, and I saved everything on my Item Box, giving away various equipment that could be useful for my family and the Fire Onis. After I finished sharing the equipment, the food was ready. The delicious smell of grilled meat filled the room as the seasonings only made its scent become even more enticing.

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