Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-262

[Day 173]

Today in the morning, I was greeted by the licks of Amiphossia's Wolf, Seishin, while Amiphossia was glancing at me with a gentle smile from the side.

"Mommy, wake up! Prepare me some breakfast, I'm hungry"

"Fweh… Ami? Did I fell asleep on the floor? Ugh, anyway, where are your siblings?"

"They're taking a bath… Hm? What do you have in your right hand?"

"Right hand…? Eh?"

I glanced at my right hand, which Amiphossia pointed out had something strange… And indeed, it had, there was a purple-colored tattoo there, depicting a coiling snake, devouring the roots of a tree.

"Wait, is this Jormungandr doing?!"

Amiphossia gave me a confused look.

"Jormungandr… Isn't that the snake Geraldine talked about yesterday? What is it?"

By saying her name, Geraldine suddenly showed up from Amiphossia's soul.

"Lady Amiphossia, did you call for me~?"

"Oh, Geraldine… You see…"

"W-Wait! Stop for a second! Let me inspect things…"

"Uh? O-Okay mother…"

I quickly put my full intent inside of my mind, asking my split minds about what just happened.

("Split Minds, did something happen while I was sleeping?")

("Indeed, Master, Jormungandr applied this tattoo in you, according to him, it would help you make his descendant believe your words… It's a tattoo that develops on his descendants, it also comes with a permanent boost to your growth and stats")

("You stupid idiot! Why did you fell asleep while all of this happened?!")

("Well, that's incredibly convenient! He really is trying to back me up, it seems, although he should have just given me a simple blessing, he's a demi-god after all")

("He said that a full-on Blessing would cost too much Divine Energy and that without his sister helping him out in that regard, he wouldn't have much of it, so he didn't waste it on you")

What a selfish snake…

"Mother?"

Amiphossia was contemplating me as I sat cross-legged in the ground, without any womanly charm, I was concentrating while talking with my split minds. As I finished talking, I glanced at Amiphossia.

"Hm, now I understand how it is… Its nothing to worry about, my daughter. Its adult stuff"

"Adult stuff?! I am an adult too!"

"No, you aren't even a year old"

"You neither!"

"Oh… Well, I will explain things with the rest of the family, so be patient for now"

"Sigh, alright… How about you make me pancakes to make it up for me, then?"

"Oh~ What a cunning daughter I've raised… Alright!"

Ryo, Valentia, Aarae, Ailine, and Vudia came outside of potable house not long after, as they began to beg me for breakfast. Receiving some help from my daughters, I prepared a delicious breakfast, consisting mostly of pancakes and fruit jam, there was also milk, cheese, and pork, alongside butter and recently baked bread. There was tea for those who preferred it.

In the middle of our breakfast, the rest of my wives started to wake up, alongside the Fire Onis, who has been accompanying us since I saved them, ordering them to cook something was impossible as they barely know how to roast meat. Or pound seeds to make a paste.

There was still a big piece of the Boss from yesterday, but now after taking with Jormungandr himself, it felt a little bit weird to eat the descendant that a Demi-God treasured so much… Nonetheless, the rest of my family roasted and ate it happily. Afterward, the Boss spawned once again, it took around fifteen to seventeen hours to appear once again.

While everyone was having breakfast, I used this opportunity to speak about last night's dream and Jormungandr, some of my wives were shocked by how a Demi-God would directly speak to me like that, and some feared the demise of my life if I were insolent.

"Honey, you should have never talked with a Demi-God like that! Even if it couldn't hurt you directly, it could have still messed up with your mind somehow, making you go insane!" (Zehe)

"You were too reckless; how can it be…? Gods…" (Nanako)

"Master Kireina, is that true? To think that you talked and even negotiated with a Demi-God…" (Altani)

"To be expected from my wonderful Master~! Fufufufu~!" (Alice)

"Eeeh? I think that the Master was pretty cool, she did what I would have done! A Demi-God or not, no one should dare speak like that to Master, fufufu~" (Nesiphae)

"Indeed… Master did well, in the end, due to her retaliation, the Demi-God became less aggressive, and they managed to come out with a negotiation…" (Nixephine)

"Guu! Masta, did you make friends with a Demi-God?!" (Rimuru)

"Big sis… Was very cool…" (Brontes)

"Gods, my wife, what would have happened if that Demi-God was not able to see through your lies or truth, it would have thought that you were lying immediately, even if what you said was the truth!" (Adelle)

"Heh, I think she was cool though, don't be so stiff, Adelle chan" (Gaby)

"Fufufu… That was very dangerous~ Master is a brave woman~" (Mady)

"I think that it was pretty scary… Master should have been a little bit more considerate… Now, what will we do with the Snake in the next room, is it okay to kill it again if it's going to appear once again anyways?" (Ismene)

"Hm, indeed it was a reckless move, but it ended up benefiting master anyways, that's what matters. And about the snake, we should kill it again, if it revives again anyways, what so bad about it? We can harvest some good materials out of it as well" (Acelina)

"I-I don't know what to say… I wouldn't dare defy my Lady Kireina's will, it would be rude…" (Kaguya)

"Master, will you refine the snake-like you did with me?" (Nixephine)

"Sigh… I don't think so, I will first conquer this Dungeon, and free her, I won't bother on refining such a crazed beast, it is clearly insane. Unlike you, Nixephine, this snake grew insane already, and only wishes for the death of everything"

"I guess you got a point…" (Nixephine)

Seeing the opportunity to kill the boss again, my children's eyes shined brightly.

"So, we can hunt her? Mommy, I want to level up!" (Ailine)

"Aah~! Vudia wants to gain levels too" (Vudia)

"Alright, now that you killed her yesterday, I was a little bit annoyed, but if I can test my skills on the big snake, I would gladly do so" (Ryo)

"Let's smash her up! It doesn't matter, right? She can just resurrect later on~" (Valentia)

"Hmm, I feel a little bit bad about killing her again if her circumstances are as mother said… But if its to become stronger, I hope she can forgive me…" (Aarae)

"That's the spirit, little brother! Don't worry, Sister Amiphossia will have all of your backs covered!" (Amiphossia)

Hm, it seems that everyone is on high spirits over killing the Basilisk again, hopefully, Jormungandr can understand, and if he doesn't, I don't really care, she will reappear again anyways.

After breakfast and some small sparring between my wives and children, we went to take on the snake again and proceed to floor 89. The Basilisk was as berserk and insane as I remember her. Her angry and crazy voice, and her hissing, it was very irritating. I told my family her weak points as they all ganged up on her from various directions, although there were some instances where they had some hardships, they overcame her without many issues, probably because of the amazingly big group of strong combatants that is my family, the Fire Onis didn't do much, though, but still gained some shared EXP from the battle. I also participated and added some damage, so I got the full EXP like everyone else except the Onis.

[Calculating EXP gained…]

[Kireina] gained 650.000.000 EXP]

[Kireina] gained one level!]

[LEVEL 048/250 EXP 0.481.521.091/3.000.000.000 EXP]

As I glanced at the defeated corpse of the Basilisk and Jormungandr descendant, I gave it an apology.

"Sorry about that, don't worry, your grandpa convinced me to help you out, you will be freed from this hell in the next couple of days"

"…"

Of course, there wasn't any response, it's just a corpse now. But it perhaps heard me through the Dungeon walls or something? Hopefully.

My family snacked on around half of the monster, Amiphossia benefited a lot from this Boss's meat, although it wasn't a Phantom or Ghost, its flesh was that of an ancient lineage of snakes and its venom had a high affinity with her. She ate its venom and fangs, alongside its heart. Afterward, her Flesh, Bones, and Blood evolved to the next stage, becoming [Venomous Phantom Basilisk's Physique].

Nesiphae also ate a lot, even its venom, in high quantities, she liked it and said it tasted like a very bitter wine, however, she did not gain any new strength from it outside of the small Skills obtained from my shared [Devour] inside of my Blessing, which was still rather useful.

Oh, because I already defeated her, she dropped more items than usual, the Basilisk dropped her whole equipment set, which was all of [Mythical+] quality, it seemed to be a very light armor set made from its scales, and it came with a pair of long daggers coated on its petrifying poison, alongside magic-resistant accessories.

Killing her yesterday didn't give away any set of equipment, but just the usual pouch of different minerals and gemstones, and countless potions and lesser equipment from other sets. The whole set resonated with Amiphossia, due to the strong Poison affinity. But she ended up gifting it to her mother Nesiphae, which she received with great surprise. She then ate the whole set of armor.

Eating such a powerful set of equipment upgraded her [Organic Armor] that she gained after evolving, it had a powerful dark green luster now, with the decoration of the Basilisk's heads on her helmet and shoulder. The two large daggers were also eaten, she now can materialize these daggers as phantoms, the effects and their strengths remain, giving Nesiphae a new set of tricks for her to use in battle, although I doubt that she will let go of her trusty Axe in exchange for becoming a long-ranged fighter.

Before continuing with the exploration, I glanced at my Tattoo on my right hand, and then inspected my Skills, the Jormungandr Lineage seemed to have upgraded, giving me new effects.

The new effects were an increase on my gained stats in Strength and Speed by 10% and +20 to all my stats. It's not bad at all, I thanked my new ally as I gave him a small prayer, perhaps because he's a demi-god, he will receive my thanks like this, it would be rather hilarious though.

As we explored the floors 89 up to 91, the eerie feeling from previous floors only amplified themselves, however, Undead on these floors wasn't the same from before, there was an incredible diversification of monsters now, most of them being Undead, Phantom, Ghosts and what were called "Yokai".

First of all, ghosts have evolved into a Rank 4, becoming humanoids, now they had the slight features of humans in constant despair. There were Hell Ghosts, Corrosion Ghosts, and Artic Ghosts. These beings held way more power than the previous evolutions, and went by big groups, working together as a team, nonetheless, our attacks were able to hit them as long as they were enhanced with elemental magic. Making them dissipate into nothingness after their HP bar hit zero.

There were also strange monsters that started to appear, classified as "Yokai" by Geraldine, these were a strange type of species of Undead and Ghost monsters, similar to Yuki-onna. There were massive wheels made of a charcoal-like wood named Wa Nyudo, the wheels were in flames and had angry demonic faces in the middle of their wheel bodies. As they ran through the floor, the released powerful Phantasmal Red Flames, that could easily melt souls. The biggest ones towered over ten meters tall and wide.

These monsters had amazing speed and could run rampant through everywhere, however, they were weak to Ice and Water, Aarae and Gaby blasted them away with ease. Their wheels were not really edible, but I ate them anyway, the demon face had tender meat, with an intense salty flavor.

There were colossal walls of flesh moving around slowly, named Nurikabe, their bodies held an incredible density of flesh and muscles, their skin was as hard as steel as well, and their bones incredibly sturdy. To attack, they would trap their victims into thinking that they were normal walls, then launching over them, crushing them, and eating them with their giant gaping mouths. I saw how these ate plenty of young Wa Nyudo and Karakasa Kozo, which are giant umbrellas with tongues that jump around, they're rather dumb, so they served as snacks for these monsters.

Although strong, they held no speed and could only tank hits, strong enough magic made holes through their bodies, and after some more attacks, they would die. I was able to chop them into pieces with my swords without any trouble. They were tricky monsters for inexperienced adventurers, but whenever they were spotted, they could be easily killed. Their meat was very fatty, tasting like pork.

Karakasa Kozo were giant jumping umbrellas, they had a big eye on the middle of their bodies, and a long and sticky tongue which they used to attack and eat prey. They held a strong attack but their bodies were rather weak, resulting in them dying very easily to almost anything. Their tongues and eyes were the only "edible" things in them, the tongues were indeed full of muscle, and were very thoughtful, but if grilled enough, those tongues would become an exquisite delicacy.

Through these three floors, the quantities of Ghosts and Undead increased, swarming us from all sides, ending up in big feasts and incredible amounts of EXP. However, these three floors' quantity of monsters wasn't as absurd as when we were ambushed by those Three-Headed Dinosaur Skeletons. The Dungeon seems to have been losing the intent of killing us, or it's just planning something else on the next floors.

[Calculating EXP gained…]

[Kireina] gained 831.290.530 EXP]

[LEVEL 048/250 EXP 1.312.811.621/3.000.000.000 EXP]

[Kireina] learned the following Skills]

[Phantasmagoric Conjure; Spectral Blazing Wheels]

[Meat Wall]

[Phantom Limb; Playful Sticky Tongue]

Hm? Floor 92 seems to be clustered with Yokai… What is it now?

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