Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-268

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As the Boss died, I absorbed my armor, going back to my original fairy form, as I started to inspect the entire room. Seemingly there were only bricks… bricks… oh? There it is.

A small brick shined in a strange, phantasmagoric way, inspecting it further with my [Mystic Eyes] and Aura Senses, I found that those were Geraldine Remains. Bellow the floor bricks, there was a small pile of shattered bones. They were so broken apart that they had the size of a small seed.

By using [Dungeon Assimilation], I moved the bricks without the Dungeon opposition, and crabbed the pile of bones with magic, creating a small bubble containing the remains of Geraldine.

"Now, what should I do with this…? Should I really… Destroy it?"

Geraldine was the one who asked for her remains to be destroyed so her "curse" could be lifted and she could escape the dungeon and go out with Amiphossia, but I'm sure that there could be another way. Destroying her remains would probably break her connections not only with the Dungeon but with this plane of existence.

It would be more beneficial if she assimilated or ate her own remains, by doing this, she could strengthen her psyche and Ghost Core, and possibly evolve into a Rank 5 Ghost.

When my family entered the room and were amazed by the colossal corpse of the boss, Amiphossia and Geraldine rushed towards me.

"Mommy, are those Geraldine's remains? They're just a very shattered pile of bones…"

"What did you expect, my daughter? They have been lying around for over three hundred years, of course, they will be bones, and even the bones shattered into little pieces"

"Aah! My remains… So, that's me? Ugh… I'm really dead…" (Geraldine)

"As if being Ghost wasn't enough of a confirmation… Anyways, Geraldine, do you really want to destroy these remains? I've read that in fact, destroying the remains of a ghost will end up severing its connection to the mortal plane, so you would end up dying, even as a ghost"

"Eeeehh? Really…? But I thought that by doing that, I could be free from this Dungeon and go with Lady Amiphossia to whenever we wanted…"

"Is this true, mommy?"

"Yes, instead of destroying them, I have a better idea… Two ideas one is to create a duplicate body with these remains and make Geraldine possess it like a zombie, the other would be to make Geraldine eat them, this could potentially both break the curse and make her evolve"

Amiphossia seemed to be fine with either way, but Geraldine contemplated the decision a lot. If she could rank up as a ghost, she would get stronger, but what about her memories? Being a zombie would grant her a brain so she could store her mind inside and easily sort her memories with ease.

"Can you really replicate my older appearance, Kireina?"

"I can't"

"Geeh… Then will I look like an ugly zombie?!"

"No, I will just make it resemble your ghost appearance"

"Mommy, can you even do such a thing?!" Asked Amiphossia, perplexed by my confidence over such an arduous task as to recreate a body.

"Yes, but we need a lot of meat, thankfully, we got that big boss waiting to be butchered, let's use him"

Creating a zombie body from just some bones was a rather simple Ritual Magic that I learned from Redgaria. In reality, we have already done it with Herbell when we made him a new body, it's just another way of summoning an Undead, however, this Undead wouldn't have a small synthetic soul, it would be like an empty husk. Molding her appearance shall be easy as long as I can picture her in my mind, and her ghost figure is clear enough to be easily remembered.

Amiphossia and the rest of my family quickly gathered a lot of meat from the Kasha boss, around eighty kilos was enough, this meat would end up becoming the zombie's flesh, organs, blood vessels, and more.

However, blood and some bones were still needed to fill up some loopholes. We added more of the Kasha's bones, some of the bones of Nekomatas were added as well.

Afterward, we needed around 4500 to 5700 ml of blood, the blood inside of the Kasha meat was strong enough, and had a lot of magic, we also added the blood of high-level Nekomata corpses, and some of Amiphossia's blood was also added after she insisted a lot.

After mixing all of the things up in a pile of minced meat, blood, and bones. I added a few enhancements to make the flesh, bones, and blood remain preserved. Afterward, I decided to add on some Ice Spirit Stones to reinforce the new body magic power and affinity to Ice, which was Geraldine's Primary Attribute.

By forming a magic circle using the Kasha, Nekomata, and Amiphossia's blood, I recited the small chant needed to create the zombie body. While having a clear image of Geraldine's beautiful body and appearance, the meat, bones, and blood shined brightly. There was also some fur and skin of the Kasha, needed to recreate the skin and hair.

Flash!

All of the pieces, alongside Geraldine's, remain combined, slowly molding themselves to the image I had on my head… Concentrating my intent to not think anything else, after half a minute, the body was done, a massive amount of mist was released as the beautiful body of a maiden in her twenties was revealed.

She had a petite yet firm body, beautiful and fine breast, wide hips, fair pale white skin, red eyes, cat ears, a cattail… Wait, cat ears and tail?!

Amiphossia was surprised and amazed at first, but after seeing the adorable, cat-like features on Geraldine's new body, she was slightly angered, thinking that I imagined her that way due to my own kinks.

"Mom, why did you make her a cat girl?!"

"It wasn't me! It must be because we used a ton of cat meat…! Remember, the Kasha and Nekomatas are Feline Monsters after all!"

"Agh…! T-That's true…"

The thing is that we couldn't just try again, we already used Geraldine remains in making this zombie body…

However, Geraldine didn't seem annoyed by this.

"Aah~ Is that me? I'm so cute! Look at those cute fluffy cat ears, and that tail~! Oh! I got some strange tattoos on my arms and legs, but it looks pretty nice~ I always liked cats when I was alive"

"I'm glad you like it…" (Kireina)

"Y-You don't mind?" (Amiphossia)

"Not at all! Can I possess it? Hmm… How do I possess a body?"

After Amiphossia taught Geraldine how to possess a physical body, the ghost girl promptly unified herself with her new zombie body. Most of her Ghost powers remained, but she also gained new strength by fusing herself with the corpse that was made with her remains, a strange connection between them was made and Geraldine's new body went through a small evolution.

"Ooh~ It feels so nice to evolve in a physical body! Aaah~!"

Flash!

Geraldine's new body flashed in bright light as her body went through small physical changes. However, the real changes were on Geraldine's ghost body, which slowly merged itself with the corpse, becoming a single entity.

Geraldine's white hair, cat ears, and tail gained small orange tattoos, that resembled flames, very similar to Kashas… She also gained a small moon-shaped gemstone in the middle of her chest. Her scarlet eyes gained aquamarine colors, combining both red and blue, she had a nice and adorable feline charm.

"Nya! Hehehe, I always wanted to say that!"

"Uaah… Geraldine, you are so cute! Let me squeeze you!"

Amiphossia grabbed Geraldine with her hands as she hugged her new body and rubbed her giant face with Geraldine's small face.

"Nyah! Lady Amiphossia, you are too big, please don't squeeze me, I have bones now!"

"Ah! S-Sorry…!"

Could this be, a new species? But how… Did Amiphossia's blood affect her evolution somehow? But she doesn't have a single lamia trait in her, she must have taken on the capabilities of Amiphossia to merge her soul and flesh instead. My split minds worked faster than me, immediately checking Geraldine with [Appraisal].

[NAME: Geraldine Fairisles

[CLASS: Novice Ice and Fire Witch (New Class!)

[RACE: Phantasmal Winter Flames Cat Zombie (New Species!)

[LEVEL: 001/150

[STATUS: Undead (Fine)

[HP: 220/220

[MP: 735/735

[STAMINA: 190/190

[STRENGTH: 320

[DEFENCE: 120

[MAGIC: 430

[RESISTANCE: 210

[SPEED: 310

[CHARISMA: 200

[LUCK: 0

[Skills]

[Phantasmagoric Flesh and Bones; Level 3] (New!)

[Enhanced Feline Senses; Level 1] (New!)

[Superhuman Strength; Level 2] (New!)

[Superhuman Flexibility and Speed; Level 1] (New!)

[Fast Self-Regeneration; Level 2] (New!)

[Phantom Form Transformation; Level 4]

[Phantom Assimilation; Level 3]

[Lesser Magic Resistance; Level 2]

[Status Effect Resistance; Level 1] (New!)

[Magic Affinity; Level 3]

[Blazing Ice Claws; Level 1] (New!)

[Fiery Ice Fangs; Level 1] (New!)

[Ice Attribute Magic; Level 5]

[Fire Attribute Magic; Level 2] (New!)

[Title]

[First of a Kind] (New!)

She even inherited some of the Kasha skills?! But they were reset back at level 1, oh, and she has Superhuman Strength and other amazing skills that only highly evolved beings can obtain and her MP is also ridiculously high. She has a very nice head start it seem, although she may be a little bit weaker than her Rank 4 Winter Ghost form, she has the potential to grow even stronger now.

I wonder if Redgaria wants to do something similar to this to his little sister, bringing her back as a very strong new species. Hm, this also helped me practice the creation of bodies through the Ritual Magic, so it was worth it, Amiphossia seems also happy, and Geraldine ended up having a weird fixation with cats that I did not know. Did she always want to be a catgirl?

Geraldine suddenly started to float around, despite having a physical body and lacking an ability like [Levitate]. She was able to do this by using the skill [Phantom Form Transformation], changing the structure of her physical body into that of a ghost or phantom, naturally gaining the ability to float.

She was also able to become a phantom completely and enter Amiphossia's soul through this form, so it didn't really change much in that regard. She was already accustomed to floating like a ghost, so she had her Phantom Transformation Skill always active.

However, she did no possess the Skill [Organic Armor Materialization], so I gave her some equipment that I obtained after killing so many Kasha in previous floors, it was a beautiful shrine maiden-like kimono, it was pure white with orange and red flames paints as decorations, the whole set included white stockings, sandals, necklace, rings and a small ribbon that she put over her head, with her cute cat ears twitching every time she talked with Amiphossia, she seemed incredibly adorable.

Hmm, she's my daughter's servant, and perhaps as developed feelings for her, so I don't want to steal her from my daughter. I will probably seek a cute catgirl at some point, I must contain myself.

As Amiphossia petted and played around with her friend, I helped out my wives and children in the work of butchering the massive Kasha corpse. With the help of my Slime Clones, everything was easily done after half an hour.

The delicious, red meat of the Kasha Overlord was overwhelming fresh and tender, a juicy bloody flavor filled my mouth each time I munched on the raw meat. However, I knew that it would possibly become even tastier after being carefully cooked with spices, vegetables, and sauces.

Because the meat itself had Fire Immunity, grilling it was impossible. However, with the Skill [Heat Manipulation], I was able to increase the heat of the meat itself, practically grilling it without fire, adding some sauce and spices, the meat was done, overflowing with juices, it went very well coupled with boiled Forest Grains and vegetables. Even the bones were tasty and made a delicious broth, while its head was filled with nutrients.

[Kireina] learned the following Skills]

[Heavenly Flames Aura Domain]

[Familiar Summoning Magic; Giant Wa Nyudo Guards]

[Kasha's Overlord Berserk Fiery Fangs]

[Kasha's Overlord Fiery Phantom Transformation]

Assimilating this Kasha didn't net any Skills, neither drinking its blood, the Kasha that gives me all of that seemed to have born through sexual reproduction, while this Kasha was born from the Dungeon itself. Anyways, four Skills were incredibly nice, showing the amazing strength of this Boss.

Interestingly enough, I gained a Skill similar to Phantom Transformation that Geraldine obtained after merging with her new body…

Tonight's feast lasted up until very late, with only ten floors left before the last Boss, I couldn't sleep very well with so much excitement. How will this last Boss taste like?

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[Bestiary]

Phantasmal Winter Flames Cat Zombie:

A new race of Undead created by Kireina by using a ritual to create a humanoid-shaped body with the flesh, bones, and blood of the Grand Kasha Overlord Boss and Nekomata monsters alongside the remains of Geraldine's body.

The race was born not when Kireina created the body itself, but when Geraldine merged her Winter Ghost psyche with the physical body. She was able to merge herself with the soulless corpse due to it having a high affinity with her, thanks to being made with her remains.

This race of Undead exhibit the ability to transform part of their bodies into a phantom, alongside a masterful and natural talent for Ice and Fire Magic.

Geraldine's personality changed a little bit after obtaining a brain, alongside this, it was merged with the Nekomata and Kasha natural feline instincts, giving her a cat-like personality. Geraldine also confirms that she always liked cats, so she is fine with this.

This new race is cataloged as a "living" Undead, capable of having children, blood flow, and a beating heart. These Undead have superhuman strength, higher senses, and powerful magic, being naturally incredibly strong since they are born. They can make children with several other mammals, like Humans, Elves, Goblin, Trolls, etc.

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