Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-280

Ana noticed how Tanya took all of my attention while massaging my stiff shoulders and back, yelling once again, and bringing back the topic she was talking about before.

"Isaac! Why are you just relaxing?!"

"Ana, relax already! I can't do anything, neither can you… We have been dragged here against our wills, but they aren't exactly torturing us, they intend to assure our victory in the "predestined fight" that these people love to talk so much about. And to that, we must become stronger, even faster than before… Ana, don't be stupid and get your shit together"

"I-Isaac…! I… Sorry… I'm being too stupid once again, I get… carried away"

"Sigh… You really do, you should stop insulting the people here, they are powerful and rich, even with our strength, those two brothers would demolish us into minced meat if they needed to, without hesitation… However, they want us alive, or at least, me… And we need to abuse that intention to ensure our safety… Endure the harsh training, with that, you will be able to grow stronger and one day, we may stop being dependent on them, and be strong enough to not be restricted by those above us…"

Ana seemed a little bit saddened by my reprimanding, but she tightened her thighs as she looked at me with an angry yet understanding expression.

"Alright… I get it… I will work hard for it, you don't have to worry, Isaac. Count on me"

"I'm glad you understand… Ugh… My shoulders are melting…"

Tanya then released a cute chuckle.

"Hehe~ It is my new massage technique! I'm glad Isaac sama is enjoying it! I made it especially for Isaac sama!"

"I-I see… I appreciate your efforts, Tanya, thanks"

Although Ana understood what I told to her, she was still mildly jealous of Tanya.

"H-Hey Tanya, I also want to massage Isaac! Let me do it now!"

"Eeeehh? But Isaac sama prefers MY massages! Right, Isaac sama?"

"Y-Yeah…"

Boom!

Ana suddenly hit the table with rage.

"What did you say?! Isaac, take that back! My massages are good, right?!"

"Ana, calm down! You're starting once again with your anger issues…!"

"T-Take that back…!"

"Sigh…"

As I tried to calm down Ana while Tanya keeps provoking her, the three guys, Ray, Sagrid, and Sate laughed together, while eating the food that was already being served by the maids in the manor.

Ray, Sagrid, and Sate are the other three in the group of my comrades. Ray is the strongest male, having a sturdy physique after leveling and training his muscles diligently. I think that wielding an Axe toned his muscles, especially his arms and shoulders, vigorously bulging with strength. Due to my Title and Skills effects, he matured incredibly quickly, attaining the appearance of a 20's years old young man, despite being 14.

The amazing growth and maturity boost caused by my abilities as compared to the ability of demi-humans to mature incredibly quickly, becoming full-on adults in the spawn of a year. Ray has brown skin, filled with small scars from all the fights he had when he fought for his life when he was an orphan child in Athetosea and short black hair, with brown eyes. He has a youthful and handsome face, according to what I've heard from the maids, they also admire his muscles. I also want muscles, but they seem to only grow into thin and flexible ones, not the bulging bull-like ones of Ray. His Class was always [Axe Warrior], and after training and leveling here, he became a [Starlight Axe Paladin].

Sagrid is one of the strongest orphans, after proving his worth to me, I added him to my main group. He's quite old compared to the rest, being 16 years old. According to his memories, he was once the son of a noble, that was betrayed by its wife and killed in a settled assassination. He managed to run with his life, and even his mother did not care about him, only wanting the riches inherited by his father.

Since then, he survived as he could, he wasn't accepted by the older kids because he didn't like to toy with the kids or order them around, doing everything independently. However, he was strong enough for them to not mess around with him. After I killed the older kids and began to take care of everyone, he approached me and became my "guard", for some reason, he developed the necessity to protect me, more than Ana and Ray.

Sagrid has long black hair, which was a mess before properly taking a bath, and now he wields it as a ponytail, his black hair is shiny and silky, like that of a woman. His skin is pale white, and quite smooth, while his eyes are black as the night, he developed a slim and flexible body, and obtained the Classes [Thief], [Spy] and so on. His right eye has a scar, so he's unable to see through it, and it turned into gray colored. He usually has it closed, but he can open it, although it doesn't have any utility. He is praised for his handsomeness, but he doesn't care about women, and only interacts with our group.

After training diligently, Sagrid obtained the Class [Eclipse Light Ninja]. His weapons of choice are shortswords or throwing daggers and he has some affinity with Dark Attribute Magic.

He's sometimes oddly close to me, and glances at me with affectionate eyes, although it's strange, I appreciate his help and companionship.

Last but not least, Sate is the youngest male, he's only 11 years old, and even after the boost of maturity on his body through my abilities, he only resembles a 15's year old boy. However, despite this, he's incredibly intelligent and rather cunning. He has a malicious nature as well, and when he was an orphan, he manipulated younger kids to take beatings instead of him by the big kids. After I took care of everyone, he naturally approached me, with his intelligence and cunningness, he detected the kids that wanted to backstab me, and did other helpful things, like managing paperwork for the guild and such.

Sate origins are unclear, but he likes to say that he was raised by goblins until they couldn't take care of him and throw him to Orange town. What the goblins did to him is unclear, but they seem to have raised him with decent care, even when he aged incredibly slow compared to them.

A Mage Goblin raised him and was like his parent, with strict regimes, he trained him in magic from the early age of 4 years old, due to this, he had an abnormally high Magic, MP and Resistance stat. He learned little magic, but after training at my side, he was able to develop it incredibly well. His appearance is rather cute, but when he does his "cunning" grin, its rather terrifying, I suspect that he also has sadistic tendencies. His hair is dark, his eyes are aquamarine, and his skin pale white, like a vampire.

According to him, the Mage Goblin taught him how to be cunning and plan, setting others on his place, and also how to manipulate the naïve. Did he manipulate me to join my party? Perhaps.

Sate is a talented Shaman, and he practices the dark arts. A strange series of spells that encompasses various magic Attributes like Soul, Blood, Dark, Shadow, Illusion, Dream, etc. He has learned various Illusion spells, alongside very useful curses and buffs. He can also summon Dark and Shadow Familiars to aid us in battle, after two weeks of training in here, Sate obtained the Class [Shadow Star Shaman].

And that's about introductions and how much they have grown since they were orphans… And now, I have to calm down Ana, while Tanya keeps teasing her… Can you guys help me out?

I glanced at the laughing trio, all of them ignored me, but Sagrid gave me a gentle smile… Why are you smiling at me?! Help me out!

"Isaac…! What are you looking at…? Hey! Tanya keeps saying things about my massages being too rough… Tell her that it's not true!"

"Ana, calm down already… You're getting on my nerves, alright, give me massage…"

"Eeeh? B-But Isaac sama! I can still keep giving you the massages you love!" said Tanya, with a sad yet manipulative look.

"Tanya, move aside and let Ana do it"

"Booh! Alright… But don't come at me crying when your shoulders are all stiff again…"

"Hehehe! Leave it to me, Isaac!"

Ana came rushing towards my back, with an almost voracious look on her face as her delicate yet firm fingers moved maliciously.

Crack! Crack!

Indeed, Ana's massages are horrible, she overuses her strength and makes my bones crack in pain…

"Yep, they're horrible massages…"

"Aaah! H-How can you say that, Isaac?!"

Crack! Crack!

"S-Stop already…!"

After spending some days training some more, time flew… And now, we have gathered once more as a party, to complete the C Rank Dungeon, Holy Garden. It is said that this Dungeon was made by the God of Fruitful Nature, who is a subordinate God of the Supreme Goddess of Life and Origin.

This Dungeon was constructed exclusively for Helgen's population to grow stronger and gather useful materials through it. Monsters here spawn frequently and there are only five Bosses, one every five floors, having 25 floors in total. It is a beginner dungeon.

Everyone was packing new equipment and weapons given to us by the Helgen Kingdom itself. Ariel and Bernard were guarding the Dungeon entrance, and the Dungeon was reserved for us to explore.

"Good luck~ It shouldn't take so long, do your best!" (Ariel)

"May the Supreme Goddess of Fate protect your lives, heroes" (Bernard)

"Y-Yeah… Thanks… Alright, let's go, guys"

What protection is this guy talking about?! This is a super easy dungeon…

Our group would be led by me, with Ray at my side, while Sagrid will be at our backs, Tanya and Sate will be in the rearguard, with Ana changing between rearguard and front guard whenever it was needed. She is quite experienced with shortswords as well, so she can switch whenever it is needed.

The Dungeon had beautiful white bricks, where different plants grew from. The Dungeon was beautifully decorated with countless colorful flowers, filling the air with an intoxicating sweet scent. The first monsters we encountered was a group of Walking Venomous Flowers. As its name states, they are big, half a meter-tall flowers with gaping mouths on their heads, in the middle of their petals, and they have two small legs made of their roots. They were slow but can confuse others with their pollen, nonetheless, we were too strong, so they were slashed into pieces and then burned by Tanya's fire.

As we proceeded, we encountered a small room with a chest, which contained a small Potion, rather disappointing. However, the moment we tried to grab the potion, the chest came to life and tried to chop my arm off. Swiftly using my abilities, I dodged in time, the chest then detected our presence and became wary, sudden roots from the sides of the walls appeared as they began to spin around like spears, trying to impale us alive.

"A Wood Mimic! It can control the Nature Attribute, and can even summon Walking Flowers if we take too long, better get rid of it beforehand!" Yelled Sate as he rushed to the backlines while casting small curses over the Mimic's roots, slowing its movements.

Afterward, Tanya used her Fire magic to burn the Mimic. However, its chest body seemed to have [Fire Resistance], living most of her hits. Afterward, it tried once again to impale us with its wood spears, but Ray came from its side and with his massive ax, he sliced the thing in half.

Surprisingly, it was still alive even after being sliced in half, but I used my Starlight Attribute Magic to create a small ray of starlight, vaporizing it from the inside. The roots trying to kill us suddenly stopped attacking us, lying motionless…

"H-Hey, is this really a low-level Dungeon? That was fairly hard!" said Ray, while resting his ax, he was being attacked the most from the roots and was still trying to take some that had wrapped around his legs, he received minor injuries, which were quickly healed by Tanya.

"Perhaps I was being too hasty with my judgment…? Anyways, let's be warier next time"

The team nodded as they rested for a minute, and then we proceeded through the dungeon, we came across another group of Walking Flowers, and then a group of Carnivorous Giant Raflesias, an evolved form of Walking Flowers, with giant mouths filled with sharp fangs, and long sticky tongues, exuding deadly toxins. They also had vine tentacles and were rather dangerous. As we were warier this time, our teamwork made quick work of it.

Working together with Tanya, we roasted the thing's tentacles, for Ray and Sagrid to slash its head, while Ana shoots it with powerful Wind Arrows and Sate cursed its movements and magic resistance, which was rather high.

After defeating it, we thought that we could finally rest, however, two more Raflesisas emerged from the other corridors. They probably heard the sound of the fight and decided to ambush us while we were tired.

Suddenly a third Rafflesia emerged from the ceiling, it was camouflaging itself with the skill [Stealth]! I was being too careless…!

"Gyyyaah!"

Tanya was taken by the Rafflesia in the ceiling with one of its vine tentacles, dangling her around like a toy. Without being able to concentrate, she was not able to conjure her magic, being defenseless.

"Tanya!"

"Isaac sama, p-please help me…! Gyaah! It's going to eat me…! I don't want to die!"

I released my dormant Aura as I enhanced my senses and jumped with a superhuman strength towards the Rafflesia in the ceiling, raising my blade, I released a powerful slash of Starlight Magic.

Slash!

"Hiiiisssssssss!"

Receiving the strong attack, the Rafflesia let go of Tanya as she fell to the ground, thankfully, she was caught by Ray. Because I jumped too high, I fell to the ground ungracefully, hitting my hard head. The Rafflesia corpse then fell over my body…

"This Dungeon was more than I expected…"

Releasing my Aura, its power boosted my allies, increasing the physical and magical powers, with this newfound strength, we managed to repel the two other Rafflesia, while letting Tanya rest for a little.

"I'm sorry Tanya… I was being too careless…"

"Ah… Don't worry, Isaac sama! You saved me like a true hero! It was almost magical~! Kyaa~"

Ray then laughed.

"Haha, but I was the one who caught you! I am a hero too?"

"Hm, and he also fell to the ground very ungracefully for a Hero!" said Sate, with a teasing smile.

"Booh! It doesn't matter, Isaac sama is a Hero, no matter how ungracefully he saved my life, he still saved it!" said Tanya, while pouting adorably.

"Still, sorry, I need to get my shit together as well… I count on you guys to cover my back…"

"Sure!" (Ana)

"Leave it to me" (Ray)

"Hm, don't worry, Isaac, I'm with you" (Sagrid)

"What a hopeless Hero you are… Alright, I'll have to babysit you some more" (Sate)

"Of course, Isaac sama, you can always count on my Fire magic and Healing magic!" (Tanya)

I'm very lucky to have such reliable people at my side… I need to take things more seriously…

[You reached level 63!]

[The Skill [Dazzling Starlight Aura; Level 3] gained one level!] [Current Level; 4]

[The Skill [Superhuman Strength; Level 1] gained one level!] [Current Level; 2]

[The Skill [Starlight Sword Techniques; Level 3] gained one level!] [Current Level; 4]

[NAME: Isaac Gervis

[CLASS: Dazzling Starlight Paladin

[RACE: Human

[LEVEL: 63/999

[STATUS: Tired, Determined.

[HP: 286/286

[MP: 82/82

[STAMINA: 120/120

[STRENGTH: 218

[DEFENCE: 170

[MAGIC: 163

[RESISTANCE: 90

[SPEED: 116

[CHARISMA: 100

[LUCK: 30

[Skills]

[Legendary Epic of Isaac Gervis: The Star Juggernaut Hero (Unsealed)]

[Supreme God of Star's Ocean Divine Protection (Unsealed)]

[Blessing of the Supreme God of Star Ocean (Unsealed)]

[Lesser Pain Reduction; Level 4]

[Lesser Hardened Skin; Level 3]

[Lesser Enhanced Leg Strength; Level 4]

[Lesser Stamina Consumption Reduction; Level 6]

[Lesser Enhanced Thievery; Level 5]

[Lesser Hiding; Level 4]

[Sneak; Level 3]

[Lesser Pain Resistance; Level 4]

[Lesser Bleeding Reduction; Level 3]

[Lesser Hardened Muscles; Level 3]

[Sturdy Bones; Level 4]

[Knife Technique; Level 2]

[Lesser Increased Slashing Power; Level 6]

[Lesser Assassination; Level 5]

[Deviant Life Perception; Level 3]

[Magic Affinity; Level 3]

[Heavenly Starlight Attribute Magic; Level 3 ([Star Ocean's Ray], [Starlight Magic Coating], [Recovering Star Light], [Starlight Coating].)]

[Scavenge; Level 2]

[Butcher; Level 3]

[Crafting; Level 4]

[The Star Juggernaut Divine Talent; Level 2]

[Apostle of the Sea of Stars; Level 1]

[Advanced Environment Perception; Level 2]

[Awakened Legendary Hero Bloodline; Level 1]

[Dazzling Starlight Aura; Level 4]

[Star Ocean's Physique; Level 2]

[Superhuman Strength; Level 2]

[Starlight Sword Techniques; Level 4]

[Titles]

[Orphan Child], [Survivalist], [Awakened Hero], [Supreme God Apostle]

[Bestiary]

[Walking Venomous Flowers], [Carnivorous Giant Raflesias];

As their name suggests, these beings are walking flowers, each one can reach up to two meters tall, but Isaac and his party only fought the small ones, that recently spawned in the Dungeon. These monsters were created by the God of Fruitful Nature to put on a small threat in the dungeon. These monsters are often considered the weakest amongst plant-type monsters, being compared to goblins. But just like goblins, they can grow stronger and even evolve, quickly becoming threats that cannot be held by simple and inexperienced adventurers.

If they manage to evolve into Raflesias, their strength will multiply by at least three times, they will gain vine tentacles and obtain bigger and bulkier bodies. Their tongues can secrete deadly toxins, that can paralyze, inflict bleeding, sleep, or even instant death, however, instant death is very rare, and they can usually just inflict the first two.

There is another dangerous variant of Raflesias, named Cemetery Raflesias, they smell like rotten corpses and can cause instant death with their toxins, these can only be handled by experienced or veteran adventurers, everyone else should escape from their presence before its too late…

Of course, the 'instant death' is no more than a toxin that paralyzes the entire body, even its internal organs, it doesn't reduce someone's HP to zero in an instant. Stronger monsters or adventurers that possess resistance to status effects are usually not affected by this 'instant death' and at most, it results in a slightly stronger paralysis.