Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-296

[Day 183]

Today in the morning I was greeted by the adorable face of Aarae, he was sleeping at my left side, his pale white cheeks were very adorable as he slumbered, so I played around with them, they were surprisingly squishy.

However, there were some changes to his physique…

Although he remained his adorable face and his small complexion, his physique seemed a little bit taller, his shark tail, in specific, grew quite large. It was now covered with sapphire-like scales and several magical runes engraved on his skin. He had a sharper shark fin on his back as well. And he had gained another jewel on his body, it was below his neck, over his chest.

Aarae evolved!

Before doing anything, I glanced around the room and found Valentia sleeping with Gaby, she had her mother between her large arms, as if her mother were her daughter instead.

Valentia's scarlet hair had changed a little bit, and half of it had become dark-colored… Her scarlet eyes also changed, as one became dark purple colored. Her skin was still the same, but her Monster Hand had appeared in her other hand. The dark scales extended around her arms; however, it still showed her pale white skin. Her shoulders were slightly covered by these scales, a little bit of her face and her ears.

Her Shark Tail, which was gigantic ad blue colored before, turned completely black, covered in dragon-like scales, of a similar type than her monster hand.

The shark twins finally evolved! They took way longer than Amiphossia and Ryo for some reason… Perhaps because they were born stronger?

Two of my children have evolved, and this called for a celebration. I swiftly called the maids to prepare a big feast, with various cakes and pastries included. Then, I woke up my family and we celebrated Valentia and Aarae's evolution with a giant feast, my two adorable children were a little bit flustered.

Aarae evolved into an Arcane Mershark Vampire Wizard, it was a simple name for his race, but it seemed to be a straight upgrade from his previous race which was Redhead Arcane Mershark Vampire. His appearance changed slightly on his human half, gaining a little bit more of musculature, but was still petite and cute.

He had a new orb on his chest that could summon a new Shark Familiar, it was a Giant White Shark Familiar this time, and both familiars got to know each other. They became friends very quickly and acted as if they were brothers from the beginning.

Aside from this, Aarae had various magical runes in the form of tattoos engraved on his entire body, from his human half to his shark half. He also suddenly learned various Vampire-related Skills, like Charming Demon Eyes, Hypnosis Magic, and Blood Control.

[NAME: Aarae Adamantine

[CLASS: [Magical Familiar Tamer]

[RACE: [Arcane Mershark Vampire Wizard]

[LEVEL: 001/350

[STATUS: Excellent.

[ITEM BOX: 193/250

[HP: 465/465 MP: 890/890

[STAMINA: 190/190

[STRENGTH: 410

[DEFENCE: 325

[MAGIC: 954

[RESISTANCE: 680

[SPEED: 625

[CHARISMA: 250

[LUCK: 25

Valentia on the other side went through more notable changes, perhaps due to the influence of her Monster Hand training, her body became partially covered in the Shadow Scales of the Monster Hand, and she gained another one in her free hand.

She seemed like the combination between a mershark and a Dragonoid. Half of her hair became pitch black, while the other half was scarlet red. Her right eye became a dark purple color as well. She didn't gain a new Orb, but the extension of her Monster Hand abilities was something similar.

My daughter's new race was named Shadow Titan Dracoshark Vampire Empress, and it seemed to be a brand-new species that has never been registered in the System before, unlike Aarae, who's species seemed to have existed in ancient times. This evolution came with a great boost in Valentia's Defenses, her skin was incredibly hard, rivaling [Mythic+++] armors.

[NAME: Valentia Adamantine

[CLASS: [Dark Fist Warrior]

[RACE: [Shadow Titan Dracoshark Vampire Empress]

[LEVEL: 001/350

[STATUS: Excellent.

[ITEM BOX: 072/250

[HP: 740/740 MP: 380/380

[STAMINA: 220/220

[STRENGTH: 736

[DEFENCE: 722

[MAGIC: 412

[RESISTANCE: 620

[SPEED: 520

[CHARISMA: 250

[LUCK: 25

After the celebration, I gifted my two children various accessories and equipment that I had stored in my Item Box, obtained from the drops in the Forsaken Labyrinth. They were quite overwhelmed by the quantity of the items, but in the mountain of treasures, they managed to find plenty of items that could adjust to their tastes and increase certain stats.

However, I still felt like I owed them something, just for being my children and how much happiness they have brought to my life... I then decided to craft each one a set of equipment, specially made for their specialties and body types. Well, I will most likely not start right now, but its already on my to-do list to craft unique equipment to all of my children and wives.

For the rest of the morning, I spent it with Nephiana and the Spirits, Smilkas, Ocypete, Nereid, and Kjata. It seems that because they are all my Summoned Spirits, they are working together as their own independent team. Of course, Nereid and Kjata are still friends with Meiji's Spirits, but those guys are always together on their own adventurers, currently teaming up with the Wyvern Family and exploring the Dungeon where the Wyvern Overlord was once sealed.

The eggs were doing well, their warmness would never fade away, and it seemed to be produced due to their great Magic Energy. If I put some intention into my eyes, I was able to see the small silhouettes of the chicks inside their eggs, their bodies were big enough for me to notice their genders. There were four females and three boys… Oh god, so many babies… I will probably die from so much adorableness whenever they hatch…

Aside from my children, Kenik, Nephiana's father evolved today, and because he's my father-in-law, I congratulated him and gifted him some equipment that I saw could fit him well.

Kenik doesn't have any special talents or blessings like his daughter, so his evolution was the normal evolution that Wind Harpies could achieve, a Windstorm Harpy Warrior. However, he evolved rather fast compared to others, and because he used to be the Harpy Chief, he had only registered two times where a warrior in their tribe even evolved. Evolution seemed extremely rare as well for these demi-humans. If demi-humans managed to evolve more commonly, perhaps humans would think it twice before trying to enslave them or straight up trying to kill them due to their religious beliefs.

After all, power is everything in here, and Humans, who can easily grow stronger through their unique and improved Class System can easily overpower small demi-human kingdoms and tribes. This would be different if these demi-humans were to evolve constantly, as each evolution always brings a huge power boost, giving the demi-humans the upper hand against humans to fight in even terms.

Perhaps the difficulty that demi-humans have to go through when trying to evolve is a way to "balance" them compared to humans, who grow so slowly compared to demi-humans. In a way, monsters and demi-humans can grow into adults fast, possess powerful skills from birth, and can evolve and boost their stats enormously.

Meanwhile, Humans grow slow, taking years to reach adulthood, but they are capable of leveling faster, learn skills faster, obtain better Classes and even evolve them faster and also obtain way more Stats Points when leveling up compared to Monsters and Demi-Humans.

In a way, both look seemingly balanced, but when you look back at how Humans outnumber demi-humans, it becomes clear where the tables are turning.

However, if a demi-human manages to evolve several times, their strength becomes overwhelming and most humans, even heroes will struggle against a demi-human on his third stage of evolution. Just like the Hero of Raging Winds, who couldn't even fight back against my wives, and I'm pretty sure that Nesiphae, Zehe, Brontes, or Rimuru would have been able to kill him without problems if I had told them to, by themselves.

My blessings and titles not only grant me a massive boost in my Experience Points learned, but it also helps out all of my citizens, my family is also included. Something that would take years and years as Evolution happens in their third month of life, things like that are very common here. Kenik lived for over thirty years but never managed to evolve, always learning very little Experience Points compared to what he needed to level up.

However, when he began to live in here, he gained EXP by adventuring in the Dungeon, and that EXP was multiplied several times just for being my subordinate or citizen, managing to evolve just after some months of living in here.

After spending several hours with my Spirits, talking about different things like alchemy, blacksmithing, and such, I went towards the Training Grounds and began the exercises with my wife group and the centaur twins. Even if the twins evolved, I'm still not so sure about their power, and they wouldn't take much time before leveling their Skills some more.

The classic group of Altani, Acelina, Ismena, Nanako, Kaguya, and the Centaur Twins began their harsh training, while I inspected and supported them with my abilities. Using [Manipulation Master] whenever they felt like they couldn't move anymore, or even by feeding them by Rainbow Blood Fruits whenever they felt fatigued. My blood seems to be very effective in this training, granting high amounts of Stamina.

After all of their exercises were done, it was time to fight an army of Elite Skeleton Warriors and Tyrants, and everyone did their best. Some fell unconscious with exhaustion, but I healed them back and used my threads as strings to make them keep moving. It was a rather frightening scene for the bystanders, but I wasn't doing this because I wanted to, my wives told me to force them to train even if they fell to the ground or even when they were almost dying, I'm just fulfilling my promise.

Altani and Acelina are the two humans with the best physique currently, Acelina somehow managed to keep up with a Nomad woman who had lived her entire life in the wild, perhaps due to her latent talent or age? I couldn't tell, but she was always incredibly cheerful and ready to challenge Altani, there was a small rivalry building between the two, a friendly one, I hope.

After they came Kaguya and Nanako, Kaguya on her Feral Form could compare to Altani, but in her normal form, she was very weak, so I made her train in both forms, and constantly change between the two. Nanako paper-thin muscles have begun to grow little by little, thanks to her human blood, as she is a Half-Dodomeki. If she keeps training, sooner or later she will fully awaken her human talent and her body will gain plenty of strength.

And the one with the weakest physique is Ismene, you can't blame her, she as a weak complexion and a frail physique, being inside the castle for her entire life without any exercise at all ended up atrophying her muscles, and she needs intense training to awaken them. Nonetheless, she is reaching some results, and her arms and legs are slowly becoming more swollen, her thighs are more notable as well.

Sofarpia and Sofelaia are as bulky as ever, and I've created a new training for them aside from doing exercises, where they must practice magic, on themselves. Yes, I made them attack themselves with their own magic. If I cast [Regeneration] and [High-Speed Recovery] in them, it's possible for them to survive the powerful magic and slowly level up their magic resistance and also their magic levels. I usually do this from time to time, but it's less effective when the one doing it is already very strong.

When everything was done and the night filled the sky. I congratulated the girls and took them to take a bath in my bath's room, where we had some fun together before dinner. The Centaur Twins were invited to take a bath with us, but they responded with things like "How could we take a bath with the Empress herself?!" and "If we were to bath with Master, wouldn't it be a dishonor for her?", so I let them go bath on their houses.

As I had dinner, I decided to train magic tomorrow with Zehe, Rimuru, and my children. Since long that I've wanted to learn how to use the more "refined" type of magic. My spells are always chaotic and crazy, and I want to know how to make them refined and precise. Even with Skills like [Mana Manipulation] and such, I still need the practice to know how to put these skills in their fullest effects.

Tonight, Brontes and Adelle slept at my sides, they seemed to be missing my embrace… But its strange, I feel like my wives are secretly gathering together and deciding who sleeps at my side each night. And after asking my Slime Clones, this was indeed the case. It seems that there is a wife secret meeting every two days.

They discuss a lot of things… and talk a lot about me, they even set schedules for their time with me, I felt a little bit overwhelmed. But they are so many, that I suppose it's fair.

As I cuddled with my Adelle's small and smooth body and Bronte's large and muscular arms, I fell asleep.

[The Level of the [Manipulation Master; Level 1] and [Sacred Rainbow Blood Fruit Creation; Level 4] Skill has increased!]

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