Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-357

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A beautiful sight filled my vision as large plains extended through the horizon, there was a clear blue sky with a few small clouds around, and a large sun illuminating and warming the place.

Aside from the scenery, there were also large pools, each one of the sizes of the Great Lake placed all around the plains, there was some surrounding forest made up of a dozen or so pine trees, where small lifeforms inhabited the place.

The large pools were filled with aquatic monsters of all shapes and sizes, from fishes to crustaceans, as we proceeded through the floors, we were able to meet some new species of monsters that we have never seen before.

Flying Squids with large featherless wings and tentacles with eyes, shelled walking fishes with large tongues, dinosaur-shaped monsters with the heads of sharks, armored octopus covered in crustacean-like shells, flying fish with three eyes, and so on.

There were also some demi-human species of monsters, like Fishmen, ugly looking humanoids with strong fish appearances, scaled bodies, and fish heads, there were also variants of the previous floors Carnivorous Dryads, who had become Seaweed monsters living inside large pools, extending their wet vines to ambush prey whenever they try to drink some water.

There were more conventional monsters in the multitude of small forests surrounding the pools, like Water Wolves, Goblins, and large Cockatrices. The Cockatrice meat was certainly delicious, and I thought about adding them to the cattle animals back in the Empire.

Fishmen were fierce and didn't try to speak before trying to kill us, so we had to quickly end them, my Merfolk wives and children did not feel any attachment to them whatsoever, so I did not either. We had killed a lot back in the Forsaken Labyrinth, and I remembered that the meat was rather delicious when smoked.

Alice and Brontes teamed up, using their powerful Thunder Magic in tandem to completely wipe out hordes of aquatic monsters inside of their pools, by electrifying them to death, their corpses no long after floated over the water.

Large groups of armored octopus gathered in a large lake, protecting a small island in the middle. As I molded an easy road with Dungeon Area Assimilation, we slashed and smashed to death the annoying octopus as we explored the small island, inside, there was a large room which seemed to be a dungeon of its own.

It wouldn't budge no matter what, so I just opened a wide hole on it with the very useful Dungeon Area Assimilation Skill, inside, we found a small pool and houses surrounding it.

The dozen or so houses seemed to be poorly made with the wood of these floors and the people living here seemed to be… centaurs.

However, they weren't the centaurs I've seen in the surface, with their lower halves of fluffy or short-haired horses, goats or deer, but these had their lower halves of thin and slim horses, covered in fish-like scales, they also had long mermaid-like tails instead of their second pair of horse legs.

Their human upper halves were partially covered in fish scales on their arms and shoulders, with small gills in their neck, their beauty was comparable to the finest of mermaid and mermen and their hair colors were often red or green, with emerald eyes. Each man and woman were a beauty to behold.

Everyone was surprised by these strange yet astonishingly beautiful centaurs. Sofarpia and Sofelaia glanced at them as surprised as us.

The Centaurs had already noticed us and began to scream in horror over the strange invaders that had come to attack them, some ran inside their houses while others jumped over the pool in the middle of the village.

"Could these be…? Water Adapted Centaurs… Kelpies!" exclaimed Sofarpia, with a dumbfounded expression in her face.

"So those fairy tales about Morpheus-sama having a mermaid wife who gave birth to Kelpie was true!" said Sofelaia, looking at the ceiling of the wide room we were in as if she were praying to Morpheus.

"Kelpie Centaurs? So these half centaur and half mermaid people are Morpheus children?" I asked.

"Could it be that Morpheus gave them a safe home in here? Perhaps, the Centaurs in the surface discriminated over them, or their living conditions couldn't be fulfilled in the cold surface of Cilane…" analyzed Zehe.

"The only thing I know is that they are terrified of us, guu!" said Rimuru, pointing out the quivering Kelpie hiding beneath the lake or inside their houses.

Sofarpia and Sofelaia then came towards me.

"Master, please, don't eat them!" (Sofarpia)

"They are our people! We beg of you…!" (Sofelaia)

"It really offends me to make you think that I would just eat them without any reason… well, perhaps… but now that I know their origins, don't worry…"

The twins then released sighs of relief, as they went towards the Kelpies accompanied by Gaby and Aarae, who were merfolk and could resemble their founding mother.

"W-Why do I have to go…?" Asked Gaby, as she was being carried by Sofarpia's, who made her sit on her back.

"Aah, they really are half merfolk and half centaur! Hello! We come in peace!" Said Aarae, moving his hands to greet the scared Kelpie.

The Kelpie began to talk between themselves.

"D-Did that girl said that she came in peace?"

"Look! Those two women, are centaur!"

"Surface centaur… like Morpheus-sama, our founding father!"

"T-Then, perhaps they had come to pay a visit?"

"How incredible… after Morpheus-sama gave us this haven, our lost siblings had finally come to greet us!"

"And look, aren't those two beautiful red-haired women Merfolk? Like Arielle-sama, our founding mother!"

"Then they aren't monsters? But friends and family?"

The Kelpies were very quick to understand, or perhaps naïve, so they immediately began to leave the lake and their houses, greeting the twins, an old Kelpie appeared, with a long white beard filled with seaweed and starfish and barely any wrinkles.

"Oh, we have been blessed by Morpheus and Arielle-sama! Welcome! Welcome our brother and sisters!" he said, offering fresh fish and seaweed for everyone.

"It's impressive, indeed, Morpheus-sama had blessed us with the opportunity to meet our lost brothers! We are the current Queens of the Centaur Kingdom of Cilane, Sofarpia, and Sofelaia, who might you be, dear sir?" said Sofarpia, with a very educated tone, to not offend the Kelpie.

"Ohoh, such good manners, and such good young ladies… My name is Ligurian Floria, and all of them are my children and siblings, and the children of my siblings… we have lived in here for hundreds of years since our founding father and mother, Morpheus-sama and Arielle-sama gave birth to the first Kelpie, our ancestor"

Another Kelpie, who seemed to be Ligurian's son, as he had several features that resembled him, walked near him.

"We welcome you, our siblings. Morpheus-sama decided to create this safe world for us on his grace, as he couldn't find a desirable place for us to inhabit in the 'surface', due to this, we had never visited the outside world, aside from this world, filled with aquatic life and small forests"

"Where are your manners, my son? Introduce yourself to the ladies"

"Ah! Yes, my name is Ervin Floria, the third son of my father here" said the boy, in a casual get, educated manner.

"I see, we also want to introduce you to our family, which is varied with lovely people of all shapes and sizes… perhaps some may seem scary to you, but please, bear in mind that they all have good intentions and are people of good heart," said Sofelaia, introducing all of us.

"This is our wife, Kireina-sama, the Empress of another Monster and the Demi-Human Kingdom," said Sofarpia.

"It is an honor to meet the lost siblings of my beloved wives, please, accept these presents," I said.

"Oh? It is nice to meet you too as well, lady… oh?"

"Uwaah! W-What is that?!" exclaimed the young Kelpies, perhaps unaware of the functions of the Item Box.

In front of the large group of Kelpie, I began to take out several corpses of monsters we had hunted and hadn't eaten yet.

"Ah! Meat, this is your gift? Impressive, there are animals we have never tasted before, thank you very much! Would you accompany us in a feast to celebrate the reunion within our brethren?"

"Of course, let me help you out"

The Kelpie kept being surprised and dumbfounded every time after seeing the miracles I could do, like splitting myself to create an army of chefs or to butcher countless beasts at the same time, or also to generate even more living beings out of nowhere.

"The ability to summon living creatures! Such powers were only of Morpheus-sama, who might this lady truly be? Perhaps the daughter of a goddess?"

As the old chief Ligurian began to snack on the grilled meat, he experienced countless of new flavors, all of the Kelpies were hallucinating in such incredible flavors.

As the festivities extended, we became more familiar with the Kelpies and they finally lowered their guards against us, becoming friendly and overall, very nice and gentle people.

Unlike other races of demi-humans that we have found living in dungeons or separate spaces, they weren't weak at all, and several of the adults had evolved once or twice already, having powerful musculatures and stronger scales, they had amazing Water and Life Attribute Mages as well. However, even though they were strong, they seemed very timid, so perhaps that's why they freaked out so much when we appeared out of nowhere, despite their strength.

After talking some more with the kelpie chief, I discovered something interesting, their Holy Mother, Arielle, was a beautiful Mermaid who enchanted Morpheus with her charm, becoming one of his wives and giving birth to Kelpie.

However, the most interesting thing is that most Kelpies had the Floria int their names… and that the real name of their Holy Mother was Ariella Floria Aquaria… She was part of the Aquaria Royal Family hundreds of years ago, a lot of years before Belle or Caspian were even born.

The Kelpie was completely unaware of the real origins of their Holy Mother and couldn't help me out in connecting the dots… so I contacted Adelle with one of my clones who was currently taking care of her.

She was quick to answer…

"WHAT?! D-Did you really found our lost siblings, the Kelpie?! In a Dungeon?!"

She seemed to know something.

"Indeed! Ariella-sama was one of the Aquarian Old Ancestor's various sisters! He never came alone, but had a large group of children and siblings… To think that you found the lost children of one of our ancestors' sisters, they should be branded as the royal family!"

"C-Calm down, Adelle… I don't think they would even understand a Kingdom hierarchy anyways…"

"Hmph, perhaps you're right… How long have they been in seclusion, my wife?"

"Hundreds of years, they have explored some of the floors, but they had never gone to the surface once"

"I see... well that is troublesome… for now, leave them there, with a lot of food if possible, and more commodities, whenever you finish the dungeon, we can make them join Aquaria if they accept"

"We'll see…"

So, I was right, Kelpies are not only the lost siblings of Centaurs but also of Merfolk, specifically the descendants of the old ancestor's siblings… That's a lot of information suddenly connecting, I just realized how small this world can be sometimes.

I wonder if we could find more of their lost children. Like the Dragon Centaur or the Sphinx Centaur… The Kelpie chief had no idea about such things, so I decided to let him enjoy the festivities.

He seemed interested in marrying his son to Aarae before he knew that my child was a boy… His son didn't seem to mind either and was openly flirting to him, calling him a beautiful short-haired maiden.

The interesting part is that Aarae did no seem to be so annoyed as I initially thought, so perhaps he's fine with guys? I wouldn't mind… although when the chief's son got to know about Aarae being a boy, he was dumbfounded.

"A-Are you okay, Ervin-kun?" asked Aarae, as his beautiful face approached the coughing Ervin, who had choked on the meat he was eating when Aarae told him that he was a boy.

"Cough…! Y-Yes, I'm fine… Ah… I-I didn't know you were a boy, Aarae-chan… I mean Aarae-kun"

"I-It is fine, Ervin-kun, you can call me chan if you want…" said Aarae, blushing.

Ervin wasn't as bewildered as I thought either, he seemed to be fine…

Wait for a second, was this why Aarae didn't like so many women and girls sticking to him on my Empire? He likes guys. Oh, that may explain things… Well, I'm glad for him and I fully support him!

I gave my beautiful boy thumbs up from afar, blinking and cheering for him, Gaby and Valentia were doing the same at my side, this only made Aarae more flustered, but it also made him cuter, conquering Ervin's heart no matter his gender.

"A-Aarae-chan, I don't really mind you being a guy…! I won't take back the words I said to you… About you being beautiful and charming" said Ervin, charming Aarae's with his manly voice and beautiful muscular upper body, which was always nude, making Aarae constantly glance at it voraciously.

"Uwah…! E-Ervin-kun… Isn't it too sudden though? Lets date for now…"

"Date? What is a 'date', Aarae-chan?"

"Fweh… Y-You see…"

And like this, my second son finally found someone that he liked, although it was unexpectedly in this hidden village of Kelpies.

We spent the night in here, after I closed the hole I made in the gate, some monsters had tried to lurk in, but we easily disposed of them with the help of my wives.

[Calculating EXP gained…]

[Kireina] and her [Party] gained 2.337.548.770 EXP!]

[LEVEL 065/250 EXP 37.563.681.856/47.200.000.000]

[Kireina] learned the following Skills]

[Ambushing Vines of the Living Seaweed Maiden]

[Sudden Vitality Increase]

[The Levels of the [Dungeon Area Assimilation; Level 8], [Protector of the Dungeon; Level 1], [Dungeon Energy Absorption; Level 2], [Automatic Dungeon Mapping; Level 3], [Tyrannical Empress Glorious Command; Level 3], [Alluring Martial Arts; Level 5], [Chaotic Dark Creatures Weaponization User; Vampires, Bats, Chimeras; Level 2], [Transcendental Battle Arts; All Weapon and Fist Grand Master; Level 3], [Transcendent Magic: Metis Grand Magic Knowledge Library; Level 2], [Calamity Abyss Demoness Mirage-Attribute Magic; Level 2], [Overlord of Lust Heartwarming Assistance; Enhancement and Healing; Level 3], [Ancient Demons and Yokai Phantasmagoric Conjuration Magic; Level 3], [Crimson Blood Attribute Magic; Level 2], and [Poisonous Jewel Demon Magic; Level 1] Skills have increased!]

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