Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-359

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After having a large breakfast with the Kelpies, who were invited in the feast, we decided on our next course of action. I also informed the Kelpies about Morpheus's words and his intentions.

"Going to the surface? Is it possible?" asked Ervin, the son of the Kelpie chief, who was sitting beside Aarae. Aarae glanced at him with a happy face, he was really enjoying himself at his side.

"Hmm… To tell you the truth, Kireina-sama, I have considered that, and I was about to ask you if it could be done" said the Kelpie chief, Ligurian, father of Ervin.

The other Kelpies glanced at the chief with surprised faces, although no one opposed him.

"Indeed, your founder father, Morpheus, had spoken to me, asking me to retrieve you to the surface… You see, in my Empire, there is a large Lake where a giant city made of merfolk rest, I thought that it could be the best area for you to live on and also have contact with the rest of the citizens through the teleportation gates"

"Teleportation gates? How wonderful! Kireina-sama is really a goddess…!" exclaimed a Kelpie.

Ligurian and Ervin considered the idea, and both father and son nodded.

"Very well… for now, Kireina-sama, we would like you to first conquer the Dungeon and gather our other lost siblings… the Dragon Centaur and the Sphinx Centaur," said Ligurian.

"You have seen them?" asked Sofarpia.

"Indeed… long ago, we used to have traded between the villages… but the Dragon Centaur had gone silent for the last years, and I am quite worried… our condition as semi-aquatic demi-human does not let us explore the next rooms due to their dryness compared to here, so we have only done short trips there" answered Ligurian.

"As my father said, the Sphinx Centaur live in a desertic biome, there is an oasis, but they are too far away from us, if we were to travel, our skin would most likely dry before we could reach their village, meanwhile, the Dragon Centaur live over large mountains, and it's mostly the same logic applied there, we would become dried fish before reaching their village without their help" added Ervin, crossing his large and burly arms, which were covered in blue tattoos.

Aarae glanced at him.

"Ervin-san, have you gone there?" he asked.

"Ah, Aarae-chan, I have, it was a long trip and with the support of the Dragon Centaur Wind Attribute Magic, I was able to fly and reach their village faster, in the Sphinx's case, they have large vehicles for transportation of goods, which we used to rest and not be affected by the strong sun"

Aarae innocently admired Ervin's adventures, his aquamarine eyes shining brightly.

"That's so cool! Can we travel with you?"

"Aarae-chan, I would love to travel with you, but I think that we would only be burdens in your trip," said Ervin, his father nodding in agreement, alongside the other Kelpie.

"B-But…"

"Aarae, you hear him, we will have a faster trip if we go with our original group. Afterward, you can have all the adventures you want with Ervin-kun" said Gaby.

"Okay…" nodded Aarae, as Ervin patted his small shoulders, this made Aarae become flustered, so he masked it by drinking tea.

"I'm glad you want to travel with me, Aarae" whispered Ervin on Aarae's small ears.

Ligurian glanced at the scene with his eyebrows raised.

"Ahem, leaving aside the lovebirds, it would be the best for us to stay in here for now, just as my son had said"

"Alright, for now, let me leave you with a lot of supplies for the meantime," I said, standing up from the chair.

"S-Supplies?" asked the Kelpie.

Flash!

Countless magic circles appeared as several new Familiars and other consumable monsters were summoned, alongside Plant-type monsters.

"Aah! The delicious beasts that Kireina-sama can summon!"

"Thank you very much for your help" thanked Ligurian.

I also left some of my Cooking Slime Clones, butchering the beasts, as I absorbed their souls for my own nourishment.

"No problems, I like to summon a lot of monsters as it brings me delicious souls, so I don't have any issue in helping you guys"

The breakfast continued for some more hours until we finally packed things up and continued our travels.

Aarae seemed saddened on having to leave Ervin aside, even though they had only met for a day, it seems that they were incredibly compatible, both in personality, soul, and body… like a destined couple.

"You're very strong, Aarae, so I'm sure that you will be fine, in my case, I would be a burden, as I've only evolved once," said Ervin, patting Aarae's red hair.

Aarae seemed to understand, but he was still rather sad.

"L-Lets have a lot of time together back in my Empire, Ervin-kun," said Aarae, giving Ervin a happy smile.

However, Ervin couldn't really just leave it at that…

"Aarae… we have met for only a day, but since I crossed eyes with you, I've felt something mystical connect our souls…" he said, as he gently put his large hands in Aarae's small shoulders, approaching his lips to his.

"E-Ervin-kun…" said Aarae, standing still as he closed his eyes, approaching his lips to Ervin's, closing them in a warm and short kiss.

"This is the least I could do," said Ervin.

"Uwaah… M-My first kiss…! Uwaaawawawawa!!!" Aarae suddenly ran away from Ervin, floating over a water bubble, towards Valentia, his big sister, embracing her.

Valentia patted Aarae's head and glanced at Ervin with an apologetic expression, we all did the same. Hmm, if all of Aarae's admirers were to know that this stud stole Aarae's first kiss, they would certainly try to turn him into fried fish.

In Ervin's side, all the Kelpie were celebrating.

"Ah, Ervin, I'm so glad you've finally found your soulmate!"

"So, you have given him the kiss of Compromise? How wonderful!"

"She seems like a very good maiden, take care of her, Ervin-kun"

"Ah, Grandma, Aarae is a he"

"HUH?!"

There were Kelpie that already knew about Aarae's true gender, and others did not know, but after knowing, aside from the surprise, were still happy and celebrating.

It seems that no one was worried about him having children or whatever, perhaps because he had plentiful of siblings, some already had children, and his father was the grandfather of six beautiful young Kelpie.

"A Kiss of Compromise? What is that?" I asked.

"Ah, Kireina-sama… A Kiss of Compromise is something that we Kelpie do to our beloved soulmate, something that Arielle-sama, our Holy Mother, taught to us!" said Ligurian.

"If you have something that you love, kiss him! She said!" said a young Kelpie woman.

"Indeed, I have received such kisses several times, this is why I have a large family…" said a Kelpie man, being surrounded by several beautiful Kelpie women and men, who looked at him with enamored expressions.

Such an interesting culture, I wonder how much trouble they would have caused in Earth's society…

Understanding the implications of such a Kiss, I glanced at Ervin.

"Ervin-kun, welcome to the family… and, don't be so rash! Don't you dare touch my precious Aarae in any sexual way until he's a grown adult, you understand me, boy?"

I released a tiny bit of my Aura, only intimidating Ervin. He nodded in agreement, giving me a bitter smile.

"Y-Yes, mother-in-law-sama"

"I'm glad you understand~!"

Leaving the Kelpie protected by a medium-sized army of Undead Skeletons and my Slime Clones, we proceeded through the last floors of this Biome, crossing through large plains and giant pools filled with crystalline water and deadly predatory species of aquatic monsters, ready to ambush anything approaching.

Large Squids with tentacles covered in armor produced powerful lightning attacks and seemed to be immune to it as well, they attacked in conjunction, generating powerful shockwaves, Armored Electric Squids.

These beings became more common as we approached the end of the last floor, where a large door awaited is challengers.

However, due to the deterioration of the dungeon, the door was destroyed into pieces the moment I touched it, revealing a hideous being within it.

It had the body of an octopus; however, each tentacle had the head of a monster, a High Hydra Octopus. Despite its appearance, it wasn't a Chimera, and it was a Life Attribute Monster, the Boss of the 30th floor.

It had powerful regeneration abilities and each head had its attack patterns, did the Kelpie fought this thing to visit the other Centaur? I suppose their strength is admirable.

Vudia and Ailine, alongside Aarae, worked together, generating a giant storm that engulfed the Octopus, its head was torn apart by the slicing wings, while Nesiphae, Nixephine, and Brontes smashed the main head to a pulp in no time.

It was immune to Electric attacks, but our group is so large and filled with deadly warriors that he was just beaten to death by everyone's cooperation, mine included. I felt my body even stronger after what happened in my dreams. Chaos-Attribute Magic was effective on it, lowering its defenses and making its mind dizzy and confused.

When there was only a mush of flesh, the system finally recognized our victory.

[Calculating EXP gained…]

[Kireina] and her [Party] gained 6.600.000.000 EXP!]

[LEVEL 065/250 EXP 44.163.681.856/47.200.000.000]

[Kireina] defeated the boss [Octopus Hydra Emperor of Life and Destruction]

[Kireina] and her [Party] completed several conditions]

[Overkill], [Overwhelm], [No Item Used], [Detect Weak Point], [Gang on It]

[Therefore, [Kireina] and her [Party] have been granted with corresponding prizes]

[Kireina] obtained the item(s) [Ancient Reward Loot Box (S)] x2

[Kireina] obtained the item(s) [Octopus Hydra's Mutation Blood Potion (Legendary)] x1

Aside from the items given by the System, there were plentiful of dropped items, such as Potions and Equipment sets. There were strange-looking armor and weapons, which seemed to be suited for Kelpie to equip. I let Aarae save those so he can gift them to his boyfriend.

We decided to have lunch, as it was already midday, grilling the delicious Hydra Octopus and its heads, each head had a different flavor of meat, from land animals like Lions and Tigers, Horses, Serpents to fish and crustaceans like Sharks, Tuna, and Crabs. It was a feast to behold, with varied tastes, I devoured everything with a lot of vigor, and the child inside of my womb seemed to be enjoying itself.

"Well, that was delicious… Mommy, could we wait for it to spawn again?" asked Valentia, licking her lips.

"No, my daughter, we must proceed through, whenever I conquer the dungeon, I'll let you hunt these as much as you like," I said.

"You heard your mommy, Valentia," said Gaby.

"Alright… At least I'm already able to do this~" said Valentia, as she shapeshifted her left arm into the countless tentacles of the Octopus Hydra, with the different heads included and all. She just played with them.

[Kireina] learned the following Skills]

[Octopus Hydra Lineage; God-Crafted Chimera Bloodline] (Assimilated by Superior Bloodline!)

[Life Infusing Breath]

[The Level of the [Abyss Chimeric Lineage; Divine Bloodline of Calamity Bringers; Level 6] Skill has increased by one!]

When we finally had eaten our fill, we decided to continue towards floor 31st and the next ten floors, which should be the home of the Dragon Centaur and several other reptiles and dragon-type beasts.

As we descended through the large golden stairs, new light illuminated the dark passage, reaching the sight of dozens of beautiful mountain peaks on the horizon. Another artificial sun illuminated the floor, although this one was way hotter than the previous biome.

The clouds that brought any shade were less and less, and the wind was strong and dry. There were forests and small ponds here and there though, alongside a large river coming from a mountain peak, which seemed to be covered in thin ice, slowly melting through the heat generated by the 'sun'.

When we appeared in this biome, and as we looked back, we found that we descended from above through the inside of a mountain, a large, brown-colored mountain.

There wasn't any hostile monster or animals, only plants and small birds, however as we decided to walk our way through what seemed to be a road, inside several small caves, giant lizards' heads ambushed us.

"Grooowl!"

"Screeeeeech!"

Long, crocodile-like heads covered in red scales opened their jaws as they tried to eat us whole, their green reptilian eyes glanced at us with a predator's might.

However, their heads were suddenly torn apart, sliced into thin pieces or grilled alive by Brontes, Rimuru, and Nesiphae.

"There you go! Vertical Slash!" said Nesiphae, releasing a powerful Battle-Axe Technique.

"Thundering Smash!" yelled Brontes, enveloping her large Club into a thunder armor, increasing its weight and power.

"Rainbow Blaze!" said Rimuru, casting her Omni-Elemental Spiritual Magic, summoning flames of all colors.

Acelina raised her new lance as she released a storm of stabs, destroying several lizards that tried to eat us, while Ismena flew beside her with her butterfly wings, casting magic from her grimoire, summoning large red tentacles or Shark heads, beating and biting the lizards mercilessly

"Ohoho~! How do you lizards like my new devilish style~?! Dark Night Thrust!" screamed Acelina, immersed in her slaughter, with devilish yet refined laughter.

"Err, Aunt Acelina, I don't think they can understand you if you kill them…" said Ismena, seeing the piles of impaled corpses.

Valentia's only jumped over them and began to smash them into pieces, she was curious if any more of these hidden inside the caves, so she shapeshifted her arms into dragon heads and explored the insides, devouring the lizards hiding inside.

"Ah, there are a lot of them inside! Hm, they're delicious!" she said, eating the lizards alive with her own arms.

Aarae accompanied by his younger sisters Vudia and Ailine combined their magic, masterfully casting rainbow-colored lightning that divided itself into several rays of light, entering the caves and destroying whatever was inside, the flow of Experience Points filled their bodies, quickly leveling up.

"Aah! Our combined magic is the best, Onii-chan!" said Vudia, receiving a small hint of ecstasy after receiving a large number of Experience Points in one go.

"Let's call it Rainbow Lightning, Nii-san!" suggested Ailine, as she commanded the lightning to fry more lizards to death.

"Alright, we'll call it like that~," said Aarae, patting his two sisters.

When we descended the mountain through the road, all of the small cave sections were producing smoke that filled the floor with the smell of delicious grilled meat. I extended my body and grabbed most of the corpses, devouring some and saving the rest.

Some of the big girls like Amiphossia, Nixephine, Nesiphae, and Valentia snacked on lizards whole, as their great bodies bring them more hunger than the rest.

As we quickly advanced through, I was constantly inspecting the automatically generated Dungeon map with my Automatic Dungeon Mapping Skill and using Dungeon Area Assimilation to create easy bridges between mountains, skipping a lot of walking.

Giant flying snake-like dragons showered us with storm breaths, Wind Snake Dragons, who came in big groups, seemingly fighting for their territory. Alas, they meet their end when they received the powerful lightning of Alice, Vudia, and Brontes.

"GYAAAAAARRRHH…!" screamed a Wind Snake Dragon, releasing black smoke through its mouth and falling from the sky, with most of its body completely grilled.

"There it goes, another one falling through the sky, mommy, aunt Alice!" said Vudia, admiring the large dragons falling as if nothing.

"Well done my daughter," said Brontes, patting Vudia as she held her in her large arms.

"Yes, well done, Vudia-chan~," said Alice, patting Vudia as well.

Their large corpses fell over the roads I created, creating small tremors, I caught several of them with giant nets made with my Magic Thread, which I ate or saved in my Item Box.

As we reached floor 34th, I began to sense some smaller lifeforms who were tracking us around within the surrounding mountains, admiring in silence how we slew the gigantic reptile beasts that dared to stop our travels.

"Masta, can you sense them. guu?" asked Rimuru, who seemed to feel someone watching us over.

"Yeah, we are getting closer to them"

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