Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-366

.

.

.

Now that I had already killed the Boss and ate its Soul, making sure that it wouldn't respawn again, I decided to use Dungeon Area Assimilation once more, molding several mountains in the surroundings into a giant bridge that connected to the deepest of the floors, floor 40.

The Dragon Centaur and Yinglong, after seeing such an amazing feat, began to cheer in amusement.

"Witch such a large bridge, we will be able to easily travel to the Sphinx territory…!"

"Not like it matters now, as we will soon migrate to the Goddess's Empire!"

"But still, whenever we come back here, we will be able to easily travel without having to spend Mana into flying…"

"Impressive, such is the work of the Goddess"

I left a hundred or so Familiars and Monsters of all shapes and sizes for the Ryujin to eat, alongside large Undead guards, so secure their safety. If by any chance another Dragon Invasion happens, this Undead and my Slime Clones will be able to fend them off.

"We wish you the best of lucks, Kireina-sama and her beloved family… But please, be aware of the Sphinx's playful and teasing nature, they are cats after all… Also, both Sphinx Cities are governed by large Royal Family, with the Pharaoh governing them all, so it would be better to directly talk to him or her instead of going around every citizen"

"Yeah, I was planning to do just as you suggested, Yinglong. Very well then, patiently wait for our return"

"Yes, Kireina-sama"

As we crossed through the bridge, we encountered several Dragons and Wyverns of all shapes and sizes, they were incredibly perturbed by the sudden changes in their environment after several mountains that they inhabited reformed into a giant bridge connecting to the scorching desert down below.

However, such fiends were nothing more than a warmup for us, as we quickly disposed of them while practicing our Skills and Spells. There were some tougher than others, like giant Fifty Meters tall Mountain Dragons, covered in giant rock scales, resembling walking mountains.

Each mountain that I shaped into the bridge had one or two of these behemoths, which slowly crawled towards us while conjuring powerful Earth Magic, showering us with hundreds of house-sized boulders.

With Nanako's assistance, I practiced my Telekinesis, a Skill that I obtained after eating one of the Vampires that tried to kill us back in Cilane.

Telekinesis was certainly not similar to any power I had before, as it wasn't like Aura, which is a coating that I can use to grab objects. Neither an Attribute Manipulation. It was like controlling a formless and invisible force that could be generated from within my own mind.

Nanako was an expert on its use, as her Psychic powers gave her the ability to use this formless power and shape it into several techniques and skills. According to her, certain races are born with the talent of using Telekinetic or Psychic powers. Dodomeki is only one of them, she suspects that the Vampire I ate was formerly a Mind Demon.

I shaped this formless force which required great amounts of Mental Energy, into a cannon-like attack, resembling a powerful force that struck two Mountain Dragons who were close enough with each other. Their heads suddenly burst into pieces like a watermelon due to the powerful force released.

Nanako was bewildered.

"Impressive, Kireina! To think that you can already shape it into a cannon-like attack! It took me years to do such a feat… ugh, I feel less special now" she said, as she manipulated the Psychic Energy generated by her eyes to shape it into giant invisible arms that grabbed the dragons and clashed them into the ground or faraway mountains, she was also demolishing a Mountain Dragon's head, but it took several attacks for its head to explode.

"Don't worry, it's not like I was born with this power. You're already incredibly masterful with it, I'm nothing but a mere apprentice, so guide me well, Master Nanako~" I said, as I approached Nanako, who was shorter than me, and kissed her rosy ear.

"Uwah! K-Kireina, what kind of roleplay is this?! Ah! I almost lost my focus…"

As the corpses of Dragons began to decorate our sight, we slowly reached the last floor, which had a large mountain, empty from the inside.

"I suppose this is were the Life Dragon King of Thunderstorms and Windstorms should have been, right?" asked Lilith, as she admired the giant mountain, which was at least three times larger than the rest.

"Yeah, it is empty now," said Brontes, admiring the beautiful caverns.

"Ah! Masta, how about you convert the mountain into a Golem and make it the Boss later?!" asked Rimuru, seemingly giving a remarkably interesting idea.

"Rimuru, Master can't do such a thing…" said Ismena, shrugging.

"Y-Yeah… it's not like… she could?" said Acelina, gazing at me.

"Can she?" asked Charlotte, giving me an expecting smile.

All of my wives and children then shifted their gaze towards me.

"Well, it is a very good idea, I really didn't think about it, but a giant Mountain Golem could count as a boss, and perhaps it could respawn and all after I register it as one when I take this Dungeon for myself…"

"Y-You can?!" asked Ismena, flying around in bewilderment.

"Yeah, but I need all of your MP~ Love Extraction!"

My entire family granted me their MP as I activated [Transcendental Element Creation and Manipulation; Golem Materialization] and also opened my Inner Real; Soul World to grab in a bunch of Souls and Soul Energy to grant this mountain life.

A large infusion of energy began to make the whole mountain shake.

"S-She really did it!"

"As expected of Master~!"

"It's moving…!"

The Mountain then gained consciousness and stood up. Its appearance was still like that of a Mountain though.

"GUOOOOOOOONNN!" it roared.

"And it's done. I'll name it… Gaia"

"GUOOOONNN!" Gaia seemed happy over its name, trembling in excitement, creating large earthquakes. And then, its body began to shine brightly, as its dark-colored stone which is what made of became bright brown, and several minerals and gemstones grew over its body… is this an effect of my naming?

"But Master, isn't Gaia the name of your Shield? Also, I'm sure that there is an Earth Giant Goddess named Gaia…" said Zehe.

"Ah, it doesn't really matter, I'm bad with names anyways…"

"Ah… okay then"

I ordered Gaia to sit down for now, while also watching over the Dragons. If they were to get together again to invade the Dragon Centaur, she was allowed to pulverize them. For now, she decided to smash Dragons that inhabited the surrounding mountains to gain EXP.

Leaving Gaia on her own, we moved towards floor 41, through a large staircase constructed with the dungeon's golden-colored bricks. Several paintings resembled Egyptian symbols, showing Sphinx, Kelpie, and Dragon Centaurs living together in harmony, trading, and also… Sphinx having their fur brushed by the Ryujin.

As we descended to the last stair, we found ourselves in a small cold room, and then another stair going upstairs, after going upstairs through them, I finally understood how we were transported in here.

It seems that the stairs lead to a special room that connects both biomes. When we ascended through the second stairs, we found that we came from an underground room in the desert.

Beautiful golden dunes graced our sight, resembling an endless sea of sand. There were a strong warm breeze and a scorching hot sun. As much as we inspected around, there was only sand, the clear sky without any cloud, and the scorching sun.

The heat was tremendous, but most of us already possessed high resistance to Fire Attribute and those who didn't were coated in my Magic Shield, which I enhanced with the Wind and Water Attribute.

"To think that there is such a scorching desert below the cold of the Cilane Kingdom… Incredible" said Sofarpia.

"Dungeons are really the work of the gods, isn't it? To be able to create a whole different world in here…" said Sofelaia.

"So… where exactly are we?" asked Altani, completely lost in the endless sea of sand.

"Let me see…"

I activated the Automatic Dungeon Mapping skill, which instantly showed us a large map of the last ten floors of this dungeon.

"It's all just a desert, isn't it?" (Zehe)

"So much sand… but look! There are several Oasis!" (Nanako)

"Hmm… There are two large settlements in these two faraway Oasis" (Brontes)

"There are also small villages in the other Oasis, I wonder if those are Sphinx as well?" (Nesiphae)

"I can't see their inhabitants in detail but small lifeforms are living in there, so it is worth to take a look around… there are over five smaller villagers and the two large Sphinx cities, there is a lot to explore," I said.

"Uwah! Mommy, I want something cold…" complained Vudia, even with the Magic Shield coating, she was sweating all around her small body.

"Hmm… Ice Cream would be nice now… But for now, drink this cold fruit juice that your mommy prepared beforehand, Vudia" I said, opening my Item Box and revealing a long bottle filled with cold orange juice. There was enough for everyone, so I shared it with my children and wives.

"Haah… This really hits the spot" said Brontes, cleaning the sweat of her body and drinking the cold juice as we traveled through the air in the dunes.

Through our journey towards the next floors, we encountered new monsters of all shapes and sizes. Some resembling the ones we found in the Forsaken Labyrinth, and others being completely different.

Large Desert Worms would appear, swimming through the scorching dune seas as if they were water and jumping towards us ferociously, opening their wide gaping mouths, revealing thousands of sharp fangs.

"GROOOWWL!"

Nesiphae smiled as she finally had something to slice with her hungry Battle-Axe, flying through the air by using the Levitate enchantment, she swung her Battle-Axe in several masterful slices, releasing powerful forces that crashed against the groups of deadly worms.

"Consecutive Venomous Slices!" she shouted, activating a powerful technique that made her weapon glow in purple light, each of her attacks released purple light as the worms were affected by the corrosive poison and also sliced into pieces, covering the dunes with their green innards.

"I'll give you a hand as well~! Light Sovereign Judgement!" shouted Nefertiti, as she called upon a large amount of Light Attribute in this area produced by the artificial sun, recreating a judgment of light, burning the sunlight-resistant giant worms as if they were skewers, a delicious smell of grilled meat filled the air for a few minutes as the beast shrieked in agony.

"I feel at home in this place! Move, dunes heard my command! I am your supreme sovereign! Awake, Grand Sand Burial!" shouted Nixephine, floating in the sky as she called upon the dunes as if they were her own limbs, conjuring a powerful Earth Attribute Magic Spell that shapeshifted a large area of sand into giant tentacles that entangled around the worms and crushed them with a strong force.

"Uwah! That was amazing, Aunt Nefertiti-san and Nixephine-san!" said Vudia, as her golden eye shined brightly in amusement.

Nefertiti and Nixephine laughed as they felt their egos increase by the children's praises.

"Fufufu, but of course! I used to govern the desert in the past! The Light produced in here is perfect to show all of my true strength" said Nefertiti, proudly.

"I was also a sovereign of the deserts, the sand was always my companion, and I was unrivaled as long as there was sand around me!" said Nixephine, while closing her eyes and pumping her large chest.

Seeing how these two were stealing the attention given by our daughter, Brontes decided to attack as well.

"Thunderstorm Rampage!" she shouted, as she flew through the air swinging her giant club and generating powerful shocks of thunder everywhere, the worms were fried alive, shrieking in pain as they began to consider how bad of a plan was to attack the shiny things flying in the sky.

"Ooooh! Mommy is so cool as well! So cool!" shouted Vudia, she was completely fascinated with her mother in specific, shifting her gaze from Nefertiti and Nixephine.

However, things couldn't just play and games as we moved forwards, reaching floor 43, we encountered a disaster being unfolded in a small, nearby village.

A massive group of Giant Brown and Dark Snakes was attacking the settlement of people, who seemed to resemble Centaurs at first glance, but who had their lower halves of large short-haired cats, they also had cat-like ears at the top of their heads.

"Hisssssss! Delicious little kittens!"

"Brothers, it is time to feast! The Empress has given us this wonderful task! Hissss!"

"Destroy the village and devour them all! Hiisss! Gyahaha!"

The Snakes were also able to speak… and they were targeting the Sphinx in specific.

Hmm, it seems that a lot of things had been happening in here that the previous Centaurs were unaware of.

.

.

.

[Title Explanation]

[Kelpie Empress]

A title bestowed upon those who are said to be the Empress of the Kelpie, a race of water-adapted Centaurs. After the whole village of Kelpies recognized Kireina as their sovereign, this Title was bestowed upon her not long after.

Its effects grant the user a large charm effect to any Kelpie or their subspecies. It also boosts the stats of any Kelpie below the Title user command, while also giving them the ability to learn skills faster and evolve into stronger variants. A small bonus in EXP earned is also given.

[Dragon Centaur Goddess]

A title bestowed upon those praised as a Goddess by both the West and East Dragon Centaurs. It also needs the user to be worshiped upon as if she were a real Goddess, and also grant miracles in the form of gifts that could increase their belief.

It grants similar effects than [Kelpie Empress] but to all Dragon Centaur.