Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-386

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After easily enslaving the Flow Kelp, we moved toward different areas that had high concentrations of Dryad subspecies. As we did, I wondered if Morpheus had some children with a plant and made a half Dryad half Centaur race… he had a lot of wives.

Though, it may be impossible for now, because we had already explored this place before, and such race of Dryad Centaur does not exist.

We come towards an area filled with Venus Trap Dryads, which had large jaws made out of sharp leaves over their heads, and in their arms, they would usually rest bellow the ground, and activate them when a big enough prey showed up.

I had to just leak my Aura and use my authority as the 'Dungeon Queen' given to me by my Titles to make them quickly subdue, even though their behaviors were even more aggressive than the Flow Kelp.

The Venus Trap Dryads left the dirt as they took out their roots, shaping them as feet and following me around like another group of ducklings, adding on the Flow Kelps.

I couldn't find much use of them like the Flow Kelp, whose leaves were delicious and could be made into several preparations… I remember that Venus Traps on Earth were not edible, but this is another world, so I presumed that such things should be rather different here.

As if reading my thoughts, the biggest Venus Trap, whose body was voluptuous and sexy, with golden eyes and long dark green hair torn apart her leaves as she offered them to me. As I tasted them, they were surprisingly delicious, their leaves secreted a sweet syrup, and the leaves were crunchy and juicy.

"It is indeed delicious, sorry for thinking that you wouldn't be"

After hearing my words, the Venus Trap Dryad Empress released a sigh of relief and a flustered smile, the Flow Kelp glared at her with a little bit of jealously, offering me more of their leaves.

As we snacked in seaweed and sweet syrup covered leaves, we reached the other area, which was on floor 17, this place was filled with gigantic flowers. Such flowers would seem 'normal' at first glance, but when approached to, beautiful women with voracious expressions would appear to ambush their prey, entangling them with their vines and eating them through the dissolving juices inside their flowers.

Some Flow Kelps were attacked, but after releasing my Aura and authority, the giant flowers stiffened. These Dryads were named Predatory Alraune, and had appearances of young women in their twenties, with bright green skin and hair, alongside scarlet eyes, they emerged from a pool of sweet and dissolving juices inside the giant flowers.

Similar to the Venus Trap Dryads, they took out the roots from within the dirt and followed us, the group of plant monsters following us was around a hundred by now, it will be enough to create a special group of Dryads in the Empire, adding on the Grand Forest Dryads, they could become valuable citizens that produce sweet syrup, plants, and vegetables coupled with the ones already being farmed.

Resources such as food are important after all, also I like to stare at pretty monster girls, and the Dryads of the Grand Forest disappointed me in their nature and appearances, but these, which are varied and come in all shapes and sizes are very interesting.

Zehe in particular was constantly checking their physiology and how they worked as a species.

"These Dryads do share a lot of similarities with the Dryads of the Grand Forest… but they still have a lot of things that make them unique in their own right… I never expected that demi-human-type plant monsters had such a high variety. It is indeed as you say, Honey, the Grand Forest's Dryads are very boring" she said.

The next area was a sticky forest filled with tentacle-like poisonous plants, in the deepest areas of such forest, a special subspecies of Dryad inhabited, name Tentacle Dryad. These Dryads seem to have been born from these sticky plants, who devour their prey entirely with their tentacles, dissolving them with the sticky slime that they secrete.

Unlike the other Dryads, Tentacle Dryads do not wait for prey to show up, they actively search for it, due to this, we found them quite fast.

They attacked the Flow Kelpie, Venus Traps, and Alraune fiercely, using their tentacles to sexually assault them before eating them. I supposed that such conduct was natural in Dryads, as they are known to need the energy of other living beings to live, and it is mostly done through intercourse if they find a suitable partner or men to prey.

Perhaps, because of the lack of demi-humans here, the Dryads in here usually absorb the energy of their preys, and predate each other, sexually assaulting and then eating them… it is certainly terrifying.

However, just by releasing my presence and authority, the voracious Tentacle Dryads stayed still as they glared at me with fascination, kneeling, and using their tentacles to suck my feet.

"They are a little bit different than the other Dryads…" said Alice.

"They are more sexually active, yes… Hmm, maybe they could work very well in the brothels, although regulation would be needed so they don't eat their clients after intercourse… Ah, by saying it like this it feels as if they were mantises" I said.

"I wonder if there are Mantises Demi-Humans. Are there insectoids in the Realm of Vida?" asked Zehe.

"By searching on Megusan's memory… yes, there are some tribes, but the rest inhabiting other Realms"

"Oh! It would be certainly amusing to inspect their physiology and their customs as well!" said Zehe, who had recently awakened a researcher's heart.

The Tentacle Dryad had a beautiful body of a young woman in her early twenties, however, their skin was azure-colored with areas in bright green, their eyes were purple or bright pink, and their hair had the same colors as their skin.

Their hands and feet were sticky azure and bright, green-colored tentacles, leaking a slimy substance that possesses an alluring and sweet scent, and it also has to dissolve properties.

They are very playful and always hold playful and teasing smiles on their adorable faces.

The Tentacle Dryad Empress had the appearance of a mature woman, with large breasts and giant vine tentacles, she had long hair and pointed ears. She also showed masochistic tendencies.

After going through the Tentacle Dryads area, our last stop was in the adjacent Venomous Fruit area, a small place filled with trees that produced beautiful and colorful fruits. However, such fruits were all poisonous, as we had tried them out when we first came here… of course, no one got poisoned by them because most everyone has a high resistance to poison and some even an immunity, and we still enjoyed the flavors aside from the particular bitterness given by the poison.

Talking about poison, Megusan's poison is an exception to most resistances and immunities because it is a special type of Poison that draws its power from its divinity and Divine Energy, alongside the 'source' of venom, it is different than the conventional poison created by mortals, and it's a natural substance created by its soul… well, my soul now.

The Venomous Fruit Area was infested with two types of Dryads, Liliraune, which were a subspecies of Alraune, being two women bodies inhabiting the same flower, and then Barometz, a special type of Dryad that produced a tree filled with juicy and sweet-looking poisonous fruits.

Its true body was the big fruit at the top, which resembled a large orange jelly, where a beautiful girl resembles a sheep beastmen woman rested. They were ferocious though, and whenever their prey was intoxicated with their fruits, they would send their vines and devour their prey alive while it struggled for its life.

The Tentacle Dryad Empress attacked the Liliraune and the Barometz Empress with her powerful and thick tentacles, offering them to me to make them my slaves. By using my authority, their strong wills were easily shattered, and they became submissive like puppies.

"So Alraune can diversify into other subspecies that possess two bodies?! Were they born together or the second one grew afterward? Oh, and this Barometz physiology is really interesting…!" said Zehe, as her eyes analyzed the group of Dryads.

"Well, they will be good for the production of more varied types of fruits, although they will have to learn how to make non-poisonous ones"

I had considered also enslaving the Boss Dryad on floor 20, but I saw that her value was better inside the Dungeon as a reappearing boss that could be killed repeatedly for EXP.

Gathering all the Dryads obtained, they summed over two hundred, a lot of work awaited them from this day onwards.

Aside from the enslaved Dryads, I ate a bunch of other plant monsters through the journey. Although the EXP was nothing remarkable, I obtained a Skill.

[Kireina] gained 1.322.749.510 EXP!]

[LEVEL 073/250 EXP 0.82.613.901.432/400.000.000.000]

[Kireina] learned the following Skill]

[Sweet Fruit Production; Level 1]

[Kireina] acquired the [Dryad's Supreme Matriarch] Title!]

[Due to the effect of the [Dryad's Supreme Matriarch] Title, the [Chaotic Dark Creatures Weaponization User; Vampires, Bats, Chimeras; Level 5] Skill has evolved into [Chaotic Dark Creatures Weaponization User; Vampires, Bats, Chimeras, Plants; Level 1]!]

[The Skills [Vitality-Draining Vine Tentacles], [Jaws of the Carnivorous Plants], and [Ambushing Vines of the Living Seaweed Maiden] have been merged into the [Chaotic Dark Creatures Weaponization User; Vampires, Bats, Chimeras, Plants; Level 1] Skill!]

[The Level of the [Chaotic Dark Creatures Weaponization User; Vampires, Bats, Chimeras, Plants; Level 1] Skill has increased by two!]

Well, that was certainly unexpected… but greatly welcomed. Using this new ability, I 'equipped' the Dryads inside of my body, storing them in the space where Mao and Wall were, the two girls were flustered over the over two hundred new friends. The Tentacle Dryads played around with them a little bit.

Teleporting with Zehe, Vajrara, and Alice towards the Teleportation Gate at the Kelpie Village, we passed through the gate as we found the several Centaur races finally meeting with each other, the Dragon Centaur, Bastet (Sphinxes), and Kelpies greeted each other with warm smiles. The 'dispute' that I imagined would happen between Midnight Bastet and Midday Bastet never happened, and both Pharaohs handled things well… well, one was brainwashed and the other was a Slime Clone parasitizing it, so it was to be expected of myself.

The Secretary Succubus and the Vampires were overwhelmed with so many people to register. And the Rin Sisters had to join in as the strongest secretaries of the Kingdom to assess things better. Some of the Secretary Succubus were so tired that they disappeared out of existence like smoke, rather earlier than they would usually last.

Secretary Succubus is a special demi-human type monster that the Rin Sisters can summon to lessen their work, they usually last a week, but due to overwork, some disappeared earlier.

The Secretary Slime Clones, which didn't disappear out of existence for overwork, also joined in, and things finally stabilized after three hours of paperwork. After I revealed the over two hundred Dryads, the Rin Sisters were angered and forced me to work as well, paperwork is boring, to tell you the truth.

Each Dryad Empress was given the task of taking care of their corresponding species, while at the same time belonging to the same 'Dryad' group. The Grand Forest Dryad Empress and the Walking Cactus Empress were introduced to the new Dryads.

The Dryad Empress found these Dryads as 'savages', but her complaints quickly dissipated when she detected my glare, and she became incredibly friendly afterward… the Cactus Empress had learned how to speak basic words, and seemed overall more kind than the spoiled Grand Forest Dryad Empress.

The Flow Kelp and the Tentacle Dryads needed special areas to reside, due to their bodies and physiology. The Flow Kelpie was moved to the Grand Lake, while the Tentacle to the Dark Miasma/Mist Forest, they enjoyed sticky places with a lot of humidity.

Talking about the Centaurs, Dragon Centaur enjoyed rocky places, so they were moved to streets made around the mountains of the eastern Rocky Mountains or even inside of them, there, they were welcomed by the small families of Dwarves and Gnomes that we once found inside them.

The Kelpie needed moist places, so they were moved to the Aquaria City (formerly known as The United Kingdom of Aquaria) and were given the 'Noble' status by Adelle, which got to know that they were descendants of the sister of the Merfolk Old Ancestor and immediately decided to put in motion her plans, even if she was floating around with a big belly (because of being pregnant).

The Bastet liked the citadel areas and didn't mind being sent to a desert-like biome, as most of them had grown bored of it. Both Midnight Bastet and Midday Bastet were put into the same group. Acathea was currently given a large house for her family which was rather close to the castle, so she could easily meet with Vudia and Ailine.

And Vajrara… I was going to let her live with her husband, the brainwashed Midnight Bastet Pharaoh, but she refused, so I gave her a small room in the castle, her Dark Arts knowledge is useful, so she will work in the workshop and with Redgaria, Herbell and other aspiring Necromancers and Dark Art Mages.

All these places were already inside the Empire, so they were always in contact with the city and would gather each day for meetings on how to properly produce plants and such. The Grand Forest Dryads will have to teach the Alraune, the Liliraune, and the Barometz how to create edible fruits without poison.

The Rin Sisters decided to close the day with a festival to celebrate the new citizens and to make the Centaur, and to a lesser extent, the Dryads to feel welcomed.

A group of beautiful women gathered in the center of the citadel, where they performed dances and songs, similar to Idols in Earth�� Ismena, Acelina, Nanako, Kaguya, and Altani were there as well, and I cheered for them with glowing sticks.

Altani seemed very flustered to wear colorful dresses, but her voice was surprisingly good.

The Rin Sisters were also cheering beside me, they seemed to be accomplished… so this was their plan.

The Slime Clones that had been working in the workshop suddenly sent me a lot of their experience earned through our mental connection, which ended leveling up my Sub Class Fields.

[Sub Classes Fields]

[Tailoring; level 1/10 > 3/10]

[Gastronomy; level 1/10 > 4/10]

[Engineering; level 1/10 > 2/10]

[Forgery; level 1/10 > 3/10]

[Agronomy; level 1/10 > 4/10]

[Science; level 1/10 > 2/10]

Such Slime Clones had also evolved on their own, becoming more specialized in the production of items. They had evolved into a race named 'Grotesque Flesh Slime', and their title varied depending in what they specialized into, like 'Grotesque Flesh Slime Alchemist' or 'Grotesque Flesh Slime Chef', there were also some named as 'Grotesque Flesh Slime Grand Alchemist' or 'Grotesque Flesh Slime Expert Blacksmith'.

I suspect that this evolution is due to my Blessing, which all of them had. Now instead of just being a small living being created from my living flesh, they have become their existences while still being able to share some abilities with me and the power to connect our minds.

I considered the idea of creating others that could train certain Skills, like my fruit production Skills.

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