Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-59

*Added Skill Fusions from yesterday on the , please check them out if you can!

[Day 41]

Today I woke up due to a System Message from Caspian and Mady. It seems that Caspian got the news over Redgaria "defeat" and congratulated me. He invited me to the Aquaria Kingdom for a big feast and even offered me some rewards. I would be up to it if he were to give me some of that StarFish Dew.

On the other hand, according to Mady message, she has taken over 60% of all the underground criminal organizations of the entire Kingdom in these few days. It seems that these thugs are weak, she told me that most of the time she took entire organizations with her own power. Mady has accumulated a big amount of money and had stolen most of these organization funds. She also has already started to make some connections with noble families. It's all going smoothly.

The next step should be trying to enslave most of the noble families with my skills, and then force Caspian to give me his Kingdom. I haven't directly enslaved Caspian because the noble family of the Aquaria Kingdom possesses a special effect on their [Royal Bloodline], making them immune to forced enslavement and most types of enchanting and charm skills. And I cannot simply kill him in front of his people, as the whole Kingdom would go against me and I would be forced to forcefully enslave all of them.

Why would I want to absorb the Aquaria Kingdom? Simply said, I don't trust them. I also don't like how they're living in the Grand Forest, which the system itself recognizes as my territory now. An independent kingdom inside my kingdom is no good. I don't want some people to see me as someone weak that lets others do as their pleases with my domain, rebelling and trying to separate my territory for each of them.

Another point is their riches and advanced technology, alongside strange magic and their population, which had limitless fighting potential if put in training. This is already shown with Gaby.

While my wives, Gaby, and the spirits were waking up, I prepared a small breakfast while I checked on my skills. Thanks to my split minds, I can easily multitask experimenting with skills while cooking something simple. If I lack hands, I can simply shapeshift some more.

Last night I was surprised due to my latest skill fusions, I obtained a new type of Core named [Supernatural Demonic Core of Forbidden Magic] after fusing more than ten different cores. After activating the skill, a black colored gem appeared in the middle of my breasts. It had countless pink and purple lights brightly shining inside. It reminded me of a small nebula.

I immediately felt a strange feeling when I inspected this rare core and I found out it had its own stats as if it were an item.

[Supernatural Demonic Core of Forbidden Magic: A special Demonic Core Gem that only the most powerful of Demon Lords can have. It possesses an incredibly large storage capacity for magic. Different skills can be attached inside for spontaneous release. This core can evolve with its wielder and even obtain a power of its own. If the core is broken, it will slowly grow back]

[Durability 500/500]

[Skill Slots 0/6]

[Natural Skills]

[Demonic Core Natural Magic Affinity] [Fast Regeneration] [Self Evolution] [Body Adaptability]

[Skill Release]

I really wanted to try its power, so I attached my two armor skills, [Deep Abyss Lizard Armor] and [Four-Armed Crimson Wyvern Magic Reflecting Armor] alongside several boosting skills.

The results were way more than I expected.

The moment I release the combined power of these skills, a new set of armor was born, it shined on a bright dark purple with several dark tones, it had beautiful decorations that seemed to be black roses. Around my shoulders, two red spikes glowed on a bright crimson. The helmet seemed to look like a menacing dragon about to devour the whole world. I could feel an incredible power flow through my entire body. I felt as my reflexes suddenly multiplied several times. The amazing thing over all of this is that such a heavy-looking armor wasn't heavy at all. I felt as if I weren't wearing armor at all.

When I glanced at my back, I saw a powerful purple colored aura exuding from my body, I could feel the presence of the countless beast I've eaten since I was a Caterpillar. As I glanced more at my aura, I saw several sparks of different lights, most of them being red, pink and purple colored. As I looked at them, they slowly began to merge until they formed several gems floating around me. Then, suddenly, a big ark of red light connected every gem, creating a majestic circle depicting different forms that never stayed the same, constantly changing. Sometimes I saw a ferocious wolf, other times it was a mighty flame salamander. Other times, it was the Powerful Undead King.

While I was admiring my strange aura, my split minds told me that the food was ready, waking me up from my dazed state. When I glanced around, my wives, Gaby, and the spirits were looking at me with impressed faces. Although Crina had more like a fearful face.

Crina began to tremble as she pointed at me with her small finger.

"J-Just what are you…?"

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I had to make my armor go back to my core so I could eat with my family on a less intimidating state. From now on, I will call this armor and state my "true form". I will try to save it as long as I can, only using it to give the decisive blow or when I feel like I can't win otherwise.

Anyways, my wives and Gaby were very surprised about this new armor and my aura, saying that it gave the impression of some demon god. It seems that because all of them are half monsters, they naturally praise and adore the strong, so their love for me increased even further…

However, the spirits are quite different, Crina was trembling in fear as she told me that she couldn't keep looking at that form, because of my corrosive aura, it damaged her somehow. Saphirae seemed to be neutral about it, but I could see some hints of fear on her face.

After having a nice breakfast, we decided to proceed through the dungeon. As we descended the stairs and we crossed the different rooms and traps, I decided to inspect the items I got yesterday. I wondered who would be worthy of my [Reinforcing Radish], I will maybe save it when I get back home. I had already planned to create a big slime using [Slime Combination]. While I inspected the items, I decided to drink the [EXP Potion] and a [Resistance Enhancing Potion]. The EXP Potion was green colored just like in most games, it had a delicious lemon flavor. The Resistance Enhancing Potion had a creamy cherry flavor.

[You gained 50000 EXP] [LEVEL 43/70 EXP 198930/248000]

[You learned the following Skills]

[Super EXP]

[EXP Gain Enhancement]

[Reinforced Resistance]

No way...

Just as I was fearing, another skill that shouldn't even exist was obtained after drinking this potion. In the first place, I shouldn't even get such a thing, only a small buff, and the EXP. However, I ended up obtaining a passive skill that increased my EXP gained by 30% permanently. The other one gave me the ability to enhance other EXP gain. Oh, and the extra Resistance isn't bad at all.

Reaching the seventh dungeon floor, I talked with my wives and Gaby about such skill as they looked at me with sparkling eyes. I quickly used [EXP Gain Enhancement] on each one, increasing their EXP gained by 30%.

Rimuru began to spin around while admiring the green-colored aura that the EXP boost granted.

"Aaah! Mastaa can do anything! Let's get all strong together, guuu!"

Zehe nodded.

"Hmm! I couldn't expect less from my lovely honey… Let's use this power to raise even higher"

Nesiphae winked at me while patting my head with her fingers.

"Fufufu… You never cease to amaze me, Master"

Brontes hugged me tightly.

"Big Sister is really the best! Let's get stronger!"

Gaby also seemed hyped by this new opportunity to increase her strength even faster.

"Oooh! I can't wait! Let's finish this dungeon already! I can't wait until I evolve once again!"

This floor monsters were a new variant of Undead. This time they were walking behemots that looked like a ferocious quadrupedal beast made of bones and covered on a thin layer of semitransparent blue slime. They didn't possess any kind of magic but had very fast speed and attack power, while also having the usual undying stamina of the undead. Their powerful bone claws and jaws were able to easily shatter the dungeon walls into dust, as they jumped over with extreme agility.

I quickly noticed that they had their cores inside their ribcages as Brontes and Gaby shattered them with masterful movements. On the frontlines, Nesiphae took several Undead Behemot by herself, slashing them with her powerful Axe. On the back was Zehe and Rimuru attacking the incoming monsters with powerful and precise magical projectiles. I also took several myself and ate around 9. The killing count when we finally reached the boss door was around 63.

[You gained 267350 EXP] [The rest of your party gained tons of EXP]

[You gained one level!] [LEVEL 44/70 EXP 218280/268000]

[The rest of your servants gained tons of levels!]

[You learned the following Skills]

[Undead Behemot Emperor Mighty Pressure]

[Undead Behemot Emperor Core]

[Hell Beast Mighty Bone Claws]

This boss room was infected with an eerie dead feeling. Afraid to enter, the spirits decided to hide outside the boss room until we finished the monster. When we entered the boss room, we were greeted by a variant of the previous Undead Behemoths, however, this monster resembled a giant wolf with three heads, each one exuding with a different elemental aura. It had three tails that seemed to have a mind of their own, resembling snakes.

The powerful beast jumped around the walls attacking us with mighty bite attacks and elemental lasers. Most of the time, if the beast didn't manage to bite you, its snake tails would make sure to spit you with some type of corrosive acid. I didn't expect this beast to be this strong, as I had to work together with my wives and Gaby to tackle over the monster tactics and fast learning. Quickly avoiding our combined attacks while kicking us or shooting corrosive acid. Even when it fought against six people, the beast fought valiantly and I even hold some respect for its bravery.

The beast ultimately began to lose its limbs, as its MP diminished, its movements became slower, creating various openings for my smart wives to abuse. Gaby pounced at the beast back with a powerful Blade Energy slash, generating a big hole on its body. Brontes jumped right after, raising her club and shattering to dust one of the beast heads. Receiving the monster was Nesiphae, who raised her Axe and engulfed it on powerful flames, cutting a big chunk of the beast's body. Ultimately, Zehe and Rimuru finished the beast as it tried to keep fighting with a powerful multi-elemental spell.

[You gained 302170 EXP] [The rest of your party gained tons of EXP]

[You gained one level!] [LEVEL 45/70 EXP 252450/290000]

[The rest of your servants gained tons of levels!]

[Everyone on your party have received a [Reward Gift (Unique+)] x2 and [Magic Enhancing Potion Pack (3)] on your Item Box]

When the monster died, two blue-colored orbs fell down the ground, as I felt spirits inside them. I quickly saved them and feed them my MP. The two spirits looked like a small butterfly made of water, they were named Adia and Adio. It seems that both are twins. When spirits are twins, this means that both were born from the same spirit fragment, originally being only one spirit, they accidentally split in two, generating almost identical beings. Both were rather asocial, as they barely liked to talk, so I left them to Crina's care.

I quickly digested a big chunk of the boss remains alongside its shattered core while expanding my body like a slime, this was the first time I did this, so it felt rather weird being a complete slime. Rimuru looked at my slime form with amazement, saying that I looked even more beautiful in this watery body. I was the only one eating these monsters, as my wives didn't like the idea of eating such disgusting beings. Sometimes they are rather picky.

[You learned the following Skills]

[Undead Slimy Cerberus Triple Elemental Core]

[Ferocious Beast Cry]

[Mighty Beast of the Deeps of Hell Powerful Claws and Jaws]

[Undead Cerberus Bone Armor]

Considering this was a boss, I was rather disappointed by the amount of skills obtained, however, they were rather powerful. This was the first time I obtained an armor skill without having to directly eat a demon armor, it was an interesting discovery.

We decided to take a small break as I prepared a quick meal to satiate my wife's appetite. Due to Nesiphae constant requests, I ended up grilling a whole Giant Snow Rabbit alongside big chunks of the Lizardman Emperor meat. We accompanied this with pickled vegetables and a cold beer.

While everyone rested for around 10 minutes, I decided to open my [Reward Gift]. The first one gave me once again a bizarre item. It was a big golden-colored mushroom; I could sense a golden and dazzling aura coming from it. It was named [Golden Fortune Mushroom] and it was of [Unique+] Class. It permanently gave +3 Luck when consumed alongside a small "Lucky" boost, which increases Luck for the nest 10 minutes by +5. Because I've always had a bad luck stat, this item came right in time, the previous pin was too ridiculous for me to wear. The second [Reward Gift] gave me a small keychain accessory depicting the Undead Cerberus faces into a cute anime-like appearance.

I don't know what's wrong with these boxes, but I kept getting these weird items. This keychain gave me +30 MP and a small increase in MP regeneration. I ended up using it as I could attach it inside my armor so one could look at it.

I ended up eating the mushroom alongside the [Magic Enhancing Potion]. The mushroom had a very ordinary flavor for its powerful aura, with some small salty hints. The Potion had a very sweet orange flavor, it reminded me of Earth's juice.

[You gained +3 Luck] [Current Luck: 2]

[You learned the following Skills]

[Lucky]

[Basic Luck Enhancement]

[Magic Reinforcement]

I should have expected this already. However, I still dropped my jaw when I saw the skill named [Lucky]. This amazing skill is an active boost that I can apply whenever I want to myself, it cost 300 Stamina and 350 MP and it gives me +20 Luck for the next 30 minutes.

Amazing…!

Is it…? I still don't even know the real benefits of the Luck Stat in this world, it will need some testing. On the other hand, [Basic Luck Enhancement] is a Luck boost for my allies, it has similar benefits than [Lucky] but way lower, only increasing Luck by +10 for 30 minutes. This dungeon has been full of surprises.

When everyone finished resting, we quickly rushed towards the eighth floor. Unlike the previous floors, this place was absurdly filled with different kinds of traps, there were poison traps, the classic rock traps, and even teleportation traps. Thankfully, with my upgraded [Mystic Eyes] we were able to easily detect and avoid them. I can already assume that whatever is taking control of this place is a master of traps… Wait that sounds weird in another context… Never mind.

While we were fighting the previous floor monsters, we finally encountered a new monster to devour. Instead of the usual undead skeleton slimes. This time these beings seemed to be a variant of ghosts. They were made of a pale blue colored gas, having different crying faces all over their bodies. Some would have bone arms and even multiple heads made of skulls. They lacked any kind of core and were certainly hard to kill, they were immune to physical damage and most magic attacks were ineffective. However, only a small shot of Holy or Light magic was enough to evaporate them completely. I ended up enslaving one with the skill [Death Pact] because Blood Pact doesn't work on ghosts. We killed around 26 on our way to the boss's room.

[You successfully made a Death Pact with Crying Specter Emperor] [57/120]

[You gained 214700 EXP] [The rest of your party gained tons of EXP]

[You gained one level!] [LEVEL 46/70 EXP 177150/314000]

[The rest of your servants gained tons of levels!]

It seems that these sneaky monsters are the culprits behind the absurd number of traps around the dungeon, as they have the skills [Set Trap] and [Edit Trap]. I ended up eating around 12 until I got all the skills. They didn't have any taste at all. I just felt as if I was sucking on some very cold air.

[You learned the following Skills]

[Deadly Suffering Cry]

[Ghostly Capabilities]

[Enhance Trap]

"I didn't get the other skills? Oh…"

I forgot that my [Deadly Trap] skill already can set and edit traps, this explains why I didn't get the same function again. These monsters also had some Illusion and Hypnosis magic, I didn't learn those skills either.

This floor boss was a powerful Specter made out of countless ghosts. Its entire body was covered on suffering and crying faces, it seems that it replicates the faces of the ghosts it devours. It had six arms and each arm was covered on sturdy bones. It attacked mostly with its bone weapons but sometimes it would try to shot someone down with a powerful Ghost Beam. A strange magic attack that had both Soul and Shadow Magic. It also had the skill [Holy and Light Resistance] and was able to resist most of these magic attacks. I had to slowly end it with multiple [Divine Punishment] while my wives distracted it with basic magic. Maybe next time I should use some Soul related skills to quickly kill these ghost monsters.

[You gained 336520 EXP] [The rest of your party gained tons of EXP]

[You gained one level!] [LEVEL 47/70 EXP 199670/340000]

[The rest of your servants gained tons of levels!]

[Everyone on your party have received a [Reward Gift (Unique+)] x2 and [HP Enhancing Potion Pack (3)] on your Item Box]

I prepared a small meal for everyone to rest for some time, while I slowly ate the remains of the boss. This ghost had a more distinct flavor, the cold air now had some bitterness to it, and even sometimes I could feel some hints of sweetness. I wonder if I could even use these ghosts as an ingredient.

[You obtained a new Title]

[Merciless Ghost Annihilator]

[You learned the following Skills]

[Wailing Cries of the Fallen]

[Specter Incredible Tenacity]

[Ghost Beam]

[Holy and Light Resistance]

[You obtained a special Item Drop: Ghostly Bone Claws (Unique)x1]

"Well, this is new…"

After eating the entire boss's remains, I obtained this weird item. It's qualified as a [Claw] type of weapon. Although I can equip it, I decided to save it for now. It had rather nice stats and came with the skill [Self Evolution].

When everyone finished their meals, we quickly descended even further to the ninth floor. This floor was filled with some new Ghost monsters. There were the previous floor monsters alongside Wisps which are small flame-like ghosts that attack inflicting a burning curse. There were also Lizardman Warrior Ghosts, which seems to be the corrupted souls of the fallen Lizardman Warriors. And lastly a strange being made of countless humanoid arms. It was semi corporeal and was named Thousand-Armed Legion.

The entire floor was filled with these spooky ghosts. We had to slowly advance through the different rooms as we purged them all with Light and Holy Magic. We barely had any time to rest as more ghosts would penetrate the walls and attack us. When we reached the boss door, we killed at least more than one hundred of these monsters, they were quite the vicious bunch.

[You gained 257251 EXP] [The rest of your party gained tons of EXP]

[You gained one level!] [LEVEL 48/70 EXP 116921/368000]

[The rest of your servants gained tons of levels!]

Before entering the boss room, I quickly consumed the "corpses" of some of the ghosts that we killed. The Wisps ethereal bodies tasted like a very spicy air. Lizardman Warrior Ghosts had a small hint of meat and the Hundred-Armed Legion just tasted like rotten flesh.

[You learned the following Skills]

[Burning Soul Curse]

[Ethereal Fire Coating]

[Soul Piercing Thrust]

[Hundred Arm Ghostly Punches]

The boss of this floor was a powerful Hundred-Armed Legion Emperor, it had a massive body and more than a hundred arms. Each arm was holding a powerful and sharp bone weapon, from lances, axes, spears, and swords. Some arms dedicated themselves to casting different spells. It was an incredibly complex enemy, every second it attacked, more than one hundred attacks came our way, it was a desperate battle.

With the cooperation of my wives and Gaby, each one taking care of more than 20 arms at the same time, we managed to hit the boss "core" which was just a big lump of meat that connected the countless arms. When I saw that the battle began to become too long, I decided to use more of my power, throwing several spells at the same time. While my Cursed Claws surrounded the boss and detonated, severely damaging the monster arms. I finished the monster off with [Omni Elemental Blast of Destruction] disintegrating its core, making the rest of its arms fall off the ground while struggling to get together. Without a core to go back, they slowly became motionless.

[You gained 373220 EXP] [The rest of your party gained tons of EXP]

[You gained one level!] [LEVEL 49/70 EXP 122141/398000]

[The rest of your servants gained tons of levels!]

[Everyone on your party have received a [Reward Gift (Unique++)] x2 and [MP Enhancing Potion Pack (3)] on your Item Box]

While the rest of my party rested, I began to eat some arms until I munched on something extremely hard. I slowly took the entire arm apart and found another spirit orb. When I opened it, a very weak spirit on the shape of a fish was barely hanging on its life. I had to infuse incredible amounts of MP to bring back the small guy to a healthy state. When it completely healed, it had the form a beautiful orange fish with long golden whiskers. It was named Koi and was one of the oldest spirits on this shrine. Crina seemed to remember who this spirit was, and Koi also knew her.

They talked for a while and afterward, Koi began to tell about what resides on the last floor.

"The rest of our family is in extreme danger, what lays bellow the tenth floor is a horrible monster. A being that came from another realm and settled on this shrine, slowly corrupting it with its undead corrosion… An abominable creature… Its body never ended and had one thousand mouths, filled with sharp fangs… It's the Nether Hellish Worm. A creature that shouldn't belong in this realm at all! P-Please, young lady, help our spirit folk!"

What did he just say? Nether Hellish Worm? Now that sounds interesting, perhaps this is the monster qualified as "Kaiser" Class, isn't it? I can feel my blood boiling on excitement. I hope it doesn't disappoint me. However, I need to act more composed of these spirits…

"Hmmph… But what do I gain over defeating it?"

Koi began to sweat as it browsed through his mind, looking for something to say.

"W-Well… I guess you could take it… The sacred treasure… But only if you defeat that monster!"

Crina quickly yelled at Koi.

"But Koi! We can't just give that sacred treasure to that mortal! It was the gift that our Superior Spirit Father gave us!"

"Silence, Crina! Don't you understand the amount of effort that it would be to take down that creature? That abomination… Giving away that treasure on behalf of the life of our people it's nothing…! I would do it again a hundred times!"

Sacred Treasure? Interesting. I can already imagine such treasure, given by a Superior Spirit, it should be flowing with powerful energy. I wonder what type of weapon or armor it is.

"Now you're talking! Very well, old man… We will kill that monster!"

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