Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-69

[Day 45]

Today I managed to wake up earlier in the morning, and I decided to inspect some of the skills I obtained last night through Skill Fusion while my wives still were sleeping.

After fusing the Golem Core skills alongside the Sacred Protector Orb of Wisdom, I obtained [Forbidden Sacred Protector Orb of Nature and Earth]. A translucent pale green orb that had strong magic properties and its description said that it was able to modify the skills that I put in it giving them Nature and Earth Elements.

When I activated the skill, the orb appeared in on my left knee. I quickly put some skills to try it out, I added [Charming Empress of Lust Triple Elemental Cerberus Chimera Armor] to see the effects of the orb transforming the armor. Before activating its power, I thought about what would happen if I add [Armor Combination], so I added it.

The results were outstanding, this was really the power of the Sacred Protector of the Forest.

The pale-blue Cerberus armor that was usually decorated with a different crystal in each wolf's head became way more refined and lighter, becoming of a brilliant green color. The wolf heads changed to resemble a ferocious turtle, a calm turtle, and a sleeping turtle. And the spherical crystals in each had become one big green-colored crystal on the center of the armor, that increased Magic Conductivity.

Aside from this, it seems that my equipment successfully combined with this new armor, my crown became green colored and grew small tree-like decorations alongside green and brown gems. On the other side, my dress also changed, becoming of a pale green color decorated with beautiful forest markings. My heels also changed, becoming completely covered on an armor and having a brilliant green gem on each one. Meanwhile, my left-hand glove armor [Poisonous Mistress] successfully fused with the armor and grew in power, looking like a fierce claw. Finally, the [Shadow Rose Chest Plate] completely fused with the chest area of the armor, increasing its power and density.

After silently going outside, I tried this new power as I flew around the forest. The new speed that this armor gave me was outstanding, making the travel to the fifth layer in less than five minutes.

When I arrived here, I found a new monster, it seems to be an outside monster named [Giant Golden Rhinoceros Beetle Emperor], the monster was around 13 meters tall and had powerful muscular limbs covered on sturdy exoskeleton. While a shining golden horn decorated its massive head.

I quickly inspected it with Appraisal.

[NAME: NONE

[CLASS: NONE

[RACE: Giant Golden Rhinoceros Beetle Emperor

[LEVEL 86/350 EXP 123011/670000 STATUS: HUNGRY

[HP: 745/745 MP: 252/252 STAMINA: 174/450

[STRENGTH: 470

[DEFENCE: 512

[MAGIC: 261

[RESISTANCE: 184

[SPEED: 190

[CHARISMA: 20

[LUCK: 0

[SKILLS]

[Ancient Insect Lineage Blessing]

[Ancient Insect Lineage Tenacity and Regeneration]

[Golden Beetle Emperor Dignified Aura]

[Raging Giant Beetle Golden Horn Charge]

[Ancient Beetle Adamantine Flesh]

[Basic Earth Magic Creation and Manipulation]

It was rather strong.

Noticing my presence, the Beetle quickly charged at me while activating its buffing skills, the bastard also began to shot me Earth Magic projectiles in the form of sharp lances.

I decided to try out the sturdiness of the armor as I took all the projectiles head-on.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Each projectile felt like a mountain hitting my small body, but I felt almost no pain, as my strong armor was able to easily protect me from the mighty power of the Beetle magic.

"Not bad…"

I flew at max speed towards the Beetle, and noticing my fast charge, the monster raised its horn while yelling, it was ferocious and didn't fear me at all.

When I was about to hit the Beetle, I raised my [Poisonous Mistress] claw as I expanded it into a massive arm and punched the beast with all my strength.

BOOOM!

The beast didn't even last a second as it exploded into a slimy mess with just my punch.

[You gained 52600 EXP]

[LEVEL 51/70 EXP 166106/452000]

[You obtained a new Title]

[Giant Golden Rhinoceros Beetle Emperor]

Feeling such power and speed flowing through my entire body, I spent the rest of the morning fighting these beasts, which after seeing one of their kind die so horribly, actually wanted revenge against me. I ferociously smashed them all into pulp, covering the entire Fifth Layer with Green Blood and severed beetle limbs. I was planning to enslave one or two, but I ended up killing every single one that was on my sight.

[You gained 542671 EXP]

[You gained one level!] [LEVEL 52/70 EXP 256777/482000]

I used my Nether Sword to easily store their rich souls, which I happily devoured. Their blood was rather disgusting and didn't have any properties, so I didn't drink that much.

[You gained +10 on every Soul Stat and 0,5% Soul Mutation Ratio]

After killing so many beasts, something inside my armor changed, as it absorbed these beast essences. I felt as the armor became sturdier and lighter at the same time.

[Shadow Rose Chest Plate] [Self Evolution] has been triggered]

[Shadow Rose Chest Plate has successfully evolved alongside its combined armor due to the effect of [Armor Combination] taking place]

[Because the armor is a skill that originated from the Item [Forbidden Sacred Protector Orb of Nature and Earth], thanks to [Armor Combination], [Self Evolution] has also affected such Item]

[Forbidden Sacred Protector Orb of Nature and Earth] has evolved into [Sacred Spiritual Orb of Nature and Earth]

I couldn't believe that [Self Evolution] would work in such ways, as long as I have it connected through [Armor Combination] to my core and orb skills, these orbs and cores can evolve too.

I also received several notifications from each of my old equipment, all of them successfully evolved alongside my chest plate, even my crown.

When I made the armor go back to the Orb, my equipment went back to their "normal state", but I was able to easily notice their changes, all of them became sturdier and lighter while obtaining slightly new designs or becoming sharper. My crown, for example, used to be rather tiny, but now it became way more imposing and was decorated with various shiny gems of different colors.

Satisfied with my experimentations, I quickly gathered the destroyed meat of the countless beetles I killed and ate them on the way home. Its meat was rough and rather bitter, its blood was also gross and made me want to puke, so I used my [Dissolving Juices] to eat them without having to taste them anymore.

[You learned the following Skills]

[Giant Golden Beetle Emperor Exoskeleton Armor]

[Golden Beetle Emperor Dignified Aura]

[Raging Giant Beetle Merciless Charge]

[Golden Horn Creation]

[Ancient Beetle Regenerative Adamantine Flesh]

I also assimilated some on pieces of meat on the way, and my [Assimilation] Skill finally reached max level and evolved.

[You learned the following Assimilation Skills]

[Ancient Insect Lineage Psyche]

[Golden Beetle Shiny Wings]

[Blood Monster Assimilation] has reached level 10]

[Blood Monster Assimilation level 10] has successfully evolved into [Empress of Lust All-Purpose Genetic Assimilation and Absorption level 1]

"It has been a while since a skill evolved naturally without fusing anything over it…"

This new Assimilation Skill let me absorb the essence of other beings through assimilation more easily, helping me get more skills. But I still can't fuse the Assimilation Skills. Maybe because they're the effect of a single skill but branched in several parts… Perhaps I just need to keep evolving this Skill.

I tried to assimilate more Beetle Meat but didn't get anything, I suddenly got the feeling that I need to consume more meat, but I want to save it for the rest of my family, so everyone can grow stronger too.

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After reaching the Castle, I went inside the Royal Kitchen and gave this new meat to Chokumotsu, who was teaching her kids how to cook, it was still quite early so no one was eating yet. Her kids were rather adorable and liked to try new food. When they saw the big chunks of beetle meat, they were amazed, one of them tried to bite a piece of the meat but ended up puking it because of the horrible flavor.

Chokumotsu laughed at it and promised me that she would find a way to make this monster delicious for all of us. She is a very talented woman, so I had no doubt she would.

When I went back to my room, I found my wives taking a bath so I quickly joined them.

The bath was enjoyable and relaxing, and seeing the beautiful naked bodies of my wives while they wash each of their parts is rather amusing. I sometimes just like to admire their bodies, which end up making them embarrassed. Well, not everyone, Nesiphae likes to be seen and even teases me while washing herself. Brontes and Rimuru are fine with it and don't really mind it. But Zehe and Gaby usually become rather flustered, probably because they come from a more civilized society and have developed a more complex sense of privacy. But I won't flinch! I shall keep looking at them until they are no more embarrassed. Their bodies are wonderful and they don't need to hide anything.

After having a relaxing bath, we went to the dining room and ate a nice breakfast, there was loads of fruits today, alongside crepes and whipped cream. There was also honey and fried meat, Nesiphae liked to drink beer in the morning sometimes, but I stopped her because it could be dangerous for her child. She looked at me with an apologizing face, but she seemed rather sad that she will have to stop drinking as much as she did before.

While eating, Redgaria brought me the books that I asked him yesterday, it was only five books, but each one contained the secrets of only one spell. However, each spell was incredibly powerful and complex, this is why it needed such a big book of around 1200 pages each to teach anyone how to use the spells.

I began to read the [True Magical Double Spell Book], which was 1134 pages long, although I was able to understand most parts using several of my enhancing spells, this method was too slow. I wondered if I could eat it and obtain the spell.

Suddenly, Redgaria face who is usually calm and peaceful became ugly and horrified by what was going on in front of him.

I began to use my dissolving juices to slowly dissolve the book, and in less than 20 seconds, the book completely dissolved into nothingness.

"W-What are you doing?! You won't simply get a skill by eating anything! There is some principle in some things! Not everything must be devoured! What is wrong with you?!"

As Redgaria yelled at me, a system message popped in my head.

[You learned the following Skill]

[True Magical Double]

This little notification put a smile on my face. While Redgaria kept yelling, I quickly activated the spell right in front of him. The skill cost a whopping 250 MP, and it summons an almost identical copy of me made with magic, it can share 70% of my stats and half of my skills, it will naturally dissipate after two hours.

After seeing a clone of myself appear out of thin air, Redgaria almost fainted. My wives were also surprised as they didn't expect me to get the skill just from eating a book.

"Y-You really did get the skill… From eating a book?"

Suddenly, Redgaria grabbed a book and began to munch it and gulp the pages. However, when he finished eating it entirely, the only thing he got was a very dry mouth from eating too much old paper.

"Haaah… So, it only works on you…"

I still appreciated how he ate a book so my wives didn't have to try on their own. There have been always limitations on how much my blessing can be shared. But most of the time, the only way to find out if a servant can get a certain skill, is by just eating the monster or object.

While Redgaria seemed to die inside once again, I ate the rest of the books.

[You obtained a new Title]

[Bookworm]

[You learned the following Skills]

[Expanded Magic Perception]

[Advanced Necromancy Arts; Random High Undead Summon]

[Corrosive Magic Field]

After eating to my heart's content, I left my wives on the Training Grounds alongside the Royal Knights, the demi-humans and Humans for further training and skill polishing. I will come back to them later.

I've been wanting to go inspect the Bloody Sacrifice Dungeon but I still need to create that road, so I went with Shokunin and the big Construction Team and made preparations to create a safe road towards the dungeon.

After some planning, I commanded most of the undead to go to the forest with us as we finally began to construct the road. Using Eshne help, we easily cleaned all the trees on the way, and all the monkeys and undead started to flatten the ground, I used my [Geokinesis] to move aside any big rocks on the way.

As time passed and I cleaned the road, the monkeys and undead started to pave the way, using a mix of rock dust and water and some magic enhancement, they managed to easily create concrete, as they paved the way, other monkeys and undead would put on shiny and flattened ceramics.

After working for more than five hours, we finally reached half of the way towards the Dungeon, any monster that tried to attack us was quickly intimidated away by my released aura, which didn't affect my servants or summoned creatures unless I wanted to.

I decided for everyone to take a break as I went back to the Kingdom in a flash and brought food and cold beer for everyone, even some undead enjoyed the alcohol.

When everyone was refreshed and rested, we resumed our work until the night fell, and we finally reached the Blood Forest. Feeling worried about my people's safety, I decided to call it a day and I summoned a big slime to carry all the tired workers back to the Kingdom.

Because I wasn't really tired, I decided to continue the work with the undead, and as time passed, my wives began to send me direct messages telling me that they missed me. I really wanted to finish this so I had to apologize to each one and tell them that I would amend for this in the future.

Skill Fusions of the Day: None! Too busy!

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