Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-98

[Day 80]

Because Zehe will most likely give birth in the following days, the Rin Sisters have been taking care of the Dungeon System tasks and activities. The dungeon has successfully reached eight floors now, and a new type of monster is roaming the place.

Thanks to the various upgrades, the sisters were able to buy a new Dungeon Skill named [New Generation], which diversifies the evolution of Blood Monsters and Demonic Ants. Now new variants are roaming the place and slowly diversifying. These monsters are [Blood Bone Monsters] and [Poisonous Hellish Ants]. They possess bigger bodies and net more EXP, Gold, Magic Cores and Equipment.

Some of the dropped equipment have begun to appear with special Skills that I can use to craft stronger items. Today, I've collected a fair amount of these.

Although they're mostly of [Rare] quality, they can become pretty good materials, so I spent several hours synthesizing them into materials using my Alchemy mastery.

When I reached my 25 daily uses, I had to stop. Although I could obtain more daily synthesize uses, I wanted to train for the rest of the day. Before leaving the workshop, I made sure to save all these new crafting materials on my Item Box.

While saving them, I inspected one of the highest quality ones, which were crafted using a [Rare+++] Silver Gloves.

[Enhanced Recycled Silver Ingot: A strong and high-quality Silver Ingot made by recycling and synthesizing the [Rare+++] equipment [Silver Gloves]

[Traits: [High Quality] [Enhanced Hardness] [Magical Conductivity]

[Bonus Traits: [Medium Fire Resistance] [Blazing Fist] [Flame Damage Up+] [Fire Storage]

This one could make an amazing item if paired with even more traits, from all my servants, I think it could benefit Truhan the most because although Kjata can equip items, she is just better off with her own natural armor. Alice could also benefice from it, but she is not here.

Leaving that aside, I told the rest of the workers on the Workshop to keep synthesizing the remaining equipment into ingots.

I quickly flew to the Training Grounds and tirelessly trained with my servants and some of my wives. The menu on today's' mobs to slay were Enhanced Undead Chimera Dragons. A new type of monster that I designed to fight, there were also the classic Enhanced Super Undead Soldiers on the mix.

These new monsters overwhelmed most of the rookies, who needed to work together to be able to stand a chance. However, there wasn't any need for my assistance, as we have plenty of healers now.

[You gained 759213 EXP] [The rest of your servants gained tons of EXP]

[You gained one level!] [LEVEL 67/70 EXP 0582750/1373000]

[Your servants gained tons of levels!]

Tonight, dinner was something I've been saving for a while, these were the bodies of various mermen that died on the earthquake provoked by my fight with the Old Ancestor. Thanks to things not decomposing inside the Item Box, their meat was as fresh and tender as always.

The meat was prepared in several ways, their fish tails were made into the hot pot and fried slices. There were also soup noodles with fish cakes made with their tails and also sushi! Yes! Although it's not really like Earth's sushi, it was still quite decent.

[Fresh Merman Tail Sushi: A delicious preparation made with freshly sliced merman tail meat alongside different boiled forest grains and Great Lake seaweed.]

[Grants +10 to Speed and Magic]

[Heals +60 Stamina and +40 MP]

I didn't tell that this fish was from mermen, as all the merfolk rookies happily ate the preparations. Even Adelle… Hmm, I think this feels wrong… Ugh…

Somehow, I felt a little bit of guilt on making these people unknowingly do cannibalism…

Adelle was munching on some sushi as she looked at me with her usual calm and unexpressive glare.

"Wife, what is it?"

"AH! N-Nothing! Nothing at all!"

"Hmm…"

Phew… That was close, I will never tell them the truth of this day… I will bring this secret to the grave…

Anyways, I spent the first half of the day on a double date with Adelle and Mady, we went around town and then had some lovely time on a hotel, so we wouldn't bother Zehe and my other wives.

This was the first time going on a hotel for Adelle so she was rather shy, but in the end, she slowly calmed down and enjoyed the pleasure.

At the end of the night, I gifted both of them with some new accessories. I gave Mady the [Enhanced Hypnotizing Kraken Soul Golden Ring], which I managed to add several new traits and skills like [All Thunder Resistance], etc. On Adelle's side, she received a [Light Spirit Tear Holy Bracelet], a beautiful bracelet that I crafted with several Light Spirit Stones and my own blood, which gave it healing properties.

Both of them loved their new gifts that weren't just some ornament, but a way for them to get stronger and protect themselves.

[Sub Classes Fields]

[Alchemy: level 8/10 > 9/10]

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[Day 81]

Kjata and Nereid have been awfully too close today as well, thankfully, Yurei is rather calm and doesn't fight for my attention. There must be something inherent in those spirits that I summon that makes them want to be so close to me…

Anyways, today I decided to add Adelle and Mady into my official wives through the Kingdom System. I also managed to check some of our stats and found that the steady increase in population has increased the bonus stats granted to everyone by a small amount, meaning, the more people we have, the strongest we get.

[You have selected Sacred Spiritual Koi Mermaid: Adelle Floria Aquaria has your sixth Sub Governor]

[Your affinity with Sacred Spiritual Koi Mermaid: Adelle Floria Aquaria has increased]

[Your bond with Sacred Spiritual Koi Mermaid: Adelle Floria Aquaria is strong]

[You can now share your strength between you two]

[Skills can also be given to a lover, with a limit of five]

[You have selected High Ancient Armored Kraken: Mady Cobalt has your seventh Sub Governor]

[Your affinity with High Ancient Armored Kraken: Mady Cobalt has increased]

[Your bond with High Ancient Armored Kraken: Mady Cobalt is strong]

[You can now share your strength between you two]

[Skills can also be given to a lover, with a limit of five]

When the two girls noticed the notification, they smiled slightly. Adelle tried to mask her happiness while trying to analyze the system.

"Hmm, is this the Kingdom System you talk so much about? It is rather interesting, our Aquaria Kingdom has been alive for very long, but we have never seen such a system showing up at all. This is perhaps something inherent of your blessing"

"A-Ah?! Are you sure, Adelle?"

Adelle nodded while blushing a little.

"Umu, did you though that we all had this? If such a thing were true, we certainly wouldn't be in such a position where we lack any kind of war power… Sigh, thankfully, these issues were resolved as we made the Kingdom Union, my wife"

To think that, what I see as normal, is actually something based on my own powers?

"Hm, then there isn't any Construction System either?"

"A what?! C-Construction system? My wife, is this the reason why your Kingdom can expand so fast? Such godly powers… The system certainly doesn't offer such help to the rest of us…"

"Yeah, it's because of this… Maybe, now that we've made a Kingdom Union, I may use it on Aquaria?"

"Umu, it would certainly amusing… Alright, let's go immediately!"

Seeing the enthusiasm of Adelle, I decided to go for a bit to the Aquaria Kingdom, Mady also accompanied me as we were all together.

Flash!

Adelle teleported back with her ring, and then I followed her back using mine, while tightly grabbing on Mady, it seems that I can teleport up to two persons with me using this method, the rest won't be teleported.

Flash!

In mere seconds, the scene quickly changed from my castle to the Aquaria Kingdom castle.

Our sudden appearance scared some of the maids and butlers around, who jumped in shock.

"Ah! Oh, its Queen Kireina alongside Lady Mady…"

"Fueeh… T-That really scared me… Ah! Oh no! I dropped the tea!"

"Hahaha, sorry, sorry… By the way, did you see Adelle?"

The butler who seemed to be a Mershark stood up and answered calmly.

"Yes, she appeared here right before you, my Queen. She rushed to the castle courtyard"

As I heard him, I rushed to the outside and encountered Adelle who was shocked after inspecting her own system window.

"My wife, I-Its true… It seems that because I am a Queen here, I have access to such power…"

"Really, then I'm glad, this will surely help the Kingdom flourish"

"Y-Yes… But, such power… The ability to easily manipulate troops and make them do any house in hours… I've already commanded some people, I saw as various people were controlled by a strange power, which ordered them like puppets into making a manor, right behind our castle…"

As we flew over the castle, we found several people, from maids, butlers, and even plebeians, all together working in perfect harmony, as if they always knew how to make a house from zero. The desired materials also appeared out of thin air as they kept working. Although I was used to this, the ones who worked were mostly tireless Undead soldiers, not living people.

After three hours passed, the manor was completely finished, but the people were extremely exhausted, I had to heal each one or they would have died.

In the end, I decided to do [MP Share] with various Noble's Maids and Butlers. I managed to squeeze enough MP to summon around three hundred Undead Soldiers. These guys will be in charge of construction from now on.

Adelle was still dazed by the incredible power that this system held.

"With this, we can easily create more working places for the people that lack jobs… In some days, this city will be able to go back to its old glory! An industrial paradise!"

"Old glory?"

"Umu! In the past, when our Kingdom used to be way wealthier, we used to steadily produce high-quality items that were successfully traded across the entire continent! However, those connections slowly began to disappear as time passed… Of course, I didn't see these things in person, I only read about it on the library books"

"I understand… But, why did these connections disappear? What happened to those people your ancestors used to trade with?"

"There is nothing about them on the books… But I think that it has to do with an ancient war that happened one hundred years ago, it was a massive war between different demi-human Kingdoms that lasted for several years… In that war, several races perished entirely"

"I see…"

I spent several hours talking with Adelle and Mady about this war, and I learned that it was named [Great Demi-Human Warfare]. It is said to have been a [Destined War], all the great figures that participated possessed a [Epic] skill and were also part of the [Greater Epic of The Realm of Vida], which encompasses all the events that happen on this realm. Although the existence of such a thing is only a belief and has not been proven.

Will I someday be part of this [Greater Epic]? Or perhaps, I'm already are?

Sigh… Every time I think about [Epic] Skills, a chill goes through my spine. Whatever all of this means, they're bad news, and I need to prepare as much as I can before any [Scripted Event] occurs…

For now, I must work hard and help everyone get stronger. Stronger enough to be ready for anything that destiny has prepared for us.

Ugh, I got all emotional once again. I need to rest.

Anyways, after everything was settled on Aquaria, I left Adelle in her room and I went back to my castle alongside Mady.

I trained for the rest of the day alongside my servants and some of my wives, the humans and demi-humans have grown stronger, alongside the merfolk.

[You gained 738621 EXP] [The rest of your servants gained tons of EXP]

[LEVEL 67/70 EXP 1321371/1373000]

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

I've been thinking about the idea of creating bigger teams and letting them all explore the outside world. Various demi-humans and humans already know about various places, so they could guide my people.

But before that, I don't feel that they're strong enough. For now, I will keep this training for around a month more, and then, if the results satisfy me, I will leave them to go on their own adventures.

I still haven't explored the dungeon were the Wyvern Overlord was sealed, which he said possessed more than 50 floors. And there are still some small areas that Guubo has mapped that I haven't explored on my own, I want to first grab some abilities from the monsters that inhabit these mini biomes inside the Grand Forest.

I've heard about various small towns around the Athetosea Kingdom which were made around dungeons, I really want to explore these, and they're not really so far from here. I could also become an adventurer or mercenary and eat some more humans…

Perhaps, I could send big groups to each town, disguised as demi-humans, they could easily explore these high-level dungeons and get even stronger.

Anyways, I had a hearty dinner and then went to craft some more before sleeping. Rimuru and Zehe's bracelets are almost ready, but I want them to possess as many skills as they can.

After using so many different ingots filled with special traits, I discovered that the maximum number of traits and skills that an item can have depends on their quality class.

[Rare] items can have five, increasing by one with each "+", up to a total of 8. [Unique] can have 9 up to a total of 12 with three "+". I've discovered that there is an intermediary class between Unique and Legendary, named [Mythical] which can have 13 traits or skills and up to 16 with three "+".

With my capabilities, I can only forge items up to [Unique] class, sometimes if I'm lucky, up to [Unique+]. Above that it becomes extremely hard and tiring, I wouldn't be able to keep on forging after that point, probably falling unconscious out of pure exhaustion.

[Legendary] class items are things that only Demi-Gods and Gods can make, I would probably die before I could even finish 1% of an [Legendary] item. It's not like I can make one, as I lack any recipe.

After successfully reinforcing the two bracelets, my Crafting and Blacksmithing abilities reached level 10 and evolved.

[Sub Classes Fields [Crafting: level 10/10] [Blacksmithing: level 10/10] have reached their max level]

[Sub Classes Fields have successfully evolved into [Construction: level 1/10] and [Metallurgy: level 1/10]

Phew… That was certainly tiring. But as these two Fields evolved, I felt brand new information crossing through my brain, which stored all the information and knowledge. Suddenly, I felt as if I was already a veteran in these fields.

Anyways, I was too exhausted to absorb all this info and quickly went to bed.

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