Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-997

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[Day 345]

Today I woke up rather well, and I felt like something was growing within me, but I couldn't completely tell.

I had left another body with Electra and her mother, so I also slept at their side. I used that clone to eat the technomancy junk that Electra created, the only time she stopped doing this stuff was when she was drinking milk or sleeping…

By eating all of this scrap metal, I felt like something was going on. Was I getting essence? Mana? Divine Energy? I couldn't tell, but it was clearly some sort of energy, some sort of "thing".

They did not attribute particles either, I didn't gain Earth or System Attribute Particles by eating these things, but I felt like I was getting something else.

There are several theories of what it could be, but an obvious one is that, by ingesting these technology parts, I am slowly accumulating what I call… Residual Dao Essence.

Residual Dao Essence seems to be some kind of power even higher than divine energy, attribute particles, and more, it might be what comes out of the Dao itself within Electra.

By digesting the pieces of high-quality divine materials infused with this essence, which were also made, molded, and crafted using this power, I am slowly accumulating Residual Dao Essence inside of my body.

Andromeda said that it was a "very rich" energy that she couldn't comprehend yet, so she was as clueless as me.

It could be something else entirely, I am merely making up theories out of this, so yeah, maybe it could be something else without us knowing!

But for now, this is my theory.

And because this is higher quality energy than other essences, it cannot be refined back into the lesser ones to gain power from, but this residual essence by itself is its own "power".

What truly might happen is that… I could actually acquire something from it other than this residual essence I cannot use for anything.

What if by accumulating a lot of it, I can materialize it into a small piece of Dao, like the piece of Transformation Dao I have?

Maybe that way I could get many fragments of Dao by consuming the things that these Daos produce… But as of now, the only one with a full-fledged and mastered Dao in my entire family is… Electra.

No one else has one, Gaia said she used to be almost capable of acquiring the Dao of Origin, but she never managed, and now that she was fragmented and revived, it is even less likely that she could get it… But what about the baby she has? It also counts as my own child, so whenever that baby is born, maybe…

Ugh, I don't want to see my babies as Dao-making machines, but this is the possibility I am now, this is the timeline we ended at, so we might as well make up for it and do everything we can to utilize their power! After all, they are my children, Electra likes to see me eating her stuff and she doesn't suffer any problem by doing so, I imagine that the rest that is soon to be born might be the same one way or another.

For now, I have decided that today I shall Rank Up!

Of course, after being with my family for breakfast.

"Muuh!"

The adorable and little Electra was wearing a cute little blue and black dress that I made for her, she looked like a lovely baby princess. Her little blue horn hasn't grown at all, and her appearance is mostly human aside from that horn and her pointed ears, looking a lot like her mother. Although her mother had become a Succubus of sorts after turning into a Chaos Human.

Of course, it seems that her appearance was still rather similar t her human one, and that was inherited by our daughter. Additionally, it seems that she inherited my Archdemon Bloodline and became the first Archdemon born in Genesis, most likely.

I had checked her chest and she indeed had an Archdemon Core too, so maybe by consuming Archdemon Souls and Demonic Energy she could rank it up and gain more power aside from her Technomancy.

She pointed at me as she was giving me a large piece of metal to eat.

"Muh!"

"Dear I am already eating breakfast, maybe later?" I asked.

"Muuuh!"

"…Okay," I sighed, as I extended a hand, shapeshifted it into a jaw, and ate the scrap technology pieces she made for me.

And just as always there were a large number of mechanical animals playing around which she had just created. She is literally a Creation Goddess regarding all machinery. Maybe she is the last ingredient we needed to finish our mechs.

We had already begun to add her pieces into our mechs, and because whatever she makes is high-quality divine materials, their essence is perfect in the creation of these artifacts.

"Hehe… Electra-chan, so cuteee~!"

Scarlet was wrapped around my torso as she played with her little sister, she had begun to also eat her technomancy parts, but due to her power, she can do it even easier by just willing it… I wonder if Scarlet might have some kind of Dao of Devouring or something, or perhaps a fragment? I had tried to look into her soul, but it seems as vast and… picturesque as me, so it is like a maze.

But I still believe she might have some sort of power like this, perhaps if she reaches Great Goddess (which will be quite soon, in a few days), she might become capable of awakening this power. Maybe it is really just a Dao.

But for now, I enjoyed the breakfast leisurely…

…

Meanwhile, using another of my bodies I flew into the skies of my Divine Realm and reached the usual spot for heavenly tribulations. This time, the desert which had been infected with poison attribute and then with blood attribute, where I had left some of the vines from the previous tribulation had changed drastically.

It was now a full-fledged biome, as a large part of the biome had become a mix of blood and poison sand, named Poisonous Blood Sand, which had a purple-red color. Additionally, the vines diversified around and formed all sorts of appearances, some had taken the form of large and creepy trees, and others were giant gardens of spiky vines. The flowers released a deadly poisonous stench, so they were influenced by the poison attribute as well, most likely.

However, my divine realm is way too filled with the essence for only these guys to be here, so there were a lot of new cactus species that resembled giant crimson-red cactus with poisonous fruits, and there were also the classic poison fruits that became poisonous blood fruit trees.

Aside from that, some divine beasts had popped up by the concentration and materialization of elemental essence, such as Poisonous Blood Slimelords, Poisonous Blood Walking Cactuses, and more.

I began to think that it would be a waste if they were to be killed by whatever were to come now, but I didn't care much, if they die they can become useful materials to craft all sorts of items.

I quickly released one of the doors that contained my stockpiled essence and refined it, making it into stats and primordial essence, which made me rank up automatically!

Ding!

[Congratulations! You've reached Rank 4 of the Great Goddess Realm!]

[Defeat the Heavenly Tribulation to advance further!]

[Summoning Heavenly Tribulation…]

CLAASH!

The rift in space opened right away, and what come out of it was…

CLANG!

"Eh?!"

It was a giant ice cube the size of around 200 meters, it had a single eyeball in the middle of it, and the only thing it did was fall over the entire biome below and freeze it instantly.

Welp… That's it?

I glanced at the ice cube as it glanced at me.

"Not even a laser beam?"

"…"

"No? Okay then…"

This thing was called "Grand One-Eyed Ice Cube Slime", but it didn't do anything. Maybe if I melt it, it will turn into a water slime?

Well, it is better to just kill it.

I quickly flew down and decided to go all out, activating several Path jewels to practice my combined power. My essence and power quickly multiplying through the roofs as several different-colored essences surged from my body like a divine aura.

I shapeshifted my body into a mass of fleshy tentacles with a mildly humanoid shape, using the Nyarlathotep Path Jewel and its ability!

CLAAASH!

The ice cube didn't resist it at all and was cracked and shattered into pieces right away!

I devoured the pieces as I felt my Ice Attribute and Water Attribute Particles increase… Not the main ones I use, so I guess this could be said to be "not optimal for my growth", but I can still get to use some through my Transformation Dao Fragment Ability.

And that was it! We were done with this already. I guess the most optimal way to give me a challenge is by not giving me one so I won't grow too strong out of it, the World's Will learned it well, I guess… She's just throwing me stuff I don't particularly use…

Ding!

[You have defeated the Heavenly Tribulation!]

[Great Divine Evolution] Skill effect activated, you can now evolve]

[Please choose an evolution option!]

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[Initializing Evolution Tree]

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[Loading Evolution Choices]

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[Many Choices Found]

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[Initializing]

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[Loading Evolution choices information]

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[Evolution Choices]

[Primordial Chaos Vampire Fairy Archdemon Great Goddess of Abyssal Consuming Corrosive Poison (Unique Species)]

[Primordial Chaos Vampire Fairy Archdemon Great Goddess of Divine Machinery and Technology (Unique Species)]

[Primordial Chaos Vampire Fairy Archdemon Great Goddess of Dreamy Illusory Emotions (Unique Species)]

[Primordial Chaos Vampire Fairy Archdemon Great Goddess of Abyssal Chaotic Dark Void (Unique Species)]

[Primordial Chaos Vampire Fairy Archdemon Great Goddess of Endless and Prideful Superbia (Unique Species)]

...

Hmmm… There's a new option and it is based in Pride, so might as well pick that one, after all, Superbia, the advanced form of Pride, boosts my capabilities based on how shamelessly prideful I am.

Ding!

[You selected the [Primordial Chaos Vampire Fairy Archdemon Great Goddess of Endless and Prideful Superbia (Unique Species)] Evolution Option!]

A wave of darkness and phantasmal essence quickly took hold of my entire body as I was enveloped into a cocoon. It lasted for a few seconds, as I was already back to normal, absorbing all of this darkness.

I glanced at my body and aura, emanating the power of Pride from it… This makes it four, four Great Divinities of Chaotic Sins! Good!

Ding!

[You have evolved into the [Primordial Chaos Vampire Fairy Archdemon Great Goddess of Endless and Prideful Superbia (Unique Species)]!]

[Kireina] acquired the [Great Divinity of Endless and Prideful Superbia]!]

[Kireina] acquired the Title of [Archdemon Great Goddess of Endless and Prideful Superbia]!]

[All of Your Stats Have Increased!]

[Divine Points Bonus Earned]

I glanced at my own stats and saw a large increase in stats, as usual, alongside the bonus of Ice Attribute Particles, there were also other new particles that this evolution brought as a bonus, such as darkness and illusion/emotion.

After that, I glanced down below my feet to find most of the desert converted into an icescape… I suppose that the cube does that. Good thing I let it fall over here and not anywhere else. It could have frozen the entire continent if I had let it stay here for too long, actually, as the freezing power not only covered the entire forest, but it was already reaching other areas far away from it.

Maybe it could have even frozen the entire damn sea… What a problematic thing.

I guess it still had its "threat" and after all, it is a Heavenly Tribulation, so it was very strong no matter the case.

After this, I continued enjoying the day with my family.

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