Epic Of Caterpillar

Chapter 35 - Memories Of A Young Girl: Leather Shoes

Four years ago, Dark Nation: Kingʼs Castle. Magic Teaching Classrooms.

A small pale blue troll girl with shining silver hair was on the corner of an empty classroom, writing something on a ragged book.

”The manipulation of magic… Is something that not everyone can master… Aside from talent, knowledge and disposition is needed. Especially with the Shadow and Dark magic… Hmm… I think thatʼs what teacher said…”

After finishing writing everything she remembered her teacher said, she stood up and cleaned her ragged clothes from the dirt.

The girl was quite weak for Troll standards, having a small and slim complexion, her feet werenʼt as strong so she always had wounds on them for walking on the hard rock floor with her bare feet.

The girl spit on her hands and tried to clean the dirt on the wounds on her feet with her saliva.

”Ouch… Hmm… Oh right… that handkerchief that I found the other day…”

The girl took a small and white handkerchief from her little bag, were she usually saved her book.

She slowly cleaned her wounds more easily like this.

”Hmm… This is better… I wish I could wear this on my feet instead…”

The little girl found this handkerchief on her table the other day, early on the morning, when the class was still empty, perhaps someone else left it? She just decided to make it her property without asking for the true owner.

The white handkerchief was decorated with golden markings, on its center, the golden fabric depicted a beautiful white dove flying to the horizon.

”Hmm… I wonder what is on the horizon…?”

When the girl packed her things on her little and dirty bag, she walked outside the room and closed the rock door.

When the girl left the facility and walked downstairs, a strange figure emerged from the shadows.

Flash!

It was an intimidating looking skeleton, wearing some ragged robes and a staff.

The skeleton silently entered the room and left a little pair of shoes made of leather below the girl table.

”…”

The skeleton looked at the girl table for a moment and then left the classroom, closing the rock door tightly.

The next morning, the small pale blue girl was the first one to enter the classroom.

She slowly walked to her seat and took out her book, reading it while eating a very hard bread and some water.

Suddenly, when the little girl feet touched the floor below her table, she felt a soft object instead of the cold and hard floor.

”Uh?”

The girl glanced at the object and found out it was a small pair of leather shoes, they seemed new, with the leather looking very clean.

”Is this? Who put this in here? Did someone forget them? I…”

The girl couldnʼt resist the urge to put those shoes on, and she did.

The leather shoes were very soft inside, relieving her small and wounded feet.

”Ah… They fit perfectly… Should I keep them?”

While the girl was fascinated with her small pair of leather shoes, the classroom stone door slowly opened.

An intimidating skeleton using some ragged clothes and carrying a staff got inside, and put some magic books over his table.

The small girl quickly stood up, saluting her teacher.

”Ah! Good morning T-Teacher”

”Early as ever, Zehe? Good morning”

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| DAY 33 |

Today I was woken up earlier by Zehe, who slept at my right side, she moved a lot on her sleep.

”Z-Zehe, are you okay? Did you have a dream?”

”Fueh? H-Honey… I… I donʼt remember”

”Oh well, wake up, everyone is already on the first floor having breakfast”

”Oh! Yeah!”

Smooch.

I give Zehe a gentle kiss on her pale-blue forehead.

”Letʼs go sleepyhead”

”Ahh… D-Donʼt call me like that, hehe…”

We went downstairs with Zehe and we found Nesiphae, Rimuru, Wagyu and Kekensha having a big breakfast, with roasted Blood Monster meat and pickled veggies, Rimuru was also eating some berries with Rabbit milk yogurt.

”Ohh? You all seem quite energetic today, thatʼs quite the feast”

”Ah! Master! Lady Zehe! Good morning!”

”Hahaha! We are just excited about exploring the rest of the dungeon!”

”Good morning Master, Lady Zehe, how was your sleep?”

”Mastaaa… You woke up! Try this yogurt, guuuu!”

”Oh? I didnʼt saw this on the castle…”

”Itʼs a new dessert that Miss Chokumotsu did for her babies, she shared some with me!”

”Ooh I see”

The yogurt was sweet with a very creamy and milky flavor, although it did not had sugar like the ones in Earth that I usually bought in the minimarket, Rimuru combined it with very sweet Forest Berries, giving it a delicious sweet and sour flavor.

| ICE RABBIT MILK YOGURT WITH FOREST BERRIES: A creamy and milky yogurt combined with sweet and sour Forest Berries. An ideal breakfast full of calcium and vitamins |

| Grants +3 to every stat for the next 24 hours |

| Heals 50 MP and 70 Stamina |

”Its very good! I think Zehe will like it, she has a sweet tooth”

”Oh? Me? Let me see…”

Zehe slowly ate a spoonful of yogurt and berries.

Suddenly, her golden eyes shined brightly!

”Hmmmm!!! Aaah! Give me more, Rimuru!”

”Geeehh! Itʼs mine!”

”Rimuru, you must share with your family”

”Guuueeehhh… Okay…”

Rimuru opener her Item Box and took two more bottles of yogurt with berries.

”Thanks, good girl”

Pat, pat.

”Aahh! Mastaa pats!”

While having a delicious breakfast, we decided to open our Reward Gifts from yesterday Blood Monster.

”Time to see what this loot box has to offer…”

Flash!

The small gift box started to glow brightly, until it completely dissipated and a different item appeared on my hand.

| BLOOD MONSTER BASILISK DEADLY POISON: A bottle containing the deadliest poison of the Blood Monster Basilisk. If someone who drinks it is able to survive, it will obtain the skill | POISON IMMUNITY |

”Eeh?! Poison? I have to drink it? Should I risk it? I have intoxication resistance and Iʼm also an undead…”

Thanks to my Undead status and intoxication resistance, the poison was very soft on my body and it barely took any health from me, the poison itself had a sweet flavor to it, with a little bitterness.

Ding!

| YOU LEARNED A NEW SKILL: POISON IMMUNITY |

| YOU LEARNED A NEW SKILL: POISON SECRETION |

”Ah! I even got another skill… This dungeon rewards are impressive”

Zehe obtained a new ring from this called ”Blood Monster Basilisk Ring”, it granted her with a small bonus to Magic and MP, ideal for her, with a little affinity to Blood.

Nesiphae got something similar to me, but this was a ”Blood Monster Basilisk Poison Antidote”, she drank it immediately, giving her the skill | ANTIDOTE BODY | and | ANTIDOTE SECRETION |.

Antidote Body was pretty much a lesser Poison Immunity, being able to quickly heal from it if she gets poisoned somehow. Antidote Secretion lets her secrete Antidote from her sweat, just like HP and MP secretion.

I feel like if it was an ordinary monster, they would need the Antidote to heal the Poison, and obtain all the skills, but I cheated with my Undead status and Intoxication Resistance.

Wagyu obtained a ”Blood Monster Basilisk Wand”, it was a beautiful wand made of silver and decorated with a snake head. Wagyu offered the wand for free to Zehe, but she denied the offer, saying that it was Wagyu reward, and she didnʼt like to take things from others like this.

Wagyu understood Zehe mentality and slowly ate the wand with |BLOODY LOTUS DISSOLVING JUICES|. He obtained the skill | BLOOD MONSTER BASILISK WAND | which lets him summon a floating wand, almost equally similar to the original one. When the floating wand is summoned, his affinity using any type of magic increases, and he also obtains the skills | BASILISK EYE RAYS | and | BASILISK POISON SHOT |.

Kekensha obtained a Blood Monster Basilisk Pendant, which he ate. It granted him with Blood affinity and the skill | BASILISK BLESSING |, this skill gives him high resistance to any kind of status ailment.

Seeing how everyone had finished their breakfast, we went outside and I proceeded to save the house inside my Item Box.

The guardian room doors were already open, so we kept advancing trough the dungeon, looking for the next guardian room.

As we keep going underground, the cave became darker and darker, and the cave walls started to sweat blood. A rooting smell started to fill our noses.

On our way, we came across a new variant of Blood Monsters, instead of animals, however, these possessed inanimate objects, like closets, doors, tables, seats and chests.

”These Blood Monsters are using furniture? Fire Ball!”

I inspected this new Blood Monster variant while casting a Fire Ball, burning it alive.

FLUOSH!

”Gryyaaahh!”

The Blood Monster struggled on the ground, trying to dissipate the fire, but its wood shell made it too inflammable, dying roasted.

| YOU GAINED 4560 EXP | | THE REST OF YOUR PARTY GAINED 2280 EXP |

| LEVEL 37/50 EXP 25908‬‬/31000 |

Two more Blood Monster came behind me, one looking like a walking table and the other being various seats fused together.

”Fire Ball! Fire Ball!”

Fluosh! Fluosh!

”Screeeeeechh!”

The two monsters started to burn insensibly, until they became motionless on the ground, being slowly consumed by the flames.

| YOU GAINED 9870 EXP | | THE REST OF YOUR PARTY GAINED 4935 EXP|

| YOU GAINED ONE LEVEL! | | LEVEL 38/50 EXP 00218‬‬/32000 |

”Hmm, are they taking on real furniture or they bones are camouflaging as one?”

We killed the Blood Monsters slowly with simple spells or attacks, saving up MP and Stamina.

We also came across two Blood Monster resembling treasure chest, they could open the chest and inside there were countless sharp teeth and a long and sticky tongue, probably using this tentacle-like tongue to catch its prey.

”Fire Ball! Fire Ball!”

Fluosh! Fluosh!

”Screeeechh!”

The two Blood Monster Chests roasted until they stopped moving, leaving a blackened chest with roasted meat inside it.

| YOU GAINED 12690 EXP | | THE REST OF YOUR PARTY GAINED 6345 EXP |

| LEVEL 38/50 EXP 12908‬‬/32000 |

”I wonder if they got anything more than just meat inside?”

I went to inspect inside one of the Blood Monster Chests and opened it by force.

I used a dark colored knife that the monkeys made for me, and quickly sliced all the juicy roasted meat inside, it smelled quite good but I decided to save it for later, saving it inside my Item Box.

When all the meat was taken off, there was nothing inside the chest. However, using my sense skill, I noticed that where was still something inside, in between the chest, but it was covered completely in wood, as if it were protecting this. I decided to break the entire chest with my hands alone.

CRACK!

When the chest was completely destroyed, the small room inside finally broke off and countless shining coins rained from it.

”Eh? Coins? Is this gold?”

There were also precious gems and magic stones.

When I collected all the gold coins, I saved them inside my Item Box, and inspected one coin.

”From where is this coin?”

| ANCIENT GOLD COIN FROM THE MERMAN KINGDOM: An ancient coin made of pure gold by the merman kingdom, used as their currency, there are also copper and silver coins. |

I decided to eat it entirely as I never ate gold before, surprisingly, it tasted quite sweet, with a sour after-taste.

I didnʼt get any skill what so ever, it was just common gold, not a magic infused metal, so their properties arenʼt really that special.

Some of the gems and magic stones looked quite special, but I decided to save them for the Black Smith Team instead of eating them.

When the rest of my servants finished killing the Blood Monster, a system message appeared out of thin air, resuming the shared EXP I got.

Ding!

| YOU GAINED 46890 EXP FROM YOUR PARTY |

| YOU GAINED ONE LEVEL! | | LEVEL 39/50 EXP 27798/33000 |

”These little ones give a beefy amount of EXP each…”

We collected all the roasted Blood Monster and we had a small feast.

These Blood Monster meat was surprisingly tender and had a hit of sea food, like mollusks.

”Munch, munch… Master, this meat is very tender! It reminds me of the River Walking Fish, but way sweeter, it was a nice flavor to it!”

”Guuuu! Monch Monch! Delishioush!”

I thought that lemon would go very well with these, sadly, in this world, I havenʼt seen anything similar. However, the pickled veggies and forest rice made this a nice meal whatsoever.

Nesiphae was eating the Blood Monsters from their shells, taking them out with her strong teeth, getting all her face dirty.

”Nom… Nom… Hmmm! I have never tasted a meat like this before, Master!”

”You are right, its incredibly delicious. We must save for when we get back home”

”I donʼt know about that; Iʼm feeling like eating all of it! Hehehe…”

| YOU OBTAINED A NEW TITLE: BLOOD MONSTER MIMIC KING |

| YOU AND YOUR SERVANTS LEARNED THE FOLLOWING SKILLS: |

| BLOOD MONSTER MIMIC KING MIMICRY |

| BLOOD MONSTER MIMIC KING WOOD SHELL CREATION |

| BLOOD MONSTER MIMIC STRONG DEFENSES |

| BLOOD MONSTER MIMIC COLONY CREATION |

| BLOOD MONSTER MIMIC DEADLY TRAP |

| BLOOD MONSTER MIMIC PORTABLE TRASURE CHEST |

”This monster was very unique; its skills are quite interesting”

Blood Monster Mimic King Mimicry was a strange skill, it seemed to be an illusion spell but it was qualified as a normal skill without any magic. After activation, one will transform into its surrounding, it can be anything, because we are on a dark cave, most of us became rocks or even the walls. If we move too fast, the mimicry effect will disappear and we will need to use the skill again.

Wood Shell Creation was self-explanatory, it would let us create a shell made of wood, and even mold it as we pleased, it could come in handy to the Carpentry Team. Wood is too flammable and weak to really protect us.

Colony Creation was something some Blood Monster used to fuse themselves together, creating colonies, when we tried it with my servants, we couldnʼt fuse between ourselves. However, this had its uses as it paired well with Body Division, being able to fuse again with your other parts if you divided them before.

Body Division is an interesting skill. When using it, I will be able to take little lumps from my body, and mold them as little animals like bugs or bats, I could even connect my conscience to them. These would be useful on scouting and even spying the enemy. And when they come back, I can easily use Colony Creation to fuse with them back.

Yesterday when I obtained this skill, I created 10 little bats made with my flesh and sent them to scout the entire forest, if they survive, they will bring a lot of intel that I still donʼt know from this place.

Going back to the current skills, Deadly Trap was a peculiar skill. And even quite complicated for its simple name. First of all, it cannot be used on living beings, and can only be used on inanimate objects. When used a ”Trap Effect” would be applied to this object, and I would be able to customize the trap inside this object, from detonating to biting, or even healing, completely changing the purpose of a trap.

I would be able to save thousands of ”Healing Traps” around the forest, and use them in emergencies in the middle of a battle.

This skill could pair well with protecting skills, making it activate when touched, and casting a spell or a shield for example. I had lots of plan about using this around my castle and my future city.

Portable Treasure Chest was pretty much an Item Box but made into a skill, every time you use this skill, a floating treasure chest would appear, it has a maximum of 30 spaces, and itʼs a nice plus. We could use this on servants that still donʼt have Item Box, facilizing they lives.

After finishing our meal, we decided to assimilate these peculiar Blood Monsters. While assimilating, I discovered that we were able to assimilate even the wood shells of these monsters, however, assimilating such hard wood was quite painful.

| YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY ASSIMILATED THE FLESH OF A BLOOD MONSTER MIMIC KING |

| YOU LEARNED A NEW SKILL: BLOOD MONSTER MIMIC KING ADAPTING BODY |

Using this assimilation skill, the power of Shield Creation and Mimicry became way stronger and more potent. I was able to create a wood shell on the form of a treasure chest and patiently await inside of it for my victim. But that really didnʼt fit at all my strength and fighting style, so it would become something situational at best.

While walking down the underground, I sent some direct messages to the Rin sister, asking how thins were going, while also telling Eshne and Tsuchimizu to expand our usable land even more.

Eshne quickly answered me.

Ding!

”Hello Kireina, how is the adventure going? And donʼt worry, the Rin sisters already told us to do it yesterday, we have been working for a while now, since yesterday, we have tripled the usable land size, the walls are also ready. And the first land is already filled with houses. A lot of servants moved to these already, we are awaiting you to name our first street”

”Oooh! I see! What name could it have? Hmmm…”

Suddenly, the Rin sisters answered me.

Ding!

”Hello Master, we have been working very hard to maintain everything in order here, the production of materials is going according to plan and the Hunting Team has already gathered a big number of cattle monsters, these include Rocky Mountain Wild Pigs and Swift Water Ducks”

”A lot of rookies have evolved too and this morning six baby monkeys were born. Everyone is awaiting your return to name them, but no worries, we can handle the rest by ourselves. Donʼt feel rushed and explore as much as you want. If we detect attackers, we will immediately call for you and hold them off”

”Are you enjoying yourself?! I also want to explore! Taking care of all these people is such a pain!!! Aggh! COME BACK! Ran and Ren donʼt let me alone and are constantly ordering me to do things!!!! Aaaaaaaahhh!!!”

The three messages were clearly of each sister, with the last one being obviously Rin.

”Haha, they are making her work hard, I see…”

As we kept going underground, we came across a new variant of the Blood Monsters, these were just like the ones before, but massive as they were composed of big colonies stuck together forming ”Furniture Golems” as I like to call them. Small fire attacks wouldnʼt be so effective on their massive size, so we decided to get a little bit serious.

The Furniture Golem movements were slow, but its blow packed an incredible force, destroying whenever it punched.

”Leave it to me!”

Zehe quickly disposed of this Golem using the Black Hole spell, trapping the Golem, while she casted small flaming meteors over it, slowly destroying its pieces until it wasnʼt able to stand up more. The giant Furniture Golem was slowly triturated by the Black Hole.

”Grruoooohhh!”

| YOU GAINED 10840 EXP FROM YOUR PARTY |

| YOU GAINED ONE LEVEL! | | LEVEL 40/50 EXP 05638/34000 |

”W-What? I got half the EXP of that monster… Each one gives 20k EXP?!”

These golems were quite faster for their size, and three came rushing from our backs, blowing the floor with their punches, trying to catch us.

”Gruoooooohhh!!”

BOOOOM!

A Furniture Golem punch blew the entire ground, shattering the entire floor, creating a little earthquake around the cave.

”Gueeh! Hey! Donʼt you dare punch my cute wives! GATE OF BJARMIA: HADES ARMORY!”

Flash!

Immediately after casting this spell, a small Magi Zone appeared out of thin air over my head, and started to shot solid flaming weapon shaped magic projectiles, I was able to solidify this magic using | MAGIC SOLIDIFICATION |, creating this unique Gate of Bjarmia variant.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The flaming projectiles started to rain over the Furniture Golems, slicing their limbs and setting their entire bodies in flames. I kept shooting until each Golem was completely destroyed on the ground.

My servants were quick to dodge and moved to my side.

”Impressive, Master! I could not expect less”

”Thatʼs our Master for you, Kekensha!”

”Master is a little bit scary when she gets serious, hehehe… I like it!”

”Mastaa! Your magic is amazing guuu!”

”Indeed, your usage in Magic Solidification is impressive, Honey. I wonder how could I apply this skill on my spells…”

”You did it before, right? When you used that Shadow Meteor”

”Oh yeah. But that was too unrefined to my tastes. Hahaha”

”Hmmm, what do you have in mind?”

”Perhaps solidifying the Black Hole spell, somehow… But how would a solidified Black Hole be?”

While we were discussing about ideas for Zehe spells, the Golems finished getting roasted, and a delicious sea food smell started to fill the cave.

| YOU GAINED 62560 EXP | | THE REST OF YOUR PARTY GAINED 31280 EXP |

| YOU GAINED ONE LEVEL! | | LEVEL 41/50 EXP 34198/35000 |

| THE REST OF YOUR PARTY GAINED SOME LEVELS! |

After inspecting the rest of the floor, it seems like there are no more Blood Monsters, and these four were the last ones, the only thing left is the big door leading to the guardian. I hope this dungeon does not have too many of these small bosses.

We decided to eat these Furniture Golems before entering the guardian room.

Because they were just a colony of the previous Blood Monster Mimics, their taste was supposed to be the same.

But I was totally wrong!

The Furniture Golem meat was even juicer and had even stronger sea food flavor, as if being on a big collected colony made this monster meat even more delicious.

The amount of food that we eat everyday would be considered crazy on Earth standards, but in this world most monsters have a ”Belly skill” which let us eat more food than what our physical stomach can take. This would apply highly on us, as we all are powerful evolved monsters, we all have very strong Belly Skills, being able to save tons of food on our bellies and have a lot of stored Stamina.

| YOU OBTAINED A NEW TITLE: BLOOD MONSTER COLONY KING |

| YOU AND YOUR SERVANTS LEARNED THE FOLLOWING SKILLS: |

| BLOOD MONSTER COLONY KING POWERFUL AND STURDY BODY |

| BLOOD MONSTER COLONY KING STRONG COOPERATION |

| BLOOD MONSTER COLONY KING STRONG FIRE-RESISTANT WOOD ARMOR |

| BLOOD MONSTER COLONY KING DEVASTATING BLOW |

| BLOOD MONSTER COLONY KING MUSCULAR FLESH |

We also assimilated some big chunks of meat and wood, being quite the painful experience.

| YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY ASSIMILATED THE FLESH OF A BLOOD MONSTER COLONY KING |

| YOU LEARNED A NEW SKILL: BLOOD MONSTER COLONY KING STRONG COMPOUND BODY |

Having saved some meat in my Item Box, we decided to tackle on the next guardian.

The third guardian was a powerful Blood Monster Colony King, consisting of 4 Furniture Golems stuck together, it almost looked like a mecha from Earth, but made of blood and wood.

This powerful Blood Monster was the amalgamation of countless combined colonies, boasting an incredible strength and endurance, but was very slow, which made it easy to chip from afar.

Instead of leaving everything to the girls, we worked together to kill this guardian.

Kekensha used its strong agro skills in combination with his defensive spells to take most of the attention of the monster. Meanwhile, Rimuru, Zehe and I casted spells from afar, burning each part slowly. The monster lacked any healing spells but its body was too massive.

Nesiphae and Wagyu worked together on attacking from the sides whenever Kekensha needed to rest or recover MP.

Nesiphae was able to use her axe to slice of big chunks of meat off the monster limbs, and used her snakes to detonate around, to create more distractions.

In the middle of the battle, I decided to try out my new skill | FAIRY VAMPIRE HIGH EMPRESS 8 MYSTIC CURSED EYES AND SENSES |, casting four different status ailments over the whole Blood Monster. It took me some MP potions but the monster was affected with Poison, Confusion, Bleed and Paralysis.

This monster was too strong so the ailments didnʼt act as strong, but as long as I kept watching over it, the ailments would stay on place, so the monster became weaker and weaker, making poison take over its entire body, rooting its meat. The bleed made it loose big amounts of blood each minute, loosing HP continuously, and the paralysis and confusion made its reactions incredibly slow, being easily distracted by Kekensha, Wagyu and Nesiphae.

As we rained the monster with more fire projectiles and my Gate of Bjarmia. The monster finally stopped struggling and died on the spot.

All of us gained the same amount of EXP, probably because of the cooperative kill.

| YOU AND YOUR PARTY GAINED 84730 EXP |

| YOU GAINED THREE LEVELS! | | LEVEL 44/50 EXP 10928/38000 |

| THE REST OF YOUR PARTY GAINED SOME LEVELS! |

| CONGRATULATIONS, YOUR PARTY MEMBERS SUCCESSFULLY DEFEATED THE FLOOR GUARDIAN |

| EVERYONE ON YOUR PARTY HAVE RECEIVED A SPECIAL REWARD GIFT ON YOUR ITEM BOX |

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