Chapter 306 - Side ; Everyone Have Their Own Adventures 1/2
Epic Of Caterpillar
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In a dark labyrinth, filled with an eerie white mist and barely illuminated by small torches attached to the walls, a one-sided fight was currently being unfolded.
Several beasts with the size of a horse, resembling overly muscular humans who walked in all fours and had the heads of a black lizard rushed towards a beautiful maiden.
Her entire body seemed to be made purely of semi-transparent liquid, which shined brightly in different colors. The slimy liquid somehow molded itself into the figure of a beautiful young woman, with a brilliant smile and rainbow-colored eyes. Long colorful hair that seemed to be made of a flowing river out of a rainbow, moved around as she waited for the bizarre creatures to close in.
She was currently wearing a dark, gothic armor that covered most of her body, but exposed her curves in a sexy manner. Her beautiful face was also covered in a big dark helmet, with demonic decorations like horns and spikes. In each of her hands, she wielded a dark weapon, seemingly made out of the same black mineral of her armors. Her right hand wielded a Great Claymore, and her left hand a massive Great Axe.
The crazed beast rushed towards the woman as they were then, in less than a second, sliced into thousands of tiny pieces, with a speed that surpassed common sense.
The maiden, who was currently four meters tall, sighed.
"Hm, this dungeon is filled with small fry~," She said, with a cheeky voice.
"Well, we are still on the first floors, so let's rush towards the lowers, unexplored floors!" She said, with a cheerful voice.
"I can't wait to demolish anything!" She said, with another voice, this one resembling that of a manly woman.
"W-We should be careful… Don't get carried away…" She said once more, with a timid voice.
"Well, don't worry, you got us after all~!" She said, back with her cheeky voice.
"Yeah, together, we are invincible!" Said a stronger voice.
"Grooowwl!"
Suddenly, the growls of the nearby monsters made the girl come out of her bubble, as she was too distracted talking with herself.
A group of giant Humanoids like lizards without scales, which had cray skin and long tusks appeared, led by a greater one, who was wielding a long spear made out of bones.
The large woman expanded her feet into a rainbow slimy tentacle as she ate the sliced corpses of the previously killed monsters and she pounced towards the rushing beasts.
Raising her weapons, she released powerful techniques and magic spells, massacring the group of skin lizards in seconds, the leader remained alive, barely.
"Oh~ you sure look delicious! Maybe I can get something from you" Said the woman, as she shapeshifted her torso into a wave of rainbow slime, engulfing the entire beast alive. The beast struggled but was ultimately killed, being digested alive.
As the young woman went back to her original appearance, a system message popped out of thin air, ahead of her sight.
[You learned the Skill [Lesser Poison Secretion; Fangs; Level 1]!]
"Ah! We got something… its been so long… So, we can produce poison now. Will it even be useful?" Said the manly voice.
"I don't know, but let's level it up, though we don't have fangs…" Said the timid voice.
"Rawr! We have! Mine!" Said an angered voice.
"Oh right, Ranga chan has fangs, alright, let's use them then~," Said the cheeky voice, as the appearance of the large woman changed, inside of her mouth, she gained large, wolf-like fangs, and more fangs grew on her hands.
"This should be enough" Said one voice.
"Alright! Let's go!"
The beautiful giantess began to run at incredible speed despite her large build and heavy armor while defeating the monsters on her way.
In reality, this woman was the group known as Slime Family, who had fused specifically to beat this dungeon by using the Skill [Union]. Thanks to this skill, the five Slimes can merge and become a greater and stronger entity simply named [Slime Queen].
After previously hitting a wall of progress where they weren't able to gain too much power and leveling became incredibly hard by just beating weak monsters, the Slime Family member named Luminous obtained a special Skill named [Union] after eating a strange artifact that dropped in the dungeon. This artifact hasn't been sighted since then, and it is believed by the Rin Sisters and Kireina to have an extremely low drop rate.
The [Union] Skill granted the user the ability to merge itself with its trusted friends or family, those who had a high emotional connection with them. Merging together would grant greater strength and combined abilities, but could confuse the user's minds and end up destroying them, there were cases were in humans, a certain mind would overtake the other. As it was a very dangerous Skill, it was mostly overlooked by humans and demi-humans alike.
However, the Slime Family was different. As their minds were simple and they thought relatively similarly, they were able to not have any problems at all when using [Union], and could even stay fused for large amounts of time. The Slime Family has been fused for around two weeks from now, and no issues have been presented whatsoever.
Even more, due to their prolonged fusion, they have been able to combine their abilities, level up their skills easily, and even level up and share the EXP. It has even helped them grow closer, and also to make timid personalities grow braver.
As the Slime Family, or the Slime Queen, rushed through the dungeon named [Nether Skin Lizard Lai], which is one of the three large Dungeons in the desolate areas near the abandoned Ollathir Kingdom Territory, they killed and devastated the monsters, greatly leveling and gaining abilities, while discovering new powers. All for the sole purpose of serving their master and grow stronger so they could protect her and be of use for her.
Well, it could be said that they were also having their own fun.
After reaching the sixth boss floor, the Slime Family confronted a large two-headed Skin Lizard wielding a large shield and an ax, and fought bravely, using their powerful abilities that could make most humans be paralyzed in fear, the Slime Family successfully killed the boss and ate it afterward, being showered with Experience Points and treasures, the Slime Queen continued her journey, reaching new depths.
Meanwhile, as the Slime Family had their fun "soloing" the medium-sized dungeon, Truhan and Celica Group led a small group of Ogres, Lords, and Oni, who were previously Goblins, Trolls or Hobgoblins.
This small group of warriors always accompanied the giant couple in their adventures, learning from them, and gaining in real battle experience.
They were currently exploring the [Muddy Swamp Emperor Domain], a Dungeon deemed as "big-sized" by Redgaria, one of the Dungeons that he explored for resources on the past but left unexplored in the lower, more advanced floors. In this dungeon, great marshlands and swamps filled the floors, inside of here, fish and lizard-type monsters were the most common, being food the resource that this dungeon offered the most.
The group was currently over an island made out of rocks that were made by the Earth Ogre Trio, made up of Ogame, Ogama, and Ogamo, who had recently evolved into Earth Ogres after being High Ogres with Earth Affinity. The rock island was made so they could peacefully eat without worrying about the cooked food getting all wet, or being constantly attacked by small fry.
Today's lunch was all types of lizards and fish. Celica and the Wind Lord Arasa, who had recently evolved from a Half-Wind Lord, were the only girls who knew how to cook, while the rest of the group watched as the delicious fishes and lizards were butchered and cut into pieces, afterward, they were seasoned and fried in butter. Truhan in specific was so big that his drool fell over the ground like a river.
"That smell so good! Celica, please hurry up!" Said Truhan, while eating a big tuna-like fish raw, to appease his hunger. Of course, he could just eat raw fish, but he had grown accustomed to the delicious cooked food of his wife, and he was able to contain himself and wait for it, partially.
The Earth Ogre Trio was also drooling, while the Crow Tengu, Tenro, looked at them with a little bit of disappointment.
"Can't you guys wait a little bit? After breakfast I've already had my fill" He said.
"Well, its because you have such a small body compared to us! We have great bodies with big bellies!" Said Ogamo, the tallest of the Earth Ogre Trio, seemingly angered by Tenro's words.
"Ogamo, calm down, it's not like he chooses to evolve into that! Or did he?" Said Ogama, the only female on the Earth Ogre Trio, her beauty was outstanding, which was also mixed with her giant muscles and sturdy body, resembling a charming amazon.
"I think he did… Did he want to fly? Huh… Maybe I should get wings as well…" Said Ogame, the smaller of the Trio, who seemed to always overthink things too much.
"Tenro, don't start a fight again… Or you shall receive my curse! Bufufu~" Said a creepy-looking woman, with pale white skin and long black hair, who also had one single scarlet eye in the middle of her face.
Although she resembled Katara, one of the Undead Teams' strongest members, she was a different person who evolved into the same species, a Katame. Her name was Katalin, and she was a weaker version of Katara in a way, as she didn't receive the blessing of any god. However, she was still a useful debuffer that could easily weaken enemies and make them easier to kill, slowing down their speed, defenses, and strength.
Katalin was in a relationship with Tenro and liked to lick the back of his head with her long tongue, Tenro didn't seem to mind at all, but after being "threatened" by his partner he went silent and apologized.
"I'm sorry, I think I'm just hungry as well. Katalin, when will you learn how to cook?"
"I can cook~ Bufufu… But you don't like my poisonous frog soup… Bufu" She said while opening her Item Box and showing a delicious pink and eerie soup filled with boiled frogs inside.
"I mean, I am not picky, I would eat it if they weren't poisonous frogs in specific!" He said, bewildered and disgusted by his partner tendencies on eating poisonous and disgusting things.
"Bufufu, it's so you can learn [Poison Resistance]!" She said, eating some of the frogs.
"Sigh…"
The Earth Ogre Trio glanced at the unfortunate Tenro with pity.
"A relationship must be hard…"
"I don't want to have a husband…"
"Hmm… But how can we improve relationship…? Ugh, my head…"
Alongside these five, four more members were resting and chatting, a Gold Lord, who seemed to be made entirely of gold named Goldme, two Half-Earth Lord Girls who were specialized in magic and shamanism, and seemed to be twins named Ashtra and Ashtre and a large Giant Ogre, named Oguru.
Alongside Arasa, Celica, and Truhan, this group made up the "Ogre Team", although sometimes it would be also called "The Truhan and Celica Group" by the people.
After Celica and Arasa finished cooking the delicious dishes, the large group of hungry demi-humans jumped in, mercilessly eating everything.
"Hehe, everyone is rather hungry today~," Said Celica, while eating a large roasted fish, who was covered in a thick and spicy sauce.
"Indeed, after defeating the eleventh boss, that giant Fish with tentacles, we were disappointed when it suddenly poofed out of existence before we could eat it!" Said Arasa, eating a big slice of a salmon-like fish, however, this fish had crab claws and small centipede-like legs, which were already boiled, showing a beautiful red.
"Well, if it wasn't because of that trap that made us descend to the lower floors… and when we rushed back up, the corpse was still there, however, it disappeared right before we could even touch it! Was that bastard just waiting for us so we could see it fly away from our grasp?! What a tricky being he was" Said Truhan while eating large grilled fishes one by one as if they were mere snacks.
"Truhan sama, the fish was dead already! That's how a Dungeon works, if you don't grab the corpse in a set amount of time, the dungeon will eat it instead to regain energy" Said the Half-Earth Lord Twin Sisters, at the same time, as if they were one person.
"Hahaha! That was pretty funny… Truhan sama face was too precious! I could barely hold my laughter! Bwahaha!" Said Goldme, while showing his golden teeth and eating a small fish with crab legs.
"H-Hey! You'll see it! I will eat the next boss! Just you wait!" Said Truhan, menacingly.
"Is that a threat?" Asked Arasa.
"I don't know… He just said that he was going to eat the boss" Answered Celica, shrugging.
As everyone was eating happily, Celica's back was extending like gray-colored slime tentacles, preparing more food for everyone. After going through a near-death recovery thanks to Kireina's Slime Clones fusing with her to recover the destroyed organs, bones and muscles, she became 2/5-part Slime and had already learned how to use this ability to multitask.
She had also showcased strange new abilities inherited from the Slime Clones, some being lesser and weaker versions of Kireina's Illusion Magic and Gate of Bjarmia. After going through such life and death recovery, she ended up becoming even stronger, and thanked Kireina for her benevolence, which Kireina only answered with "You don't have to thank me, family members protect each other".
After the hearty lunch, which was made of thousands of fishes and other water creatures, the team made up of extravagant demi-humans continued their journey through the large marshlands that composed the Dungeon, battling the consecutive bosses and obtaining large quantities of Experience Points and riches.
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