Epic of Caterpillar

210 Forsaken Labyrinth Conquest 3/69; Nixephine Memories and Stronger Monsters

Although Nixephine as around the same size as Nesiphae, her lower scorpion half make her wider than my Lamia Wife, so she ended up breaking the door in the process of entering. After considering it for a while I decided to just bathe her with my [Heat Manipulation] and [Water Manipulation].

Meanwhile, I checked her stats once more to discover that they have not changed at all and that she had kept all those ridiculous numbers on her base form, to top it all she also had levels now and could become even stronger, but she needed absurd amounts of EXP.

She told me that she hasn\'t taken a proper bath in a millennium and finally experiencing it with a "true" body was something very unique.

While bathing the beautiful Girtablilu Empress, I decided to ask her some questions as I was very interested in her past.

"Nixephine, do you remember something more about your pasts?"

Over my words, Nixephine wondered around her mind for a while, trying her best to remember.

"Hmmh… It\'s very hard to remember things, everything seems… cloudy… Each time I remember something, it\'s very small and it doesn\'t really tell much…"

"I see… At least can you resume what you remember?"

"Well…"

In the end, Nixephine remembers that she was once the Empress of the Girtablilu of the Scorching Sands Region in Vida, it\'s a faraway region of this continent to the south, the Sun hits pretty strongly there and it\'s a very arid region.

Although it is also said that this area is like this due to the overconcentration of Earth and Fire elements colliding with each other but not enough to form a volcanic zone. She remembers herself as quite tyrannical, enjoying wars and conquering other Demi-Humans Kingdoms.

I also asked her about the Girtablilu that spawn in the Dungeon, and if she felt anything for them.

"Oh? Those little bugs? I don\'t really care… From the little that I remember, I always saw my Kingdom as a tool, and my people as well, but now that I am with you and have to serve you, Master, I suppose I am your tool now, fufufu, it\'s quite exciting…"

After admiring her flawless and beautiful dark brown body and washing each part with care and various aromatic soaps and oils, my other wives were bathed as well and Rimuru, Mady, Gaby, and Adelle began to cook as usual. My children were also awake and playing around while killing some weak monsters that tried to ambush us pointlessly.

Due to the changes in the dungeon, monster ambushes in big groups had become very common, but because we were still in the first ten floors, their strength was subpar to us and our auras were enough to make them submit the moment they entered.

Although I could easily enslave them in this state, I preferred to leave them as easy EXP for my children and wives.

Vudia flew around over her Golden Golem Throne while shooting hundreds of tiny Gold Projectiles powered up by her electricity, turning them all into pulp, she would celebrate every time she gained a level and asked for my pettings.

Meanwhile, Ailine used her own majestic Aura to make the monster submit as she made them explode in different colors with her magic. She liked to imitate Vudia and used strong Thunder Magic, she has even tried to acquire Vudia\'s Gold Magic, but it seems that she was not able to, as this "Magic" is more like a psychic manipulation and generation of matter. It was related to Elements Manipulation skills and were not truly Spells.

Although it wasn\'t as notorious, I discovered that Vudia\'s golden eye would turn scarlet sometimes, as she would grow tiny fangs as well. It seems that she has indeed a Vampire part, although I was hoping that this wasn\'t the case like Ailine. Vudia\'s thirst for blood was almost nonexistent though and her "Vampire side" would activate whenever she was excited over killing monsters and seeing their blood splatter, giving her a boost on her parameters, perhaps the laws of how a Vampire works are different when they are Half-Spirit.

My other four children, Amiphossia, Ryo, Valentia, and Aarae were already very strong and high level, so killing these monsters wouldn\'t give them much EXP at all, they only inspected their little sister\'s growth while helping them out from time to time. There was also Ismena and Acelina training around as well, they were practicing their own magic and spells and even went on an adventure of their own, bringing plenty of loot like Gold, Low-Rank Equipment, Gemstones and Potions found in the Dungeon rooms. Now that the Dungeon was stronger, the rewards were more generous as well.

When the food was ready there was a delicious smell, something similar to boiled crab, herbs, and rice. When I went to inspect my wives were cooking big Girtablilu claws that had now taken on a bright red color. Alongside this, there were aromatic herbs, walking mushrooms, potatoes, and more. On the other side there was also boiled forest grains, which were very similar to rice, but of various colors.

I thought that Nixephine may be a little bit intimidated by eating her own species but she happily ate the hundreds of small Girtablilu claws and legs, which had a crunchy exterior and a very tender and juicy meat inside.

The herbs and mushroom soup were also comforting and warmed the entire body while the "rice" went well with everything else. To accompany the food there was delicious fruit juice, tea, and flavored milk. The flavored milk was made using fruits and milk, there wasn\'t anything like chocolate or vanilla flavors, but there were some that had flavor closer to strawberry milk.

Rimuru also prepared some of the [Lurking Shadow Crows], which after the Dungeon buff, became gigantic and resembled the Thunderstorm Phoenix in size. Their giant legs and wings alongside breasts were carefully boiled into another delicious soup while leaving other pieces to deep-fry into crunchy Karage.

After everyone ate to their heart\'s content, it was time to proceed through the dungeon, Nixephine was excited over exploring the rest of the dungeon she had been trapped in for so long, and I wondered why she didn\'t want to just run away immediately after being freed. Perhaps she wanted to have some revenge?

Just like our previous expedition, the floors 12th to 22th were filled with deadly traps everywhere, which were now even more enhanced and deadly. However, just as before I carefully deactivate them using my Flesh Bats and Slime Clones, who sneaked everywhere until the floor was completely safe for my family to explore.

On my trap deactivation adventures, I found some interesting new traps that could be useful for me, like teleportation traps, so I assimilated myself with the dungeon and stole these intricate magical devices. I ate around three but nothing was obtained, getting something like [Teleportation] would be too good to be true. I have something similar that I obtained from the Nether Worms named [Warp], but it\'s very weak, it can only move me to around three meters around me, and I can just use my natural speed to move to that direction in less than a second anyways.

There were other terrible traps like Slime traps that would quickly dissolve you into nothingness if they catch you, Blade traps that will cut you into pieces using hundreds of rotating blades, Spider traps that trap you in a spiderweb and thousands of tiny spiders eat you alive, Acid traps that dissolve you even faster than Slime traps, Tentacle traps made of hundreds of tentacles that rip anyone that they catch into shreds, and more… After taking each one out into my Item Box, I explored the dungeon with a more relaxed demeanor while observing my children and wifes growth.

These ten floors were filled with monster spawn points and endless waves of monsters attacked without any time to rest. Thankfully, even if they were thousands, killing them was an easy task and the constant flow of EXP made everyone grow stronger by the second.

New specimens of monsters began to appear, like giant Lizard Sharks that ambushed us in a wide room that seemed to be filled with treasures. Like most of the monsters, these Lizard Sharks hid inside of the dungeon walls and awaited their prey.

The moment my little Ailine entered while rushing towards a chest, three massive Lizard Sharks jumped over her, opening their wide mouths filled with thousands of tiny razor-like fangs, however just before they could get any taste of my daughter Slime body her Tattoo activated and the monsters suddenly hit a massive wall of Azure Gemstones, making the first two break their jaws by just the impact force alone, while the other managed to evade and tried to bite Ailine from another position to this my daughter\'s responded with a strong Spark of Pink lighting that blasted the monster several meters away, crashing over a dungeon wall, burned into a crisp.

The other Lizard Sharks that surrounded her were swiftly killed by Vudia\'s gold projectiles that took the form of small but sharp daggers, hitting their weak spots and then electrocuting them to death with a strong electric attack. Ailine saw the delicious monsters and quickly jumped over them, tasting their grilled bodies, completely ignoring the chest she wanted to open. I tasted some of these Lizard Sharks as well and found them especially delicious, it was juicy and tender with a strong fish flavor, they went well with some sweet sauce and minty beer.

After snacking on the group of around twenty Lizard Sharks, we went around the dungeon and encountered a new species of Shadow Lurking Crows, they seemed to be an evolved species that had more humanoid forms, they were able to move and incredible speeds and hide in the shadows of the dungeon, while wielding strong golden weapons and even casting magic.

A group of around a hundred ambushed us between two floors as they noticed us lowering our guards while descending through the stairs, the mages quickly activated their magic and began to shoot a barrage of fireballs at us to burn all of us alive. However, before that could even happen Rimuru expanded her slime body like a giant parachute and absorbed all the fire like nothing, while shooting it back at increased power.

Some of the crows tried to run away but were burned into a grilled chicken by the countered fireballs. Afterward, another group attacked us from the back, these seemed to be warrior type as they wielded Swords and Lances and had swift and strong movements accompanied by the masterful usage of Techniques. Ryo and Valentia were the first ones to intercept them as Ryo jumped over a small group of ten and punched and kicked them into shreds with powerful shockwaves that were released from his attacks, Valentia was rawer as she only punched and ravaged them with her massive arms and her Monster Hand, which shapeshifted into a long blade, slicing them into pieces.

Because we are all gluttons we also snacked in these new "Crow People" as Ailine decided to call them, they had a bitter flesh but when grilled good enough, they would release sweet juices and even their bones were tender enough to eat whole. Their internal organs went good with a spicy sauce and a spicy wine.

Without realizing our snack travel had already led us to the 23rd floor where the boss [Giant Sand Worm] was waiting for us. I was expecting a good enough fight after its boost in strength.

[Kireina] gained 9.301.300 EXP from its Party Members (Family)!]

[LEVEL 033/250?EXP 124.266.772/210.000.0000 EXP]

However, before all of that, it was time for lunch as my wives swiftly began to prepare the several monsters that we killed on our way. There was the delicious smell of different types of soups, fried and grilled meat, and also tasty liquor.

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