Epic of Caterpillar Chapter 36: The Dungeon Boss!

After having such a long and tiring battle, we immediately decided to rest for a while and enjoy the meat of the guardian.

This guardian was made of countless Blood Monster Mimics, giving an incredible amount of meat, there were also around 5 chest mimics, all of them had more of this merman gold on them, including precious gems and magic stones.

We were able to take out the poison thanks to Rimuru absorption powers, completely cleaning the meat.

Afterwards, I decided to drink all its blood, it had a nice sweet flavor, with some bitterness to it, completely different than any blood I have ever tasted.

I drank so much blood that my Blood Vitality hit max level and evolved immediately.

| YOU GAINED +10 BLOOD STRENGTH |

| BLOOD VITALITY LEVEL 10 > SUPERNATURAL BLOOD VITALITY LEVEL 1 |

This also made my blood evolve, from High Ancient Troll blood to High Cursed Blood Monster blood.

High Cursed Blood Monster blood did not have any class choices but came with increase in Blood Affinity and stat growth rate per level. I can still choose between the class trees from the High Ancient Troll blood, which was a relief.

After having this settled, we decided to chop the meat and roast it.

This guardian meat was very tasty and juicy when roasted, we accompanied it with some pickled veggies, boiled grains and some beer.

Nesiphae, Wagyu and Kekensha were the most tired. After all, they were the pillars on tanking and distracting the guardian, so they consumed lots of Stamina and were the hungriest.

"I wonder what kind of delicious plates Chokumotsu will be able to do with this meat…"

| YOU AND YOUR SERVANTS LEARNED THE FOLLOWING SKILLS: |

| BLOOD MONSTER TITAN KING OVERPOWERING ENDURANCE |

| BLOOD MONSTER TITAN KING MASSIVE BLOW |

| BLOOD MONSTER TITAN KING COLONY ENHANCEMENT |

| BLOOD MONSTER TITAN KING LIMB REGENERATION |

| BLOOD MONSTER TITAN KING OVER BEARING PRESSURE |

| HIGH FIRE RESISTANCE |

Afterwards, I assimilated some of its meat. I was already getting used to the pain.

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

| YOU LEARNED A NEW SKILL: BLOOD MONSTER TITAN KING POWERFUL COMPOUND BODY |

While Zehe, Rimuru and I finished eating long ago, Nesiphae, Wagyu and Kekensha were still eating, recovering their Stamina.

"Hmm… Monch, monch… Master? Why don't you eat some more? Munch…"

"Ugh, I don't really think I can even eat anymore… Even my belly skill is full, go ahead…"

"Oh? More for me then! Hehehe!"

Nesiphae took a big chunk of meat and filled her mouth with it.

While they were eating, I decided to take some of the herbs that the Chokumotsu once give to me, they were aromatic herbs with a bitter taste, ideal for some tea.

I opened my Item Box and took out some cups alongside the herbs and honey.

Zehe and Rimuru who were browsing through their System menu noticed what I was doing and looked over.

"Mastaa what are you doing? Is it something tasty?"

"Oh? Herbs?"

"Just look… Fuse: Water Shot and Fire Ball: Hot Water Creation!"

Fluosh!

Suddenly, both spells combined together and formed a small mass of hot water, I used Water Manipulation to order the mass of water to move inside the cups.

Fluoosh

When the cups were filled, I packed the herbs using my magic threads, making them resemble Earth's Tea Pockets.

The herbs inside the improvised Tea Pockets started to slowly exude their colors and aromas in contact with the hot water. Zehe and Rimuru quickly noticed the delicious smell.

"Is that some kind of beverage?"

"Using herbs, guuu?"

"Hmm… Now let's add some spoons of honey… Two for each is fine, right?"

"Sure…"

"Guuu"

The golden honey slowly dissipated inside the hot water, giving the tea a sweet aroma.

When the honey was completely dissolved inside the cups, I give a cup to each of my wifes.

Nesiphae was happily eating her meat so she didn't notice the tea yet.

Zehe was the first to try it, slowly putting her blue lips on the cup and drinking the hot beverage.

Suddenly, countless delicious herbal flavors filled Zehe's mouth.

"Aah! T-This! I have never drunk something like this… The herbal flavors… the smell… and the sweetness from the honey, accompanied with a nice bitter after-taste… Everything goes so well together… Dear, what is the name of this beverage that you have created?"

"I'm glad you like it, it's called Tea"

"Tea…"

Rimuru at my side already drank the whole cup in one go, enamored with the flavor.

"Hmmm! Mastaa! Give me more! Please! Guuu!"

"Hahaha, you drank it all already… Okay"

I couldn't resist Rimuru's cute face as she asked me for more tea, so I pleasantly served her with more water and then added the necessary herbs and honey.

"Hmm! I love this, Masta! You always give me delicious things!"

I patted the adorable Rimuru on her cute head.

Pat pat

"Guuu!"

Rimuru suddenly wrapped me over with her slime and hugged me tightly, while kissing my cheeks.

"Aggh! R-Rimuru, stop it!"

Zehe laughed at Rimuru childish for to express her love.

"Hehehe… Is this the warm of a family? Being able to laugh at such dumb things…?"

"Zehe?"

"Guu?"

"A-Ah! N-Nothing… Don't mind me…"

Even if Zehe pretended as she said nothing, I clearly heard what she said.

"I'm glad you find the warm of a family with us"

At this sudden response, Zehe blushed with emberassment.

"Eh? So you hear me after all… Aahh… Indeed, every time I am with you and the rest, I always feel a warm in my heart, and feel relaxed…"

I approached Zehe and give her a warm hug, Rimuru also wrapped Zehe around with her slime, giving us a strong hug.

"Aah… Hehehe… Uugh… Rimuru, p-please don't be so rough… Uagh!"

.

.

.

When Nesiphae, Wagyu and Kekensha finished their meals and had their bellies filled, they were ready to keep exploring the dungeon.

Nesiphae stood up with and put her armor back again, and drank the tea I left for her, which was still warm thanks to being made of magic.

"Hmm?! Oh, this is quite good! It goes very well after a big meal! Thanks Master!"

Nesiphae moved her big head down below and gave me a big kiss on my cheeks.

"Ehehe… Your tiny head is so soft, Master… It makes me want to eat you, fufufu…"

"Eat me? Don't say such terrifying things!"

"It was just a joke, fufufu"

Wagyu and Kekensha also drank some tea, however, Wolves don't usually enjoy sweet things or herbal flavors, so they just drank a little bit.

"Sorry Master, we Wolves don't usually enjoy sweet and herbal flavors…"

"Ah, its fine. This beverage is more suited for humanoids, but I should think in some for Wolves too, there should be so herbs that appease your taste buds better"

Before proceeding downstairs, we quickly opened our Reward Gifts first. This time the Reward Gift box was two times as bigger, probably meaning a better reward.

I quickly opened my Reward Gift in high hopes.

Flash!

A flash of light quickly covered the box until it slowly dissipated, and an item was remaining on my hand.

"An egg?"

Instead of a conventional item, I obtained an egg! However, it was not a normal monster, it was a Blood Monster Colony egg! The egg had a red transparent tone, inside of it, one could see countless tiny fleshy beings resembling larvae.

"So this is how they look before growing up? They look like worms or slugs"

| BLOOD MONSTER COLONY EGG: An egg packed with countless baby Blood Monsters inside, after hatching they will obey your commands. Blood Monsters can grow larger as they absorb and assimilate living beings or inanimate objects. |

"Interesting… I will be able to make my own army of these creepy crawlers? We could even leave some to be raised inside a farm as cattle, making them grow fatter with food… These monsters are very versatile, they will be a great asset in the future"

On the other side, the rest got more conventional things.

Nesiphae obtained a powerful Blood Monster Titan Axe, which she decided to save and use it on the future, its power was weaker than her current axe, but she knew that Kajiya could fuse both weapons into one with her forgery skills.

Zehe got a Blood Monster Titan armor, which could cover her entire chest and back including her shoulders. She sadly can't equip it because of job restrictions, but she decided to absorb it instead using the Bloody Lotus Digesting Juices, and obtained the | BLOOD MONSTER TITAN ARMOR | skill instead, which could be casted over her entire body, and would grant an increase in Defense and Resistance.

Rimuru obtained the Blood Monster Titan Shield, a powerful and massive shield that could protect her entire body, she decided to save it on her Item Box for now, and thought about using it in the future.

Wagyu got an interesting item, it was a Blood Monster Titan Strength Tonic, which granted him and increase in Strength and Defense when consumed. After drinking it in one go, he got +10 Strength and +10 Defense.

Kekensha obtained the Blood Monster Titan Great Bow, a powerful and massive bow that only the most experienced Archers could equip. Thinking it for a while, he decided to eat it. After dissolving it for a while with Bloody Lotus Dissolving Juices, he finally obtained the skill | BLOOD MONSTER TITAN GREAT BOW |. I had never seen a bow into a skill before, but it worked pretty much the same as the others. After casting the skill, a floating bow would appear out of thin air, and Kekensha would be able to control it with its mind. He could also use MP to generate magic arrows, and even reinforce them with powerful elements.

After this was finally settled, we continued our journey down below.

While going further below, the rooting smell got even stronger, and the cave walls stated to sweat blood intensively, creating small blood rivers around.

When we finally reached a wide area, we found a big amount of blood rivers, that were connecting with a massive blood lake in the middle of the room.

Zehe and I were the first to notice that there was something immense down the lake.

"H-Honey, can you sense it?"

"Yeah I can… There is a massive monster resting on this lake… is the fin-"

SPLASH!

Suddenly, countless Blood Monsters started to come outside the lake, however, instead of resembling the ugly and mutate creatures from before, these looked humanoid.

"Fish tails?"

These Blood Monsters resembled Mermaids and Mermans, having an upper humanoid body while having different fish tails, some were bigger than others.

"Are they possessing the bodies of these Merman corpses? This is horrible…"

"This lake is… Were the Blood Sacrifice Rituals were held? Are these corpses the people sacrified?"

Zehe suddenly started to breath heavily, as if a strong fear covered her heart.

"Haaahhh… I can hear them… Their cries…"

"Zehe? Can you understand their waillings?"

"They are begging for our help… Ugh… These Blood Monsters are maintaining their souls still here, suffering inside their decaying bodies…"

Suddenly, Nesiphae also feel the same.

"I can also hear them… It must be because of my | SPIRIT LANGUAGE | skill… They are asking for a merciful death… to burn this whole place…"

Suddenly, a big Blood Monster Merman jumped over wielding an axe made of bones.

"Gluoooohhh!!"

SLASH!

However, I was able to intercept it with my Solidified Cursed Claw!

CLASH!

"Gluooh?!"

The Cursed Claw grabbed the big Blood Monster Merman and detonated, blowing it into pieces!

BOOOM!

| YOU GAINED 7560 EXP | | THE REST OF YOUR PARTY GAINED 3780 EXP |

| LEVEL 44/50 EXP 18488/38000 |

The blood lake started to form big waves as a countless amount of Blood Monster Merman started to come to the surface.

Fluosh! Fluosh! Fluosh!

"Guaah! So many! Gate of Bjarmia!"

A small magic zone appeared out of thin air over my head and started to blast the near monsters into meat paste with flaming weapon shaped magic projectiles.

Booom! Booom!

"Guuooohh!"

Splat!

| YOU GAINED 7680 EXP | | THE REST OF YOUR PARTY GAINED 3840 EXP |

| LEVEL 44/50 EXP 26168/38000 |

The flaming weapons sliced and stabbed most of the monsters, setting them immediately on an intense fire, burning them to a crisp.

| YOU GAINED 36780 EXP | | THE REST OF YOUR PARTY GAINED 18390 EXP |

| YOU GAINED ONE LEVEL! | | LEVEL 45/50 EXP 24948/39000 |

| THE REST OF YOUR PARTY GAINED SOME LEVELS! |

The rest of my servants didn't slack off and also casted a myriad of fire based magic spells, quickly taking care of the situation.

After some minutes, a big pile of burning Blood Monsters was already formed, but more were coming our way.

"Gruoooohhh!"

When the Blood Monsters noticed that they were losing, some decided to form colonies and merged together, forming horrible mutated abominations.

A massive mutated monster came rushing towards Nesiphae, raising its massive claw!

"Gruooh!"

SLASH!

Nesiphae quickly intercepted it with her axe.

CLASH!

"How about this?"

FLUOSH!

，

Suddenly, Nesiphae axe became completely covered in flames, burning the blood monster colony on the spot!

"GRRRYYAAAH!"

"Vertical Slash!"

Nesiphae raised her axe and slashed the burning monster in half!

SLASH!

"Phew… That wa-"

"Gruooh!"

Another big monster colony came towards Nesiphae, doing a sneak attack!

"Ahh?! Damned!"

SLASH!

A flaming axe slashed the big monster colony in half!

However, two more monster colonies came from her sides!

"Grruuaaahhh!"

"Eh?!"

Flash!

But right on this moment, Wagyu came rushing towards the two monsters, using its flaming fangs to bite their limbs off.

"Raaawr!"

FLUOSH!

The two monsters quickly settled in fire, and Wagyu used its Shadow Manipulation skills to trap them in their own shadows until they burned to a crisp.

"Phew, thanks Wagyu"

"It is my duty to protect you, Lady Nesiphae!"

Kekensha on the other side, was attracting most of the monster attention, and blasting them away with powerful holy arrows.

"It seems that these monsters are classified as Undead too, being very weak to Light, my strongest attribute!"

Flash! Flash! Flash!

"Gruuookkh!"

Splat!

The monsters were blasted by powerful light arrows, being torn to pieces.

After some time, the last Blood Monster Merman finally fell to the ground.

| CALCULATING TOTAL EXP WON |

| YOU GAINED 68500 EXP | | THE REST OF YOUR PARTY GAINED TONS OF EXP |

| YOU GAINED TWO LEVELS! | | LEVEL 47/50 EXP 14448/41000 |

| THE REST OF YOUR PARTY GAINED SOME LEVELS! |

I asked Zehe if the she could hear more of those voices.

"No, I can't hear them anymore… However, if we keep going forwards, there are more of them in there, and something else… Resting deeply on the lake"

"Oh? Is it strong?"

"Yes… It seems to be able to control the rest of the Blood Monsters, and its also the one who is keeping all these souls still on their decaying bodies. It has powerful Dark Arts at his disposal, and probably knows Soul Magic too"

"Soul Magic?"

"The power to control and manipulate souls, a very forbidden and mysterious type of magic… My former Master has the power to use Soul Magic, it was granted to him by a demi-god blessing"

"Hmmm…"

After hearing the strength and potential of this beast, a powerful desire to eat this beast filled my mind and body.

"Aaah… Then it will be worth the kill, right?"

"Honey? You want to eat it? But it could be too strong… I…"

Zehe suddenly noticed my eyes, who changed to a deep crimson color.

"We came here to get stronger, right? This is the right path… I can't wait…"

"H-Honey?"

"I'm so hungry…"

Zehe suddenly grabbed my shoulder.

"Kireina?"

Whatever was taking control of my desires quickly dissipated.

"Ah! Anyways, let's eat these ones first, come"

"Yeah… (Did she become different for a split second? Something felt weird…)"

This Blood Monster Merman variant was classified as undead, so we were eating rooted meat combined with the fresh meat of the Blood Monster possessing the corpse, creating a weird flavor.

We made sure to roast them very well before consuming them, to my surprise, the roasted rotten meat did not taste bad all, even having a small cheesy flavor to it, accompanied with the juicy and salty Blood Monster meat inside, it created a unique experience. This meat went good with beer as it was quite strong.

Wagyu and Kekensha liked this meat more than anyone, as they loved the smell and cheesy flavor.

While eating I noticed that some meat was different than the others, having a more soft texture and stronger fishy flavor, others had a spicier hint to it and some were way sweeter.

| YOU AND YOUR SERVANTS LEARNED THE FOLLOWING SKILLS: |

| BLOOD MONSTER MERMAN BONE WEAPON CREATION |

| HIGH MERMAN WATER PRESSURE RESISTANCE |

| HIGH MERMAN ADAMANTINE BODY |

| HIGH MERSHARK POWERFUL MUSCLES AND GILLS |

| HIGH MERSHARK STRONG BITE |

| HIGH MERSHARK WATER PROPULSION |

| HIGH MERSHARK HARD SCALES |

| HIGH MERMAID ENCHANTING VOICE |

| HIGH MERMAID MYSTIC VOICE |

| HIGH MERMAID BEAUTIFUL CHARM |

| BASIC SOUND MAGIC: ENCHANTING MERMAID BALLAD |

| HIGH EELMAN STICKY BODY |

| HIGH EELMAN MUCUS CREATION |

| HIGH EELMAID POWERFUL ELECTRIC ATTACK |

| HIGH EELMAID THUNDER RESISTANCE |

"Merman skills… And there are Mersharks and Eelmans? Fascinating, so there are even more variants, some being Merman with Shark attributes and others with Eel attributes… Probably that's where the different flavors come"

Nesiphae was eating the Blood Monsters whole, taking a big an