Epic of Caterpillar

124 Ocean Guardian Grotto

[Day 114]

Today will be the third day that we have been staying on the dungeon. Because I don't think that it's good to leave Altani and Yisu alone for so long, we will return to the surface after defeating the boss of this new floor.

We will certainly come back in a few days. But for now, I will do as I promised Lilith, which was the original plan of this journey in the first place, to retrieve her family from their poverty and add them to my Kingdom.

According to what she has told me, her entire village is like her family, so we might end up adding a lot of experienced farmers, it will be a nice addition to the foundation of our Kingdom.

Because Lilith is more or less a wife or concubine by now, I promised that I will retrieve even the weak and untalented, as long as they are part of her family, I won't discriminate.

However, they will have to work very hard to earn their bread. As long as they work hard, they will be compensated.

The floor we were sent this morning was rather interesting, it was a floor that is considered of "medium" level, named [Ocean's Guardian Grotto]. The atmosphere on this floor was similar to the first floor that we encountered, having a damp and foggy mist.

There are countless ponds around and these seem to be deeper. There are also corals of various colors and seaweed growing on the walls as if we were on the deeps of the ocean.

Our first encounter was a big group of floating fish, named Lesser Scaled Koi Warriors, led by a Lesser Scaled Koi Leader. These monsters resemble big floating blue and dark-colored Koi fishes, they wear scales that resemble sapphires as if they were armors and even wield weapons with their fins.

They walk around this floor in big groups and are never found completely alone. These monsters have high intellect and can make complex strategies and tactics. Luckily for us, we can overwhelm them with pure strength, making their strategies useless. However, they have taken several adventurers lives, especially from novice adventurers.

When my children were done with the fishes, we quickly had them for breakfast. Their groups come with plenty, so there was enough for everyone. Their taste was superb, having a delicious fish flavor and tender meat, even their skin was delicious.

[You learned the following Skill]

[Sapphire Scale Armor Creation]

According to the guidebook, the monsters on this floor are the previously seen Scaled Koi Warriors and Leader, Ocean Slime, Ocean Slime King, Coral Beast, Aquatic Demon Spider, Floating Shark Snake, etc.

Just like on the previous floor, we decided to divide ourselves into the same groups as before, so we could scout and hunt to our heart's content.

Going with Rimuru and Brontes, it was quite fun, but I feel like I need to spend some more time with the rest of my wives alone too, so I might do private dates on the following days.

Anyways, things went quite smoothly. We encountered several species of new monsters we have never tasted before, so it was a culinary journey.

In the middle of our hunt, we came across a giant hidden room that was filled with ponds where the monsters spawn, and because of the sheer amount of them, monsters kept generating without stopping.

From the left side, big groups of giant Coral Beasts, Aquatic Demon Spiders and Ocean Slimes gathered, attacking us with their powerful ranged magic attacks. This side was taken care of by Rimuru, who graciously blasted the hundreds of monsters with her rainbow-colored rays of magic, which are made with several elements concentrated in one single ray.

Aside from this, she used her [Legendary] sword to slash a slice anything that came too close to her, and if by any chance she was attacked, her [Rainbow Armor] would protect her from any damage that these medium level monsters can cause, if any.

From the right side, there were massive groups of Scaled Koi Warriors, Ocean Slime Kings and Floating Shark Snakes, who used their powerful physical power while working with intelligence and strategies. This side was taken care of by Brontes, her power as a Thunder Spirit keeps increasing by the day, and her combination of both magic and overwhelming physical strength is almost unique by itself. With countless Thunder Magic spells and Club techniques, she overwhelms the enemy with raw power, completely annihilating them from existence.

Brontes skin is as hard as adamantine and perfectly works as a natural armor, aside from this, her movements are extremely fast thanks to her several speed-enhancing skills. Her regeneration capabilities are also superb, being able to even regenerate completely broken bones and destroyed muscles in seconds.

From the front and the back, there were big groups of Floating Thunder Shark Snakes, Coral Beasts Emperors, and Sapphire Shelled Crabs, which I took care of with my aura, that shaped itself as several arms and swords that pierced and smashed any monster coming closer to me.

If any managed to get too close, I would use [One Hundred Venomous Gemstone Hammer Barrage], a new and powerful skill obtained through skill fusion that summons one hundred hammers made of energy that smashes anything on its way. The hundreds of monsters didn't even realize what happened to them as they were immediately pushed to the floor and smashed into minced meat.

However, because this skill cost quite a lot of MP, I also used my conventional magic, creating a big area of effect spells, especially of fire, like [Everlasting Inferno], [Burning Destruction], [Lava Tornado], etc.

We fought almost the entire list of monsters on the guidebook, and it was an enriching experience, both in tastes and in EXP. Even if these were considered "medium" monsters, killing over a hundred will always bring some decent amount of EXP.

[You gained 4248800 EXP] [Rimuru and Brontes gained tons of EXP]

[You gained one level!] [LEVEL 016/250?? EXP 2004851/14000000]

[Rimuru and Brontes gained tons of levels!]

After such a massive battle, we rested for a moment while eating the countless of monster corpses to recover stamina and mental fatigue. I was getting rather hungry so I continued eating, shapeshifting my arms into slimes while consuming the endless course of raw seafood.

[You learned the following Skills]

[Sapphire Thread Creation]

[Ocean Slime King Aquamarine Flood]

[Rock Breaking Thundering Jaws]

Several hours passed since we separated, so after communicating with everyone through the System Direct Message Feature, we meet in the place where our tent was, that was currently being guarded by the Undead Soldiers I summoned yesterday.

Everyone had leveled quite a lot and brought several prizes and rare items, I also collected quite a few, some of these included various types of accessories, magic stones and such.

Before going for the boss, we settled on our place and had a comforting lunch. The seafood made by the monsters on this floor is superb, there was a certain increase in quality with these monsters' meat.

[You learned the following Skills]

[Zapping Ocean Downpour]

[Azure Coral Wall]

Much like in the two previous floors, the [Ocean's Guardian Grotto] has three rotating bosses, which are usually called The Three Guardians.

The most common and weakest of the bunch is the Thunderstorm Dragon Eel, a giant eel that is covered on countless of azure-colored scales. Alongside this, it possesses an incredibly powerful lighting power, which can instantly pulverize most foes and if not, they are left paralyzed and ready to be devoured by its massive jaws, that are filled with adamantine-like razor teeth.

The second and the not so common of the three is the Tower Shelled Turtle Shark, a massive turtle-like creature that possesses an immense shell which resembles a tower, in who's the monster offspring inhabit. The monster usually swims through a big pool and sends the myriad of monsters that live on its shell to take care of any threat. If his overwhelming army of monsters cannot defeat its foe, it will repeatedly throw powerful thunder attacks from its giant shark-like jaws.

Lastly, the third and the most uncommon of the trio is the Thunder Gemstone Whale King, probably being one of the biggest bosses on the entire dungeon, this being has been reported to have killed hundreds of adventurer parties, even the ones made with the most experienced and veterans. Although it's slow, this whale possesses countless eyes made of gems all around its body, which it uses to shoot hundreds of different magic spells everywhere. Aside from this, it can summon several "familiars" made of thunder and water magic. It also possesses an almost indestructible shield and superb regeneration capabilities with a massive HP pool. The list of abilities on this monster keeps going on and on…

Maybe we were lucky or perhaps unlucky, as we didn't get the hardest of the three, but the second hardest, the Tower Shelled Turtle Shark. Nonetheless, the monster was still gigantic and my children alone would have never been able to beat such a thing, at least not in a short time, so we ended up assisting them.

Just like in its description, this boss possesses a massive shell that resembles a tower. Inside of this tower, there are hundreds of monsters, some even being the monster children. The turtle mainly stays underwater waiting for its endless army of monsters to finish any threat.

However, we have previously beaten hundreds of them not so long ago, and doing it again wasn't much a problem. As I wanted to go a tad bit serious, I used my [Arms of Demise] to quickly clean anything that approached us.

Wanting to test the turtle endurance, I rushed through the battlefield and activated my Six-Armed Wyvern Armor, generating four new arms for me to use freely. And then, I armed myself with every weapon at my disposal.

Activating [Intimidating Catastrophic Rampage and Battle Style] alongside my aura, I began to smash and slice the entire tower-like shell. As I expected, the monster did have its protection measurements, as it summoned a giant magic shield that protected it from any damage.

Seeing how even the rampage of my entire arsenal of weapons alongside my aura didn't work that well against such a gigantic shield, I began using [Ultimate Techniques] in succession, which seemed to finally work, beginning to shatter the monster magic shield.

On its struggle, the beast tried to fend me off using its Thunder Magic, throwing several plasma balls of concentrated thunder magic of high density, which were able to blast the entire ceiling. As it was getting hard to dodge while attacking its shield, I summoned some [Arms of Demise] to hold its magic, distracting him.

Meanwhile, I began to create Aura Clones that helped on the damage, after some seconds, the magic shield finally shattered and I was able to blast the monster shell using an incredibly complex combination of [Ultimate Techniques], which made my entire body resemble a rampaging meteor descending through the monster shell.

BOOOOOM!

I managed to get through the turtle shell as I descended at max speed, massacring the monster innards alongside its lower shell. As the turtle began to cough blood, it decided to detonate its Magic Core, which functions as its heart.

This was rather troublesome as I was quite close to it, and even my endless shields and defenses cannot protect me from such a huge impact of concentrated magic density, or even worse, I would lose such a valuable item like the boss Magic Core… Thankfully, my wives were close and managed to slice the monster head off, stoppings its self-destruction.

[You gained 2479900 EXP] [The rest of your family/servants gained tons of EXP]

[LEVEL 016/250?? EXP 4484751/14000000]

Evan, Charlotte, and Lilith alongside my children were still dealing with the endless wave of monsters with the assistance of my [Arms of Demise]. So, I quickly rushed to assist them in that.

After half an hour of arduous fighting, we managed to beat the final boss offspring and officially defeated the final boss on its entirety.

With the help of some of my [Arms of Demise] alongside Wind and Gravity Magic, I carried the massive body of the tower-shelled turtle outside of the boss room. Everyone else dragged the other monster corpses and their item drops.

Butchering such a massive monster took some time, thankfully, I had my Aura Clones and Flesh and Slime Clones to help me on this. As everyone was connected mentally, their work was fast and efficient, in half an hour, the entire monster was butchered and each part was successfully saved inside of my Item Box.

While Rimuru, Mady, and Adelle were preparing the boss meat and grilling gigantic slices of its meat, I admired the boss's massive Magic Core, which had a beautiful yellow color, and it was over five meters long and four meters wide.

Because it was so big, the only way of eating it was by shapeshifting into a slime, which made quick work of the entire Magic Core.

[You learned the following Skills]

[Shark Turtle King Tower Shell Creation]

[Shark Turtle Spiritual Shield of Damage Reflection]

Aah, this boss was unexpectedly strong. This dungeon floor was surprisingly at a nice level for me to get a nice amount of Skills.

As I browsed and tried my new skills, the food was ready. I spent the next hours talking and celebrating our victory over such a massive foe, perhaps the biggest monster I've killed in my life.

This boss meat was… Amazing, simply amazing. Probably tastier than even the Sacred Protector of the Forest, it was indeed an incredible delicacy, very few things were comparable to such an amazing meat.

It was tender and juicy while having a strong fish flavor alongside a beef hint, which made the taste unique in many ways. Every part of the monster had a different texture and flavor. Its fins were harder but saltiest, its head was sweeter and tender and its belly was the juiciest.

[You learned the following Skills]

[Thunderstorm Plasma Spheres Barrage]

[Thunder Shark Turtle Scales Armor]

[Bloodline of the Giant Turtle Shark Lineage]

Due to the amazingness of the meat, I assimilated a big chunk of its meat, and obtained a peculiar skill, not being exactly of assimilation category.

[You learned the following Skill]

[Blessing of the Ancient Shark Turtle King]

I never expected to get a conventional skill through assimilation, this is probably a new feature after the evolution of this skill.

After having a comforting dinner, I spent the next four hours killing the boss once again. Because of its sheer size, I only managed to kill eight. Nonetheless, its meat and dropped items are extremely valuable, alongside the amazing EXP gained, I'll call it a good grind.

[You gained 19839200 EXP]

[You gained one level!] [LEVEL 017/250?? EXP 10323951/15000000]

Before leaving the dungeon using our Teleportation Threads, I devoured three corpses using my slime form, which I had to expand to lengths I never thought possible.

[You learned the following Skills]

[Monster Army Overwhelming Enhancement]

[Obliterating Thunderstorm Rapids]

Having this settled, we quickly left the dungeon and spent the night on the same Inn as before. However, overnight, I felt something watching me, I decided to leave it to my Flesh and Slime Minions for now, as I went to sleep without much worry. Perhaps tomorrow morning, I may be greeted with a tasty meal.

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