Epic of Caterpillar

Chapter 29: Combat System

29 Combat System

Fallen Kingdom of Ollathir, now known as the Dark Nation: King's Castle.

A pale young man sit on a grandiose throne, with his eyes lost in amazement.

"Impressive… This Kireina! Impressive!"

"Even against the odds, she was able to win?"

The young man slowly stood up.

"Even when I completely sealed her magic?! She evolved her own skills, being able to combine and use non magic skills in such ways, abusing the System…"

"Hahahaha…!"

The young man started to laugh, and slowly sit down on his throne again.

"Hahahaha! No matter what I throw to you, will you still survive? Thanks to such battle, I was able to obtain precious data on how Shadow Rings power and effects can stack up together…"

"If I am able to correctly use Shadow Rings, I could completely reform my body again, becoming a full Demon… However, for this, I need a massively strong and large soul, even with my Soul Nourishing System, I still lack on food for it…"

The young man grabbed a strange crystal ball, filled with countless deforming and wailing faces.

"And this is where all of you come in to place, my beautiful family… You will become the food to nourish my soul, and finally ascend it to stage 3!"

"Hahahaha! Hahahahaha! Without you, Kireina, I would had never been able to figure out the limits of the Shadow Awakening Rings! I am one step closer to obtain a pure Demon body!"

"With this…"

The young man glanced at an undead girl at his side, who was silent.

"With this… When my soul finally ascend to stage 3 … I can obtain a full Demon body, I will be able to conquer the Sealed Spirits inside the Grand Forest and with their power, I will be able to enter the Realm of Hel, and finally retrieve your soul, sister! I am so close! Kireina, you are of no use to me anymore, the next wave will be the last…!"

"Finally… After so many struggles, there is a clear path ahead of me…"

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"Master Kireina!"

"Ah! Nesiphae"

"H-Honey…"

"Z-Zehe…"

The two girls jumped over me, with their eyes flowing with tears.

"We were so worried…!"

"I'm glad you are fine… But you shouldn't rush on things like that, you have us and your ser- EH?!"

Zehe quickly noticed my missing leg.

"Gyaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!! H-honey! What happened to you?! Your beautiful leg! It's gone! Snif snif"

After Zehe freaked out, all my other servants around noticed these horrible news!

"M-Master! Your leg!"

"You must have a really hard time, I can't believe this"

"It was such a hard battle, Master… We want to protect you, please don't rush again like this"

"Master, you are precious to us, please don't be so careless!"

"Agh! Get off me! I'm fine! It was a fair trade for my life… I can replace it with a prosthetic one, like Zehe's…"

"H-Honey…"

"I guess we are fair now, don't we?"

"D-Don't talk such stupid things! I already forgive you for my arm long ago…! I… I… Please don't be so careless… If I lose you… My world would crumble…"

Zehe blushed and cried like a little girl, hugging me tightly.

"Zehe… I'm sorry… I just wanted to protect all of you … I tend to put my life over my servants, but perhaps cooperation and preparation is a better tactic"

Zehe was very close to me, and I could smell a sweet flower fragrance from her silver hair.

I patted Zehe and kissed her cheek.

"It's fine… I'm here"

Suddenly, I heard a loud girly voice!

"MASTEER!"

It was Milim and the rest of the Slime Family; they all came crying over me.

All of the Slimes expanded their bodies and hugged my entire body!

"AAAAAAAGHHH! S-Stop it! Leave me alone! Uggghh!"

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After comforting all my crying servants, I ordered my new undead soldiers to carry the Goblin meat inside the castle; we do not waste food here, even if it is a nasty Goblin!

According to Kekensha and the Wyverns report, the invasion was sudden but they were able to hold off just fine, mostly using the undead soldiers as meat shield, causalities were very few.

4 Monkeys, 2 Crimson Wolves and 1 Ice Wolf were lost.

I decided to leave the corpses to their respective families, the monkeys decided to bury their brothers while the wolves did their eating ritual, were they eat their diseased family, it is crude, but I can't really make them change their mindsets and beliefs. According to the Wolves, thanks to this ritual is that they were able to survive on times were food was scarce.

The undead Trolls that were used as meat shields mostly were fine, but some lost their heads and were too damaged, so they ended up "dying". However, because they are just moving corpses that use Magic and the System to move, they can revive if I offer enough "tributes" and MP, by tributes, it means living beings meat. I decided not to do this because I already had new undead soldiers with me. Around 6 undead Trolls "died", while the rest became very strong after battling so much, close to evolution.

There were so many corpses and blood all around that it took several hours to retrieve everything, we even took the small armors and weapons the Goblins were using, as they could provide useful to my army.

According to my command, the slaves and weaker soldiers stayed inside the castle, on an underground room, when everything calmed down they finally were able to go out and retrieved the Goblin meat and items.

The Spider Queen Jorogumo was disappointed on her own weakness, not being able to qualify for the war.

"I really wanted to join the main forces… sigh"

"Joro? Don't worry, you will in no time, you have an amazing potential as a physical attacker, you must train harder for now!"

"M-Master… Y-Yes… I will do my best!"

The rest of the Named Slaves also wanted my attention so all of them came close to me. Asking for fighting advice.

"All of you are also strong assets so our community, I am expecting great things from your strength, make sure to eat all of these Goblins, their skills will grant you new powers"

"Yes!"

As I settled things with them, I went inside my castle and did a quick meeting with the Squad Leaders.

I talked about the struggles I had inside the Anti-Magic Zone, and the power of the Shadow Awakening Ring, showing them the four I retrieved from the Goblin Emperor.

Kekensha and Kizuato were the first ones to talk.

"So this is the Shadow Awakening Ring? It is really true that this accessory possess a Demon inside? Unbelievable"

"Such power, is it even safe to use these, Master?"

"I don't really know, but it seems that these Rings are able to drain the used vitality as you use them more and more… The only thing I know is that they don't need MP or Stamina to activate, using something else… Further investigations needs to be done, and to this, I need the help of Kusuri and Kajiya"

Kusuri and Kajiya nodded.

"Y-Yes, M-Master…! I will do my best!"

"Leave it to us, Master"

Afterwards, I told them that I have been planning to name more servants, and each Squad Leader recommended to me some promising rookies, who were almost as strong as they were without even owning a name.

"Very well, bring them here"

The Monkeys brought five very talented monkeys, including Chokumotsu partner, the interesting thing is that these monkeys were classified as the "weakest" ones before, because of being born weaker than the others are, but after intensive training and evolution, they were able to develop new powers and talents unique to them.

A red colored monkey with a strong and muscular body, very proficient in physical damage, even without a name, it managed to evolve into a rare variant named "Flaming Oni Mountain Ape", which specializes in using explosive physical attacks imbued with strong flames.

I simply named him "Oni".

"Thank you Master!!! Finally, I can prove the world my might, with a fitting name! ONI!"

Two Monkey twin sisters, who were white colored and small in size, since they were born, they had a good affinity with Light and Holy magic, specializing in healing and restorative spells, this give me the idea of making them the Leaders of the first Nursing Team. The two managed to evolve into an incredibly rare variant named "Holy Light Nursing Monkey".

Even though the two were almost identical, one had blue eyes while the other had green eyes, so I named them according to this.

Aoi (blue) for the blue-eyed sister.

Midori (green) for the green-eyed sister.

"Thank you very much, Master. We are not worthy of your care"

"T-Thanks, Master. May the Holy Light guide your journey…"

"Hahaha… They really talk like nuns"

There was also this very tall monkey, he had a very strange green colored fur, and it seemed as if plants were growing on its back, it also had a relaxed face. After intensive training, this weak monkey ended up showing amazing talent and evolved to a rare variant named "Natural Gaia Monkey" which specializes in the manipulation of plant life, from healing to attacking spells, it had a myriad of skills.

I named him Odayakana (serene).

"Thanks… Master… Zzzz…"

"H-Hey don't fall asleep!"

The last monkey was Chokumotsu partner, who was a genius in cooking. However, what surprised me the most is that not only he was a talented on cooking, but also possessed attacking and supportive skills based on the Cook job. After evolving into a "High Mountain Monkey" it obtained a special job named "Flaming Battle Cook", which possessed incredible skills that I have never seen before, like instantly creating a meal with high calories and vitamins using his MP and Stamina, or being able to use "Flaming Pan Arts" to do incredible strong blows with his cooking pan.

Even more, it seems that this job as an incredibly long skill tree, and after peeking on the future skills, there were even summoning skills! What would he even summon? A giant noodle monster?!

However, the meals created with his skills did not have any flavor, so if you wanted to eat something delicious is better for him to prepare it.

This new job give me a new insight on how varied are the powers on this world, that there are even "Fighting Cooks" is something interesting that I have only seen on a manga from Earth named Tori##.

I named this talented Fighting Cook, Kaen (Flames), because he had flaming red eyes.

"Thank you, Master! I shall serve you as a Cook but also as reliable Warrior!"

After naming the monkeys, the wolves were next.

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This time there were four very talented Crimson Wolves and two Ice Wolves.

The first one was one who previously evolved into a Midnight Wolf King, just like Wagyu, Midnight Wolves specialize in Shadow Manipulation and Magic, having amazing skills like Shadow Drag and Absolute Shadow Zone. This Wolf had a calm and composed demeanor.

I named him Kage (Shadow).

"Thanks for the name, Master. I shall serve you on the shadows…"

"(He's quite edgy huh?)"

There was another Crimson Wolf who became famous lately because of evolving into a "Flying Wind Wolf", a rare green-colored variant of wolves specialized in flying and controlling the Wind element, if they evolve enough, they will be able to cast massive storms and tornados, whipping out entire armies by themselves.

This wolf was nice and carefree so I named him Nonkina (Carefree).

"Hahaha! It's quite nice to have a name now… Thanks"

The other two Crimson Wolves were brothers, although not entirely twins, they were almost equally strong, and looked almost the same. They evolved into an extremely rare variant named "Earth Titan Wolf", which was brown colored and massive in size, with two goat-like horns on their foreheads and golden eyes, they had good affinity with Earth and Rock manipulation while also having a sturdy body.

I named the oldest brother Chiky? (Earth) and the little brother Iwa (Rock).

"A name! At last!"

"We have come so far, big brother! Thanks, Master!!"

"No problem, keep working hard"

Yuki also recommended me two of the strongest Ice Wolves, I see that she did not wanted to loose to the Crimson Wolves.

The first Ice Wolf was an energetic male, even though the Ice Wolf family is small, everyone is very talented.

After so much hard work, this wolf evolved into a strong Ice Wolf variant named "Freezing Iceberg Wolf", which specialized on strong tanking capabilities. It would rely on a gigantic iceberg that grown from its back to defend itself, almost using it as shell, it was slow but his defense was impenetrable, and even got a skill that could negate his weakness to fire.

I named him Hy?zan (Iceberg).

"Thanks, Master! I will become the shield of our small Ice Wolf family!"

The second and last Ice Wolf was actually a mother, much like Yuki, she was a serious and calm Wolf, and she specialized in fast and swift attacks. She evolved into a "High Ice Wolf Queen", although her evolution was not a special variant, she was strong nonetheless, and I could not ignore her hard work.

I named her K?ri (Ice).

"Master… Thanks for your benevolence…"

After naming so many wolves, I felt quite tired, so I finished the short meeting and told everyone to head to their respective works.

I followed Kusuri and Kajiya to their rooms and give them the task to create a fitting prosthetic leg for me, they told that they had all the materials and that it would be done by tomorrow, there are also quite a lot of smith assistants now, and Kajiya is teaching all of them the basics.

I wanted to give them so work too, so I give them the task to create me some physical weapons, of any kind, they included Great Swords, Long Swords, Knives, Hammers, etc.

The one who created the best and strongest one would get a name, it was a nice little incentive and everyone was excited about working hard.

The same went for the Alchemy assistants; the ones who created the best accessories and potions would get a name too.

Afterwards, I decided to sleep for the rest of the day until dinner time.

When I entered my room I was greeted by Zehe and Nesiphae who also were deeply asleep, they fought a lot in this battle, defending the frontlines.

According to Wagyu, Nesiphae used her powerful and sturdy armor and her axe to slash through the front lines and fought toe to toe with the mighty Giant Goblins. It seems that she has mastered the usage of both physical attacks while multi-tasking magic spells around, she also showed amazing magic spells never seen before, probably due to her synthesis fusion of skills.

Most of Nesiphae skills, according to Wagyu, consisted of controlling thousands of little snakes made of different magic elements, wrapping her enemies like threads, but inflicting status ailments on the process, some would even detonate or others would act as shields. The more she summoned these snakes, the larger would be the quantity produced, and the more enemies killed would make them stronger and sturdier.

I could see that she herself was already designing her own combat system.

Zehe, on the other side, stayed on the backlines while she casted the new spells she had carefully fused, including the one I gifted her, she was seen very calm and calculative, while wreaking havoc on the middle of the enemy army, disrupting their movements and formations. According to Wagyu she used new spells that were based on Shadow Magic but combined with different elements, and even a very peculiar one that would cast a gigantic shadow in the middle of a battlefield and would drag nearby enemies, if they are too weak, they would get crushed and nourish this shadow, making it grow bigger.

I noticed that she was already seeing some insights on how to properly make her own combat system, but she was still too far from it and needed more practice.

What is a combat system?

A combat system is a way to fight using different techniques that complement each other, growing in strength through the battle, and even evolving with you to break through obstacles.

An ideal combat system should be able to complement each technique in a growing way. While casting or activating skills, the strength of the upcoming moves would become stronger, but a perfect combat system would also include healing and protection on the formula, while attacking and growing in power, you could also use this "accumulated" power to heal yourself or even buff your body even more.

A very basic and primitive combat system would be what I was able to achieve in my fight with the Goblin Emperor, being able to grow my power and even evolve my techniques.

I made use of Cursed Claw in ways I would had never imagined before, from protection to mobility, and even distraction. While also being able to accumulate more Cursed Claws and combine them, growing in power exponentially, this combat system would seem unconventional to most people because of the Stamina cost, but as an undead, I am immune to physical fatigue.

The critical flaw of this "novice" combat system was the lack of supporting moves, only using Cursed Claws and some physical buffing skills to increase my strength.

Why do I even know what a combat system even is?

It's just an hypothesis, and probably it doesn't even apply on this world entirely, but it's just insight I have learned from reading and watching countless fantasy action anime, manga and novels. I always noticed that the best action stories always had character with different types of abilities that somehow complemented each other, making the character grow in strength through the battle, overpowering their enemies at the end.

Perhaps a world ruled by a System does not need a combat system, but the ridiculous amount of skills that I and my servants are able to obtain and fuse give us an edge over others, giving us the power to freely customize our power.

An ideal combat system for me would be something that I could use anywhere, even while being imprisoned in a strong Zone skill, being able to pull out of any situation, no matter the odds.

For this, I will need to develop two separate combat systems, a magic and a physical one, while also making them complement each other.

While I laid on the bed, I tried to theory craft more with my split minds, but my mental fatigue won me over and felt asleep.

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When I woke up, it was in the middle of the night, Zehe and Nesiphae were still sleeping at my sides, from afar I could hear the voices of my servants cheering, it seems that there was a big feast going on. I could not miss this!

I quickly woke Zehe and Nesiphae, they looked very cute while sleeping but they needed to eat something, especially Nesiphae which large body requires big quantities of food.

"D-Dear Kireina… Were you sleeping too?"

"H-Honey…? What hour is it?"

"Wake up already sleepyheads, its already the middle of night, lets go eat whatever is left on the dining room"

Suddenly, Nesiphae big belly started to rumble!

"A-Ah! I guess I'm hungry…"

"Fufufu… Your stomach is too big; it needs loads of food"

"Geez, don't make fun of me, Zehe…"

"If you keep babbling I will leave you two alone…"

"Ah! W-Wait, Master!"

We quickly went to the dining room and we found by my servants having a big party, with thousands of preparations made with Goblin meat, the chefs somehow figured out a way to make this bad meat something tasty.

We choose a big table and we waited for the cooking assistants to bring the food and beer, this time there was a new type of beverage made of Rabbit milk and fruits, it resembled Earth Milkshake, so I ordered one because I have been craving for something sweet for a while.

While waiting for the food, I noticed how the dining room as been remodeled through time, now it was a grandiose and wide room with ceramic floor and decorations around the painted walls, there was countless pillars and even a second floor to fit more people efficiently, the tables were beautifully crafted and the seats were very comfy.

"Hahaha, I remember when it was just a plain and old cave full of dirt; it has changed a lot…"

"Is that so? Since I came here that it was like this, Master"

"Yeah, I think I remember it didn't had as much ceramic as now"

"You two girls are quite new here, this castle was originally a long and wide cave that belonged to Wagyu's former family, it's quite a sad story. His family died on the hands of the older Crimson Wolf Emperor, but Rimuru and I beat the crap out of that Emperor and we saved Wagyu, since then he has been my left hand"

Zehe and Nesiphae seemed fascinated by my stories from long ago, and we talked about those old times until the food came.

When two Spider Maids finally brought the food, I was in the middle of a story when I was still a Caterpillar; it was when I was attacked by a bird and went to a spider nest, only to be almost killed there again.

| BOILED FOREST GRAINS AND ROASTED SPICY GOBLIN MEAT BOWL: A delicious bowl of boiled forest grains with loads of spicy Goblin meat over it, the meat has been marinated and roasted with tons of spices. |

| Effect: Grants +7 Defense for the next 24 hours |

| Heals 40 MP and 80 Stamina|

| GIANT GOBLIN BURGER WITH RABBIT CHEESE AND SPICY SAUCE: Minced Goblin meat combined with forest veggies and spices then roasted and served inside a delicious bun with thin slices of Rabbit milk cheese. |

| Effect: Grants +5 Strength and +4 Defense for the next 24 Hours |

| Heals 60 MP and 60 Stamina |

| SPICY GOBLIN MEATLOAF: The hard Goblin meat is carefully minced and combined with countless veggies and spices, and then slowly baked to perfection |

| Effect: Grants +4 to Strength, Defense and Speed for the next 24 Hours |

| Heals 70 MP and 80 Stamina |

| FOREST BERRIES AND RABBIT MILKSHAKE: A sweet and refreshing beverage that combines the creamy Ice Rabbit Milk with the sweet Forest Berries. |

| Effect: Grants +5 Magic and Resistance |

| Heals 60 MP and 70 Stamina |

The Goblin meat preparations surprised me, except from the Goblin Emperor, the weaker Goblins really tasted awful, but somehow the Cooking Team figured a way to make it tasty, marinating and covering the meat of spices.

The Milkshake was creamy and sweet, and I could feel several different Forest Berries on the combination.

After having an incredibly big meal with Zehe and Nesiphae, the two were drunk already, and because they are such good drinking partners, they couldn't stop drinking and doing embarrassing dances.

While most servants were already sleeping, I did not wanted to bother the ones that wanted to stay a little bit more so I used my threads to carry the two women to my room.

"I'm sorry for the fuss, they always get like this when drunk, enjoy the meal"

"Y-Yes, thanks Master!"

"Poor Master, he has to endure such troublesome women"

"Well, she is a woman too, perhaps she understand them better than us. Hahahahaha!"

I slowly dragged the drunk women to my room and freed them on my bed, but instead of getting angry with me, they actually were excited!

"Hmmmm~ M-Master… You are so rude with us… You wrapped our bodies so tightly… Fufufu…"

"Honey, do you really like to do that? You are so lewd~"

"I-It wasn't a sexual play! (These girls are complete degenerates!)"

Zehe and Nesiphae quickly started to take out their clothes and patted the bed, while looking at me with lusty smile.

"Master, come…"

"Honey…"

"Sigh… I… Ahh… I'm quite tired…"

Nesiphae couldn't contain herself and did the same cheap tactic from before, wrapping me with her snake tail!

"Aggh! N-No!"

"Common… Master, I know you like it too… Geez, don't be like that… Here, I know this is your weak spot…"

Zehe smoothly caressed my wings.

"Aaaaahh~! D-Don't!"

"Fufufu… And here too…"

Nesiphae started to stimulate my petite breast with her fingers.

"Aaah~! N-Noo…! (God…)"

Skill fusions of the day:

| ARMOR CREATION: SHADOW DEMON DARK PURPLE ARMOR |+| ARMOR CREATION: DEVILISH CRIMSON SHARP DEMON ARMOR |+| ARMOR CREATION: FLAMING WOLF DEMON ARMOR |=

| FAIRY VAMPIRE EMPRESS THREE LAYERED DEMON ARMOR |

| GOBLIN CHAMPION IMPOSSING BODY |+| GOBLIN CHAMPION STEEL MUSCLES |+| GOBLIN GIANT TITAN STRENGTH |= | FAIRY VAMPIRE EMPRESS SUPERNATURAL STRENGTH |

*Increases Defense and Strength. (Passive)

| LOWER GOBLIN TRIPLE FLAMING TACKLE |+| MID SWORDMAN GOBLIN FLAMING KNIFE TORNADO |+| THIEF GOBLIN KNIFE THROW |= | FAIRY VAMPIRE EMPRESS DARK FLAME KNIFE STAB |

*Knife skill: can be used with a Knife for increased power.

| ARCHER GOBLIN ARROW RAIN |+| ARCHER GOBLIN SHARP SHOT |+| FAIRY VAMPIRE EMPRESS DARK FLAME KNIFE STAB |= | FAIRY VAMPIRE EMPRESS DARK FLAMING KNIFE RAIN |

*Knife and Bow skill: can be used with either for increased power or none for its normal power.

| GOBLIN CHAMPION EMPEROR RED ONI MODE |+| GOBLIN GIANT TITAN FORM |+| DARK MOON DEMONIC MODE |= | FAIRY EMPRESS GIANT CRIMSON DEMONIC MODE |

*Powered version of Dark Moon Demonic Mode, now increasing her size by 3 times, while also boosting defenses.

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