Epic of Caterpillar

“Are you done eating?”

“Huh?”

While I was delving in my own thoughts, the annoying Luminous interrupted me! Seriously I just want a ten-minute break before we keep going down but he annoys me so much… Also, I am pretty sure I finished eating some time ago now so I am just sitting here resting- Guh?!

Wait a second, why am I gorging more food?!

The moment I realized it; I was already eating a gigantic chimera carcass. I looked around me and more than half were gone by now. Wow, did I do this? I was like eating without even thinking about it. I am really gross. Yeah, a disgusting and fatty caterpillar.

“I didn’t realized I was still eating!” I said.

“I was wondering how the heck can you keep eating if your body hasn’t exploded!” Said Luminous. “Just what do you have, a black hole inside your stomach or something?”

“Kireinaaaaa! Come on! Stop gorging on the monsters! You’re not going to leave anything for us to sell later! Remember these monsters are high ranked so they fetch tons of money, their bodies can be used for crafting stuff…” Sighed Elfina, crying out loud about this and that.

“Okay, I’ll stop. Sorry about this… Burp.”

I rolled back to the floor and quickly stored the monster carcasses inside of my Item Box. With that done, the only thing left was deciding what to do now. We had gone through a big battle and we grew pretty strong, so there wasn’t any point in not going back to rest for the rest of the day. If Elfina and Fiere, the two weaklings of our group felt tired, we’ll have to pull back for the moment.

“What should we do now?” I wondered.

“I have been thinking that we should go to the deep of the dungeon, it’s only two more floors anyways. I feel like whatever created the parasites might be down there. We can’t let that thing thrive any longer. What do you think it could happen if those parasites appeared in the surface?” Wondered Luminous.

“T-The same scene that happened in my home would happen again, the elves would all turn into vicious and ghoulish creatures!” Said Elfina while being frightened about the possibilities.

“True, true, but I thought that you two girls would be tired because you’re just elves.” I said. “But if you’re willing to go, then let’s get going. The quicker we finish this the better.”

“I agree, we should finish what we have here as quick as possible.” Said Fiere.

“But there’s a tiny problem…” Said Elfina, stopping us from walking downstairs.

“W-What is it?” I asked.

“I… I’m a bit hungry, can we drink some tea and eat something little? A snack?” Wondered Elfina while being slightly embarrassed.

Agh! She criticizes me gorging on food but she gets hungry after just half an hour since our lunch! Well, maybe overusing Mana also puts a strain on her body? Perhaps it is like this for everyone anyways. I remember that in Genesis happened too.

Overusing energies such as Mana and Stamina always put people hungry, even if they ate just an hour ago. Elfina was fighting while wielding the spears all while using her Enhancement Skill on me to make me even stronger, seems fair that she would get hungry.

“Alright, let’s make something quickly. There’s still a lot of leftover meat, want some sandwiches?” I asked. “Fiere, make some tea then.”

“Okay.” Fiere immediately began making tea as I took things out of the Item Box.

“Thanks, Kireina!” Elfina thanked me, smiling adorably. Damn, she was a cutie. I don’t really feel a romantic interest on her but I feel like she’s someone I want to protect… somehow. It feels more like a child of mine I guess. Also this body doesn’t even let me be horny, I don’t seem to have any sexual drive at all… is it because Caterpillars are larva? I guess? Well, I am inside a cocoon so I might evolve into a sexually active butterfly one day- not like I will have sex in such a body, that’s a bit disgusting.

While taking away the cringy thoughts of my head, I immediately prepared my Summoner some sandwiches. Luminous wanted roasted meat so I ended cutting down a large chimera into pieces and roasting the steaks with [Holy Flames] which seemed to somehow make the meat tastier and cleaner than normal fire.

“Nom… Hm! These warmed up sandwiches are tasty! And the tea is refreshing. I feel like my energy is coming back to me now!” Celebrated the little Elfina.

“I am glad you enjoy my tea, my young lady.” Fiere responded to Elfina’s praises.

“Yeah, yeah, eat so we can descend quickly… Hey, here’s your steaks.” I said, quickly giving Luminous a big plate with a pile of roasted steaks which I added sauces and salt to give it the flavor he enjoyed.

“Ooooh! This looks good…” Luminous said while swallowing saliva, licking his teeth as he began wolfing down the food.

Meanwhile, I looked at the scene with my trio of talking equipment, well, they’re like my children at this point. The sad part is that Black, White, and Aquamarine can’t eat stuff, so they’re left rather hopeless in this regard, they wish they could eat food though.

“Damn, that food looks so yummy, mama!” Sighed Aquamarine.

“Can’t you eat food through your Liquification Ability? You’re kind of like a slime, right?” I asked Aquamarine.

“No, it is not possible… Anything I gorge just stays there, unlike auntie Rimuru and the other slimes, I lack the power to dissolve physical things and consume them…” Said Aquamarine.

“Although I wish I could eat normal food too to see how tasty it can be, we can still consume energy, souls, and blood, I think.” Said Black.

“I can mostly consume light elemental energies and spiritual energies, although we have yet to fight anything using such powers, I am more of a healer at this point, fufu…” Laughed White.

“I will try to find a way for you guys to eat…” I said.

For now, I decided to check what to do with my current Stat Points and Skill Points.