Novel Full Chapter 81 - Veronica Is A Gourmet?
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A trail of bug carcasses and entrails decorated the small dungeon to the north of the Squirrel tribe, called by the first huntress that completed it as 'Earth Worm's Hive'.
The dungeon was unlike the one Veronica had explored previously, as it possessed an internal biome. Unlike the paved walls of the dungeon where she was born, the 'Earth Worm's Hive' Dungeon had caves filled with dirt, sand, and aridness.
The last floor was a large cave filled with precious metals and crystals guarded by the dungeon boss. Its extraction of materials was rare, as the Squirrel women were not good miners, and due to the danger of constant monsters spawning and the Boss that could appear after a few hours of being slain, the mining of resources was limited to the strongest party, which was not all the time ready to do so, as they had busy lives. Ismene, the leader of such a party was always busy administrating the tribe.
However, now that problem would be solved quite quickly, as a force that the Squirrel-kin did not have before appeared, strong enough to go through this dungeon as if it were a child's playground.
"This dungeon is pretty chill, not at all like the one where I was born…" said Veronica, crushing a large venomous earthworm, a Rank 3 monster that surged from the cave walls. Its size surpassed the three meters, but Veronica just extended her Soul Claw and sliced it in half without any effort at all. The difference in stats and Ranks was too high, not even considering Skills.
However, even if the party that was exploring the dungeon was immensely strong, the monsters in the dungeon were ordered to annihilate its invaders, so they mindlessly kept attacking the ones that could slice them in half or chop them into pieces in seconds, leaving immense trails.
Veronica used her 'Digestion' Skill to eat the corpses of the bugs she killed, describing their tastes.
"They all taste awful… but that venomous earthworm… is sweet. However, the bitterness of the poison ruins the sweetness… if the Rank 4 Earth Worm does not have that poison, then it is really a delicacy," she analyzed.
"Does every monster that appears needs to have their flavors described by you?" asked Shade.
"Well, what's wrong with that? These girls were curious about their flavors, and because they cannot eat them, I wanted to let them 'experience' their flavors through my thoughtful descriptions" said Veronica.
"Auntie Veronica, what does that cockroach taste like?" asked a little squirrel girl mounting Charlotte.
"It tasted like bitter trash juice and crunchy cookies," said Veronica.
"Ooooh!" said the squirrel girls at the same time, they were all interested in the weird and gross flavors of the bugs that they could not eat.
Veronica and her party were already midway through the second floor of the dungeon, and most of the girls had already reached max level just by barely shooting a few arrows at the monsters while leaving Aqua, Charlotte, Ivy and the rest slay them.
Because Veronica wanted efficiency, she created a clone and sent it back to the tribe, after a few minutes, it came back with the Job-Changing Crystal, which had already been used by the whole tribe by now.
Using it, all the young girls experience their second or even third job change, in Acathea's case.
All of them were receiving a rush of Experience Points and were euphoric due to this, they were cheating the whole system by being babysit by immensely strong friends.
This practice of 'Experience Points Leeching' was quite common in intelligent beings societies, such as Humans, as it would help new party members level up fast… but it was often way slower than with Veronica, as they were all-powerful monsters with great vitality and vigor, they were able to slain hundreds of monsters without even getting tired.
In human societies, it was as if an E-Class Adventure was leeching the experience of a B-Class adventure party made by tireless warriors. This was unlikely, as B-Class Adventurers would most of the time be busy doing different tasks and works for the government and aristocrats, they did not have time to babysit a young fledgling.
Sometimes royalty would ask high ranked adventurers to do this, however, even with the protection of such powerful adventurers, it was very hard for the royalty involved to survive the exploration of a high-ranked dungeon, only exploring small dungeons and getting as far as four Jobs changes at most before hitting a progression wall.
It could be said that all the squirrel girls here were getting that treatment by Veronica.
"I think I am stronger than my mother now…"
"Me too! My mom doesn't even know magic, but I have it at level 2 already!"
"What about Acathea?"
"I have just changed jobs to Bear Warrior! I never saw that Job before, but it might be related to my bear-like strength! …and well, my appearance" said Acathea.
"Ooh! Acathea, you're so strong!"
"She will be the next chief!"
"Acathea is very promising, I want to be like her when I grow up!"
Most of the girls present were below six years of age, Acathea being ten was the 'adult' figure within them, aside from their 'auntie', Veronica.
Veronica glanced at the ceiling and the walls of the cave, finding many precious metals that could be harvested.
"There is Iron, Silver and… is that Copper? Ah! That is a bit of gold as well! If that human city were to know about the existence of this dungeon so deep down in the large Devil Forest, they would all come rushing in here to harvest these metals…"
"Do you think so? Even if they were to know, they would have to walk through a dense forest filled with Rank 1 to 3 monsters for days. I do not think they would find it too profitable, especially considering how much personnel would die, how many resources and food would be required and more… And that is not even considering the surrounding beastmen and demon tribes that could attack the workers at any time,��� said Shade.
"You're right… they would just abandon it, most likely. Unless they were to do an expansion plan through the Devil Forest, but they seem to have been ignoring it as they were gathering their forces to chase down the demon and beastmen tribes living outside of the Devil Forest," said Veronica.
Veronica grimaced about the tribes being chased down by humans outside of the Devil Forest, but she couldn't do much about them, as she hasn't ever met them personally neither were near her to do something, she could only concentrate on nourishing and helping the tribes of the Devil Forest, for now, the people that were within her grasp.
"Hm… but it could be useful for us, as the dungeon is quite near, and the monsters can be easily defeated…" said Shade.
"And even more when I take into consideration that I can create clones! Or Ervas plants that could also work in here if they rank up enough,"
Veronica was overly excited about her new ability to create clones. If she were to develop such an ability, even more, she would be able to create many tools and helpers for the people she wanted to protect.
She even considered the idea of creating a giant spaceship-like carriage made out of her armor body that could carry everyone through the sky… but that might be too out of her power, for now, she considered that even with all of Ervas Mana, it would be impossible.
Reaching down to the third floor, Veronica and her party finally found the boss room, a giant cave decorated with hundreds of colorful and shiny jewels, and a giant worm towering over six meters tall that was sleeping in the middle of it.
"Ah, we are here already? That was quite the fast trip, Auntie" said Acathea.
"Indeed… is that the tasty Earth Worm?" asked Veronica.
"Yep! That's it!" said Acathea.
Flash!
Veronica, Aqua, and Charlotte jumped towards it at an incredible speed.
"Gishi?!"
Not even the Earth Worm was capable of reacting in time…
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[Name: Veronica
[Race: Dark Tartarus Living Armor Knightess.
[Age: 0 years, 1 Month, and 1 week old.
[Titles: Monster Tamer, Mysterious Demon Knightess (New!)
[Type: Undead/Ethereal/Material
[Rank: 6
[Level: 001/100
[Job: Metamorphosis Synthetic Knightess.
[Job History: Armored Unarmed Fighter, Soul User, Shadow Soul Fighter, Spectral Soul Knight, Apprentice Spirit Caster, Apprentice No-Attribute Mage, Armored Shapeshifter Fighter, Slime User, Apprentice Warrior.
[Level: 001/100
[Health Points: 2660/2660 > 3210/3210
[Mana Points: 1947/1947 > 2252/2252
[Strength: 925 > 1230
[Defense: 1020 > 1220
[Magic: 925 > 965
[Resistance: 530 > 630
[Agility: 653 > 718
[Passive Skills]
[Memory Retention; Level 4]
[Special Five Senses; Level 6]
[Superhuman Strength; Level 2]
[Abyssal Soul; Level 2]
[Phantom Form; level 4]
[Mana Enlargement; Level 5]
[Magic Enlargement; Level 5]
[Abnormal Status Immunity]
[Strengthened Physical Power; Level 3]
[Physical Damage Resistance; Level 3]
[Armor Rearrangement; Level 3]
[Absorption Healing (Mineral, Materials, Armor); Level 3]
[Shadow Manipulation; Level 3]
[Chant Revocation; Level 2]
[Strengthen Followers; Level 2]
[Commanding; Level 2]
[Coordination; Level 2]
[Self-Enhancement; Following (Ervas); Level 2]
[Slime Binding Technique; Level 1]
[Parallel Thought Processing; Level 1]
[Fast Speed Thought Processing; Level 1]
[Active Skills]
[Hardworking; Level 7]
[Appraisal; Level 6]
[Charge; Level 3]
[Coordination; Level 3]
[Unarmed Fighting Technique; Level 5]
[Javelin Technique; Level 2]
[Shield Technique; Level 4]
[Armor Technique; Level 4]
[Thread Reeling Technique; Level 2]
[Artillery Technique; Level 2]
[No-Attribute Magic; Level 3]
[Mana Control; Level 3]
[Spirit Magic; Level 3]
[Cursed Wounds; Level 3]
[Soul Materialization; Level 4]
[Phantom Materialization; Level 4]
[Tame; Level 3]
[Body Form Manipulation; Level 4]
[Long-Distance Control; Level 2]
[Digestion; Level 3]
[Cooking; Level 1]
[Butcher; Level 1]
[Alchemy; Level 1]
[Crafting; Level 1]
[Body Size Alteration; Level 2]
[Fission; Level 2]
[Unique Skills]
[Armory; Level 3]
[Soul Break; Level 3]
[Current Armory Slots: 4]
[Slot 1: [Obsidian Semi-Liquid Crimson Dusk Living Armor] > [Grand Scarlet Spider Queen's Dusk Living Armor] [Armor]
[Slot 2: [Medium-Sized Iron-Silver Crab Soldier Exoskeleton Shield] > [Medium-Sized Flexible Iron-Silver Snake Exoskeleton Shield] [Shield]
[Slot 3: [Silver Metallic Slime Soldier Exoskeleton Living Armor] [Armor]
[Slot 4: [Generic Copper Long Spear] [Weapon]
[Bonded Spirits]
[Shade, Spirit of Shadows and Darkness (Light-Attribute)]
[Tamed Monsters]
[Slot 1: [Rank 6: Deep Lake Water Slime, Aqua]
[Slot 2: [Rank 4: Dark Armored Spider, Charlotte]
[Slot 3 Empty. (New!)