Chapter 80: Auntie Veronica?!
Chapter 80: Auntie Veronica?!
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“Buuggooo!”
A giant Demon Boar charged towards a young Squirrel-kin girl who had lost her footsteps and fell over the ground, baring its long and pointy tusks, the beast approached the defenseless girl.
However, before the Demon Boar would reach the little girl, a giant snake made out of countless vines and covered in sharp spikes appeared, whipping the boar’s face with its spiky tail.
“Giiishha!”
Slash!
“Buugyaa!”
The boar’s face was filled with pain as it cried in agony, moving to the side to evade the snake, only to find another threat, a large spider covered in a dark armor-like exoskeleton, it was over two meters tall, and its legs had sharp tips like knives. Using its nine eyes, it released a shock of strange and ominous light, making the Demon Boar incredibly dizzy.
“Gyyyy!”
The spider then raised her knife-like legs and released consecutive slashes over its tough fur and skin, slicing through it like a warm knife through butter.
“Buugyaaaa!”
The Demon Boar died over the massive blood lust, falling to the ground.
Bump!
“Shishishi…” said the spider, covering the corpse with her metallic threads until it was perfectly packed, and putting it over her large abdomen, which already had many of such packages stick together.
“Good work Charlotte and Ivy,” said a knightess wearing a curvilinear and ominous armor, which was, in fact, a Living Armor, Veronica.
She had decided to go for a hunting session alongside many of the young huntresses of the tribe of Squirrel-kin. So they could gather Experience Points by working together in slaying monsters with her.
Her tamed monsters were also leveling up, and she brought Ervas’s plant-type monsters and the Live-Dead Nick.
“Are you okay…?” asked Veronica, giving her hand to the young Squirrel girl that fell over her butt and was almost killed by a Demon Boar.
“Yes… it was a bit scary… but I gained Experience Points…” she muttered.
“Good, see? You don’t really have to work that hard to get them, even if you do something like bringing the attention of a monster, you will earn a bit of it when it is slain… though I don’t recommend you willingly doing this, it was just an accident. The next prey will be killed with all of you girls’ help! Okay? So Charlotte, Aqua, Ivy, and the rest, don’t kill the prey right away,” said Veronica.
“Shishishi…” apologized Charlotte, as she carried some of the girls over her large body, which had grown with the size of a small car after she evolved to a Rank 4 Dark Armored Spider, she needed a bit more Experience to Rank Up, so she was trying to take on any monster that came near.
“Okay, Aunt Veronica!”
“Ueh… I am sorry for being so stupid… I promise it won’t happen anymore!”
“Don’t worry, with aunt Veronica here we don’t have to worry!”
“Hmm… I think if you just let them acquire Experience Points like this, they won’t learn anything about hunting, Veronica,” said Shade, appearing from within Veronica’s abyssal soul.
“Hey! They are just leveling up; I am not really a good instructor in hunting techniques… they will have to ask their seniors for that. Right girls?” asked Veronica.
“Yes, aunt Veronica!”
“We want the juicy Experience Points!”
“Who is she talking with?”
“She has a spirit that we cannot see… don’t you remember?”
“Oh right”
As the girls gossiped while sitting on the safe and comfy cushion of Charlotte’s threads, Veronica began to ponder her thoughts.
“I wonder which monster should I tame? Or the ones in here are too weak?” wondered Veronica.
“A boar… friend, guu!” said Aqua, appearing from within Veronica’s armor.
“We just killed one… they’re Rank 3… but too weak for us now, right? I would like… something more extravagant,” said Veronica.
“Gishishishi,” said Charlotte.
“An insectoid? Hmm… perhaps, but there aren’t any bugs in here though,” said Veronica.
“Ah, aunt Veronica, there is a small dungeon if we keep walking directly from here!” said a young squirrel girl with black hair and bear-like ears. She was one of the rare half-breed beast-people.
“Thanks, Acathea, your knowledge is very useful in leading us through here,” said Veronica.
“Ah! I don’t deserve such praises, auntie!” said Acathea, she is a young half breed between her Squirrel-kin mother and her anonymous Bear-kin father. Due to this, she developed black hair typical of the Bear-kin beast-people, alongside a herculean physical strength. However, she still had the tail of a squirrel and her legs were those of a squirrel as well.
She is a young girl in her ten years of age but is already a talented hunter amongst the youngest girls. Using the Job-Changing Crystal, she changed Jobs to Apprentice Warrior in the morning, and then just recently to Warrior after she gained Experience by seeing Veronica slay a small group of goblins.
“So what’s in the dungeon?” asked Veronica, as she walked with her party.
“According to the records, it is a small dungeon that was born one year ago, it only has three floors, and the strongest monster is a Rank 4 Earth Worm, which is the boss… only the strongest in the tribe had managed to defeat it, despite being a bug, its meat is like red meat, and it is delicious and sweet!” said Acathea, already knowing of Veronica’s love for delicious food.
“Oh?! Then let us give it a go, I and Aqua are Rank 6, so this is going to be an easy task!”
Acathea’s plan seemed to work, today the tribe will be dinning Earth Worm steak.
“Yay! Auntie is very strong!” celebrated Acathea.
“It will also be a nice source of Experience Points for everyone… what’s more in that small dungeon?” asked Veronica.
“Well, there are all kinds of bug monsters, mostly worms… they’re poisonous though, only the Earth Worm as edible meat,” said Acathea.
“Well, I have the ‘Status Effect Immunity’, so I don’t think it matters to me, I will taste all these monsters,” proclaimed Veronica, marching towards the Dungeon.
“Veronica remembers to change Jobs,” said Shade’s voice.
“I was about to do that Shade… let’s see what available options I have…”
Having reached the max level on Apprentice Warrior in less than a day, Veronica glanced at her available Job-Changing options.
[Jobs Available]
[Armored Thrower], [Cursed Armor Brawler], [Phantasmal Armored Shield User], [Armored Artillery User], [Soul Breaker], [Metallic Thread User], [Light & Darkness Spirit Caster], [Armored Tamer Mistress], [Murderous Metallic Mistress], [Hollow Witch], [Accursed Shadow Soul Metallic Knightess], [Metamorphosis Synthetic Knightess], [Self-Body Alchemist Crafter], [Cursed Shapeshifting Demon Vehicle] (New!), [Tartarus Executioner] (New!), [Abyssal Soul Demon Armor] (New!)
“I got three new Jobs available and all of their names are frightening…”
Veronica began to think about how weird her existence was to get such eerie-sounding Jobs.
“Cursed Shapeshifting Demon Vehicle? Am I a vehicle now? …well, yeah. Now that I think about it, I shapeshifted a lot into a carriage the entire last week, and today in the morning I did it as well to travel faster back to the tribe when we hunted in the morning,”
Veronica was slowly getting better and better in her ability to change sizes and shape, and with enough Mana given by Ervas, she was even capable of taking extravagant forms such as carriages and even fly in the sky using the No-Attribute Magic spell Flight for a continuous amount of time without being exhausted.
“Tartarus Executioner… is probably related to my new evolution. I cannot assume much from this aside from it being a warrior-type Job. I could give it a look with Appraisal, but I don’t want to waste time while we are traveling to the dungeon,” thought Veronica.
“And lastly… Abyssal Soul Demon Armor. Probably related to my Abyssal Soul Skill. It might strengthen skills related to it and phantom… and maybe armor technique?”
Veronica pondered the job functions for a bit before choosing the one she was planning to take for now. [Metamorphosis Synthetic Knightess]!]
[You changed Jobs to
[You acquired the [Body Size Alteration; Level 1] and [Fission; Level 1] Skills!]
[The [Grow] and [Shrink] Skills have been integrated into the [Body Size Alteration; Level 1] Skill!]
[The Levels of the [Body Size Alteration; Level 1], [Fission; Level 1], [Body Form Manipulation; Level 3], [Armor Technique; Level 3], and [Shield Technique; Level 3] Skills have increased!]
“Hm… so Grow and Shrink was the same skill as Body Size Alteration… Oh? Fission? Wait a minute… Is this skill…”
Veronica then willed it as a piece of her armor became liquid metal and fell to the ground.
Bump!
She glanced at it and felt that her soul was connected to it. She suddenly saw herself in two bodies.
She was glancing at her small liquid metal self, and her small liquid metal self was glancing at the giant living armor self.
“So it is like this…” she said with both of her bodies.
Fission was a skill that some slime monsters, ghosts, or other undead could learn. Just as its name stated, it represented the ability of the monster to divide its body into many parts carrying the same will and soul.
Veronica had already developed this ability long ago, but it was having difficulty putting her will into her separate body parts… but now it seemed easier for her.
Then…
Ding!
[You acquired the [Parallel Thought Processing; Level 1], and [Fast Speed Thought Processing; Level 1] Skills!]
“Oh? I finally got these two skills… I trained the entire last week with Ervas, I just needed a bit of a push with a skill such as Fission… with these skills, the possibilities might be endless,” thought Veronica, as she glared at her small self, a liquid metal slime-like clone.
Just as she said, the possibilities were almost endless, she could create clones to take care of others, to work as weapons and armor, to work as guards, and even as vehicles that work by themselves.
However, even with her vast Mana pool, she would need Ervas to do all of that, so she decided to leave those thoughts and ideas for the end of the day, and walked towards the dungeon with the rest of her party.
“Hm? Is that a metal slime?” asked Acathea.
“No, it’s me,” said Veronica.
“…Eh?”
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