Epic of Caterpillar

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As we browsed through the great pile of materials, Redgaria began to analyze things.

"Hmm, if the young lady is an Alchemist, she needs dexterous hands, so beast hands are out of the question, human hands would be the best in this regard, so those two human women corpses should be used…" He said as he ordered Sapphira to take out the clothes and bloody armor on the two women's corpses, moving them inside of the circle.

One of the women had long blonde hair, with blue eyes, and the other was more petite, with large breasts, short brown hair, and black eyes. The blonde died by having its stomach impaled by a lance and the other by having her back sliced by an ax. Their souls were either eaten by me or still stored inside of my Nether Sword of Undying Pain.

"Indeed, dexterous hands will be needed, but I also want her to be strong by herself, so she does not just confine herself into her workshop but can be useful in combat… Having Superhuman Strength is necessary, we'll add the muscles of these Draconic Lions" I said, grabbing two Draconic Lion's piles of flesh, their muscles were carefully taken out of their bodies and would have gone towards the city as supplies, but now they were being used to create Izumi's new body.

"You are right… Aside from Draconic Lion flesh, we might as well add the blood of a true Ancient Dragon like Athos, that boss from the dungeon… This is the old blood from when he was a Fire Dragon, right? Using the blood of a calamity dragon may be too unstable" He said.

"Yeah, it is from when he was a Fire and Lava Dragon… I think he was also proficient with Earth Magic, add it all, so she can have a strong bloodline"

Redgaria then took a giant jug filled with fresh dragon blood, the smell was delicious, but I contained myself from drinking it, as I've already drunk a lot in the past.

Now that we had muscles, we needed bones. Incredibly sturdy bones that didn't break so easily and could also support her Superhuman Strength. We browsed through until Redgaria found something.

"How about that instead of bones, we use the minerals…? Ah! These horns…"

"Oh? These are the horns of a species of wolves in the Lower Realm, they have giant sizes, five heads and immense horns that seem to be made of strong metals"

"Yes! Let's use these, there are plenty" Said Redgaria, as he moved the horns inside the magic circle.

Next was the hair, the one in the two woman's corpses could be used, but it could be better to use fur with high magic properties. After some pondering around, I choose the fur of the Kasha Boss and the mane from the Draconic Lion males. For skin, we selected the hard yet smooth skin of the Centipede Whale.

"It would also be useful if she could fly as well, but giant Dragon Wings will be an obstacle in a laboratory… Oh, these are perfect" I said, as I found the perfect wings.

They were the Wings of Phantasmagoric Bats that inhabited the Forsaken Labyrinth Graveyard, they were small yet sturdy, and also had phantom abilities that could make them ethereal, pretty much hiding them from physical objects, so they can't get in the way.

"Oh! How about a tail then, so she can have an extra limb to protect herself…" Said Redgaria, as he grabbed the long and thick tail of an Undead Girtablilu, it was bright purple, and also had phantasmagoric abilities that could let it change into ethereal form.

Now, the only thing left were internal organs, we choose several different organs from monsters, that could grant Izumi a strong vitality and special abilities. We selected the stomach of a Fire Wyvern Baby, the heart of an Electric Toad, the intestines of a Girtablilu, the lungs of the Centipede Whale… well, part of it.

When we were finished, a giant pile of materials was in the circle, and I also decided to add Spirit Stones. According to Izumi, her magic affinity was non-existent, so having magic excited her, due to this, we added Spirit Stones of the basic attributes, hoping for her to get some of those as Skills. The Spirit Stones were ten of each, being Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Thunder.

Redgaria was incredibly excited, and couldn't wait any longer, so we began to immediately chant the ritual, as we shared our mental image of Izumi, using the portraits of her as a reference, we also molded the desired items as her flesh, bones and internal organs, placing each thing in their respective places, the circle worked at our command, and slowly assembled the homunculi, by using Izumi's ashes as a material, it also contained her genetic information, making it easy for it to resemble her appearance.

Flash!

When the body was about to be finished, Redgaria told me to move Izumi inside of the circle, and as she went inside, she was absorbed as if there was a vacuum, slowly merging and possessing her new body.

"Fweeeeehhh! W-What is thiiiiiisss…? Uwawawa…!" She seemed to be in slight pain, but as the ritual finished, everything went silent.

"Is it done…?" I asked.

Redgaria nodded in affirmation; "It's done! How wonderful! Is this… a new race?!"

As the smoke dissipated, it revealed a beautiful woman figure, she had the body of mature beauty, with large breasts and wide hips, with slightly tanned skin. Her face appearance was that of a beautiful young lady in her nineties though and had a golden eye and a purple eye. She had short red hair and fluffy lion ears at the top of her head.

She had a long scorpion tail that moved at her will, and small yet functional red-colored bat wings. Over her belly she had a small and strange tattoo, resembling a lion. Her feet and hands were that of a human though, beautiful and slim, almost springy. However, as I inspected even further, her feet and hands had long nails, resembling claws, and were slight, not fully, covered in red-colored draconic scales.

"Uwaahh… What is this body? It feels so weird… and it's so mature… it feels like I became my mom… Uwah! Is this my tail? I even have wings! Gods…"

"It did… And I've even amazed myself… What a beauty~ Ah, and she remained her previous life face, how nice"

"My previous life face features? Is that true?! Can I see it? Do you have a mirror?" She asked.

I gave Izumi a mirror as she admired her face, indeed, it had the features and beauty of a young Japanese lady, but her skin was now tanned and her eye colors were different, alongside her hair.

I quickly checked her status, just as Redgaria said, Izumi had been reincarnated as a new race of Undead demi-human. What surprised me the most is that she inherited a lot of her previous life Skills, probably because she had just died recently, and the memories of such knowledge haven't disappeared from her soul yet.

[NAME: Izumi Yuko

[CLASS: None.

[RACE: Draconic Manticore (Chimera/Demi-Human/Undead) (New Species!)

[LEVEL: 001/150

[STATUS: Undead (Fine)

[HP: 240/240

[MP: 325/325

[STAMINA: 240/240

[STRENGTH: 360

[DEFENCE: 270

[MAGIC: 190

[RESISTANCE: 200

[SPEED: 230

[CHARISMA: 250

[LUCK: 0

[Skills]

[Blessing of the Realm Menace of Lust]

[Lesser Ancient Draconic Lineage; Wisdom Dragon Bloodline]

[Superhuman Strength; Level 3]

[Chimeric Augmented Five Senses; Level 2]

[Manticore's Chimeric Physique; Level 3]

[Phantasmagoric Psyche; Level 1]

[Augmented Self-Regeneration; Level 1]

[Ghostly Poisonous Girtablilu Stinger; Level 1]

[Poison Generation; Tail, Claws; Level 1]

[Phantom Bat Wings Flight; Level 1]

[Magic Resistance; Level 3]

[Status-Effect Resistance; Level 2]

[Draconic Lioness Bite; Level 1]

[Draconic Lioness Claws; Level 1]

[Magic Affinity; Level 1]

[Fire Attribute Magic; Level 1]

[Earth Attribute Magic; Level 1]

[Light Attribute Magic; Level 1]

[Alchemy Talent; Level 8]

[Grand Alchemy Arts; Level 7]

[Grand Synthesis; Level 6]

[Alchemist's Fast Thinking; Level 6]

[Alchemist's Parallel Thought Processing; Level 3]

[Heroine's Pedigree; Level 4]

[Titles]

[First of a Kind], [Artificially Reincarnated],

[Heroine of Alchemy]

Redgaria was also inspecting on Izumi's status and was surprised by the number of skills and the high base stats, unlikely for a living being to be born with. Her Epic Skill seemed to be gone, presumably because she died already and her soul was then put into a new body, but her Alchemy Skills remained, perhaps due to her Experience.

"Incredible… I've never created such a strong Homunculi before! Could this even be called Homunculi?! It's completely on another level! It's a new species of living Undead, something similar to Vampires… Outstanding…" As he said this, his entire body was trembling in the ground, surprised and excited. Sapphira quickly attended him and calmed him down, although she only irritated him more.

Izumi was still confused and couldn't really accustom to her new body, so I helped her out, she was surprisingly hungry. I gave her a suit of clothes that I had saved in my Item Box, consisting of a short skirt, long stockings, a shirt, and a leather jacket.

The overall style went incredibly well with her appearance, although Izumi wasn't accustomed to such clothes, as she was living in a Japanese-like Empire and such clothes were almost non-existent. There weren't any heels or boots that could fit her feet, as they had strong scales and claw-like nails, so she went on barefoot.

She asked for glasses, as she used to use them, but after realizing that she was able to see perfectly without them, she stopped asking for them with so much craziness.

I gave her a quick trip around the entire citadel and the castle while flying, she managed to practice her flight surprisingly well, as if she had such knowledge already inserted in her brain.

Afterward, I showed her the workshop and the people in there, and then her own room, which will be in the castle, as she is a valuable alchemist and she will most likely spend a lot of her time in the castle's workshop.

Charlotte was certainly excited about having the reincarnation of the Heroine of Alchemy herself as a companion, and the two went surprisingly well together. Although Charlotte has a more overwhelming personality, Izumi complimented it with her high knowledge and passion.

The two girls then spent the rest of the day talking with each other, sharing the knowledge they had in alchemy, magic technology, and science. Izumi was surprised by the technological advances in here and had never seen the magic technology in Magic Guns, which she then immediately came with countless new ideas for it that Charlotte had never come out with.

I decided to stay with them as we created new items and magical circuits, being the base for the first wearable golem that Charlotte wanted to make so badly, which Izumi agreed with, saying "It's the best idea I've ever heard, let's do it".

Izumi also seemed to miss her family, which she loved very dearly, and considered that in the future I would bring them here whenever I fully take control over the Azuma Empire.

There was still some hours before dinner, so I took some strolls around and saw the girls training in the Training Grounds, they were already done with the exercises and were now slaying monsters Skeletons, their levels were increasing very slowly, so I considered making them form a party and explore the Dungeon starting from tomorrow.

The [Superhuman Strength] Skill was already obtained by the Centaur Twins and Kaguya was about to get it. The Centaur Girls said that even with such a Skill, they needed to train even harder and make it level up, as only being level 1 wouldn't show much different than before.

Afterward, I went to take a stroll around the Grand Forest, surrounding the place where there was the Bloody Sacrifice Dungeon and the small shrines who were absorbed by it, each shrine changed drastically and was filled with bloody bricks, rivers of blood and also dangerous monsters.

As I explored inside, I found Mao, my Shadow Draconic Lion Mount, who I've left the training with the other mounts to catch up with us. He was about to evolve, but still needed a small push, Mao reminded me of Izumi, due to being part Lion and Lesser Dragon, and came out with the idea of reinforcing his strength.

I gave him one [Enhancing Radish], which he ate happily and several other stat-boosting potions, that increased stats temporarily. Afterward, I generated several Slimes of different species and began to fuse them with him with [Synthesis]. He seemed to not feel any pain, and it was even pleasant as if he was growing stronger.

Of course, Mao has a more primitive mind, and cannot express his mind with words, but he seemed happy and purred, telling me to continue. I decided to create a Chimera in a living being, not something summoned neither made up of corpses, but by fusing already living organisms.

The effects were… more than I thought. Mao went through a forced evolution thanks to the special item [Enhancing Radish] and also by being fused with several different species of slimes, I even added some of my own Lesser Slime Clones in the mix, to see what would happen.

Perhaps because I already had the idea of a Manticore in mind after seeing Izumi, Mao became one as well, however, his race was different and his capabilities as well.

He became four meters tall, with strong lion limbs slightly covered in dark draconic scales and claws, he had a long and thick dragon tail as well, and a pair of long dragon wings on his back. His head seemed greater, with a small crown made out of horns. His entire fur was dark-colored filled with red and dark scales around. He also could completely change into a Slime and even learned how to mold its body into a humanoid shape… and because I decided to add on my Slime Clones, he had the information on how to easily shape into the form of a woman… and well…

I think I shouldn't have been too hasty into this, Mao, who used to be a male lion, after being fused with Slimes became genderless, it seems. And when it took on a humanoid shape with its slime shapeshifting, it resembled a beautiful manticore lady with more draconic features, charcoal-like dark skin, scarlet eyes, and long black hair, her curves were delightful and springy and he also had a massive chest, resembling mine it was the exact size.

"Mas…ter… I can… talk! But… why… this body…?" She said.

"Well, this is awkward… But I'm glad we can communicate better with each other… Although it will be weird to use you as a mount now unless it is in another way…"

"What… way…?" Asked Mao, approaching me, unknowingly that he had become a very attractive woman, she pressed her huge breasts with mine.

"Nothing, never mind…"

After Mao's sudden evolution, and gender transformation (?), she went to see the rest of the tamed mount team, who had rather high intelligence, perhaps due to becoming tamed. They were rather surprised by its sudden change of appearance and gender, but instinctively knew that it was Mao, as she had its scent and abilities.

When night fell, I invited Mao and the mounts to the castle, although the Giant Golden Beetle couldn't fit inside the Castle, it didn't seem as he minded staying outside as I left a giant Lesser Fire Dragon Corpse for him to chew on.

When Redgaria saw Mao and wondered from where did I got another Manticore, after explaining things to him, he almost fell unconscious.

"You can create chimeras by margining living beings…?!"

It seems that merging already existing living beings was something that seemed to be thought impossible for even Necromancers.

After a nice dinner with my family and Mao, we went to sleep. Nesiphae and Nixephine cuddled with me once again, but Rimuru and Gaby infiltrated themselves in the giant hugs I was being cornered with and were also hugged by the big girls. Mao shapeshifted into a dark slime and slept over my belly.

[NAME: Mao

[CLASS: None.

[RACE: Shadow Draconic Manticore Slime (Chimera/Slime) (New Species!)

[LEVEL: 001/250

[STATUS: Pleasantly sleeping.

[HP: 620/620

[MP: 257/257

[STAMINA: 210/210

[STRENGTH: 532

[DEFENCE: 324

[MAGIC: 284

[RESISTANCE: 222

[SPEED: 428

[CHARISMA: 350

[LUCK: 0

[Skills]

[Blessing of the Realm Menace of Lust]

[Lesser Vampire Overlord of Lust Bloodline] (From Kireina's Slime Clone)

[Beastly Strength; Level 6]

[Chimeric Augmented Five Senses; Level 5]

[Manticore's Chimeric Slime Physique; Level 1]

[Slime Shapeshifting; All Body Parts; Level 1]

[Self-Body Fluids Manipulation and Generation; Poisonous, Alluring, Sweet, Acid; Level 1] (From Kireina's Slime Clone)

[Instantaneous Slime Self-Regeneration; Level 1]

[Shadow Dragon Wings Flight; Level 4]

[Magic Resistance; Level 6]

[Status-Effect Resistance; Level 4]

[Shadow Dragon Breath; Level 2]

[Charcoal Fangs and Claws Beastly Techniques; Level 3]

[Slime Sage Magic Affinity; Level 5]

[Dark & Shadow Attribute Magic; Level 5]

[Slime Sage Lesser Thunder, Wind, and Fire Attribute Magic; Level 1]

[Lesser Monster Techniques; Claws, Fangs, Tail, Wings; Level 1] (From Kireina's Slime Clone)

[Lesser Weapon Techniques; Sword, Spear, Axe, Bow; Level 1] (From Kireina's Slime Clone)

[Lesser Limited Spells; Level 1] (From Kireina's Slime Clone, contains several low-level magic spells from several elements, like Illusion, Fire, Water, Ice, Nature, and so on)

[Natural Alluring Beauty; Charm; Level 1] (From Kireina's Slime Clone)

[Titles]

[Summoned Familiar], [First of a Kind], [Exotic Beauty]