Epic of Caterpillar

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Indeed! It is as you heard, Druantia-chan has decided to accompany us in this wonderful trip. Our family is already as big as an army, but with her the family keeps growing bigger and bigger.

"These fruits are so good… I am so happy to have been born… Sniff…"

Druantia began to eat as she cried happily.

"W-What? Don't cry!" I sighed.

"It's just that eating feels so nice. I could only do photosynthesis and absorb energy as a tree, but with this second body, I can taste all the yummy food everyone eats." Said Druantia.

Indeed, she had also eaten a lot of stuff in breakfast, and now, we had been picking up fruits, seeds, and gathering anything to eat as we traveled. It is as if the entire place was now a gourmet ingredients-filled table.

"I see. I guess it must feel quite shocking." I said.

"Hehe, Yeah… I love to be here and everything in this world… Its all so vibrant and alive… so shiny and splendorous…" sighed Druantia, as she glanced at the wondrous bubble spirit trees.

"It is, isn't it?" I wondered.

"Masta! Druantia! T-These fruits are so yummy! I'll make some jam with them, and also use them for donut filling!" said Rimuru.

"That would be great!" I said.

"Rimuru, teach me how to bake, I want to make yummy food too." Said Kjata.

"But you already know how to cook, Kjata… But fine!" said Rimuru.

"Thank you." Said Kjata with a cute and calm smile.

"You're enjoying the trip too?" I asked her as I petted her head.

"Hm, it's fun. It's always fun when I am with master though." Said Kjata.

"Oh, you flatter me. I think I am quite boring sometimes." I said.

"That's a complete lie." Said Kjata, cutting me off pretty quickly. She was a blunt girl.

"O-Okay… Haha, let's go." I said, as I held her hand and also held Druantia's hand. We continued our trip across the forest, as we suddenly came across a large open field. In there, there were many colorful flowers blooming with what seemed to be… buns?!

"Those are… Oh! I've only rarely seen these, these ones are Bread Flower, Kireina-sama!" said Agatheina.

"Bread Flower?" I asked.

"It's a special type of flower made up by one of the Supremes rumored to have a Dao regarding cooking, food, or something along those ways. He had made and spread these types of things around the world… To think they would bloom naturally here!" Agatheina said, as she picked some up and showed them to me.

They were indeed a cute bun, the texture of the fruit was like a sweet combination between a soft and spongy bun, alongside cake, and it had the filling of sweet seeds and fruit jam…

"What the heck is this?! its way too good! Its like a desert that you can just pick up out of a flower?!" I asked on disbelief.

"This is… I never expected I would see something like this. And to think I thought nothing would ever surprise me anymore after seeing what my mother can do…" sighed Ryo.

"I'll make sure to plant these in mass!" I proclaimed.

"Hm… This is so sweet, and the bread is like cake, actually." Said Nereid.

"Right? It even has seeds inside that are easy to eat, and taste like sunflower seeds." Said Kjata.

"Yeah! I can't believe how nice it is… Such a wonderful thing." Said Nereid.

"Master, want some?" asked Kjata.

"Oh dear, thank you." I said, as Kjata offered me her half-bitte bun to give me an indirect kiss. It was pretty obvious.

"Hmm~ So good…" I said.

Kjata smiled cutely as she devoured the rest of the bun.

"Master, come! Come! I found… something awesome!"

Suddenly, we heard the screams of a desperate squirrel girl, Kaguya was calling us to check out something she had found.

We traveled a few meters to her direction, as we found a small biome filled with all types of Acorn Tree variants, and there were all sorts of acorns, colorful acorns, spiky acorns, rugged acorns, and even aromatic acorns.

"A-Acorns! All the acorns in the world! I-I mean… Erm, it is pretty good, right? H-hehe… N-Not like my whole personality is defined by eating acorns or something! I-I am… Erm… UWAH!"

Kaguya exploded as she began to stuff her cheeks with all sorts of acorns, going crazy on all of them as if her life depended in the cause. Which likely did not, but she was just like that.

Also it wouldn't be far from saying her personality might be defined by how much she likes acorns. After all she used to be a wild squirrel once, so she's objectively different and more simple-minded than those born as demi-humans.

We decided to taste some of the acorns, finding that they were not so hard and actually crunchy. And many of them were filled with a creamy fruit paste inside! What the heck?! These were clearly not the normal acorns I know!

The soft acorn variants were all Great God-Realm or above divine materials, and I could tell based in the flavor they had, it was a wonderful dish. I was already considering using many of them for our upcoming dishes in the future. Things such as desserts will be even more amazing with all these delicious new meals to eat at their side! I can't wait.

There were even acorns filled with white cream, it was something similar to tree sap, but it was creamy and white, something very surprising coming out of trees, but oh well, these were all fantasy-world trees, so anything goes here.

At the end of our trip in this acorn forest, Kaguya ended with two big puffy cheeks filled with acorns walking leisurely as if nothing.

"Um? What?" she wondered, as we looked at her.

"A-Ah, nothing, never mind, dear. You just look as cute as always." I said.

"Ooh, hehe, thank you!" said Kaguya while waving her squirrel tails, she kissed my cheek and then we continued our trip across the forest, eating the delicious things we picked up along the way, but the picnic was also about to begin.

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