360

Chapter 360: Morpheus's Life-Attribute Dungeon Conquest 6/30: The Origin of the Dragon Centaur

Epic of Caterpillar

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Since they were left to thrive in the safe biome by their parents, the Dragon Centaur had diversified and created two villages across the mountains.

Their founder and father, Morpheus, the Demi-God of Centaurs and Horses created a Dungeon for them to survive, away from the harsh and cold environments of the Cilane Kingdom. Due to being born cold-blooded, Dragon Centaurs wouldn't survive the constant snowstorms, chilly breeze, and cloudy skies.

Their Holy Mother, the Ancient Dragoness of Fertility and Motherhood, Tiamat, had given birth to them alongside the Dragonoid, Wyvern Beastmen, and other species. Unlike Arielle who gave birth to the Kelpie, Tiamat did ascend to godhood and became an important figure in the Dragon Gods Pantheon. With so much responsibility, she could only leave some treasures and blessings to her children before leaving them to their father's care.

Trianesna, the current chief of the Dragon Centaur Village of the West, and the Holy Apostle of Morpheus and Tiamat received messages from her children and siblings. Strangers had crossed the area of the Kelpie, defeated the Octopus Hydra, and were now descending through the mountain range while eliminating any Dragon and Wyvern-type monsters as if nothing.

Trianesna grimaced the possibility of the Kelpie having been defeated by the invaders…

The relationship between their siblings wasn't bad, as they often held meetings and feasts, sometimes marrying children between the two races and holding the trade of valuable materials that couldn't be found in their original biomes.

However, in the latest years, the Dragon Centaur had cut most ties with other villages like the Kelpie, the Sphinx, and the Dragon Centaur of the East.

This was not because they began to hate their beloved siblings out of nowhere, but because they had caught a strange disease which seemed to not have an explicable cure. The Dragon Centaur of the West began to fall ill. Their scales would fall from their lower bodies and they would have problems breathing, alongside numbness in their limbs.

Trianesna did not want her siblings to meet their same fate and decided to isolate themselves from interactions between villages. The Dragon Centaur of the East had tried to contact them, but they had only received small messages like "we are fine" or "no need to worry, brothers".

Trianesna had done everything she could, she had prayed every day to her gods… yet, no miracles had happened, and as much as her Alchemy Skill leveled up, she was not able to find a cure to the strange disease that had cursed the Dragon Centaurs to their inevitable doom.

They couldn't just leave the diseased alone and run away somewhere else. What if some of the healthier ones actually ported this disease and just didn't showed symptoms yet? The possibility was there, and if it were true, they would end up spreading the deadly disease even more across the Mountains.

Trianesna siblings had been hunting for the daily food, and in their way, found the invaders, strangers that had come from the Kelpie zone, and mercilessly killed the monsters that came across their way.

One of them, an astonishingly beautiful fairy, could mold the dungeon itself… such powers could only be attributed to divine beings, gods.

However, what guaranteed them that this goddess was good? Or if she was an ally of Morpheus and Tiamat?

However, before Trianesna could find a way to resolve this situation, it was too late, and the invaders had already found their hidden village, inside large mountain caves.

The mountains molded themselves to the fairy's will, creating a large bridge connecting them to their own mountain.

Trianesna called her warriors as she went to confront the invaders with their weapons made from the scales, fangs, and claws of the dragons and wyverns that lived in here.

"Morpheus-sama, Tiamat-sama, please, bless us with a victory…" she prayed.

Equipped with heavy scale armor, and a long and sharp spear, Trianesna, as the chief and Apostle of the Village, led her troops without looking back, ready to die for her siblings and children.

But… things weren't as tragic as she had thought.

Two beautiful centaur women, with their lower bodies of short-haired horses, slowly walked to them, raising their hands.

Trianesna saw their appearance and was immediately shocked… they were their long-lost siblings, the ones who lived in the surface, warm-blooded Horse Centaurs, the original children of Morpheus.

"Please, wait!" said one of the Centaur, Sofelaia.

"Are you the Dragon Centaur?" asked the other, Sofarpia.

Trianesna ordered her troops to stop, and just like her, they were glancing at the Centaurs with baffled expressions.

"And you are the Horse Centaur? The Legendary Horse Centaur, our lost siblings?!" asked Trianesna, almost in tears.

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As we hunted down Dragons and Wyverns and advanced through the floors, reaching floor 34, I detected a large concentration of small lifeforms inside a Mountain. Incomparable to the other monsters who had large vitality and sizes, these were as big as the Centaur Twins.

Thinking that those previous gazes came from them, I decided to mold the entire mountain that we had just cleaned from Earth Dragons and Rock Wyverns, creating a gigantic bridge connecting it to the mountain which I found the small lifeforms in large quantities.

Not so long after we began moving there, we were greeted by a medium-sized army of half-human and half-dragon beings.

Their appearance was like Centaurs in some ways. Their lower bodies were instead covered in hard scales, that varied from green, red, black, and blue colors. Their legs seemed more muscular and covered in hard scale armor, while instead of possessing hooves, they had long white colored claws, alongside this they had long tails, covered in scales, with a pointy tip.

Their human upper bodies were often pale white, they had an incredible beauty, similar to the Kelpie, each woman exuded a fierce charm, while the men were burly and handsome. They were covered in scales over their shoulders, neck, and hands. Instead of fingers, they possessed long claws covered in hard scales, resembling gauntlets.

Most of them had long pointed ears covered in smaller scales and white horns on each side of their heads. Their hair was often black, brown, or blonde, and every single one had emerald eyes.

The Centaur Twins rushed towards them, stopping them from doing something foolish. As the Dragon Centaur saw the Horse Centaur, they were suddenly moved to tears… it seems that they related Horse Centaurs with their Father, Morpheus.

"How beautiful, they are the vivid image of Morpheus-sama!"

"Indeed, such heavenly appearances!"

"And those fluffy lower bodies!"

"A-Are those hooves?!"

"Look at their beautiful ears!"

The medium-sized army that had around seventy Dragon Centaurs was suddenly charmed by the twin's appearance, which resembled their father, Morpheus… and changed their demeanor immediately, dropping their weapons and rushing towards the twins, touching and caressing their beautiful bodies.

"Uwaaah! H-Hey, I know that you are my siblings…! B-But please don't touch my tail!" said Sofarpia, as a young and beautiful Dragon Centaur woman caressed her fluffy and blonde tail.

Even the leader joined, hugging Sofelaia as she touched her fluffy ears.

"My goddess! Such fluffiness! There are barely any hairy animals in here… only scaled beings… so soft!"

"Please… this is embarrassing…" said Sofelaia.

After their reunion, the Dragon Centaur Chief, named Trianesna, asked for my help in specific.

"You are the Holy Goddess who is accompanying our siblings? Could you be one of Morpheus-sama wives? Please! You must help us… we have been affected by a disease for the last five years, if things continue as it is, we might all fall ill and die!"

"I understand, I understand, please, stop clinging on me… Also, I'm not Morpheus's wife, he is my acquaintance… More importantly, what kind of disease it is? And what symptoms? My daughter may be better at this than me" I said, as I called on Amiphossia, who happily introduced herself.

"I am my Mother's eldest daughter, Amiphossia, it is nice to meet you, Trianesna"

Trianesna glanced at Amiphossia's heavenly Aura with eyes wide open, due to the properties of her Heavenly Medicine Aura, she was constantly cleaning and disinfecting her surroundings, giving an aura of holiness.

"The daughter of the Goddess Kireina-sama… Could you be another Goddess, Amiphossia-sama?!"

"Not all as to be a god, you know…"

"Mommy don't be like that! It is fine, Trianesna, please, lead me to the ill, I will do the best of my capabilities to cure them of their disease"

"Y-Yes, right away! Please, follow me!"

In the end, they had a disease similar to a Cold, something quite common in the surface, but seemed to be a deadly disease down here.

With the help of Amiphossia's Medicinal Venom and my Elixir Blood, all of the Dragon Centaur recovered quickly, we distributed this medicine to everyone, even the ones who haven't shown any symptoms.

Amiphossia's Heavenly Medicine Magic had several spells that we applied to the medicine, like [Anti-Disease], [Bacterial-Nemesis], and [Increased Vigor], which did good work at defeating the slightly stronger cold that the people here had caught. After drinking my blood, some of the Centaurs developed increased Regeneration Skills and Status Effect Resistance as well.

Not so long after, a large feast was held, everyone was celebrating the miraculous descendants of the Gods who came for their rescue, the Dragon Centaur saw their prayers not as meaningless now.

"I knew that one day our prayers would be held! I prayed every day, every single day for a miracle to happen! How blissful!" said Trianesna as she raised a cup with Walking Cactus Wine, in the large tables made out of stone, there were dozens of preparations made with the monster and familiar meat grilled, summoned by me.

"Cheers!"

"Ah! This meat is so soft and flavorful, unlike the hard lizard meat in here!"

"This must be the food that the gods eat! We are blessed!"

"Only Morpheus-sama and Tiamat-sama were able to summon living beings out of nowhere! Kireina-sama is a goddess as well!"

"Her partners and her children, all of them must be gods!"

The Dragon Centaur had a simplistic personality and seemed to long for delicious meat that wasn't so hard and rough like the monsters that inhabited these floors.

Trianesna, who was sitting at my side, offered me something.

"Kireina-sama, I've seen that you have a large family of wives and children, with your godly powers, are you capable of making even women pregnant?" she asked.

"I… Yes, those are just my godly powers" I said, I really didn't want to go in detail.

Trianesna, perhaps filled with vigor and braveness after drinking a few cups, approached me with a decisive gaze, putting her hands over my shoulder.

"Please, give me a child!"

"I… Trianesna, you got already over twenty children…"

"Then give one to my daughters! Look, they are all ready for it! They have been longing for having babies!"

"Trianesna… please…"

"Please, bless us with the seed of gods, Kireina-sama!" said Trianesna's eleven daughters, giving me lustful glances. They were all beautiful women, but I already had my group of beautiful women.

"I must decline the offer… However, I have another offer for you, Trianesna, which is also the will of Morpheus, your god"

I used this opportunity to share my plan about moving them to the surface, she seemed to be even more excited about leaving this place than the Kelpie.

"R-Really? So, we will be able to live in the land of gods? Is the sun warm there?" asked one of Trianesna's eldest daughters.

"It is, especially in my Kingdom, there are arid mountains that we converted into large fields, and thanks to the sun, the plants grow fast and healthy"

"Ah, vegetables!" said one of Trianesna's younger children.

They seemed to miss vegetables, who were often harvested by the Kelpie.

"That would be a wonderful turn of events, Kireina-sama, if it's the will of our God, Morpheus-sama, we must happily oblige! And this will also give me more opportunities to be at your side!"

"I don't think that that should be your priority, Trianesna… Anyways, how about you tell me more about your Goddess, Tiamat?"

"Ah! Tiamat-sama, our Holy Mother! You see…"

It seems that Tiamat is a Dragoness Goddess that had Fertility and Motherhood as her divinities. In a similar fashion as Ova, the Great Goddess of Beasts, she was given the task by the World to give birth to new and strong races of children and monsters.

Unlike her siblings, like the Multi-headed Dragon God Hydra, who created new species of monsters to populate the World, Tiamat mated with gods and mortal champions and Heroes, giving birth to new demi-human races.

One of these was Dragon Centaurs, who she gave birth after convincing Morpheus of mating with her. They weren't actually in any kind of relationship, and did it for the benefit of the world, in a way, however, their children ended up being isolated from Cilane due to their inability to survive the cold areas.

Tiamat had given birth not only to Dragon Centaur, but Dragonoid after mating with Humans, Wyvern Beastmen after mating with the Lizard Beastmen Demi-God, Flame Salamander after mating with the Salamander Beastmen Demi-God, Wurms after mating with a Lamia Champion, Otohime after mating with the Champion of Mermen, and so on… this woman mated a lot. To be expected of the Dragon Goddess of Fertility and Motherhood!

At first, I couldn't believe how sexually active were Gods... but if the World's Will itself asked them to create new species and life, mating and creating new species was a very easy and quick way to refill the dying Realms I suppose.

Well, although this Goddess may represent Motherhood, she had left most of her children alone and didn't even bothered in looking back. Although the Dragon Centaur told me that she is like this due to the responsibilities that it brings to being an important leader figure in the Dragon Gods Pantheon.

The history of this world was rich in origins and tales, although some folk didn't believe such tales. Because I've talked with gods themselves, I already believe most of it.

It seems that most of these races didn't exist before Genesis was split into Realms, and completely different races of demi-humans existed before, some tales talk about Rockmen, Gillman, Firemen, and so on. Races that were given birth by the world itself. Humans were amongst them as the weakest of races, but blessed with higher intelligence and flexible abilities, coupled with fast learning capabilities, they were the most who raised into godhood in those times.

Although some other tales told about certain Humans fighting the Spirits that represented Fate and Destiny, stealing their divinities and moving Fate into the direction of humans thriving and triumphing over other races… but all of this is quite hard to believe.

After the long feast, I decided to rest for the night inside the Dragon Centaur Caves.

[Calculating EXP gained…]

[Kireina] and her [Party] gained 3.556.447.652 EXP!]

[Kireina] gained one Level!]

[LEVEL 066/250 EXP 0.520.129.508/61.000.000.000]

[Kireina] learned the following Skills]

[Draconic Horns of Windstorm]

[Vigorous Life Dragon Claws]

[The Levels of the [Protector of the Dungeon; Level 2], [Dungeon Energy Absorption; Level 3], [Automatic Dungeon Mapping; Level 4], [Brainwash Master; Level 5], [Chaotic Dark Creatures Weaponization User; Vampires, Bats, Chimeras; Level 3] and [All-Purpose Enhanced Body Fluids, Flesh, Bone and Minion Creation and Manipulation; Level 9] Skills have increased!]