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When Veronica and her party came back to the Squirrel beast-women tribe, they found that another feast was occurring. Ervas alongside Jason, Pekorina, Ismene, and Amelia had gone hunting in another nearby dungeon, although this one was smaller than the one she visited, only having one floor, which was filled with Rank 1 and 2 monsters, mostly Horned Rabbits.
Countless horned rabbits and giant demon rats were being grilled and covered in herbs and sauces, there were also many new monster plants surrounding the tribe, seemingly working as guards. Most were Rank 1, but there were a few Rank 3 as well.
"Ervas, we are back! The girls leveled a lot, most of them are at her third Job already" said Veronica, while hugging Ervas tightly with her abyssal soul.
"That is good, most everyone here was finished changing Jobs. Although they were mostly warriors, I found some that were talented with Alchemy and Crafting,"
"I see! In our case, we explored a dungeon that the little Acathea knew about… the 'Earth Worm's Hive'. It was a small dungeon made out of caves, with three main floors, and a Rank 4 boss, which we brought for dinner as well" said Veronica.
"Oh? And is that a new friend?" asked Ervas, pointing at the giant Venomous Scales Earth Worm that was making the entire village alarmed.
"Ah, yes. I named him Nidhogg… Girls, calm down!"
"Is that an Earth Worm?!"
"Run!"
"Wait, isn't it… rather tame?"
"It is very calm"
Acathea ended up calming the guards of the tribe and explained to them that Nidhogg was a new tamed monster of Veronica.
"She… tamed a worm? Is that even possible?"
"Well, she already tamed another bug in Charlotte"
"Spiders are not a bug, they're arachnids!"
"Who cares?"
The women calmed down as they glanced at Nidhogg slowly makes its way to the tribe and then by Veronica's command, it rested beside her tent.
"I-It seems that you tamed another monster… you found it in that dungeon… we haven't visited it in a while…" said Ismene, with a forced smile. Although Nidhogg was calm and tame, it was still quite disgusting-looking for the rest of the women, they will have to get a bit used to it.
"I heard from little Acathea that you were the one that discovered it a year ago?" asked Veronica while letting the Squirrel women slice the giant Earth Worm meat and grill it.
"Oh yeah. It was a year ago, was it? I feel way longer… That dungeon is a special dungeon filled with precious resources, but we lack the experience, tools, and strength to mine there properly…" said Ismene.
"Mine? How many materials are there?" asked Ervas.
"Many! I was able to detect many types of precious metals and jewels. And it seems that because it's a dungeon, no matter how much you mine, they will grow again in a couple of days, unlike a natural mine inside a mountain" said Veronica, as she sat down in a chair she created with her armor body.
Dungeons were magical treasure troves where Mana flowed freely. They were also special spaces created by that mana itself, and as long as mana flowed, they would regenerate back and give birth to monsters.
It has been proven many times that taking chunks of the stone inside dungeons, minerals, and other things, would make the dungeon regenerate such parts in a couple of days.
In a way, dungeons were even more convenient than mining mountains for resources, as they would generate magical metals and jewels at an incredible pace.
However, they were also filled with strong and deadly monsters. Naturally, no simple worker could go there and freely mine their way without worrying about their safety.
Monsters roamed freely as well and would attack any intruder they saw.
Only strong adventurers could enter and explore dungeons, and most of them were not suited to mine for resources.
However, in the Demon Continent, mining dungeons was a rather common thing. As demons and beastmen were naturally strong and developed abilities and strength faster and easier than humans, elves, and most of the dwarves.
They were able to both mine the dungeons in large groups and also beat monsters with their bare fist or pickaxes without much worry. Many villages in the Demon Continents sustained themselves through this, and many nations did as well.
Veronica and Ervas were once the same people, the Demon Queen Anastacia. It was obvious for them to know everything she learned about her own country and her neighbor nations, their economy, and ways of sustenance.
Although Anastacia had a weak complexion, and could not mine by herself, she visited many villages and tribes of demons that did this as a living and saw their work in real life. Using those memories and inserting them into her actions through the 'Memory Retention' Skill, Veronica was able to imitate the demon's mining techniques, and naturally learned the 'Mining' Skill when she harvested materials.
Both Ervas and Veronica were interested in the mining of precious metals and resources. As nice as Veronica's armor materials were, she could not just use them for everything, certain metals could be more fitting for certain metalwork and crafting. There are also certain types of stone and jewels which contained large amounts of mana and could be used for alchemy.
Although Veronica herself was like a walking treasure of materials, she could not use the materials that made up her body for everything (for now…) and having the option of mining for materials in that dungeon was very nice, especially if the materials would grow back in a few days.
"But even if you were to go mine there, the amount of materials harvested would still be quite small… Our tribe has never been good at mining, and I consider that they should learn how to craft, use magic, and hunt" said Ismene. As the chief of the tribe of Squirrel beast-women, she knew very well the capabilities of her own race, the Squirrel-kin was not suited for mining and doing arduous, long, tiring, and repetitive works such as that.
"I know, that's why I will just do it all by myself…" said Veronica, as she converted her arm into liquid metal and detached three pieces from herself, which then took in the form of metallic spiders, in a similar shape than Charlotte when she was a Rank 2 monster.
The metallic spiders began to walk around the three…
Ismene's eyes opened wide, her jaw dropped.
"W-What is this?! V-Veronica, since when…?!"
"Oh, so you finally managed to get the skill. And also… Fission, isn't it?" asked Ervas, already guessing most of what Veronica was using to move these spiders.
"Indeed. With Fission, I can divide my body, with Body Form Manipulation, I can shape it, with Body Size Alteration, I can change its size, and with Parallel Though Processing, I can control many bodies at the same time," said Veronica while crossing her arms, the arm that she used to create the three spiders already grew back by feeding on Ervas vast mana and then regenerating using the 'Armory' Skill.
"Wait, what? What are those skills? I've never heard of them!" said Ismene, completely alienated with Veronica's ridiculous powers.
"Well, Veronica can absorb materials, and she absorbed a Metal Slime, which gave her armor the ability to mold itself like liquid metal, from there and on, she slowly developed all of these other abilities…" said Ervas, who already knew most of Veronica's adventures in the dungeon she was born in.
"Such… an ability is very… baffling…" said Ismene. She slowly began to understand just how immensely strong Veronica was. She only thought that she was just strong physically… but now she understands how overwhelming versatile her abilities were.
"Thankfully, you're our ally, Veronica… and if you could use such ability to create many clones… then it would be more than possible to mine the dungeon��� and even kill monsters and passively earn even more experience points… we could bring many squads with you as well so they can earn the experience as well!" said Ismene, slowly enlightening herself by Veronica's powerful capabilities.
"Ismene is right," said Ervas.
"To be honest, even with all these abilities, I wouldn't be capable of doing so much without Ervas. His large amount of Mana is what makes it possible for me to divide myself into smaller clones while using 'Parallel Thought Processing', which cost Mana to use in excess…" admitted Veronica.
"I see, count in me, I will help you out create as many clones as necessary. This will greatly improve the daily life of everyone in the Devil Forest," said Ervas.
And while Veronica, Ervas, and the rest feasted in the Earth Worm, they multitasked. Ervas feed Veronica with large amounts of Mana while she created many clones.
Through this, she got to know her limitations as well, such as the size of her clones and how much intelligence and abilities they could share with her.
Each clone could only be as big as eighty centimeters, and only held but a quarter of her original strength. They shared all of her skills though, but for the cast of Spirit Magic, Shade needed to be with them.
Veronica used her own parallel thoughts to control each clone, and she seemed to not have a limit at least, as long as she was being fed Mana. Due to lacking physical exhaustion as she did not have a brain, she could break through the limits of a simple mortal and as long as she had mana, she could be restless.
Her clones could be used for hunting if they gathered into a large enough group, but for now, Veronica wanted to shift her attention into the dungeon, hunting outside would be too unreliable.
She decided to create many 'Spider-type' Clones that had sharp claws and legs, which would use 'Mining' to mine efficiently.
Meanwhile, there will be the 'Car-type' Clones, that had the appearance of mining carts, though they had spider legs for an easier and faster movement.
Lastly, she made bigger spiders that held a bit more strength and endurance than the mining ones, which were the 'Guard-type' Clones. They would defend the other clones from monsters.
Veronica also considered making armors and weapons carrying her mind. But considered that they would be better if mixed with the materials harvested in the dungeon.
As long as Veronica had enough Mana, the clones would be able to share her mind and work properly, but she and Ervas couldn't be together all the time… right?
"Well, each clone can carry these then," said Ervas, showing a purple-colored crystal.
"Oh? A magic core?"
Magic Cores were items that every monster had inside their bodies, which were an accumulation of their own Mana. These magical crystals were used by every advanced society as batteries for many magical tools. Ervas and Veronica had been harvesting them for a long now, but could not find many uses in them other than Veronica eating them for mana.
Ervas charged every crystal with thousands of Mana, and Veronica gave one to each clone. Now, each clone could work independently for over many days. These crystals working as batteries.
As Veronica and Ervas designed the clones, the whole tribe glanced at them.
Ismene grimaced, and could not help but be grateful to be their ally.
"They're using such an ability to mine materials and hunt… but wouldn't it be more terrifying if they just created a… massive army? Perhaps defeating that demon god that Ervas talked about won't be as hard as I thought…" she said.
"Lady Veronica and my son Ervas are… an exception to every norm in this world, it seems," said Jason.
"Are they really just a half-demon and a living armor? They're more like… gods?" asked Pekorina.
"So they're gods?" asked Amelia.
"No… Auntie Veronica might be very strong and have crazy powers… but she does not act like a goddess…" said Acathea.
"I heard that, Acathea!" shouted Veronica.
"Eep!"
(Veronica)
[The Levels of the [Alchemy; Level 1], [Crafting; Level 1], [Body Size Alteration; Level 2], [Fission; Level 2], [Long-Distance Control; Level 2], [Parallel Thought Processing; Level 1], [Mining; Level 1], and [Fast Speed Thought Processing; Level 1] Skills have increased!]
(Ervas)
[The Levels of the [Increased Mana Recovery Rate; Level 3], [Coordination; Level 2], [Mana Control; Level 5], [Chant Revocation; Level 4], [Automatic Mana Recovery; Level 3], and [Demon Metabolism; Level 3] Skills have increased!]
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