Epic Of Caterpillar

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Keenan was horrified, he really didn't want to die.

Since he was a child, he had to adapt to situations and do things that could be unthinkable for others to survive, to keep on living, and keep supporting his beloved family.

While others may live through honor codes, Keenan was a man that prioritized surviving over everything else.

Seeing the facts on how three Vampires that possessed Divine Flesh were easily killed, and that one of them who was stronger than him didn't even stand a chance against the irregular, he saw the idea of fighting for survival illogical.

The irregular was not just alone but was also accompanied by several other demi-human women who had just as an easy time killing Vampire Nobles as herself.

If Keenan were to fight, his death would be assured, and that would also come with the death or suffering of his family…

However, there was another option in Keenan's mind.

He kneeled in the cold snow, putting his head as low as possible, hitting the cold snow with his forehead, his arms were also in the ground, and he showed to Kireina a very weakened posture.

"I surrender! Please, forgive my life! I implore to you! I will become your servant, your slave, anything! But please, don't kill me! I beg of you! Please, be benevolent! I will give you all of myself, my information, my strength, everything!"

"Huh?"

Kireina, in her short life in Genesis, had never seen someone throw away his pride like this, to the point of kneeling in the ground and asking for forgiveness.

Even Redgaria didn't do this, he just intelligently negotiated with Kireina his own life, offering all of his forces, army, riches, and knowledge.

In a way, Keenan didn't even have half of Redgaria's riches, knowledge, or power, but he desired to live over everything else, him being alive meant that his family would do as well.

And thanks to Kireina's Titles, the System detected in Keenan that he was surrendering and submissive to her, so he was instantly converted into a Slave.

"Please…!"

Kireina's wives glanced at Keenan with pity and surprise. Seeing such a respected being as a Vampire Noble, who always fought to the bitter end, kneeling and asking for his life to be forgiven just for existing and being part of an organization that had tried to kill Kireina.

Rimuru, who was one of the most compassionate wives of Kireina, glanced at the dumfounded fairy.

"Masta… he's surrendering… so please, forgive his life…!"

"Huh? R-Rimuru…?"

"D-Do you remember when I found Wagyu? Although he was part of the Crimson Wolves, and that the Crimson Wolf Emperor tried to kill you, you forgave Wagyu's life…! Isn't it the same here?"

"I… I suppose you're half right… Sigh… He could be useful, I suppose, I've converted other Vampires already, so I can't say that I can't forgive someone's life if they want to serve me"

Keenan saw some hope in Kireina's words… His crimson eyes shined brightly, and he was about to cry in happiness.

"T-Then…!"

"But you will have to serve me very well, if you have so easily betrayed your Vampire Family, I can't guarantee that you would do the same when someone stronger than me shows up, right?"

Indeed, Kireina had a point there. If Keenan had so easily betrayed his Vampire Family, there wasn't any guarantee that he wouldn't do it again, although he was enslaved by the System, there were various ways to forcibly escape from System enslavement, like being enslaved by someone stronger than its former master, or being forcefully brainwashed.

This is why Kireina decided to convert Keenan is one of her Vampires. Although she would miss in the Divine Flesh Skill that Keenan possessed, she couldn't even use these Skills anyways, so she didn't see much value on it, and there wasn't any rush, perhaps she could find a way to extract it from him in the future.

Keenan accepted his fate, and was bitten by Kireina, his hard pale-white skin was like butter when Kireina's sharp fangs penetrated them, he felt his life slowly being drained alongside his blood… But at the same time, the saliva of Kireina seeped through the wounds, changing his entire physique.

As Keenan lost consciousness, some minutes afterward, he woke up anew. His appearance didn't change much, as he was already a Vampire Noble, unlike Cassandra and Caedmon.

But some of his animalistic features like the wolf ears, large claws and tail became stronger, his fur also was as hard as adamantine and he gained a strange demon head-shaped tattoo on his back, which seemed to be inherited from his father's bloodline. Lastly, he gained a small black horn in the middle of his forehead.

Somehow, Kireina's ability to convert other Vampires into her Vampires also gave them the ability to awaken their bloodline powers. Something that Agatheina's Bloodline wasn't capable of.

Agatheina's Bloodline did the complete opposite, suppressing other races' abilities and bloodlines, shortening their latent talent in those areas, and boosting them in others, awakening in them brand new Vampire Skills while sealing away any potential Skills that could be awakened from their parents inherited powers.

"T-This… I'm not dead?"

"Didn't I said that I would forgive your life? You're now one of my Vampires, serve me well, Keenan"

"I-I will… B-But I have a request… P-Please, Master Kireina, hear me out…"

"Hmm?"

Kireina, influenced by Rimuru, decided to become more attentive and benevolent in the case that her enemies similarly surrendered to her to Keenan, however, this did not imply that she would easily forgive those who had already caused harm to her, her family or her group, this included the Centaurs from the Resistance as well.

Keenan's request was simple, he wanted Kireina to rescue his family from Thanatos. He had already assumed that he would be beginning to live whenever Kireina lived, so he wanted to ensure his family safety… Even if it could awaken the rage of his new Master.

However, Kireina understood him quite easily.

"I do have a family as well, so I understand how precious a family can be to someone… I can't guarantee that I will go rescue them myself, but I can send my own Dhampirs for that they're quite close, so I should ask them to do that right now before the other Vampires realize that you changed sides somehow…"

Keenan waved his tail like a very happy puppy.

"Thanks! Thanks, Master Kireina! Thank you very much…! I will serve you well! Ask me for anything!"

Kireina instinctively patted the young Wolf Beast Man's head, as if he were really a puppy, this flustered Keenan, but he didn't say anything about it.

And just like that, what would have been a bloody fight for Keenan's survival, was resolved fairly easy, and Kireina gained a new and strong Vampire subordinate, which she equipped inside of her body right away so the Centaurs wouldn't suspect who he was when he showed up.

Keenan was rather flustered over the idea of "being inside his Master", but he accepted without any questions…

While being inside the space created in Kireina's physical body, he got to meet Mao, Wall, and some other Vampires who she had already converted, who were currently resting.

"Ah! A new member! Welcome, welcome~ Whet's your name~?" Said Mao, who resembled a beautiful and voluptuous Beast woman, with large black lion ears in the top of her head and a lion tail over her butt, her entire skin was charcoal black, just like her hair. She also had long dragon-like wings in her back and draconic scales covered parts of her body.

Keenan had instantly assumed that she was a mixed-race similar to him, thinking that Mao's parents were a Lion Beast Man and a Dragonoid. But in fact, Mao was once a Male Draconic Lion Chimera Familiar, who had evolved thanks to Kireina and became a female due to being fused with her Master's slime minions…

Wall had also come to greet Keenan, she was a beautiful and voluptuous woman as well, with similar features than Mao except for the animal and draconic parts. She had long black hair and black eyes, with charcoal-like skin and three horns, one in her forehead and the other two in her shoulders.

Keenan had assumed that she was some kind of Shadow Lord, or perhaps an Oni… But she was just a Synthetic Slime Golem.

"Welcome…! A new member of the "inside" team! I will make sure to protect you~"

The two dark-skinned and voluptuous girls, who were currently wearing no clothes for whatever reason, hugged Keenan, rubbing their nude bodies on the flustered young man.

"I-It is nice to meet you as well, my name is Keenan… Uwaah… Why are you two completely naked…?"

"I don't like clothes…"

"I like clothes, but I also like to show my body"

"Eh…?"

"You'll get used to them…" said a Dhampir who was recently converted from a Low-Rank Vampire Servant, a Vampire that once served Castien.

As Keenan received the attention of two beautiful naked girls, Kireina went back to where the former Vampire base was located with the rest of her wives, who had been left taken aback by the recent series of events, however, Rimuru seemed happy.

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After the small incident with Keenan, I gained a new and strong subordinate, however, to not awake suspicion between the Resistance Members, I decided to equip him inside of my body with the Skill [Chimera Weaponization], somehow he was flustered about "being inside of my body", but I couldn't understand why. 

Tonight there was a large celebration over the destruction of City 2's Vampire base, although the Resistance members didn't have much food recently as the Kingdom crops and cattle have been dying due to the Vampires spreading diseases and toxic mists in the villages where these products were produced.

Thankfully, I was there. So I just summoned more Familiars and other Monsters, butchered and cleaned them with the help of my wives and some centaurs with the Skill [Butcher] at a high level and then a large barbeque started, I also shared some Wine, Beer, and Fruit Juice.

Centaurs, unlike real horses, can consume meat without any issues, and it seems that Horses only eating vegetables and plants is only in Earth, as in Genesis there are countless of Horses species that are predators and carnivores, perhaps centaurs weren't born from the genes of normal horses but other stronger and carnivore ones? It's an interesting thing to think about while eating and sharing with them.

It felt as if they deepened their bonds with me and my group as I shared my food with them, they have been only eating hard as rock bread and water for the last weeks, so eating grilled meat with seasoning, pickled vegetables, and refreshing alcohol really made them happy.

The several corpses of Blood Monsters and Demonic Beasts were also butchered and eaten, the Centaurs were quite doubtful at first, but I had already detoxified the meat from any poison or harmful mana energy inside.

Demon Beast meat was very delicious, although quite hard to chew, so we usually minced it and made it into meatballs and hamburgers… Oh, the Centaurs tried these preparations for the first time, receiving a giant cultural shock.

After eating several Vampire corpses in the back while the centaurs celebrated and ate, I decided to go to rest in a designed room with my wives. Tonight Caedmon, Cassandra, and Zehe guarded the outside.

Several Vampires were lurking from far away distances, but never dared to close in, perhaps they were too frightened. Tomorrow we will most likely move to City 1 and destroy the Vampire base there, I wouldn't mind if some Resistance bases were destroyed tonight as well.

[Kireina gained +40 Blood Strength!] (From drinking the blood of several Lower Rank Vampires)

[Calculating EXP gained…]

[Kireina] gained 954.660.000 EXP!] (Shared EXP from the massacre inside the Vampire Base, Vampires gives a lot of EXP… but if no Noble Vampires are killed, the EXP is not as good as previous days)

[LEVEL 064/250 EXP 33.395.923.864/38.300.000.000]

[Kireina] learned the following Skills]

[Demon Iron Hair Arts] 

[Forbidden Summoning Magic; Demon Beasts]

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