Cathulhu Online, MUNYA!

Chapter 394 – Cat Dad Welcomes His Stepmother

When Hopea, Undine, Nymph, and Mimir arrived at the B10 floor, they noticed a commotion. Everybody checked on the gold cocoons of Renalla, Gata, Party Queen, and Taotie.

"What happened here?" Asked Undine.

Ifrit reported the situation to Undine, "I don't know. They simultaneously gained enlightenment."

"Four of them at once?"

"Yup!"

Hopea touched the smooth surface of Renalla's cocoon. She traced her karma and noticed that the queen was connected to an invisible being. She instantly discovered the mastermind behind their evolutions.

"It's Xiaomao. A dungeon master is akin to a god for the dungeon's residents and creatures. He can upgrade them with Dungeon Points."

Undine widened her eyes as she remembered the feature that she had never used. This feature of the dungeon core was well-known to be extremely expensive as upgrading a level-9999 immortal to a level-10000 deity always cost 200 million DP.

Dungeons automatically collected DP from intruders' corpses. If a level-100 intruder died in the dungeon, the dungeon core would obtain 100 DP. The rules changed when any immortal perished in a dungeon as every immortal had a different bounty on their head.

Slave Dungeon was raided multiple times. Undine remembered that Meowmeow spent a lot of DP after Joan's raid. However, the recent raid was done by a few elites, and Mao Miaomiao killed them. From Undine's perspective and calculation, the Slave Dungeon shouldn't have that many dungeon points to upgrade four immortals at once.

"Senior, I have a question. If over 10,000 immortals died outside the dungeon, will the dungeon gets any DP?" Undine had a theory in her mind. She asked Hopea to make sure.

"No."

"Then, how come a few dead immortals gave so many dungeon points?"

Hopea laughed as she understood why Undine was confused. She reminded her, "Do you know about [Protagonists]?"

"Erm, yes. Xiaomao told me."

"Protagonists are the exception to the rules. You see, many protagonists' true strengths are always stronger than their outward cultivation base. For example, when my husband was a 6th-stage mortal cultivator, he single-handedly defeated multiple 9th-stage cultivators and immortals. When he became an official immortal, he slaughtered gods left and right. When he reached godhood, the sages feared him."

"I-Is Mao Miaomiao a protagonist, too?!"

Hopea shook her head, "No. It's just an example of someone with a protagonist's strength standard. My husband should be considered [Antagonist] or [Villain] instead since his purpose in life was to kill as many protagonists of the era. But that was in the past now."

"…"

"Back to the topic. A protagonist always has a certain artifact in their soul. We call it [Heavenly Fate Crystal]."

Hopea paused as she reminisced about the past when she first met Mao Miaomiao. At that time, he was just a horny man that got caught by her subordinates. She laughed as she remembered his lecherous expression when he had a gangbang with a hundred dryads in an underground lake.

"Heavenly Fate Crystals allow the users to cultivate luck and karma. But possessing a fate crystal doesn't make one a protagonist. Sometimes, monsters and cultivators are born with one in their bodies, but none of them can use it. Only the chosen ones and deities can sense the crystals. Also, the chosen ones are pre-determined by the karma of the universe and the will of the supreme entities – Mu-Nyang and Pangu."

"So they decide our fate?"

"You're half correct. They gave us power, gifts, and handicaps. However, it's up to us if we wish to fulfill our roles. All protagonists can only become true protagonists if they fulfill the roles, entrusted by the two entities. If they ignore the duties, their luck will be reduced to that of a commoner, and their existences and tales will fade through time."

"Ah…"

Undine managed to catch a glimpse of the big picture. She began to understand how impactful Xiaomao's entity was. Also, because of the hints, Undine guessed Hopea's point.

"So that means, the recent invaders are protagonists, and they gave huge rewards to the dungeon after they died."

"Correct. I don't know the detail, but according to my estimation and calculation, one immortal protagonist is worth about 200 million DP since their strength is equivalent to a deity. There might be some hidden modifiers if that protagonist carries extra roles, such as Antagonist or titles."

Undine and everybody were enlightened. Now, they wondered how many DPs the dungeon had after the fight.

After the brief conversation, Undine guided Hopea to the meeting area on the B7 floor as the B10 level was busy. However, Nymph and Mimir decided to help Ifrit guard the four cocoons as they were at a critical junction in their lives.

.

.

Undine and Hopea used a local portal and entered the B7 floor's boss room. They found no one but Andrew and Peter here, who always worked on a random project in front of the Tower Bridge.

Using a copy of the treasure room's key card, Undine opened the dungeon core's security door and guided the dryad inside.

Hopea entered the room and gazed at the interior. The shelves, cabinets, chests, and countless containers were neatly arranged at the sides of the room. They were well-organized, but most shelves were empty.

At the southwest corner of the room, a mountain of unsorted treasure was still there. Most of them were low-level items, which nobody cared about. Andrew and Peter often came here to collect some junk to recycle the metals and magic ores for other projects.

Hopea instantly spotted Xiaomao in the middle of the room. He was still in his cathulhu form, and his tentacles never stopped poking at the invisible dungeon menu in front of him. She giggled and was about to call for him.

VING

Suddenly, the corner of Hopea's eyes caught on something in the middle of the junk mountain. She stopped her feet and turned 90 degrees. She strode toward the pile of equipment.

"Err, senior?" Undine was taken aback. She followed Hopea, wondering what the dryad queen was doing.

Undine tossed gold coins and junk items to the side. Then, she picked up a finger-sized orb, which seemed to be a regular corrupted spirit stone.

"A spirit stone?" Undine was confused about why Hopea was attracted to the dark stone.

Corrupted spirit stones were useful for players under level 400. However, for immortals, one spirit stone was worth nothing as they could simply enter a closed-door training and gain more status attributes than consuming this junk.

Hopea flipped the stone around. Then, she facepalmed.

"Deities and immortals are killing each other to search for this thing. To think that it has been sitting next to Xiaomao all along."

Undine was curious, "What is that, senior? Why are you interested in that spirit stone?"

"It's not a spirit stone, dear."

Hopea cut the tip of her finger and dropped her blood on it.

CRACK

The shell of the stone crumbled and turned to ash, revealing the true item inside.

It was a small golden seed.

When the golden seed was in clear view, Undine gasped as she could see the item's description. Hopea sighed and regretted that she had been ignoring the dungeon for ages.

.

Seed of Karma

This Seed of Karma belongs to Mu-Nyang. It is the backup consciousness of the entity in case something happens to his true consciousness.

There are multiple ways to use the seeds – Consumption, Planting, or Binding.

Item Type: Artifact, Consumable, Seedling

Rarity: Transcended

Effects (1): By planting the seed in a protagonist's Heavenly Fate Crystal, the protagonist can govern the entire universe as if it is his dantian universe.

Effects (2): By consuming this seed directly, one can increase his level to the cap of this universe (999,999). Increase all stats to the maximum. Obtain all system skills, spells, grand spells, and ultimate skills available.

Effects (3): By binding the karma of the seed to the user, Mu-Nyang will become your familiar spirit.

.

This was one dangerous item that Mu-Nyang had been hiding. Only Hopea and Cernun were aware of its existence. Fortunately, she found it before Pangu's men. Hopea let out a long sigh of relief before she brought it toward Xiaomao.

Hopea looked up and called Xiaomao's name.

"Xiaomao, can you stop working for a second?"

Xiaomao snapped back to his senses. He felt like a game-addicted, who was shouted at by his mother. He looked down and found the naked dryad and Undine.

Emerald Hopea, the Calamity Fiend of Lust, Level 15,000

'Calamity Fiend?'

Taken aback, Xiaomao transformed into a white-winged angel. He landed on the ground and politely extended his hand for a greeting.

"H-Hello. I'm Xiaomao, the dungeon master of this place. And you are…"

"I'm one of your mothers," Hopea grinned, teasing her stepson. Then, she shook his hand.

"Ah… ahaha."

Xiaomao was speechless. His eyes managed to focus on Hopea's otherworldly beautiful face for three seconds before his eyes gazed down, gawking at the perfect round melons.

Noticing Xiaomao's lecherous eyes, Hopea laughed. She pulled Xiaomao's hand to touch her chest, "Like father, like son. Wanna sucky suck? Your father always fondled them and acted like a baby whenever he was alone with me."

"Yes, please-I meant, NO!" Xiaomao looked at Undine and repeatedly shook his head.

Undine snickered. Instead of being jealous, she found the stepmother-stepson interaction funny.

After teasing Xiaomao enough, Hopea smiled and admired the wings of Xiaomao and his face. The image of Mao Miaomiao overlapped with Xiaomao.

"You indeed look like your parents. I'm jealous of Wei Yuan now."

"…"

"Anyway, I have several favors to ask you. Can you designate a dungeon floor for my people? We have about 200,000 or so beastmen and 800,000 ents."

"W-WHAT?! THAT MANY?!"

Xiaomao and Undine sweated profusely. They weren't prepared for this massive migration.