The icy blue ring was about the same size as System's head, and it fit him perfectly, like a headband.

  In fact, while it was awkward to have an icy headband on a grasshopper's head, a blue ring floating over a grasshopper's head was obviously even more awkward than a headband.

  'There's a halo floating over my head. Does this mean I'm a soul that's about to ascend to heaven?'

  System shook his head vigorously and stopped his wild thoughts.

  As he shook his head, he noticed that the icy blue ring on his head also shook. When he stopped shaking his head, the ring kept shaking for a while before stopping, as if it were connected to his head by a spring.

  'What is this thing?'

  System found that if he used his tentacles gently, he was able to touch the ring. The icy blue ring was very soft and pleasant to touch. It felt even more comfortable than touching a squishy slime.

  However, as long as his tentacles exerted a little force, it was like the ring didn't exist, and his tentacles passed right through. This prevented him from removing the blue ring from his head.

  ...

  System kept using [Mental Transmission] to transmit mental messages to the floating ring in an effort to communicate with it. However, after transmitting messages for several minutes, he hadn't made any substantial progress.

  It wasn't that the ring was choosing not to respond to him. Instead, it felt like the ring was sleeping, and it only sent back hazy and intimate emotions.

  With no other choice, System had to use his [Perception] ability to try to check out the icy blue ring's structure. He gently wrapped his tentacles around it and began his exploration.

  To System's surprise, as he used the [Perception] ability with his tentacles, he actually discovered something.

  This ring was obviously a strange life form, and it also followed the concept of levels, but System couldn't check its level as accurately as he could with insects.

  He saw that the ring's level was between 23 and 27, and its upper limit was somewhere in the range of 120 to 150.

  Judging from its upper level limit, this icy blue ring was obviously a life form with a significantly higher amount of individual strength than an insect.

  As System used his tentacles to constantly entangle with and inspect the ring, the usual effects from his tentacle investigations also appeared on the ring.

  The ring began to tremble slightly, and the other party showed signs of waking up from its deep sleep.

  Very soon, the sleeping ring finally woke up and spoke to System. The nguage it was speaking seemed to be be the same one spoken by the frost dragon, and System could again somehow understand its words completely.

  "Creature with frost blood, what did you do to me?"

  The voice from the ring wasn't rough like the dragon's, but was a very pleasant-sounding and gentle female voice.

  System awkwardly twitched his mandibles a little. He could tell that the emotions emitted by the ring were simir to those of the insects that had been affected by his tentacles.

  He wasn't sure if it was because the ring couldn't mate, but System noticed that the ring's reaction was the same as Shava's. Apparently, she was unable to understand what the special emotion was that she'd just experienced.

  After a moment of silence, System chose not to answer the ring's question. Instead, he used [Mental Transmission] to question the frost ring.

  "What are you? Why are you on my head?"

  The ring's emotions seemed to have calmed down while she was waiting for System's response. She didn't speak in that unknown nguage again, but instead used System's [Mental Connection] to answer him.

  "What a strange mental ability. Creature with frost blood, I am an Agent of Winter, an ice spirit. You can call me Nellis."

  Ice spirit?

  System was stunned for a moment before he continued questioning her.

  "Ice spirit? Well, Nellis, why did you come to me?"

  In System's memories from his previous life, there had also been flower fairies, water spirits, and other tiny magical entities in game worlds.

  But shouldn't these kinds of spirits have small wings on their backs and a cute appearance? How could one start out as a ball of light, then turn into a halo floating over his head? What kind of ice spirit is this weird?

  Fortunately, no matter how strange her appearance was, System didn't feel any intention to harm him in the other party's mental message. Instead, he felt a sense of closeness.

  This wasn't the casual closeness of friends, but more like a familial bond, simir to a human retionship between a brother and sister.

  "Contract."

  The ice spirit didn't keep System waiting and directly answered his question.

  System showed a puzzled look and said, "Contract? What contract? And why did you choose me?"

  The ice spirit heard System's doubts and expined, "There are nearly a thousand ice spirits sleeping in Lilt Forest, but there aren't many descendants with frost blood. Although your frost bloodline is thin, it is pure, so you should form a contract with an ice spirit."

  System's expression became strange.

  Descendants with frost blood?

  If a grasshopper had frost blood in its body, the saying that grasshoppers could only jump for a few days in autumn wouldn't exist.

  System remembered the frost dragon's yawn and the new organs he'd grown because of its icy breath.

  It should be his newly acquired [Frost Breath] ability that had made the ice spirit mistakenly believe that he was a creature with frost blood.

  System had no intention of expining all of that to the ice spirit. He thought for a while and said to her, "Can I choose not to make a contract?"

  The ice spirit replied, "Yes, as long as you tell me before the contract is formed."

  "Hmm!?" System heard a special meaning from the mental message transmitted by the ice spirit. He continued, "You mean..."

  The ice spirit interrupted System's mental message. "Yes, the contract between the two of us is already in progress."

  "What!? I didn't agree to make any contract with you!" System's mental message sounded a little annoyed.

  The ice spirit replied, "But you didn't refuse."

  System was silent...

  Refuse? How was he supposed to refuse a contract he didn't even know about?

  He'd already tried very hard to get rid of the halo above his head, but he couldn't do anything to it at all.

  System remembered the [Frost Breath] that the light ball had absorbed just before it had turned into a halo. Perhaps this result was already destined at that time.

  Sigh...

  "What should I do after forming a contract with you?" System asked the ice spirit.

  "Continue living and pass on your frost bloodline."

  When he heard the mental message from the ice spirit, System showed a surprised look. He really couldn't believe that the conditions of the contract were so simple.

  "That's it?" he asked doubtfully.

  "It has rarely snowed in Lilt Forest in the past few hundred years, so I've been sleeping all this time."

  The ice spirit gave a seemingly pusible answer to System's question.

  System sensed heavy and ancient emotions from the ice spirit's words. Although she didn't explicitly state it, System understood the meaning that she implied.

  "Does that mean your previous contractor died hundreds of years ago, and you've been sleeping ever since?"

  "Yes."