The little meatball was different from the big meatball. It seemed like he didn't have many of the senses that most creatures used to perceive the outside world. He cked the ability to hear, see, or smell.
The only way he could perceive the outside world was through his sense of touch using his meat buds.
His intelligence was higher than an ordinary ant's. After half an hour of interacting with System, the little meatball tried to imitate System by using his extended fleshy buds to move his body.
However, his meat buds were a bit cking in strength. They couldn't support the little meatball's weight at all. If he wanted to move, he could only roll his spherical body around on the ground.
Acting like he'd just found a new toy, the meatball kept using his fleshy buds to roll around on the ground, emitting joyful emotions from time to time.
After frequent contact with the little meatball, the [Perception] power of System's tentacles once again came into py.
Before [Molting and Growth] had transformed into [Pupation], System hadn't been able to sense the [Morph] ability very clearly, but it was much easier to sense it now.
[Morph] couldn't make an insect's body change shape to just anything. Only transformations that suited an insect's own body and bloodline were possible.
The reason the little meatball's predecessor could change into various shapes was because of his [Devour] talent, which had allowed him to plunder and absorb the bloodlines of countless insects. The combination of the two abilities was what had given him the power to change into so many strange shapes.
Like [Super-Speed Regeneration], System also had the potential to activate [Morph].
However, [Morph] wasn't particurly compatible with his body. After activation, the upper limit of the talent would be very low, and the transformation ability likely wouldn't allow System to make any significant changes to his body.
For now, System didn't know whether or not to activate this ability.
'Maybe I could use it to grow an extra stomach to speed up my digestion and gain experience faster. But if that's not possible, gaining [Morph] would undoubtedly waste a lot of experience.'
System used his tentacles to investigate the little meatball's bloodline while thinking about possibly gaining [Morph]. A while ter, he noticed that the little meatball had started imitating him at some point. His tiny, fleshy buds had stretched out and were wrapped around one of System's tentacles.
This little meatball was imitating System's movements as if he was System's own child.
'Did I just pick up a cheap son?'
System shook his head slightly. Without thinking any further, he piled up some food next to the little meatball, then headed out into the snowy world outside. It was time to hunt for frost slimes or some other kind of rge, meaty creature.
...
A few days had passed, but the snow-covered world of Lilt Forest hadn't changed much. The snow still colored the world white, the wind was still frosty, and the temperature was its usual minus 40 degrees.
However, at the exit of the nest, System's antennae detected a faint fragrance, just like the scent of flowers that had often wafted through Lilt Forest in the summer.
Chopstick-thin green vines covered in ice crystals had appeared crawling up many trees around System's nest, and a few blooming frost flowers could be seen growing on the vines.
In just a few days, the frost flower seeds had sprouted and grown rapidly. The rgest of the frost flower vines had even reached a full meter high.
These frost flowers were simir in shape and size to roses from System's previous life, but their color was very different. Snow flowers were a translucent white color resembling ice.
The five vines nearby were growing well, but System noticed some uninvited guests on three of them. They were the caterpilrs that he was raising as livestock.
There seemed to be a butterfly spawning ground nearby. As a result, nearly a hundred small caterpilrs had appeared on the ice crystal flowers.
Even though the frost flower vines grew very quickly, if the caterpilrs were left alone, the vines would still be eaten to death.
"Spikes, Hooks, clean up the caterpilrs on these vines."
The two worker ant knights System had nicknamed immediately took action. They climbed onto the vines and started effortlessly killing the small caterpilrs, which were only about one centimeter long.
Many ordinary worker ants soon emerged from the nest and collected the bodies of the caterpilrs as they fell from the vines, then transported them back to the nest.
System didn't pay too much attention while his ant subjects were killing the caterpilrs. Instead, he stretched out his tentacles and picked a frost flower.
The frost flower looked hard, but it was actually as soft as an ordinary rose.
It exuded a strange, frosty smell. This was obviously a magical pnt. System put the flower's petals into his mouth.
Like snow, the flower tasted salty and fresh, but its overall fvor was much richer. He also detected a very faint hint of pineapple-like sweetness. With the slightly soft texture of the petals, System felt like he was eating fruity shrimp meat.
These flower petals provided slightly more experience for their weight than frost slime and were clearly a great food source.
Unfortunately, the experience generated by this frost energy could only be used by System or Shava, since they were the only ants with frost blood. The flowers were completely useless to his ordinary ant subjects.
It was basically impossible to fill the stomachs of the ant knights with these frost flowers.
However, frost flowers seemed to have a special effect on Nellis, the ice spirit who had formed a contract with System. As System ate the frost flower, the halo that usually only appeared above his head while in [Frost Form] suddenly popped out.
As System continued eating, the halo above his head began flickering like a dying bulb.
"Nellis, what's happening to you?"
She replied with her usual answer, "I don't know."
She had no idea what was happening and only said that the frost energy made her feel very comfortable. She felt that if she kept absorbing this energy for a long time, she'd end up changing in some way.
...
The episode with the frost flowers passed quickly, and System and Shava soon began their lengthy search for a frost slime.
After a day and a half of searching, System finally found a frost slime buried under the snow two and a half kilometers away from the nest.
This time, System didn't just find one frost slime. There were a total of three, one big and two little.
Under the snow where he'd found the slimes, System also found a giant snake's corpse that had almost been completely dissolved by the slimes. It seemed like a frost slime had relied on absorbing the unfortunate snake's corpse to quickly divide and reproduce, which had eventually resulted in two new slimes being created.
System decided to use [Mental Transmission] to lead the slimes back to a frozen pit under the snow near his nest.
However, just as System was directing the three obedient frost slimes to hop back to his nest, his antennae swayed slightly, and he detected a sulfur smell again. It was the smell of the Abyss that had made him feel so uneasy previously.
His body reacted the same as it had in the st few months, and his [Intuition] also gave him that vague feeling of unease again.
System thought that the meatball he'd fought a few days earlier was what had made him feel so uneasy in recent days, but now it looked like that wasn't the case at all.
He now sensed that the uneasiness that he'd been feeling seemed to have nothing to do with the meatball or the meatball's owner, but was instead due to something else entirely.
Two minutes ter, System's unease faded away, but this time the Abyss smell in the air didn't disappear immediately.
He followed the smell and flew high into the sky to search. In a snowy pit one kilometer away, System found a half-demon. More accurately, he found a demon that only had half of its body and head left.
It seemed to still be alive...
