The demon was about 1.2 meters long, which was much smaller than the strong demon that had fought against the white bear in Nellis' memories. It had dark red skin, just like the little devils that had appeared in System's previous life's games and novels.

  The little devil only had the left half of its head and body left and was struggling painfully in the snow pit.

  System didn't rashly approach it.

  After observing from a distance with Shava for a while, he activated his [Frost Form] and spit [Frost Mucus] onto the demon from a tree branch.

  System heard the little devil utter several angry curses in a strange nguage, but he couldn't understand it at all. It should be speaking the nguage of the Abyss, which Nellis also couldn't understand.

  After a few minutes, perhaps because it had lost too much blood, or possibly because it had been affected by System's [Frost Mucus] attack, the demon with only half of its body left finally died.

  The wounds on what remained of the demon's body were jagged and uneven. They didn't look like they'd been caused by bites or by weapons. System couldn't guess how the wounds had been created.

  Mysteriously, while he didn't find any footprints or other traces near the body, the little devil seemed to have been injured by something and then thrown here. It was all very strange.

  System scanned the surroundings for more than ten minutes before judging that the environment nearby was safe. He jumped down from the branch, dipped one of his tentacles into the demon's blood, then tasted it.

  Just as System had expected from an Abyss creature, he tasted a spicy and slightly sweet fvor in its blood that made him feel confused.

  The experience generated by the little devil's blood wasn't very high. In fact, it was even worse than eating frost slime. It seemed like this demon was a fairly weak Abyss creature.

  This spicy, sweet, and chaotic blood was obviously not suitable as ant food, and even System himself didn't want to eat it.

  However, he soon thought of a way to kill two birds with one stone. He could use what was left of this demon's corpse to feed the slimes.

  Slimes were basically just groups of microbes gathered together, so digesting the demon's corpse shouldn't have any effect on them.

  In this way, not only could System harvest more slime, he could also use the demon's corpse as a lure, which would make it much easier to capture the three frost slimes.

  ...

  There were no other twists or turns when the demon corpse and the three slimes were transported back to the nest. System successfully used the little devil's corpse to lure the frost slimes into captivity.

  Ten days ter, six more of System's worker ant knights broke out of their pupae.

  Except for the worker ant with the lowest intelligence, whose body shape was still simir to her original form, the remaining five worker ants all became knights.

  The first two worker knights had grown to about fifteen centimeters in length over the past ten days, which was much faster than System had expected.

  During these ten days, three more of the colony's workers had entered their second pupation after eating frost slime.

  Under System's watchful eyes, Queen Linda had also finally entered her second pupation, forming a gigantic pupa nearly thirty centimeters long.

  However, except for Queen Linda and the three workers, most of the nest's remaining ants didn't have much growth potential left. It would be very difficult for them to undergo a second pupation.

  The nest once again entered a stage of steady development.

  Another month passed...

  Except for the two soldier ants, whose pupation would take longer, the remaining worker ants had all emerged from their pupae.

  Among the thirteen workers, three hadn't changed much in appearance. They'd only grown slightly rger than ordinary ants, but with huge mandibles and a simir appearance to soldiers.

  The remaining ten had all turned into worker knights simir to Shava.

  Most of the worker knights' forelegs had transformed into bded weapons that looked simir to mandibles. Only the first two worker knights that had emerged from their pupae wielded diamond-shaped spikes or strange hooks.

  During this month, System had accumuted experience through continuous eating. He'd finally reached level 15, which was his limit. He'd also successfully activated [Super-Speed Regeneration].

  Perhaps because of his newly acquired [Exotic Insect] title, System found that the process of activating [Super-Speed Regeneration] had gone much more smoothly than he'd expected. It had been easy to obtain this powerful, life-saving ability after using the little meatball's bloodline as a reference.

  ...

  [Super-Speed Regeneration] (13/19): A Special Talent obtained from [Insect Adaptability], [Digital Code], [Limb Regeneration], and [Insect Ability Activation]. Provides the ability to quickly regenerate from physical damage by consuming health.

  ...

  After gaining [Super-Speed Regeneration], it only took a dozen seconds for System's severed tentacles to grow back out at the cost of a bit of health.

  A shattered exoskeleton, severed tentacles, and crushed wings could all be restored to their original state in a short amount of time by consuming health.

  As long as System's head wasn't fatally injured, destroying his consciousness, any damage he suffered could be healed very quickly.

  After he successfully activated [Super-Speed Regeneration], System began preparing to activate the talent [Morph].

  While studying [Morph] and the growing body of the little meatball, System had come up with a wonderful use for the ability. He could use [Morph] to transform his body using his [Corrosive Mucus] as a base, forming a body simir to the meatball or a slime that could ignore physical attacks.

  After that, his head would no longer be his weak spot. As long as his body wasn't completely destroyed in an instant, he wouldn't die.

  Because of its mutation, his [Corrosive Mucus] now possessed traces of life, just like the blood flowing in his body. In theory, his body could be completely transformed into a state simir to [Corrosive Mucus].

  However, to actually implement his idea, the talent level required for [Morph] was a bit high. Only when the talent reached a sufficiently high level could he transform his body back and forth between flesh and goo.

  This was a bit troublesome for System, who had a low degree of compatibility with [Morph].

  Although [Ability Enhancement] was incredibly useful, it couldn't raise an ability's upper limit. Otherwise, System's enhancement of [Digital Code] during this period would have undoubtedly allowed him to gain even more incredible abilities.

  System had to make sure that the max level of [Morph] was as high as possible when he activated it. He estimated that the lowest level limit that would allow his pn to work was 11.

  Ever since a few days earlier, right after he'd activated [Super-Speed Regeneration], System had often spent time in the little meatball's room. System communicated with his new son on a daily basis while investigating his [Morph] ability as thoroughly as possible.

  After nearly forty days, the little meatball, who had been named Meatball by System, now regarded System as his closest family.

  Unlike System's ant subjects, although System had taught Meatball to call him King, Meatball always called him father instead.

  In fact, Meatball had called System mother at first, but after System had corrected him countless times, Meatball had finally starting calling him father.

  After many days of constant eating, Meatball had grown to a diameter of ten centimeters. Although he wasn't as skilled as his predecessor yet, he could already change his body to form various shapes.

  Among them, Meatball was fondest of imitating System's tentacle-monster appearance. Apart from that, he maintained his usual meatball state most of the time.

  Meatball seemed to hate being alone. If System wasn't around, he often rolled over to other ants and started imitating System, stretching out his little tentacles to pat their heads or entangle them.

  Among them, the one who was closest to Meatball was Bck. Meatball often hung out with Bck, and the two frequently pyed together.

  Ever since System had first brought the little meatball out of the nest to go flying more than ten days earlier, Meatball typically went outside at least a few times every day. Sometimes he went with System, sometimes with Bck, and sometimes with the worker knight Hooks.

  System had already made an appointment with the little meatball to go out that afternoon. After he completed the day's investigation, he pnned to take Meatball out flying for a while.

  However, while System was using [Perception] to analyze Meatball's [Morph] ability again, he suddenly felt the uneasiness that he'd st experienced months earlier. This time the feeling was extremely strong, as if something terrible was about to happen.

  He suddenly sensed strange fluctuations with his antennae, and the underground ant nest started to shake violently. The ants in the nest expressed their uneasiness and began to panic.

  It was an earthquake!