After two weeks, the bck smoke that had filled the sky above Lilt Forest had mostly dissipated. Although the sky was still a bit gloomy and contained hints of smoke and ash, it wouldn't have much of an impact on System and his ant subjects.

  After pushing away the snow covering the entrance to the nest, System returned to the surface.

  The thick snow had worked well as an air filter, perfectly blocking the smoke and ash floating in the air from entering the nest.

  If not for that, this fine bck smoke would have seeped into the nest and covered the ants' entire bodies. Even if the ants had already adapted to the bck smoke's toxicity, the ash would gradually block the breathing holes in their abdomens. Not only would this make breathing more difficult, it could potentially even kill them.

  Over the past two weeks, System had seen several waves of gnolls moving through the forest. He'd even seen an Abyss demon traveling with them once.

  However, aside from the first group of gnolls he'd encountered, not even the huge demon that was nearly four meters tall had noticed System.

  System had no idea what was going on with the oddly behaving gnolls and Abyss demons, and he didn't want to know.

  Today, now that his preparations were complete, System was pnning to migrate south with his ant subjects and the little meatball.

  If they traveled south for a little over ten kilometers, they'd leave Lilt Forest and enter the Warren Pins. If they continued south for a few hundred more kilometers, they'd reach an area without snow.

  ...

  After flying into the sky to scout the area and finding nothing unusual near the nest, System went back inside and prepared to migrate with his ant subjects.

  The so-called preparation for migration was actually nothing special. In fact, it was just gathering some high-energy food to prevent System and the ants from starving during their journey.

  While searching for food in the nest, System found a gold-colored nut that he'd pced in storage a long time ago. It was the golden acorn that the leopard had left behind after it had been frozen into ice dust by Aura's icy light column.

  System noticed that the golden acorn had now sprouted a tiny sapling with three tender little leaves on it. He bit into one of the sapling's leaves with his mandibles to give it a taste.

  Compared to the golden acorn's indestructible shell, the young sapling's leaves were extremely tender, and he easily bit off a piece of the leaf.

  As he chewed the leaf, an extremely strong and wonderful taste exploded in his mouth. It was sweet, but not too sweet. System felt as if he'd suddenly been transported to Lilt Forest in the middle of summer.

  In an instant, he felt as if he'd become one with nature. It was almost like he was experiencing the unity of man and nature, just as he'd seen from the old druid.

  Without thinking, System ate all three of the tender leaves growing from the golden acorn in two or three bites. After he swallowed the leaves, he aimed his mandibles at the golden acorn. As a result, the acorn that even the giant goblin's ice crystal axe couldn't break was eaten effortlessly.

  It had only taken a dozen seconds to go from eating the golden acorn's tender leaves to eating the golden acorn itself, but he felt as if he'd been sitting quietly in a forest for decades.

  Surprisingly, sitting in one pce for decades wasn't boring. Instead, it had allowed System to experience a variety of different feelings, and he came to understand a great deal of inexplicable knowledge.

  ...

  Ding! You acquired the ability [Healing Power]!

  Ding! You acquired the ability [Pnt Growth]!

  Ding! Your experience has reached the upper limit.

  ...

  The sound notification from the [Tools Menu] brought System, who was still savoring the delicious fvors lingering in his mouth, back to reality.

  Not only had the golden acorn given System a lot of insights and knowledge, it had also given him a huge amount of experience. However, because his level had reached its upper limit, the extra experience began to dissipate.

  System immediately used [Ability Enhancement] to strengthen his [Pupation] talent using the experience that was about to dissipate.

  His [Pupation] talent's level rapidly increased from 13 to 16. He only needed to increase it by one more level to meet the conditions for his third pupation.

  The golden acorn had turned out to be much more powerful than the blue fruit Quin had eaten. In addition to the extremely rich experience it had provided, it had also given System a great deal of knowledge.

  In that knowledge, System had learned more about the golden acorn. It could be said that the golden acorn was the key to becoming a druid.

  Some druids who had performed special rituals would leave behind a golden acorn after their death as a rare inheritance of the druid cn.

  The leopard had indeed been transformed from a druid, but it hadn't been the old druid who System was familiar with. Instead, it had been a druid named Firael who had left behind the acorn after his death.

  This kind of golden acorn also required a special ceremony to pass on the knowledge and insights contained within it, and one of the conditions for holding the ceremony was that the golden acorn had sprouted.

  Normally, even if the golden acorn had sprouted and the little sapling and its leaves were eaten, they would only be extremely nutritious at best. Eating them wouldn't have any other effects.

  As for the golden acorn itself, it couldn't be digested or absorbed at all. Even if it was forcibly crushed and eaten, it wouldn't provide any insights to whoever ate it.

  However, when this golden acorn had encountered a strange power in System's [Digital Code] and [Insect Adaptability] talents, a wonderful reaction had taken pce, allowing System to automatically absorb a great deal of the druid's insights and knowledge.

  System finally understood why the old druid was so disgusted by insects, and even learned more about the master of the little meatball's predecessor. System had found a decent number of clues in the knowledge.

  Unfortunately, using [Digital Code] to receive insights was ultimately not as good as the druid cn's true inheritance method, so most of the knowledge that should have been passed on had been lost.

  ...

  [Healing Power] (7/21): A Derived Skill obtained from [Digital Code], [Insect Adaptability], and the golden acorn. You can use the power of nature to heal living things.

  [Pnt Growth] (9/18): A Derived Skill obtained from [Digital Code], [Insect Adaptability], and the golden acorn. You can use the power of nature to catalyze the growth of pnts.

  ...

  A faint green light appeared around System's tentacles. This green energy was the same power that the old druid had used to heal the injured bird. System only had a basic mastery of the ability for now, so he could only maintain its use for about ten seconds.

  By the time he finished giving his new abilities a quick test, his ant subjects had finished preparing the necessary food for their migration.

  After flying into the sky to scout for dangers one st time, System officially set off with his forty-two ant subjects and fifteen pupae. They were finally starting their long journey south...

  ...

  System's timely migration allowed him to dodge a huge crisis that he'd unknowingly created by eating the golden acorn.

  Just hours after System set off with his ant subjects, the old druid that System was very familiar with arrived at the nest. The druid frowned and scanned the surroundings for a while, and his expression gradually became a bit strange.

  His body slowly started to change shape, eventually transforming into a giant wolf nearly three meters tall.

  After the giant wolf sniffed the ground with its nose for a while, it seemed to have discovered something and began running south.

  However, the druid had only run a few hundred meters when he suddenly stopped, turned around, and started running toward the Lilt Mountains instead.