According to System's understanding, the source of the pgue should be a treasure containing some kind of pgue power, perhaps a bead or some other simir object. He had no idea where such a treasure might be located, so he soon stopped thinking about it.

  Of course, he didn't know that the source of the pgue the ratman warrior was talking about was the [Pgue Mucus] inside his own throat gnds.

  It was even more impossible for him to know that the ratmen had already cultivated a second pgue based on his [Pgue Mucus], or that the ratmen had named this new pgue "Gift."

  Several ratman wizards from Helencia had already thrown this "Gift" pgue into a river that flowed through a gnoll city. The gnolls in that city would soon be infected.

  Unlike common pgues, the pgue bacteria formed from System's mucus weren't very contagious. They also weren't as destructive as many of the ratmen's other pgues, since the lethal effect took one or two days to set in.

  However, the vitality of this "Gift" pgue was very strong, and there were no cheap or easy ways to deal with it. Curing it would require an expensive healing potion that could kill all germs.

  After they saw the gnolls return in defeat from Lilt Forest, the ratmen had decided to fight back against the overlords of the Warren Pins for the first time. The storm had provided them with the perfect opportunity for their first attack.

  ...

  System had no idea what the ratmen and gnolls were busy with during the rainstorm. In recent days, he'd been resting quietly, going out to scout, and bringing the occasional slime back to the nest.

  After they soaked in the rain for a long time, the slimes' bodies had inevitably melted a little. System thought the slimes were likely to die if the rain continued for much longer.

  In a sense, he was saving the lives of these slimes by bringing them back to the nest.

  However, because he'd brought back too many slimes, most of the rescued slimes would quickly end up being eaten by him and his ant subjects.

  ...

  The long rainy season had sted for nearly half a month with no end in sight.

  Fortunately, the water level near System's nest was no longer rising rapidly. Once the water reached half a meter deep, the water level had started to rise much more slowly. System didn't know the exact reason for the change.

  In the past half month, neither the ratmen nor the druid had appeared again. Even ordinary rats hadn't shown up anywhere near the nest.

  The entrance to System's nest looked like an isoted isnd out in the middle of a huge ke. With the exception of the occasional slime or fish, the ke seemed to be completely empty. Everything appeared to have calmed down.

  The bck clouds in the sky were gradually becoming lighter. System estimated that the rainy season would end in a few days.

  He had originally thought the rain wouldn't cause any problems for the underground nest, but it seemed like he'd miscalcuted.

  Because Excavator had reinforced the nest's outer walls, no rainwater had seeped into the nest from above. However, System had only paid attention to the rain above the ground, while he'd completely ignored the increased amount of groundwater that would result from so much rain.

  By the time he realized his mistake, the situation was already out of his control. Over the past few days, the bottom five meters of the nest had been totally flooded with groundwater.

  The chamber Aura lived in was in the newly flooded section of the nest. For this reason, Aura had been sending System disdainful mental messages every time he'd seen him in recent days.

  However, the butterfly had changed a lot compared to when he'd first broken out of his chrysalis. Although he was still very zy, he could at least communicate normally now.

  He also seemed to get along especially well with Bck. Although Aura always ordered the ant around, he also took good care of her.

  The two insects had gotten along very well in the past few days.

  Bck would often visit Aura's chamber to learn more about casting ice spells, and the two of them could also frequently be seen pying a game of gobang.

  In addition to his hobby of collecting treasures, Aura also seemed to greatly enjoy pying gobang. Every time he pyed the game, the butterfly would use his powers to create an exquisite game board made of ice crystals with equally beautiful icy blue game pieces.

  While Aura lost more games than he won against Bck, his record against the ant was still much better than System's.

  Whenever the deformed butterfly tried to provoke System into pying a game of gobang, System immediately refused. Losing constantly against one opponent was already bad enough.

  System had to admit that whenever Aura actually used his brain, the butterfly was definitely smarter than him.

  ...

  "King, can...can I trouble you with something?"

  System, who was conducting research in the nest as usual, this time about possibly using luminescent mushrooms to cultivate luminescent slimes, heard Bck make another request.

  Bck didn't need to say much about the content of her request. Based on the ant's somewhat embarrassed mood, System already had a good idea what she was going to ask.

  "Go ahead."

  System put down the slime he was holding. It was easy to cultivate luminescent mushrooms, especially with the knowledge from the pgue cultivation methods that he'd obtained from the ratman wizard. System had been greatly inspired to cultivate mushrooms, and the cultivation process kept getting faster and faster.

  The only problem was that using luminescent mushrooms to breed luminescent slimes had proven to be extremely difficult, so System hadn't yet made any progress with his research.

  Seeing that System had stopped what he was doing, Bck sent him a very weak mental message.

  "Can you fix Aura's wings?"

  After he put a small piece of slime into one of the ratman wizard's bottles and plugged the lid, System asked, "Did he tell you to ask me that?"

  "Yes, and he also told me not to tell you that he did." Bck, looking very embarrassed, sent System another weak message.

  'This is the fifth time...'

  'No...the sixth time.'

  System shook his head gently and led the way to the chamber where Aura was currently staying. Bck followed along behind him.

  In the past half month, Bck had made many requests for System to use his [Insect Ability Activation] skill to activate Aura's [Limb Regeneration] ability so that the butterfly would finally be able to fly.

  System hadn't refused, and he attempted to repair Aura's wings every time Bck asked him to.

  It wasn't that System's ability was ineffective. He only needed to activate Aura's [Limb Regeneration] ability, so it should have been a quick and easy fix.

  Instead, every time System visited Aura to restore his wings, the deformed butterfly solemnly refused. In Aura's words, it was good that his wings had turned out like this.

  Since Aura kept saying the same thing every time, System had no reason to insist. Each time he heard Aura refuse, he would simply turn around and leave.

  But every time he left, Aura would find Bck privately and get the ant to ask System to come back and repair his wings.

  It would be fine if this had happened once or twice, and it would be a bit annoying if it had happened three times, but now it had happened five times!

  No, six times!

  According to Bck's words, Aura seemed to want System to beg the butterfly to let him repair his deformed wings.

  But something so ridiculous would never happen.

  It was obvious that System was trying to help with good intentions, but now he had to beg just to be able to help?

  There was no way that he was going to do that.

  ...

  "My wings are fine, so you don't need to repair them." When he saw System arrive, Aura directly tried to get him to leave.

  In the past, System would have turned around and left. However, this time, he surprisingly didn't leave.

  System sensed some excitement and expectation in Aura's mental message. His mandibles opened slightly, revealing a smile.

  "No, I'm not here to repair your wings. I just want to py a movie for you. Are you familiar with movies?"

  "Movies? What are those?"

  System patiently expined, "You can understand it as a short py, a drama, just like the mental images I once sent you."

  "What are you talking about?"

  The butterfly's mental message was full of confusion, but System ignored him and sent another mental message.

  "The name of the movie I'm going to show you is 'Funny Butterfly.' It's ten minutes and forty seconds long, and it tells the story of a butterfly. It's very funny."