Because of the blue light column, the bird's body seemed to have turned into an ice sculpture. System also found a thin yer of ice crystals on its feathers.

  However, this yer of ice crystals didn't have any effect on System's tentacles.

  He released his tentacles that were wrapped around the bird's body and carefully looked at the icy blue light ball in the sky.

  It was hovering motionlessly about two meters above his head. The cold wind in the forest didn't seem to have any effect on it.

  System, on guard against the light ball, watched it carefully for more than ten seconds, but all it did was float in the air.

  However, when System moved his body, the light ball moved with him. It maintained a distance of two meters above his body, not one centimeter more or less.

  'What is this thing?'

  System tried to communicate with the light ball using [Mental Transmission], but found that it didn't react at all.

  He rolled up a few snowballs with his tentacles and threw them at the light ball floating in the sky. The snowballs passed straight through it with no effect.

  System felt that the light ball seemed to be watching him, but there was nothing he could do about it.

  After staring at the blue light ball floating above his head for a while and seeing that it still had no reaction, System gave up and moved back to the bck bird's body to start eating. He was too hungry to wait any longer.

  The ice crystals covering the bck bird's body were very hard. He could only try to chew through them with his mandibles using his greatest strength.

  However, he soon found a better way. Because of his [Frost Breath], not only did his blood have the power to resist cold, his saliva could do it as well.

  When his saliva came into contact with the ice crystals surrounding the bird, although it didn't raise the temperature of the ice crystals, it softened them and gradually caused them to melt.

  As soon as he made it through the ice, System greedily bit into the bird's body.

  As his abdomen swelled and his hunger slowly subsided, System began to feel more and more uncomfortable. His feeling that the blue light ball above his head was staring at him became stronger and stronger.

  Being stared at by an unknown thing while eating was incredibly annoying.

  Using his tentacles, System climbed back up the tree next to him, and he was soon rapidly swinging his way through the snowy forest again.

  Out of nowhere, he suddenly dropped down to the ground from a branch. He quickly tried to use his tentacles to bury himself in the snow, but after trying for a while, he finally gave up.

  He seemed to truly have no talent for digging. Even after digging in the loose snow for a few minutes, he was unable to completely bury his body.

  In the end, his pn to get rid of the light ball failed.

  "Just tell me what you want!"

  System used [Mental Transmission] again to send a mental message to the light ball, but just like before, it didn't respond.

  His [Mental Transmission]'s talent level was still too low, and he couldn't communicate with the other party at all.

  System had no choice but to give up in the end. It seemed like he couldn't get rid of this thing for now.

  Although he was very uncomfortable with this ball of light floating above his head, at least it didn't seem like it was pnning to harm him, since his [Intuition] didn't warn him of any danger.

  After returning to the bird's body, System continued eating.

  After two hours, his abdomen was finally full again, and System's lost health gradually recovered from 30% to 70% before stabilizing.

  After his health reached 70%, the digestion of food no longer increased his health. The energy generated by digesting food was instead converted into experience and stored inside his body.

  He knew that the current limit of his health was about 70%, 73% at most. The remaining 30% of his health would only come back after his disabled body had fully recovered.

  After stuffing himself with bird meat until his stomach was so full that he could no longer eat, System tore the remaining flesh and blood from the bck bird with his mandibles.

  It was obviously impossible for him to drag away the whole corpse in his current condition, but he could take away part of it, at least. He believed that Shava and his ant subjects would enjoy eating bird meat.

  Half an hour ter, System used several of his tentacles to wrap up about two hundred grams of bird meat and continued his journey home.

  While using his tentacles to shuttle between the branches, he found that carrying the bundle of bird meat barely affected his speed. He estimated that he could return to his temporary nest before dark.

  He felt awkward at first about the blue light ball floating above his head, but after it followed him for several hours, he eventually got used to it.

  ...

  After moving through the forest for dozens of minutes, System discovered another set of small animal footprints.

  After following the footprints, he actually found a small animal this time. It was a light brown creature approximately fifteen centimeters long, and it was gnawing on a tall pnt stem that hadn't been completely buried beneath the snow.

  This creature looked strange, with much shorter ears and a longer tail than ordinary rabbits. It looked a little like a mouse, but more like a rabbit.

  System was already carrying a full load of food with his tentacles, so he didn't need to waste any energy trying to capture the animal.

  However, he could still use it as a test subject.

  System activated the newly formed gnds in his throat, and a cold breath gradually formed and gathered inside of the gnds.

  Soon, a cold, blue gas sprayed out of his mouth.

  He found that by gathering the cold breath in the gnds, the intensity of the breath could be significantly increased. It also wouldn't consume any extra energy and could still be used three times in a row.

  System's movements were very concealed, and his [Frost Breath] wasn't discovered by the short-eared rabbit at all.

  However, when System's long-pnned breath was only halfway to the target, it was stopped by an uninvited guest—the blue light ball that had been completely unresponsive until now.

  The blue light ball absorbed all of System's [Frost Breath].

  As the light ball absorbed his breath, System's [Mental Transmission], which hadn't worked at all on the light ball previously, suddenly had a slight effect.

  System felt a strange emotion from the light ball, as if it wanted to get close to him.

  He gathered the frost energy in his throat again, and [Frost Breath] erupted once more.

  ...

  Ding! The level of [Mental Transmission] has increased.

  ...

  Accompanied by a notification from the [Tools Menu], System felt the blue light ball transmit a strange spiritual power to him, and his [Mental Transmission] talent leveled up to 9.

  He could now clearly sense emotions from the light ball that were very friendly to him.

  The light ball slowly floated toward System.

  A moment ter, the icy blue light ball changed its shape and shrank a little, turning into an icy blue ring hovering around System's head.

  "A frost headband? Is this a binding curse on me?"

  System muttered to himself, but found that the frosty ring didn't stay on his head for long. It soon rose a bit until it hovered about five centimeters above him.

  It floated above his head like a halo of light.