"I don't know whether or not I should say you're lucky."

  System wrapped his tentacles around Shava's pupa. He quickly detected that she was only level 11, having not yet reached level 12 as was normal for a second pupation. Perhaps due to the increasingly cold weather threatening her survival, Shava had entered her second pupation ahead of schedule.

  However, it was clear that her second pupation wasn't entirely successful.

  Using his tentacles to further entangle Shava's pupa, System carefully sensed the [Pupation] ability in her body. He then began consuming his experience bar to strengthen it. He didn't know if doing this would have any effect, but there was a ninety percent chance of Shava dying if he did nothing.

  97%...93%...87%...71%...

  System's experience bar kept dropping, but there was no noticeable change in Shava's condition, nor had she returned to her senses. She was only vaguely responding to System's mental messages.

  Once System's experience bar dropped to around 50%, Shava's situation finally changed. The white juice that had frozen after oozing from her wound slowly began to melt.

  It seemed like, because frost energy had been attached to the experience that System had transmitted to her, her body was also beginning to absorb and master frost energy.

  An insect body in the state of [Pupation] was extremely prone to mutation. Perhaps it was due to this that Shava had acquired frost blood, becoming a creature with frost power like System.

  With the continuous infusion of experience, System discovered that the white juice oozing from the hole in Shava's pupa began squirming around like System's [Corrosive Mucus]. Soon, the pupa began slowly twitching.

  The white juice inside the pupa churned continuously, and soon expanded to fill the hole in the pupa's surface.

  The white juice sealing the hole quickly started solidifying, then gradually turned a dark brown color. It completely filled the hole, and the previously rough surface of the pupa became smooth.

  Shava's pupa began to repeatedly expand and contract as if it was breathing. The deformed pupa slowly transformed into an oval shape, eventually settling at a length of ten centimeters. The heartbeat inside the pupa slowly stabilized.

  By the time System's experience bar was down to 30%, the pupa was completely stable. It seemed like Shava would survive.

  However, her mind hadn't yet recovered, and she was still responding fuzzily to System's mental messages.

  ...

  After pcing the pupae of the two surviving ants together with Shava's, System began to deal with the many dead ants in the temporary nest. If they were ordinary ants, he could eat them without hesitation, or possibly keep them as food reserves, but he just couldn't treat the ants he'd raised himself the same way.

  He gathered all of the ant corpses in an empty chamber. After taking one final look at the ants inside, he destroyed the opening connecting the chamber with the main passageway. This chamber would forever remain buried in the depths of the temporary nest.

  Whether it was grasshoppers or ants, they could be regarded as successful in this world when it came to reproduction. Although they didn't have great individual strength, their excellent reproductive rate allowed them to adapt to a variety of environments.

  Even if they were relentlessly preyed upon, even if they were wiped out by natural disasters and magical forces, insects would still fight to survive.

  But no one would pay attention to a weak bug, and the death of a bug would not be remembered by anyone, not even by other bugs.

  System let out a sigh. He didn't want himself, Shava, and the two remaining ants to live like this.

  Perhaps he could...

  System shook his insect head and stopped thinking about it. He used his tentacles to compact the loose, colpsed soil, then went to one of the food storage chambers and started eating.

  Among the many foods System had eaten, the meat of some arthropods was his favorite. It was also more beneficial to his body than other kinds of meat. However, in this world of ice and snow, it would be very difficult for him to eat it again in the near future.

  He suddenly remembered that huge ke. Perhaps some crabs and shrimp were surviving beneath the ke's frozen surface...

  After eating until his abdomen bulged, System returned to the chamber housing the three pupae. With the pupae for company, he soon drifted into a dormant state.

  After a long day where he had constantly traveled, dug through snow with his tentacles, and enhanced Shava's [Pupation] ability, he was exhausted both mentally and physically.

  ...

  System remained asleep for a long time, resting for a full dozen hours. When he checked the time in the [Tools Menu], he found that it was already noon the next day.

  He shook his antennae and wriggled his body's many tentacles.

  Maybe it was because he'd slept for so long, or perhaps it was because returning to the temporary nest made him happy, but after more than ten hours of deep sleep, he felt very refreshed.

  In his dormant state, the tentacles on System's body had grown rapidly. Five tentacles had reached a length of thirty centimeters, and his three recently sprouted tentacles were now five centimeters long.

  He discovered that after more than ten hours of rest, wing buds had regrown on his back. They were already one-third of the way to becoming fully grown wings. He estimated that his wings would be fully restored in a few more days.

  ...

  While he was getting ready to start his day, System felt a strange, recurring fluctuation of frost energy in the distance. If this fluctuation hadn't caused a weak reaction in his body, he might have slept even longer.

  This unusual frost energy fluctuation was somewhat simir to the aura that Quin had released when she'd summoned the grasshoppers, only the summoned creatures this time were ones possessing frost power instead of grasshoppers.

  System's [Intuition] didn't make him feel uneasy, and it seemed that there would be no problems if he responded to the call by following this fluctuation to its source.

  Even though he didn't sense any danger, System didn't dare to act rashly. After all, the lesson he'd learned from the old druid's trap was still very fresh in his mind.

  After some consideration, he activated his [Frost Form], after which the icy blue halo reappeared above his head.

  When it came to understanding frost energy, Nellis was undoubtedly more knowledgeable than System. However, when he asked Nellis, she didn't give him a clear answer.

  According to her, while most summoning fluctuations weren't dangerous, some ice and snow creatures used them as a means to attract other ice and snow creatures so that they could eat them to improve their strength or recover from injuries.

  System nodded after hearing Nellis' description. It seemed like the ice and snow world wasn't much different from the ordinary natural world. It was equally dangerous and filled with many unknown threats.

  He sensed the growing wings on his back. Once his wings were fully grown, maybe he could hide in the clouds while observing from a distance in order to find out what was sending out the frost energy fluctuations.

  However, System immediately thought of the culprit that had caused him to become a tentacle monster in the first pce—the Lord of Gciers.

  In this world filled with countless supernatural powers, even watching from a distance might not be completely safe.

  Shaking his head helplessly, System deactivated his [Frost Form], then inspected the three surviving pupae using his tentacles.

  Shava seemed to have entered an even deeper state of slumber during the past ten hours. System no longer received a response to any mental messages he sent. However, he had a vague premonition that after Shava woke up this time, she'd emerge from her pupa and regain her previous mental state.

  As for the remaining female and worker pupae, they were still the same as before. When System's tentacles touched the pupae, both ants felt intimacy toward him.

  In addition to intimacy, the ants also conveyed the feeling that they were cold. Even the [Cold Resistance] ability seemed to have a certain limit.

  The day's temperature was still too cold. System estimated that even those chrysalides that could usually survive through winter couldn't resist such an extreme cold.

  He didn't think too much about it. He stretched out more of his tentacles to wrap around the young ants' pupae, having decided to strengthen their [Cold Resistance] ability.

  Perhaps after frequent enhancement, these two ants could move freely even in freezing weather.