The giant frost goblins had seen Shava two months earlier when she'd first visited the vilge. Although she'd grown several times rger since then, the frost goblins still seemed to remember her.

  A female goblin who was also practicing swinging her axe walked over to Shava and handed her a turquoise fruit. This icy fruit was actually the raw material that the giant goblins had used to make the wine that they'd brought back from the Lilt Mountains.

  The st time System had brought Shava to the goblin vilge, it was this female goblin who had taught Shava how to use her frost power.

  After Shava had returned to the nest, she'd practiced by following the method taught to her by the female goblin. A few days ter, she'd successfully managed to stimute the frost power in her blood, sending out a fierce ssh of frost energy.

  After months of practice, Shava could now send out a two-meter-long ssh of frost energy. However, because the frost blood in her body was extremely thin, the power level of her new [Frost Ssh] ability wasn't very high. She could only ssh out two or three times before needing to restore her energy.

  For now, System estimated that her [Frost Ssh] could only deal with the blue butterflies that they saw flying in the sky from time to time. It might also be effective against small birds, but there had been fewer birds in the forest tely due to the cold, so there hadn't been any opportunities for Shava to practice her ssh on them.

  ...

  Previously, System had given his nameless goblin friend a nickname—Big Fellow. He'd initially only used the nickname casually, but ter, he'd noticed that the giant goblin really seemed to like it.

  Now that he'd met them several times, System found that under their ugly and terrifying appearances, these giant frost goblins actually had very kind and innocent personalities.

  System also more or less learned about the entanglement between the goblin vilge and the gnolls that had sted for more than two hundred years.

  In fact, System wasn't sure whether their conflict had truly sted for that amount of time. After all, the goblins had no written nguage, and they also didn't have much of a sense of time.

  That two hundred year period was a rough estimate that System had made. In fact, there would be no real difference if he said the conflict had sted for two hundred and fifty years.

  Goblins and gnolls had actually lived together in Lilt Forest a few hundred years ago. They'd both been members of the Winter Legion who had followed the Lord of Gciers.

  At that time, the Giant Frost Goblin Tribe, Ice Cw Gnoll Tribe, and Gcier Troll Tribe were still very close allies. They fought many wars together against the Janna Tribe in the west of the Lilt Mountains, and it could be said that they had a life-and-death friendship.

  But things had changed when the Lord of Gciers had disappeared for an unknown reason three hundred years earlier.

  There had been no problems between the two tribes in the first few decades, but ter, when the powerful frost goblin king had died, the gnoll lord had left Lilt Forest with tens of thousands of gnoll warriors and hundreds of gcier trolls, settling in the Warren Pins to the south.

  There had been no hostility between the two tribes at that time. Although they'd no longer lived together in Lilt Forest like they'd used to, the goblins had still interacted with the gnolls every few months or so.

  However, things had gradually changed after the death of the gnoll lord.

  As time passed, the giant frost goblins and ice cw gnolls had both lost their frost power.

  The goblins had become thin and weak after losing their power, and their survival in Lilt Forest had become extremely difficult. Although the gnolls had also lost their frost power, their popution hadn't decreased. Instead, it had grown to more than one hundred thousand, all possessing a high level of physical fitness.

  It was unknown when the goblins and gnolls had broken off contact, or when the gnolls had no longer considered themselves members of the Winter Legion. Instead, they'd chosen to call themselves the masters of the Warren Pins and had established the Warren Alliance with the Pigmen Tribe.

  In recent decades, the new generation of gnolls had completely forgotten the former friendship between the Giant Frost Goblin Tribe and the Ice Cw Gnoll Tribe.

  The gnolls had invaded Lilt Forest several times to kill goblins or capture them as sves, resulting in the goblins' current situation. Where they'd once numbered nearly ten thousand, now only a few dozen remained.

  These stupid and stubborn goblins had been unwilling to leave the territory assigned to them by the Lord of Gciers even when facing death. Otherwise, if they'd abandoned their vilge and hid in the depths of Lilt Forest, they wouldn't have suffered such heavy casualties.

  ...

  With the return of the powerful Lord of Gciers, the gnolls' attitude had changed again. They'd decided to once more rely on the Lord of Gciers and had tried to rejoin the Winter Legion.

  This was why System viewed the goblins as being so kind and innocent. Even though they'd been treated so cruelly by the gnolls, the goblins had still asked the Lord of Gciers to accept the gnolls again.

  However, the Lord of Gciers had ftly rejected the gnolls' request and had ignored the giant frost goblins' plea.

  Aura didn't take the initiative to settle accounts with the gnolls, but any gnoll who tried to step into Lilt Forest would be instantly frozen into ice chips.

  From ordering the felling of every oak tree in Lilt Forest as vengeance against the old druid Medran to rejecting without hesitation the traitors who were begging for mercy, The Lord of Gciers had proved that he'd rather hold onto a grudge than forgive those who offended him.

  Although Aura had caused System to mutate and become a tentacle monster, System surprisingly didn't dislike the dragon. Instead, he had some inexplicable positive feelings for The Lord of Gciers.

  ...

  The giant frost goblin handed System the bag filled with frost flower seeds. System estimated there to be dozens of seeds inside.

  This peculiar pnt could grow directly in the snow without needing any soil and could also produce icy green vines covered in white flowers.

  This was a unique pnt that had originated in the Lilt Mountains. Although frost flowers could survive in any locations that were cold enough, they would only bear fruit when growing in the Lilt Mountains.

  There hadn't been any big pns in System's mind when he'd requested the frost flower seeds. First, he wanted to pnt the flowers and investigate their structure with his tentacles. Second, he really wanted to find out what the pnt tasted like.

  After helping the giant goblins twist a few more straw ropes and drinking a rge amount of mango-fvored alcohol, System and Shava headed back to their winter nest.

  Over the st half year, System's life in Lilt Forest had steadily grown more stable. However, when he'd reached level 14 and strengthened his [Perception] ability, his Derived Skill [Intuition] had also improved.

  Recently, System had frequently felt a sudden sense of unease. He had no idea why it was happening, and he also couldn't find any clues.

  Today, on the way back to the nest with Shava, System got that feeling again.

  "Is it telling me that the modification of my [Molting and Growth] talent into [Pupation] may fail?"

  Over the past six months, in addition to using [Ability Enhancement] and [Ability Activation] to strengthen his ant subjects, System had been preparing to obtain the [Pupation] talent.

  He felt that the amount of experience he could store might not be enough to transform [Molting and Growth] into [Pupation], so he'd steadily accumuted experience and increased his level by two, which had also increased the total amount of experience he could store.

  He'd felt that the [Perception] ability of his tentacles had also been a bit poor, so he'd strengthened it from level 11 to level 16. As a result, he'd grown twelve more tentacles, and some Derived Skills such as [System's Eye] and [Intuition] had also been strengthened.

  Everything was basically ready now; it was just a matter of implementing it. However, he kept feeling uneasy recently for no apparent reason.

  System knew that this uneasiness should have nothing to do with acquiring [Pupation] and was likely due to something else, but he couldn't find the source of the uneasiness no matter how hard he looked. This had caused System to start having wild thoughts recently.

  While resting a few days ago, System had dreamed an unusual dream. He'd dreamed that when he transformed [Molting and Growth] into [Pupation], not only did it fail, the resulting physical changes to his body were also strange and fwed. As a result, he could neither metamorphose a fourth time nor pupate.

  In the end, he lived in this snowy world for another three years, then died of old age...