Chapter 36: King And Knight (1)
Editor: Atlas Studios
After feeling the change in his bloodline, System ate like crazy to prevent any possible overconsumption during his molting.
System instructed Foolish, who could potentially betray him, to leave him alone. Then he prepared plenty of food near the ant larvae in the temporary nest.
System continued to secrete enough [Corrosive Slime] near the nest entrance, in case any ants attacked him when he was in the weakest stage.
Once System took care of everything, he began his third molting in an empty chamber of his temporary nest.
…
He thought his third molting would go as smoothly as the previous two, but things didn't go as he had imagined.
Like his previous two moltings, he followed the rhythm of his bloodline and slowly absorbed his exoskeleton's essence, leaving behind the dross' outermost layer.
According to his previous experience, System would only need to leave the molting process to his body's instinct at this point in time. His insect body would naturally complete molting with his instincts inherited from the bloodline.
However, this time was different.
The blood in his body was still pumping, urging him to start molting, but his instincts showed no response as if there was no intention to molt.
It felt horrible, just like when one's body felt itchy, but they could not scratch.
[Molting Growth Mode] in [Self-Information Generation] also did not appear as before.
His outer shell had softened. System couldn't stop this molting, but he did not know how to make it continue.
Something seemed to be missing for his molting.
System recalled the images Quin had sent him before she died, but the images about her third molting were blurry. In those images, Quin had seemed to be in a semi-comatose state, far less conscious than he was now.
System now realized that he had taken his third molting too lightly.
He had only been pursuing the third molting and wanted to extend his lifespan. However, he had overlooked the fact that a normal grasshopper would only molt twice to become an adult grasshopper. It was very rare for an adult grasshopper to molt a third time.
Hence, it was very likely that he had no instincts inherited to complete the third molting from his grasshopper bloodline due to the rarity of this event.
In other words, he would not be able to refer to anyone's experiences because every grasshopper's third molting was unique.
System wondered if his guess was correct.
When trying to control his blood and flesh, System realized he could not even get his limbs and antennae to make the slightest flicker.
The blood in his body was churning and intensifying over time, like slightly boiled water.
System felt as if his blood vessels were slightly inflated, and his blood seemed to be bubbled up like boiling water.
'Am I going to explode? It would be funny if I just blow myself up and die like this…' thought System as he tried to enjoy it in adversity.
After half an hour, System's boiling blood had caused his veins to expand to an incredible size.
Thud—
Thud—
System did not explode to death, after all. The blood vessels in his body had several cracks as they were expanded, gushing out white gas like a pressure cooker. As a result, some of his white blood splashed out.
Maybe it was because of the motion of this gas gushing out, or the fishy smell from the blood he spat out, that several ant larvae in his temporary nest slowly squirmed over.
The ant larvae were similar in shape to the butterfly larvae that could turn into a chrysalis. Their bodies were creamy white, like reptiles. But compared to butterfly larvae, they did not even have legs, except for having a head.
Apart from being able to wriggle their bodies, they had to rely on worker ants in order to move.
It had to be said that it was a miracle the ant larvae were able to squirm their bodies and crawl to System.
System used [Spirit Connection] on them, and soon, emotions of worry were transmitted to him. He then tried to calm the ant larvae down with [Mind Transmission].
Soon, the ant larvae wiggled their bodies and slowly leaned against System, as if this would comfort them.
…
Three hours had passed, and the blood in System's body was still boiling and churning.
The food he had swallowed crazily into his abdomen earlier had been quickly digested and absorbed due to the loss of blood, and now he felt a bit hungry.
System did not know how much longer he could endure this, and he would die from running out of energy if his molting still could not start.
There was still no significant progress for his third molting. System felt as if he could molt now, but he was missing something. He was unable to tell what it was.
In the past few hours, eleven ant larvae had gathered around him. They were clinging to him and rubbing against his softened body affectionately from time to time.
System was not sure if this molting would be successful or not, but if he failed and died…
Before he died, System would perhaps tell the ant larvae to eat his body like the Quin had done…
At the moment when System had this thought, he felt an unusual vibration coming from above his temporary nest's passage.
It seemed that something was digging into this underground tunnel, and its movement was loud.
System felt the ant larvae around him tremble slightly. Evidently, they had also sensed the strange visitor that had trespassed into the underground tunnel.
Then System heard a squeaking sound.
Apparently, the intruder was a mouse, and it should have been attracted by the fishy gas gushing out during his molting…
The [Fishy Slime] he had put at the entrance could stop ants, but not mice.
The digging movement of the mouse sounded nearer…
System felt that he was doomed unless his third molting could be completed in ten minutes. He might be able to escape after that.
But even his first and second molting had not been completed in such a short period, not to mention that his third molting had yet to start.
"Am I going to die like this? Even these ant larvae will have to die…"
Due to molting, System's body could not move, and even the mucus in his throat's glands could not be secreted.
The only thing he could use was his spiritual power [Mind Transmission], but its level was too low and could only be used against insects and plants.
System had no way to fight back, so he could only wait for his death in silence.
A few minutes later, under the fluorescent mushrooms' faint light, System saw the mouse's pale green glowing eyes.
It was dark grey and about 15 centimeters in size.
The ant larvae wriggled their clumsy bodies to the front of System, as they could not let the mouse harm their queen.
The mouse scratched the dirt with its claws and then rubbed its cheek. It slowly began to move as if System was a turtle in a jar.
System remembered a scene from many days ago when he had blocked the cricket in the tree hole, just like how this mouse was blocking him.
The cricket had no courage to fight him to the death, but he had no power to fight with the mouse…
At that moment, the mouse suddenly screamed. It seemed to feel pain and sprang to its feet, rolling twice in the cave.
System saw a figure—it was the soldier ant, Foolish!
-- Gift
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