Kapitel 5: First Molting (1)
Redakteur: Atlas Studios
[Limb Regeneration]'s healing ability was extremely effective. As System continued devouring the eggs, the scorching pain in his foreleg from the ant's acid was gradually reducing. In less than 20 minutes, his severed foreleg had stopped bleeding and had congealed into an off-white scab.
With [Limb Regeneration], System did not worry that he would become a limp grasshopper. What he was really worried about was that his severed limb's healing speed was too slow.
If the severed limb did not heal as fast as possible, the scent of blood from his injury would undoubtedly attract countless insect hunters and put him in a dangerous position.
Upon seeing that his injury had clotted into a scab, System was relieved and concentrated on eating the eggs while constantly on guard, observing the surroundings.
…
In the end, the dark red ant that System had kicked away did not return. It was unknown if it had forgotten the way there or was carrying System's limb back to the ant nest, completing its task of looking for food.
After eating almost 20 eggs consecutively, System's body increased to 1.2cm, and once again, he leveled up.
His body increased from 1.2cm to 1.6cm, while his exoskeleton and mandibles became much sturdier.
However, as compared to the huge change in his physical body, the increase in his blood strength was not as obvious as when he had raised his level from 3 to 4.
[Insect Adaptability] (8/21) → [Insect Adaptability] (9/21)
System's [Insect Adaptability] may have been the only one that increased, but he also obtained another Derived Skill [Acid Resistance]. It should be related to the acid released by the ant when it was bitting him.
…
[Acid Resistance] (1/4): A derived ability obtained from [Insect Adaptability]. Passive ability. One would have a certain resistance to acidic substances.
…
As for the talent [Molting Growth], which System was most concerned about, there were no changes at all. System could only feel that his bloodline had become a little thicker and denser—the increase was far from his previous level-up.
After leveling up these few times, System had some speculations about the growth pattern of his body.
His derived skills were basically obtained from the talent [Insect Adaptability]. Besides the [Green Camouflage], [Limb Regeneration], and [Insect Instinct] that he originally had, he had obtained [Dark Vision] and [Acid Resistance] in the recent two level-ups.
The former was because he had gazed at the dim scenery between the gaps of the dead leaf for a night before he had leveled up, while the latter was due to the ant's acid that corroded his leg before he had leveled up.
Evidently, the derived skills obtained through [Insect Adaptability] were related to his experience before he leveled up.
As for the way to leveling up [Molting Growth] and [Insect Adaptability], although System was uncertain, it should be related to the food he ate. As long as he ate food with more nutrients or a larger variety of food, there should be an obvious increase in those two abilities.
…
After a short period of thinking, System resumed devouring the fresh and delicious insect eggs due to the intense hunger from leveling up.
System grew bigger after raising his level, so his eating speed increased once again, and in just 10 minutes, he swallowed four to five eggs. According to this speed, he would finish eating all those eggs before nighttime arrived.
However, just as he was eating the eggs, System's hunger suddenly disappeared, and the strength of [Molting Growth] from his bloodline filled his whole body.
The blood in his body was restless—it was telling him it was time for the first molting!
System endured the urge to molt and tried his best to eat more eggs.
The feeling from his bloodline and information from [Self-Information Generation] were telling him that his body would enter a temporary weakened state. He would need to replenish a large amount of energy after molting. Therefore, his [Self-Information Generation] warned him to accumulate and store as much as possible food in his body to allow his molting to be more successful.
Molting was not better the faster it happened.
Unfortunately, System had no choice but to choose to leave.
The eggs' fishy smell had once again attracted carnivorous creatures, specifically two huge dark brown ants that were as big as 2.5cm.
If they were still that small dark red ant, System might consider battling them. However, he had no confidence in winning against those two huge ants. Thus, without any hesitation, System decided to jump away from the underside of the plant.
When facing weaker beings, System would bully them without hesitation, but when facing powerful enemies, he would escape without second thoughts.
System was more and more aware of the change in his personality. Although he retained his human rationality, his way of thinking was becoming closer to that of an insect.
He gently shook his insect head. System did not want to overthink, so he concentrated on preparing for his first molting.
…
A grasshopper was an insect but did not belong to the insects that would completely change in shape during their growing process. Grasshoppers would not experience the three stages of larva, pupa, and adult, such as butterflies, ants, flies, or dragonflies.
There was not much difference between the shape of grasshoppers after being hatched and after stepping into adulthood. They just needed to molt continuously in their growing process, which was shedding skin.
It was similar to snakes shedding skin, or scorpions and spiders shedding their exoskeleton. However, grasshoppers' body-change after shedding was in no way similar to the aforementioned animals. The reason? None of them could change their body structure and grow a pair of wings after shedding!
After System had awakened, he had been gradually recalling more memories of his previous life. Within them was a lot of knowledge about insects. It looked like he had done some research on insects in his previous life.
System seemed to have reared many cold-blooded and carnivorous insects, like praying mantises and katydids. His collection also included arthropods, like spiders and scorpions, amphibians, like frogs, and reptiles, like lizards.
In his memory, there seemed to be a dark brown tarantula, which was 10cm in size and could be up to 20cm if it extended its limbs. Due to his mistake, he had tried to feed it living crickets when the tarantula had been shedding. As a result, the crickets had bitten the tarantula to death.
In this world, insects' shedding process was similar to that of System's previous life—the insects' body after shedding would be soft and fragile.
Therefore, what System had to do now was to find a safe place to molt.
The instincts within his bloodline guided System to find a leaf and molt at the back of the leaf in the shade.
However, although doing so might save trouble, it was not safe enough.
After an hour, System finally found a tree that looked like a pine tree. There was a large and wide dead leaf stuck on one of the branches.
The area underneath that dead leaf was the molting place System was looking for.
The branch System had chosen was more than one meter from the ground, far away from the various different types of ants. Also, this tree was emitting a faint pungent scent that made System feel slightly uncomfortable. Thus, it had a weak effect of keeping insects away, making it the ideal molting place.
System swiftly crawled below the dead leaf and used his legs to grab onto the branch of the tree. Then he allowed his bloodline to guide him and started his first molting.
His entire exoskeleton turned soft and his body's flesh started to absorb the softened exoskeleton's essence. Shortly after, only a thin layer of dross was left in the most outer layer.
Underneath System's original exoskeleton, gradually, a larger exoskeleton was formed, and a numbing feeling came from his back. There seemed to be something growing out of his back.
The strength from his bloodline filled System's whole body, and he naturally obtained a new Derived Skill [Fishy Slime].
…
[Fishy Slime] (3/7): An ability obtained after a grasshopper molts for the first time. The grasshopper will be able to secrete a special stinky liquid to escape from predators.
…
A new organ was formed in System's mouth—it was a gland that could secrete a smelly mucus. Through secreting such a stinky mucus, the grasshopper could obtain the chance to escape from the hands of many predators.
However, as compared to the natural change of his body due to molting, System's attention was all concentrated within his blood—his bloodline seemed to have let out an inexplicable voice!
"Choose!"
-- Geschenk
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