Shava hadn't changed much during System's long pupation. The only differences that he could see were that her body had grown taller, almost reaching sixty centimeters, and her exoskeleton seemed to have become stronger.

  "It has been a long time..."

  Shava's personality was still very straightforward, and her mental message contained emotions of longing and joy.

  She seemed to suddenly think of something and started digging in the soil with the bdes on her forelimbs. Soon, she plucked a translucent gem the size of a baby's fist out of the ground.

  This gem was much rger and more beautiful than the small crystal that System had once given to Shava.

  As if to show off her treasure, Shava handed the gem to System.

  "Were you waiting here for me to finish my transformation just to show me this?" System took the gem and sighed helplessly.

  After sighing, his face showed a shocked expression, and he stretched out a tentacle to touch his throat. A moment earlier, when he sighed, he actually felt air gushing out of his mouth!

  There were still tiny air holes for breathing in the gaps between his abdominal scales, but his throat also had a breathing channel now.

  "Well...this gem is so beautiful, I want to give it to you."

  Shava's mental message interrupted System's thoughts about the new breathing channel in his throat.

  It turned out that Shava wasn't actually trying to show off her gem, and she was instead giving it to him as a gift.

  'Why would I want this gem...?'

  System initially pnned to return the gem to Shava, but after seeing her expectant expression, he changed his mind and said, "This gem is very beautiful. I really like it."

  When she heard System's mental message, Shava was obviously very happy.

  "How long have you been waiting for me here?"

  System saw dense ssh marks on the mud walls inside the chamber. These marks were both new and old, indicating that Shava had been here for a long time.

  However, he'd obviously overestimated Shava. It had been at least a year since he'd st seen her, but her math skills hadn't improved at all.

  His question had obviously stumped her completely. She started counted using the six legs on her body, but even that was going very slow.

  Not only had Shava's math ability not improved, it had actually regressed.

  ...

  Ignoring the still-counting Shava, System quietly waited for his exoskeleton, which hadn't yet completely solidified after his pupation, to harden. He also inspected his throat that he was now capable of breathing with.

  In addition to breathing, System found that his throat could also make a number of hoarse-sounding noises.

  Perhaps because of their subconscious desires, some members of the ant knights, like Shava, had changed their forms during their second pupations and acquired bodies that looked like centaurs.

  The same was true for System. Because of his subconscious desires, he'd gained the Derived Skill [Slime-Body Transformation] during this pupation, and he seemed to have also gained the ability to speak.

  Although System didn't like how his tentacled body looked, his subconscious mind was apparently perfectly fine with it. Therefore, his body didn't change much during his pupation, and he'd even sprouted more tentacles.

  While he waited for the exoskeleton covering his body to solidify and become smooth, System opened his [Tools Menu] and checked [My Information].

  ...

  Race: Unknown insectTitle: [Exotic Insect], [Insect Lord]Name: System

  Rank: MagicLevel: 15/120Lifespan: 99 years and 212 daysHealth: 80%EXP: 51%Special Energy: 79%

  Special Talents: [Digital Code] (10/10), [Pupation] (17/19), [Insect Adaptability] (17/23), [Data Bank] (8/10), [Mental Transmission] (11/23), [Data Compition] (7/10), [Perception] (18/27), [Frost Form] (11/25), [Super-Speed Regeneration] (16/21), [Morph] (17/17), [Datafication] (9/10).

  Abnormal States: [Severance Curse] (12/12).

  Derived Skills: Omitted.

  Estimated Combat Power: 81

  ...

  Simir to what happened during his third metamorphosis, System's various abilities had been improved to varying degrees.

  Out of all of his talents, only [Frost Form] hadn't changed, and it still couldn't be activated. There were also no signs of movement from the ice spirit, Nellis, and she hadn't yet woken up from her deep sleep.

  After this pupation, System's level cap had risen to 120, and his lifespan had increased to nearly a hundred years, so he didn't have to worry about his lifespan in the short term.

  However, while browsing his information, he unexpectedly discovered something that made him angry—[Severance Curse].

  This vicious curse had actually been strengthened during his pupation, rising from level 11 to level 12!

  Not much had changed with the strengthened curse, but it still made System feel a bit depressed.

  It wasn't just the loss of his ability to mate.

  Before, when his lifespan had been short, his feelings about the loss of his lifespan weren't as strong. But now that his lifespan had reached one hundred years, losing one day of lifespan for every three days he lived would ssh his lifespan of nearly a hundred years down to seventy-five years.

  If this [Severance Curse] wasn't removed, his lifespan would be reduced by a full twenty-five years!

  Twenty-five years may only be about one-third of a human's lifespan, but for a grasshopper, it represents dozens of reincarnations.

  System made a decision that he would do everything he could to remove this curse as soon as possible.

  ...

  A few minutes ter, his body finally finished the solidification process.

  After he interrupted Shava, who was still counting, the two of them left the chamber and started moving up to the top of the nest.

  Shava may not be able to calcute how long his pupation had sted, but Bck had to be very clear about it.

  The walls of the passage were now wider and more solid than he remembered them being. It looked like Excavator had upgraded the passage while System had been pupating.

  After moving upward along the passage for about thirty meters, System saw a huge spherical space with a diameter of nearly ten meters. There were more than a dozen entrances and exits leading off in different directions. These paths were connected together by some cleverly-designed spiraling dirt stairs.

  It seemed like Excavator hadn't stopped working during this period, and the underground nest had obviously already taken shape.

  However, while the scale of the nest had clearly grown, System didn't see any of his ant subjects. It was obvious that Queen Linda had followed Bck's instructions and didn't give birth to any new ant subjects.

  After the pair followed the stairs and passages that Shava selected, System finally saw another ant subject of his, Little Strong, the soldier ant knight who had the [Strong Body] talent.

  After growing up during this period, Little Strong was now taller than Shava, and his height had reached a massive ninety centimeters.

  When he saw System, Little Strong ran over excitedly, and System also rubbed Little Strong's head with a tentacle as usual.

  As System gradually moved upward, he encountered more and more of his ant subjects. Several worker ant knights appeared one after another, and System also finally found Bck.

  Compared to the growth of the other ant knights, Bck's body hadn't changed much. It still looked almost the same as before Bck's second pupation.

  However, System could feel that the frost energy in Bck's body seemed to be several times stronger than before.

  System soon learned from Bck's mental messages that his pupation had sted for a full year and a half, and that the Warren Pins was already deep into the next winter season.

  In the following conversation, System also found out some bad news. Except for a single soldier ant, all of his other ant subjects who hadn't undergone their second pupations had died due to their lifespans running out.