Anguish

System gently shook his insect head. Finding that old druid was clearly unrealistic.

Even if the old druid truly had the ability to extend his lifespan and was genuinely willing to help him, searching for him in such a vast forest would be no easy task.

System might have seemed to experience a great deal these past few days, but the area he had actually moved through only spanned a hundred meters or so.

And what did one or two hundred meters amount to in a forest?

Spending vast amounts of time and staking everything on finding that old druid was clearly difficult. Besides, the old druid might have already left this forest.

Unable to think of any better solution, System finally turned his thoughts to his talent, Metamorphic Growth.

He still had one slim chance at life: undergoing his third metamorphosis.

His second metamorphosis had turned him into an adult grasshopper. The third would surely bring even greater changes to his body.

And there was also that mysterious voice from the world during metamorphosis. It would surely have some special effect on him.

Even if the third metamorphosis and that voice from the other world could not extend his lifespan, they could still increase his strength.

Even if he still had no solution by then, improved physical capabilities would let him search for that old druid more quickly and efficiently.

Having thought it all through, System's expression became resolute. His immediate goal was to complete his third metamorphosis as fast as possible, leaving himself more time among his scant remaining lifespan to make choices.

As for the urge to mate with female grasshoppers, which had made him so irritable before, System found that he could now suppress it with ease.

After all, one mating session would leave him with only three days to live. The terror of standing between life and death had multiplied System's willpower against mating countless times over.

System rapidly hopped toward the tree covered in pupae.

Several days had passed, yet these lepidopteran pupae remained just as they had been before. Not a single one had emerged as a butterfly and become an empty shell.

It was now late summer, early autumn. He had no idea whether these pupae were waiting until next spring to emerge, or whether they would turn into butterflies in the coming days, then mate and lay eggs for the eggs to overwinter before hatching.

When he had first come here, these six-centimeter pupae had been far larger than his body. Now, System was slightly larger than they were.

System did not stand on ceremony. He directly began tearing into the pupae with his dark brown mandibles.

After his second metamorphosis, both the hardness and biting force of System's mandibles were two or three times greater than they had been in his larval stage.

Yet after biting down, System discovered that even so, he still could not break open the pupae's tough shells. He only left faint scratches on their surfaces. These pupae seemed even tougher than bark.

System recalled eating silkworm pupae in his previous life. The shells of fried pupae were extremely hard; even human teeth found them difficult to crush. And if the heat had not been right when cooking them, their shells became even harder to eat.

The hardness of these pupal shells appeared to be not much different from the silkworm pupae he had eaten in his previous life.

Threatened by System's biting, the pupa clearly sensed danger and began to wriggle faintly.

Seeing this, System stopped testing his mandibles and directly employed the biochemical weapon he had gained after metamorphosing into an adult.

[Corrosive Mucus] activated!

Corrosive fluid secreted from special glands in System's throat, running down his mandibles and dripping onto the pupa.

This corrosive mucus was highly destructive, but System had only just mastered it and was still unfamiliar with it. He could only secrete a small amount at a time, and it could not kill an enemy in a single blow like spider or scorpion venom.

But against a pupa with astonishing defenses that could not evade, this mucus was simply the most perfect weapon.

The dark brown mucus and the brownish shell of the pupa triggered a wondrous chemical reaction. After a dozen seconds or so, the shell gradually turned grayish white.

System's mandibles thrust in at just the right moment. White slurry flowed out, and the pupa convulsed violently. System, meanwhile, tasted its exquisite flavor—a rich sweetness like hot chocolate.

System's mandibles secreted corrosive mucus again, widening the opening in the pupa further before he accelerated his feeding.

Softer than the molting dragonfly nymph he had eaten several days ago, nearly ninety percent of the lepidopteran larva inside the pupa was sticky liquid. Rather than being eaten by System, it would be more accurate to say it was gradually drunk by him.

Whatever structure the lepidopteran larva inside had, its vitality was remarkably tenacious. Even after System had drunk a third of it, it still twitched faintly. Only after he had swallowed half did it finally become completely motionless.

These pupae were extremely nutritious. If System had not yet become an adult grasshopper, perhaps eating only two would have been enough for him to level up.

But after becoming an adult, System discovered that his experience bar rose extremely slowly. He estimated he would need to eat twelve to reach Level 9—fully six times as much as during his larval stage.

Fortunately, when System metamorphosed into an adult, he gained [Corrosive Mucus]. This fluid could not only be secreted into his mouth, but into his stomach as well, accelerating digestion.

With [Corrosive Mucus], his digestive ability had increased by half. System estimated that he could successfully digest two pupae before nightfall.

And after dark, System, who had always cowardly avoided danger, decided to continue devouring these pupae.

The forest might be more dangerous at night, but he did not have much lifespan left. If he did not take a gamble now, he would have no chance two months later.

There were still forty-two pupae left here.

Subtracting the necessary time for rest, System should be able to eat three and a half pupae each day and night, reaching Level 9 within four days.

After reaching Level 9, his stomach capacity and digestion speed would further improve. Eating five insect eggs a day should not be a problem.

Because the experience required rose in tiers, going from Level 8 to Level 9 required twelve pupae. System deduced that going from Level 9 to Level 10 would require around twenty-five pupae. These forty-two pupae should only be enough to bring him slightly past Level 10.

By his calculations, he could eat all these pupae in ten days, then raise his level to 10.

A thoughtful look appeared on System's insect head. He opened the light screen of [Self-Information Generation] and looked at his level—8/15.

Fifteen was his level cap, representing the limit that the species known as Green-tailed Grasshopper could reach, while eight represented his current level.

He had sixty-three days of life remaining. After making a more detailed calculation, the expression on System's insect head gradually darkened.

Suppose he had an abundant supply of nutritious pupae, could keep eating without stopping, and excluded every dangerous or unfavorable circumstance.

It would take 3.5 days to reach level 9, and a little over 5 days to reach level 10. After that, leveling would only grow slower and slower. At this rate, each level-up would take roughly half again as long as the last.

That made it possible to roughly estimate the time needed to go from level 9 to level 15.

3.5 days, 5 days, 7.5 days, 11.5 days, 17 days, 25 days, 37 days—a total of 106 days.

Even with ample food, even if he made sure that every day was spent doing nothing but eating, resting, and digesting, it would still take him 106 days to reach level 15.

By then, he would have been dead for over a month.

If his Molting Growth reached its maximum level, the inherited knowledge in his bloodline told him that he needed to be level 14 or 15 to undergo his third molt.

Unless a miracle happened, he would be unable to meet the conditions for his third molt even in death.

The antennae atop System's head swayed ceaselessly as he sank into thought once more.

His top priority was still to raise Molting Growth to level 13 as quickly as possible. Only then could he learn the specific details of the third molt.

System had already noticed, in the vague information emerging from his bloodline, how to rapidly raise Molting Growth: eat as many different kinds of insects or other creatures capable of molting or pupating as possible.

While eating the insect pupae, System came to a new decision after some thought. After eating two pupae, he would stop eating this sort of food for the time being and turn instead to hunting other small insects.

Only by consuming a wide variety of food could he raise Molting Growth to level 13 as quickly as possible and learn sooner what level was required for the third molt.

If the level required for the third molt was too high for him to achieve, he could at least make other preparations early.