Accompanied by a spsh of white blood, the head of the insect undergoing metamorphosis was easily bitten off by System's mandibles.

  When he saw the wrinkled wings on the insect corpse that hadn't yet stretched out after its metamorphosis, he finally realized the insect's species.

  This insect lived in the water during its rval stage and fed on mosquito rvae, tadpoles, and small fish. It was a ferocious aquatic insect that spent most of its life cycle under water. However, people were much more familiar with this insect's appearance after it underwent its final metamorphosis.

  It was a dragonfly.

  System had killed a dragonfly that was about to reach maturity.

  The dragonfly's exoskeleton had completely softened while it was undergoing metamorphosis, allowing System to easily chew and swallow it. This food rich in protein tasted like dense milk chocote.

  After taking only four or five bites of dragonfly meat, System's stomach already felt full.

  Feeling the fullness of his abdomen caused him to eat even faster. After enduring five days of hunger, he would rather overeat than be forced to endure hunger ever again.

  After two hours, he'd eaten and digested nearly a quarter of the dragonfly's body. His body suddenly felt sore and numb all over, a sign that he'd successfully reached level 7.

  His body increased from 3.4 to 4.1 centimeters in length, and the wing buds on his back were now halfway grown. He could even control his partially formed wings a bit, causing them to gently vibrate.

  During this level up, System's talents [Molting and Growth] and [Insect Adaptability] had been slightly enhanced, but their levels remained at 11. It seemed like his previous specution that an ability reaching level 11 moved it into a higher tier was correct.

  Because he'd spent many days cold and starving before leveling up, he once again gained a Derived Skill, [Hunger Resistant Physique].

  ...

  [Hunger Resistant Physique] (5/11): A Derived Skill obtained from [Insect Adaptability]. Allows the stomach to store more food, increases the efficiency of food digestion, and decreases the rate at which the body burns energy.

  ...

  In addition to his newly acquired [Hunger Resistant Physique], System's [Smelly Mucus] (3/7) was upgraded to [Smelly Mucus] (4/7). The pungent mucus he could secrete from his mouth now stunk even worse and had gained a weak corrosive effect.

  He also felt that his abdomen had become rger, perhaps because of [Hunger Resistant Physique]. This wasn't referring to how the size of his entire body had increased when he leveled up, but how his abdomen was now much rger in proportion to the rest of his body.

  He felt that the capacity of his stomach had increased by at least double, and it took a long time for him to start feeling full as he continued eating the dragonfly corpse.

  He even had the illusion that he could eat the entire corpse weighing two or three times as much as he did all at once, even if he didn't excrete during the process.

  A while ter, System discovered that this feeling was not entirely an illusion.

  After another ten minutes, during which time he'd eaten half of the remaining dragonfly corpse, his abdomen was swollen to an incredible degree. It almost looked like a balloon, and just his abdomen alone was now more than twice as rge as the rest of his body combined.

  Even in that state, System still felt like he had room in his stomach. He was sure that he could eat even more.

  However, he quickly wised up and stopped himself from continuing to eat. Although his stomach could still hold more food, his body could no longer move properly due to his abdomen's enormous size.

  His movements were much clumsier with such a big abdomen. If he continued eating like this, he would eventually be unable to move his body at all. In such a state, if a dangerous situation arose, he couldn't possibly escape.

  After he stopped eating, System guarded the dragonfly corpse while exercising his body and waiting for the food in his stomach to digest.

  During the digestion process, his experience bar kept growing. He estimated that if he could digest the dragonfly corpse completely, his experience bar would be halfway to level 8.

  As long as he could find more food, it wouldn't even take two days to reach level 8. Reaching level 8 meant that he would undergo a second metamorphosis and become an adult grasshopper that could fly.

  According to his current digestion speed, he estimated that he would be able to finish eating the corpse before dark, after which he would return to his nest with a full belly. The next day, he could go out to forage as usual.

  ...

  While System was guarding the dragonfly corpse and moving around to speed up his digestion, he heard a long and mysterious song coming from the depths of the forest.

  The tone of the song was ever-changing, as if it was telling a story about life's ups and downs, but System couldn't understand the exact meaning of the words. He didn't know this world's nguages at all.

  He could only tell that the voice seemed to belong to a human male who sounded fairly old.

  Before long, accompanied by the sound of flowing water, the person singing the song slowly passed by while zily reclining on a raft.

  The singer was an old, handsome, humanoid creature with deer-like antlers on his head and pointy ears. He was wearing worn brown clothing.

  The old man looked like a druid who was close to nature in a magical world. He was using a mysterious power to control the raft, causing it to slowly move forward in the water.

  The old druid exuded a peaceful, mysterious, and natural atmosphere, which made System unconsciously want to get close to him. He even felt an urge to jump directly into the druid's hand.

  System saw several snakes of different species on the raft, as well as two light gray mice and a fox with red fur. The fox and the two mice had wet fur and had obviously been rescued from the water. The creatures were natural enemies, but they snuggled up together with the snakes on the raft peacefully, appearing as if they were friends who had been together for many years.

  System specuted that the druid should have used a mysterious power to calm their minds after rescuing these animals from the water.

  As System watched the druid gradually float away on the raft, he fell deep into thought.

  The druid reclining on the raft seemed to possess strange powers. System had felt a mysterious aura surrounding the old druid that seemed to contain the purity of nature.

  The druid's reclining posture was like a Buddha in meditation, blending into nature, and a phrase appeared in System's mind—unity of man and nature.

  System really couldn't find any other words to describe the druid. He thought that the druid gave off a strong sense of being an otherworldly sage.

  'Can he be trusted?'

  The moment System first saw the druid, he even had the idea of revealing his wisdom, but he finally suppressed the impulse in his heart. He didn't make contact with the druid, and only watched from a distance as the old man floated away on the raft.

  A person's heart was unpredictable. Under the appearance of such a peaceful and natural atmosphere, System had no way of knowing what the old druid was truly thinking.

  As a grasshopper, he had no right to converse as equals with the druid. He couldn't bear to hand over his fate to such a strange, intelligent creature.