Laws of the Insect Hive

Chapter 26: Level 10

Translator: Atlas Studios

Editor: Atlas Studios

At midnight, System jumped toward the pile of stones near the pitcher plant with a bulging belly. He jumped toward the gap between the stones he had chosen in the day.

Subtle movements could be seen as a small 2-centimeter cricket crawled out of a gap and instantly crawled into another narrow gap between the stones beside it.

System did not think anything of him invading and occupying the lair of the cricket and did not bother about that small cricket’s escape. He started to rest in silence.

…

After he swallowed [Corrosive Slime] into his stomach, System’s digesting speed increased yet again.

About two to three hours after dawn the next day, System completely recovered and was refreshed.

His stomach, which had expanded like a balloon, also returned to the normal size—the slime’s colloid had been digested.

He crawled out of the stones’ gap and jumped toward the puddle of mud, where the slime was the previous day.

The slime was not moving in the mud, and the ants within its body had basically been dissolved. System could not see clearly how the ants looked within the colloid.

Maybe, because he had eaten the slime’s colloid, System realized that the slime’s plant aroma no longer affected him. Its influence on his mind was already negligible.

System grabbed a dead branch and tried to tease the slime using the previous day’s method.

The effects of throwing the dead branch twice were extremely unideal.

The dead branch just bounced off the most outer layer of the slime’s colloid, while the slime’s body vibrated a little irregularly, then it returned to its still state.

The slime seemed to have no concern toward the outside world at all.

It looked like for a short period, the tactic of pulling the slime to fight with the ants so he could obtain colloids was impossible.

System also did not have the guts to face the slime directly. Although the slime did not show much of a reaction to the two branches, if he took the initiative to bite the slime’s colloid, the slime might jump and swallow him whole.

…

System left resolutely to explore the surroundings and do what he was best at—snatching from ants. Occasionally, he would go back to see if the slime had recovered.

Karma indeed existed. A few days ago, the ants had been the ones stealing his food, but now, he was snatching from them instead.

System found another ants’ nest that was within a rotten tree 30 meters away. Its occupants were the same kind of reddish-brown ants that had battled with the slime.

This nest was even larger than the one that had fought with the slime. Also, the reddish-brown ants’ speed was extremely fast.

It was not very smooth when System went to snatch the first two to three times, and his body earned plenty of bite marks by the ants’ mandibles.

In the process of snatching from the second ant, 1/4 of his antenna had even been bitten off.

After that antenna broke, System’s balance became poorer, but it did not seem to affect him much.

After hunting the reddish-brown ants consecutively three times, System had basically adapted to how agile they were. Thus, his snatching process subsequently was much smoother.

Although he was still a little unused to it, System did not get injured anymore. As the number of times he snatched from the ants increased, his movements became more and more proficient.

Through observation, System discovered that the reddish-brown ants’ habits were slightly different from the dark brown ants, especially in how they handled their food.

The reddish-brown ants would not slice the food into pieces. Instead, they liked to cut up the food into small portions that were three to five centimeters. Then a few worker ants would cooperate and carry the food back to the ants’ nest.

The reddish-brown ants’ habit was quite convenient for System, as he only needed to wander around three to five meters near the ants’ nest, and he would be able to snatch big portions of food.

The food snatched each time was enough to sustain him for quite a long period. Also, when he was eating on the branch above the ants, he could choose what to eat next from the food the ants were carrying. Unknown huge insect eggs, butterfly larvae, a plants’ seed, an earthworm’s corpse, and so on…

Although these reddish-brown ants were smaller, they knew how to hunt better than the dark brown ants. Thus, they could capture a variety of prey.

The hardworking reddish-brown ants, carrying food, made System feel like he was eating a buffet which he recalled from his previous life. There would always be a large variety of food passing by him nearby, and he did not know what to choose.

System even snatched a 3-centimeter butterfly and half a centipede which was 4.5cm in length, from the ants. The two insect hunters’ carcasses were still quite fresh. Who knew how those ants had hunted them down?

…

In the next few days, System spent his time snatching from the ants, exploring the surroundings, and observing the slime.

Basically, nothing unusual had happened in the process of snatching from the ants, and System had discovered seven ants’ nests in his exploration expedition.

There were a total of four kinds of ants. Besides the reddish-brown ants and dark brown ants that System was familiar with, there was a type of large 2.5cm black ant and a type of tiny 0.5cm grayish-brown ant. The tiny ants had a special means of attack where their tail could shoot out acid, and System had suffered quite a lot when he first met such an ant.

The resources these four types of ants gathered were different. These days, System’s bandit career had been very smooth, and he had eaten nearly 100 different kinds of meat.

However, as compared to discovering the ants’ nests, System’s exploration expedition these days had not been smooth as he had not discovered any other slimes within a few hundred meters radius.

On the other hand, he had met two magical creatures, but he could only choose to hide when he encountered them.

One of them was a large bluish-gray bird that was enveloped with blue electric light. System immediately hid within the grass nearby once he saw it from afar to prevent himself from being eaten as a snack.

The other one he saw was a bat glowing with blood-red light during nighttime. Bats were hunters that liked catching insects, so System instantly stuck himself to the ground once he saw the bat, giving up looking for food that night.

Fortunately, the slime System had been paying attention to had recovered its liveliness after resting for three days in the mud.

Its size was somewhat restored, but slightly smaller than a soccer ball. It continued looking for food in the forest.

Slimes and ants were like mortal enemies, and with just a little push from System, the slime started a fight with another ants’ nest.

The battle’s outcome was exactly the same as last time, though the type of ants was different, how the slime looked as it escaped from the ants’ nest was basically the same. Its colloid was also filled with ant carcasses, while its colloids scattered onto the ground when it escaped.

System had the chance to eat colloid food for a second time.

In nine days, System had eaten the slime’s colloid twice using the same method.

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As the slime provided a large amount of EXP, System reached Level 10 on the ninth day, and his size increased to 10.5cm.

His talent [Molting Growth] increased to Level 13, the maximum level, just as he had expected. At the same time, he also learned of his third molting’s condition—reaching Level 12.

System would molt a third time when he was Level 12—that was good news.

It might be too difficult for other grasshoppers, but it was simple for System, who searched for meat to eat daily.

Even if he did not purposely pursue the efficiency of raising his level and just relied on snatching the ants’ food, System could easily reach Level 12 and complete his third molting within 30 days.