Laws of the Insect Hive

Chapter 49: Ability Activation

System ordered Shava to look after the ant larvae eating the colloid before he brought that ant larva toward an empty room.

System wrapped his tentacles around the ant larva to check its body. Surprisingly, the ant larva did not react like Shava when the tentacles wrapped its body. Maybe, it was because the ant had yet to mature.

In the larva’s mind, System was its mother. Thus, it felt as if returning to its mother’s embrace, and the tentacles did not evoke any other peculiar feelings.

After examining the ant larva for a few minutes, System discovered that the ant was at Level 4, and the limit of its level was the same as Shava, Level 14. It looked like the upper limit of dark brown ants should be the same, which was Level 14.

Also, System checked its gender and found it was a female ant.

System continued inspecting and analyzing the ant larva. He had felt the [Insect Adaptability] within the ant’s bloodline and a type of special talent similar to [Molting Growth].

While comparing the difference in the information between the female ant larva and Shava, System discovered that the ants’ power, which was similar to [Molting Growth], was actually the [Pupation] talent.

[Pupation] was more powerful than [Molting Growth], and the degree of transformation toward one’s life form was higher.

Ant larvae were the same as butterfly larvae, and they continued to feed during the larva stage. When their bodies grew to a certain extent, they would form a cocoon and finally break out of it to become a new life form.

System recalled when he had molted for the first time. Initially, an ant had torn off one of his limbs, but after the molting process, his limb had been completely regenerated.

System’s molting was able to regrow his limb, while the ants’ pupation was all the more able to restore their damaged bodies.

Since [Molting Growth] allowed a grasshopper to undergo a third molting, then Shava should be able to pupate a second time too. In theory, after breaking out of her cocoon, Shava would come out with a new body.

Shava was already a Level 10 creature, so, most likely, she was already close to fulfilling the second pupation conditions.

Shava might even obtain the [Limb Regeneration] ability. Also, if System were to use [Ability Enhancement] to increase Shava’s [Pupation] talent, it would allow Shava to enter her second pupation more easily.

Undoubtedly, if Shava pupated a second time, her strength would increase greatly. By then, she would become his right-hand woman.

…

System pondered for a bit before he decided not to overthink and continue checking the female ant larva’s powerful digestive ability.

After more than ten minutes, System was successful in his endeavor. He discovered the female ant larva’s ability—[Ultrafast Digestion].

However, System still could only determine an approximate range of one’s ability, as it was not very accurate.

System speculated that the [Ultrafast Digestion] was an ability that every female ant would possess.

When a complete female ant became the queen, she had to guarantee that she was able to ingest and digest a large amount of food. Otherwise, her body would not meet the conditions for laying numerous eggs. That’s why with just one queen, hundreds of thousands of ants could be bred.

System discerned her [Insect Adaptability] and discovered that his grasshopper body was not compatible with the ability [Ultrafast Digestion]. However, his [Insect Adaptability] had already reached Level 13, while his insect bloodline had improved yet again due to his third molting. As such, he should be able to grasp such an ability.

In the end, the so-called insects all boiled down to them having a similar ancestor, regardless of whether they were grasshoppers, ants, butterflies, or dragonflies.

Insects might seem to have all kinds of forms, but essentially, there was not much of a difference in their bloodline.

However, some things were left on the surface and manifested, while other things were hidden within the bloodline and would only appear when necessary.

Each insect was small and weak. Although their strength was minimal, they had been able to reproduce until now because of the tens of thousands of abilities hidden within their bloodline.

When System had leveled up in the beginning, he had relied on [Insect Adaptability] to obtain [Dark Vision] and [Acid Resistance] successively. In reality, such abilities had been inherited from the grasshopper’s bloodline.

As he felt the unique rhythm of [Insect Adaptability], System compared the rhythm with the bloodline rhythm within the female ant larva. He started to activate an ability similar to [Ultrafast Digestion] by consuming EXP through using [Ability Enhancement].

After eating and digesting the slime’s colloid, System’s EXP bar had increased further from 3% to 5%.

As his EXP was consumed, System discovered that the blood in his body felt itchy.

The itchy feeling gradually spread to his stomach, and his stomach started to squirm irregularly. System could feel that the digestion speed of his stomach toward the slime’s colloid had increased yet again.

System’s stomach became itchier. As his EXP was consumed and his total EXP decreased from 5% to 3%, the intense itchiness suddenly turned into piercing pain. System’s stomach started squirming much more vigorously.

That feeling was similar to the change that had occurred back when System’s [Corrosive Slime] had increased.

Ding! You have obtained the derived ability [Ultrafast Digestion]!

Ding! Your [Data Compilation] talent’s level has increased!

Ding! You have obtained the derived ability [Insect Ability Activation]!

As his EXP was continuously consumed and the EXP bar was about to reach the end, the piercing pain in System’s stomach reached the maximum. Finally, he successfully activated a type of digestive ability within his body—[Ultrafast Digestion] (1/11).

Accompanied by a unique feeling, System discovered that his understanding of his talent [Data Compilation] had deepened, as it had increased.

[Data Compilation] (3/5) → [Data Compilation] (4/5)

At the same time, System obtained a whole new ability—[Insect Ability Activation] (3/5)

…

[Ultrafast Digestion] (1/11): A derived ability obtained from [Insect Adaptability] and [Insect Ability Activation]. Able to digest food rapidly after this ability is activated.

[Insect Ability Activation] (3/5): A unique derived ability System created from making use of [Data Compilation]. By consuming one’s EXP bar, they could activate their or the target’s unique ability within [Insect Adaptability]. System’s exclusive ability.

…

After obtaining [Ultrafast Digestion], System noticed that his digestion speed had increased by at least 50%, and [Ultrafast Digestion] was only Level 1. If [Ultrafast Digestion]’s level increased, his digestion speed would increase yet again.

Meanwhile, the newly obtained [Insect Ability Activation] allowed System to learn more things. He had a deeper understanding of all kinds of abilities included in [Insect Ability Activation] that could be activated.

Each kind of insect had a few types of abilities that were most suitable for them, such as the [Fishy Slime] and [Limb Regeneration] of grasshoppers, [Formic Acid] and [Keen Sense of Smell] of ants, or the [Insect Instinct] and [Camouflage] of praying mantises.

At the same time, each kind of insect had a few types of abilities that were not suitable for them. Even if they obtained such a type of ability, the upper limit of the level would be extremely low and would not be of much use.

A fine example would be a butterfly larva obtaining the ability of [Underwater Breathing]. Under normal circumstances, a butterfly larva would be unable to look for food underwater. Unless it fell into the water, it would not need to use the [Underwater Breathing] ability. Butterflies might not even use such an ability once in their whole life.

Moreover, a restriction was hidden deeply within [Insect Adaptability]. It was placed because the abilities might conflict.

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No insect was compatible with all of [Insect Adaptability]’s abilities. An insect with the ability [Solid Carapace] would never obtain [Skin Softening], and likewise, one with [Giant Body] would never obtain [Agile Physique].

Not only was there an apparent conflict between entirely different abilities within the insects’ bloodlines, but there were also numerous other unexpected restrictions.

For example, System’s [Fire Resistance[ and [Color Change Camouflage] conflicted to a certain degree. Once the level of one ability increased, it would be difficult to continue leveling up the other ability.

Although the degree of conflict between the two abilities was negligible, some abilities were from their nature opposites. Once such an ability was obtained, the opposing ability would not be able to be activated at all.

Thus, even if System had obtained the method for activating all kinds of abilities, he had to be cautious when deciding.