Laws of the Insect Hive

Chapter 54: Desperate Struggle To Survive (1)

In Leyte Forest, a Frost Dragon had appeared.

The Lord of Glaciers Aura was patrolling its territory, which it had not visited for a long time.

It had significantly changed.

Aura flapped its wings and flew next to an old oak tree in the Leyte Forest. That old oak tree was around 30 meters tall and was the largest tree in the Leyte Forest.

From when Aura could remember, this forest had been a world of ice, which it liked.

Though that old oak tree had not died, it had never grown leaves before in the cold so it always looked bare.

However, now, that old oak tree was full of liveliness as it had grown lush foliage,

Aura said, “Medran, I know you’re here.”

“Medran, come out.”

Seeing that there was no reaction after a long while, Aura suddenly opened its mouth widely and tore a tree branch off the old oak tree…

The taste of the oak tree leaves was lacking, and the Frost Dragon spat them out. At the same time, it turned its platinum pupils to scan the surrounding.

“Eh? Is it not here? Only 300 years have passed, so it shouldn’t be dead yet.”

Aura revealed a puzzled expression as the old Druid had been protecting this oak tree since the beginning. It was said that it was a special oak tree named Grevillea Robusta, a Silk Oak.

“Hahahaha… Medran, you despicable liar, you never thought that I would return, right!?”

“I did not deceive you…”

As the voice of the old Druid echoed, the Frost Dragon suddenly waved its claws.

That old Druid did not dodge the dragon’s claw but directly held the sharp claws of the Frost Dragon in his hand.

“That darn liar, Medran, and those spirits in the Winter Paradise, and also Augen…” Aura seemed to be murmuring something.

Soon, it discovered that it had lost all traces of the old Druid. The enraged Aura shot a breath of extreme coldness, completely freezing the silk oak tree in front of it, and flung its powerful tail. Accompanied by a violent collision sound, the silk oak tree crumbled like shattered glass, and countless small ice crystals scattered all over.

Then, the dragon flapped its wings, producing blurry magical whirlwinds. Those silk oak tree ice crystals were then blown toward the direction of the Leyte Mountains. Aura wanted to blow the ice crystals to the other side of the glacier mountains.

Aura spread its wings and flew into the sky but immediately flew back again.

The Frost Dragon swung its claws and kept on digging the ground. In the end, it dug out all of the roots of the silk oak tree, and similarly, it froze them into ice crystals and blew them way again.

…

In the end, Aura flew into the sky and headed towards the glacier mountains…

Shortly after, an inexplicable voice could be heard by all creatures in the forest.

“Creatures of Leyte Forest, I allow you to speak my true name to accept my blessing once again.”

As the voice resounded, the Goblins in the Goblin Village, which was more than ten kilometers away from System, started to dance in joy and revel. The power of coldness appeared from the void and enveloped those Goblins.

The Goblins’ bodies started becoming larger at the speed which could even be differentiated by naked eyes. Their green skins were gradually converted to white color, and after a while, their bodies expanded to a height of two meters. Their appearances were no longer that of normal frail Goblins.

In their surroundings, a thick and white mist shrouded those Goblins. A light blue armor of ice crystals appeared and covered the Goblins’ bodies. Also, all kinds of weapons made of ice crystals appeared in the Goblins’ hands.

The Goblin Giants waved the Frost Weapons in their hands and ran towards the glacier mountains at breakneck speed.

At the same time, in all corners of the Leyte Mountains, at least, more than ten kinds of creatures with Frost energy appeared—they all started to advance toward the Leyte Mountains…

The Great Lord of Glaciers had finally returned.

…

“Creatures of Leyte Forest, I allow you to speak my true name to accept my blessing once again.”

System, who was trapped the pile of dead leaves and unable to move, also heard the Lord of Glaciers’ voice.

His [Instinct] gave him a strange feeling.

As long as he replied to that sentence and said the Lord of Glaciers’ true name in his mind, he would not only immediately save himself, but he would also obtain a huge benefit.

He might even be able to directly turn into a magical life form from an ordinary creature.

However, it was a pity that not to mention the Lord of Glaciers’ true name, System did not even know the Lord of Glacier’s normal name. Even the title of Lord of Glaciers was something he had guessed from the Goblins’ and Gnolls’ conversation. He did not know whether it was correct or wrong.

Meanwhile, when the Lord of Glaciers said that sentence, System sensed the weather in the surrounding area becoming slightly colder. The number of snowflakes falling from the sky increased too.

Ten more minutes passed yet again, and System’s Health decreased to 51%. System could feel that as his body was getting weaker, it felt slightly tired and was urging him to sleep.

If this continued, even with insects’ tenacious vitality, System would not be able to last long.

Fortunately, after 20 excruciating minutes of immobility, System’s situation was getting better. His abdomen and remaining limbs had started to tremble uncontrollably.

As System’s body involuntarily started to tremble, white blood would flow out of his limbs and abdomen, increasing the speed at which his Health was lost.

System could only try his best to control his body and stay as much stable as possible to reduce the loss of blood.

As System’s frozen body was slowly recovering its mobility, he could gradually feel a violent pain from his numb body.

Because System’s body was frozen solid, he could feel nothing and felt like a bystander as he looked at his body. Now, however, that he could feel again, System found that the pain of his body was unbearable.

Thankfully, insects’ physiques were relatively tenacious, and after some time, System could tolerate the unbearable pain, and he slowly regained control over various parts of his body.

The first part that recovered the ability to move in System’s body was not his limbs, tentacles, or his mandibles, but instead, the glands in his throat, which could shoot out [Corrosive Slime].

System carefully controlled the slimes, which surged out from his throat to move. After his third molting, his [Corrosive Slime] had become much more active, and the slimes’ movement speed was much quicker.

However, due to the appearance of his tentacles, System had rarely controlled those slimes.

Most of the time, he would only use [Corrosive Slime] to digest food outside of his body, increasing his digestion speed. However, as he had been eating slimes recently, he had not even needed to use the [Corrosive Slime]’s function.

System carefully controlled the slimes shot out from his glands to wiggle toward the flesh of the injuries on his body and blocked them tightly. He was treating the slimes as a bandage to stop blood from flowing.

Finally, after great effort, System’s remaining Health stabilized at around 34%. Although it was still decreasing, the decreasing speed was reduced quite a lot. Thus, System’s impending death was averted.

Unfortunately, the snow continued to fall, so his situation was still not optimistic.

System looked at a dark brown pupa hanging on a tree one meter away. That pupa was five centimeters in size. Since it did not break out of its cocoon at this season, it should be a pupa that had prepared to live through winter.

System did not know what that pupa would hatch—it might be a moth or a butterfly—but the fact that there was a pupa near him was the fortunate part out of all his misfortunes!

In the past few days, System had been using his tentacles to wrap around various insects and check the abilities within them. Thus, System was aware that the pupa possessed an ability to survive the winter, which was called [Cold Resistance].

System needed that ability urgently!