Once System made up his mind about something, he would start executing his pn without hesitating. He wasn't the type to drag his feet.

  After he returned to the nest, System immediately had a discussion with Excavator about the best method they could use to dig a deep tunnel through the wet ground.

  At the same time, he also called over Bck and Shava to pn the development of his pupation chamber.

  Because he would be completely unable to move while pupating, System set one very important rule for his subjects to follow—keep a low profile.

  When encountering an unknown existence, they should try not to provoke it. Unless the other party had obvious intentions to attack, they should always attempt to maintain civility.

  System decided to have his ant subjects stop their excessive killing of rats. They should try to keep the food chain in the surrounding area somewhat normal, and they should temporarily avoid expanding the colony's popution after the queen broke out of her pupa.

  Although the Lord of Gciers had turned into a little butterfly, winter would still arrive as usual in Lilt Forest and the Warren Pins.

  This year's winter wouldn't be as cold as the previous year's, but the temperature would still fluctuate around zero degrees Celsius, and there would also be occasional snow.

  If the colony rashly increased its size, the ants would inevitably fall into a state of crisis in te autumn or winter once food became scarce.

  Shava and Bck nodded from time to time while receiving System's mental messages.

  However, there was a clear difference between the two ants. The highly-intelligent Bck generally understood the meaning of System's words, while Shava kept nodding along just to fit in.

  System had decided to let Bck handle any important matters after he began his pupation, but Bck's status in the nest currently wasn't very high. After Queen Linda broke out of her pupa, there may be some disagreements about who should be in charge. That was why System had called Shava over and asked her to obey all of Bck's instructions.

  Only in this way would System be able to ensure that Queen Linda would obediently listen to Bck.

  Apart from the queen, the only unstable factors in the nest were Aura and System's son, Meatball.

  The once-little meatball had now grown to a massive thirty centimeters wide, and his strength had risen to the peak level that his predecessor's strength had reached. If Meatball went crazy, there would definitely be unimaginable consequences.

  However, Meatball wasn't very intelligent, and his thoughts were simple. In addition to System, he was also good friends with Bck and listened to Bck obediently.

  As long as they were careful not to leave Meatball by himself for so long that he got lonely, and they took him outside to get some fresh air from time to time, there would basically be no problems.

  As for Aura, the eccentric butterfly, things were a bit trickier. After all, his frost powers were so strong that even System was afraid of them.

  However, although Aura always did things that seemed contradictory, the butterfly had his own principles.

  It couldn't be said that Aura was evil, nor could it be said that he was good, but there was one thing about him that was simir to System—he wouldn't hurt his allies.

  Maybe he would do unreasonable things sometimes, but he'd never abused his power or used his frost energy to freeze ordinary ants.

  Also, after System had activated the [Limb Regeneration] ability in Aura's body, he'd noticed that Aura's attitude toward him had changed inexplicably in the past few days.

  On the surface, Aura still treated System the same as before, but the butterfly would unconsciously show intimacy to him from time to time, just like Shava, which made System feel very uncomfortable.

  System felt helpless. It was bad enough when Shava was the only one who liked to py bondage games. Now it seemed like the butterfly had followed her onto that path.

  The cim that dragons were extremely lustful had indeed turned out to be true.

  System had no idea how to deal with the emotions of this female butterfly that was possessed by the remnant soul of a male dragon.

  In the end, he decided to simply stay quiet and pretend that he didn't know what was going on. With Aura's personality, System guessed that he would be just as difficult as Shava, and would ask to py tentacle games whenever there was nothing else going on.

  ...

  After discussing some more matters regarding his metamorphosis with Bck and Shava, System still didn't feel completely reassured about Aura, so he decided to talk to the butterfly in person.

  Their conversation went unusually smoothly. Aura's personality was still problematic, and he didn't clearly agree to anything that System said. Surprisingly, however, he didn't ridicule System at all, and System even detected very weak concerned emotions from the butterfly.

  Although Aura hadn't agreed to anything on the surface, System knew that when the nest was in crisis, the butterfly would definitely not stand idly by.

  After these preparations, System believed that the nest's affairs had mostly been resolved.

  There was only one thing that made him feel helpless, and that was the lifespan of his ant subjects.

  Perhaps after he ended his pupation, most of the ants that hadn't begun their second pupation yet would already have died due to their limited lifespans.

  System finally decided to let nature take its course. Even though he wanted to help these ants that had low qualifications, it was simply too difficult for them to undergo a second pupation.

  ...

  After System and Excavator conducted many rounds of research, the big worker ant finally discovered that he could squeeze a certain type of fine yellowish-brown soil into dense sheets to make a waterproof channel. They had also figured out the best location to dig the long passageway that would lead deep underground to System's pupation chamber. This route managed to avoid the areas that had the highest concentration of groundwater.

  After ten days of digging, Excavator had already passed through the areas between ten and twenty meters deep that contained the most groundwater. Once the ant reached a depth of thirty meters, her excavation speed became even faster.

  After these ten days, half of the water covering the Warren Pins had already receded. The area around System's nest was basically all dried up. Only some small areas of water were left in the low-lying areas, which had formed many temporary kes of varying sizes on the grassnd.

  As for the ratmen and druids, they still hadn't made a move.

  There were fewer ordinary rats on the grassnd after the rain, but there were many more toads and tadpoles. The number was far higher than the amount that had appeared after the rainstorm in Lilt Forest. There were one or two big brown toads visible every few meters on the wet grass.

  Perhaps because there were no snakes on the Warren Pins, these toads were breeding at an extremely terrifying rate after the rain.

  System noticed that many of the rge brown toads would drill deep into the mud after mating and never come out again. They had probably entered a dormant period.

  System didn't know what type of toads these were, but he could guess their habits with a little thought.

  Due to the unique climate of the Warren Pins, the growth of tadpoles into toads had to be completed within one month of the rainy season, and the adult toads basically couldn't survive in the dry climate of the grassnds.

  Therefore, after mating, the toads wouldn't y their eggs immediately. Instead, they would wrap their bodies in mud to reduce water loss, then enter a dormant period that sted for a full year. Once the next rainy season arrived, they would dig their way out of the ground to y their eggs.

  System was amazed by these toads' unique means of survival.

  The toads hiding in the mud for their dormant period had also provided System's ant subjects with a new source of food.

  The toads tended to gather together in the mud when they entered their dormant period, and they would all dig down into the same mud pit together. Basically, there were dozens of dormant toads inside every single mud pit.

  These dormant toads were like food that had a shelf life of one year. System only needed to record the location of several mud pits and pass that information along to Bck. Even if there was a shortage of food in winter, his ant subjects would still have enough food without having to catch rats.

  ...

  Another ten days passed, and the accumuted water in the Warren Pins had basically all receded. The ratmen and the druids also hadn't made any special moves.

  By this time, the passageway that Excavator was digging had already reached eighty meters deep underground. System decided not to wait any longer. After he made sure that all of the necessary arrangements were in pce, he began his third pupation.

  He was finally going to become a magical life form!