System stretched out his tentacles and continued using [Perception] on the mosquitoes.

  Unfortunately, after investigating them for a while, he didn't find any difference between the blood of mosquitoes in the Abyss and the blood of mosquitoes in the main world.

  Although the big mosquito couldn't be affected by System's lies, like the mosquitoes in the main world, it had reacted as usual to his aphrodisiac tentacles. [Perception] had caused its angry and crazy emotions to become strange.

  It seemed that mosquitoes in the Abyss reproduced by mating just like mosquitoes in the main world. They weren't like insect demons who relied on a magic nest for asexual reproduction.

  When he looked up from his research, System saw that there were two or three simir mosquito insect beast corpses around Shava, who was still practicing her swordpy.

  This level of the Abyss seemed to be different from the main world, as the number of mosquito insect beasts appeared to be quite rge.

  System didn't know whether it was because the mosquitoes here were too dumb, resulting in second-pupation insect beasts appearing frequently, or if it was because the Abyss itself made it easy for insect beasts to be born.

  Since there were many mosquitoes and other insects in the Abyss, he had no intention of keeping this one alive for research.

  After twisting the mosquito's head off with his tentacles, System quickly pulled the mosquito's body into his mouth and started chewing.

  It tasted simir to the mosquitoes in the main world. The mosquito's exoskeleton tasted like chocote, and its meat tasted like milk. The two fvors combined tasted like chocote cake, which wasn't bad at all.

  While he was eating, System suddenly discovered something wrong.

  He pulled a chunk of meat with fleshy roots growing from it out of his bag. It was the demon insect nest that he'd brought with him from the Warren Pins. He quickly broke off a small piece of the nest and put it into his mouth to taste.

  "Sure enough, my sense of taste has changed after becoming a life form of the Abyss."

  The fleshy roots used to taste sweet, spicy, and a little weird, but System no longer felt the spiciness when he ate them. He only tasted a milky fvor.

  He knew that this change to his sense of taste was only superficial. The real difference was in how many experience points he gained from eating.

  Now, the same weight of fleshy roots could provide System with one and a half times the experience that they had in the main world.

  It seemed that after he'd transformed into an Abyss creature, what his body could digest had also changed.

  "I wonder how that skeletal horse with the blue fmes would taste now?"

  System unconsciously croaked out a question with his strange voice.

  For some reason, he had once again thought of the skeletal horse that had disappointed him with its fvor. He wanted to try it again.

  He quickly shook his head and stopped his wild thoughts. At the same time, he sent a mental message to Shava, who tilted her head with a strange expression on her face, asking her to accompany him to explore the surroundings.

  Because the environment in this pce was always smoky, System couldn't use his strong eyesight. Although [System's Eye] could see through things to a certain degree, it could only see through a few centimeters of soil. Just like the X-rays in his previous life, he couldn't see through everything endlessly.

  Under such thick purple smoke, he could only see things within fifty meters around him. Anything further away would become increasingly blurry.

  System found that the density of creatures on this level of the Abyss was much greater than it had been during the summer in Lilt Forest. At a gnce, there were countless mosquitoes in the sky around him.

  Mosquitoes close by would attack him and try to suck his blood, but mosquitoes farther away would swing the proboscises on their heads back and forth in the air, as if sucking up the moist mist in the air, in addition to mating with mosquitoes of the opposite sex.

  Obviously, these vender mists were the key to the reproduction of mosquitoes in this world.

  After traveling more than ten meters, System saw a rge number of purple and bck toads in a swamp. There was only one type of toad, but there were both big and small ones.

  The big toads were nearly half a meter tall, while the small ones were only a few centimeters tall.

  Perhaps in order to cope with the numerous fierce mosquitoes in this world, these purple and bck toads had evolved a yer of wrinkled and hard keratin on their bodies, which was difficult for mosquitoes to pierce.

  ...

  System tore off the hind leg of a toad that he'd stabbed to death with his [Dragon Scale Spikes] and tossed it into his mouth.

  Compared to mosquitoes, these toads were at the top of the food chain. However, they were much more timid than mosquitoes.

  After hearing the toad System had caught let out a tragic death cry, the other toads had either jumped away immediately or dug down into the mud and disappeared.

  Soon, the toads within ten meters of System had all fled one after another. Even the half-meter-tall giant toad had also fled.

  It seemed that these Abyss toads likely had a higher level of intelligence than mosquitoes. When they encountered unknown and mysterious creatures, they at least knew it was better to escape than to fight to the death with the other party.

  After throwing aside the half-eaten toad, System walked over to the edge of the swamp and watched the purple bubbles float up.

  These swamps filled with purple miasma appeared to be boiling hot, but the temperature was actually the same as the surrounding environment.

  In addition to the first pnts he'd seen growing on the water's surface, System also sensed a rge number of extremely weak emotions in the water. There seemed to be a lot of microorganisms and germs in this swamp, and the density was even simir to the ratman wizard Lance's pgue culture fluids.

  In addition to the germs, there were countless mosquito rvae in the swamp. With every passing moment, many mosquito rvae would break out of their pupae in the mud. After waiting about ten minutes for their wings to harden, they would spread their wings and fly into the sky.

  It seemed like it wasn't a coincidence that mosquitoes could breed to such a rge scale here. Their popution grew rapidly by feeding on the germs and microorganisms in the mud and swallowing the toxic purple mist in the air.

  ...

  However, just as System was preparing to leave the swamp and return underground after exploring for a while, his [Intuition] suddenly gave him a faint sense of danger.

  His tentacles quickly exerted power and pushed against the ground. His body instantly fshed sideways, jumping several meters away.

  Puff!

  A giant bck snake, as thick as a human thigh and nearly ten meters long, suddenly emerged from the ground, its fanged mouth striking at the spot where System had been standing only a moment earlier.

  Unfortunately for the snake, because of his [Intuition], System had already dodged its attack in advance and climbed onto a strange, unknown pnt nearby.

  It was obvious that the danger level in this yer of the Abyss was much higher than it had been in Lilt Forest.

  The giant snake's scales were crystal clear, and even after bursting out of the ground, there was no dirt on its body. Its scales were very beautiful, but the combination of the snake's beautiful body and its ferocious snake head still ended up looking a bit hideous.

  The giant snake seemed to have identified System as its prey. Although he'd dodged the giant snake's first attack, it quickly turned around and rushed toward him.

  Unfortunately for the giant snake, this time a figure had already blocked its path.

  Bang!

  A strong impact bsted the giant snake several meters away, and many blood-stained snake scales scattered across the ground.

  "King, as long as I'm here, you don't have to worry."

  Shava turned to face System and once again repeated that cssic line she loved to say, but hadn't had an opportunity to use for a long time.