Chapter 107: Running Away (2)
As I mulled over how to appease Hyang and Bini, I decided to wait until Cho finished molting.
For arthropods like centipedes and spiders, molting is their most vulnerable moment. They must be watched over carefully.
Their new exoskeleton is soft and pliable until body fluids fill it and it hardens. If they get crushed, bent, or suffer any impact in that state, they’ll remain deformed until their next molt.
If they’re lucky, they might recover in the next molt. But more often than not, such deformities lead to complications, making future molts even riskier.
A deformed limb or section that fails to shed properly increases the likelihood of a "molting failure."
An arthropod’s body is like a metal can—if it gets dented, the contents inside struggle to move freely.
If it can't completely shed its old exoskeleton, the accumulated layers can slow fluid circulation, leading to decay. It could end up like Seol, who nearly died from molting failure.
And the bigger they get, the higher the chance of failure.
—Shrrk.
Two of Cho’s legs had fallen off, which worried me slightly. But he managed to completely emerge from his old shell.
His legs, once transparent in the shed skin, had regenerated fully.
He also seemed noticeably larger.