CHAPTER 83: ERROR

Timothy blinked, mildly impressed.

At least she wasn’t healing her legs.

That much, she understood.

"You ready to go now?" he asked.

"More food, bad human." She replied.

He kept feeding her, and within five minutes, all the cocoons on the earth and its contents were gone.

"That’s all. Let’s get going. This should be easy," Timothy said sarcastically.

Even without her legs, she was as large as a minibus, he wasn’t even sure he’d be able to lift her.

The others looked at him like he was completely insane.

Maybe it was because they’d just watched him talk to himself for a while.

Maybe it was something else.

Either way, their expressions said it all.

And then, just as he turned to move, a thought crossed his mind.

Or rather she communicated a thought to him

"I won’t make it easy for you to mate with me, bad human," the spider said out of nowhere.

Timothy froze.

A soft glow pulsed across her massive body, and before he could even process what she’d said, she began to shrink rapidly.

Within seconds, she was roughly the size of a backpack.

Still larger than Gray had been, likely to accommodate the termite she’d swallowed.

Timothy exhaled in relief that no one else had heard her statement.

But just as he thought the transformation was over, her eight legs suddenly regenerated, snapping back into place one by one with unnerving precision.

Now fully restored, compact, and mobile, she stood before him, smug.

Or rather below him

Timothy stared at her, dumbfounded.

’Mate?

With her?

What in the seven hells gave her that idea?!’ he exclaimed in his head

Still, he admitted it was a good thing she’d shrunk herself, made her easier to hide.

But the legs... the legs were a problem.

What if she ran off and caused a scene?

He leaned in, whispering harshly.

"Who said anything about mating with you? Don’t waste your strength imagining things that’ll never happen."

She snapped back without hesitation,

"Then why are you still clinging to my back?"

He looked down.

The scarf had gotten tangled in her web duct, still stuck even after she’d shrunk.

He could swear she just pouted.

*Facepalm*

Of all the monsters in all the dungeons, why did he end up with the dramatic one?

Timothy glanced over his shoulder.

His teammates were watching him again, faces frozen somewhere between concern, confusion, and secondhand embarrassment.

Great.

This was going to take a lot of explaining.

Turning back, he took a deep breath and asked,

"What’s your name?"

She paused this time.

When the reply came, her tone was theatrical, like she was delivering a royal decree.

"Since I am now carrying your child..."

Timothy almost choked on thin air

"...you deserve to know. It will become our child. I am Arachnephora Nyx’thelan of the Black Widow Lineage. You are now my cohort. Remember this, bad human. I will surpass you... and one day, I will eat you."

Timothy blinked, trying to process whether she was serious or just insane.

But before he could speak, a cold mechanical chime echoed in his mind.

[ERROR]

[You cannot subjugate interspecies.]

His eyes widened.

"...What?"

[Error]

[Error]

[Cannot subjugate interspecies]

[Analyzing anomaly...]

[Foreign species detected: Arachnephora Nyx’Thelan]

[Class: Arachnid]

[Status: Non-compatible]

[Exception detected: Hostile symbiosis initiated...]

[Subject contains Termite-Class Entity (Silverback - Gray)]

[Override in progress...]

[Negotiating shared command protocol...]

[Symbiotic Override Protocol initialized]

[Establishing conditional bond...]

[Bond Type: Tethered Symbiosis]

[Bond Terms Established:]

• Primary Command Unit: Timothy Walter

• Linked Entity: Arachnephora Nyx’Thelan (Incubator Role – Passive Host)

• Core Link: Silverback Termite (Gray)

• Loyalty Level: Unstable – Neutral (42%)

• Experience Gain: 25% siphoned to host body

• Command Access: Limited – Directives must align with Termite host safety

• Warning: Failure to maintain compliance may trigger a Dissolution Clause

—

[Note: This entity remains partially autonomous. Direct control unavailable.]

[Relationship Status: Restricted Bond]

[’Chained Freedom’ active]

[System will monitor behavior]

[Manual correction permitted ONCE]

...

Timothy blinked as the final line faded.

That was quite the info dump, but somehow, this time, it was different; he immediately understood what the system meant.

This was strange; it normally didn’t go this far, or that was just how much it deemed another species as a threat.

Yet, because Gray was evolving inside her, the system had no choice but to adjust.

Wait, then, if it was hostile against other species, then how did it expect him to evolve the termites? Timothy thought.

He couldn’t exactly think how, but he was sure there was a way; he just had to find it; he wasn’t too happy about the spider too.

Speaking of the spider, She tilted her small white head at him, those eerie red eyes glowing with something between curiosity and amusement.

"You look pale, bad human. Did your strange voice in the air scold you?"

"I said stop wasting energy saying nonsense" Timothy scolded back

His thoughts didn’t register that she heard the system notification.

She gave a light clack of her fangs and tilted her head.

The system chimed again.

[Monitoring: Hostility threshold rising]

[Advisory: Do not provoke bonded entity without contingency plan]

Timothy muttered under his breath,

"This will be troublesome."

The scarf loosened on its own, sliding off the spider’s carapace.

What now stood before them was a teddy-sized arachnid, six glistening eyes trained on Timothy with unreadable intensity.

Though freed, she didn’t flee.

Instead, the two stared each other down in silence.

Timothy kept a firm grip on his machete.

Despite the system’s registration, he wasn’t letting his guard down.

Not yet.

The spider tilted her head as if sizing him up, contemplating whether the odds were in her favor if she tried anything reckless.

Her gaze briefly flicked to the blade in his hand.

Whatever thoughts she’d entertained vanished.

Quietly, she folded her legs beneath her and settled on the ground in a posture that could only be interpreted as submission.

Timothy gave nothing away, but inwardly, he exhaled.

No unnecessary bloodshed.

Still, the machete remained summoned, its weight a quiet deterrent.

He turned his back to her deliberately, channeling his perception to stay alert within a meter radius just in case.

The spider, watching his controlled posture, narrowed her eyes.

A test, she thought.

A lure to catch her lunging.

But even she wasn’t that foolish.

Though monstrous, she was far from mindless.

There were other, better ways to make her presence known and she intended to test them all eventually.

"I think we’re done here," Timothy said over his shoulder.

His team stood in silence, eyes fixed not on him but on the spider behind him.

It was only then that Miebaka spoke up.

"You’ll need a collaboration statement to register your new companion with the Association. I assume you’ve got one prepared?"

Timothy offered a sheepish smile.

He didn’t. But he’d make something up along the way.

He understood Miebaka reminded him of that because they were never here.

Not wanting to wake Prisca, Miebaka lifted her into a princess carry, and they began retracing their path.

The air had shifted to calmer, but still heavy with the dungeon’s presence.

Helen glanced upward toward the towering tree at the center of the dungeon chamber.

Though the tree itself remained hidden behind the dungeon’s spatial distortion, they could see where it pierced upward, sunlight barely spilling through the high circular gap carved into the earth.

"I wonder what’s up there," she murmured.

"You’re free to go and find out," Miebaka replied dryly.

He wasn’t here for sightseeing.

"What about the other tunnels?" Nonso asked, nodding toward the other openings carved into the stone, each shaped differently some tall and narrow, others squat and jagged.

Timothy’s brows furrowed.

The dungeon hadn’t acknowledged a clear.

No system message, no reward prompt, nothing.

Even with the spider subdued and tagged as his companion, it remained silent.

That meant one of two things either the boss hadn’t been defeated, or other threats still lurked in the dungeon’s veins.

Possibly smaller monsters.

Possibly worse like multiple bosses.

They decided not to push their luck.

Their mission was to retrieve the needed material for the client.

Whatever remained of the dungeon could be someone else’s concern.

Surprisingly, the spider took the lead without a word, her gait smooth and deliberate, as if she’d always belonged to the group.

No one dared comment on it.

On their way out, Timothy spotted several insect corpses, unfamiliar but clearly strong before their deaths.

He stored five variants in his inventory, just in case the spider grew hungry again.

He didn’t want them to rot in storage, hence the limited number.

His mind drifted as they walked.

Could he have recruited the other insects too? Could a different kind of bond, symbiotic or parasitic, have worked? He didn’t know, but the potential was there.

Especially with her.

Strategically, she could be invaluable in battle.

Now that she was his companion, to some degree at least, he should be able to access her status.

And with that thought, he called up the menu.