"Dungeons? What are dungeons?" Anna asked with a confused expression, tilting her head.

Timothy's expression shifted, first surprise, then a calm realization.

In his mind, a series of thoughts spiraled rapidly.

I never considered that monsters wouldn't see where they live as a dungeon...

Should I say home instead? But what if they weren't born there?

Seconds passed in silence before Timothy finally spoke again.

"I want you to tell me about your life."

Anna gave a slight, amused twitch.

"You'd have to go through courtship first if you want to know about me slowly," she teased, lightening the atmosphere.

"Huh? No, that's not what I meant." Timothy chuckled and rephrased.

"I meant, tell me about where you spent most of your life."

This time, Anna paused, thoughtful.

"That's a lot of conversation, bad human. I doubt we can finish it all in one night."

Timothy studied her carefully, trying to read between the lines.

Spiders don't usually migrate much... they're social creatures, he thought.

But she's not normal.

When he met her, she had no kin, no others of her kind.

He nodded inwardly.

Yeah… this might take a while.

Then, without saying more, he pulled a beast carcass from his inventory, spoils from the last dungeon, and dropped it on the floor.

It thudded heavily, staining the tiles.

"I figured you might need energy. I've got a few more of these," Timothy said.

"So let's see how long the night gets."

Anna's eyes traced from the carcass back to him.

She slowly dislodged herself from her corner on the wall and approached the meat, starting to eat.

The good thing was that she could eat while communicating with him; she didn't need to speak aloud. The mental communication, which used energy, was still very much active and still one-sided, and she could still keep several eyes fixed on him, just in case.

Then, the conversation began.

To Timothy's surprise, Anna didn't meander or stall, she launched into her story thoroughly.

But before she began, she asked again:

"What is a dungeon?"

Timothy blinked, not expecting the question again but remembering he didn't answer it the last time.

But he answered calmly now

"Where did I find you? We call that a dungeon. Technically…"

He paused, considering his words.

"A dungeon…"

He repeated the word like he was tasting it, trying to simplify it.

"It's not part of our world."

Anna tilted her head slightly.

"But it is in your world. We came through it."

"Yes. But it's not from here," he clarified.

"Think of it like this, when a gate opens, it's like someone poked a hole through a wall. That hole leads somewhere else. That place… that's the dungeon."

She blinked slowly.

"So… it's a different place?"

"Yeah. Like it's a little world shoved into a pocket," Timothy said.

"It has its own rules, creatures, terrain, sometimes even weather. But it's unstable, it doesn't belong here. It leaks into our world. If no one closes it in time, it bursts… and everything inside spills out."

Anna made a clicking sound, her legs twitching thoughtfully.

"And humans go inside... why?" Anna asked an obvious question.

"To stop it. To kill the monsters, grab whatever they can, and shut them down before they explode. Some do it for money, others for glory. Some… just because they have to."

She took a moment to piece it all together.

"So, the dungeon is like… an invading nest."

"Exactly," Timothy said, then added more slowly:

"A temporary, dangerous place where monsters are born, gather, or just... exist. It's not part of this world, but it forces itself into ours."

She blinked, then stared blankly.

"So I'm from a fake world."

Timothy shrugged.

"Well... you're in this one now."

Anna didn't respond immediately, just kept two of her eyes locked on him as she devoured the carcass at an unnerving speed, regardless of her size.

"Fine," she finally said, between bites.

"Story time. You want to know where I'm from?"

She shifted her weight slightly, chewing faster, no, not chewing.

She was swallowing chunks of the corpse whole.

Well, there's not much to say," Anna began.

"One moment, I was somewhere that wasn't here, and the next... poof, dungeon walls. It wasn't gentle, either. No ceremony. No welcome scroll. Just me, a stone floor, and many screeching things crawling over each other."

She yawned.

Yawned.

Timothy had never seen a spider yawn until now.

"I wasn't born in that dungeon, in case you're wondering," she continued.

"I fell into it. Or got dragged. Who knows? You humans call them dungeons. We don't have a word for them. Just... spaces. Warped spaces where broken things go to play pretend."

Timothy tilted his head slightly.

She caught it.

"Yes, yes, I'm getting to the part that matters," Anna said, misreading his gesture. But Timothy didn't correct her. Instead, he kept piling questions in his mind, letting her talk.

She stretched one leg dramatically over a solid ridge of the carcass.

"Where I came from... it wasn't a world. More like... leftovers. Bits of something bigger. A collapsing place full of instincts and shadows. I remember lots of crawling. Eating. Molting. The usual."

Timothy frowned.

"You remember being born?"

Anna made a sharp clicking sound, something between a laugh and a scoff.

"Born? Please. I just was. One day I wasn't. Next, I was eating something twice my size."

She paused, blinked a few times at him, then clicked her mandibles again, this time in a more amused tone.

"Anyway, one day the place cracked. Light poured in. Not your sun, something else. Something... system-y. Like your contracts. Then bam, I was somewhere new. A dungeon. Marked as a creature. Just another thing to kill, or be killed."

She locked a few of her eyes on him.

"And that's when I met you. You were pathetic, by the way."

Timothy raised a brow.

"Thanks. You were strong, too."

"Obviously," she said, brushing a leg.

"Just telling the story."

"You bonded me. The system forced it. I didn't have a say. I didn't like it. Still don't. But here we are."

Then she went quiet, like that was the end of it. Timothy waited.

"Wait," he said eventually,

"that thing you said... about leftovers of something bigger. What was it?"

Anna shrugged.

"I don't know. A world? A failed experiment? A dead god's dream? Doesn't matter. Not my problem. I left. Or got kicked. Either way, I survived."

She lowered herself slightly, clearly not wanting to dive further into that part of her story.

"You humans always want the 'why.' But sometimes, things just are. I was a spider. Now I'm a smarter spider. I eat, I molt, I grow. The only difference now is... you're standing nearby."

Then, just like that, she eased into her usual resting posture, silent, still, composed.

Timothy sat there, blinking at her like she'd just recited an alien bedtime story.

But his mind was far from quiet.

Anna's story echoed in his thoughts, reshaping his understanding of dungeons.

Not all dungeon creatures are born in them, he realized, his assumption was right, at least part of it.

That explained why some dungeons could be raided repeatedly, they weren't sealed ecosystems.

Then there was what she said about being from a place that wasn't quite a world... but remnants of one.

Leftovers.

He couldn't help but draw a connection: Could that be what World Shards are?

It would make sense.

It made too much sense.

World shards... the home of true beasts before the dungeon takes them.

When the shards crack, the creatures fall into dungeons like discarded memories.

Like a colosseum.

And then something clicked.

"Wait, you know about the system?" Timothy asked suddenly, voice edged with surprise.

Anna didn't even look at him.

"Obviously. All species have one."

Timothy's heart thundered in his chest.

His first memory was when the contract appeared, but he didn't think of it that way, so many interpretations.

But... He thought and nothing fit again concerning the system

The weight of her words landed like a mental nuke, detonating implications across every corner of his mind.

All species...

Not just humans.

Not just Earthlings.

All.

His thoughts spiraled into chaos.

His eyes went unfocused.

He didn't even notice Anna had finished the entire monster carcass.

His mind kept trying to make sense of it all.

But the stress signal to his brain reached its limit, and without even realizing it...

He shut down.

Just like that, Timothy passed out, mind racing, body surrendering to sleep.

And so the night came to its end, with only the moonlight watching over the human and the creature that wasn't supposed to exist.

...

Timothy drew in a deep breath and sat up abruptly, chest rising with each pant as he glanced around the dim room.

It took only a moment for his senses to confirm what his eyes already suspected, he was in his bedroom.

He rubbed the back of his neck, damp with sweat, though he couldn't recall what nightmare might've caused it.

Whatever it was, it had vanished like mist upon waking.

Reaching for his phone on the nightstand, he tapped the screen.

4:03 AM.

He had drifted off without meaning to, but his internal clock had pulled him back with uncanny precision.

It was just early enough, just right to take care of his daily quests.

As if in sync with the thought, a familiar chime echoed in his ears.

[Daily Quest is now available]

The system prompt floated calmly before his eyes, and the day however heavy or strange had officially begun