Timothy unlocked the door to his apartment and stepped inside with practiced ease.

This was his space, though today, he moved with more caution than usual.

He closed the door gently and locked it from within.

Safety first.

Only after reaching his room did he finally end the piggyback ride.

The spider hopped off, eyeing the environment warily.

Timothy studied her reaction closely, preparing to lay down some ground rules.

She, on the other hand, took the liberty to explore.

She walked around the room, climbed up the walls, and even dangled from the ceiling for a bit until she abruptly dropped to the floor and stood upright on her limbs.

She looked at him.

Timothy braced himself.

A snarky remark was definitely on its way.

"Your home is really small, bad human," she said.

Honestly, he was expecting worse.

"Uh, no, this isn't my house; well, it is, but what I mean is this is just where I sleep. It's just part of it."

"So I'll be sleeping with you, bad human?" she asked innocently.

"What did you expect when I said you'd be living with me? Don't answer that. Just come on, let me show you the rest of the place," he said quickly, cutting her off before she got another chance to embarrass him.

He was slowly getting the hang of talking to her.

She pouted but followed him anyway.

Timothy led her through a quick tour of the apartment, shared bathroom, kitchen, living room, and even the small backyard. But she was strictly forbidden from leaving the house, not until she was registered.

And that brought up a new concern.

What was he even supposed to say when asked who she was? She wasn't a pet.

He couldn't claim her as a companion.

And pretending he had the power to tame insects? A lie.

They would love to experiment with that, and he'd be caught easily, though it wouldn't be far-fetched that he can talk to insects and potentially tame them, but from his last encounter, which is obviously in front of him, his pheromones interpretation is quite poor and is better handled by the termites themselves.

Their bond only existed because she was still evolving with Gray's essence inside her.

Technically, she was her being.

He was harboring a dungeon creature.

Fortunately, she didn't seem interested in leaving either.

Even in her smaller form, she preferred to laze around, conserving energy the way insects do when inactive, somewhere between sleeping and hibernation.

With her settled, Timothy turned his attention to his routine.

He needed to complete his daily quest, clean up, cook something, and maybe stop by the Association to claim payment for the raid job.

They did profit a lot from it, so asking for compensation wasn't unreasonable, right?

Still, a mocking voice in his head chimed in:

'Frankly, you're the only B-rank I know who's this broke'

That settled it.

He was going to collect his pay.

He also had a few mana crystals to sell hopefully, they wouldn't ask too many questions about where he got them.

With his to-do list set, Timothy checked off the first item: daily quest.

Luckily, he'd already completed the 2km run on his way home.

All that was left were squats, push-ups, and sit-ups.

The last one always sucked, but he powered through it.

By the time he was done, the clock read 10:00 a.m. sharp.

[Daily Quest Completed]

[You have received 4 Free Stat Points]

[Do you wish to claim your rewards? Y/N]

He selected Yes.

> [Choose a Reward:]

1. Full Recovery

2. +3 Stat Points

3. Random Box

...

He didn't hesitate, he picked the +3 Stat Points.

He needed to bulk up.

His new companion was already physically stronger than him.

It wasn't jealousy driving him, at least not entirely, it was the system's warning that haunted him:

---

[Monitoring: Hostility threshold rising]

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

---

He remembered it clearly

His only "contingency" was to stay calm and grow stronger.

The system hadn't been thrilled about the spider bond either, he could tell.

It reluctantly allowed it because it had no other option.

But her being stronger than him? That was a red flag.

He didn't understand how monsters evolved yet, but he had time to observe.

A whole month.

He was training a few other insects, too, and he'd use the time to learn everything he could.

Next on his list is food.

Despite the sweat clinging to his body, he decided to cook.

Something different today, beans.

Yeah, it took forever to prepare, but he wanted a change of taste.

He set the pot on medium heat and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower.

Quick, of course, became long, and by the time he returned...

The beans were half-burnt.

Still, he stirred the pot, took a taste, and shrugged.

It was edible.

Timothy emptied the pot of food with a satisfied grin on his face.

It hadn't taken him more than thirty minutes to devour the meal.

That satiated his large appetite though.

Now feeling like an overinflated tire, he lazily rolled himself toward his room and collapsed onto the bed.

Turning to the side, he lifted his head slightly only to find the spider staring at him from the corner of the ceiling.

Her six ruby eyes locked onto him like she was sizing up her next meal.

It hadn't occurred to him before, but now the thought hit: How was he supposed to sleep with a monster in the same room?

"Can you not look at me like that?" Timothy mumbled groggily.

"It's hard to sleep when you look like you're planning to eat me."

"This is my room, bad human. If you don't like it, use one of the other rooms," she replied.

"They're off-limits… just please, don't use them either," he said, already half-asleep.

Before dozing off completely, Timothy summoned the rest of his termite crew with a flick of his fingers and pointed at her.

"Go play with your mother," he muttered.

The termites didn't move at first, and frankly, Timothy didn't care, he was out cold in seconds.

The spider, however, was not pleased.

Her irritation sparked for no reason other than his sheer audacity.

Still, after a moment of watching the small termites slowly inch toward her, she gave up resisting and simply returned to stasis.

Her eyes closed one by one.

Before long, both monster and man were fast asleep in the same room.

---

Hours later, Timothy stirred under the breeze that occasionally drifted in through the window.

The fan in the corner sat useless, electricity wasn't something you depended on casually anymore.

He turned over again, then paused, discomfort growing in his chest like he'd forgotten something important.

On impulse, he jolted upright.

His eyes darted to the ceiling, where the spider now hung in her usual position.

She must've noticed his sudden movement, two of her eyes opened to meet his.

For a few seconds, Timothy blinked in confusion.

Then the memories came rushing back.

Oh right… I brought her here.

In hindsight, that might have been a terrible idea.

He turned to the barred window.

The sun was just beginning to break through, though still shy behind the clouds.

But something was off.

A sense of urgency prickled at him.

Then it hit.

"My phone!"

He darted downstairs, half-naked, and spotted the device right on the kitchen counter.

Grabbing it, he checked the time and his eyes went wide.

"Five hours? I've been asleep for five hours?" he shouted.

The screen read 3:02 PM.

Whether his body had desperately needed the rest or not, that was too long.

Still, he had no one to blame, he was only human.

Racing back upstairs, he headed straight for his wardrobe and yanked out a pair of casual clothes.

While changing, his mind ran through a dozen fast-paced thoughts.

His last set of clothes had been shredded in the dungeon.

At this rate, he'd need a new wardrobe every week.

Sure, he was durable, but he'd stubbornly refused to buy dungeon-specific gear, something about not wanting to "cosplay" into battle.

That prideful mindset wasn't going to last.

Alright, he decided.

From now on, I'll always carry a spare outfit in my inventory.

That, of course, meant shopping.

Again.

And without someone to haggle for him, he was bound to get ripped off.

But first things first, he needed cash.

And that meant selling off those mana crystals.

Just as he was about to change, he glanced at the spider still clinging to her perch and sighed.

"Can you please look away? I'm about to change."

In response, she slowly opened two more eyes, four in total, and stared even harder.

If that wasn't defiance, Timothy didn't know what was.

"What was your name again? Arancha…?" Timothy asked, nearly butchering it.

The name echoed in his mind, a whisper from the spider herself.

"Arachnephora Nyx'Thelan!"

The moment the words left her mouth, he grinned.

"Right! I'll just call you Anna."

He glanced at his system panel, half-hoping the ridiculously long name would update to the shorter one.

It didn't.

Meanwhile, the spider stared at him in stunned silence, eyes wide with what looked like disbelief or was it horror? Timothy couldn't tell.

She looked like he had just uttered a sacred curse but chose not to comment.

Without warning, and with the subtlety of a brick, Timothy blurted,

"Do you know how mating works?"

He was in the middle of changing, but thankfully, he had used his scarf to create a makeshift curtain.

It wasn't much, but it gave him just enough cover as he quickly pulled on his underwear and pants.

The spider visibly flinched, a noticeable flush creeping across her features.

Whether it was from the unexpected question or something else entirely, he couldn't say.

She didn't respond only two of her eyes remained open now, the others shut tight as if shielding herself from the awkwardness.

Timothy watched her reaction through the small gap above the scarf curtain and couldn't help but smirk a little.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.