Level Up The Colony
Chapter 81: Food

Chapter 81: Food

Now, only Timothy and the spider remained, one glaring, the other watching with a curious, contemplative look.

Miebaka didn’t concern himself with anything else.

He had achieved his goal.

As for the others? He hardly cared.

They couldn’t leave without him anyway.

Or so he believed.

Well, not entirely.

Miebaka could leave if he wanted, it was simple geography, really.

Timothy opened his system panel, and sure enough, Gray was still evolving.

However, the display had shifted to a different tab:

[Silverback Termite (Gray)] — Evolving: 30:00:00:00

A full month and counting down

Timothy wasn’t sure what triggered the change.

Maybe it was the spider’s stomach, his gut had told him something was different once Gray was swallowed.

Or perhaps the system had simply taken time to finish calculating.

He took a deep breath and tried to connect with Gray.

The link was there, faint but present.

Gray should’ve been capable of speech by now, but the system had warned that he’d be dormant, unable to move.

He was hoping that the termite would at least be able to convey something.

No response came however

The connection was more of a ghost than anything functional.

Timothy sighed, weighing his next steps.

That’s when he felt it, a sudden tug on his mental bond with Gray.

Strange.

The sensation was alien, foreign... almost invasive.

If he had to describe it, he imagined a nail pinned into the ground, that nail was him.

Though he lacked any mind-based skills, he had always been able to connect with Gray because of Gray’s unique mental ability.

Gray was another nail, smaller but still anchored.

Between them, a metaphysical rubber band kept them linked, two-way, flexible, and functional.

But now... something else pulled at that connection.

Like a third rope, rough and uninvited, it tugged at the thread between him and Gray, straining it.

Since Gray was dormant, the connection was already weak, this external pressure only made it worse.

Whatever this was, it shouldn’t have been possible.

Was it because of the evolution? He asked himself, as it brought quite a mental toll on him.

Timothy didn’t fully understand the intricacies of mental communication, but he had some assumptions and deductions.

Then he heard it, a voice in his head, clear and feminine.

"Just kill me already... bad human." A soft feminine voice said.

His eyes went to the spider.

Of course, it had to be her.

Who else was on death’s door?

Bad human? What did she mean? She was the one who tried to kill him

Timothy tried to focus his thoughts, to protect them like he would with Gray.

But it didn’t work.

It felt like trying to move a phantom limb.

The thought just... didn’t go anywhere.

He dived into the connection mentally again and pondered for some time before he realized The connection was one-way; she could speak into his mind, but she couldn’t hear him.

It wasn’t two-way nor as flexible as the rubber band.

Still, judging by the intelligence in her eyes or what was left of them he wouldn’t be surprised if she could hear him somehow.

"Can you hear me?" Timothy said aloud, his voice calm but firm, speaking clearly enough for the spider to possibly learn.

No response.

Just silence.

Expected.

Timothy stared at the broken remains of the spider.

Or what was left of it, at least?

Something deep inside urged him to finish it off.

It was only a C-rank monster, killing it should definitely grant him at least one level-up.

Plus, a part of his Colony Genesis skill whispered that he could create more termites the stronger he got and the faster he leveled up the skill

That thought gave him a strange sense of hope; maybe Gray wasn’t truly gone; maybe he could take the risk and try to summon the termites back if things went sideways.

However, he knew that it was just him accepting facts

Still, he hesitated.

He wasn’t the type to sacrifice a companion for power.

Then again, power in numbers mattered too.

Which was all the more reason he should really try all he could to rescue Gray.

Suddenly, Timothy stood up straight with a cold face; he acted on impulse and stepped closer to the spider, speaking in a voice only it could hear.

"I know you can hear me... and there’s a reason I’m keeping you alive, do you know why?"

No response.

But the mental link intrusion was still there faint, but active.

"I may have provoked you into fighting. Maybe this feels like torture. But I need something from you... and you need something from me." he said but still...Silence.

Maybe he was just a really bad sales pitchman.

"You don’t want to die, do you?" Timothy continued, calm but cold.

It wasn’t a threat, though; it wouldn’t work in this situation.

"I don’t want you to die either. Not yet. Because you have something that belongs to me. And I don’t know what killing you will do... so I’ll be honest."

He took a breath, eyes steady on the spider.

"If you can spit it out politely, I promise neither I nor my team will hurt you. We’ll walk away. There’s plenty of food here for you when we’re gone."

Still no response.

Well, he couldn’t blame the poor spider; this was definitely slavery of some sort.

"But if you don’t..." Timothy’s tone dropped colder.

"I’ll cut it out of your stomach myself."

He wasn’t sure spiders had ears, but he remembered something about them sensing vibrations through the fine hairs on their bodies, thanks to a comic book, of all things.

Straightening, he summoned his machete.

If the spider couldn’t help him, then there was no point in keeping it alive.

He walked toward its head, eyes on the neck.

Mana had trickled back into his body during the wait, just enough.

Activating Armament, he raised his blade to shoulder level

A pulse tugged at his mental link.

Gray’s mental thread.

A voice followed:

"I... cannot." It said.

The interference made Timothy grit his teeth.

The strain was harsh, like two mismatched signals clashing.

"What do you mean, ’you cannot’?" he asked sharply.

No answer.

Many ideas started running through his head, and at the end of the thought, he decided to be patient.

He waited.

Thankfully, the others didn’t interrupt, Prisca was asleep, and the rest kept their distance, weapons ready.

Then another strained message

"Food."

Timothy narrowed his eyes.

He already understood what she meant and he was frankly expecting this

He’d seen her earlier, feeding on something cocooned to regenerate a limb.

Maybe she didn’t have the strength to speak properly.

But trust was fragile.

What if she turned hostile after regaining energy? If she harmed his team, he’d never forgive himself.

Still, he made up his mind.

The spider’s lower body was still bound by a long scarf. Timothy grabbed the end and began dragging her away from the others.

They watched but said nothing, perhaps out of fear, or confusion.

After all, it wasn’t every day you saw a young man pulling a monster the size of a truck.

"He’s a B-ranker, I guess..." Helen muttered.

Timothy didn’t drag her far, just enough that, if anything went wrong, his team could escape or intervene quickly.

Once he reached a safe distance, he raised his machete and slashed upward, using Kinetic Pounce to fire a crescent-shaped green arc through the air.

The blade cut through a cluster of webs hanging above.

Several cocoons dropped, some squashing and others splitting on impact, others staying intact.

He rushed to the nearest intact one, gripping the web it hung from.

It was dense and surprisingly heavy.

He dragged it over to the spider’s head.

"Open up," he ordered.

He could already feel the burning gaze of his team behind him, Weapons tensed and ready to intervene

The spider hesitated.

Then, slowly, its mandibles opened, revealing its mouth.

Timothy was about to shove the entire cocoon in but paused.

"If you can hear me, understand this, this is not a gesture of goodwill. This is so we can talk."

He sliced the cocoon cleanly down the middle using his Armament-coated machete, letting its contents pour into the spider’s mouth.

Behind him, some of his teammates exchanged wary glances.

Their trust in him was clearly slipping.

Except for Nonso, whose face remained unreadable and

Prisca, thankfully, still slept soundly.

Timothy didn’t bother threatening the spider again.

It would be pointless.

He wasn’t sure he could kill her cleanly, but he was certain he could blind her if it came to that.

Pain was a great deterrent.

Calm on the outside.

Tense and ready on the inside.

He waited for a few seconds, counting down in his head as if the spider should be able to digest it or something.

Exactly after thirty seconds he determined that no matter what species it was, its body metabolism and function would have kicked in to start doing its job so he said...

"Start talking" in a cold tone

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