Pop!

The second web-spinner spider came out and fell to the ground with a thud, the nearby asphalt showed signs of cracks.

An evil smile appeared on Lucien’s face.

Ha, thumper. Since you won’t obediently stay still—

"Second spider! That target— " Lucien pointed at the second thumper that was still as slippery as hell and ordered,

"Shoot it with your web!"

"Kiiikkk!"

The second gatekeeper spider immediately flailed its legs, its mouth wide open and—

Swoosh!

A bundle of white, tangled webs shot out like a cannon, heading straight towards the huge thumper!

The thumper sensed an incoming attack and was about to dodge when the white ball suddenly bloomed, spreading into a wide net.

Swish!

The thumper couldn’t dodge.

The web net immediately landed on its upper body, the sticky web quickly latched itself to the shell!

"First spider! Now!"

The first spider immediately moved the other webs around and quickly rolled the webs around the thumper, so fast that the thumper had just wriggled when its lower body was already turned into a pupa.

But Lucien wasn’t done yet.

He immediately summoned a new venomous spider, bowed at the spider apologetically and ordered,

"Go into its mouth and inject your venom."

"Kiiiik!" The second venomous spider crawled along the webs in the air and jumped onto the thumper’s head.

"Hissss!" The thumper thrashed around and sensing a "prey" nearby, it immediately turned its head toward the venomous spider, its jagged teeth breathing in and out...

But the venomous spider didn’t dodge. It immediately plunged into the mouth, the sharp needle-like teeth grazed its body, green blood spilled out.

Before the teeth crushed the spider, the spider plunged its fangs into the thumper’s tender flesh inside the mouth.

Stab!

Green poison seeped in and the next second—

Crack!

The venomous spider burst into pieces, leaving only its still twitching body parts.

But at the same time, the clever thumper felt its body becoming heavier, its movement slowed down.

Lucien’s 360° vision immediately noticed the second thumper’s reaction and shouted,

"First and second spiders! Turn that worm into a pupa!"

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Two web-spinner gatekeeper spiders worked in tandem, quickly swallowing the thumper’s upper body with the web.

In less than a minute, the thumper, now only wriggling slowly, had turned into a gigantic pupa.

"Pull!"

"Kiiik!"

The two spiders quickly dragged the huge prey towards Lucien’s house.

Thump. Thump.

The thumper slowly thrashed around and the web around it trembled several times, but the pupa remained intact until the thumper was right at Lucien’s yard.

Lucien immediately imagined putting the pupa to the spider dungeon and that huge pupa disappeared out of thin air, joining the first pupa that was still living tenaciously, even wriggling slightly.

Thump.

The moment the second pupa was thrown to the chasm, Lucien wiped his sweat and beamed into a smile.

"Good job, you two!"

There were still a few more hours until they returned, so...

"Let’s hunt a few more!"

Just like moths attracted to the flame, the thumpers came out of the red fog one after another, sometimes two at once.

Lucien repeated the same trick as before, sacrificing venomous spiders in exchange for live ones, but—

"Hisss!" Some thumpers cleverly didn’t open their mouths to bite the spider so Lucien had to force the spider in!

Thump.

Another thumper broke free from the webs before the spiders could shoot more.

"Kiikk!" The spiders misfired, the thumper targeted immediately scooted away, disappearing as fast as lightning.

In the next several hours, Lucien painstakingly hunted more and more thumpers.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The number of living pupa in the chasm increased.

Two, five, ten...

The gatekeeper spiders’ movement slowed down, and the number of webs they could produce drastically decreased.

"Kiiikk..."

Last one hour.

Lucien was fighting a thumper that could still move around even when almost all of its body was turned into a pupa and a venom was injected into its mouth.

It was strangely stubborn.

But this time, the pupa was way thinner than before— the two spiders couldn’t produce any more webs!

Seeing the situation clearly, Lucien finally shouted in a hoarse voice, blinking his eyes uncomfortably.

"Return to the house! Just forget about that prey."

"Kiiikkk..."

The two gatekeeper spiders slowly crawled back on the land, the web traps in the air had been reduced to less than a quarter.

As the spiders’ huge body retreated, the ground several meters away from the thumper slowly shifted, and the thumper’s body stiffened.

When the exhausted spiders returned to the yard, Lucien immediately took out the thumpers’ meat that he had never processed before, cut into cubes.

"Thanks for the good work. Now eat."

Smelling the scent of high-quality meat, the two gatekeeper spiders immediately waved their legs excitedly.

"Kiiik!"

"Kiiik!"

Thank you, king!

Munch. Munch. Munch.

As the two spiders feasted on the meat, Lucien entered the house and sat down in the living room with one venomous spider that he just recently summoned to defeat the stubborn thumper.

"Hufft. Anyway, I already caught ten thumpers." Lucien let out a relieved sigh as he massaged his throbbing temple and eyes.

Beside him, Lurenzo followed like a zombie with no soul, just staring blankly, his face saying: "Who am I? Where am I? Why am I here?"

Ignoring Lurenzo’s blank face, Lucien hummed, closing his throbbing eyes that has been used for hunting for several hours straight,

"Hum, hum, hum, just one more hour and we will return~ "

Hummmm.

A faint, humming noise resembling a fine tremor sounded outside, so faint that even the spiders at the yard didn’t hear it.

Hummmm...

Thump.

The stiffening thumper immediately thrashed around even harder than before, its body trying to move away.

Hummmm...

The humming noise got closer to the thumper, the ground slowly softened, turning into a small wave,

Thump. Thump.

The thumper trembled from head to toe, it crawled forward with all of its might.

Hummm...

The asphalt one meter away from the thumper dented down, and then...

Burst.

The asphalt cracked, debris shot out, along with another thing.

Swish!

A row of jagged teeth clamped down the thumper’s lower body.

"Hisss— "

The thumper shrieked inside the pupa, its body held on tight to the surface, but half of its body was instantly dragged into the ground.

Screeechhh.

A long, dragging mark was left on the surface.

Hummmm.

The ground moved like a liquid and quickly returned to normal.

Tremble.

The remaining webs around trembled, Lucien suddenly felt a chill down his spine, his coward— animal instinct screamed.

Lucien immediately used his 360° vision to scan the area around him and his pupils shook, sweat dripped down his nose.

The thumper...was gone.

The ground showed a slight dent and some marks that didn’t appear before, but aside from that, there was nothing.

Lucien’s breath hitched, his heart skipped a beat.

Something...is wrong.