Chapter 93: New Feature Unlocked: Companion

Lucien, who wasn’t carrying Mumu with him: ...?

The other neighbors put down their knives and beamed at Lucien, waving their hands energetically.

"Mister awakener! So it’s you!"

"Where did you get those meats? Just finish hunting?"

"Which dungeon is this? The meat looks huge."

"There’s a shell too..."

The neighbors chattered noisily and Lucien could only smile stiffly as he gestured at Lurenzo, who was hiding behind the white fog, reluctant to come out.

[Human. Don’t dilly dally.]

Lurenzo, carrying a bunch of meat and shells: ...you can say that because you’re not the laborer!!

But when Lurenzo felt the weight of money— the worm’s meat, he immediately beamed and came out of the white fog, carrying meat and shells with him.

"Here, here, my lord! Should I pile them here— uh, wait, how do we carry them to the city?"

Lurenzo ignored the neighbors’ curious gazes and asked the most important thing.

Without spatial storage— don’t tell him he would carry the goods all the way to Grindhall city??

Lucien wasn’t that cruel but he too, was troubled by this matter.

Let’s see...

Lucien scrolled his system screens, hoping there was a way out— and there, he found a new feature he had never seen before.

[Companion (NEW): 0/1]

Description: Summon a companion among your dungeon natives.

• Can be summoned within 300 meters range

• Can move outside of the 300 meters range manually, but instant summoning is not possible

• Warning: the companion will not receive any buff from the main dungeon!

Lucien’s breath hitched, his eyes shining.

This— this means he could finally get a monster to help him fight or be his mount outside of his dungeon, right??

But won’t this attract attention?

Lucien’s excitement visibly waned.

From the day he awakened until now, three days had passed and he had quietly done everything in the dark.

If he summoned a dungeon native...

Lucien knew that he would definitely be another spectacle but he wouldn’t be able to avoid this forever.

Not to mention.....

He could make people misunderstand his true ability.

Lucien reassured himself as he checked the list of available companions and the two gatekeeper spiders were locked.

Ah. They became patrol guards.

That left him with ordinary spiders, the evolved slimes, elite slimes, slime king and queen...and spider queen.

Lucien rubbed his chin and thought about the Grindhall city’s security that they had to pass through...

He suddenly had a bold idea.

Lucien’s eyes lingered on the spider queen’s picture and he nodded.

I choose you, pika— ah, no, spider queen!

As Lucien imagined the spider queen, he gestured at Lurenzo.

[Human. Tell your kin to stay away from me.]

"Huh? What? Why— "

Wongggg.

The void in front of Lucien’s house twisted and the neighbors immediately took a few steps back, their knives raised again.

"Ah! What’s that??"

"Is it another dungeon gate?"

"A gate?? Run! Run!"

Everyone quickly rushed back to their houses and the commotion naturally spread to other neighbours as well.

The people peeked from their windows, watching as the void in front of Lucien’s house cracked open.

"That must be a gate!"

"Huh. Why is that awakener so unlucky?"

"Yeah, yeah, last time, the dungeon gate was right in front of his house too, right?"

Just when the neighbors pitied Lucien—

Shriikk...

Giant legs came out of the void, gleaming under the sunlight.

The neighbors shut their mouths, their bodies trembled.

"T-that...a m-monster?"

A gate break?

But there’s no gate...

Tak. Tak.

The spider queen’s huge figure slowly crawled out of the void, half of its huge figure hidden by the white fog.

Everyone held their breath as they watched the spider queen stand tall in front of Lucien...and then slowly bowed her head.

!

The neighbors suppressed their screams, some quickly used their phones to record.

"C-crazy! Is that his tamed monster??"

"Must be! Remember how he tamed those slimes? He’s a beast tamer!"

"That spider looks huge...a boss monster??"

"This is crazy!"

Snap. Snap. Snap.

Lucien ignored the flashing lights and the neighbors’ excited murmurs.

He slowly stroked the queen’s head with trembling hands as he spoke to Lurenzo, who was standing stiffly like a statue.

[What are you doing, human? Load the goods.]

Lurenzo almost dropped the meat and shell he was carrying, his face contorted into the "Scream" painting.

"W-what what what— isn’t that the spider queen??"

From the dungeon they destroyed— ah, no, wait.

He had seen the spider gatekeepers too.

So...the dungeon wasn’t destroyed?

But it was gone!

Lurenzo recalled Lucien’s spider form and suddenly nodded, his face full of understanding.

"Ah, right! This spider queen is your mom!"

This humanoid monster just reclaimed the dungeon of his mom—

[Shut up.]

Lucien’s temple throbbed as he raised his voice, his face dark.

[Load the goods!]

"Oh! Right, right!" Lurenzo immediately shut his mouth and stood next to the spider queen’s body.

He slowly looked up at the towering monster, his face pale.

So...how to load the goods?

Seeing Lurenzo motionless, Lucien looked at the spider queen and the spider queen meekly lowered her whole body.

Thud.

Now that the spider queen was much shorter, Lurenzo finally threw the goods on top of the spider queen’s back. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

The spider queen shot out a web from her mouth and skillfully tidied up the goods on her back, packing it up for her master.

[Move quickly.] Lucien urged Lurenzo and the poor merchant dragged all the goods to the spider queen’s back.

At the same time, Lucien took out the slime corpses that failed the evolution but still retained the new traits.

He packed those precious armor-dissolving saliva, the slime skin and the medicinal slime gel into a box before putting it on the queen’s back.

Not only that, Lucien summoned the boss monster’s huge body and tied it behind the spider queen’s body.

By the time they finished packing, the sun was already shining and a crowd of people carefully watched from afar, the murmurs drifting in the air.

"Damn, what kind of worm is that??"

"A boss monster!"

"F-rank? E-rank?"

Lucien stood with Mumu in his arms that he called not too long ago and Lurenzo right behind him.

The people’s whispers and gazes were too much to bear and Lucien finally felt slightly irritable.

[Let’s go.]

Lucien kicked the ground and immediately sat on top of the spider queen’s head, drawing the crowd’s exclamations.

"Oh, wow! That’s so cool!"

"So this is a beast tamer..."

Down there, Lurenzo struggled to climb the spider queen’s legs and could only sit at her buttocks, feeling the lonely wind blowing.

Before the crowd could make a fuss again, Lucien finally used his skill.

Shingggg.

An invisible house enveloped Lucien, Lurenzo, Mumu, along with the spider queen’s entire body.

The crowds saw the monster disappear into the thin air and everyone erupted.

"Huh! It’s gone! Where is it?"

"Teleportation?"

"No, no, maybe it’s an invisible skill..."

"Damn, we can’t see them anymore!!"

While the crowds were complaining and slowly dispersing, a system panel popped up in front of Lucien.

[The Landlord Is Not Here]

[Skill duration: 60 minutes]

[Estimated cooldown: 1 hour]

Lucien keenly noticed that the skill duration had doubled from only 30 minutes all the way to an hour.

Is this the perk of being an E-rank awakener?

But then, the system flashed a red panel.

[Warning! Warning! The skill is cast on too many targets!]

[Duration: 30 minutes]

Ah, yeah, that penalty again.

But that’s enough time to arrive at Grindhall City.

Lucien whistled as he spoke to the spider queen through telepathy.

[Let’s go.]

"Kiikk!!"