Attercopus was in despair.

The long-tailed green lizard, her idol, had disappeared.

She had waited day after day, but even after a week, there was still no sign of him.

… Could he have been defeated by that crocodile?

Pus whimpered, her small body trembling with worry over the lizard.

“Ki-eeng….”

Atelakomartus, her sister, came closer and nudged her gently.

“Ke-ek….”

It seemed to be her way of comforting Pus.

Pus and Tus—they were sisters.

Not blood-related sisters, of course. In fact, they weren’t even the same species.

One could spin webs, while the other possessed venomous fangs.

But from the moment they were born, they grew up together.

They slept together, ate together, and lived together. Pus and Tus had always been by each other’s side.

Their peaceful life came to an abrupt end when they were captured by humans.

It was the Tang Clan.

They were collecting venomous creatures to pit them against each other, with the survivor’s venom being extracted.

It was a process known as solitary venom.

The sisters’ fate would have been to become ingredients for this brutal practice.

Before they could be forced to fight and devour each other, a man had rescued them. He had stolen all the spiders the Tang Clan had kept, including the sisters.

That’s how Pus and Tus ended up here, released into the wilderness of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.

A new start in a new place.

The two sisters banded together, determined to survive.

But survival in this harsh wilderness wasn’t easy.

For some reason, massive creatures the size of buildings roamed the area, and even the insects were larger than Pus and Tus.

At barely five centimeters each, there was little the sisters could hunt successfully.

They were constantly on the run from predators, barely managing to escape to a swamp.

They tried hunting, but with their weak webs and the small amount of venom in their fangs, they couldn’t catch anything.

They were literally starving.

If it weren’t for the seeds they occasionally found on the ground, they would have died long ago.

Then, like a comet, a green lizard appeared.

From the moment they saw him, Pus and Tus felt an inexplicable attraction.

This was thanks to the lizard’s title effect, but they didn’t know that.

His sharp yet somehow endearing face, the green scales, and especially his plump white belly, made them salivate.

And the highlight was his long tail, which was nearly twice the length of his body.

Even Tus, the more timid of the two, couldn’t help but take an interest in him.

Their initial attraction, however, was nothing more than instinctual.

But the lizard proved himself to be more than just an intriguing sight.

Out of desperation, they had approached him, and he had offered them a water beetle to eat—something far beyond their capabilities to hunt.

Starving and weak, Pus and Tus immediately lunged for the beetle.

Of course, the beetle had almost eaten them in return, but the lizard had saved them once more, using his sharp claws to dismantle the beetle’s shell piece by piece.

Their admiration for the lizard only grew.

But just as they were basking in happiness, the lizard did something unthinkable.

He touched Pus’s bottom!

Not only that, but he used it to draw out her webs!

The spider sisters were in shock.

Pus, who had never even courted a mate, had her bottom violated.

Tus was furious, and Pus was so embarrassed she didn’t know what to do.

Of course, they later realized he needed the web to prepare for the piranha hunt, but the shame of having allowed him to touch her bottom lingered.

Still, when they ate the piranha, they clapped their hands in delight.

It was a taste they had never experienced before. What spider in the world could say they’d eaten a piranha? Pus thought she’d allow the lizard to touch her bottom as many times as needed if it meant eating that fish again.

The lizard seemed to need Pus’s webs often.

He used them to build a home, and even when hunting frogs, he needed her webs.

Pus, embarrassed but resigned, would subtly offer her bottom to him.

Though strange, she had begun to enjoy the gentle tap on her bottom before the webs were extracted.

It was inappropriate, of course, for an unmarried spider to allow such liberties. But the long-tailed lizard’s charm made her overlook it.

Tus, shocked by her sister’s behavior, found herself sometimes wishing she could produce webs too.

Unfortunately, she was a venomous spider and couldn’t spin webs, leaving her with nothing but frustration.

But soon, she had her own chance.

The lizard asked her to bite his tail.

Tus refused, at first, feeling too indebted to the lizard to harm him. But the temptation was too strong to resist.

When she finally bit into his long, beautiful tail, she found herself awakening to something new.

Pus enjoyed having her bottom tapped, while Tus enjoyed biting his tail.

It was a strange situation, but there were no problems.

After all, the lizard didn’t seem to notice or care.

Pus and Tus believed these happy times would last forever.

But just as sudden as their joy had come, it left.

The caiman.

A massive crocodile had destroyed their home.

The last they saw of the lizard was him luring the caiman away to save them.

Despite his sacrifice, Pus and Tus had been captured by the caiman.

They had foolishly gone looking for him.

It was a dumb decision, but love often makes fools of us all.

The caiman had captured the tiny spiders.

It was a strange thing.

They were smaller than the caiman’s eye.

He didn’t eat them. He chose to keep them alive.

Why?

The answer was simple: the inner core.

Both sisters had the potential to become Spider Kings.

After losing part of his own inner core, the caiman was desperate to recover.

He could hunt other spirit creatures, but those that had developed inner cores were not easy to capture, even if they weren’t particularly strong.

So the caiman decided to raise the two spiders, hoping to consume their inner cores when the time was right.

Pus spun webs every day, while Tus extracted venom.

They believed that using their abilities would lead to the growth of an inner core.

It was a never-ending cycle of exploitation, living only because they couldn’t die.

The sight of the caiman looming over them every day was terrifying.

Still, the sisters endured.

They relied on each other.

And they thought of the lizard.

“Grrr….”

The caiman’s eyes glared at them.

It was a warning not to waste time and get back to work.

“Kie-ek….”

Pus tried to spin more web, but nothing came out.

Without the lizard to tap her bottom, her production had slowed.

The caiman watched her closely, then slowly raised his massive paw.

Pus screamed.

“Kiaaak!”

She knew what this meant—he was going to smack her to make the web come out.

She would rather die than allow him to touch her there.

No matter how hard Tus tried to stop her, Pus refused to back down.

“Kiaaaaak!”

She wouldn’t submit to the monster who killed the lizard.

Spinning webs for him had been humiliating enough.

Now he wanted to touch her?

“Kieeek!”

For the lizard, and for her pride, she would rather die.

Pus’s determination was fierce.

The caiman raised his paw once again.

Tus might be the more valuable one, with her venom.

One less spider wouldn’t make a difference.

In fact, setting an example might make the other more obedient.

A massive shadow fell over Pus.

She still clung to life.

She felt guilty about leaving Tus behind.

And she regretted never seeing the lizard again.

Attercopus closed her eyes, trying to picture him one last time.

His long tail.

His green scales.

Thud!

… If only she could hear his voice one more time.

At the very moment she accepted her death, a growl rang out.

It was not the caiman’s growl, but a different one.

And somehow, it sounded familiar to her.

Pus opened her eyes.

The caiman’s massive paw was trembling.

Standing between her and the caiman was a huge lizard.

A lizard she had never seen before.

Its skin was dark teal, and its eyes were blue.

Yet it seemed familiar.

The long tail, wrapped in multicolored threads—it was unmistakable.

… How?

No, how could this be?

Her eyes widened in disbelief.

Emotions she had suppressed for so long burst forth like a waterfall.

Her heart swelled with joy, bubbling up from the depths of her soul.

Her short legs reached out to touch the figure before her.

It wasn’t a figment of her imagination.

“Geggegek!”

He had returned.