Timothy arrived ho ntally exhausted despite having done absolutely nothing all day.
To make matters worse, he was greeted by the sight of his house missing a door.
The embarrassnt peaked when he stepped inside, fully aware that bystanders had seen him enter a ho without a door.
His mind raced from
’I must’ve been robbed’ to
’What did they take?’
only to find, to his surprise, that everything was exactly as he had left it.
It was strange.
Thieves in this city were relentless.
Even knowing he was a Hunter, so would’ve still taken their chances.
It wasn’t rare.
But this ti?
Nothing was missing.
It was as though he looked forward to chasing down a criminal.
Either way, he had to do sothing about the door and probably the damaged fra along with it.
With a sigh, he pulled out his phone, scrolling past unread ssages from Ralph, Sophia, and so archives before texting Miebaka.
"Do you know a woodworker?"
He hit send.
Then, deciding not to dwell on it, he got to work on his daily quest.
Unfortunately, with no door and broad daylight, his neighbors had a front-row seat to his training.
Not all were repulsive looks as Little were of admiration.
The lack of privacy made him more uncomfortable than usual.
At least he had made sure to keep Gray out of sight.
A notification popped up.
DING!
[Daily Quest: A Strong Body]
Push-ups – 200/200 (Completed)
Sit-ups – 200/200 (Completed)
Squats – 200/200 (Completed)
Running – 20 km/20 km (Completed)
[Daily Quest Completed]
[You have received 4 free stat points]
[Do you wish to claim your rewards? Y/N]
Timothy selected "Yes."
[Choose a Reward]
1. Full Recovery
2. 3 Stat Points
3. Random Box
...
He held off on choosing for now.
Instead, he headed to the kitchen, suddenly craving sothing different from his usual als.
A sandwich? Snacks? No... he wanted sothing normal.
But for so reason, he just couldn’t find the motivation to cook.
His phone buzzed.
A ssage from Miebaka.
"Did you just ignore what I sent to ask for a woodworker?"
Timothy smirked, typing back.
"No, I read your ssage. You said you’d handle it. So now I need soone to fix my door."
"Do you think I’m your errand boy? Ask your neighbors."
"Nope, I see you as my personal dium to get anything I want. Besides, I’m too introverted to talk to my neighbors."
There was a pause before Miebaka finally replied.
"He’s a Hunter. His fees are high but worth it. He’ll be there in ten minutes."
That was the last ssage.
Timothy slipped his phone into his pocket and stretched. "Alright, Gray. While we wait, we’ve got so training to do."
He walked into his room, where his trusty companion, his oversized termite was idly wandering around.
Sitting on the bed, Timothy took a deep breath and focused.
He was about to test the upgraded version of Colony Genesis.
First, Summoning.
Four orbs of light flickered into existence around him before taking shape.
Within three seconds, they transford into smaller versions of Gray, miniature termites, each one twitching with life.
He now had enough mana to keep the skill running indefinitely.
Gray imdiately tapped his antennae against them in what Timothy could only describe as a drumming rhythm.
So kind of recognition signal? Then, without hesitation, Gray pushed one of the new recruits toward Timothy.
Timothy blinked.
"...Are you telling to train this one?"
He glanced at the three new termites, noting how much they had grown.
Just two weeks ago, they had been barely the size of his fingers.
Now? Definitely bigger.
Gray twitched his antennae again.
Then, suddenly, a thought entered Timothy’s mind.
"Family?"
Timothy froze.
That was the clearest communication Gray had ever transmitted.
His thoughts clicked into place.
It must be because his ntal skills leveled up.
’But how? ntal skills weren’t like physical ones.’ Timothy thought
You didn’t level them up by just thinking unless Gray had t so kind of hidden requirent?
The more he considered it, the more it made sense.
Every skill had conditions for growth.
His Dash skill, for example, had leveled up after his first dungeon raid.
He hadn’t even used it that much since then, his base speed had improved, and the skill drained little stamina for stress on the body
’But what about Colony Genesis?
If it was a shared skill between him and Gray, then that ant Gray had to et the requirent for its evolution too.
Everything connected.’ Timothy finally understood a little in his head
’But what was the requirent for leveling up a mind-based skill?
Would I need to figure it out for the next stage?’
Timothy shook his head.
No use overthinking it.
He focused on Gray and the newly summoned termite.
"Yes," he said, nodding.
"He’s a new mber of the colony."
Imdiately, a system prompt appeared.
[Designate a Na]
The sa prompt hovered above all four of the new recruits.
Timothy let out a laugh.
"So the system has to acknowledge you first and I have to na you?"
He was about to give the first one a na when he paused.
"...Wait. How do I know which one is female?"
All five termites, including Gray,, stared at him.
Timothy sighed and grabbed his phone, quickly searching for the differences between male and female termites.
Turns out, males had a more slender build, and both sexes had wings.
He glanced between his phone and the termites.
"Wings?" he muttered.
None of the little ones had wings.
Even Gray, their so-called leader, was wingless.
Timothy frowned.
Now that’s weird.
Just as Timothy was about to assign nas to his new recruits, he felt soone approaching the door.
"Let’s not rush things, little guys. You’ll earn your nas in due ti," he said, closing the naming window.
However, as the system interface vanished, a new detail caught his attention, all of them now had levels displayed above their heads.
Gray remained at level 27, the sa as Timothy, while the new termites were all level 0.
Setting that aside for now, he turned his attention to the visitor.
The man standing outside was a tall, muscular figure with deep brown skin, clad in an orange uniform.
He wore safety glasses, the type typically used by welders, and carried a surprisingly light-looking briefcase.
If his uncle had ever taken proper care of himself, he might have looked just like this guy.
"Good afternoon," Timothy greeted.
"Are you Timothy Walter?" the man asked, his tone curt.
"Yes..."
"Where’s the job?" he cut in, skipping any unnecessary small talk.
Timothy simply gestured toward the damaged entrance. "You’re looking at it."
The man didn’t respond imdiately.
Instead, he crouched down and ran his fingers along the edges of the broken doorfra, his expression unreadable.
His gaze shifted briefly to the steel door hanging loosely to the side, its surface dented in one area.
For about ten minutes, he inspected the structure carefully, as if ntally calculating every detail.
Then, without warning, he spoke.
"750,000 naira ($500)."
Timothy blinked.
He stared at the man for a couple of seconds before deadpanning,
"For you or the door?"
"For both. Didn’t they tell you my services aren’t cheap?" the man responded, unfazed.
"They did," Timothy admitted.
"They just forgot to ntion how expensive. 750k? To fix one door? Hell, tear down every door in this house, and I might believe that price."
"Shut up," the man snapped.
"You don’t tell how to do my job. And if every door here suffered the sa kind of damage, I’d charge you the sa, without a discount, especially with that mouth of yours."
Timothy opened his mouth to retort but bit his tongue before he could curse out loud.
He exhaled sharply through his nose instead.
"What does the type of damage have to do with the price, though? You "
The man cut him off.
"This wasn’t normal damage. The impact was strong, aning I had to reinforce the structure, repair the damage, and possibly rebuild the entire doorfra and its attachnts.
If you just need a simple replacent, hire soone else.
But my job is making sure your door doesn’t get destroyed the sa way twice. That’s why I’m a hunter, and that’s what my ability is for."
Timothy frowned.
A hunter with a wood-repair ability?
He struggled to wrap his head around it but ultimately sighed in defeat.
"Fine. Do what you have to do," he muttered.
He was bleeding money at this point and already calculating how much he’d have left and more importantly, how he could recover it.
Just as he turned to head back to his room, the man called out.
"Hey, where do you think you’re going?"
"Don’t you need privacy?" Timothy replied, not bothering to turn around.
The man extended his hand, a slight smirk forming on his lips.
"Paynt before service," he said.
Timothy reluctantly and grudgingly took out his phone to do a transfer to the man, looking at him he felt like the guy was on so kind of auto provoke civilians settings
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