"While caution is certainly important, and always takes priority, know that in some cases exercising excessive caution can cause you to lose an opportunity. If you are presented an opportunity with low risk and high reward, and for the sake of caution ignore such an opportunity, then you cannot call yourself a businessman. Always be looking for opportunities, weighing risks, and determining if an action is worth the risk."

Some more words from Trevor during the time he was training Coran.

Coran understood what his master meant, as there was no such thing as an action that had absolutely zero risk.

The concept of zero risk was nothing more than an illusion caused by shortsightedness, as there are always unknown and unforeseen consequences to any action.

However, if one were to sit down and worry about all these unforeseen consequences, then they would merely cradle themselves up into a ball and never do anything for fear of loss.

One can never gain anything like this. As a matter of fact, doing nothing has risk in of itself- the risk that while one is stagnating that their enemies may be plotting and taking their own risks in an attempt to undermine you.

Therefore, accepting risks is necessary, and managing risk a critical skill. That is, the ability to ensure that risk is minimized while reward is maximized.

Coran felt no threat from the wasp in front of him who challenged him with a glaive. Furthermore, he sensed that while the queen was somewhat stronger, that there was no threat from her either. She didn't even seem to be emanating any sense of bloodlust or hatred towards him.

He felt absolutely no sense of threat.

It was not that the wasp in front of him didn't have any killing intent. Quite the opposite, this warrior who was challenging him right now was indeed challenging him to a fight to the death. Perhaps it was out of chivalry, to protect his queen, or perhaps he was trying to take revenge for the other wild wasps which Coran had mercilessly slaughtered, or perhaps even out of the rage due to the maggots and eggs which had been killed off despite the fact that they had no ability to fight back.

Regardless of his reasoning, Coran knew that the one in front of him would not let him go without a fight.

However, he posed no threat, so this was not a problem. It was an excessively low risk.

Even without his steel thread armor, which thoroughly reinforced his own defensive capabilities, Coran's skin was hard enough after Trevor had increased his capabilities to the point where he would not take damage from an attack, even if it were to hit him in a critical spot. Adding onto this, he was flexible and fast enough to easily dodge attacks that were so fast that a normal person would struggle to see them.

His poison would kill the enemy almost instantly just by a mere touch- which was actually something Coran had to be careful about.

He couldn't allow himself to kill someone which he didn't want to kill after all.

If his poison so much as grazed the finger of someone who was not resistant to it, they would die in a moment. It would seep through the skin and propagate through the blood stream, stopping the heart of the person before even a single beat could occur.

Which was why he only used his poison in cases where he did not care whether everyone in the vicinity died or not.

However, Coran saw an opportunity right now.

An opportunity to gain information on these wasps from the more intelligent, humanoid leaders.

So he wanted to at least allow this one to live long enough for him to witness how he fought, and his abilities.

After all, this was a low risk for Coran, and he could gain something invaluable from it- information.

Coran sheathed his own bow, and began to lick the poison off the cones on his arms like a snake.

He didn't even take out his spear and put his blowdart into his bag, so that the only weapons he currently wielded were the spikes covering his four spiderlike arms. As Coran paced about, observing the wasps, his steel thread armor, which was made of a material that appeared to be mere grey cloth, drooped over his human hands, hiding them from the sight of the wasps.

The wasp warrior, who had his glaive poised and was ready to fight took offense to this.

"You imbecile!! Do you mean to tell me that you don't even need your weapons to defeat me?? I will show you your arrogance in just a moment!"

He said this while circling his glaive about in a skilled motion, and his eyes were lit with the fire of the fight.

However, Coran knew well that there was no need to even bother. Right now, he simply wanted to view what the wasp would do.

"Start whenever you want. I won't attack until 1 minute has passed, and then I will end this."

The wasp burst a vein at this statement, and charged at Coran. His queen was watching him, so he couldn't afford to get called out and humiliated like this.

"I will force you to attack me within that minute then!! If not, you will die!"

He swung his glaive in a large arc above his head, smashing it into the ground where Coran stood previously, however before it hit him, Coran jumped back lightly.

"A wide swing which takes an excessive amount of time to recuperate from? And you are supposed to be a warrior? Do you not know what it means to be flexible? If you rely on a single movement to defeat your enemy with power alone, and don't think at least 10 steps ahead of that move, then you will only checkmate yourself."

Coran said this while jumping back into a corner, but the wasp merely smiled.

"You don't seem to understand the situation here, spider. I've got you now!"

The waspman lifted his glaive, ripping it from the plaster as dust and chunks of the material ripped apart the ground, and he prepared for a sideswing.

"You've got nowhere to hide, and you're trapped in a corner! Even if you duck, you can't go low enough to dodge this! Even if you jump, you cant get high enough to avoid the swing!"

However, Coran blew away the expectations with a sly grin.

He quickly shot a thread straight upwards, attaching it to the ceiling, and then reeled himself in so that he avoided the glaive's arc.

"No need to allow myself to be hit by an attack as simple as this."

The waspman was caught off balance, expecting his blade to hit Coran as it continued swinging in the horizontal arc. The waspman was now jumping up and down to avoid falling over due to the momentum of the swing, which he fully expected to hit his target.

"Why you little... playful tricks will only help you escape! Come back and fight like a man!!"

Coran seemed to be laughing while he stuck his spiderlike hands to the wall and ceiling, holding onto it.

"Fight like a man?? That's not what my masters taught me. You know what they told me? If need be, throw dirt in the eyes of your opponent. Pretend like you are their ally, and then stab them in the back- and always make sure to double tap when you do so. Never give in to provocations of chivalry, or fair fighting. These are nothing more than ways in which people are brought down, and lose!"

"You sneaky little bastard!! Your masters must be dishonorable to teach you such things!"

"Dishonorable? They would likely smile at being called such a term, as they don't believe in such a thing as honor. It is nothing more than a made up concept- something which people have created to limit their own actions. Let's say I were to attack you right now, before this minute is up. Would you call me dishonorable? Would you say that I didn't stick to my word? Even if it were to save myself and my life? Even after calling me arrogant for placing such a limitation on myself? Something silly like honor doesn't matter when it comes to winning or losing. I only made that little condition because I was certain I would not need to attack you before the time was up. If my life was truly in danger, I would break it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately for you, you are too weak to make it so that I break my word."

Veins seemed to be popping all over the head of the waspman, and his wings started fluttering back and forth with an excessive vibration- faster than the normal eye could see. He was preparing to take off.

"If you won't fight me like a man, and if you intend on continuously running from me, then I will hunt you down instead like the little rat you are!!"

"Please do."

Coran started shooting webs all around the ceiling, making it his domain, and swinging from them like vines from place to place. The waspman started to fly up at first, but after seeing that the entire ceiling was now covered in webs, he stopped in his tracks.

"Setting up traps like this in the home of the queen!?! How disrespectful can you become!!!??"

"Not my home, not my problem. The only home I respect is that of my masters and their slaves."

"Grr!!!"

The waspman flew up in a rage, and tried to slice away at Coran's webs, which now covered the ceiling, however when he cut the first strand, the blade of his glaive became stuck in the thick sticky thread.

He tried to pull it out, but he couldn't. It was as if he had placed it inside a pool of molten metal, and it had cooled immediately, welding itself to the blade.

"What is this??? How can these webs be so adhesive??"

He tried to yank the glaive once more with a great force, and the webs seemed to stretch elastically, however only for a moment. Like a spring which had been stretched, they then pulled back with an even greater strength than the yank of the waspman, forcing him to either let go of his glaive or to be thrust himself into the web of Coran.

He was too flustered to make the right decision in time, and too focused on trying to pull his weapon out, so he held onto it for dear life, and in that single moment found himself flying towards the web- caught like.... well, like a fly in a web.

"Ugh!!!"

His arms and legs now were attached to the threats of the webs, and his wings as well were stuck. He tried to struggle at first to get out, only further entangling himself.

"M... my queen!! Do not worry about me, but please escape before this monster tries to ensnare you as well!!"

However, his queen seemed to be off in her own world.

'She didn't hear me!! What is she looking at?? It's as if she is completely captivated by something!! At this rate, she won't escape and we will all die here! I cannot allow that to happen!! I absolutely must get the queen to escape!!'

Coran was now dangling from a single thread, relaxing and watching Rab struggle.

"Now, it should be about a minute... I suppose it's time for me to end this... but first, I want you to hear what the messenger has to say."

At the moment Coran said this, Bar ran back into the room, with a desperate and horrified look on his face.

"M-my queen!!! It's terrible! All the workers, warriors... even the children!! They've all been killed!! Their bodies cover the entire hive, and there was not a single one left alive!!!"

The queen seemed to quickly glance over to Bar to acknowledge him, however she was too focused on something else.

She had an ecstatic look on her face- one which Bar and Rab had never in their lives of serving her seen.

"I.... is that how it is? I see....haha..."

She seemed to be barely containing her joy, but Rab and Bar could not understand at all why.

Her own children!! Thousands of them had been slaughtered, yet why did she look so happy???

Bar then looked over, only to see Rab stuck in the web, and Coran smiling devilishly.

"Rab!!! Why you arrogant little spider.... how dare you come into our homes and disrupt our lives like this!?!?!"

Coran pulled out his blowdart, and aimed it right at the face of Rab, who currently was covered in webs so much to the point where he could not even move a muscle.

"I will say this, you put on a good show. I learned at least a little bit about the way that your kind fights, so it was worth giving you a chance."

Coran then shot a dart at Rab, and his face exploded as the dart ran through his head at a tremendous speed. Guts showered the landscape, and some of them landed on Bar from below.

"RAB!!!!!!"

However, he only had enough time to shout a single word, as these guts were filled with the poison which had been tipped on the dart that Coran had fired. While it was slightly diluted such that he had enough time to speak this one word, he began foaming at the mouth before falling dead.

"That should be the last one. Now then... just the queen left to exterminate, and the job will be over.... but, I suppose I should at least investigate the situation before writing her off as useless. After all, my masters would be disappointed if I killed someone off without first determining their worth."

----

Alicia, by all means, should have been devastated right now.

No, perhaps she did feel devastation, however perhaps it was exactly that feeling of devastation- a feeling which she had never before felt- which caused her to become exited and intrigued in this intruder.

She watched the fight between her warrior and the invading spider.

It was completely one sided.

He had one upped her warrior in every single way. There was not even a single moment in which her warrior seemed to have the upper hand.

No, perhaps that was not exactly the case. When her warrior seemed to corner the spider, it seemed as if things had gone exactly according to plan for her warrior.

However, the spiderling was a move ahead. Who knows? Perhaps he had planned multiple moves ahead, and yet her own warrior was so dumb compared to this spider that he didn't even need to enact such plans.

At seeing her warriors- the warriors which she prided herself on bearing, the strongest members of the hive aside from herself- be so utterly defeated in mere moments, even after being given a handicap, Alicia was filled with complete hopelessness.

She knew that while she was significantly stronger than her warriors, that she could never dream of beating this spider.

He was simply too powerful, and not only this but he was crafty. He would use all different sorts of tools and methods to defeat his opponent, and would not hold himself back from using a seemingly underhanded method due to something like honor or pride.

But the strange thing was that Alicia couldn't help but find herself cheering for this spider- despite the fact that by all means, she should hate him, fear him, and hope for his defeat.

There was something about him that excited her, that made her long for her own warriors to be defeated.

What was it?

Was it that she had never in her life been challenged?

As the queen, she was surrounded only by her children- her subordinates who showed absolute loyalty to her, and would give their lives for her on a moment's notice.

However, it was lonely like this.

Oh so lonely.

She had never met once anyone who would dare to speak against her, or to consider her even an equal.

Yet, this arrogant spider came in here and did as he pleased.

He covered her own chambers with his webs, something which was utterly disrespectful to the queen, and he showed no care or concern for such disrespect.

It was as if he considered her to be nothing more than a bug to be exterminated.

This scattered her brain.

Her insectoid 'palms'- if they could be called that- became sweaty, and her face became hot as she watched the spider swing himself around as he pleased.

She didn't even blink an eye when he killed her warriors. This seemed like a foregone conclusion in the face of this opponent from an outsiders perspective.

She was filled with excitement that she couldn't explain.

'Perhaps this one.... perhaps he will treat me different than the others.... ah!!! What am I thinking at a time like this... this is a bad situation for me! Is he going to kill me off as well?? Well... not that I would mind... wait!! Did I actually just think that!?! I don't wanna die here!! But... what do I do??'

The spiderling then lowered himself by a wire onto the large pyramidal structure which she laid on.

'Ah!!! He's coming right here!! This is my bed, you know!! You can't just come here so suddenly...'

The spiderling seemed to pull his bow from his back while aiming an arrow at her.

"I will give you one chance, queen of wasps. Do you want to live, or are you fine with dying right here? If you will submit and become a slave of my masters, then I will allow you to fight alongside me for a time, but if you are too spoiled of a queen to understand the position you are in, then I won't hesitate to get rid of you. Which is it?"

The spiderling approached Alicia, so that he was almost on top of her, pointing the arrow at her head.

'Agh!!! D-don't get that close to me when I'm here in my bed!! I...if you do that...'

Alicia found herself squirming in thought, her face blushing a deep red- if a wasps face could become red- however she then realized the gravity of the situation she was in.

'I need to answer! He'll kill me if I don't... and he said that we could fight alongside each other if I say yes... I... I kinda want that...'

"Yes!!! I will become your slave!!!!", she shouted.

"Uh... no no no, I said you will need to become the slave of my-"

"Your slave!!! I want to be your slave!!! Please let me be your slave!!!! I will be an indirect slave of your masters, but please let me be yours!!!!"

Coran seemed to have question marks above his head.

"Uh... I mean... as long as you are a slave of my masters that might be fine... am I allowed to have slaves? I will have to discuss this with them later, but I suppose it should be fine for now...I probably shouldn't bother them with such a stupid question right now, as they are likely in the middle of that important campaign... either way, I am not offering this opportunity to you because I trust you. As a matter of fact, I don't trust you at all. You might be plotting to assassinate me in my sleep or something if I allow you to come with me, but there is a reason why you won't be able to do that."

'Ah!!! What did I just say????????'

Alicia was too filled with embarrassment to hear what Coran was explaining.

'I just begged him to become his slave!! Me, a queen!! What was I thinking!?!? This is really bad.... this will completely ruin my reputation as the queen... ah, but wait... there aren't any of my offspring left to judge me.... that's right! They're all gone! I can now just do what I want! I don't have to stick around in this nest! I can run away with this spider and do whatever he wants!'

Alicia found her heart being swayed. For some reason, she wanted to stay with this spider. Perhaps it was the urge to be protected by someone stronger than herself- since in all her life, she knew that those under her were weaker.

"I am going on a trip into the human realm. If you are by my side, you won't have to worry about being attacked, but if you decide to assassinate me while we are surrounded by humans- and if by some miracle you manage to succeed in doing so, then you will be surrounded by enemies in an unknown land without anyone to protect you. Simply put, you will die. Therefore, you cannot kill me. Also, you had better not lay any eggs or anything like that, as you won't be able to take care of them since we're going to be traveling."

'Ah! That last statement! Could it be he doesn't want me to lay any eggs which aren't his!?!?!?'

"Anyways, let's go. If you don't listen to me, then I will merely consider that you've betrayed me and kill you off. Got it?"

"Y-yes!"