Having woken up to a giant spider's mandibles and soulless orb-like eyes floating mere inches from his face, Ray felt himself freeze up in fear, staying perfectly still for a few moments before his mind was able to think things through.

No matter how scary it might look, this thing was his summon. It shouldn't eat him, right?

"Uh, I suppose I should introduce myself? This is the first time we've met after all."

"I already know who you are, Ray."

The dozen eyes stared at him unblinkingly, wearing an impossible to read expression.

Well... the introductions didn't go as planned.

"Um, what should I call you? Do you have a name?"

The spider spat out a series of imperceptible clicks with its mandible before resuming its quiet study of his features. That couldn't have been it right?

"I-is that your name?" Ray asked hesitantly.

"Call me whatever you like." The golden golden-legged spider spat out plainly. Unlike the worm who moved its body actively, the spider sat with unnatural stillness, like a waiting predator, making it impossible to suss out what the arachnid's thought process was like.

To be honest, giving a name to his summon was probably a better idea than trying to learn whatever spider-language that was, not to mention that his worm probably had an equally confusing name. He was struggling to come up for a name on the spot though.

Only now that he had a chance to calm down somewhat did he catch a glimpse of movement in his peripheral vision. Webbed victims thrashing around desperately.

Human victims.

"I thought they might be friends of yours, but they certainly don't have any manners. Attacking a lady like me at first sight. So rude."

The spider's carapace looked cracked in some places, and multiple bullet shells, new ones, littered the supermarket floor. Tracking the bullets back to the victims, Ray put the two together and realized there were uniforms on under those webs.

"Those are policemen!" He hissed through clenched teeth. "You actually attacked policemen."

"So they are friends of yours? I made sure not to kill them you know. Even though those magic sound sticks of theirs were quite troublesome."

Ray wasn't sure how he would explain the existence of a police force to something like an oversized spider, but it at least understood the concept of enemies versus friends, so in the spirit of preserving the most lives he decided to group all humans as friends for now.

A few aisles down, the store doors opened again with a small jingle. Boots crunched against the partially broken tile floor.

"You two need to get out of here, I can't explain well but these humans are friendly. They're not going to hurt me, but they will definitely try to hurt you." Ray whispered. At first trying to somehow un-summon his familiars, but finding that it was for some reason impossible. It looked like the extent of his powers was limited to summoning existing creatures, and possibly aiding the regeneration of his familiars, considering the worm which had been squished by a goblin once but ended up perfectly fine afterwards.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The worm crawled over slowly to one of the spiders legs, climbing up to a secure location while the echoes of boots got louder.

Ray tried to lay down as much as possible, making himself look victim-like and as unthreatening as possible. Which wasn't entirely hard to do considering he barely over his eighteenth, small and skinny in stature, and covered in cuts and burns from the facing the goblin shaman's barrier explosion.

Some of the incoming men were calling out names, probably looking for some of the people webbed up over here, or for the sheriff killed by the goblins.

Rounding the corner to his aisle, the frozen food section where he had fought the magic wielding goblin, Ray peeked his head up just enough to witness the squad of policemen's faces light up in panic at the sight of his lurking oversized spider, reminding him somewhat of his own initial reaction. It was a perfectly normal reaction as far as he was concerned.

But unlike Ray, these people had guns.

"Kill it!" One of them yelled before rifles and handguns popped off in quick succession, sparking off the armored carapace of the golden-legged spider, hurting it but not seriously. It glanced once at Ray along with the worm sitting atop its shoulder before scurrying off in a hasty retreat. Heading for the exit doors.

Instead of chasing after, the policemen's eyes turned down to the floor. Directly at Ray, the dead policeman, and the other webbed figures.

One of them tried taking vitals of the sheriff before declaring defeatedly, "Scotts dead." Shaking his head with disappointment, while two of them started cutting the cocoons of their fellow cops free. The last one crouched down over Ray's position.

"Hey kid, it's alright. Monster's are gone now. You hurt at all?"

Ray shook shook his head. "Just scratches." Still trying to act the part of a traumatized victim. He was pretty shook up from the fight earlier not to mention his massive power-induced caloric deficit, but he certainly wasn't a victim.

"Mind if you come in with us then? We need to get your account of what happened here." Motioning to the multiple incapacitated victims.

"Uh, sure. Anyway that I can help." Dusting himself off, maybe a little too nonchalantly, before deciding to rest his body along a nearby shelf wall.

"What's your name?" The same man who had helped him up, questioned him again while examining Ray's appearance carefully. He noticed his ring for sure. Ray knew it would catch attention but it wasn't something that he could hide all that well. Taking it off meant losing the benefits after all.

"It's Ray, Ray Albright, uh, sir." Not sure yet how to address his 'savior', deciding to play up the fact that he was a teenager.

One of the men in the cocoons gasped for air now that he was finally free. His coughing interrupting Ray's speech, making Ray slightly nervous to know that his familiar was responsible for that particular act.

"Well, Ray, you're lucky to be alive, you know that? You have no idea how many victims we've seen already... Say, that spider kill Scott over here?"

"Uh... no sir, was a goblin that did it. The one with the pointy hat." Ray pointed out the potbellied old goblin shaman corpse, partially eaten and riddled with wormholes. The state of its body raising another eye from the policemen. "It could use magic of some kind, caught anything shot at it and turned them into shrapnel bombs."

"Sounds tough, the spider kill it?"

"That's uh, no, I did sir. The spider, uh, must have smelled the bodies and came over."

"You killed it? How?"

"With a knife." Ray said while motioning to the floor absentmindedly, a small fruit knife lay next to the body of the goblin shaman. His tired mental state and temporary loss of powers combined to make him more careless about revealing information than he probably should have been.

Ray's words seemed to have caught everyone's attention, as another policeman walked up to the one questioning him before whispering something in his ear. It wasn't meant for Ray to hear, but with two titles enhancing his physical capabilities, it seems like hearing was among one of the things that had improved.

Barely making out that they seemed to be talking about medium difficulty's integration. Competition was the theme from what he remembered reading earlier this morning.

"You seem quite bold for someone your age. What's your ranking, Ray?"

Ranking? Ray thought to himself. It was a competitive event, so naturally there would be a ranking now that he thought of it.

More policemen crowded around him, interested by the subject. Only serving to create more pressure for him while he raced to think up a justifiable number.