Natsuyū’s right arm swept through a wide arc from behind him, the grey stone axe trailing a blur — then the release, the weapon spinning forward through the air with a sharp rushing sound, rotating as it shot across the gap.
Yukino’s eyes went wide at the raw, physical force of it, then snapped to track the flying axe.
Whoooosh—
The sound of it splitting air woke the Round-Head Spider from its nap.
“HISSSSS—!”
The spider screamed — a grating, piercing shriek — and all eight legs unfurled at once.
Its body was covered in thick, coarse black hair.
The round head and abdomen were armoured with chitin plating, the belly fat and smooth, legs extending to a full metre — inflating before their eyes into a monstrous, nightmarish thing.
Then:
THWACK — SPLAT.
No time to dodge.
The stone axe’s edge drove straight into the creature’s enormous abdomen, splitting it clean down the middle.
Green blood sprayed.
The impact’s force sent it rolling backward with a dying wail before it hit the ground and went still.
[Congratulations on unlocking the achievement “Time to Strike!”]
The spider burst apart and dropped.
Green blood rained down like a scattered handful of seeds.
From around the corpse: one long thick white strand of silk, and a large chunk of greenish-purple meat.
The sight hit like a fist.
Yukino pressed her lips together, stomach turning.
Natsuyū felt it too — but his attention had already shifted to the system notification.
[Congratulations on unlocking the achievement “Time to Strike!” — shout the incantation “I am invincible under heaven~!” to claim your rewards: Weapon Crafting, Armour Crafting, EXP Gain, EXP +10.]
[Combat Achievement Tree — new advancement unlocked:
…Time to Strike!
→ Junior Monster Hunter!
(Kill 3 common monsters) → ?]
“HISSSSS—!”
The silk-covered nest shuddered, stained green.
Two Round-Head Spiders crawled out along the threads, filling the air with their shriek.
A cluster of crimson eyes locked onto them and they began to move — fast.
“I am invincible under heaven~!”
Critical moment.
Natsuyū didn’t hesitate for a single breath.
[You have received: Weapon Crafting, Armour Crafting, EXP Gain, EXP +10.]
[Natsuyū: Level 4—]
Physique — max it.
The warm current rushed through him.
[Natsuyū: Level 4 (EXP 5/30)
Physique: 1.3 (Peak human physique)
Soul: 1.3 (High mental fortitude)
Charisma: 1.3 (All creatures: Hostile)
(Average healthy adult baseline = 1)
Abilities: Resource Gathering, EXP Gain, Weapon & Armour Crafting, Tool Crafting, Structure Crafting (tap for details).]
Stronger again.
He called up the stone axe in his hand, fixed on the two Round-Head Spiders charging at full speed — and threw without hesitation.
Whoooooosh—!
No wind-up this time.
The axe flew just as hard as before.
“HISS—!”
The targeted spider — unlike the ambushed first one — was agile.
It rolled sideways across the web to dodge.
But its body was too large.
It avoided the vital hit, but the stone axe still caught one side of its legs.
Four limbs shattered under the impact.
The axe continued onward with undiminished force and buried itself two-thirds deep into a large tree behind the creature with a massive crack.
That kind of power made Natsuyū’s eyebrows go up.
Yukino beside him went wide-eyed.
From more than ten metres away — a thrown axe nearly punched through a trunk forty centimetres in diameter.
Was that still human?
“HISSS—!
sss— sss—!”
The crippled spider writhed on the ground in agony.
The second one froze — stabbed its legs into the earth to brake — fixed all its crimson eyes on Natsuyū — and then reared up, opening its mouthparts, ejecting a stream of white silk.
Ranged attack.
Didn’t see that coming.
Mildly surprised — but not concerned.
Too slow.
Silk threads, without weight behind them, lost speed immediately to air resistance.
They followed a lazy arc through the air, moving at roughly the speed of a grandma’s beanbag toss.
At his old Physique, he could have sidestepped it with a moment’s notice.
At 1.3 Physique — peak human — he could dodge it even if it came twice as fast.
It’s a 0.7 Physique creature.
That’s the best ranged attack it’s got.
“Watch out!”
Something caught his waist.
A familiar faint scent of shower soap.
Yukino’s body pressed in close — the pack on his back pushed against him — and then she carried them both sideways in a leap, clearing the silk thread. New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
“Phew.
Got clear.”
She exhaled close to his ear, the warmth of it softly tickling.
Natsuyū looked down at the two small hands still gripping his waist, and turned in surprise.
Yukino’s physical stats couldn’t manage this.
She grabbed his waist and still moved both of them that distance?
He wasn’t a small guy.
He figured it out fast.
From the top of her sleek black hair, two pointed, fuzzy triangular ears had grown.
Her brown eyes now carried a vertical slit pupil — black, gem-clear.
“Stop staring at me.
Focus on the fight!”
Yukino’s cat-eyes glared at him, ears red at their roots.
She looked like a hissing little black cat.
A cat-girl.
Yukino was actually, genuinely Meow-kinoshita Meow-no.
Unable to help himself, he activated Appraisal.
[Yukinoshita Yukino: Level 0 (0/10)
Physique: 1.2 (0.8) (A girl with a cat’s strength and agility)
Soul: 0.9 (Slightly below average mental fortitude)
Charisma: 1.2 (All creatures: Hostile)
Ability: Cat’s Body.]
Her Physique jumped to 1.5 times the base.
Hard to say whether it was because her base was low so the multiplier looked bigger, or whether the ability genuinely applied a ×1.5 modifier.
He set aside the question of whether his teammates were a large or medium cup size.
She was right.
Monsters first.
He hadn’t even looked at his new rewards yet.
Yukino fixed the two spiders with narrowed cat-eyes: “You’re the heavy hitter.
So — you attack, I guard.”
She’s not wrong — I probably don’t even need her—
Natsuyū grinned: “Gladly — Yukino, I’m counting on you to keep me safe.
Don’t let me down!”
He was perfectly happy with Yukino getting actively involved.
She was showing initiative, and he wasn’t going to dampen that.
He’d be relying on all of them to pull their weight eventually.
The goal was to build enough trust that he could sit back and let them handle things comfortably.