Natsuyū checked the other drops:
[Venom Gland (Freshness 99%, spoils in 10 days): Material / Common ingredient.
Spider’s venom gland.
Can be used for weapon-coating, medicine, or cooking.
Consuming causes: Poisoned status.
Note: Cooking it doesn’t make it safe to eat!]
[Spider Silk: Material.
Tough spider silk.
Usable in armour and weapon crafting.]
Looking through the round-up: the spider silk seemed most immediately useful.
Monster Meat had nothing but penalties.
The Venom Gland could go toward medicine eventually, but he hadn’t unlocked any alchemy or crafting in that direction yet.
He pocketed everything for now.
He pulled out the stone crafting table, made a third basic backpack, and loaded all the spider drops into it.
He swung at the nest for good measure — more silk fell from it.
Final spider loot backpack: Spider Silk (x5), Monster Meat (x2), Venom Gland (x1).
While he packed, he properly reviewed what the Combat Achievement Tree had unlocked.
Weapon & Armour Crafting.
The weapon recipes included the sword he’d been wanting, plus a shield.
The armour recipes covered four pieces: boots, trousers, top, and helm.
Wooden Sword: 2 Wood, 1 Stick.
Wooden Shield: 6 Wood.
Stone Sword and Stone Shield: swap wood for stone.
Armour:
Boots: ~5 Wood, 5 Hay.
Trousers: ~7 Wood, 7 Hay.
Top: ~8 Wood, 8 Hay.
Helm: ~4 Wood, 4 Hay.
Stone versions available — swap wood for stone.
The Hay component could be swapped for cloth or spider silk — that part affected warmth and comfort, not defence rating.
He could also adjust quantities to produce different sizes and different fits.
That detail mattered.
If he built to his own 179 cm frame, Yukino and Kiana at around 160-something could manage — barely.
Ema and Kushida at around 155 would be completely unable to wear it.
And Kiana and Kushida’s proportions would make male-pattern armour impossible regardless of size.
Yukino and Ema, on the other hand, wouldn’t have that problem.
Their daily lives were probably much simpler.
He turned the new recipes over in his head, decided not to rush on armour and weapons yet, tucked the stone crafting table away, and looked at backpack number two with a thought: could he fit backpack one inside it?
Nothing happened.
As expected.
“HISSSS————!”
Both of them looked up at the forest.
One Round-Head Spider hung upside-down from a branch, all its crimson eyes fixed on them.
Yukino sighed, rubbing her temple.
“As expected — there’s more than one nest in this forest.”
Natsuyū privately thought this was excellent news.
Round-Head Spiders were weak.
Perfect grinding material.
As long as they kept appearing, he had an endless queue of experience waiting to be collected.
He thought of Kurumi’s request — she needed a living creature by nightfall.
He stared at the hanging spider.
Cut off its limbs and haul it back?
Risky.
The spider was venomous and could spit silk.
What if the silk had venom in it?
Getting close enough to carry it back was a liability.
He needed a proper containment solution first.
In the meantime — there was still daylight, and this spider had come to him at the exact right moment.
He checked the Combat Tree.
“Junior Monster Hunter!” required killing 3 common monsters.
The first one counted toward “Time to Strike!” — so he was currently at 2/3.
This spider is exactly what he needed.
He smiled, feeling like Lady Luck was personally invested in his success — she’d heard he was one short and thoughtfully arranged delivery.
“Yukino — one more weapon.”
She handed him the stone pickaxe, then drew her wooden axe.
He took his second instrument, smiled with confidence:
“You guard, I attack.”
Yukino gave him a sideways look.
Given what she’d seen of his physical capabilities, she had the vague sense she was being used as a prop.
But her pride beat out the suspicion.
She wasn’t going to hide behind him while he faced danger alone.
She tucked the axe back into her chest-pack, gripped both his shoulders, and drew a breath:
“Ready.”
Activating — cat-girl mode.
This was the first time Natsuyū had watched the transformation happen up close.
Fuzzy cat ears pushed up through the smooth black hair.
Vertical pupils formed at the centres of her eyes — sharp and clear as cut crystal.
“Eyes forward, Natsuyū-kun.”
Her face was perfectly straight.
The tail behind her, however, was swinging considerably faster than it needed to, fully betraying that she wasn’t as composed as she looked.
Shy little cat.
He bit back the observation, turned to face the spider, and walked forward.
Together, they were unstoppable.
A spider was nothing.
“HISSSSS—!”
The Round-Head Spider locked eyes on him and charged.
It’s not running.
It’s coming at me.
Brave.
Foolish.
He cocked his arm, waiting for it to close the distance before throwing.
Rustle.
Rustle.
Rustle, rustle—
CLATTER — CLATTER — CLATTER — CLATTER—
Something like rain hammering on a roof — dense, rapid, getting louder.
They both looked toward the deep forest.
Through the thick canopy, shapes moved — black spheres multiplying in the gaps between trees, growing larger.
Sharp legs stabbed into bark as they moved, and what had been a rain-sound became the rapid woodpecker-on-wood drumming of dozens of legs on dozens of trees — converging in a wide arc.
Round-Head Spiders.
Dozens of them.
Streaming out of the forest in a flanking formation.
Natsuyū stared.
Sneaky.
Lost one fight, called in the mob.
He counted at least fifteen just in the first wave.
More emerging behind them.
“Run!”
Both of them abandoned the plan without a word and turned.
Pure strategic withdrawal.
With their boosted stats, they cleared the stream in a single leap.
The spider swarm fell behind almost immediately, shrieking, spraying silk in all directions.
Lines of web shot through the tree-space behind them — almost impressive to look at.
“Yukino — you lead!”
Natsuyū heard the silk in the air behind them and felt a snap of alertness — he immediately dropped speed and shifted position to put himself behind Yukino.