Natsuyū looked back over his shoulder and immediately relaxed.
Motion is relative.
They were running at roughly ten metres per second.
Once the silk left the spiders’ glands and lost its initial acceleration, air resistance slowed it down fast — it wasn’t moving faster than they were running.
Visually, the silk threads appeared to be falling further behind them.
They hit the ground in soft, harmless coils, nowhere close.
That’s it?
All that build-up for this?
All flash, no substance.
He almost felt cheated.
He kept the stone axe in hand, watched the twenty-odd Round-Head Spiders pursuing them, and felt the pull of all that uncollected EXP.
Yukino, a few steps ahead, seemed to sense exactly what he was thinking.
She slowed.
Good timing.
He felt a surge of satisfaction at how well they were reading each other.
He stopped too, turned back, and fixed his eyes on the one leading the charge — already across the stream, running hardest.
You first.
He loaded everything into the throw.
The stone axe spun through the air with a freight-train roar.
The spider’s momentum worked against it — no time to brake, let alone dodge.
The axe split the abdomen open.
His aim wasn’t perfect, honestly — but the Round-Head Spider’s body was so large that even throws aimed at the head tended to clip the stomach if they drifted.
At 1.3 Physique, peak human, even a graze was catastrophic.
SPLAT.
The front-runner collapsed instantly.
A single silk thread dropped nearby.
No time to collect.
Slightly disappointing — but the system notifications that followed made up for it.
[You killed a common monster — EXP +1]
[Congratulations on unlocking the achievement “Junior Monster Hunter!” — shout the incantation “Dragon Ascent Slash~!” to claim your rewards: Bow Crafting, Arrow Crafting, Crossbow Crafting, EXP +15.]
[Combat Achievement Tree — new advancement unlocked:
…Junior Monster Hunter!
→ Senior Monster Hunter!
(Kill 3 mid-tier monsters) → ?]
A bow and crossbow.
Ranged weapons.
Natsuyū looked at the mob of pursuing spiders, and the expression on his face was the exact expression any man gets when he spots a perfectly straight fallen branch.
Equip everyone with full armour sets and ranged weapons, and these spiders become experience dispensers.
Doesn’t matter how many come.
Infinite fodder.
And deeper in the forest, probably stronger monsters — mid-tier.
All of it, warm glowing EXP, waiting.
He grabbed Yukino’s sleeve and turned:
“Yukino — let’s go!”
Yukino was pulled into motion, watching his lit-up profile with a complicated expression.
Her mouth pressed together slightly.
Earlier — he’d been running just ahead of her.
Then he’d heard the silk launching behind them, and in a single beat he’d dropped pace and moved to her back.
She’d realised what was behind them at the same time — but he was already there, body between her and the threat, entirely on instinct.
If the silk had reached him.
If he’d been tangled, hurt, because of her—
She’d slowed down.
Made the call to stay and face it with him rather than leave him exposed.
It turned out the spiders were no real threat to them in motion.
A close call that wasn’t really close.
But the image of Natsuyū moving to shield her without thinking — it sat in her chest, complicated and unmoving.
“Hah — hah — okay.
They stopped.”
Natsuyū gradually decelerated, leaning against a large tree, breathing hard from the full sprint.
Two seconds later, he noticed.
He wasn’t really that tired.
This is what peak human Physique feels like.
Sprint a kilometre and barely notice.
“Hah~”
A slightly heavier breath beside him.
He looked over.
Yukino’s pale skin was flushed pink with exertion, one hand raised to wipe the fine beading of sweat from her forehead, lips parting and closing rhythmically.
Her cat ears twitched softly.
A pair of crystal-clear cat eyes reflected his face directly.
“Why do you keep looking at me?” she asked.
“Natsuyū-kun,” she said, before he could answer.
“I’m not a delicate ornament.”
He let the smile come easily.
“I know.
Yukino’s exceptional, and we’re friends and teammates.”
Yukino held his gaze straight.
“Then — next time, when there’s danger, don’t face it alone.
Let me be there with you.”
He understood now.
She hadn’t slowed down because she’d anticipated his plan to turn and fight.
She had been ready to stay and take the hit alongside him.
He looked at the serious, cat-eared Yukino and felt something warm and faintly amused in his chest.
Laughing at it now would probably make her genuinely angry.
“And — thank you.
For worrying.”
Yukino kept a straight face.
The cat ears at the top of her head gave one sharp twitch.
The round black tail rose behind her, pointing straight up.
(Note: a straight-up tail is a cat’s signal for trust and contentment.)
He didn’t know much about cat behaviour, but a tail pointing up seemed positive.
It completely undermined the studied indifference on her face.
He smiled, voice soft: “That’s what friends are for.”
This guy is something else.
Yukino felt helpless.
He was probably like this with everyone.
And here she was getting her feelings tangled up over it.
Honestly irritating.
“I’m beginning to think the ‘Mr.
All-Season Charm’ nickname was accurate,” she said, arms crossing as she let the cat-girl form dissolve.
“I’ve always thought it sounds a bit unflattering,” he said, shrugging his hands open.
“What about ‘Mr.
Handsome’ as an upgrade?”
“The ceiling is ‘Mr.
Warm.'”
“‘Mr.
Warm’ doesn’t sound good either.”
“Please don’t sully a perfectly complimentary term, Mr.
Warm.”
He gave a theatrical shudder, waved for her to follow, and started walking.
“Just use my name, Yukino.
Let’s go check on Ema and the others.”
Yukino watched his back, eyes half-narrowed.
He tells me to call him by his first name casually — while still calling me by my family name.
And he called Sakuraba Ema by her given name without thinking.
This person isn’t treating her differently, is he?
She pressed a hand against her stomach.
“I’m a little hungry.”
Natsuyū checked the angle of the sun — roughly ten o’clock.
“It’s not even noon yet — wait, you transformed.
Does cat mode burn energy and speed up hunger?”
To be continued…