Yukino Yukinoshita folded her arms and smiled gracefully:
“Are you talking about food?
Don’t worry, even though you have an awful personality, we won’t stand by and let you starve to death in front of us.”
“Hehe…
AHAHAHA!”
Kurumi Tokisaki burst out laughing as if she had just heard the funniest joke in the world.
Her face twitched slightly with maniacal amusement.
Yukino took a half step back, feeling slightly uncomfortable, asking with a stern face:
“What are you laughing at?”
Kurumi licked her pink lips with the tip of her tongue:
“Food?
Are you talking about human food?”
“You misunderstand.
What I call food is fresh, living life~ I, the most evil Spirit, am a creature that devours life itself.
I have ‘eaten’ far more lives than you have ever seen.”
“Ara ara~ Are you scared?
I love that terrified expression on your face~”
Yukino’s gaze turned sharp as she stared at the wicked Kurumi.
She suddenly realized that working with her was no different than negotiating with a tiger.
Kurumi’s smile was full of sadistic delight:
“The creatures in this wilderness are all quite formidable.
If you lack the strength to bring me a new ‘living sacrifice’ tonight, I am still willing to protect you.”
“As long as you pick ONE person for me to ‘eat’, the rest of you can survive the night safely.
That’s a very generous deal, isn’t it~?”
Yukino’s eyes turned icy cold:
“Kurumi Tokisaki, you monster!”
“Deal.
I agree.”
Natsuyu said calmly.
Yukino was taken aback.
She turned to Natsuyu in disbelief:
“Are you really sure you want to partner with her?”
Kurumi asked with a teasing smile:
“I’m really going to eat Natsuyu-kun, you know?
Or does Natsuyu-kun plan to sacrifice one of the girls to be eaten by me?”
Natsuyu offered a calm, confident smile:
“I wouldn’t make such a foolish mistake.
I trust myself to bring you your ‘food’.”
“Yukinoshita-san, don’t you have that confidence in us?”
Yukino immediately snapped back:
“Of course I have confidence.”
Natsuyu continued:
“If what Kurumi said is true, compared to fighting an endless horde of night monsters, I think taking the initiative to hunt wild game during the day is far safer.”
“Hunting game is something we can manage.”
Yukino was persuaded by Natsuyu’s logic.
She stubbornly shifted her annoyance back to Kurumi:
“I still don’t trust a woman with eyes like hers.”
“I won’t pretend I didn’t hear that rude nickname~”
Kurumi said with a pout of dissatisfaction.
Yukino ignored Kurumi completely.
Natsuyu said:
“Trust takes time to build.
Let me start with a basic working partnership with Kurumi first and deal with other issues later.”
“If Kurumi turns out to be untrustworthy, we’ll terminate the partnership and distance ourselves immediately.”
Kurumi raised her eyebrows in amusement:
“Is this something I’m allowed to hear right in front of my face?”
Natsuyu spread his hands, speaking softly:
“Being upfront with you about our stance shows far greater sincerity than hiding behind backstabbing schemes, doesn’t it?”
Kurumi smiled warmly:
“Natsuyu-kun, you really are quite charismatic~”
Yukino thought for a moment, took a deep breath, and nodded:
“Natsuyu-kun, I agree with your judgment.
However, this decision affects the entire team.
When Sakuraba-san and the others return, you will have to explain it to them.”
“Got it.”
Natsuyu pondered internally:
‘Kurumi Tokisaki is the Spirit of Time; she devours living beings primarily to replenish her stored time.’
‘In her current trapped state, her reserve of time might be running dangerously low.
If she doesn’t replenish it, something catastrophic could happen—like dying.’
‘From that perspective, Natsuyu and Kurumi are in a mutually beneficial transaction where both get what they need.’
‘However, Natsuyu won’t blindly trust Kurumi Tokisaki.
Even though he knows she isn’t purely evil, he won’t place the team’s lives completely at her mercy.’
‘We still need to harvest plenty of wood for fuel and backup light sources.’
‘Looks like my workload just multiplied, but I feel both motivated and pressured.
Wasting any more time here would weigh heavily on my conscience.’
As a man of quick action, Natsuyu turned to Kurumi:
“We need to go prepare supplies now.
But first, let’s clarify one thing: these flower vines binding you—they’re probably too tough for us to break right now, right?”
Kurumi:
“Correct~”
“Then you’ll have to bear with hanging there a bit longer.
We’re heading out to gather resources.
If the others return while we’re away, please explain to them that Yukinoshita-san and I are operating together.”
“Alright~ Off you go, Natsuyu-kun.”
Kurumi smiled, then lowered her head as her long black bangs fell back over her face, returning to a state of suspended animation.
‘Perhaps going back to sleep slows down her energy drain,’ Natsuyu thought, gesturing to Yukino:
“I’ve been waiting for you to say that.”
Yukino gently brushed her long hair aside, letting out an elegant smile:
“Mr.
Beautiful Girl Collector, I’ll go explore the outer left sector.
I’ll leave the heavy physical labor of crafting everyone’s equipment to you.”
‘What a weird nickname…’
‘Though back when I played [Palworld], I DID love collecting every single creature in the Paldex…’
Natsuyu looked at Yukino—his “Number One Teammate”—and deliberately replied in a soft, coaxing tone used to tease little children:
“Yes, yes, Miss Yukinoshita-who-is-definitely-not-directionally-challenged.”
“…”
Yukino silently gritted her teeth.
…
Exploring the terrain was a breeze—at least for Natsuyu, since he just stood in place to chop wood.
Yukino, who had to jog around scouting the perimeter, probably didn’t feel the same way.
Moving away from the grand gate and Kurumi, Natsuyu watched Yukino’s slender figure intently scouting in the distance, then surveyed his surroundings.
To the right of their spawn point, the trees grew denser, interspersed with scattered wild grass.
Further ahead, the path clearly led into a dense forest zone.
Natsuyu also spotted several exposed rock outcroppings on the terrain.
‘Great!
Abundant natural resources!’
‘Time to level up!’
Natsuyu raised his fist and lightly punched a massive oak tree over four meters tall.
Having gained experience from earlier, after about twenty strikes, a loud BANG!
echoed through the air.
The oak tree shook violently, snapping into several rounded wooden logs.
Natsuyu dodged sideways just in time before the logs hit the dirt.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Four heavy thuds!
This oak tree dropped four [Wooden Blocks]—more than enough to craft a [Crafting Table]!
‘This tree was thicker than the first one, so it required more hits.’
Natsuyu picked up an acorn, amazed once again to see that the branches and leaves completely vanished into thin air.
“Commencing Crafting Table creation!”
He took one log, split it into four [Wooden Planks], and stacked them together.
Placing his hands against the wood, Natsuyu activated his crafting ability.
[Crafting Table]
The wood began to automatically twist, snap, pare, and stack together!
Wood splinters flew through the air, accompanied by the rapid clang-clang-clang sound of phantom hammers striking timber!
Within just three seconds, the four wooden planks under Natsuyu’s hands vanished, replaced by a shower of sawdust and a solid, square wooden Workbench nearly one meter wide!