Yukino Yukinoshita’s voice when expressing her gratitude sounded quite stiff.
After speaking, she felt a bit embarrassed in her heart, so she focused her gaze on the stones on the ground, deliberately avoiding eye contact with Natsuyu.
The sharp, sarcastic tongue Natsuyu expected didn’t come out; instead, what appeared was genuine gratitude.
He stared down at Yukino in bewilderment, asking while mining:
“Thank you for what?”
Yukino’s expression remained calm, but sensing Natsuyu’s gaze, her body stiffened.
She pretended to focus on picking up the broken stone fragments, while saying with an elegant smile:
“This is clearly not the first time you’ve unlocked an ability tier.
You must have shouted several embarrassing spells before just to obtain the Resource Gathering and Crafting abilities you currently possess.”
“Yet you didn’t tell us anything.
Sakuraba-san and the others didn’t mention it either, meaning they don’t know—so you were deliberately hiding it.”
“The reason for hiding it is because you feel embarrassed, correct?
If I were in your shoes, I would never let anyone know about such a humiliating requirement.”
Yukino paused for a moment, her voice unconsciously softening:
“Yet now, out of concern for our safety, you didn’t hesitate to reveal your most embarrassing secret in front of me.
So…
I want to thank you.”
“I will keep this a secret for you and won’t let Sakuraba-san or the others find out.
You don’t need to worry, my kind Natsuyu-kun.”
Natsuyu was completely caught off guard—feeling both touched and amused.
He looked at the shy yet earnest girl crouching below him with a brand-new perspective:
“Yukinoshita-san, you’re actually really cute right now.”
Yukino stacked the fallen stone blocks and raised her head arrogantly:
“I have always been cute.”
“Pfft, haha!”
Both of them let out a soft chuckle together.
After laughing, Yukino immediately reined in her expression, looked at Natsuyu, and said calmly:
“Please don’t get the wrong idea, Natsuyu-kun.
I am not interested in romance.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure.”
Yukino narrowed her eyes into slits; she always felt like Natsuyu was treating her like a troublesome younger junior.
Was it just her imagination?
After Natsuyu’s internal favorability for Yukino increased by +1 point, he focused on mining the rock with renewed enthusiasm.
Every time a 10-centimeter square Stone Block dropped, the rock outcropping shrank by an entire layer.
About five minutes later, the massive boulder in front of Natsuyu completely vanished, leaving only a shallow depression on the flattened ground.
A few beetles scurried away in panic, hiding in the distant shadows.
The Wooden Pickaxe in Natsuyu’s hands had its durability reduced, but its mining efficiency remained flawlessly sharp.
Rule-based cheat abilities were simply too overpowered!
Yukino placed the last stone block onto her pile, patted the dust off her palms, and looked at her work with satisfaction: a neat little stone wall built from stacked blocks.
Thinking for a moment, Natsuyu put away the Wooden Pickaxe and helped Yukino store the stone blocks into his inventory.
Harvest: [Stone Block x 40].
Some leftover stone blocks couldn’t fit because the inventory slot reached its max capacity.
The stack limit for stone in a single slot was 40 blocks, just like in [Don’t Starve]. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Seeing that the work was done, Yukino—who cared about her image—didn’t remain crouching on the dirt.
She stood up and asked with wide, curious eyes:
“Can you unlock new abilities now?”
“I can craft Stone Pickaxes and Stone Axes now.”
With a thought, several Stone Blocks fell onto the ground.
Natsuyu pressed his hands against them.
Crack, crack…
The sound of stone cracking echoed, and the blocks merged and reshaped together.
Soon, a solid [Stone Crafting Table] materialized under Yukino’s surprised gaze.
Natsuyu skillfully took out new Stone Blocks and placed them on the workbench.
After pondering for a second, he also pulled out some Twigs:
‘If I used stone for the handles, the rough texture would scrape my hands easily.
Plus, stone handles lack flexibility—they look hard, but they’re brittle under impact.’
‘A wooden handle is much better.’
A few seconds later:
Two [Stone Axes] and one [Stone Pickaxe] were successfully crafted!
[Congratulations on unlocking the achievement “Getting an Upgrade!”!
Recite the incantation “I am already moving at full speed, ugh-aaaaah~!” aloud to claim your rewards: Wall Construction Blueprint, Roof Construction Blueprint, Door Construction Blueprint, Furniture Blueprint, Exp +15.]
[Basic Achievement Tree unlocked new node:]
[…Getting an Upgrade!
➔ Come on, face the challenge!
(Smelt 1 Iron Ingot) ➔ ?]
‘You and these incantations just won’t let Sion go, huh?’
Natsuyu rolled his eyes slightly, then focused on the experience reward.
This time, it granted 15 Exp instead of the static 10 Exp from earlier.
That was great news!
It meant his leveling speed wouldn’t plummet drastically just because the experience bar grew larger.
Natsuyu glanced at Yukino.
Yukino’s eyes were sparkling with intense curiosity and anticipation.
Natsuyu couldn’t take it anymore, reminding her:
“At times like this, you’re supposed to look away.”
A faint smirk twitched at the corners of Yukino’s lips.
She turned her head aside, promising once more:
“I will keep it a secret, and I definitely won’t laugh at you.”
Natsuyu didn’t care anymore anyway.
As long as you don’t feel embarrassed yourself, the embarrassment belongs to others!
Unless someone genuinely cared about Natsuyu, they wouldn’t dwell on his cringe moments.
And Yukino clearly hadn’t reached that level yet.
Natsuyu took a deep breath and shouted in a deep, dramatic voice:
“I am already moving at full speed, ugh-aaaaah~!”
“Pfft…
Natsuyu stared at Yukino in speechless silence, while Yukino covered her mouth, her shoulders trembling with laughter:
“I thought people were supposed to maintain basic trust between each other.
What do you think, untrustworthy Yukinoshita-san?”
“Ahem…”
Yukino tried hard to hold back her laughter, her eyes narrowing as she explained in a playful, cheerful tone:
“I wasn’t laughing at you.
I just thought your voice sounded cute.
It sounded…
very earnest and honest.”
“You can just call me a brainless ditz, I get it.”
Natsuyu narrowed his eyes and ignored Yukino.
He was about to level up anyway!
[Reward claimed: Wall Construction Blueprint, Roof Construction Blueprint, Door Construction Blueprint, Furniture Blueprint, Exp +15!]
The blueprints for walls, roofs, doors, and furniture only required one type of raw material and could be crafted right at the workbench.
With this feature, Natsuyu could build houses out of wood or stone.
After smelting iron in the future, he could even build iron houses.
The only difference was that stone houses required a [Stone Crafting Table], while iron houses required an [Iron Crafting Table].
This unlocked full shelter construction!
He could now build houses in the wild!
[Natsuyu Rurikawa — Level 3 (Exp: 10/25)]
[Free Attribute Points: 0.1]
Following standard procedure, he dumped it straight into Physique.
A warm current surged throughout his body.
Natsuyu praised internally:
‘Refreshing!’
‘[Deep Blue, show me my status panel!]’
[Natsuyu Rurikawa — Level 3 (Exp: 10/25)]
[Physique: 1.2 (Scout-level athletic constitution)]
[Soul: 1.3 (High mental fortitude)]
[Charisma: 1.3 (Hostile towards all living creatures)]
[(Note: The average attribute score for an adult human in peak condition is 1.0)]
[Ability: Resource Gathering, Item Creation, Shelter Construction (Click for details)]
His physical condition was one step closer to the human limit!
Earlier, Natsuyu hadn’t felt tired even after mining for five minutes.
While part of the reason was the game rule system, the Wooden Pickaxe was still heavy.
Before the stat boost, he would have been winded.
With 1.2 Physique, he had the stamina of a trained scout!
‘At 1.3 Physique, I estimate I could actually try fighting a wild bull bare-handed!’
‘One step closer to killing a cow with one punch!’
Now, everything was prepared.
Even if they encountered monsters in the wild, he had the gear and strength to fight back.
It was time to explore the sector ahead!