Netori Harem: New life as a hunter and gatherer

"Hah, this is depressing." Luke muttered, releasing an exhausted sigh as he remained seated atop the cart, bathing in the pale glow of the moonlight.

The moment he had seen Regath crash to the ground and finished collecting all the gemstones within reach, his first thought had been to rush home and assure his family that everything was fine, and that he was safe as well.

Safe, at least, in the sense that he had not sustained a single injury from his opponent. The dried blood around his ears and nose had been the result of his own spell, and even that had already been cleaned away.

However, the system had warned him that his body had undergone a series of changes within those few short moments, pushed far beyond its natural limits. The repeated use of Concentrated Burst had also inflicted internal damage.

Returning home in such a state would only cause him to collapse from exhaustion the moment he stepped through the door, and that certainly would not be a pleasant sight for his family. Thus, the system had advised him to remain beneath the moonlight for at least another ten minutes to allow his body sufficient time to recover.

Of course, complete recovery would take considerably longer, but the moon’s blessing was enough to stabilize his condition and keep him from deteriorating further.

"Though I wouldn’t have been sitting here recovering from exhaustion if it weren’t for that female fox."

His thoughts returned to the moment he had found himself surrounded by hundreds of men, none of whom had been holding back. At the time, his mind had gone numb, and for the first time, he had genuinely been uncertain where the battle would lead.

It was strange. This was the first time he had faced such overwhelming odds without any of his loved ones being directly threatened, yet he had still felt as though he might lose.

The situation had simply been that overwhelming.

"Good things always return to you, they said. I experienced it today." Luke muttered with a faint smile.

He remembered his instinctive decision to help that fox, a choice he had made without giving it much thought. Who could have imagined that such a simple act would eventually become the reason not only he, but every villager, could be certain of seeing another morning?

Shaking his head, he looked to his left and found Ilya busily instructing everyone to pile the bodies of Regath’s fallen warriors in one place. From the way she was directing them, it seemed she intended to bury her fallen comrades herself later.

He would have helped her, but there were already enough people handling the task. With no reason to burden himself with unnecessary manual labor, Luke decided to leave it to them.

With nothing else to occupy his attention, he turned his thoughts toward the system.

"Did I trigger any quests back then, system?"

Quests were usually triggered by new and anomalous situations, and what he had just experienced certainly qualified as both. If anything, the circumstances had been unusual enough to warrant several.

And just as he had hoped, the system responded.

[You did, host. And not just one, but three.]

Luke’s lips curved faintly. "Oh." He leaned back slightly. "Show them, then."

[Quest: Slaughter over one hundred and fifty men without taking a single hit.]

[Reward: Golden Serpent Staff]

[Quest: Slaughter over two hundred men without taking a single hit.]

[Reward: ???]

[Quest: Exceed human limits for the first time.]

[Reward: Eternal Gourd]

"..."

Luke stared at the three notifications without blinking.

He did not need more than a glance to understand just how absurd those rewards were. The Golden Serpent Staff and Eternal Gourd already sounded extraordinary, but it was the second quest that truly caught his attention.

That question mark was vague, yet somehow, it carried an even stronger impression than the named rewards.

Whatever lay behind it, Luke had a distinct feeling that it would be something ridiculously overpowered.

After a brief pause, he asked, "First of all, that reward you didn’t reveal. I believe it’s related to the new line of skills I would awaken with the evolution of my Pod?"

[Indeed, host. You now have two rewards waiting to be granted once you awaken your new affinity.]

Luke inhaled sharply. That was yet another reason to get the evolution over with as soon as possible. Agh, when would this whole drama finally be settled? He only needed a single day. That was it.

’Maybe with the killing machine stationed outside the door, I would finally be able to relax.’

Bringing his attention back to the system screen, he asked, "About breaking human limits... what exactly does it mean? Does it have anything to do with how I was moving back then?"

Luke didn’t remember much of what had happened during those few seconds when he had slaughtered those men. His memories of that brief stretch were little more than scattered impressions, but one thing was certain. He had been moving incredibly fast.

Whenever he sensed someone regaining enough composure to fight back, or perhaps even attempting to flee, his eyes would instinctively turn toward them. In the very next instant, he would find himself there, his dagger already plunging into their throat.

He had never experienced anything like it before.

Not to mention that, earlier, his skin had been glowing with an almost excessive silvery radiance, and even his hair had taken on the same otherworldly sheen. It had returned to normal now, but back then, he had looked less like a human and more like some spectral apparition.

[Host, moonlight is never limited. It is merely you who places limitations on how much of its blessing you can absorb.]

[When you were pushed into a corner, knowing what would happen if you failed to change, your body began absorbing more of that blessing, allowing you to break through every limit imposed upon you.]

[At some point, the system could no longer keep up with your rapidly changing state and stopped managing your stats. You continued growing faster and sharper on your own.]

[Unfortunately, the amount of data generated during that period was too great for the system to process. Otherwise, the host would have been able to see exactly what his stats had reached at their peak.]

Luke gave a wry smile at that.

What a shame. He would have loved to see just how ridiculously powerful he had become during those few seconds.

His thoughts drifted back to his mindset at the time. More importantly, he remembered seeing Monica’s face in his mind as the horde advanced toward him.

Only then did he realize just how deeply nervous he must have been.

Perhaps that fear, that desperate certainty that he could not afford to lose, had been what pushed him all the way to that edge.

"What are you mulling over, savior?"

Just then, a familiar voice reached him.

Luke looked up and found none other than Gary approaching him. Of course, after everything that had happened, he would need Gary’s support to deal with the situation in the village.

Tomorrow, a great many things were bound to change.

~~~~

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