Soon Haniel’s small, white fingers rested on his furry hand. With his glistening eyes that seemed like they might devour her fingers, Haniel calmed her pounding heart and thought to herself.

‘I’m worried…’

She soon realized that her worry was not just a groundless fear.

“Waaaaaahhh!”

Shhhhhh!

“Aaaah! Go away! Please!”

After walking a long way, what appeared before Haniel and Regan was the most repulsively shaped kind among all the Rift hybrids they had seen so far.

A hard, long body with body segments divided into dozens of parts like bamboo joints. Strange furry animal flesh legs attached in pairs to each segment.

A bizarre face with unfocused eyes and adorably red antennae above it…

‘That’s a centipede aaaaaaaahhhhh!’

What extinguished Haniel’s candle-like courage with a whoosh… the basic form of this hybrid was a centipede.

And this creature also found Haniel extremely lovable.

“Binding or whatever, please stay away from me!”

“Haniel! Stay far back!”

“What, what do you think I’m running for?!”

Haniel ran away at an amazing speed, making a grimace.

Then she turned her head back and glanced at several centipede monsters… no, Rift creatures that looked very similar to Earth centipedes, [Twisted Binders].

‘It’s too creepy!’

First of all, its body was very long. Segments divided joint by joint on a thick body that would require Haniel’s two arms to embrace. And the furry animal legs attached to both sides of the segments—though she didn’t know which animal they were mixed with—were so glossy that it was truly nauseating…

‘Huh?’

A very long and thick, substantial body. She didn’t know exactly how many segments there were, but they were lusciously divided joint by joint. Legs attached to both sides of the segments, glossy and luscious.

Haniel immediately turned around and ran toward the centipede.

“No, I take it back! Don’t stay away! Stay close!”

This has the potential to make several sets of armor!

The weakness of the [Twisted Binder] that the status window revealed was the forehead between the antennae!

Haniel loaded an arrow into her crossbow and shot at the forehead of a small [Twisted Binder] outside of Regan’s attack range.

Whoosh!

A sound of air being torn erupted, and soon, with a crack! and a bursting sound, the Binder let out a shrill scream that could shake the cave.

Kieeeeek!

‘…A hit!’

Haniel’s arrow lodged between the red antennae. She didn’t miss the opportunity and reloaded, shooting one more, then two, three, and four more arrows into the head of the writhing Binder.

All the arrows she shot were densely embedded between the forehead, creating a crack… Crack! At the moment the last arrow was embedded, the Binder, which had been twisting its body madly, finally collapsed to the floor with a heavy sound.

Huff, huff. Haniel exhaled, panting.

At that moment.

Ding!

As a notification appeared that her combat skill had increased, a new window soon appeared before Haniel’s vision.

“…What is this?”

Vitality Usage… Passive Skill. Automatic Use?

Seeing Regan fighting with other Binders, Haniel pondered urgently.

Regarding vitality usage, she had seen a phrase about using vitality when entering the Rift.

But this status window suddenly appeared when her combat skill exceeded 50.

In fact, passive skills and automatic use weren’t such unfamiliar concepts.

Just as skilled technicians develop “knacks,” skills also became automatically usable once they reached a certain level, without having to deliberately use specific techniques.

But have I been using vitality until now?

Haniel glanced at Regan again. It was an overwhelming numerical disadvantage of 5 to 1.

And Regan’s body wasn’t normal to begin with…!

‘I need to go help quickly!’

D*mn it! Haniel bit her lip and stamped her feet, then finally chose option 1, ‘Yes.’

Although she didn’t like everything this annoying status window did, it had shown options that helped Haniel in such cases. It would be better to choose the option that the status window recommended.

Even though she felt uncontrollable anger at the fact that she had to “use” her precious vitality to overcome this difficulty.

The status window burst forth with a cheerful sound. It seemed to be comforting her for making an excellent choice, but Haniel only felt a strong aversion to those sentences, though she didn’t know exactly why.

What did it mean for vitality usage to be automatic? In what way would it be used?

Then Haniel suddenly felt a chill on the back of her neck and turned her eyes toward where Regan was.

And at the sight she saw in that instant, her jaw dropped almost to the ground.

“Th-that!”

A Binder with a much larger body than the one Haniel had just killed, with countless teeth in its wide-open mouth, was lunging at Regan.

Just as it was about to wrap around the interfering man’s body and bring its hideous mouth toward the back of his neck, Haniel’s heart sank.

“Please… no!”

Around Regan were four more monsters besides the Binder that had tightly bound him. No matter how strong he was, there was a limit to what he could handle.

At this rate, he’ll be seriously injured. No… he’ll die.

A sensation of blood running cold raced down her spine. Immediately, Haniel, without thinking twice, pulled out her axe and threw it with all her might toward the centipede monster with its mouth wide open.

Whoosh!

The axe flew like a shooting star. At that moment, a golden current seeped like mist into the blade of the axe cutting through the air.

And, crack! As the axe hit the center of the giant Binder’s face, the Binder let out an ear-splitting scream.

Kieeeeeeek! A desperate death cry that made even Haniel, who had thrown the axe, flinch.

The Binder writhed like an insect sprayed with pesticide, and the strength drained from its body that was surrounding Regan.

And then…

“!”

Crack! Crunch… Thud.

The shell split from where Haniel’s axe had struck, and then burst completely.

“…This can’t be.”

Regan stared at the sight with an expression tinged with astonishment.