A teenage girl had hunted a rabbit monster all on her own.
Every member of the second group was astonished by her skill.
I was no different. I had an ability, but doing what she had done was impossible for me.
Unlike her, who had been a martial arts black belt from the start, I had been ordinary before I joined the army.
I had been a day laborer who held out until graduating from university, only to be dragged into the army against my will,
and when war broke out while I was a sergeant, I became nothing more than a long-term soldier who still hadn’t been discharged.
Fortunately, I gained an ability during the war and had made a decent showing for myself, but that was all thanks to my senses and my slightly enhanced body.
I could read danger well, find enemies well, and simply didn’t tire easily.
Of course, thanks to my senses and enhanced body, I became so good at shooting that people called me a sniper.
Even that much had been a great help during the war and on operations.
But on this planet, it seemed impossible to perform the way I had before.
My senses were sharp, but I had no talent for learning martial arts.
Even during training, only my stamina and senses had been acknowledged; I hadn’t drawn the martial arts instructors’ attention the way that girl had.
Simple spear techniques or shield techniques weren’t hard to keep up with, but when it came to complicated swordsmanship or martial arts, I had to throw up both hands on the very first day.
‘It’d be different in actual combat, though.’
Thanks to my experience rolling through operations and my senses, I could kill people well.
But it seemed that experience didn’t have much to do with learning martial arts.
If it was shooting, I was confident.
‘Should I make something like a bow?’
I had never used one before, but it seemed better than swinging something directly.
It would be nice if I could bring a gun, but judging from what we had brought with us, there seemed to be restrictions, unfortunately.
After the hunt ended, questions poured in from the others.
Master Sergeant An, the middle-aged man, even the college student.
They asked the girl what they were curious about.
“How did you catch it?”
“Were you able to do that from the beginning?”
“Does that energy only strengthen the spear?”
Contrary to her sharp impression, she answered sincerely.
“Like Senior Heewon said, I just gathered that black energy or whatever into the spear.”
“No. I gained it after coming to this planet.”
“Ah, my body also seems faster and stronger. My eyesight seems much better too.”
She had kept examining her body that morning, so she must have realized then that her body had changed.
Like me, her body seemed to have been strengthened overall.
It was a little disappointing.
I had thought it might be an ability only I had.
It seemed everyone who could come to this planet became able to use that thing called energy.
The others brightened.
They had heard it from the advance team, but unlike then, now they could see the results with their own eyes.
“I expected it, but you did much better than I thought. If we hunt just one more, I think we can head back.”
At Team Member Heewon’s words, everyone’s expressions grew even brighter.
They had hope now, and they had someone who could hunt.
Today, all they had to do was follow along.
It was the same with butchering.
Since there was someone who could cut the hide, they didn’t need the advance team’s help either.
When the girl picked up the spear, the men stepped forward to help her.
Under the direction of the middle-aged man, who had said he had owned a butcher shop, they began butchering the prey.
“Everyone, help out. We need to turn it over so the grain will be easier to cut along.”
After the men gathered and flipped the dead rabbit monster over, the butcher shop owner ran his finger along the belly of the overturned carcass.
“Here. You should be able to cut along the belly hide.”
At his words, the girl began cutting the belly with the spear.
The other men each held one of the carcass’s legs and watched as she slit its belly open.
But I didn’t think them holding the dead carcass would actually help with the butchering.
It was merely showing that they were trying hard.
I had no intention of dismissing that effort either.
However, it seemed they didn’t like that I wasn’t joining in.
“What are you doing over there? You come help too!”
The butcher shop owner, who was holding a hind leg, glared at me as he spoke.
The college student was also shooting me a sideways glare. Master Sergeant An’s expression wasn’t good either.
‘Did it look that bad to everyone else?’
Whether it helped or not was one thing, but everyone else was trying hard to help while I was standing off to one side by myself. It might have been only natural that they didn’t like it.
‘But are those two not sensing it either?’
Not only the Latin man, but Team Member Kim Heewon was also frowning.
‘Should I just say it?’
But if I did, I might lose the rare opportunity that had come my way.
I looked down at the spear.
The spear was glowing faintly.
‘In web novels and stuff, they say the power only stays if you’re holding it in your hand.’
Unlike in novels, it seemed the energy would remain for a little while even after it left my hand.
It would be only a short time, but that was enough.
Ignoring the butcher shop owner’s nagging, I raised the spear.
I drew the arm holding the spear far back, then glared in the butcher shop owner’s direction.
To anyone else, it probably looked as if I was about to throw the spear at any moment.
The butcher shop owner’s face turned pale.
“S-stop. Wh-what do you think you’re doing?”
The others were startled by my sudden action, while the advance team members looked at me with puzzled faces.
Everyone was looking at me with faces different from a moment ago, but my attention had gone entirely elsewhere.
An open space twenty meters ahead of where the group was gathered.
On the surface, it was nothing more than barren ground without rocks or trees.
To the eye, it was no different from anywhere else, but my enhanced senses told me.
There was a living creature there.
And not underground, but clinging to the surface.
A bizarre creature invisible to the eye, but perceptible to my senses.
To my senses, that creature felt similar to the rabbit monster we had just caught.
‘If my senses aren’t wrong, then the monster must be using something like stealth or assimilation.’
Even the first rabbit monster I had seen was beyond imagination, so it was highly likely other monsters had strange abilities too.
In fact, ordinary animals on Earth could hide like that as well.
A method of imitating the surrounding environment called “mimicry.”
Hiding that perfectly seemed difficult, but in any case, it was possible.
As I glared at the open space, I moved the energy inside my body.
Twitch.
Along with the energy, I felt my muscle fibers move.
The senses I possessed informed me in detail not only about my surroundings, but even the state of my own body.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t raise my martial arts skill, but they were a great help for what I was trying to do now.
Through my senses and the precise movement of my muscles, the spear’s direction was adjusted.
My energy, the dark energy, flowed powerfully into the spear.
‘Go!’
I shouted inwardly and threw the spear with all my might.
The fact that I had even thought of using a bow was because I was that confident in ranged attacks.
The only thing I had actually experienced was shooting, but if it was ranged, I was confident in other things too.
Shooting, archery, and even spear throwing.
Shwaaaak!
The spear shot out like a beam of light.
“Uwaak!”
The startled butcher shop owner threw himself flat on the ground, and the spear passed far above where he had fallen.
The spear continued flying in a straight line and drove itself precisely into the open space I had been looking at.
Puhak!
It had stabbed into the ground, but a strange sound rang out.
It was not the sound of piercing earth, but of piercing hide.
Blood surged up from the ground.
The Latin man, who had been staring blankly, sprang to his feet.
“Fucking! Hidden mole!”
‘Hidden mole?’
The monster impaled by my spear seemed to be called a hidden mole.
The Latin man ran over like lightning, and the woman followed behind him.
The training that had continued until just moments ago seemed to be the last thing on both their minds.
In novels and such, stealth would be dispelled if an injury was inflicted, but reality was different.
‘Even while it’s moving, I still can’t distinguish it. I guess it’s not just mimicry.’
If not for the blood spilling out and the moving spear, I probably wouldn’t have known the thing was moving.
In other words, right now, its movements were clearly visible.
The Latin man, who arrived first, excitedly thrust his spear into it, while Kang Heewon, who had followed after him, blocked its path.
“Stop it!”
“I’m going to block it even if you don’t order me around like that!”
Even while bickering, the two had decent teamwork.
Team Member Kim Heewon fought fairly well too.
She wasn’t as fast as the Latin man, and she didn’t wield the spear as well as the schoolgirl.
But she steadily blocked the monster’s path.
‘Looked at another way, does that mean she’s the weakest of the three?’
Even so, I had no intention of looking down on her.
Because fighting ability wasn’t everything.
The newly appeared monster wasn’t particularly strong in terms of combat power itself.
Of course, it was bigger and stronger than the rabbit monster, but the two members of the advance team were able to catch it easily.
After the hunt ended, I approached and saw that the monster looked closer to a stingray than a mole.
A stingray of the land, moving while flattened against the ground.
In size and weight, it looked several times greater than the monster rabbit.
After catching the hidden mole, Team Member Kim Heewon praised me with a bright face.
“You really found it well. As you saw, it’s a really hard one to catch. A lot of people have been injured because of this thing. That man keeps staying on top of rocks to avoid those.”
Along with her praise, I felt the others staring at me in surprise.
“My goodness, Sergeant Hyeon could use that energy too?”
“If two out of the four of us can already use it, will I be able to use it soon too?”
Master Sergeant An and the college student asked me with excited faces, while the butcher shop owner, his face flushed, avoided my eyes.
Not only the three men, but even the Latin man who hadn’t paid me any attention was looking at me with a curious expression.
And on top of that, there was the schoolgirl staring intensely at me.
I could feel that my image had changed.
It didn’t feel bad, but there was a question I had to ask right now.
“Why didn’t you tell us there were things like this?”
“Because it’s a monster that’s really hard to encounter.”
I got an answer right away, but looking at her expression, it wasn’t easy to believe.
It seemed not that they were hard to encounter, but that she hadn’t told us because people might get scared.
In any case, our group’s hunt ended there.
Three monsters.
One of them was a hidden mole, said to be hard to encounter and hard to catch.
The hidden mole’s black stone was twice as large as the rabbit’s black stone.
Even so, it was smaller than a pinky fingernail, but the two members of the advance team seemed satisfied.
Perhaps because they were in a good mood, the two of them personally dismantled the last monster we had caught.
Maybe because of its size, there was a lot of meat, and large bones came out as well.
After wrapping the meat and bones in the hide, each person shouldered a load on their back.
We headed back to base sooner than expected.
On the way back, I reviewed the hunt from a moment ago one thing at a time.
The power called dark energy, my strengthened abilities and body, even monster hunting.
There were more than just one or two things I needed to check.
And the most important among them was my own power.
I looked down at the spear.
‘I still don’t know what the difference is.’
I swung it roughly while walking, but I couldn’t feel the sensation I had when throwing the spear.
There shouldn’t have been much difference in how I used my muscles, yet holding it directly and swinging it didn’t work well.
I simply couldn’t understand it.
‘Don’t tell me there are stats like close-range and long-range, right?’
Just in case, I quietly called out, “Status window,” but nothing appeared.
It was then.
A voice came from right beside me.
“My name is Kang Hanna. What’s your name?”
Startled, I looked over and saw that the schoolgirl, who had approached at some point, was staring fixedly at me.