We were doing our best to keep up with Master, but Rio looked like she was really struggling. Since she’s focused more on ranged attacks, her stamina and agility aren’t as high as mine. Still, she was putting extra magic into her body enhancement just to keep up, doing her best not to fall behind.

"Maybe you could ease up a bit...!" she muttered breathlessly, though there was no chance Master could hear her. In fact, he had a habit of pushing us right to our limit, so saying anything would have been pointless.

"Stop."

After a solid two minutes of non-stop running, Master extended his arm to signal a stop. Even though it was brief, sprinting through a dense forest at full speed had taken a toll on our endurance.

"Is it... just ahead?"

"Ha... ha..."

I steadied my breathing and checked with Master. Rio was still catching her breath.

"Yeah. We’ll start with a weaker one, to see how well you two can work together."

I focused in the direction Master pointed and could sense something there. I hadn’t even realized I had a detection skill until he told me, but it seemed to be working well.

"Understood... we’re going in."

Making sure we were downwind, we carefully approached our target.

"Ah, I see it," Rio whispered.

Although I couldn’t yet see it, Rio had noticed it too. We exchanged looks and prepared ourselves. Peering past the shadows, I spotted a large creature grazing.

"That’s..."

It looked like the rabbit monster that attacked us our first day in the Devil’s Forest. But this one had two horns on its head and seemed even larger than us.

"A rematch with a stronger version? Really?"

With my recently acquired appraisal skill, I identified it as a "Giant Twin-Horned Rabbit." I couldn’t discern any details beyond its name yet, but seeing words like "Giant" and "Twin" were enough to tell me this was a tougher version.

"But our approach doesn’t change," Rio said, more motivated than I was.

"That rabbit hurt you, so it has to go," she said, an intense glint in her eyes.

"Whoa, whoa... let’s stay calm here."

"I am calm," she replied in a low voice, eyes fixed on the rabbit.

"Oh... right. Let’s proceed cautiously."

"I’ll go first," Rio declared, casting a spell to distract it. She raised her staff, gathering magic energy at its tip... maybe a bit too much magic.

“Wind Cutter.”

At her quiet command, ten blades of wind flew at the rabbit. Noticing the attack too late, the rabbit tried to look up but was shredded to pieces.

"..."

I’d been ready to jump in at a moment’s notice, but it was over before I could move. The scene was a bit gruesome. Helping Master dissect creatures was one thing, but seeing something killed right in front of me left a different kind of impact. Still, I needed to retrieve the magic stone.

After confirming there were no other threats, I approached the scattered pieces and dug out the magic stone with my dagger.

"Maybe that was a bit too easy... I thought a rematch was necessary, but I may have overtrained you both,” Master remarked, clearly not feeling any regret.

Not that I’d managed my own rematch yet...

"Haah..."

Rio, looking a little pale, let out a big sigh.

"You okay?"

"Yeah... I’m fine. I avenged you, after all."

"Uh, thanks?"

I mean, I wasn’t actually killed by the rabbit—I’m perfectly fine. I wondered if maybe I should avoid bringing her near rabbits in the future.

"There’s another one over there. You go take it down, kid."

"Oh, uh... yes, sir."

Focusing in the direction he indicated, I couldn’t sense anything at first. Master’s detection range was just absurdly wide.

"Another rabbit..."

"Don’t worry, Rio. I’ll handle this one."

With a look of determination, I moved forward. About 500 meters on, I sensed the same kind of presence as the last one. It seemed to be the same type, so I picked up my pace, drawing in closer.

As I neared it, I channeled my magic into my right hand, a hint of vengeance in mind. The rabbit looked up, but before it could react, I swung a powerful uppercut into its jaw. The rabbit’s head exploded on impact.

"Eugh..."

I let out an awkward groan at the sight. I may have gone a bit overboard with the strength. Controlling it was tricky... Master doesn’t exactly need anyone to hold back against him, so I wasn’t used to it.

"Well done, Shu," Rio praised.

"Excellent. This one should provide us with good meat."

In the end, the results were favorable. We’d even managed to secure some food for ourselves. Still, that was almost too easy. I’d better not get too overconfident...

"That’s enough for your first fight. Now, onto the next level," Master declared, and thus ended our first battle.