Choi Jinhyuk shot steel balls at a makeshift target made of rocks.

Even with only a few attempts, his accuracy was noticeably improving in real time.

Even without mana, his natural physical abilities were exceptional.

It made sense how Choi Jinhyuk had managed to confront six horned rabbits without any mana.

“Shall we go look for the others now?”

“Yeah. Do you have any idea where they might be?”

“Yes. There’s a smell of blood over that hill…”

“Then, let’s go check it out.”

Choi Jinhyuk led the way, and I followed behind him.

I wanted to lead the way, but Choi Jinhyuk insisted that ranged fighters should stay in the back, so I just followed.

‘Wait?’

But isn’t Choi Jinhyuk a ranged fighter now too?

As I thought this, I suddenly bumped into Choi Jinhyuk’s back when he stopped abruptly.

“Ouch.”

It was unexpected for the leader to stop so suddenly.

There must be a problem.

I tried to peek around Choi Jinhyuk’s back to assess the situation, but he reached out his hand to cover my eyes, preventing me from seeing.

“It’s better if you don’t see this.”

“Why…?”

“Just, it’s better that way.”

Choi Jinhyuk forcibly turned me around and we began descending the hill we had just climbed.

The pungent smell of blood led me to speculate that there might be a dead body over the hill.

“Did someone die…?”

“…Yeah. We’ll have to deal with it later. The living come first.”

“Ah…”

Someone really had died.

As someone who had only fought in lower-grade dungeons where death was rare, this was a shocking situation for me.

“Let’s go down now. It’s better not to see this yet.”

“Okay…”

What exactly is mana that it renders people so powerless?

I felt an inexplicable sense of emptiness as I descended the hill with Choi Jinhyuk.

“…This is serious. Without mana, we can’t even give our positions.”

“Isn’t there something like a flare gun?”

“There is, but they’re all magical devices. No one anticipated a situation without mana.”

That made sense.

In this world, the depletion of mana equated to death.

‘What to do.’

How should we find people in a dungeon composed of meadows and forests?

While looking around for a solution, I spotted a few stones rolling on the ground.

‘These are flintstones.’

I wondered if mixed with the lighter fluid I had brought just in case, they could be used as a signal flare.

I picked up a few flintstone pieces and approached Choi Jinhyuk.

“Can you shoot this with a slingshot? It would be best if you could shoot it as vertically as possible.”

“Into the sky?”

“Yes, I have a good plan. Shoot it high like a flare.”

“Alright, I’ll give it a try.”

Choi Jinhyuk took the flintstones and shot them towards the sky with the slingshot.

The flintstones soaked in oil soared high into the sky.

As the flintstones reached their highest point, I shot an arrow.

Thud!

The steel arrowhead collided with the oil-soaked flintstones, igniting sparks against the clear sky.

Firing flames like this into the sky would surely attract the others.

“Should we keep doing this?”

“Yeah. It’s a good method.”

Choi Jinhyuk and I continued to shoot flames into the sky.

It was around the seventh time we did this when people came to us.

“Gyeoul!”

Yeoreum and Jung Yu-na, along with other adventurers, approached us.

Their clean appearance was a relief, and my tail involuntarily wagged.

“Gyeoul! What are you doing here, in such a dangerous place!”

“I’m, I’m sorry. I was worried because you didn’t return…”

“Even so!”

My tail stopped wagging at Yeoreum’s reprimand.

Unsure of what to say to her, I kept my mouth shut.

Choi Jinhyuk then stepped forward, blocking Yeoreum.

“Don’t be too hard on her. She came to help us.”

“She came to help us…?”

“Yeah. She’s better at catching horned rabbits without mana than we are.”

“…I see your point, but Gyeoul is still a child.”

Yeoreum glanced at me, seemingly doubting my ability to hunt horned rabbits.

With my original body, I would have had no argument against such doubt, but my current physique was different.

I had caught dozens of horned rabbits on the way here.

I felt like I needed to give her a lecture on horned rabbits, which had been my whole life.

✧✧✧✧✧

“So, the weaknesses of the horned rabbits are the eyes and the horns, right?”

“Yes. The hide is protected by mana, so nothing else will penetrate.”

To demonstrate, I shot an arrow at a lone horned rabbit in the distance.

Thud!

The arrow, seeming to pierce the hide, bounced off the rabbit’s white fur.

It wasn’t that the hide was too thick; the arrow couldn’t even approach due to the mana’s protection.

Squeak-?!

The startled rabbit perked up its ears.