With my excitement running high, I prepared to hunt the rabbit, but before I could even move a muscle, it was gone. Fortunately, it was not too difficult to spot a brown dot moving through the greenish undergrowth.

Not intending to let my prey disappear from sight again, I kicked the ground hard and shot after him.

This will be an easy prey!

***

Or at least that's what I thought initially.

"Damn..."

I gasped as I rested my hands on my knees and watched the rabbit disappear from my sight.

"What a fucking fast bastard..."

I don't know how long I ran, but the drops of sweat running down my face to the tip of my chin assure me that it was not a short time.

If there was one thing about me that I had confidence in when I chose to come to the forest, it would be my endurance. I used to run in my spare time and do a little exercise to keep my body healthy. But to not even be able to catch a rabbit, I am speechless...

It looks like it won't be as easy as I thought...

***

After losing all my excitement from before, I went to the nearest tree and sat down on the ground with my back against it. While I caught my breath, I drank some water from my inventory while eating some bread.

As best I can tell, although the bread was quite tasty, my dissatisfaction is the fact that a glass was not included in the inventory. The water was not even stored in a container, it was simply thrown into storage.

Even though I wondered how the bread didn't get wet considering that everything was loose inside the same place, I didn't feel like finding an answer for two reasons.

First, I can't think conventionally when it comes to magic, and second, before I knew it, I was surrounded by rabbits. They all had various colors and spots on their bodies.

At that moment, I realized that due to my excitement, I had overlooked something important.

I have skills!

The rabbits probably came closer because of the Monster tamer's passive sub-skill, Calm Down.

If I remember correctly, the monsters that approach me become calmer, but I still don't know exactly how that works.

I looked carefully at the seven rabbits in front of me, but apart from the tiny reddish-pink horn they have on their heads, they are nothing different from a normal one. Even their size is ordinary, the biggest one seems to be at most thirty centimeters.

Since the opportunity has presented itself, it is time to put my skills into practice.

I looked at the nearest rabbit and thought about activating the Glossary sub-skill. By the way, I believe Zoology would be a more appropriate name for a skill that contains information about monsters. But well, it doesn't matter, because as if by magic, literally, words began to appear before my eyes.

---

Horned Rabbit.

It is just a normal, fast rabbit with a small horn on its head. It is a species that has a keen sense for hostility and danger. At the slightest sense from any threat, it will immediately run away.

[...]

---

Hmm... As best I can tell, that's a very common description. But when I thought about it, I noticed the reticence just below, probably indicating that there was more to it. When I tried it, it really had a plethora of words describing habits and characteristics of the species.

This can be quite useful, now let's see what the Status sub-skill shows. Excited, I activated the skill full of expectations.

---

Horned Rabbit

Race: Horned Rabbit

Level: 1

Gender: Male

---

...Although I expected something more exciting, I guess that's normal considering it's a simple rabbit.

Or rather, he is also level 1, does that mean he is as strong as me?

Nah, given the proper proportions, no matter how I look at it, this is clearly impossible. Let's see if I can catch one of them.

Taking a loaf of bread from the inventory, I spread a few small crumbs around myself and held half of it in my hand. After holding this half for a while, one of the rabbits finally took the bait and came closer.

As he nibbled on the bread, I moved my other hand slowly and stroked his back gently. Even though he seemed to want to escape for a moment, he didn't. After giving the rabbit a little more time to familiarize himself with me, I took him in my hands.

Probably due to the Calm Down skill, he didn't seem nervous as I moved him around and examined every part of his body.

He is quite fluffy, and apart from the horn, he doesn't really have anything different from an ordinary rabbit.

Come to think of it, all the sub-skills and the Monster Tamer skill itself affect monsters, but no matter how I look at it, this rabbit cannot be classified as a...

While I was having an internal debate with myself, information that Shadow-san put in my head started to come up.

It seems that in addition to general basic knowledge, convenient information will arise given the need.

This is very interesting information, apparently thousands of years ago there was a war and part of the animals evolved to become monsters. Well, I guess that explains why the skills affect normal animals.

Putting the rabbit back down, I kept my hand on its body and pressed it firmly. With my other hand, I slowly drew the sword from its sheath, but as if they felt no fear, the surrounding rabbits continued to eat the bread crumbs I had thrown them.

Although I felt a little guilty seeing the rabbit red eyes glowing as he innocently continued to stare at me, this feeling didn't last long. I grew up with my grandfather, and always worked on the farm with him, so I was already used to killing small animals.

Maybe because they sensed my intentions, all the rabbits started to run. The one under my hand also started to struggle, but as I figured, even though it is level 1, its strength is no match for mine.

With a quick swing of my arm, I chopped off the rabbit's head.

While I was anxiously waiting for the notice saying that I won xp, nothing happened.

As the smell of blood penetrated my nostrils, I had the feeling that this can't be a dream at all. Unless it is a lucid dream, but I have never had one, so I don't know.

---

Magic essence collected.

Where do you want to invest?

---

Oh, it showed up!

Putting my doubts aside, my heart soared with joy at the small transparent blue screen that appeared.

This is where the exciting part begins. According to what Shadow-san told me, every time I kill a monster, the system will absorb the magic essence it releases when it dies.

From there, I can assign this essence in five different ways to strengthen myself.

First, assign in Strength, that gives me an increase in physical strength.

Although I have no concrete information about it, I believe that besides physical strength, I might gain an increase in my stamina. After all, there is no way to get stronger without gaining stamina.

Second, Speed, and just like strength, my physical attribute of speed will increase.

Again, I have no information to back up my thinking, but I think increasing the speed attribute will also improve my body's agility, and response time.

Third, Stamina, strengthening this attribute would increase my stamina overall.

I don't know exactly what 'overall' means, that's a very ambiguous explanation. Honestly, I wish they wouldn't make such simplistic explanations, it's really a pain in the ass.

Well, but given my own conjecture, I think that this general endurance should be anaerobic, aerobic, localized muscular and strength endurance.

Let's go to the fourth option, Vitality, which gives me resistance to beatings and increases my body's recovery and regeneration rate.

Finally, the part that makes my heart flutter, Magic! But unlike my excitement, the explanation was simple, it just increases the amount of magic I possess in my body.

To be honest, I don't really understand how the first four attributes work, but they affect the physical and seem to have overlapping effects at certain points. If it is normal training to strengthen myself, when I strengthen one, the other should strengthen even a little.

But the question is, can you apply logical knowledge when magic is involved?

Well, there is no reason for me to think about it now.

Since the sword was something I would use a lot from now on, I carefully wiped the blade on the rabbit's fur and sheathed it. The rabbit in turn, I just put it away in the inventory. I will take care of it later.

With a thought, I reopened the system prompt that had faded due to lack of response. Somehow, when I tried, I could feel the magic essence that the system stored. Because it was the first time, although I could feel it, I couldn't tell if this essence was too much or too little.

Without further ado, I immediately put all the essence into magic.

At the same instant, I felt the same sensation that I felt the moment I arrived. This was probably the feeling of magic coursing through my body.

Anxious to know how many how much stronger I had become, I locked my eyes on the experience bar that previously marked 0% next to my level.

...

... ...

Well, how can I put it... That was a feeling beyond my expectations.

Not because it was good, but because it was extremely boring. It was as if someone threw cold water on me.

Just to be sure, I blinked my eyes several times while trying to be sure of what I saw, but unfortunately, the situation remained the same.

Killing the rabbit gave me only 2.4% experience.

“What the hell happened here?!” I cried out unconsciously. “That's too little!”

We were both at the same level, so I was expecting at least 30%, but it looks like it won't be that easy as I expected.

With my back against the tree, I leaned my head back and looked up at the sky, but all I saw were a few blue gaps amidst the vastness of green leaves.

***

After facing reality, I sighed.

"Although not much, that's already a start. All I need to do is try a little harder."

But in this case, to rise to level 2, I will have to hunt at least forty-two rabbits... 

Since I had had enough rest, I changed trees and tried the same approach again. To no surprise, the same way worked the other three times I tried it.

The only problem was that it took a long time for me to catch a rabbit, and when I did, the others ran away desperately. But this was not enough to discourage me, I looked at the xp bar, which was now at 11%.

Apparently, even if the rabbits are on the same level, they will give different amounts of xp.

Standing up, I smiled.

"It's time to try a different approach, let's create traps!"