Durghan seems sad he can't come to hunt magical beasts with me. He’s a capable guy, and I wouldn't mind having him, but somebody has to train the rest of the hunters, and especially the ones who are lacking.

But honestly, I want to create a wider gap between our strengths before I take him along. At this stage, I'm still worried about being overthrown.

The orcs accompanying me are three men from the hunting party. One of them got a first place score, tying with a woman who took the exam. The other two were second place at best, but none of the women opted to come along, so it defaulted to these three guys. I'm actually surprised how unambitious the women are in this respect. But it seems like their ambitions lie elsewhere. They seem to want to dominate the home field, and are diligently studying and training in the new skills I have introduced.

Momma still actively brags in her free time what a genius her daughter is.

To be honest, I don't know anything about tracking magical beasts. When I asked my group where they're more likely to be spotted, their answer was to head toward the mountain. It's the best information I have on the subject, so that’s where we’ll go. It's the same direction I traveled back during my hunting ceremony.

Speaking of the hunting ceremony, that really is the exception when it comes to hunting magical beasts. In that case, the person performing their ceremony gets all the gains, but normally, the gains are distributed based on participation. And apparently, the spirits look at every aspect when determining this distribution. For example, even if I don't fight at all, I'll still get some gains because it was my influence that allowed the other group members to gather and hunt magical beasts in the first place.

It has to be like this, or else healers and support members would never gain anything.

But doesn't that mean that if I control an army and send them to hunt magical beasts, I'll gain power without even doing much?

The answer is yes and no. It depends on a lot of factors, like the loyalty of my troops, my motivations, how far I strategize before giving the order, and so on. To sum it up, the spirits aren't idiots, and they won't allow Malicious and lazy rulers to abuse the system.

I think I get it, more or less.

So we walked for about two hours with me in the lead. I'm starting to worry that we won't find anything today. That's when I start to think maybe I'm not trying hard enough. Leaving it completely up to luck… it seems dumb, since I’ve never been a lucky gambler.

I start paying more attention to the ground, looking for tracks, broken twigs, animal poop and all that. After another half hour, I actually find something and follow it, but it turned out to be just a possum. The effort paid off, though, because I heard the spirits call out,

[[Conditions met. Skill acquired.]]

I've basically isolated the way to gain skills by now. There are two conditions: first, conscious effort; second, successful execution.

And now that I have the skill, I can put some magic power into it to go beyond my actual ability.

All of a sudden, the details are extremely clear in my mind. Every footprint in the grass is clearly defined and I can tell what sort of animal it belongs to. I can see the path they took, whether they were fleeing or fighting, whether the animal had any injuries…

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I'm nearly overwhelmed by the sudden influx of information, but then I see it! A set of tracks with a residual magical aura! According to the shape of these tracks, it should be something like a stag, and it passed by recently. Feeling excited, I tell the others to follow closely and creep in the direction the trail leads.

Within fifteen minutes, we are in the proper position to launch an ambush.

My first thought looking at this huge freaking stag, is that it looks like it can run way faster than an orc. In fact, it's legs are so long, I think that it could just jump over us if we formed an encirclement.

Right now, the only strategy I can think of is to deal a sudden crippling blow. For this, I think only I myself with my sneak skill can accomplish this.

Once I've thought this far, a more detailed strategy slowly forms.

I gesture for the others to wait here and be prepared. Meanwhile, I activate and sneak around to the opposite side of the magical beast. I'm hoping to form a pincer attack this way, in case it can still run after my initial blow, or if I'm spotted.

My worries were right. I swept in suddenly and broke one of the stag’s forelegs with a solid blow, but it jumps and flees on just three legs. As it's about to escape, the others jump out from their hiding spots and inflict several deep wounds in the beast’s flanks. Regardless, it's able to flee.

A chase ensues. My group has no hope keeping up with the stag. The other members of the group can barely even keep up with me, but I refuse to yield and activate tracking.

We follow the trail to where the stag’s journey ended. It’s lying on the ground, bleeding profusely, unable to run anymore. The holy attribute flares up in my body, and for a moment I don't think I can bear to kill this poor animal. The spirits even hear my internal struggle and add fuel to the fire.

[[Conditions met. Skill acquired.]]

Magic seems to have different conditions to acquire than regular skills, and I haven't quite figured out what those conditions are yet.

The spirits could probably tell that I really do want to help the magical beast. But that would throw away all the effort we’ve spent up to now. If I kill it, I get a pelt, bones, meat, and magic power. If I heal it… just what am I expecting? It's a wild animal. It won't just roll over and become my mount.

I know I've made my decision already, it's just that the holy attribute inside of me doesn't like it. Thus, lowering my weapon, I order my three followers.

“Kill it.”

The three male orcs swarm around the stag and tear into it with their weapons. I tune myself out to the sights and sounds and suppress the sick feeling in my stomach.

The moment the beast breathes its last breath, I feel a warmth settle into my body. The sudden inflow of magical power… it's nice.

Because I have a suspicion, I quickly activate . As I thought, I can see a faint distortion in the air where the magical energy had just flown from the stag to myself and the others. I can tell at a glance that I received at least seventy-five percent of the total share.

The distortion fades remarkably quickly, and I unconsciously glance at the three male orcs. My eyes widen in surprise at what my eyes, still bolstered by the power of , see.

It's probably to match them to their footsteps shimmering with magic aura, but I can see a visual representation of the total magic power of these guys. Looking down at my own hands, my own aura is glittering white, and a good deal stronger than theirs.

I somehow… obtained a method to approximate an opponent’s strength at a glance! Who knew a simple had such an ability!

With this sort of power, it's even possible to anticipate attacks based on the flow of their aura. This… this isn't even at all anymore. It's as if the skill has upgraded into something like--!

[[Conditions met. User mastery has caused skill to evolve into rare skill .]]

!!!

I must be playing on easy mode!