And Haniel was full of thoughts about generously showcasing the tools she had made for the golden journey of the Rift that had unfolded before her.

‘This is the first attempt, so there might be shortcomings in terms of power. So I need to shoot accurately.’

The arrow must hit exactly at the ‘weakness’ indicated by the system. Haniel’s eyes flashed. She had repeated gathering and hunting to the point where she might have depleted the forest’s ecosystem. By now, accuracy was practically another one of her skills.

“I’ll show you the hidden strength of humans.”

Clunk, creak. Haniel mounted the crossbow on her arm and loaded an arrow.

The Wanderer’s pretty face came into her field of vision. Its movements were slower than before.

The way it swayed while looking at her from a distance away from Regan appeared almost as if in slow motion.

The axe embedded in its neck. The tattered flesh around it. Haniel’s pupils contracted sharply, and a golden energy faintly rippled at the tip of her weapon.

And then…

Click, twang!

With an ear-splitting sharp sound, the arrow shot out like light.

It soon pierced through the Wanderer’s neck.

Kieeek!

The Wanderer twisted its body, raising its sharp legs. A scream that seemed to shake her eardrums! Though it was just a small crossbow with a small arrow, Haniel’s attack seemed to have inflicted a more critical wound than expected.

Haniel was inwardly surprised at the sight of the Wanderer writhing, but without wavering, she immediately reloaded and fired another shot at its neck.

Whoosh, crack! Like a guided missile, the arrow embedded itself precisely into the Wanderer’s neck skin again.

‘Hit again!’

Grrrr… Foam burst from the Wanderer’s split mouth, and its body, which had been swaying like a broken branch, eventually… collapsed to the ground with a thud!

It was completely dead.

“Huff, huff…”

Her heart felt like it was beating next to her ears. Though she hadn’t moved much, she breathed heavily.

An axe and two arrows from the crossbow. The effort it took to kill a monster the size of a house was surprisingly little, but… anyway, she succeeded!

“I-I really killed it. I did it!”

At that moment, the status window appeared in Haniel’s vision.

Ding!

Her combat ability, which had barely moved for two years because she hadn’t gone far outside her territory, had increased as if it had been waiting for this moment.

Haniel realized once again that what the system had originally prepared for her was this ‘Rift content’.

“Haniel!”

Regan, who had also finished his battle, ran to her as soon as he cut off the last Wanderer’s breath.

“Yes?”

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

Though he himself was soaked in blood, Regan examined every inch of Haniel’s body like a dog thoroughly sniffing its owner who had returned from outside.

The way he kneaded her entire body with his large hands made her feel like bread dough.

Haniel placed her hand on the man’s arm and smiled broadly.

“I told you I would help this time.”

“That’s true… but I didn’t know you had such skills hidden away.”

These monsters were opponents that even a well-prepared ordinary Hume would struggle to defeat, though Regan, who had become incomparably stronger than before, could handle them easily.

So how could this small and seemingly fragile human kill that thing?

Looking her over with an incredulous expression, an inevitable smile appeared slightly on Regan’s lips.

“You continue to surprise me.”

“Do you dislike that?”

“How could I?”

Feeling her ears were getting hot under his gaze, Haniel scratched the back of her ear.

Ah, right. She strode over to extract the axe and arrows embedded in the neck of the Wanderer she had killed.

Bending down to examine the wound closely, it appeared that more than half the credit for killing the Wanderer went to the gash created by the embedded axe blade, with the rest being the penetration wounds made by the two arrows.

‘As I thought, this crossbow seems a bit weaker than the axe… maybe because it’s a weapon I’m not yet familiar with.’

Haniel grumbled as she cleaned the cross-section of the arrowhead and maintained the crossbow. The crossbow that was mounted on one arm. Regan, standing beside her watching, opened his mouth with a questioning voice.

“That object… is it indeed a crossbow?”

“Yes. I made it just in case. Want to take a look?”

Raising one eyebrow at the casual offer, Regan slowly nodded. Soon, Haniel unfastened the straps and fixings of the crossbow attached to her arm and handed over the weapon. The crossbow, fitted to her body, looked almost like a toy in the man’s hands.

‘But a toy that easily killed that hybrid.’

Regan observed Haniel’s ‘crossbow’ in his grasp.

A strangely shaped crossbow. That was his assessment in that brief moment.

It was small and intricate enough to truly deserve the name of a toy, and the engraved patterns were even beautiful, unfitting for its destructive power.

Indeed, this beauty and intricacy alone could fetch a price equivalent to a castle in the capitals of Soleil or Anaserph.

‘If what this artifact can do becomes known, its value would increase even more.’

How could such a thing produce the power he had witnessed earlier?

“…”

Regan suddenly thought, with an unfamiliar expression, that his thick fingers caressing the crossbow felt too crude.

Haniel, who could effectively shoot and kill enemies from a distance without getting a drop of blood on her hands, and her beautiful weapons. He wondered if she might have found his own way of tearing and biting opponents to death with his whole body barbaric. Such thoughts occurred to him.

In truth, even in Soleil and other countries on the continent, where a strong physique was considered virtuous, there were those who utilized not only bows but also crossbows, which were improved to increase penetration.

However, those were used in large-scale battles or siege warfare where volleys were fired, not in sudden combat like just now—they were too large, heavy, and time-consuming to load to be suitable for carrying and using. Beauty wasn’t even a consideration.

Therefore, Haniel’s crossbow that Regan was now holding seemed like a completely different kind of weapon from what he had seen.

Beautiful, rare, and powerful. Just like Haniel herself…

Was this ability to create such things also a legacy of the human species?

Scanning the crossbow with a keen gaze, Regan considered how he would have armed his army and improved military power if he had seen this weapon when he was a general of Soleil.

He could have created an army capable of easily checking not only the country of Anaserph, attached to the south with those Elf fellows, but also the reptiles of the swamp to the northwest. And for such a purpose, he would have hunted down the blacksmith and creator who made this, dragging them by their hair and nape.

But now Regan was no longer Soleil’s general and Sol’s hunting dog, but merely Haniel’s mate and a faithful male wolf.

Therefore, he simply admired the weapon of amazing technology made by his master and returned it without any jealousy.

“I’ve seen it well. It’s an excellent weapon.”

“Ha, right? The power is a bit weaker than I thought, so I had to fire several shots, but still, it turned out better than expected.”

‘Power is weak’… Regan stroked his chin.

“I don’t think power that can kill that hybrid with just a few arrows is weak. But given the opponent, aiming for a one-hit kill would be good.”

“That’s right. If aggro… I mean, if attention is drawn to me after being hit by an arrow, they approach me in an instant…”