"Was hunting always this easy?" Alice Nakiri stared in disbelief.
"No way it's this simple. Only Kael could pull this off," Yuki Yoshino said. She wouldn't call herself a veteran hunter, but she'd been out here enough times to know the drill.
She had run into wild boars plenty of times before. When a group of boars showed up, no single team ever dared engage alone—they always called the other teams to combine forces. Even then, injuries were common.
But Kael had taken down the entire herd by himself. Even Yuki, who was usually pretty carefree, was staring with her mouth half-open. His technique had completely stunned her.
"I've seen people hunt wild boars before, but never like this."
"Even with Divine Hearing letting you track every movement, firing arrow after arrow with that kind of speed and power? That's not something normal people can do."
Rindo Kobayashi had noticed Kael's inhuman strength right away. It was one thing to repeatedly draw a bow that heavy—two-stone bow at that, but she had just watched him drag several full-grown boars out of the den like it was nothing.
Hunters usually had a hard enough time hauling out a single large kill. If you had people, you'd carry it back together. But alone? You either cut out what you could carry, or you risked your life trying to move the whole thing.
"Stop being amazed already. Alice, give me the rope in your bag."
Kael unslung the Seven-Star Knives from his back. The massive blade—over a meter and a half long—gleamed as he swung it. A few flashes of steel later, several thick branches dropped from a nearby tree.
He used them to build a simple sled for transporting the boars. Once the Seven-Star Knives were back in their sheath, Kael tied the branches together with rope, assembling the sled so fast his hands were a blur.
Then he lifted the three large and seven small boars onto it and began dragging the load forward. Even with the sled easing the friction, the several-hundred-kilogram weight forced him to slow down a little, but thanks to his body's monstrous strength, it was manageable.
Dragging them without the sled would have shredded the boars against the ground, and Kael didn't want that.
The other three wanted to help, but Kael was moving too fast. By the time they realized what he was doing, the sled was already finished. They settled for helping pull the ropes from behind to lighten his load. Kael didn't refuse—letting them help gave them a sense of participation, and it spared him a bit of effort.
Under Kael's strength, they returned to camp quickly. The people waiting there widened their eyes when they saw how many boars the team had brought back.
"Hold on—this is all yours?! That's way too many!"
Yuki Yoshino's father, who stayed behind as the team leader, was stunned speechless. He knew Kael's strength, but this was still beyond expectations.
"Look closely! All these boars were taken down by arrows… and what's with these shots?!"
Someone suddenly shouted, and the group gathered to inspect the kills. Every boar—large and small—was shot cleanly through the eye, killed instantly.
Since Kael was the only one in their team with a bow, that meant he had taken down the entire herd alone.
Once an adult boar was attacked, it would immediately counterattack, and the younger ones would scatter in all directions. Getting all of them required impossible speed.
"You're even more of a monster than I thought."
After holding it in for a while, Yuki's father finally blurted out those words. It wasn't the most polite choice, but he simply had no other vocabulary left. If he held it in any longer, he felt like he'd explode.
Kael could only sigh. He knew exactly how broken his abilities were.
After that, the others took over the butchering. Kael didn't mind a break; they had more than enough meat already. Thanks to his overwhelming performance, no one dared ask him to do chores.
Time passed, and the other groups returned one by one. Some came back empty-handed, some brought small game. As for large prey—Kael was the only one who had managed any.
One student came back injured—not from an animal attack, but because he had chased a rabbit and tumbled down a slope.
"He's lucky it was just a slope. If it were a cliff, he'd be dead by now."
Yuki shook her head. In deep mountains like this, no hunter would blindly sprint after prey. One wrong step and you'd fall into a ravine.
Her father, as the leader, scolded the student thoroughly.
That night, everyone relaxed. There were plenty of weapons, plenty of people, and Kael—the walking radar—was around. Kael roasted one of the small boars for everyone. While the others cooked, he sprinkled his own formula of repellent herbs around camp to keep venomous insects and rodents away.
After eating, people went to rest. Yuki's father arranged shifts for patrol duty, but Kael's team was exempt—they were the main force and needed rest for tomorrow's deeper expedition.
Everything they hunted was stored in a pit dug specifically for temporary storage, since they couldn't bring too much meat deeper into the mountains.
The night passed peacefully—likely because they hadn't gone too deep yet, so even roasting meat hadn't attracted any predators.
The next morning, they packed up and continued forward.
This time, Yuki's father didn't let anyone split up. He had been willing to allow small groups before, but not at this depth.
With Kael leading, their pace remained quick. Along the way he kept hunting, and he also collected every toxic creature, mushroom, and herb they encountered.
"Why are you collecting so much poison?"
Yuki's father stared at Kael's bulging backpack. There was enough poison in there to wipe out their entire group several times.
"Kael specializes in Poison Cuisine. All of this is for cooking," Yuki explained.
She, Alice, and Ryo were used to it by now. At first they'd been terrified, but after eating his dishes repeatedly—and discovering how much beneficial they were, like that lamb soup that worked better than any skincare—they'd completely relaxed.
"Poison Cuisine? I've lived this long and never heard of something like that. These poisons are really safe to use?"
Yuki's father looked alarmed. Rindo Kobayashi stared too—this was the first she'd heard of Kael using poison in cooking.
"Relax. Kael once used pufferfish toxin in a dish. We were scared half to death, but after getting checked at the hospital, every single one of us was perfectly fine. Healthier than before, even."
Yuki sighed. Back then, when she found out he had used pufferfish toxin, she thought they were done for. The entire Polar Star Dormitory had gone to get examined afterward.
That was the moment they collectively realized Kael's Poison Cuisine was trustworthy.
Kael would never use a poison he wasn't absolutely certain about. Divine Sense alone could instantly detect whether a dish would harm someone. If a toxin could still hurt a person after his safety check, he might as well jump off a cliff.
"Pufferfish toxin…? I guess I really was ignorant."
Yuki's father exhaled shakily. Hearing that his daughter had eaten something that dangerous nearly gave him a heart attack, but since she was completely fine, he let it go.
He still eyed Kael with caution though. This guy didn't just have terrifying archery skills and monstrous strength—he was dangerous in every sense.
Yuki's group was already used to him and enjoyed the benefits of his cooking. But for newcomers like Rindo and Yuki's dad?
Poison Cuisine was horrifying.
If anyone else tried to feed them pufferfish toxin, they'd beat that person to death on the spot.
"Wait—when you fought that shorty in your Shokugeki… you used Poison Cuisine too, didn't you?" Rindo suddenly remembered something.
"Shorty?"
Everyone except Kael stared blankly at her.
"I mean Terunori Kuga."
"Ohh, Kuga-senpai. But calling him shorty… honestly, it fits." Alice burst out laughing. Next to Kael, Kuga really did look tiny.
"I did use Poison Cuisine in that match," Kael admitted.
"You seriously dared to do that? The judge was the Director! What if you accidentally poisoned him?!"
Rindo felt like she had finally met someone more insane than herself. People said she was a chaotic gremlin, but at least she didn't risk killing the head of Totsuki.
Kael, meanwhile, was playing with death.
"I only use poison when I'm sure it's safe. My dishes won't harm anyone—unless I want them to." He shook his head.
Without his cheat abilities, he would never dare try something like Poison Cuisine. But with the Four Divine Senses monitoring everything, the risk was zero.