Flame, who was nimbly evading Bigarm's attacks, immediately broke away from the confrontation after receiving Jack's order.
Bowler also bolted once he landed on the ground. Previously Jack had asked him to use up all his remaining free attribute points to enhance his Dexterity stat. Bowler was the slowest among them, so a fleeing strategy would be hardest for him. Luckily, there were no opponents pinning him down at the moment, so he had the greatest head start when the order to retreat was given.
The two Rangers who had gone up to the terrace hadn't seen Bowler jump down so they were still up there looking around for him. Scarface wanted to chase but since he hadn't invested any points in Dexterity, he soon lost sight of Bowler.
Scarface yelled at the two rangers in irritation, "get down here, you two! He has already jumped down and is running away!"
In their group, only Red could hope to match speed with Jack. She chased after him when he broke off from Stonecleave and began to retreat.
The chase soon brought them some distance from the rest of the group. He looked at his radar and found that the rest of the enemies hadn't scattered to chase them; instead they gathered and stayed where they were. Seeing an opportunity, Jack said in team chat, "Bowler, look at your map and come to my location. I have an enemy expert on my tail. If we can manage to get rid of her, it would be a great blow to our opponents. Flame, you are too far away, continue onward to the rendezvous point."
After giving these instructions, Jack stopped running and turned back to face his pursuer. Red Death stopped several meters away from him. She wore a conflicted look. She then glared at Jack and said, "Don't you think this is over. We will settle this another time."
After saying her piece, she turned around and left.
Jack was confused at her retreat. From his radar, he could see Red Death rejoin her group. Jack kept watching his radar to see what they were planning. He was shocked to see them move away in the direction of the safe zone.
Bowler arrived at this time and asked, "Where is the expert?"
*
Red Death, who had received an order to return to the team, asked Scarface in dissatisfaction, "why are we retreating?"
"Can't you see the size of our team? We have lost almost half the strength we set out with," Scarface replied.
"We can still take them on. Are you going to just let those who've lost their lives die in vain?"
"Wrong and wrong. If we continue now, we risk losing the whole group. But we WILL settle this debt when we find a better opportunity."
Red Death kept up her argument, "I don't see it. They only managed to take out so many of our group because they were targeting our weakest members. The rest of us are not that weak, if they come at us, we can still beat the three of them."
Scarface sighed, "That might be true if we were holding the initiative, but as you've experienced, we aren't. We've been ambushed by them time after time. It's as if they know our every move. It is possible that they have equipment or an item that can track us. And also, there might not be just the three of them."
"What do you mean?"
"It is possible that there's another Magician hiding someplace else; the Magician who ambushed us before we arrived at the shopping mall."
"Isn't that the Magician who was up on the second floor of the shopping mall?" Bigarm asked in bewilderment.
"I originally thought so," Scarface replied. "But after seeing the damage done by the Magician on the second floor, I'm not so sure. His damage was way lower than during that ambush. Also, his Energy Bolts only shot out four bolts, while the previous one had five bolts in one spell. They couldn't be the same Magician."
"Who was it?" Bigarm asked again, "as far as we know, their team only has three people."
"It could be an expert from White Scarfs, sent here to give them a hand in secret."
"That White Scarfs! So they really intend making enemy of us!"
Scarface added, "If we continue pursuing them and get caught in another ambush by the four of them, we might be the ones that get wiped out. I must admit, I have underestimated them. I kept our group small because I didn't want to attract the attention of White Scarfs. I would have brought more people if I had known their strength. Now that it has come down to this, we can only cut our losses and make better preparations next time."
Red Death was silent after hearing this. She no longer vehemently protested. She just swore in her heart that she would get her revenge someday.
Jack and Bowler met up with Flame at the place Jack had specified. Jack had picked the area because it was devoid of monsters.
"They retreated?" Flame asked. "Why? They still outnumbered us by two to one."
"I'm not sure," Jack said. "Maybe they decided it wasn't worth it to keep on losing people in order to chase us."
"Well, I know the reason. It's because we are AWESOME!" Bowler exclaimed with ardor.
"Don't get too excited," Jack told him. "I know their kind of guild. They won't let go of this matter easily. They will strike again once they have the opportunity or after they assemble more members."
"Oh? Does that mean they will come back again soon with more people?" Bowler switched back to his worried look.
"For today, I don't think so," Jack replied. "But you never know. Let's not let our guard down."
"We are not going back yet?"
"Why? There are still several hours before the sunset. Let's continue hunting monsters for experience."
"You aren't worried that they really will be back with more people?"
"Don't worry, if they come with more people, we will just run away," Flame interjected. "After all, our leader here will know if they get near us. Won't you, leader?"
"Oh…," Jack scratched his head. "Yes, my intuition will let me know if they come again."
Flame just smiled, knowingly.
*
They continued to hunt monsters for the remainder of the day. Although Jack was vigilant and continued to monitor his radar, Death Associates didn't show themselves. Flame finally reached level 11 before the day ended. They received several iron ores and copper coins from the monster drops and split them evenly. Bowler and Flame wanted Jack to get a bigger portion as it was clear he killed monsters more efficiently than them, but he insisted on even distribution.
They turned back towards the safe zone as the sun was setting. On their way, they avoided areas with other players, and snuck through any unavoidable crowds as Jack's 'intuition' couldn't tell if the crowds were from Death Associates or just random people.
He had asked Peniel if their enemy dots would remain black after the fight was over. She informed him that the color would change back to blue once they were out of combat for a while.
She mentioned that there would be a function where he could list players as enemies, but that would be in the future. One such function was when one guild declared another guild as an enemy, then all the members in that guild would be seen as black dots in Map. She also mentioned that the current guilds they met in this tutorial period were only people grouped up together based on their allegiance in what Jack called real-life or past VR games. They were not proper guilds recognized by this world's system. Jack wondered about all this, but he knew Peniel wouldn't answer his questions about what was going to happen.
They only relaxed after they arrived in the vicinity of the City Hall building where White Scarfs members were hanging around. Silverwing was talking with one of his guild members in the main hall when they entered the building. When Silverwing spotted them, he immediately disengaged from his conversation and approached them.
"I heard you've been busy today?" He said with a smile.
"Have your eyes and ears been tattling on us?" Jack replied, also smiling.
Silverwing laughed at the comment, "don't worry, I didn't have anyone tailing you guys. I, however, DID have people monitoring Death Associates people, and they heard a piece of rather interesting news. Something about a team led by Scarface going on a mission and coming back several people short. I originally considered sending out people to check on you guys. But then I thought, if my allies are players who can be taken out so easily, then there is no benefit in continuing the alliance. We don't need weaklings for allies, after all."
Jack nodded, "I am glad we didn't disappoint you then."
"Yes, you didn't. Now that you have made your capability clear to us, how about we formalize our cooperation?"
"Oh? How do we manage this formalizing?"
"Game style of course," Silverwing made a gesture. Jack then heard a notification.
"Silverwing has sent you a Friend request. Do you accept?"