Michael started shouting in anger and pure fury and started rampaging through the site, destroying both the remaining fire as well as the three spears that contained the heads. Clearly he had some untreated anger management issues...
But upon knocking the spear containing Taketa's head down, a small piece of cloth followed it, landing on the ground in front of Michael where he had just rampaged.
Still seething with rage, he picked it up to look what was on it, as it was clear it wasn't there naturally and neither of the three archers were wearing any clothes that resembled this material.
'An eye for an eye.' Was all that was written on it.
Seeing the small note that Lumen had left for him, Michael ripped it to pieces and threw the remains onto the little fire that was left after he had destroyed it,
"We will get our revenge one day, I will make sure of that." He didn't shout this time, instead his voice was rather calm and scary considering the fury he had just displayed.
The rest of his group only voicelessly nodded and followed after him, not even Sunny spoke up as he knew his friend and boss well. Any little thing said to him while he was in such a volatile state would end up with consequences the recipient would not like. Not even for long time friends like him.
After checking the site for any remains or anything that could really help them identify where Will, Lumen and the others had gone, they left it with tough luck as they ended up with nothing.
They had been careful in covering their tracks so that such a thing didn't happen again.
Soon though, John spoke out once again in the group, breaking the silence.
"It seems we weren't the only ones who suffered a loss... Look over there boss, it's a grave site...." He paused between his words, considering whether he should mention his findings to his boss, worrying about how he would react.
"Good, they are four while we still have ten people which will only grow in the future. When, not if, we see them again, we won't be leaving their sight until they are six feet underground." Michael spoke once again in a calm tone, sending shivers down the spines of some of his group at how cold and emotionless he spoke.
'He's really lost it this time, he didn't even react much to John's words...'
'I've seen many crime documentaries back on Earth, every psychopath acts like this in those...'
The thoughts of his group reached the same conclusion about Michael as they now continued on their own journey, not working to catch up to Lumen and co any more as it was a pipe dream to find them at this point.
However Michael had a feeling that they would be meeting again, at one point or another.
------------
Tens of kilometres away, in the forest.
An arrow and a blue, glowing ball of mana whizzed through the air of the forest. The silence of the forest was disturbed for the first time in forever as the air split for the arrow and the mana bolt let out an ominous hum as it glided gloriously through the forest.
They hit an unaware boar beast over 12 metres away from where the four people in Lumen's group stood crouched behind a toppled tree.
The arrow penetrated deep into the beast as it whimpered and whined, running crazily about for a couple dozen metres before it ran out of energy and collapsed to the ground.
The second boar beside it wasn't any luckier as the mana bolt had left a gaping hole where it's head once was, launching the beast's lifeless body into the tree behind it, ending it's life instantly before it even left the ground.
Lumen smiled to the others at the successful hunt as he ripped the arrow out of the beast and handed it back to Qu Quan, who cleaned them routinely and placed them back in her quiver.
Arrows were a limited resource in the forest and she had to conserve and reuse as much as she could, her reserves thankfully doubling due to Shivi's unfortunate death.
Will was to the side, his eyes darting up and down, clearly going through his status screen looking through the messages he had received after taking down the other beast with a mana bolt.
His spell wasn't even half as powerful as Lumen's, but the damage it could deal was still lethal if it hit a vital area, such as the head of the boar he had just killed.
Speaking of system messages, Lumen had inspected his after they had made a certain distance with Michael's group and was very happy at his gains.
[Ding! Killed level 6 F tier human.]
[Gained 1000 experience.]
[Gained 200 credits]
[Ding! Killed level 5 F tier human.]
[Gained 750 experience.]
[Gained 150 credits]
[Ding! You have levelled up!
Received +5 intelligence, +5 wisdom, +5 agility, +5 stamina, +5 strength, +5 endurance, +4 perception, +3 Wisdom, +6 unallocated stats.]
[Ding! Killed level 7 F tier human]
[Gained 2000 experience]
[Gained 400 credits]
With another level up and more credits to his name, he was happy with his rewards even if it meaned that he had to risk being hunted down by three archers.
He wished he could do such a thing again, however he would hope it happened when he was out solo in the forest rather than getting the other three involved.
Clearly he was more willing to take risk involving other humans than them, as he was ruthless when he killed but the others still had traces of hesitation.
His status screen had also seen quite a few changes, that were very welcome to him.
[Name: Lumen]
[Age: 0]
[Race: Human]
[Title: Bodyless Being, Enhanced Physique]
[Talent: Perfect Mana Conduit]
[Level: 5]
[Class: Spear Magister]
[Experience: 512/2000]
[Health (HP): 8700/8700]
[Mana (MP): 860/860]
[Soul Tier: F]
[Lifespan: ∞]
[Strength: 87]
[Agility: 100]
[Endurance: 87]
[Stamina: 87]
[Intelligence: 86]
[Wisdom: 77]
[Perception: 42]
[Willpower: 31]
[Unallocated points: 0]
[Skills: Akashic Languages (Unique), Basic Spear Mastery (Common), Basic Footwork (Common), Basic Identify (Common), Basic Mana bolt (Common), Basic Mana reinforcement (Common), Heal (Uncommon)]
[Credits: 1862]
[Inventory: 16/100]
[System Store]
His stats had seen an overall increase due to his increased level ups along side the extra stats that he gains from his class on top of that every level up. He had also decided to ditch his 'all round' distribution of following his class's stat distribution scheme.
Although that was good and optimal for balancing his warrior and mage abilities, after experiencing a fight against three archers where it took so long to catch up and fight with them, he knew he had to invest in agility.
He may have been faster in that fight, but with the advantage everyone receives upon levelling up, that would change in the future and he wasn't looking forward to that, hence his decision to invest 13 unallocated stats into agility, with the remaining 8 going into intelligence to increase his mana pool once more.
However although the stat gains were very nice to see, he was happiest to see the changes to his skills the most. The proficiency gained from fighting humans is leagues better than fighting beasts.