Going back
As Zatiel searched the bodies of the apprentices, he found a lot of magic equipment. Although most of it wasn't very useful to him, it could still be exchanged for magic crystals, so he took everything with him. After finalizing the search, two things caught his attention.
The first one was found on the apprentice named Martin. It was a small black orb. "So this was the thing they used to hide from me. This small thing can cloak all the signals of a living body. This is very useful. As for the other one..." Zatiel looked at the small sack that he found on Arthur's body. Although it didn't look like much, Zatiel knew that this sack was worth more than all the other magical equipment combined. "How could a pseudo-magus get a Spatial Sack?"
A Spatial Sack was magical equipment that had a certain amount of space inside where you could store stuff. It heavily augmented a person's versatility in all aspects of life, not only in fights but also in exploration. "Ahh, I think this will become more troublesome than I expected," Zatiel sighed at the significance of this equipment.
Like everything connected to space, a spatial sack was very difficult to obtain. It wasn't just the high cost, but such articles were almost always sold to official Magi, making it rare for an apprentice like Arthur to have one. "What's done is done. A Rank 1 Magus is not a threat I cannot handle. Once I show my abilities in rune crafting, I am sure that someone in the tower will help me."
Although Zatiel was annoyed, he wasn't too worried about the consequences of killing Arthur. He had survived far more difficult circumstances as a low-level demon and didn't feel helpless in this situation. "This will be very useful to me. The black sphere can be used without a problem since I doubt anyone can recognize it. As for the spatial sack, I should change its appearance and keep it hidden."
Zatiel knew that it was impossible for the people of the Sinux Tower not to find out that he killed Arthur. Many knew that he had been followed by the red-haired pseudo-magus. However, it was different from having speculations about what happened to him and blatantly showing the equipment of someone he killed. After making some modifications to the sack's appearance, he collected all the equipment in it and hid it inside his robe. Having finished, he looked back at the hiding place of the rat men.
"Before, I only collected a limited amount of the hearts of those creatures since I didn't have a proper way to carry them back. But now, I can collect much more and gather other materials for my runes." With this thought in mind, Zatiel headed back into the caves and continued his massacre of the rat men.
As for the bodies of the apprentices, he knew that it wouldn't take long for magical creatures to come and devour them, erasing their existence.
...
Screams of magical creatures resounded day and night in those caves for a full week. The caves that once teemed with rat men now only had corpses, with blood covering almost every inch of the walls and the earth soaked in red.
Zatiel rested at the top of a pile of dismembered corpses, eating the hearts of these monsters. Although the scene might have made most people feel nauseated, it didn't affect him at all. Even though these creatures barely helped his Abyss Aura grow, consuming hundreds of them still provided him with a significant overall increase in power.
"It's about time for me to head back and meet up with little EZ to return to the tower. I wonder how his mission went." With his business here concluded, Zatiel activated his Shadow Form and made his way to the meeting point.
After five days of running, Zatiel was almost at the reunion point. Although he was stronger than when he had first entered the forest, he had made frequent stops along the way to gather materials, so the journey back had taken almost the same amount of time. When he reached the meeting point, he saw that Ezequiel was already waiting there, with two bags made of animal skin on his back, almost the same size as him, filled with body parts.
Ezequiel immediately noticed Zatiel and headed towards him. As Zatiel looked at Ezequiel running with those two enormous bags on his back, he couldn't help but laugh. "Ha haha, you brat! When I told you to bring a lot of brains and claws of those creatures, I didn't mean for you to wipe out the entire tribe."
"Regardless, you did very well. Now, tell me, did you also take care of those apprentices who followed you?"
"Yes, Master. I killed all three of them," Ezequiel responded, happy to change the subject, and proceeded to describe how the fight happened.
"Good job. Now it's time for us to get back to the tower. I want to start crafting runes as soon as possible. Oh, right, give me those bags." Ezequiel did as he was told and handed the bags to Zatiel, who made both of them disappear with a touch.
Although Ezequiel was a little surprised, he had grown accustomed to such things, so his reaction was subtle. "Let's move on."
They transformed in a flash of lightning and shadows as they headed toward the Magic Tower.