Bang!
A heavy punch slammed viciously into a thick tree trunk, shaking leaves loose in a rustling shower.
Six [Dark Spirit Race] pursuers clad in dark gray light armor stood in the jungle, panting heavily. Their originally cold faces were now filled with irritation and frustration.
"Four hours! A whole four hours!"
The Dark Spirit Captain's eyes were bloodshot with rage. He stared fixedly at the [Psionic Compass] in his hand, which had gone completely still, his voice squeezed through clenched teeth. "Did the letter really just vanish into thin air?!"
"How is that possible? Unless they gave up on the letter and tore it apart by force!"
Ever since the Psionic Lock signal on the compass had vanished, they had stubbornly sprinted more than a hundred kilometers eastward at top speed. They had even used secret arts along the way to search for scents and traces of magic in the air.
Yet they found nothing.
"Captain, should we keep chasing?" one subordinate asked cautiously. "Ahead is high-level magical beast territory. If we go any deeper, we'll be in danger too. How about... we return and report to the commander first?"
"Report? Report with what!"
The Dark Spirit Captain spun around, his gaze so sinister it looked ready to devour someone. "If we lose the secret letter, the commander will skin us alive and make war drums from our hides, then hang our corpses in camp as a warning! We keep looking even if we can't find them! Continue searching east!"
Just as they gritted their teeth and prepared to charge blindly eastward again—
Bzzzz—!
The compass at the Dark Spirit Captain's waist suddenly began to tremble violently.
The previously lifeless wandering psionic energy spun madly as though it had risen from the dead. Then, with a snap, it locked