The first battle

The group tensed up as they had a staring showdown with the two rat creatures across the pond from them.

"What are those things?" Jake asked as he looked across the pond at the two creatures who stared intensely back at them.

Nobody answered as they all subconsciously knew the answer to that question. They were beasts.

Qu Quan seemed to be somewhat calm compared to the others, except for Lumen, as she had taken the initiative to use her basic identify skill on one of the creatures.

Compared to the information she would get from identifying a plant, the info she got from using on this beast was short but extremely important for them.

[Enraged rodent - level 2]

This piece of info was all got, but she quickly informed the rest of the group of her findings and it didn't improve the atmosphere.

"Oh great idea! How did I not think of that!" Will answered back in a cheer and gave Qu Quan a light pat on the back.

Everyone there was level 0 and had little to no experience in combat except for maybe Shivi and Lumen who lied about his experience.

Everyone was still tense until Lumen spoke up.

"The gap between levels doesn't seem that big as it's only a difference of two, plus we out number them 5 to 2 so we should have the advantage of both numbers and strength since we have Jake with his strength increasing talent and with the two archers and will backing us up, it shouldn't be too scary to think about defeating them if we are careful and work together." It was the first time Lumen had spoken to them for so long but his words held a lot of sway over the group as it seemed to have boosted their morale and confidence.

"He's right, we shouldn't be so scared facing beasts at such a level! Lets get into formation with Jake and Lumen at the front, me in the middle and the Qu Quan and Shivi at the flank. Come on guys, we've got this!" Will chimed in after Lumen to rouse everyone into action.

Everyone was still anxious but the feeling was overwhelmed by the adrenaline coursing through their body.

Very soon they put their strategies in to action.

The plan was simple, to have everyone stand back at first while the archers fired off ranged attacks from a distance, aiming to deal some damage or maybe even get a kill on one or both of them. While this was happening, Jake and Lumen would flank from both sides of the pond and cover the rodent beasts' sides.

The idea of attacking them straight on came from Lumen who noted that their name stared with 'Enraged' meaning they probably had little reason inside their heads and would attack mindlessly. This would make things both easy and difficult for them as it meant they wouldn't just run away, but them not running away meant they would put up the fiercest of fights and wouldn't hold back in the slightest.

Will wanted to help with the archer's ranged attacks but his Mana bolts only had a range of 15 metres and he couldn't get close to them as the group's 'only' healer. Plus he didn't have any physical capabilities like everyone else.

The archers started firing from the flank of the group as the first round of arrows missed their target, but luckily in the second round Shivi managed to get a good shot in and landed an arrow right on one of the rodent's legs.

With it's mobility majorly slowed Jake and Lumen would have an easier time fighting them.

With the arrival of the third round of arrows the two warriors arrived next to the beasts, this time Qu Quan had got a hit on the second rodent right in the eye, but not deep enough to reach it's brain.

Lumen arrived and upon his first contact with the rodent, he noticed that they weren't as strong as he expected.

Although he knew he had very high stats compared to the average human, he didn't think the same would be the case for any beasts he came across.

This revelation naturally boosted his confidence even more as he grew even more aggressive with his attacks, his proficiency in his spear mastery rising every time he landed a hit on the rodent or blocked an incoming attack with his spear.

Jake was also faring well against the rodent he occupied as he had already activated his strength talent, boosting his strength stat by 2.5x, giving him a big edge over the beast as he was pushing back against it with sheer strength alone.

With the skill activated he even had a little higher strength than Lumen, to his surprise, as the battle continued for only another couple of minutes.

The other three didn't even need to help out anymore as Jake and Lumen were completely dominating the beasts.

Soon both beasts fell as Lumen and Jake stood above their prey, Lumen not even breaking a sweat while Jake had some minor injuries that Will had already begun to heal.

The fight had surprised them all as it was actually way easier than all of them thought it would go, to all of their joy of course.

Lumen and Jake were too focused on their own gains from their kills though to focus on the chattering of the other three.

Lumen inspected all of the system messages that he had just received.

[Ding! Killed level 2 F tier beast]

[Gained 112 experience]

[Gained 24 credits]

[Obtained 1 F tier beast carcass - edible]

The bodies of the dead beast soon disappeared in front of everyone's eyes and went straight into Jake and Lumen's inventories.

"I gained a total of 96 experience from my kill, only 4 exp off levelling up to level 1! I also got 21 credits as well. What about you Lumen, what did you get from your kill?" Jake asked jubilantly as his gains hadn't been so bad.

Lumen answered truthfully to the group as it seemed that the experience and credits gained from a kill would be split in order of contribution to the kill.

Shivi and Qu Quan both confirmed this as they explained they they had also gained a little exp and credits from the kills, but not as much as Lumen and Jake.

Shivi explained that he gained 38 experience from the rodent Lumen killed, with 6 credits.

Qu Quan had also received a little more than Shivi due to her shot to the other rodent beast's eye and the team quickly determined that for 1 kill on a level 2 beast, the most one could gain if fought solo would be 150 exp, and 30 credits.