Olivia was surrounded by the elemental subterra centipedes but instead of being scared, she seemed to be at ease which didn't even surprise Shane anymore.

This was only because he knew that she could enter close combat with the centipedes, in an instant without the need to approach them and avoid elemental attacks over a long distance.

The five centipedes used their elemental attacks, but they made one big mistake.

The centipedes wanted to fight one student after the other so they all circled Olivia, realizing albeit rather late that Shane and Aimy were also present at the scene.

While she circulated mana through her whole body before exerting the martial art technique, Aimy shot several aqua jets at one centipede whose carapace was barely strong enough to take on the first two attacks, before cracks appeared on the targeted area.

Only a short moment later, the following aqua jets pierced through the carapace right into the centipede who could only howl in pain.

It hadn't expected an attack from behind and was about to fight back when Olivia appeared in front of the shrieking centipede.

Without much effort she jumped towards it, as her fist penetrated straight through the carapace, finishing off the already injured centipede.

While Olivia and Aimy worked together in order to quickly eliminate the first centipede, Shane tried to injure the other centipedes as he fired several arrows at them, targeting their eyes.

When Aimy shot her first few aqua jets, Shane also fired his arrows and his aim seemed to be slightly better than Aimy's as he blinded one centipede while another one was already half-blinded.

Knowing that his current close combat attacks were useless against the centipedes, he could only rely on Olivia, who loosened up completely, after she figured out the centipede's strength.

From Shane and Aimy's perspective, it looked as if she was rather enjoying it, which was awkward for the two to look at because she was completely drenched in the centipedes' blood, organs and brain mass.

It looked disgusting and the stench was overwhelming, making the students nearly retch.

Once their fight was over, Shane felt that his strategy was not really great but better than nothing at the initial stage in order to figure out everyone's strength, which he could roughly estimate by now.

Analyzing one's opponents and team's combat prowess was crucial according to his aunts and uncles and Shane felt the same.

With his newfound knowledge of the two girls, he pondered for a moment thinking about the ways to tweak their current strategy in order to fight better.

The three stored the centipede corpses away, while Shane also searched for the arrows that had missed their target, which were not many, to begin with.

However, he still noticed that his stockpile of 100 uncommon quality arrows would probably diminish further with time.

Shane shook his head and discarded the thought, knowing that it was not important right now. He looked at Aimy and Olivia, who waited patiently for him to return to them.

Smiling weirdly, he eyed the two girls who looked at him hopefully. He felt as if he had to praise them, even if they only fought against elemental subterra centipedes at the elite stage, which was not something the two girls should be proud of.

Nevertheless, after seeing their expression, Shane couldn't help but say

"Goob job!"

He felt foolish to give them a thumbs up, but witnessing how their expression changed from being nervous and skeptical to that of extreme joy, Shane couldn't help but smile.

The entire third batch of centipedes was defeated quickly without many disturbances and there were only a few instances where the Valkyries had to intervene, but Aisha seemed to be satisfied with the results achieved by the students in merely a few hours after they left the RadiantRing shelter.

Aisha nodded her head, and the expedition team continued their careful march towards the third floor after the subterra centipede corpses were stored away.

Shane wondered about the selling price of the corpses because their carapace seemed to be tougher than they should normally be, which was probably due to their variant evolution.

As such, their price would be higher compared to normal subterra centipede carapaces that were already expensive.

The carapaces were mostly used to manufacture Tier-1 armors which was quite difficult to do, but the result spoke volumes as they were sought out.

While walking through the second floor, Shane realized that it was devoid of elemental crystals, unlike the time he had mined his fortune before, which led him to wonder if the centipedes ate the elemental crystals just like that.

However, after thinking about this possibility, he disregarded this thought almost immediately because unevolved subterra centipedes would explode by eating the elemental crystals that had not only foreign mana inside them but this mana was also transmuted and swirling vigorously within the crystals.

With this thought, Shane could sigh in relief, as he was of the opinion that the whole elemental crystal cave was completely excavated and devoured by the subterra centipedes.

Aimy and Olivia next to Shane noticed that he was deep in his own world thinking about something, and they couldn't help but feel good.

Suddenly, Aimy heard Olivia murmuring next to her, "Aimy...do you think he trusts us more than before?"

This was the same thought Aimy had because it would be weird to disrupt his train of thoughts while being completely on guard against possible attacks.

As such, both girls believed that Shane began to trust them to a certain extent, even if it was a marginal increase.

Nodding her head, Aimy smiled lightly, as hesitantly replied "Probably….a little bit?"

When Aimy said this, Olivia couldn't help but feel proud of herself, as if she had won a big award with many valuable rewards, and Aimy felt the same, without even knowing why this was the case.

Shane was weaker and younger than them, but they felt that he was much more mature and had more experience in everything.

Initially, he seemed clumsy and helpless to them, as he didn't even know what games were, but with time, both girls felt as the gap between them and Shane was increasing.

Not only was he extremely talented and bagged several first places in the first rankings, but he also seemed to be an acquaintance to Aisha and the Valkyries.

This told Aimy and Olivia that not only their demeanor and attitude was completely different but also that Shane's background couldn't be something to take lightly, even if they didn't know who exactly he was and why he attended the Shirai academy.

Nevertheless, not knowing who exactly Shane was didn't change their opinion about him, because behind his maturity, seriousness and somewhat cold attitude, Aimy and Olivia could gauge faint traces of loneliness and worry in Shane's eyes.

There was no more attack by large groups of centipedes when the expedition team found a huge tunnel leading towards the third layer.

Compared to the other tunnels, this tunnel had lingering remains of elemental transmuted mana around it, which everyone could detect by exerting their mana gathering technique.

Seeing this, everyone was hoping to enter the third floor in order to see elemental crystals.

Once they entered the large tunnel, everyone was vigilant because they could be attacked from all sides with centipedes shooting out of the walls beside them or even the ceiling above them.

As such, their tension overwhelmed their greed which Aisha and the Valkyries noticed with a proud smile.

'They learn extremely fast, huh?'

However, this pride stiffened and was replaced with shock, once they entered the third floor, while only Shane, Aisha, and Frer were able to control their expressions and emotions.

Looking around, everyone's jaw dropped to the ground as they saw an unimaginable amount of elemental crystals spread throughout the third layer that seemed to be the size of a small town.

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