"We have to depart immediately! Nial has to survive and Jack needs to see a priest or something like that!!!"

Shane couldn't help but smile seeing how worried the healer of their group, who was called Kylia, was.

"A Demonification takes several days and is not something difficult to solve. At least, not in the basic dimensions. As for the runemaster, I can take him to the Shirai academy in less than a minute! That is if you guys can trust me with that.

We may not know each other, but I guess I could receive a bonus of your trust...maybe? If not, let's sign a system contract, but let me tell you….my time is not running out, it's yours!"

He wanted to help the runemaster too, not because he could see a ray of hope that might help him to receive what he wanted, but also due to the fact that it would be a waste to let such a promising youth die!

"How will you transport him to the Shirai academy in a minute??" Kylia asked, and she almost sounded hysterical.

"I have my ways and to explain everything I would need time, does Nial have this time? I doubt it! If you're not confident in transporting him out of the Radiant mountain ring dimension with your body that is already too burdened as it is, give him to me!"

Kylia gritted her teeth and she was about to reply when another young woman grasped her shoulder as she whispered

"He will die...and even if I don't trust this youth, a chance is better than letting him die without trying everything!!"

Shane was glad that the young woman next to Kylia was able to calm the blond-haired healer down as she responded uncertainly,

"Alright, do what you have to do, but please save him!"

Smiling lightly, Shane walked towards Nial, who was bleeding from several deep injuries he had sustained and his face was completely drained of blood.

"That will be a close call…" He mumbled when he saw how bad the runemaster's situation was.

He manifested a portal to the Hidden Paradise, where Talia and two young craftsmen were waiting with a carrier, and enveloped Nial with it.

Only a moment later, he disappeared and Talia began to work with the young craftsmen.

She opened the Spatial door that was connected to the colosseum's basement within the Shirai academy. It wouldn't take them long to reach the infirmary that was also situated in the colosseum!!

It would only take a whole minute, as Shane had told Kylia if an accident were to happen, which fortunately didn't occur.

After Talia and the two craftsmen had brought Nial outside the spatial door, Shane who had been pacing nervously, not knowing if everything went well, received a message from Talia, informing him that they had the situation under control.

Another minute passed and she sent him a photo of Nial being treated by a medic team which Shane showed to the group before he asked,

"If you guys want, I can do the same with Jack, but it wouldn't be as important as it was with Nial."

Once Kylia saw that Nial was fine, she trusted Shane completely and was about to accept his proposal when Lias, their scout, intervened.

"Hello my name is Lias Mers and I'm the scout of our group.

I'll apologize for what I say next, please don't be offended because that is not what I intend to do, even less after you helped our friend...but, why are you doing this? Don't tell me you don't want anything from us? We don't even know your name!"

'I didn't introduce myself?...Oh...right...I forgot that!'

Scratching the back of his head, he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed as he introduced himself,

"Hello Lias, my name is Shane Suro, nice to meet all of you!"

After that, he pondered for a short moment before he continued,

"I didn't think much as when I offered to save the runemaster, and the same applies for Jack. Instead of demanding something I would like to offer all of you something!"

Nobody had expected the youth to say something like that, and Lias, who had spoken to Shane, just nodded his head, not sure what Shane would offer.

"It's nothing special, but I would like to hire all of you! Once the fire in the elemental crystal cave is extinguished I would be forced to mine everything with the Astral Art--....alone and that's not feasible, right? I'll pay you guys a total of 5,000 gold coins per day until we're done! That is, if we sign a system contract that everything farmed within the elemental crystal cave belongs to me!"

Shane had almost exposed the Astral Artisans, which wouldn't create trouble, but it was not necessary to mention them. They had more than enough work to do and he was aware of the same.

As such, he wanted to hire the remaining 38 peak-Expert stages that would be able to mine as fast as they could.

Furthermore, with a system contract, everything would be perfect.

"5,000 gold coins for a single day?" A few members of the group mumbled when Lias, who quickly calculated how much everyone would earn, replied

"Give us 8,000 gold coins a day! 200 gold coins for each member!" Shane had estimated that they would increase the price he had started, and he wanted to remind them that they were two members short.

Yet, Shane nodded his head as he projected one of the simple, pre-written contracts the system had.

"If you guys slack off, there won't be any money, don't even try to fool the system by intentionally dragging everything for longer!...By the way, the 'day' starts with the first mined elemental crystal."

Initially, Shane wanted to be nice to the others, but when he saw how Lias acted, this immediately changed.

'If you want to go down the path of a businessman, do it properly!' He mumbled to himself.

Right now, Shane didn't have 8,000 gold coins, but that was not a problem. He had already written to the assigned Elus merchant that a new, huge batch of elemental crystal would be sent over soon.

This overjoyed the Elus merchant and Shane could understand his feelings.

Yet, what had astonished Shane, was the fact that the Elus-merchant didn't know anything about the debt he had to settle with the Elus-race.

Firug, Shane's assigned merchant, only knew that he would give his best to send over a new batch of elemental crystals as soon as possible, exactly as it had happened previously, but there was no mention of an debt.

This confused Shane a lot.

'Didn't Kalur mean that I should send him elemental crystals as a means to settle the debt? Is there some sort of misunderstanding?'

It was definitely not a bad sign for him to receive the gains from all elemental crystals, but somehow it felt wrong if he were to think about the fact that he didn't have to return the favor to the Old Emperor!

'Or did Old Emperor Kalur mean conquering an elemental crystal cave before sending the elemental crystals to them instead of a different race with his prior words?'

Shane was not sure about that, but he could only shrug his shoulders as the others had already signed the contract with him.

Other than signing the contract, Kylia had also requested him to take care of her brother, the same way he did with Nial.

After that, they had to wait several hours before the flames within the elemental crystal cave were finally extinguished.

During those few hours, Shane heard some stories about the Masdra group, what they called their newly founded group.

All 40 members were third-year students of the same academy and they were about to acquire funds in order to prepare themselves for the next missions they wanted to complete.

At the same time, they planned to work together for all future missions if possible and not forbidden by the system mission.

This was something Shane liked and he couldn't help but like the group, he ate with and talked to.

Each of them had an [Gold] occupation, while Lias and Jack were the only members of the group with official [Platinum] quality occupations.

Kylia had an occupation that was labeled as [Gold(++)] with an additional tag saying [(--)Platinum].

As long as she met a few additional requirements, her occupation would increase to the [Platinum] quality, which was something rarely seen.

While talking with everyone, who had gathered around a large table they had set up in the center to eat something, Shane figured out the other occupations, their names, and much more.

It was nice talking to them, and Shane could tell that his first impression of the group was different to what he thought of them now.

After the fire within the cave was finally extinguished everyone packed up and they began working without further ado.

There were 200 gold coins each that they could earn for the next two or three days, if possible.

Meanwhile, Shane wanted to mine too, not to decrease the necessary time to farm the elemental crystals but to talk with the others.

While they had waited for the fire to extinguish, an idea had formed in his head and he had yet to figure out if it was feasible or something stupidious.

As such, five days flew by!

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