Lorenz approached Gree and Phil with a curious look. “Hey Pascal, Marco, did you manage to carry out the order? Also, why don’t you present our guests to me?” –He asked while extending his arms in a welcoming way, irradiating a very comforting aura as if he was an old friend. His golden eyes shone with the same intensity as Elvira but the effect was the opposite, it wasn’t intimidating at all, but rather charming.

“Hey boss man, these kind people helped us deliver the piece faster after they stumbled upon us, and they said they wanted to talk with you about some business with the cavern.” –Marco answered while presenting Gree and Phil, as Nat was looking around at the machinery with gleaming eyes, trying to take notes with a small notebook she had in her back pocket, she then proceeded to click a pen and write down what she could. Pascal peeked at her notes and realized Nat drew almost perfect outlines of the machines they have in the workshop; with nervous sweat, he once again turned towards Gree as she shrugged again. Meanwhile, Phil shook Lorenz's hands to then walk around in the workshop.

“It is quite a nice facility you have here; I never thought you could have these machines in a Village like this, since well, the magnetic field that normally interrupts the electronic devices often could burn the motherboard of automatized machinery” –Phil pointed out while Lorenz showed them around, trying to pull out information that Gree could use as she was just looking around with Nat, praising her for her drawing with a thumbs up, making Phil simply sighed hopelessly.

Lorenz seemed to enjoy their excitement and kept walking along with Phil. “Well, these machines were designed by the Major of this village; he managed to teach us how to produce a special coating for the electronics part, melting a special alloy he developed, it turned out to work like a charm and allowed us to thrive as a manufacturing company.” –He explained while Phil noticed the excitement on his eyes, like a child proud for completing his first school project. “Of course, for helping us with this, we always take requests from him a prioritize them, it has become a job policy.” –Lorenz added with a joking tone as he chuckled.

Phil managed to take discrete pictures of certain objects around as Lorenz was talking and giving him a tour around the workshop. It seems like they have a well-equipped facility here, I just wonder what kind of person the major is, we didn’t meet him when we helped with the delivery. For now, I need to focus on asking Lorenz about going to the cavern system. –Phil thought as they walked towards Lorenz's office, this time Gree joined them with a smirk, letting Phil notice she realized something from the place.

As Lorenz sat on his chair behind a desk, Gree sits as well next to Phil. “So Lorenz, can I call you like that?” –Gree asked while getting comfortable on her seat, given that it had a very comfortable cushion. “Well anyway, I will go straight to the point.” –She paused for a moment while taking out her ID along with Phil’s and Nat’s ones to then place them on the desk, Lorenz suddenly got very serious and held his chin while looking at Gree. “I know you know we are the fugitives, and you seemed to want us to work for you as a way to keep you quiet, no? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have shown us your equipment so eagerly.” –Gree smirked once again while looking at Lorenz’s eyes narrowing. “Well, I have the best offer for you; we can gladly aid you since we already know what you guys have to deal with, but in return, you will show us what kind of crap you are doing down there in the caves.” –She finalized with a sassy tone, denoting that she already knows something about the mines under the village.

“It seems like you did your homework Miss Myers, But what can you offer with this aid of yours? The village Major has proven to be an efficient person; he had made the village strive for more and very effective defense methods, I can still turn you into Delcyt and get more benefits than simply some of your aid.” –Lorenz countered while leaning back on his chair and staring down at Gree.

“Yes, but then they will try to search up the mines and find the hive you are trying to hide.” –Gree sat back satisfied with her answer as Lorenz's eyes widened after hearing Gree mentioning the hive clearly developing a fear towards what other things she might know about, a droplet of sweat slowly began to run down his forehead.

I can’t simply continue to bargain with them now… the more she stays here, the more I feel she would be able to rule over this place. It was a mistake to lure them in. –Lorenz thought in fear while sighing in defeat. “I admit I was careless on letting such researcher into this facility. Miss Myers, what else would you like to deal with in this place? You certainly didn’t choose it for tourism” –He said while trying to regain his composure, accepting the conditions Gree stated at first.

Gree was very satisfied by deducing the situation properly as Phil gave her a discrete thumbs up while recording the conversation, naturally, Gree gave him a thumbs-up as well and turned back to Lorenz. “So Lorenz, I want to have the right to use your machinery and a legal permit to explore the mine, as well as taking Nat as an apprentice for magic infusion, in exchange for that, the information about the hidden hive will be concealed and we will help you repel the horde of infected that will storm this village, does that sound like a fair agreement?” –Gree explained once again as she regained the lead of the situation.

“By the way, I noticed my phone can work despite the electromagnetic interference of the village, is this facility protected somehow?” –Phil asked as Lorenz began to write a formal contract with Gree.

“Well yes, this whole facility was built in order to repel the interference using the same alloy the Major taught us about.” –Lorenz answered after signing the contract and handed it to Gree to check and sign as well; she simply read for a while in silence to double-check the agreement.

After the agreement was done, Gree managed to get a copy of the contract and Phil followed her while they went out of the office to search for Nat who was already learning how to use some of the machines with protective glasses. As they approached, Nat stopped the machine and walked towards them with worried eyes. “Is everything in order?” –She asked while taking the glasses off.

“Well, we sold you to these guys to be able to afford to do some tourism in the caves” –Gree scoffed before getting flickered by Phil as he stared at Gree rubbing her forehead.

“Everything went smoothly, we will be able to search the mines and you will be able to learn as much as possible from this workshop. They even said you will be able to take part in the casting work for the Major of the village.” –Phil explained to Nat as she was in shock after hearing Gree first.

Later that day, the workshop arranged a better place to stay for the three of them. Nat almost immediately went back to the workshop after getting her belongings in her room and Gree managed to get a guide to the mines in the same evening. Once inside the mines, Phil couldn’t stop feeling uneasy, as if the whole place slowly shrunk as they ventured deeper, however, this didn’t stop him from continuing further inside. The guide was doing his regular job as a tourist guide and mentioned he could also carry them to the prohibited area since they could know more about what is being kept down there. “Oh, there is no need for that; I already know the Core of the hive is down there, I just want to check the place from where they mine the minerals for the alloy.” –Gree explained while looking around the mines, noticing Phil was growing a bit anxious. This reminds me that Phil is actually claustrophobic; I don’t know why he chose a career in the military that would make him go into situations like this. I guess it is a human thing to face their fears. –Gree thought and sighed while scratching the back of her head as they kept walking in an artificial pathway towards the depths of the mine. Phil took a glimpse of the prohibited entrance as they walked past it, which was sealed by several layers of concrete and steel with a gate and guards ready for any contingency.

“So they used the same alloy to keep the gates of the hive closed?” –Phil asked to the guide, as they descended deeper after the entrance of the hive.

“No, not at all, there isn’t any wiring in those gates, mainly because any electronic wiring could still be hacked into opening the gates and we certainly don’t want that open.” –The guide answered while keeping his eyes forwards.

“How did you guys manage to seal that entrance after realizing there was a hive here as well? Did the government help in any way? Or you had an ace up your sleeves?” –Gree continued the conversation by asking.

“You see, the Major of this Village is a very knowledgeable person, he is like a genius and even managed to foresee the collapse of the mines into an infected hive so commanded most of the available people to build a preventive for whenever that happens, and 3 months later, a tremor shook the mines, making a certain part collapse and reveal the core of a hive and several infected. We closed the gates immediately and so we began to fully rely on and believe in the Major.” –The guide narrated with enthusiasm.

The conversation continued and they managed to find the most recent excavation place after a couple of hours. Gree and Phil met the excavation team and managed to have a good impression of them. They explained to Gree the methods of extracting the minerals and showed her the process, while Phil was simply looking around to check if there was anything suspicious but all he found was simple equipment and personal belongings. After spending the rest of the evening in the mines, they managed to get back to the apartment Lorenz had arranged for them. As usual, Nat didn’t get back to the apartment in order to burn the knowledge she was given into her new works, in the very first week, she managed to master all the techniques she was taught in the facility as well as the magic enhancement.

Gree kept studying and testing with the materials she got from the mines until coming to the same conclusion of the alloy and almost instantly started to apply it to all her devices as well as Phil’s phone and Nat’s tools. It took her almost a week to complete the project with her own devices and then joined back to the construction team to develop some defenses against the incoming hordes. One night, Gree managed to get an alert in her tablet, stating the virus successfully acquired the information she needed and was being removed from the main database from Delcyt’s military intelligence center. She read for a moment while the data was downloading into her tablet, noticing the alloy was working and the magnetic interference wasn’t affecting her tablet up to that extent, despite the distance between Delcyt and Casamira. At that moment Gree was totally unaware of what was happening on the other side, so she simply put away the tablet and continued sleeping.