...

An hour before Shin's mission came to an end, Shiella and her group finally arrived at the place that Shin had designated.

"Young Miss," greeted by one of the scouts waiting in the area.

"What's the situation?" asked Shiella right after arriving.

"Everything seems fine, Young Miss. There shouldn't be any problem aside from the few scouts from the Central Order and Undying Guild guarding the entrance of the cave," replied the scout.

"And the Nameless Swordsman?" asked Shiella while knitting her brow.

Her subordinate was about to reply at her when a sudden voice suddenly interrupted them. "Looks like I just arrived on time."

Hearing the familiar voice, Shiella immediately turned her head towards its owner before saying. "We are currently short in time, so let's go straight to business."

Shin, who was currently using his Nameless Swordsman disguise, walked out from the shades of the tree and revealed himself to the group.

He took a quick look at each member of the group and saw quite a few familiar faces. After that, he turned his head at Shiella before asking. "So, should we start doing business now, Guild Leader Snow White?"

"First, we need to find a way to enter that cave without being noticed by the scouts guarding it," replied Shiella while crossing her arms in front of her.

Hearing that, Shin suddenly smirked for a moment before replying with a confident tone. "That shouldn't be a problem."

Then he snapped with his fingers and created a void gate behind him before saying. "Follow me."

After that, he turned around and entered the void gate. And when the other saw that, they immediately followed after him with Shiella leading them.

When they stepped out of the void gate, they were immediately greeted by a scene that they couldn't believe.

The huge Mana Vein was one thing but seeing it alongside a group of strange humanoid monsters on a whole other level. Especially when those monsters were currently holding different kinds of mining tools and busily extracting a lot of Mana Stones from it.

"What the heck?" blurted out by Black Hammer after seeing the scene in front of them.

"What the hell are these guys?" added Tinker when he saw how organized the group of monsters was working.

"I'm sorry, I have no choice but to let them work for the time being since we are currently short in time," said Shin while looking at the group.

He was not expecting to be praised or something. But from the tone of his voice, he seemed to be quite smug at it.

But instead of hearing some praise, he suddenly heard an angry voice coming from the group saying. "What have you done! How dare you let those filthy beings handle the extraction of the mana stones!"

Shin knitted his eyebrows behind the mask when he heard that before looking at the owner of the voice.

The person took off the hood hanging over his head, revealing his face. He seemed to be a young man in his early twenties and had black hair. He looked average compared to the looks of Shin and the others, but at least he looked quite decent when compared to average-looking people.

In short, he looked like a pretty average guy when it comes to physical appearance alone. But Shin knew that he shouldn't underestimate this guy despite his outer look. After all, he was in Shiella's group.

Then Shin watched the guy running towards the group of monsters, trying to see how they were extracting the Mana Stones from the huge Vein or if ever they ruined it while mining them.

"I'm sorry about that. He is just that passionate when it comes to doing his job," said Shiella in a helpless tone.

Meanwhile, Shin just waved his hand, indicating that it was not a big deal. Though, he was still trying to ask about the identity of that guy by pointing his thumb at him.

Understanding his actions, Shiella immediately introduced him to Shin. "Sorry for the late introduction. He is Walsh, our guild's chief miner. And he is quite sensitive when it comes to mining."

Hearing that, Shin raised his head eyebrows a little when he heard that. 'Another chief of the guild? From what I heard, each one of their Chiefs has their own style of battles. Moreover, they are as strong as Godlike Players based on what Arthur had said. I wonder what kind of battle style this guy has.'

Shin was in the middle of his thoughts when Walsh suddenly shouted out loud. "What!?"

Hearing that, the other members of the group simultaneously turned their heads towards his direction. Though, they already had an idea in mind what he wanted to say.

But what they heard was completely different from what they were expecting. "How come these Mana Stones were undamaged?"

"Eh!?" the others were quite confused at his words. They were thinking that this guy was going to complain, so they couldn't help but walked towards him to see what it was.

Standing beside him, they watched Walsh checking each of the Mana Stones extracted by the humanoid creatures from the Mana Vein. And from the look on his face, he seemed to be really shocked at what he was seeing.

"How come they managed to extract all of these perfectly? It seems like these Mana Stones are being mined by my people," muttered Walsh full of disbelief.

Seeing that, they also took a Mana Stone from the trolley, trying to inspect it curiously. And while they were doing that, Walsh turned his head at Shin and asked impatiently. "What are these guys? Your summons? If so, how can they extract these Mana Stones perfectly?"

Shin just shrugged his shoulders when he heard that before replying nonchalantly. "First, you are right, they are monster summons. But they are not mine."

He paused for a moment and pointed towards a corner in the cave while saying. "They are his summons. So, if you want to ask something about them, then you better ask him instead. But if you asked me personally, I guess those monsters were undead created from the corpses of some miners from the nearby grave."

Walsh didn't even wait for Shin to complete what he was saying as he was already running towards Chaotic Luck.

Meanwhile, Shin just ignored him before turning his head at Shiella. "Can you guys handle this place on your own, right?"

Hearing that, Shiella raised her eyebrows a little before asking. "You're leaving already? Are you not going to check how are we going to extract these Mana Stones and take them out of this place?"

"It doesn't matter. I heard from A-… Siegfried that this is one of your guild's specialties, so I'm confident that there is nothing to worry about," answered Shin almost immediately.

"Do you guys need anything else? Or should I go now?" he quickly asked when he saw the frown on Shiella's face.

Shiella was silent for a moment before replying. "We're fine. You can leave this place to us and finish up your quest. You also don't have to worry about the scouts outside. Now that we got inside, getting out here is not going to be a problem."

"You don't need any teleportation formation," asked Shin.

"There's no need for that. We have our own means for that," answered Shiella.

Hearing her confident tone, Shin just shrugged his shoulders and opened a void gate behind him while saying. "I'm off then," before entering the void gate behind him without any intention of staying in this place anymore due to Shiella's presence.

Shiella stared at the closing void gate for a couple of seconds with her squinting eyes before turning her head at the busy group. "Alright, that's enough of fooling around. We only have less than an hour left to extract as many Mana Stones as we can, so start working your *sses now and do some work."

Hearing her words, the others immediately stopped what they were doing before doing their respective roles.

Tinker immediately looked for a secluded corner and started taking out a lot of metal pieces of different sizes. And from their appearances, they looked like a bunch of gears and parts of certain machinery.

Meanwhile, Black Hammer helped him put those metal pieces together as if they were assembling something from it.

On the other hand, the others were also doing the same as them while the remaining group was inspecting the walls of the cave before inscribing some strange runes on it.

"I originally planned to bring my subordinates here. But since your summoned monsters are quite capable, then this is going to be much easier than what I have expected," said Walsh to Chaotic Luck while taking out a lot of mining tools from his inventory one by one.

Then he looked at Lich with sparkling eyes while saying. "Give these mining tools to your monsters and follow my instructions. And if things go too well, then I think we can suck this Mana Vein dry."

And with all of that, the 'Operation Extracting Everything' had finally started.

...