Three weeks later, Mira and Rhydian finally completed all 10 missions Mira gathered back at the Mercenary Association.
They haven't gotten a second of rest over the last 3 weeks and it shows. The two of them were rather sluggish and had bags under their eyes as they left the chasm. They were covered in blood and guts that made them look like a couple of psychopaths and were also subconsciously releasing some of their killing intent due to the sheer amount of slaughter they've committed over the last 3 weeks.
Mira left the chasm in quite a bad mood because they ended up spending an extra week in the chasm. The worst part of it all is that it wasn't even their fault!
Maybe part of it was because of Mira's terrible luck, but that's not exactly something she can control.
There were just too many beasts in this chasm and too many caves that contained armies of insects and/or beasts. Not only that, but the earthquakes that happened almost every day also messed up the ecosystem and destroyed some of the caves in the chasm while at the same time revealing new ones.
While the two of them were exploring the caves there were more than a few times when the two of them were almost crushed to death because of the earthquakes causing the cave that they were in to collapse.
Luckily, Mira and Rhydian reacted fast enough to create a barrier around them to prevent themselves from being crushed, but that didn't mean everything was all well and good.
No! After a cave collapsed, they had to dig their way out and because the ground here is quite a bit denser and tougher than the ground back in Lunar Fox City, it would end up taking them a few hours to dig their way out. If they were deep inside a cave, it might take upwards of an entire day.
That in and of itself was already more than enough to annoy Mira, but that's only part of the reason why these chasms are so bothersome.
Sometimes these earthquakes would actually kill or severely injure their target so they'd either have to search for its corpse, find another one to kill or give up on the mission. There were also a few times that they were forced to dig through a few old caves to find the ores they needed to mine.
Luckily, they never needed to give up on a mission.
The next thing that Mira and Rhydian were extremely annoyed by is that the beasts here seemed to go crazy whenever they killed something! It's almost like they've lost all their rationale at the scent of blood. This only became worse the deeper they delved into the chasm.
Normally, this wouldn't be so bad, but with so many beasts lurking in and around the chasms, this makes it so every time they killed a beast, the two of them are forced to fight off hordes of enemies.
Mira didn't even understand why these beasts were acting like this. She knew that beasts, especially Rank 5 and 6, should have sharper instincts and senses compared to humans in the same Realm. Rhydian's domineering aura alone should be more than enough to ward off most of the more intelligent beasts and that's not even counting the killing intent that was leaking out of her.
These beasts should know that encountering the two of them is nothing more than certain death, but it's like they didn't care about this and proceeded to charge straight at them without any care for their lives.
One might think that a battle maniac like Mira would enjoy these scenarios because she can fight to her heart's content, but that couldn't be farther from the truth.
Fighting wave after wave of weaklings is not something that excites Mira. Skill has nothing to do with who wins or loses. It all depends on if Mira's stamina can last or not and if there's anything Mira is confident in then it's her stamina; at least amongst those at the same rank or below her.
Her physical strength has already surpassed the Foundation Realm due to the Magma Dragon Body, her body structure has been perfected to her current Realm by the F.LD.I.L, and Mira has always had near perfect control over her body. Not to mention her Qi reserves are quite large and her Foundation is perfect.
With all these things going for her, fighting hordes of enemies is extremely boring for Mira. Even more so now that Rhydian is here with her.
It's simply a waste of time.
Unfortunately, running away from them is pretty much impossible. They'll continue chasing her no matter where she goes and they won't stop until one side perishes.
She can't even remember how many hours and days were wasted because of this but what she did know was that it wasn't a small amount.
Her only saving grace is her and Rhydian's ability to storm through caves in as little as a few minutes and at most a few hours. The two of them also split up quite often to cover more ground. They could transmit their thoughts to one another as long as they weren't too far away so Mira only told Rhydian to look out for the mission objectives and to let her know whenever she comes into contact with one.
Mira was extremely glad that she had Rhydian with her because they ended up having to explore almost 90% of the caves in the chasm before completing all of the missions Mira accepted!
She would've had to stay in that chasm for over a month if Rhydian wasn't with her and that's already being generous.
This experience served as a reminder to Mira that gathering the necessary Contribution Points in the next two years would be impossible by herself, much less one year. So even though she didn't show it, she was extremely grateful for Rhydian being there for her in her time of need.
However, all of that's not to say the extra week they spent in the chasm was completely useless. With how many beasts she's killed and how many ores and herbs she collected, Mira's sure that she should be able to complete a few other missions when she returns to the Mercenary Association.
According to her estimations, the original 75,000 Contribution Points that she'd receive from those 10 missions should jump to around 100,000 Points. It's not quite as efficient as Mira would've liked but at least it's better than nothing.
Anyways, at least Mira learned early on just how annoying these chasms can be and how things will hardly go her way while she's in them.
With that in mind, Mira hopped on Rhydian and ordered her to return to Quake City.
***
Meanwhile, inside Quake City's Mercenary Association Branch building, a meeting was happening on the top floor.
There were a total of 5 people in this meeting, two of which were the Branch Head and Robin. There were 3 other men besides those two people and the auras that they exuded were only slightly less than the Branch Head himself.
These men all looked extremely fierce. They had scars all over their bodies, weapons strapped to their backs, and expensive armors covering their torsos.
Robin, who was sitting the closest to the Branch Head, was sweating profusely. She was by far the weakest in this room and she wasn't much of a fighter, to begin with. That's not to say she can't fight because she's more than capable of doing so, but it's just her skills lie elsewhere.
After sitting in silence for a few minutes, the Branch Head finally opened his mouth.
"How's the plan progressing?" He asked in a deep voice to no one in particular and Robin was actually the first to answer him.
"From the reports that I've received and what I've heard from the mercenaries about the situation in the chasms, everything is proceeding smoothly. It shouldn't be too much longer before we can move the plan to the next stage. From my estimates, in about six to eight months, we'll be ready to move forward." Robin answered in a professional voice.
"Good! Keep sending out missions like normal, actually, no scratch that. I want to leave this shitty town as soon as possible so try and send out more missions! You could even up the reward a bit to encourage those shitheads on the first floor to work harder!" The Branch Head spoke in a slightly irritated voice which made the rest of the people shake their heads and sigh, especially Robin.
"You know we can't do such a thing, Branch Head! I know that this plan is very important not only for us, but for the Mercenary Association as a whole, but there's no need to up the reward for the missions! The only reason most of them people in Quake City can live a decent life here is because of us. If they want to stay here and keep living a decent life then they will keep doing the missions we post. There is no need to entice them further!" Robin scolded the Branch Head, but the guy wasn't even listening to her.
"Blah blah blah! I don't care! Up the reward for each mission by 10%! That should stimulate those greedy cowards a bit! Gwahaha!" The Branch Head waved his hand in dismissal and ordered her.
Robin wanted to say something, but in the end she closed her mouth and nodded. She knew that no matter what she said, the man wouldn't listen to her so she could only obey.
"Okay, now that that's decided, have you three learned anything about the chasms and what's below them? Don't leave out any details because this could decide how we proceed with the plan!" The Branch Head turned to the three men and asked.
One of the men, a bald man, was the first one to speak up.
"Yes and no, Sir. We've figured out that the chasms surrounding Quake City are actually giant Spirit Stone Mines or at least they were at some point. From what we've gathered, each chasm used to be filled to the brim with Spirit Stones. Actually, we believe these chasms are just the remnants of an extremely large Spirit Stone Mine deeper into the ground. While we don't know exactly what's below these chasms, we can safely assume that it's just like the Mercenary Association Headquarters has speculated. We might be witnessing the outer remains of a Late-Grade Spirit Stone Mine that has a Source. It might actually be more than that. There might even be Mid-Grade and Low-Grade Spirit Stone Mine Sources along with the High-Grade one!"
The Branch Head and Robin's eyes went wide when they heard the man's report!
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