861: Down in the dumps

Down in the dumps

It was abundantly clear that the mana vein in front of him was extremely valuable and that Liam had to secure it somehow. However, the problem was what to do about something like this, which was in the middle of nowhere.2

If he tried to mine it or extract it using crude methods or brute force, then he could potentially damage it. It also wouldn't be a good use of manpower to make someone sit here and guard this place 24/7, as it was in the middle of nowhere.

As far as Liam could see, there were now only two options left. One was just to leave it as is and revisit it at a later time, perhaps when his soul minions could be summoned and left behind without needing his presence.

The other option was… the almighty stone tablet.

Liam was not sure that this would work, but if there was one glutton who was more capable than Luna, then it was the stone tablet. At this point, he wouldn't put anything past the treasure. Surely, it should be able to take care of this mana vein?

He took out the stone tablet, and almost immediately, the mana vein started pulsing visibly.

"Ok. So there is some reaction."

He placed the stone tablet on the ground, and this pulsation started becoming stronger and stronger. Before long, a stream of mana started pouring out of the vein and toward the stone tablet.

Liam gaped as he watched this scene. He had never seen anything like this before. The concentration of mana in front of him was so rich that he could intuitively feel it would hurt him even if he went near it.

The energy contained within it was also very raw and chaotic, as if it would not submit to anyone. He had never experienced mana like this before. 

Though it was clearly unstable, somehow, it felt more powerful and more dangerous than the gentle and nourishing version.

Also, after seeing this, another thought entered his mind. Perhaps this was how mana zombies were created. Maybe they as well perceived and used this kind of chaotic energy.

Liam quietly pondered as he tried to sense the unique mana in front of him, but it did not last long. The mana vein barely lasted for a few seconds before folding completely in front of the stone tablet.

The thing was fully sucked dry!

The stone tablet as well hummed as if it was content after a well-deserved meal.

Liam chuckled and squatted down to observe the weird material that was the only thing now left behind. It looked like a metallic shell, but it was still quite strong despite being devoid of the content inside.

When he felt it, he could tell that the grade of this metallic shell couldn't be any lower than the Epic-grade metal ores he had worked with back in the game.

Liam nodded and quickly collected this shell as well into the spatial artifact, not leaving anything behind.

"Turn this whole place inside out. I want everything searched thoroughly."

Once again, the soul minions got down to business, and the entire area was picked clean, this time further expanding their perimeter of search.

Only after making sure that they were really leaving nothing behind did Liam dismiss the army and hop back onto Luna. The two of them then headed to the magic shop again.

Now that the emergency situation was taken care of and the base was no longer under any threat, Liam wanted to take a look at the guild war outcome and what exactly they had gained.

Meanwhile… inside the magic shop…

All the fairies seemed restless as the store manager had gone into her office, banging the door shut angrily behind her. She also hadn't come out after that.

Was something major going to happen? Everyone nervously looked at the shut door.

More importantly, they were painfully aware of the balance sheet at the moment as it was visible on everyone's shop interface with a big negative red number.

Their shop's rank had also abruptly dropped down to the lowest among all the magic shops on earth.

Previously, they were at the top as theirs was one of the first shops where a guild was registered, and even some amount of payment was made. 

No one else on earth had managed to make any headway in that aspect. However, now all of that had backfired on their faces, and they fell to the absolute bottom.

While guild registration was always beneficial because of the ridiculously high registration fees, the main benefit was not that. It was, in fact, the guild war challenges.

Since the store handled and conducted the battle from start to finish, they usually harvested a lot from this sort of affair.

Because of this, everyone in the shop was in a celebratory mood today, especially the boss Tilia. With this war, their shop would go further high up in the rankings and sit in an undefeatable place.

However, in the end, none of that happened. Instead of shooting up, they went down as their harvest wasn't even enough to cover the energy expenditure in the first place.

Everything changed in a single day. Instead of being revered and praised by the other magic shops, they became the laughingstock of this entire realm and even back in their own realm.

Word had already spread far and wide. This was why all the fairies were walking on eggshells, as they had no idea how their boss was going to respond now. If something went wrong, they would have a permanent black mark on their records.

While the workers in the shop anxiously looked at the manager's office, the main person in charge of this entire place was currently staring at a screen slackjawed.

Tilia was frozen solid as she couldn't believe what she was seeing with her eyes. The record of this battle was… something that shouldn't be happening in a lower realm like earth!

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