Kyle and Selene talked for a while more before they split up.
"See? Trusting her has helped us quite a bit," Kyle said.
Theodor just snorted. "She will betray you when you grow more powerful."
Kyle rolled his eyes. "Why always so negative? We got a good trade deal out of this. You are going to give her some Golemancy knowledge, and she will give us more access to techniques."
"You are not supposed to use me as an information bank for others!" Theodor shouted. "You are supposed to get everything on your own! Instead, you are selling my knowledge to every idiot who crosses your path!"
"Why shouldn't I?" Kyle asked with a smirk. "The others all have powerful families that support them. Why can't I ask you for support?"
Theodor snorted but didn't answer.
Eventually, Kyle also left his room and went to the cafeteria.
Just as expected, the Alpha Team wasn't back yet.
Kyle trained for a couple of hours and had another meeting with his team.
The next day, Kyle still didn't see the Alpha Team.
So, he asked the barmaid about them.
"They are still in talks with the client," the barmaid said.
'Whelp, guess I'm not getting paid anytime soon.'
For the next couple of days, life continued as usual.
Finally, almost an entire week after the mission, Kyle got an update.
"There was no agreement," Martin told Kyle. "The mission is void."
"What? Why?" Kyle asked.
"Disagreements on the mission wording," Martin answered. "The client says we are supposed to secure the mine, which includes the other Earth Elementals. The Guild says we are only supposed to deal with the immediate threat."
"The Guild demands five times the previous reward, but the client is unwilling to pay."
"The sides agreed to act like the mission had never happened."
Kyle grew annoyed. "So, I fought a fucking Earth Elemental for nothing?"
"Yes," Martin answered.
'Fucking corporate-ass bullshit!' Kyle thought. 'I almost died in there!'
"What about the mine?" Kyle asked.
"Unusable," Martin said. "The Millards need to refill all the personnel to make it profitable again, but the presence of Earth Elementals makes further investment risky. The client wants to sell the mine."
When Kyle heard that, his eyebrows rose.
"How much?" he asked.
"No idea," Martin answered. "Our agreement is over. Good day."
Then, he just walked away.
While Martin was leaving, Kyle was scratching his chin.
'I can do something with that,' Kyle thought.
In the end, Kyle decided to meet the owner of the mine, and the two sides started to discuss a potential agreement.
Their discussions went on for a couple of days, but eventually, they made one.
The Millards wanted to sell the mine for five Ether Gems.
Naturally, Kyle couldn't possibly afford that.
However, he came up with a solution.
Leasing!
For 20 Ether Stones per month, Kyle would receive the rights to mine ore inside the mine and keep everything.
Yet, if he damaged the mine's integrity, he would need to buy it at full price.
Naturally, this was a trap laid out by the Millards.
A Fighter inexperienced in mining was bound to damage the mine's integrity.
The lease was set for three years, and Kyle couldn't renege on the lease.
This meant he would be paying 720 Ether Stones over the three years, unless he broke the mine before the time was up.
Then, it would be whatever money he had paid until now, plus 500 Ether Stones for the full purchase.
Once a month, a surveyor from the Millards would come to inspect the mine for damages.
The Millards believed that they had gotten an amazing deal.
In their minds, they would essentially be selling the mine for even more than the price they had anticipated.
'Idiots,' Kyle thought with a smirk. 'For just 20 Ether Stones per month, I can mine as much as I want!'
Kyle decided to take six hours out of his day to spend inside the mine.
With all the ore he would be finding and refining, he would be able to buy plenty of things that increased his power even more.
As soon as the agreement was signed, Kyle told his team about it.
After all, they had to know where he was.
Falk and Michael weren't sure if this was a good idea.
However, Lily's eyes shone when she heard about the mine.
"You can refine ore, right?" she asked Kyle.
"Yep," he said.
"I want the mine," Lily said. "How much do you want?"
"50%," Kyle said. "My refinement will be free of charge."
First, Lily thought the price was too high, but when she heard that Kyle would refine all her ore for free, she accepted.
Lily only had an Earth Affinity, which meant refining ore was extremely complicated for her.
However, mining ore wasn't difficult.
Golemancers needed tons of ore for their golems. A Golemancer who didn't know how to mine ore was a poor Golemancer.
Sadly, finding good mines was difficult.
Creating a mine was illegal without permission from the city, and getting that permission was difficult and costly. Even more, all the good spots already had mines on them.
This mine had already been proven to be profitable, and Lily wouldn't need to deal with all of the legal matters.
She essentially got to use this amazing mine for free, as long as she gave some of her profits to Kyle.
Lastly, Lily was not locked into having to pay a fixed amount every month.
If she didn't mine, she wouldn't need to pay anything.
After Lily and Kyle entered an agreement, Lily immediately entered the mine with Kyle and made a map of it.
Over the next hours, she asked Kyle to find valuable nodes with his Ore Sense and put them on the map.
Then, she left the mine without starting to mine.
The reason was that she wanted the mining to happen autonomously.
Her golems would work day and night inside the mine, but for that to happen, Lily needed to program them accordingly.
That would take some time.
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