Team Sandstorm went on more missions in the next couple of weeks.
They were earning some good money, but Kyle had to save most of his money to pay the lease on the mine.
20 Ether Stones was not little, and the missions gave him only between three and six Ether Stones.
Two weeks after Kyle purchased the mine, Lily's golems were ready to start working.
She had also built five more Golems just to speed up the mining process.
During the last weeks, Kyle had already scouted out every dangerous spot on the mine.
Of course, it wasn't actually him who had done that.
It was Selene's Colossus.
The issue with Earth Elementals was that they sensed whoever sensed their hearts.
So, if Kyle found an Earth Elemental, it would find him as well.
Then, the Earth Elemental would just compress the mine and make it impossible for Kyle to escape.
However, the same thing wasn't true for Selene's Colossus.
Sure, the Colossus was weaker than the Earth Elementals, but it wasn't hindered by the ground.
It could just dig away.
The good thing about Earth Elementals was that they grew weaker the further away they were from their hearts, which meant that they rarely left their hearts' vicinity.
Selene's Colossus would get injured whenever it found an Earth Elemental, but if there was one thing Colossuses were good at, it was taking a beating.
When Selene was done scouting, she gave Kyle all the necessary information.
"Seven?" Kyle asked as he took a deep breath.
"Yes, seven," Selene confirmed.
Apparently, on the lower levels, there were seven Earth Elementals within a distance of 300 meters from the currently established tunnels.
Entering a range of 100 meters would enrage the Earth Elementals.
It wasn't surprising that the Millards wanted to sell the mine.
Angering just one of them would kill everyone inside the mine.
"I wish we could just use Skyler to mine the ore," Kyle lamented.
"How?" Selene asked. "Skyler just eats everything she digs through."
"I know. I was just lamenting," Kyle said.
"It's just a small congregation of Earth Elementals," Selene said. "At most, there are 20. As long as we can get rid of them, this mine will have no issues with Earth Elementals for a while."
Kyle nodded.
Earth Elementals tended to be created in groups.
One Earth Elemental created a second one, which created a third one, and so on.
At some point, the Ether density of the ground would be too low to support even more Earth Elementals, which was when the population stabilized.
"You should see our mines," Selene said. "There are thousands of Earth Elementals below the Dividing Ridge. We can't even reduce their population since they keep regenerating faster than we are killing them. The only thing we can do is to slowly push them back and harvest the spots where they used to be."
"But on the upside, Earth Elementals gather all the Earth Ether, allowing the Metal Ether to flow freely. There's bound to be very valuable ore in the place where the Earth Elementals are right now."
Kyle nodded.
Earth Elementals were a curse and a blessing.
In fact, while the Earth Elementals were the biggest obstacle to the Forthing's riches, they were also a major contributor.
"Also, if you can get rid of the Earth Elemental's Spirit, you can harvest its heart. Each one of those is highly sought after by Earth Sorcerers and Grand Sorcerers," Selene said.
"Easier said than done," Kyle commented.
"Nothing in life comes easy," Selene said with a shrug. "If it were easy, everyone would have it."
"Hmmm," Kyle said. "There has to be a way to deal with them."
"You need someone in the Third Realm who has a powerful Soul," Selene said. "They also need to be able to launch powerful attacks themselves. A Beast Master might not be fast enough."
"In general, you would want a Holy Paladin, a Demon Master, or a Master Artificer."
"You won't find Holy Paladins in the Skysand Kingdom, and the other two already have their own ways of making money."
Kyle furrowed his brows.
"I might have a solution," he said.
Selene's brows rose. "You do?"
Kyle nodded. "I can't tell you, though. It involves the secrets of another person. I'm not telling you about their secrets, just how I'm not telling your secrets to them."
Selene raised a brow.
It was annoying that she wouldn't get to hear about this person, but she also understood that this was for the better.
"The locations are accurate, right?" Kyle asked, pointing at the map.
"Within an error margin of five meters," she confirmed.
"That should be good enough," Kyle said.
Selene and Kyle talked for a bit more before they split up.
Kyle gave Lily directions as to where she was supposed to dig, and she followed them.
Within a couple of days, Lily dug the tunnels Kyle wanted her to dig.
When he heard that, Kyle told Lily that she could continue mining whatever she wanted as long as she avoided the dangerous locations.
By now, the first inspection of the surveyor had already happened.
The surveyor was surprised that the mine had been expanded by so much and that it hadn't collapsed yet.
Kyle must have made quite a lot of money.
Yet, the surveyor also believed that Kyle was being reckless.
If he kept mining like this, he was bound to wake another Earth Elemental.
For now, the Millards were still happy that they had leased the mine to Kyle.
In their minds, within the next couple of weeks, all the people Kyle was employing would die, and he would have to pay damages.
Then, he would need to hire even more people and buy new equipment.
That would drain all of his earnings and put him into the minus.
After talking with Lily, Kyle went back to the Guild and entered the Chief's office.
"Hey, Chief, how good is your ore sense?" Kyle asked.
The disguised Chief just looked at Kyle with furrowed brows. "Why do you ask?"
"You want to make some easy money for the Guild?" Kyle asked.
The Chief looked at Kyle.
"What do you have in mind?"
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