I stepped on top of the demon Anomaly that I just killed, letting out a breath that I didn’t realise I had been holding.

I looked around the field, finding everyone else also in the midst of catching their breath.

Unfortunately, this expedition was not without casualties as only a little bit more than half of the expedition force remained.

Right now, most of them were still running on adrenaline so the fact that they might have lost comrades has yet to dawn on them. But I’m sure once it wears off, the depression would be sure to hit them.

Especially since we would need to dispose of the bodies as soon as we could...

We can’t even bring back the bodies with us as they would have been affected by the miasma and would be turning into Anomalies soon enough. Sure, they aren’t transforming now because of my aura but the moment I’m gone, they would be transforming into one of them.

As I had mentioned before... This was one of the downsides of being a Vanguard... You might die in a foreign world where you can’t even be buried back at home...

At least the pay is good...

I met up with the military and Vanguard leaders, both of them also clearly exhausted and worn out.

I noted that both of them also sustained injuries that were not much better than the people they led under them.

The military leader saluted, "Thank you for your support, Mortal God. If it wasn’t for you... Everyone here would not be meeting their family again."

I looked out at the dead bodies that were still laying on the ground, "If we had been just a little faster..."

The Vanguard leader shook his head, "No... Please don’t blame yourself, Mortal God. This was the best outcome that we could hope for. We have nothing but gratitude for what you’ve done for us."

Well... I suppose I should just accept their words for it since it would be disrespectful to the ones who have given their lives for this if I were to continue denying it.

Instead, we should honour them as heroes.

I nodded, "I assume you would want to put the heroes to rest?"

The two of them hardened their faces before nodding their heads.

I gestured towards the survivors, "Then go ahead. I will remain here while you gather them. We will watch over you."

The Vanguard pressed his palms together and bowed, "Thank you, Mortal God."

"Take your time. We will patrol around to make sure there’s no other Anomalies around here."

Leaving them to gather the dead in order to incinerate their bodies, my Guardians and I went out to scout around the area to see if there were any other Anomalies around.

I left Jia Lian and Ava behind just in case an Anomaly managed to sneak by us and attack the expedition group.

While I was being truthful about helping them patrol around to keep Anomalies away from them... I actually have another reason to do so.

I turned to Maylene and her small group of bunny girls.

"So... What are we looking for?" I asked.

"We just need a large patch of open ground to plant our scanner and we should have a read on the things under the ground. Then we will know where’s the best place to set up our miners~"

That’s right, we’re also here to look for mining spots where we can mine materials for ourselves.

I mean, they won’t be doing it anyway since they’ll only be after the Mana Crystals so why shouldn’t we take these for ourselves if we’re able to, right?

We moved further out until we were no longer in sight of the expedition group before we searched for a place that fit the Bunarfs’ needs.

We eventually settled on a patch of ground that had a few dead trees nearby and Maybe reached into her coat to pull out a few miniature machines that she placed on the ground.

All of them then expanded into their real size and I found myself looking at what looked like a drill attached to a computer that was in turn attached to a few antennas.

The bunny girls then moved around to set the machines up with incredible efficiency and in the blink of an eye, everything was ready.

They gathered around the computer looking machine and Maylene started pushing some knobs and pulling the levers, prompting the drill to start spinning and penetrate into the ground.

We watched as the drill disappeared into the ground and the monitor started to show numbers and graphs which I obviously didn’t understand.

The bunny girls, however, were all watching the screen intently as the drilling noises continued before Maylene pulled on a lever again, prompting it to stop.

The drill was then raised up and some phallic... Ahem... Some rod shaped object was lowered into the hole and the monitor changed to show other numbers and some coloured map or something that I have no idea what it is.

All the other Guardians that were following me had spread themselves out to watch out for Anomalies aside from Olivia who stayed by my side, the red Oni also watching the bunny girls with great interest.

They continued to work on the machine for a while more before the rod was pulled back out, prompting Maylene to turn towards me excitedly.

"Qin-- Mortal God! There’s minerals down there! There’s gold, silver, iron and quartz! What’s more, they’re right beneath our feet! We can set up the machines to start mining right now!"

Oh? That’s certainly something unexpected.

I turned to Olivia, letting her decide for this since she would know more than I do about the risks and reward for mining here.

Olivia looked in the direction of the expedition group before nodding at Maylene, "Do it. But do it on a small scale. No need to strip mine or anything. We just need a few good chunks from them. Otherwise it would draw too much attention."

Maylene puffed out her chest which bounced quite distractingly, "Hmm~ Hmm~ You’re looking at the people who specialise in mining underground without needing to come back up to the surface, Miss Olivia!! You don’t need to worry, this hole is the only thing that will be visible up here!"

I looked at the hole that the drill had made and it was just big enough for a person to fit inside and nothing more.

If we just covered the hole with some dirt, I’m pretty sure anyone coming this way would completely miss it.

Olivia nodded, "In that case, feel free to mine however you want then."

Maylene’s ears twitched slightly, "Umm... Miss Olivia... I have a question though... I mean... This is kind of expected but... I suppose all of the minerals we mined should be given to you, right?"

Olivia raised an eyebrow at her in confusion, "Technically, they should be given to my Lord but what do you mean?"

"I mean... Like... Since we’re working under Mortal God, all the resources we mine belong to him... If we were to... Let’s say... Think about using some of the minerals for our own projects... What do we need to do?"

All the bunny girls were staring at me and even Olivia had switched her gaze to me.

Wait, why are all of you looking at me? I wasn’t even involved in the decision process for this?

Ok, that’s incorrect, more like the extent of my involvement went like the girls asking me if doing this was ok and I said yes and that was it.

But I guess I can understand why they were letting me decide for this since I’m still technically the head of this place...

I nodded at Olivia, "I do not see any problem with letting them use the minerals they mined. Is there?"

Olivia pretended to think, "I believe we can work out how big of a stockpile we will keep and the percentage of the minerals that can be used freely and the others to be used for certain production and trading. That should be possible, my Lord."

"In that case, work that out and we can do that."

She bowed, "Understood, my Lord."

The bunny girls started cheering like they were promised the moon or something... Maybe they were worried that I would restrict them from accessing the minerals and thus prevent them from experimenting and crafting more stuff?

Hmm... Didn’t Olivia already mention something about an R and D department anyway?

Well, whatever...

Since we’re going to have to stay in the rift for the next few days while the Thai authorities bring in their own mining company to mine the Mana Crystal... We’ll have to keep an eye out on both this place and the Mana Crystal vein in case of any Anomaly attacks.

Also... We need to confront the Thai authorities on the Danger Class of this rift as well...

Good thing I have the head of the Commander Class Anomaly as a souvenir...

Speaking of which, what new power did I get from it?