The next few days were spent with us just hunting down Anomalies around the area to expand the safe zone.

At least, that was the official reason we gave.

The real reason was to also look for new mining spots because the human miners were really, really slow and the bunny girls kept completing their mining missions before them.

Heck, they even found smaller veins of Mana Crystals as well which they mined out and kept secret from everyone else.

Our agreement with the Thais was to only share the Mana Crystals they mined so technically... The Mana Crystals that we mined ourselves are not counted in the agreement, meaning we could keep them all for ourselves.

Still, it seems like I was right about the Mana Crystals being underground.

After the miners started digging out the Mana Crystals, we realised that the veins extended far beneath the ground and what we saw above ground was basically just the tip of the iceberg.

The vein was what you might expect to find in a Danger Class Four rift and the amount here was in no way inferior to the one we found in the cavern back at home.

When Olivia saw that, she immediately began making calls and I realised she was calling our foreign minister to report in on this.

I have a feeling the agreement was going to be renegotiated between our governments...

Either way, it’s none of my business, if they need help, they would call me.

Thus, the mining continued and we were stuck around waiting for them as they uncovered more and more of the Mana Crystal vein from beneath the earth.

They had to bring in more machines and personnel after they realised the vein was bigger than they thought and the operation was expanded with more security and workers to speed up the process.

Even without our side contacting them, I think the Thai authorities might have also felt the situation was different from what they had presented us with. Which is why the people who are aware of the situation like the military leader seemed to be rather restless the past few days.

If I’m not wrong... If I felt like I was getting scammed or short changed during this expedition and decided to pull out of here, none of them would be able to stop me from doing so.

They would have to just drop everything right now and leave even if they were not done mining the Mana Crystals.

While it’s seen as unethical and also a pretty stupid thing to do since the threat of the Anomalies have already been dealt with and the only thing left to do was to mine the Mana Crystals, it has happened with other Mortal Gods before where they threw tantrums and abandoned the rift for various different reasons.

Sometimes the reasons were justified like the Mortal God catching the foreign expedition force pocketing a large amount of the Mana Crystals for themselves or intentionally misreporting the Danger Class of the rift... Which is what we were experiencing right now.

Of course, I have no intention of abandoning them here after clearing this rift and also the fact that we were also kind of pocketing some stuff here for ourselves... But they don’t know that.

And for my side to have the advantage in the negotiations, I wasn’t going to assure them of that either.

But I will say that at this point... I think the expedition was already a net profit for our side even if we were to give up on the Mana Crystal vein that they were mining.

Once again, I don’t have any intentions of exploiting the people here but those are just thoughts that I would keep to myself.

I lifted my floating arms and smashed them down to crush the last Anomaly that tried to attack us, clearing this area of another Anomaly nest.

"Is everyone alright?" I asked, calling out behind me.

My Guardians sounded off from all around, indicating that they were fine and that the coast was clear.

I pulled back the two floating arms, letting them hover above me before I turned back around to see Maylene and her group already in the midst of setting up their machine again.

Once again, we were clearing this area for the bunny girls to prospect another place to mine for materials.

I’ve already seen them do the same thing a few times so I was already familiar with the process where they first set up a drill to prospect the ground beneath us for materials to determine if it was worthwhile enough for them to start mining.

If it was, they would start immediately and have the entire thing set up and automated within the day. Depending on how big the vein was, they could finish mining everything in a day or two.

Ava came up to me, the ero elf giving me a pouty look.

"My Divine... How long more do we have to stay here?"

I couldn’t help but chuckle, "Ahaha, what? Is sleeping outside in a tent beginning to feel cramped?"

She licked her lips, "Mmm~ I suppose so~ Perhaps I should join you in your tent tonight? Just the two of us with our clothes on the floor and our bodies pressed against each other in bed?"

I sucked in a breath but I was saved from answering her as Olivia came up while unfurling her sleeves that she had rolled up during the fight.

"My Lord," She bowed, looking especially fresh after the fight and not even the least bit worn out. "I have been in contact with our side and they are requesting another meeting with Thailand’s representatives to discuss the new details we have uncovered on this rift. They are asking for your presence as well."

I grimaced under the mask, "Well... I expected as much... Where and when?"

"They’re coming later in the day, my Lord."

"That fast?"

"Yes. Minister Ba is flying over right now and Minister Ma will be meeting him at the entrance of the rift."

I paused, "Wait... They’re coming here? Like inside the rift itself?"

"That is correct, my Lord."

"Ok, that’s a surprise... I never thought I would see politicians actually willing to venture into a rift of their own accord."

Kris chuckled at the side, the cat boy leaning against his sword that he stuck into the ground.

"Ahahaha~ It’s expected, Mortal God~ One side basically threw you into a situation that was more dangerous than they had prepared you for and the other side that was meant to represent you also failed to do their own diligence in the matter and put you at risk too~ This is just a classic case of showmanship where they jump into the same fire pit to show that they are in the same group as you~"

Huh... Well, I’m not an expert on politics and since Kris was a former prince, I would believe his words.

Anyway, we’ve mostly cleared out the Anomalies around the area so it shouldn’t be that dangerous for non-combatants to walk around inside here.

They should also be coming along with their own security as well so it should be fine.

I nodded at her, "Fine then. I suppose we’ll go there to meet them?"

"There’s no need, my Lord, they will be coming to meet you instead. We just need to be inside the camp when they arrive."

I sucked in a breath, "Woah... They’re going to travel all the way here? Like... Actually traverse past the desolate land to come here where they could be ambushed by Anomalies along the way?"

"There’s no need to worry, my Lord. They will also be travelling with the reinforcements they intend to send here to bolster the security of the campsites."

Ah, that makes more sense then. Although I wonder how useful that would be seeing that the battle was already over anyway... Maybe they’re also here to help with the mining because that’s the biggest thing that needs help right now, in my opinion...

Like seriously, they’re so slow that I think Maylene and her crew had already mined several tons worth of minerals at this point... All of them stored in boxes shrunken down to the size of a box of mints and stored inside Leena’s saddlebags.

I thought about it for a moment before I shook my head, "I don’t feel too safe on this. Could a few of you go to the portal and accompany them here as well?"

Somehow I had a feeling that they would inevitably get ambushed on the way here despite all the protection and then end up getting themselves killed.

In the end, Sergei, Jia Lian and Leena would wait for them at the portal and escort them here while the rest of my Guardians would wait with me at the camp.

Hmm... I don’t know why but I keep having a bad feeling like something was about to happen...