Aisha looked at him as if he was from another star, as she heard his question.

"You don't want to rest?"

Everyone was extremely exhausted and even if they wanted to receive more profits, it would be dumb to not rest and replenish the used up energy to mine later.

And here Shane said that he wanted to mine without any rest? Was he insane?

Nobody understood his reason to do something like that, even less after almost everyone accepted Aisha's offer to give Shane 1% from all elemental crystals they would mine.

Even if he were to do nothing at all, Shane would have more than anyone else.

Instead of mining, Shane was the only one who could take an easy time, but now he didn't want to?

Noticing that everyone eyed him weirdly, he only shrugged his shoulder, as he quietly said

"I have my reasons."

There was no need for Shane to give anyone excuses and seeing that Aisha didn't say anything else, he only gulped down an energizing potion before he approached the first elemental crystal occurrence.

As he pulled the Ambrulite-pickaxe over his head, a faint red hue enveloped it as its passive [Turbulent Impact] activated itself after it absorbed enough mana.

Shane didn't even have to use his mana to envelop and maintain the pickaxe's extraordinary quality effect due to the abundance of mana in the surroundings.

With a single strike on the mortal grade crystals, he completely shattered the crystal in front of him without further ado, which was completely different from the last time he mined crystals, where his physique was barely at the 7th Mortal stage.

Thinking about this, he couldn't help but smile and his tired expression was replaced with excitement, washing away all the drowsiness within him.

In the end, fighting against the centipedes after he teamed up with Aimy and Olivia hadn't been as daunting as being fully focused and on guard against possible attacks from enemies.

Shane was more than aware that his body was also close to its limits, but it was not like it was the first time, as he already broke through his limits when he was younger.

Being forced to exceed his limits too often, Shane knew that if he were to rest now, he would sleep too long without having done anything useful.

As such, he wanted to force himself to mine elemental crystals for some time before resting, which would ease his mind.

Seeing that Shane started to mine, the other students' eyes widened but they didn't get up and instead decided to rest, for now, thinking that Shane was overestimating his capabilities.

Meanwhile, the Valkyries and Aisha started to divide the students into two groups.

One group was told to protect the students and rest as well while the larger group could mine as many elemental crystals as they desired.

The valkyries took out all kinds of different colored pickaxes, and the students that saw this couldn't help but feel astonished because every single Valkyrie used Tier-2 pickaxes with a high grade, while the students didn't seem to have any with an extraordinary quality.

The only exceptions were Aisha and Frer who started to mine too, as they pulled out their pickaxes that looked magnificent.

Solely from the outer appearance, it was an unquestionable fact that their pickaxes were masterpieces and it was even more apparent after sensing their mana fluctuations.

However, even if Shane knew of this, he wouldn't be bothered about it, because it was useless to have Tier-2 pickaxes and only a better effect than his pickaxe's [turbulent impact] would be able to interest him.

There was not much of a difference to use Tier-2, Tier-1 or even Mortal grade pickaxes to mine the mortal grade elemental crystals and the only difference would be if the pickaxe had a certain ability and the wielder's physical strength.

Nevertheless, the latter's efficiency would also have its limits which Shane had already crossed and after comparing his efficiency to the other Valkyries, one would have to acknowledge that Shane was much faster, thanks to him possessing an extraordinary quality pickaxe with a good ability.

In the end, he was not able to mine tougher Tier-1 ores and crystals even with his pickaxe's ability, but that was not needed at the moment and thus was a wasted thought.

While everyone rested, Shane mined all kinds of smaller and larger basic elemental crystals before storing them away in his spatial ring that now had a small mountain of elemental crystals that was built after four hours of him mining in the cave.

Even after taking ample energizing and recuperation potions, he felt that he had reached his limit for now as he dragged his body towards the small resting spot the Valkyries constructed which even used an accelerated stamina recuperation magic circle.

Shane was not able to see anything clearly, as his eyes blurred and the only thing he could barely do was to store his Ambrulite-pickaxe away before he laid down on the ground.

As he closed his eyes, his aching body clearly told him that he had worked hard for the day and that it was enough for him.

Finally allowing himself to release all the tension and tiredness at once, Shane didn't even notice the others' strange gazes as he fell asleep on the ground, barely a few meters away from a mattress.

Seeing Shane exhausted made everyone feel satisfied because they already wondered when he would collapse as they saw him crushing all the elemental crystal occurrences around their small resting place, which not only instilled a slight tinge of envy within them but also motivated the students and even Valkyries to work harder.

How could they accept and allow someone who was younger than them and barely two months inside the Primordial Dimensions to surpass them just like that?

This was a matter of pride and every single student accepted in Shirai academy had enough pride to feel unintentionally challenged by Shane, while even the Valkyries felt challenged, and they worked harder.

They even started to build small teams with a few mining the crystals, while the others gathered the crystals only to be faster than Shane, and Aisha could only shake her head at that.

She was not sure why exactly Shane was so adamant about earning as many gold coins as possible, but there had to be a reason if he even neglected his health for this.

In the end, Aisha could only estimate his reason, and there was no final answer if she wasn't going to ask.

However, this was not something she would do, as it was Shane's personal matter and if he wanted to tell her, he would do so soon enough.

She also had her own secrets, and thus wouldn't bother too much about it.

**

Several hours later, Shane heard loud noises around him as the ground shook beneath him, which immediately woke him up.

His drowsiness was washed away and he looked around in order to figure out what was going on, when he saw multiple centipedes attacking the mining Valkyries, only to be beaten into a pulp with the pickaxes in their hands.

Seeing this immediately after waking up, he couldn't help but frown as a light smile emerged on his face, as he heard Aimy's voice next to him.

"Oh Shane? You're finally awake? How deep can your sleep be to not even hear the several groups of centipedes that caused a commotion as they emerged from the fourth floor?"

Shane didn't know what to think and his mind still seemed to be asleep, as he needed a long time to understand what was going on.

Looking around, he noticed that the area around them was already wiped out of every single mana and elemental crystal occurrence.

However, the third floor was extremely vast and filled with more than enough crystals. There was a constant threat from the centipedes in the fourth layer, as they seemed to be enraged by the expedition team's appearance if Aimy's words were not wrong.

Yet, instead of stopping the excavation of the elemental crystals, the Valkyries separated from their former groups to mine crystals close to the students in order to protect them, while only Aimy, Shane, and a few Valkyries were left at their small resting spot.

Standing up, Shane took out a bunch of toasts which he devoured within seconds, as he saw Frer and two more Valkyries looking at him.

He smiled as the red Ambrulite-pickaxe manifested in his left hand, as he said enthusiastically.

"Let's mine mountains of elemental crystals!!''

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