Trying to stand up, he took some time to adjust to the pain in his abdomen. He coldly glared at the third-year student who was held back by Leon, as he blurted.

"You brainless idiot!"

Shane was enraged by the third-year student's sudden outburst of emotions, but he couldn't fight him head-on with his current strength, which forced him to hold back.

Hearing Shane's outburst, the third-year student tried to lunge at him again while Leon struggled to hold him back.

Before the third-year student knew, Frer appeared in front of him and drove her fist in his abdomen thrice in quick succession.

Holding his abdomen, the third-year student slumped to the ground, as he could only lament loudly

"Why?? He did almost kill us, you bi*th!"

When the Valkyries heard the youth call Frer 'bi*th', they only took a deep breath and were about to beat the shit out of him when Frer knocked him out with a powerful kick in his face.

Everyone was astonished to see the shy and timid girl suddenly turn wild and ferocious. she said out loud, compared to her usually quiet voice.

"Let's be honest here, who thinks that it was Shane's fault that we ended up in the current state?"

Having witnessed Frer's ferocious side, nobody wanted to go against her as everyone was exhausted, when they saw that a second-year student raised his hand.

"Even if Mike went a little overboard, his main point is correct in my opinion….Shane almost killed all of us because he led us inside the elemental crystal cave!!"

When the second-year student, called Karl, raised his hand, two more students, Shane wasn't familiar with, raised their hands, as several Valkyries followed suit.

Karl looked straight at Shane who still held his stomach in pain, and asked him in disgust

"Are you not ashamed of yourself? Don't you feel guilty?"

Listening to this felt like a crude joke to Shane, who could barely hold his laughter as he looked around to see how many people had raised their hand in response to Frer's question.

There were many more Valkyries than he expected who had raised their hands, which immediately decreased his respect towards the whole unit by a lot, as he straightened his back, ignoring the pain in his abdomen.

His eyes turned ice cold and emotionless, as he turned towards Karl once again.

"Why the hell should I feel guilty? Maybe you should visit the psychotherapist to look after your mental health…"

Karl, who initially wanted to be as calm as possible, couldn't help but open and close his mouth when he heard Shane's insult, and he was about to hurl an angry retort when he heard Shane's next words.

"Nobody forced you to apply for the expedition that was already labeled as extremely dangerous and even after Aisha explained the dangers clearly before the expedition even started, nobody here backed off....Was that my fault? I don't think so!!

Furthermore, it was everyone's free decision to enter the elemental crystal cave to earn several thousand gold coins without complaining...BEFORE anything happened all of you were thankful for me bringing you here but now that something happened, it's suddenly my fault?! Get the f*ck away from me and stay inside the shelter if you can't cope with the dangers outside.

If you already think that this was dangerous, don't even think of ascending into the Intermediate dimension because beasts like the ones you saw today are common there and not even considered special.

Who the hell do you think I am? Your nanny or what? YOU choose to enter the cave so take the f*cking responsibility yourself or go home!"

After being punched by someone with a peak Expert physique, Shane didn't even think of holding back as he blurted out everything that had been on his mind since the deaths of the five students.

Turning towards the Valkyries who slowly drew back their hands, he couldn't even bother to give them the slightest of attention, as he looked past them towards Frer.

Smiling lightly, he spoke to her bluntly

"When Aisha wakes up, she should really take care of her Valkyries' mind….I think some of them were hit on the head."

Hearing this, even Frer couldn't help herself as she raised her eyebrow in surprise and she wanted to retort to this, when one of the Valkyries who had raised her hand suddenly came forward, glaring at Shane threateningly.

"Who the hell do you think you're to act like this? It might not have been only your fault, but you are still partially responsible for this outcome because you told our captain about the cave."

Now, Shane was unable to answer, thinking that the Valkyrie in front of him might have a severely damaged brain.

Sometimes it was better to remain silent in front of dense and stubborn people, but Shane still asked himself how the young woman in front of him must have become a Valkyrie.

This was what made him truly curious because there was no way that she must have been accepted for her quick thinking.

Even the other Valkyries could only frown at their sister's words, and one of them dragged her back when all of them suddenly heard a faint voice saying.

"Rebecca...according to your words, it's mostly my fault that we ended up inside the elemental crystal cave…"

Turning around, they noticed that Aisha had regained her consciousness and her pale face sported a sour expression as she had to listen to some stupid reasons for Shane to be blamed for their current situation.

Forcing herself to lift her upper body, she looked around to see that all Valkyries were alive, which caused Aisha to sigh in relief.

She was only glad that none of her sisters had died, even if it was tragic that five students in her expedition team died.

It was only then, that she saw Frer next to a knocked-out student who looked like he was beaten up, while Shane stood nearby holding his abdomen with a faintly twisted expression, indicating his pain.

The only thing she heard was that one student and her own Valkyrie had tried to shrug away their responsibility and call out Shane, blaming him for everything.

Normally, others would have either accepted this and endured humiliation if they were weaker than the others or gone frantic but Shane simply stated the harsh truth that everyone had to shoulder their own responsibility.

However, seeing that the situation was already on the brink of escalating, Aisha decided to take the brunt, as she was not only the Valkyries' Captain, but also the students' teacher who had failed to protect them.

"If someone is looking for a scapegoat to throw all the blame at, I am ready. I was the one who chose our final destination and Shane only gave me one possibility. In the end, I could have just rejected his proposal, but I didn't. However, even if some of you want to search for a person to blame, bear in mind that relying on others and at the same time blaming others won't help you survive and become strong!

When Aisha finished her short speech, she slumped back on the ground and several Valkyries rushed to help her, while the others remained quiet, and nobody dared to say anything against Shane anymore.

Karl had already understood that his train of thought was childish and stupid when Shane told him the harsh truth.

He couldn't help but excuse himself by thinking that it was the anger and fear that spoke and not his rational mind, but why would that matter now.

Meanwhile, the only Valkyrie who said something against Shane was still glaring daggers at him, not even trying to cover it up in any way.

Yet, Shane couldn't care less about that as he looked out for Aimy and Olivia to see if they were fine.

The last few days must have been extremely hard for them as they had left the vicinity of a shelter for the first time in their life.

Witnessing their schoolmates' death was not something they could easily digest.

Melanie seemed to be in an even worse situation and Shane only hoped that the Shirai academy had someone who could heal trauma, otherwise, she would have difficulties in stepping out of the shelters ever again.

Shaking his head, Shane could only think that the whole situation had spiraled out of control and all of that had happened only because of the gold coins.

In the end, he was aware that he was partly responsible for the whole situation, but he wouldn't feel guilty about it because everyone was free to choose what they wanted to do, and most choose wealth over safety, which was not something one could avoid if one wanted to make it big in the Primordial Dimensions, as treasures and death were intertwined with each other.

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