Chapter 306: They Might Be Sitting On A Vein

That was... A really big explosion...

Maylene didn’t even look concerned that she almost died and was looking at the mushroom cloud with wonder.

"Wowwww~ That was a pretty big explosion wasn’t it? That’s so cool!!"

I have to admit, that was indeed pretty cool... Looking at it from a distance, that is...

Although... With the size of that thing, I’m pretty sure it could be seen for miles around.

Which meant that the people in that other colony should have also seen the explosion as well.

"You think the other colony will send people to investigate?" I asked.

"Oh, most likely. They should be aware of each other and where they are located. I’m betting they think it’s either a sabotage, or they somehow screwed up their bombs and blew themselves up. Or... Maybe they encountered those mutants."

That’s true... They not only need to worry about Anomalies, they need to worry about the mutants as well. If they were to encounter a powerful mutant like Khar or any of the three dukes of that colony, it wouldn’t be strange for their entire base to go up in flames like that.

With that in mind, they would probably come here prepared to shoot whoever they see.

"Should we go and deal with them first then? You know, just go and blow them all up before they can attack us."

Maylene seemed to like the idea and opened her mouth to agree, only to snap it shut quickly as she thought about it for a moment.

She then slowly turned to face me directly, "Qing? The fact that they can afford to make this many bombs... And to build an entire fort and distribute all that power and equipment... I think that means they have a way to get a lot of those Mana Crystals..."

I immediately understood what she was suggesting.

"You think that they found a place with a lot of Mana Crystals and that might be where the Gatekeeper or even the Commander Class Anomaly is hiding in?"

"I guess it’s a possibility? I mean even if it’s not, it still means they are getting it from somewhere, right?"

That’s true... So even if the Gatekeeper or Commander Class Anomaly wasn’t there, we would still gain a big stockpile of Mana Crystals at least.

Plus, we can get rid of another one of these problematic survivors groups.

Maylene continued, "The big question is... Do we head there ourselves or should we call the others for this?"

I pinched my chin in thought for a moment before nodding at her, "We might as well tell the others about it. After all... We did give away the rights of this rift away to them which means they would also have a claim on any Mana Crystal veins we find before we deal with the Gatekeeper... So we might as well make them work for it, right?"

Maylene brightened up, "Ah! You’re right! Ehehehe! You’re so smart, Qing!"

I wouldn’t even say I’m smart... It’s more like I was thinking what Olivia would have said if I were to ask her this question to begin with.

Anyway... We should get out of here since the people from the other camp would most likely send people here to investigate soon enough... And we still need to get rid of the vehicles that we ambushed since we kind of want them to think that the explosion happened because of an accident caused by themselves instead of them being attacked.

We went back to the road and I burned the corpses to ash before letting Maylene shrink the remains of the car wreckage which she said she could use for scrap later.

With everything cleaned up as best we could... Since there wasn’t much we could do about the cracked ground and blood splatters which we could only hope they wouldn’t notice if they came down this way... We teleported back to the meetup point after that.

Surprisingly, Siti was already there and seated on a wooden chair made out of plants grown out from the ground.

Her Guardian, Liyana, was seated on her lap and the two of them seemed to be in such a deep conversation with each other that they did not notice our arrival until we got close to them.

Even then, neither seemed embarrassed about being caught in that position like this was no big deal.

"Oh, welcome back. Did you run into any problems?" Siti asked with a smile.

I raised an eyebrow behind my mask, "Why are you asking it as though you already know I ran into problems?"

"That’s because you came back slower than I thought you would. I thought for sure you would be able to come back here the fastest, considering you can just teleport back here, after all. Also, I saw the giant mushroom cloud in the distance."

She’s pretty observant huh? Then again, I guess that’s not surprising since I’ve figured that’s what she’s like after spending time with her.

"I wouldn’t say that we have a problem... But we did find something that’s pretty interesting and could mean something else if we’re not wrong."

Before she could respond to me, I heard the sound of a wave crashing towards us coming from behind me.

I turned and Diana was on top of the wave, riding on a surfboard while letting out a shout of glee as she surfed her way towards us.

The wave crashed down just short of us, the water disappearing into the ground like an illusion and allowing Diana to kick off her surfboard and land on the ground, her surfboard literally melting into the waves and disappearing along with it.

Then, a figure burst out from the wave before it completely disappeared, reforming itself into a feminine figure made out of water before other colours seeped in to reveal that it was Rahayu.

Huh... Either she’s a water elemental who had taken a human form... Or she’s a human who can transform into a water elemental.

Diana smirked at us, "Both of you are pretty quick eh? So what was that big explosion I saw?"

Even she saw it huh...

Right then, I might as well just tell it to them straight.

"We found a pretty big colony belonging to the survivors and they have been making use of Mana Crystals to make their stuff. Like a lot of it."

Diana tilted her head, "Huh? So? That’s normal, right?"

Siti understood what I meant immediately, "No... If they are using a lot of Mana Crystals, it means they have the capacity to get them easily... Which means..."

"There’s probably a Mana Crystal vein near where they are set up," I finished for her.

Diana also realised what that meant quickly, "And if there’s a Mana Crystal vein... That means it’s very likely that our Gatekeeper is there... Or there’s at least a high concentration of Anomalies there."

"And that there’s a lot of resources there too, which these people are actively draining from. Those resources should be ours," Siti remarked, looking quite pissed.

Not sure about it being yours yet but... I’ll just keep my mouth shut.

Diana clasped her hands together, "So I take it you’re here to get us together to deal with them, right?"

I nodded, "Yeah... I figured that you’d probably want to get in on the action as well instead of being left out."

Siti got up from her chair, letting it melt back into the ground and allowing Liyana to stand on her feet.

"Oh, we certainly would. In fact, I would argue you had your fun with the last group of survivors and you should let us have our turn with this one instead~"

I raised an eyebrow, "You want to do all the work for this one?"

"Oh my, when you put it like that, it sounds like we’re trying to steal it from you or something, fufufu~ You can come and watch of course, but those little hideouts that I dealt with today wasn’t even enough to sate my appetite~ I need something that would allow me to be a little bit more serious~"

Diana rolled her eyes, "Don’t listen to her. That’s her way of saying that she wants to show off and the hideouts she was sent to deal with weren’t enough for her to use her powers enough to show off. Well, I have the same thoughts as well since the ones I dealt with didn’t really put up a fight either so... Lead the way!"

These two aren’t just really perverted, they’re also battle junkies too... No wait... Are they just trying to show off to me or something because they feel like I’ve been showing off more lately?

I don’t even dare to ask them if that is true...

Anyway, I have no problems leaving it to them and just hanging out with Maylene to watch.

Let me just create the teleportation door and send us there right now...