The Steel Warband mined with astonishing efficiency. In less than half an hour, they had stripped the already sparse spirit ore clean, leaving not even a scrap of slag.
Gui Ya's projection hovered nearby with a dark expression the entire time.
"All right, look at you being so stingy." Gangban glanced at his statistics plugin, in excellent spirits. "Everyone gets a share-I'll hold on to yours for now and give it to you when you grow up. Come on, keep leading the way. There might be more of my ore veins up ahead."
"Yours?"
"Ours."
Gui Ya's projection snorted and, without another word, turned and floated deeper into Soul Valley.
Only, he was noticeably faster now, hoping to end this loss-making journey as soon as possible.
The farther they went, the colder and gloomier their surroundings became.
Numerous battle scars appeared on the rock walls. Here and there, narrow, bottomless fissures split the ground, seeping threads of icy air.
The Soul Shadows that attacked afterward were significantly stronger as well, generally boasting Hunting Levels of 80+, and the number of derived evil spirits had also increased noticeably.
Beyond a moss-covered stretch lay another smooth stone path.
The Steel Warband's footsteps echoed exceptionally clearly through the empty valley floor.
"Be careful. The spatial structure here is unstable, and there's a great deal of residual resentment in the air," Gui Ya's projection warned, taking the initiative for once.
"Resentment? What's that, the name of some kind of energy?" Gangban asked curiously.
Gui Ya's projection stared at Gangban as though he were illiterate, but explained anyway. "A mixture of residual information fragments and obsessions left after beings proficient in controlling emotional power are annihilated-
"You can roughly think of it as an echo of emotion."
"Sounds like some expert died bitter and left