Chapter 146: Forced encounter

Hearing that they would vote for a decision astonished Shane because this was not something that someone without experience should decide.

Even if the majority of voters belonged to the Valkyries, there were still more than 10 students with more than half of them being inexperienced combatants, even fewer strategists.

Shane doubted that they could evaluate their current situation after they earned a fortune of roughly 7,000 gold coins, if everyone was to mine exactly the same amount of elemental crystals.

Furthermore, there was still the possibility of an even larger fortune on the next floor, which would definitely manipulate most students into voting for moving ahead instead of thinking carefully.

Worse, however, was that he could see greed glimmering in some of the Valkyries' eyes, which caused him to frown, and without further ado, he ignored his anonymous voting right if they were to use the systems voting poll, as he said out loud.

"I'm against going further down the cave. I'd love to stay alive and even if I could earn much more elemental crystals on the next floor, there is something wrong here. If any of you wants to die or be suicidal, vote for it, but I won't go deeper even if I have to leave the expedition team for good."

Hearing how serious Shane sounded, Aisha lifted her eyebrow and acknowledged that it was definitely the best decision Shane could take, not only because he was not strong enough to fight even peak Elite stage beasts but also to show the other students how grave the situation was.

The other students might have thought that he only wanted to get away with his fortune, but after thinking about it, they would also notice that something was wrong here because there were simply too many strong beasts nearby the shelter which was odd.

Furthermore, these students would also slowly comprehend that Shane, who seemed to be the most desperate for more gold coins, adamantly refused to go to the next floor, which additionally impressed the gravity of the situation upon them.

If not even the Valkyries were sure to come out without injuries, how could they survive?

Not even Leon was sure that he would come out alive, if the Valkyrie Captain's words were indeed true, as his combat experience was lower than every single one of the Valkyries.

He was confident in fighting against two or three peak-Awakened beasts that were on par with Expert stages with a mana purity of 60% at the same time, but that was it.

As such, the last three days had already been harsh and now the dangers would increase further?

Everyone was deep in thoughts and even the Valkyries seemed to have noticed that something was wrong with their mind, as they felt as if they were letting their emotions take over control.

Witnessing all of this, Aisha couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated because Shane effortlessly read through the group's train of thoughts, emotions and atmosphere around them, which led him to disregard an anonymous vote.

After pondering for a moment, she couldn't help but sigh because she seemed to have disregarded her mission for a moment as her desire to fight someone strong had overwhelmed her.

It wasn't long before everyone opened their system's interface as they voted, while Shane followed suit.

When everyone voted, a small box appeared showing the result.

[17 votes for [going further] to 94 votes for [retreat]]

[[Retreat] won with a majority of 84.68% votes]

Reading this result, even Shane was slightly taken aback that the latter option had received so many votes because he had estimated that it would remain extremely close after he tried to manipulate the votes to a certain extent.

However, the fact that the vast majority was able to retain their calmness without being too greedy was astonishing.

Aisha was also baffled with the final result and she could only hear a few silent curses, from the minority that wanted to go further down, as she straightened her back.

"Now that we have the final result, we will go back and continue with our normal schedule! We have already spent a long time inside the elemental crystal cave and we should feel fresh air once again. Let's pack up and depart without further ado… This whole cave creeps me out!"

Listening to their leader, the Valkyries immediately started to arrange their things while even the few grumbling Valkyries who voted for going further down, changed their attitude almost immediately, as they packed their stuff.

Shane and the others didn't have many things to pack as everything was provided by the Valkyries but they still helped out, even if they were less efficient than them.

Not even ten minutes had passed before everyone was ready to depart as Aisha led them towards the tunnel, connecting the third layer to the second layer.

Since they had finished clearing the third layer, she felt uncomfortable, and her gut-feeling told her to either completely annihilate the cave by any means or depart as soon as possible, which was the reason for her to tell the others to hurry until they would finally leave the uncanny elemental crystal cave.

Shane felt the same, but it had only been a hunch based upon the intel that he had acquired over the last few days.

As such he was glad that Aisha wanted to leave as soon as possible, and it was only when they arrived in front of the tunnel leading towards the second floor, that their expedition team heard a thunderous screeching, reverberating through the whole elemental crystal cave, permeating the air with thick mana currents, suppressing everyone.

'F*ck is that a skill?' Shane immediately concluded, because even the Valkyries and Aisha felt slightly suppressed by the sheer mass of mana around them and his mind began to rattle wildly, trying to figure out what exactly it was, when Aisha frowned as she took out her spear.

'What is going on? Why are we not going further?' Thinking that they might be safer outside the elemental crystal cave, Shane wanted to walk out, when he finally saw the ground in front of them shaking.

He had seen the same scenario several dozen times over the last few days and knew what was going on, but instead of charging towards the area where centipedes would pierce out of the ground any moment, Aisha turned around with a frown.

Walking to the end of their group, she turned serious, as she ordered.

"Everyone prepare for a fight! Once the tunnel is free, just go further and don't bother about looking back! Kara, Vera, divide the Valkyries in two groups. Kara's group will stay with me and Vera's will protect the students!"

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