Aftermath

Eventually, even the leader had enough of chewing out the incompetent Martial Artist, before moving away from where the man was instructed to be.

"What have the scouts concluded regarding the tree?" The man asked one of his subordinates.

"They found no traces of any esoteric ore deposits, sir," His subordinate replied nervously.

The air grew tremendously heavy as his expression grew severe. "They found… nothing?"

"No ore deposits, sir. But their preliminary report does mention a giant hole size of a building in the ground beneath the trunk of the tree with traces of esoteric substances in the soil, indicating that there was a large deposit of esoteric ore in that location," The subordinate replied. "Apparently, it resembles the hole left behind when esoteric ores are extracted."

"Then it is safe to assume that there were ores there at some point? At all? Ever?" The leader asked gruffly.