17: Chapter 17: The criteria for evaluating outstanding employees is to eliminate the competition.

She walked up to a pile of ore waiting to be forged, stretched out her slender, fair fingers, and gently brushed over a piece of iron ore the size of a fist.

The rough surface of the ore was covered in dark red rust and dusty stone, but the moment her fingertips touched it, Levi seemed to see a faint, almost invisible emerald green light seep into it from her fingertips.

Xier closed her eyes, her brows smoothing and then furrowing, as if listening to some silent whisper.

After a full half-minute, she withdrew her hand and opened her emerald green eyes; the original disdain was replaced by a professional caution.

"The problem is not your craftsmanship, but your raw materials," her voice regained some of the coldness unique to elves. "These iron ores may look decent, but their internal elemental structure is complex and impure, containing excessive sulfur and phosphorus. Using such inferior materials, even the greatest Grey Dwarf craftsmen could not forge a true masterpiece. Your production process is merely stably and massively replicating this inferiority."

Levi's eyes lit up slightly.

He didn't understand what sulfur and phosphorus were, but he understood the words "inferior" and "replicating."

These were the most common terms in quality inspection reports from his past life.

"The solution?" he asked succinctly, like a project manager anxious to solve a technical problem before a deadline.

Xier lifted her sharp, delicate chin, a trace of pride belonging to an ancient race reappearing on her face: "The solution is simple, but for you humans, it might be harder than reaching the heavens. Before smelting, we need to 'elementally purify' the ore. By mixing specific plant ashes with clean water to soak the ore, and then using faint natural magic to resonate with it, we can strip away most of the impurities."

She glanced at the Grey Dwarves in the workshop who only knew how to swing hammers with brute force, and added with no small amount of disdain: "Of course, this requires a spellcaster with an extremely high affinity for the power of nature to complete. Like me."

"Very good." Levi nodded, his face unreadable. "That is to say, your 'technology' can bring significant quality improvement to our current product line. According to the regulations of our Blackstone Territory, such core technology can be converted into shares. Given that you are currently in debt by sixty-one silver coins, I have decided to grant you the privilege of repaying your debt through 'technology equity' and becoming the Chief Technical Consultant of the 'Blackstone Resources Company Weapons R&D Department.' Your compensation will be performance-based, calculated according to the improvement in yield rates and quality optimization you bring. Evelyn will discuss the specific terms with you later."

"Sha...res? Performance?" Xier was once again left dizzy by this string of unheard-of vocabulary.

But she keenly captured the core message—this man acknowledged her value and intended to "employ" her in a way she didn't understand but sounded very formal, rather than treating her as a simple prisoner or slave.

Just then, a scout came sprinting from another fork in the mine tunnel. He couldn't even care about the sweat covering his head, knelt on one knee, and reported urgently: "My Lord! An alert has come from the border! The Inquisition's knight squad has broken camp and is moving along the southern edge of the Misty Forest toward our mining area! They are very fast and are expected to reach the outskirts of the mining area within half an hour!"

The air froze instantly.

The noisy clanging of iron in the workshop seemed to have been hit with a pause button; all the Grey Dwarves stopped their work and looked at Levi nervously.

Blackfinger was the first to grab the battle axe beside him, his bloodshot eyes staring fixedly at Levi, waiting for his command.

"So impatient already?" Levi muttered to himself. The other party clearly didn't believe his stalling tactics and intended to "search" by force.

A head-on confrontation?

Thirty well-equipped, well-trained Inquisition knights were enough to easily crush his group of guards and Grey Dwarves who had just put down their pickaxes.

But this was Blackstone Ridge, his home turf.

"Blackfinger." Levi's voice was not loud, yet it clearly reached the entire workshop. "Initiate the 'Mining Area Asset Inventory' emergency plan."

"Mining Area Asset Inventory"? What the hell is that?

Blackfinger was stunned for a moment, but when he saw that familiar, unquestionable look in Levi's eyes, he instantly realized this was just a code.

A code they had just simulated on the sand table yesterday.

"Yes! My Lord!" A surge of bloodthirsty excitement instantly rose on Blackfinger's face. He hoisted that huge battle axe onto his shoulder and let out a deafening roar to the Grey Dwarves behind him. "Did you all hear that! You little brats! Get ready to take inventory of the company's assets! All members of the Security Department, go to the armory immediately and collect your new treasures! Assemble at the entrance of the No. 3 abandoned mine tunnel in ten minutes! Whoever is late, their whiskey quota for this month gets fed to the gophers!"

"Roar!" The Grey Dwarves erupted in a response like a landslide or tsunami.

Defending the whiskey—this reason was even more sacred than defending the territory itself!

They dropped their tools and surged like a tide toward the newly established temporary armory.

There, nearly a hundred new-style battle axes were laid out, produced on an assembly line and slightly improved in quality after Xier's initial guidance. Although still rough, they were a world of difference compared to the pickaxes and broken hammers they had used before.

Levi turned to look at Xier; this elf technical consultant's face still bore a trace of confusion and nervousness.

"Your Excellency Chief Technical Consultant, your first performance review starts now." Levi's tone was as flat as if he were assigning a routine task. "I need you to immediately go to the path leading to the No. 3 abandoned mine tunnel, and in a place you deem most suitable, most hidden, and easiest to be detected by an alchemy compass, leave a trace of your own faint but clear magical signature. After you finish, withdraw to a safe area immediately. Can you do it?"

Xier's pupils shrank sharply. A lure. He wanted her to be a lure.

A sense of humiliation and anger at being used surged within her, but when she met those bottomless black eyes of Levi's, all her protests were stuck in her throat.

In those eyes, there were no requests, no negotiations, only cold commands and unquestionable authority.

She suddenly realized that in the current situation, being a lure with 'utilization value' was far safer than being a 'worthless' burden.

"...I know what to do." She bit her lip and finally nodded.

Half an hour later, outside the abandoned No. 3 mine tunnel, there was dead silence.

Colin's squad stopped in front of the cave entrance, which was half-hidden by vines and bushes.

The young knight captain, Colin, raised a brass compass in his hand; the compass needle was trembling slightly, pointing firmly toward the deep, dark interior of the mine tunnel.

"Captain, the tracking signal has become very clear here." A knight reported, "That heretic must be hiding inside!"

Colin frowned. This abandoned mine tunnel looked eerie and exuded an ominous aura.

But he had absolute confidence in the Inquisition's tracking compass; it was the work of the Radiant Empire's top alchemy master and had never failed.

Besides, as for that penniless lord Levi Byron, he figured he wouldn't dare to play any tricks with the Inquisition.

"Everyone, light your torches, maintain a defensive formation, and move in!" Colin waved his hand and gave the order. "Remember, the Inquisitor wants her alive!"

Thirty heavily armored knights filed in, their heavy military boots stepping on the gravel, making a 'crunch, crunch' sound.

The light of the torches dispelled the darkness at the entrance, but made the shadows in the depths appear even more sinister.

They did not know that inside the rock walls above their heads and on both sides, dozens of pairs of eyes belonging to Grey Dwarves were watching them coldly through carefully camouflaged observation holes, like they were staring at a flock of lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

Blackfinger was lurking on a high platform not far from the entrance. He gripped a fine battle axe that Levi had specially approved and which he had crafted himself, enduring the urge to rush down and split open the heads of these 'ground people,' patiently waiting for the signal.

Colin's squad went deeper and deeper; the mine tunnel became narrower as they walked, and the air became increasingly humid and murky.

The compass needle still pointed steadily forward, which made them lower their guard.

[part:gemini-3.0-flash]

When the figure of the last knight had completely vanished around the corner of the mine tunnel, Levi, who had been lying on the distant hillside observing everything through a simple monocular, gently lowered a red cloth strip in his hand.

This was the signal.

High on the mine's platform, Blackfinger saw the flash of red in the distance.

He gave a savage grin, revealing a mouthful of uneven yellow teeth, and raised his battle-axe, striking with all his might against a massive stone pillar that looked ordinary but had actually been hollowed out!

"For whiskey!"

With his wild roar, the chain reaction began!

"Boom—Rumble!"

The ground shook and the mountains trembled!

What Blackfinger broke was not just a stone pillar, but a mechanical balance point carefully calculated by the dwarves.

Dozens of demolition points pre-embedded in the mine's critical support structures were detonated simultaneously. Although it was only the crudest alchemy explosives, the instantaneous burst of power was enough to destroy the already fragile abandoned mine.

Countless tons of boulders and soil came crashing down from above and both sides like a bursting flood!

Colin's squad, traveling through the middle of the mine, didn't even have time to react. They only heard a world-shattering roar from both the front and back, and then the entire world fell into violent shaking and boundless darkness.

"A cave-in! It's a trap!" Colin let out a terrified roar.

But his voice was instantly drowned out by the thunderous roar of collapsing rocks.

Boulders sealed all paths forward and backward, burying this arrogant Inquisition squad strictly and securely deep underground, a hundred meters down!

"Roar!"

Seeing the enemy trapped, the dwarf warriors who had long been lying in wait within the reserved passages pounced from the cracks in the rock walls and reserved openings from all directions, led by Blackfinger like malevolent spirits crawling out of hell!

Darkness was their most familiar friend. Narrow spaces were their most proficient battlefield!

An Inquisition knight had just struggled up from the dizziness of being hit by rubble and lit the magic light stone at his waist, the piercing white light instantly illuminating the tragic scene around him.

But before he could see his companions' positions, a battle-axe gleaming with cold light swept out from the shadows at his side with a whistling sound, accurately hacking into the neck joint of his armor.

Squelch!

Blood and bone fragments flew together as the knight's head soared into the sky, the expression of shock on his face frozen forever.

The dwarf warriors held their new weapons, feeling for the first time in battle what "equipment suppression" meant.

Although these battle-axes couldn't directly split the knights' heavy armor, their weight and sharpness were enough to deal devastating blows to the armor's weak joints under fierce swings.

It was a massacre without suspense.

In the underground urban combat environment they were most skilled in, facing an enemy with a scattered formation, limited vision, and plunged into panic, Blackfinger and his Security Department demonstrated astonishing combat power.

The battle ended very quickly.

When the last knight was hacked to the ground by three battle-axes simultaneously, only the heavy breathing of the dwarves and the groans of the wounded remained in the entire mine tunnel.

Outside the mine, Levi quietly listened as the muffled sounds and fighting from underground gradually subsided, his face devoid of any expression.

He turned and instructed Rogge beside him: "Pass the word down—all members of the 'Security Department' who participated in the battle will receive triple performance bonuses this month! Minister Blackfinger gets an extra barrel of special reserve whiskey! Also, clean up the battlefield; all usable equipment, weapons, and horses are to be classified as 'Company Assets' and registered in the warehouse."

When Rogge delivered this news to the dwarves who had just finished the battle, a sky-shaking cheer louder than the previous cave-in erupted inside and outside the mine!

The dwarves lifted Blackfinger high and threw him into the air, howling excitedly about "whiskey" and "bonuses." Their gazes toward Levi held a frenzied worship in addition to awe.

At this moment, they were no longer just a tribe fighting for survival; they were the proud "Security Department Employees" of the "Blackstone Resource Company." They fought for the "Company's" interests and received generous rewards for it!

In the dark and damp dungeon of the castle, only a single dim oil lamp was lit.

Colin had been stripped of all his armor, wearing only a tattered inner lining, and was chained to the wall with thick iron links.

He was covered in wounds, and his left arm was unnaturally twisted, clearly broken.

He was the only survivor of this ambush, besides two other severely wounded men.

Levi sat on a wooden chair, slowly and methodically wiping a beautifully crafted dagger seized from Colin.

Evelyn stood quietly behind Colin like a ghostly shadow, her purple eyes shimmering with an eerie light.

"I won't say anything, heretic!" Colin spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm, his gaze still fierce. "The Inquisition won't let you off! You bedbugs hiding in the gutters will all be purified by the holy fire!"

Levi smiled and ignored his shouting, merely giving Evelyn a look.

Evelyn leaned forward slightly, getting close to Colin's ear, and began to whisper softly in a seductive tone that seemed capable of boring into the depths of one's soul.

Her voice wasn't loud, but it reached Colin's ears clearly, like a lover's murmur and yet like a devil's curse.

The fierce light in Colin's eyes began to dissipate, and his body trembled uncontrollably.

The knightly will he was so proud of was easily crushed like a paper dam before the succubus's innate spiritual talent.

Cold sweat rolled down his forehead, his breathing became rapid, his gaze shifted from fierce to dazed, and finally turned into complete terror and collapse.

"...I'll talk... I'll talk..." His voice was hoarse and trembling. "That elf... she's no ordinary elf... Her blood is the 'key'... the only key to... to unlocking the seal of the Silvermoon Ruins' gate! The Inquisitor... what he wants... is the thing inside the ruins..."

Silvermoon Ruins? A living key?

Levi's movement of wiping the dagger stopped.

The value of this information far exceeded his estimates.

An ancient ruin often represented unknown wealth, powerful magical items, or lost knowledge.

And this secret was actually directly related to Hill's bloodline.

He suddenly realized that what he had picked up this time wasn't a piece of trouble, but a walking gold mine.

Just as he was rapidly digesting this startling information and beginning to reassess Hill's value and the subsequent risk management plan, there was an urgent knock on the dungeon door.

A guard entered with a solemn expression, knelt on one knee, and presented a letter strictly sealed with wax.

"My Lord, an urgent letter from the Imperial Capital, delivered by Royal Gryffin Express."

Levi took the letter, and when he saw the ornate crest of thorns and roses on the wax seal, his brow couldn't help but twitch slightly.

That was the personal seal of Princess Ella Radiance, the Eldest Princess of the Radiant Empire and his nominal fiancée whom he had never met.

He tore open the seal and unfolded the letter.

The handwriting on the letter was elegant and sharp, just like its owner's style.

But the content of the letter was not a greeting between a betrothed couple, but a cold warning devoid of any emotion.

In a condescending tone, the letter "suggested" that he should not interfere in any "purification actions" by the Hammer Inquisition at the border and should immediately hand over the "accidentally captured heretic" to the Inquisition to avoid bringing unnecessary "misunderstandings" to the Byron Family.

Levi finished reading the entire letter expressionlessly.

He was silent for a moment, then slowly folded the letter and casually handed it to Evelyn, who had been quietly watching everything beside him.

He didn't explain the contents of the letter, nor did he issue any new orders; he just tapped the cold tabletop lightly with his finger, his deep gaze cast toward the endless darkness outside the dungeon.