Free Web NovelChapter 197: Chapter 182: Oli Crystal Plate
"Off to work so early, Elsa?"
"Good morning, Aunt Zhu Li." Elsa hurriedly pushed her bicycle out of the house.
Since moving out on her own, she had quickly built a good relationship with her neighbors. The neighborhood aunts and uncles were all very fond of the young lady.
However, their children didn’t like her very much.
They had been living their lives just fine, and then a living, breathing "other people’s kid" appeared.
They were all at the age of graduating and looking for jobs, and suddenly a 21-year-old with an annual salary of well over ten Gold Coins popped up next door. Who could stand that?
"I’m going to be late." Elsa stuffed the last piece of bread into her mouth.
’White bread was a good choice; it wouldn’t get too stuck in her throat.’
"You’re going to be late already?" Aunt Zhu Li said in surprise. "Your boss must be a real tyrant."
"He is," Elsa affirmed without hesitation.
Zog himself came to work every afternoon, yet he made her come in so early to summarize the previous day’s information, and then wait for him to arrive before she could report it.
She was a little envious of her brother, Yuno. The R&D department didn’t have set work hours, and he was probably still at home, fast asleep.
But by the same token, they didn’t have set quitting times, either.
Flexible work hours.
Of course, the performance targets weren’t flexible. Meeting them was no easy task.
Elsa righted her bicycle, preparing to execute a smooth little combo for getting on.
This was the hardest part for her when learning to ride a bike: putting one foot on a pedal, pushing forward to glide, and once the bike was balanced, swinging her other leg over.
*Phew—*
It worked this time.
Elsa breathed a sigh of relief.
In truth, she wasn’t skilled at this move yet. If Aunt Zhu Li saw her fall flat on her butt, it would be mortifying.
She had submitted a request to the research department to develop a bike that was easier to get on, but there was still no news.
She heard they were stuck on the principle of why a bicycle stays balanced.
Elsa couldn’t understand. ’What does making a bike easier to mount have to do with how it stays balanced?’
’If I knew blacksmithing, I could do it myself. Either make the frame smaller or curve the top tube so my leg can get over.’
’Is it really that complicated?’
But the large group in the research department seemed to have become obsessed with why two little wheels don’t fall over when they spin.
She rode all the way to the new Zog Group Headquarters.
That’s right, Zog had bought another new building, right at the end of Chrysanthemum Street.
Although it was the headquarters, there weren’t many employees inside at the moment. All the departments were in their own locations.
The headquarters only housed Zog, her, and the accountants. The utilization rate was very low. It felt like Zog had a strange obsession with buying property.
And he called the accountants "pot-carriers." What kind of weird nickname was that? Did they carry pots on their backs? So strange.
"Good morning, Sister Elsa." The receptionist greeted Elsa.
Elsa nodded in acknowledgment.
’So I’m "Sister Elsa" now,’ she mused, ’even though those two receptionists are older than me.’
Power, so intoxicating to an Illusionist.
Arriving at her office—look at that, she was someone with her own private office now.
But after pushing the door open and seeing a half-meter-high stack of documents, her good morning mood vanished.
She patted her cheeks and started the day’s work.
"Northern Factory Second Quarter Production Summary..."
"First Week Sales of the ’Druid vs. Necromancer’ Hybrid Edition Downloadable Expansion Pack..."
"Silver-White City State Magic Vision Device Sales Growth This Week, Increase Reaches 53,400%..."
Wait!
She thought she saw something outrageous.
Elsa flipped back to the previous document and checked it again carefully.
One, two, three, four, five.
It really was five digits.
’Are they nuts?’
’An increase of over fifty thousand percent. Even if you were faking data, you wouldn’t do it like this.’
’Who are they trying to fool?’
The Silver-White City State was a sales region that Zog had specifically designated for close monitoring. And they dared to pull a stunt here.
If the numbers had been too neat, looking suspiciously coincidental, and they’d fudged the results a little to make them look more random—well, she could pretend she hadn’t seen it. After all, she’d done the same thing before.
You couldn’t blame her. Sometimes, when the data is too neat, the boss will think the round number has been faked.
So you had to fake it to make it look "more real."
But this, an increase of over five hundred times... it was too brazen.
This was because besides bonuses based on sales performance, the Zog Group also had a "Most Improved" award for the division with the highest sales growth.
The prize money was very generous, providing ample motive for fraud.
To avoid wrongly accusing someone, Elsa re-read the details in the file.
"Last week: 1 unit. This week: 534 units."
Then it really was an increase of over fifty thousand percent.
"Silver-White City State’s City Lord initiates Cultural Exchange and Promotion Week."
Seeing this, Elsa immediately realized this document needed to be in Zog’s claws.
Six hours later, Zog came to work.
It was already two in the afternoon.
But for Zog, this was considered a diligent day.
"Hey, Elsa, I’m sure there’s no important news today, right? If not, I’m heading home," Zog said lackadaisically.
"There is. News from the Silver-White City State." Elsa immediately handed over the document.
Zog gave Elsa a slightly annoyed glance.
"What’s wrong with you? Can’t you take a hint? Didn’t you understand that what I just said meant ’I don’t want any important news today’?"
’Elsa’s usually pretty sharp; otherwise, I wouldn’t have made her my assistant. What’s with her today?’
’Does she have to make her boss spell out that he wants to slack off? Don’t I get to save face?’
"Uh, but today’s news is really important. Sales in the Silver-White City State have taken off," Elsa said.
"Taken off? Isn’t that to be expected? Otherwise, we would’ve held the blade forging competition for nothing," Zog said, but then he rethought it. Something seemed off. "But the blade forging competition hasn’t aired yet, has it?"
"It’s because of the Silver-White City State’s City Lord. He’s holding an event to promote Demon Vision."
"Huh?"
A moment later, Zog was holding the document in his claws, lost in thought.
At the same time, the report from the intelligence team was also in his hand.
It contained a detailed update on the Silver-White City State.
’To conquer the Elf market, you can’t just send one regional manager, of course.’
’Add to that the Elf data from the Holy Tree...’
Zog probably understood the city better than the City Lord himself now.
"So, the Silver-White City State is in an election period. The City Lord wants to be re-elected, and he’s using the introduction of Demon Vision and other things as his campaign platform."
He tapped the desk with his claw tips.
This guy really knew what he was doing.
He had never seen such a proactive and open market.
"Since the City Lord is being so proactive, we can’t be impolite. He wants to be re-elected, so let’s help him get re-elected. Not just for the next term, but for many terms to come," Zog declared imperiously.
A large corporation influencing election results. This scene felt awfully familiar.
"Um, actually, the City Lord can’t be re-elected for many terms," Elsa pointed out.
"Is that so? Is his kid interested in being City Lord? As long as his kid is also this savvy, their family can be the City Lords forever," Zog said.
"Right, how’s that Simon fellow doing?"
"He’s in Furnace Castle doing his custom forging, but according to the film crew following him, it’s not going very smoothly right now," Elsa reported dutifully.
"Not smoothly?"
Zog believed that as long as Simon won the blade forging competition, business with the Elf Artisans would be much easier.
It would also count as an achievement for the current City Lord.
He originally thought that with the level of skill Simon had shown in the first two rounds, winning first place would be no problem.
It seemed he needed to go check on the situation. And if possible, pull some strings.
————————
「Furnace Castle.」
Simon stared intently at the Oli Crystal Plate before him, unable to believe his eyes.
"What’s wrong?" Bane asked from the side.
’To be honest, this kid Simon was the most talented artisan he had ever seen.’
’The best student he had ever taught.’
Two days. Simon had only taken two days to completely master the Dwarf Secret Technique.
Even Bane himself had taken over a month to learn it back in the day.
If anyone else had learned it in two days, Bane would have been jealous enough to pass out.
But Simon was different. This was his student!
Even if he learned it in two days, it was because he was a good teacher.
Even if Simon’s talent accounted for 99% of it, didn’t his excellent teaching have at least 1% of the credit?
"It’s wrong," Simon said, his tone serious.
"What’s wrong? Didn’t you cut them perfectly cleanly?"
Bane examined Simon’s work.
The Oli Crystal had been cut into Crystal Chips as thin as a cicada’s wing. Who would have thought this was done with a hammer, not a blade?
For an artisan new to the Dwarf Secret Technique, his performance was unbelievably good.
"I wanted to use Oli Crystal to complete my piece for the final round," Simon replied. "But like this, it can’t be used to make a blade at all."
"But isn’t Oli Crystal a useless ore to begin with?"
Bane didn’t understand. He thought Simon was just practicing on some useless material, which was why he was cutting it.
Simon didn’t answer. Instead, he picked up a Crystal Chip.
It had no toughness, no malleability. It wasn’t a suitable forging material at all.
While using the Dwarf Secret Technique to cut it, he had heard an incomparably beautiful melody.
He thought he was right, that this was the method destined to process Oli Crystal.
All this time, Simon had believed that Oli Crystal would be the best forging material, far surpassing the properties of Mithril and Refined Gold, and completely changing the landscape of Legendary Weapons.
Only then would it be worthy of the evaluation given by the Holy Tree.
Only then would it be worthy of the life his father had dedicated.
Back then, many Elves said his father was crazy, that the Holy Tree had never made such a prophecy.
But Simon believed his father. So for all these years, there had been nothing else in his life; he had poured all his energy into studying the craft of forging.
Only now had he seen a glimmer of hope for success.
And in an instant, that hope was shattered.
’How tragic.’
Simon despairingly threw the Crystal Chip from his hand. It seemed he had suddenly lost his reason to strive.
The Crystal Chip was tossed into the air. Because it was so light and thin, it fluttered about until it was caught by a claw.
Zog had arrived.
"What’s this?" he asked curiously, looking at Bane and at Simon, who was squatting in a corner, wallowing in despair.
It looked a bit familiar, but he’d forgotten what it was.
He had never been very knowledgeable about things that weren’t valuable.
"It’s Oli Crystal," Bane answered.
"Oli Crystal?" Zog thought for a moment. It was valuable once, but then it tanked.
He had stockpiled a lot of it in his treasury. He’d hoarded it like treasure back then, and now he couldn’t even sell it if he wanted to.
"So what’s up with Simon?"
"This was supposed to be the best material for forging a Legendary Weapon, but now it seems it’s just trash," Simon said, raising his head, his voice bleak.
"Legendary Weapon?"
’If it really could be used, all that stuff in my treasury would turn back into treasure on the spot.’
Zog waved the Crystal Chip, fanning himself with it. He was surprised the thin little sheet was so sturdy.
He had just fanned himself twice when his eyes suddenly widened.
He stared at the piece of Oli Crystal.
He said in shock, "This seems... way more amazing than a Legendary Weapon."
