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Chapter 108 - 108 Efficiency Problem
Chapter 108 - 108 Efficiency Problem
108 Efficiency Problem
Sigmonds wasn’t sure how things had turned out like this.
He was originally only an ordinary team leader of the Silverstream Mine. His greatest plan for his life was only to accept his fate.
However, one day, after a human-faced spider was pulled out of his throat by a person who called himself the Presiding Judge, his fate—which was obvious—suddenly began to become unpredictable.
In the beginning, the Presiding Judge only sent him to the wilderness and requested him to excavate an ancient ruin. He also promised him that as long as he could do this well, he could become a candidate member of the Mason Order. Although Sigmonds didn’t know what kind of organization the Mason Order was, this didn’t prevent him from agreeing to this commission because he wanted to thank the other party for saving his life.
Everything was normal in the beginning. There were dozens of miners, simple equipment, limited supplies, and generous remuneration. Other than the Netherworld Knights in charge of their security being too powerful, all of this was within Sigmonds’s understanding.
However, what happened next began to appear more and more ridiculous.
First, the Presiding Judge turned the rock and soil blocking the valley pass into humanoid Earth Souls. Then, he used them to open up a path to this long-forgotten valley.
Although it was an extremely simple and rugged road, it still connected this place to a few surrounding towns and established a stable logistics supply line.
Then, this deserted place began to become lively day by day.
The hired professional excavation team, the various skilled craftsmen of the Craftsmen’s Guild, a large number of logisticians, the clergy of the Holy Spirits Church, a small number of magic chanters, and many enchanters and alchemists… Not only did a luxurious team of technicians arrive, but a few circuses even came to the nearest town to relieve their boredom.
It was as if this place had turned from a wilderness into a prosperous town overnight.
At the same time, news after news was brought over from afar, constantly confirming the Presiding Judge’s fantasy promise.
The former Duke of Thorn was dead, and the entire Elementium Silver industry began an upheaval. The Blackwater Province announced its secession from the Empire’s rule…
The current ruler of the Blackwater Province was the former Chief Palace Mage, Vincent. The first thing he did after taking office was spend a lot of money to hire experts from all over the world to come to the deserted Grief Mountains to repair this fortress.
What happened next made Sigmonds feel even more surreal.
The refined Elementium Silver that had to be bought at market price was dragged here crate after crate and piled into the warehouse like sweet potatoes. Not long after, the processing equipment of Thorn City’s Elementium Silver refinery was dismantled and transported here for assembly. In addition, the large enchantment table that Offa University regarded as a treasure was removed and sent here for resettlement.
Many of these pieces of equipment were antiques produced before the Riel Empire was established. The manufacturing process know-how had long been lost. Some of them couldn’t be repaired after being damaged. They were treasures that were depleted every time they were damaged. However, to save the time needed to repair the fortress, they were removed and sent here.
After the preliminary excavation of the ruins was completed, Vincent sent almost all the enchanters in Thorn City who were above a certain rating over to be in charge of the second stage of the fortress maintenance.
Of course, everything above wasn’t what Sigmonds couldn’t understand the most.
What puzzled him the most was that he was still directly in charge of the entire fortress’s maintenance.
In other words, be it the miners or craftsmen, enchanters, or magic chanters, the thousand-odd people in the Grief Mountains were actually under his command.
“Presiding Judge, I don’t think I can handle such an important job. Please hire someone else…”
One time, when the mysterious Presiding Judge returned to check on the progress of his work, Sigmonds mustered his courage and suggested to him.
“Why? Aren’t you doing a good job now? I don’t see any mistakes. Rather, you’re managing this place quite well.”
The Presiding Judge, who was inspecting the completed circuits in the fortress, replied.
“But I was only in charge of a team previously and don’t know much about technology. I’m only lucky that I haven’t made any mistakes…”
“Then, keep up this luck of yours,” the other party replied calmly.
He continued, “There are plenty of people to help you with technical problems, and all you have to do is learn how to make good use of those people. You’re doing very well on this. Don’t worry, if you really can’t do this job, you don’t have to bring it up yourself. I’ll find someone else to replace you, but before that, I need you to take charge of this job.”
Back then, the Presiding Judge’s words made Sigmonds very uneasy. He kept feeling that there would be even greater challenges waiting for him in the future.
As expected, not long after that, the Presiding Judge ordered that the construction of the Demon Sealing rune circuits be completed 30% ahead of time before this year’s Rain Moon. The current progress of the project was greatly behind the adjusted schedule.
This made Sigmonds’s hair turn white from worry. This was because, with his current manpower and efficiency, this was an impossible goal.
Although there were plenty of raw materials and equipment here, the level difference between these enchanters was too uneven, causing the yields of the final product to be extremely terrible.
Just appraising and retrieving the substandard Demon Sealing runes before reforging them slowed down the efficiency of the entire project by at least 40%.
Even so, Sigmonds didn’t dare to continue exerting pressure on the enchantment factory. This was because after he issued a harsh order last time, a few enchanters and the magic chanter in charge of testing the finished product for eligibility had a private discussion and sent some Demon Sealing runes that were problematic but barely usable to the engineering team.
If Sigmonds hadn’t been careful and made one last inspection before the final circuit was laid, the batch of problematic Demon Sealing runes might have been installed in the fortress.
When Sigmonds learned of this situation, he was so angry that he brought the three Netherworld Knights in his hands to the enchantment factory, scaring the enchanters and quality assurance specialists who had joined forces to deceive him.
However, no matter how wrong the other party’s actions were, their subsequent explanation left Sigmonds unable to refute them.
They were of limited capability, and basically, everyone was doing their best now. What couldn’t be done just couldn’t be done. Be it continuing to increase remuneration or threatening others with violence, one couldn’t make a person who had already done their best continue to increase their efficiency.
Increasing the pressure and requirements wouldn’t provide any help other than getting them to take the risk and join forces to deceive him.
Finally, other than completely isolating the workplace of enchanters and quality assurance specialists and setting the rules for blind inspection, nothing else changed.
These new rules slowed down the overall efficiency. After all, the runes could no longer be checked immediately after completion.
In the end, Sigmonds, who hadn’t even finished Offa University’s preparatory classes, was forced into a corner. He could only personally go to the enchantment factory and prepare to learn the entire enchantment process from scratch to see if any areas in the process could be optimized like mining.
On the first day he came to the enchantment factory, he discovered a huge problem—all the Demon Sealing runes were forged by the enchanters themselves.