Imperial Crown

"Stop arguing!" Raven walked out of the room with a gloomy face, and the gray dwarves immediately quieted down, but they still looked indignant.

Eric next to him had a helpless look on his face: "Baron!"

"What happened?" Raven glanced over and saw that the gray dwarves were about to start making trouble again, so he immediately said: "Send a representative to tell us!"

Bowell stood up: "Baron, I want to complain about your retainers. They actually refused us gray dwarves to identify jewelry. It's discrimination!"

"Yes!" Where there is Bowell, there is always Sohei: "Not only that, they also prevented us from screening minerals. They simply know nothing about the talents of us gray dwarves!"

Raven certainly didn't believe their one-sided words, and turned to look at Eric.

The retainer exhaled angrily: "Baron, they said nice things, such as identifying jewelry and screening minerals, but they are just sabotaging and taking advantage of others!"

As he said, he spread his palm and showed the evidence.

It was a gold ring inlaid with an emerald, but now the gem had been pried off and the ring had been deformed.

Raven looked at Bowell with a questioning look. This self-proclaimed "very polite" gray dwarf was not afraid at all: "Baron, I didn't expect you to be a tasteless and rough man!"

He walked to Eric and took the ring in his hand: "Look, this is poor craftsmanship. The gem is not even inlaid, but glued on! Look at the rough lines. It is obviously the work of a silversmith in a small workshop. If this kind of thing appears in your collection, it is a blasphemy to your baron status!"

Raven looked closely and found that what the gray dwarf said was indeed a bit reasonable.

Although he didn't know much about jewelry, he had done all kinds of petty thefts in his past life in Mon'en City. This kind of ring is worn by the lower class people in the city. The gold content is very questionable. If the gem is removed, it may not be as valuable as the gold coins of the same weight.

"Hmm..." Raven thought for a moment and took the ring back in his hand: "One piece of jewelry doesn't explain the problem. Let's go to the treasury and take a look together."

Led by Raven, a group of people returned to Heleti's treasury in a mighty manner.

After a day of sorting, Heleti's treasury was much more organized than before. The gold coins had been packed and sealed aside, and various enchanted armors and weapons had also been distributed, leaving only a lot of large and small boxes piled together.

Several boxes had been opened, revealing various jewelry inside.

"Let's get started." Raven ordered.

"Ahem!" Bowell straightened his collar, strode to the jewelry box with a proud look, and reached out to pick up a pearl necklace: "Baron, look, this is a pearl necklace. Judging from the size of these pearls, they are obviously produced in the Agate Lake of the Grand Duchy of Kaspersky in the Fitun City-States. Moreover, they are already a few years old and have obviously begun to turn yellow!"

"Only a country bumpkin like Heleti would treat it as a treasure. A true noble, even if he is grinding pearl powder, would not use the inferior pearls produced in this lake!"

As he said this, he threw the necklace to the ground like trash: "It is only worthy of taking the pearls and melting the gold chain in the middle to be valuable!"

"And this, this, this, are all garbage!" Bowell criticized each piece of jewelry as worthless and threw them to the ground one by one, but they all had reasons.

He raised his head arrogantly, and his 1.3-meter-tall height gave him a 1.9-meter-tall temperament: "Now you finally recognize my professionalism, right!?"

Although this sentence was said to Raven, his eyes were directed at Eric, and Eric's proud look made his teeth itch.

"It is indeed very professional." Raven nodded, and suddenly changed the subject: "But should you take out the thing you just hid in your sleeve?"

"Huh?" Bowell's originally blue-gray face suddenly turned a little red: "Baron, I..."

"Huh?" Raven glared at him.

Bowell smiled awkwardly, reached out and took out a small piece of gold from his sleeve: "...This, this..."

Putting the gold into his belt, Raven's face turned cold: "For three days, all gray dwarves are not allowed to drink!"

The gray dwarves complained, and looked at Bowell with dissatisfaction.

Raven was too lazy to care about them: "Eric, the gray dwarves can participate in the identification of jewelry in the future, but they must be searched when they leave."

Dare to steal money from me? It's the opposite of Tiangang!

"Yes, Lord Baron!" Eric finally let out a breath of anger.

At this time, Sohei quietly left the gray dwarf team, walked to the corner of the warehouse, and grabbed a piece of black coal-like ore in his hand.

Eric was about to shout to stop him, but was stopped by Raven.

At this moment, Raven opened the Eye of Truth and saw that this gray dwarf had a very special energy flowing in his body. The way it worked was like fighting spirit, but the properties were something Raven had never seen before.

Sohei took a deep breath, and his hands were suddenly covered with a layer of orange-red and black hot flames, just like the magma in the furnace, wrapping up the coal-like ore in his hand.

The fire penetrated in, and cracks suddenly appeared on the surface of the ore, like a boiled egg with a broken shell.

In a burst of rising heat, the black part of the ore's surface fell to the ground with a crackling sound, leaving only a dice-sized core.

"Hey, Baron, look!" Sohei raised his hand high: "Jewelry and the like can only be used for viewing, this ore is the foundation of your future hegemony!"

Raven's eyes lit up: "Is this... star iron?"

Star iron, a second-level mineral, is dark black, but if you look closely, you can find that its surface is shining like stars. It is an excellent casting material. Just add a little bit during the forging process to greatly improve the quality of the finished product.

This metal is added to the crossbow string of Raven's crossbow, so it can withstand double enchantment.

Eric was also stunned: "I am steel fighting spirit, how come I have never felt the smell of steel in this ore before?"

"Because you don't have a sensitive nose like the gray dwarves!" Sohei rubbed his nose: "Baron, can our wine be..."

"No, one thing is one thing." Raven decisively refused: "If you kill one person and save another, can you avoid the death penalty?"

"But after three days, your share of wine can be doubled for three days!"

The gray dwarves were immediately overjoyed.

"Sohei." Raven asked: "What's the matter with the fighting spirit you used before?"

"This is a gift from the Lord of the Forge! It's a proof of talent!" Sohei patted his chest.

"Isn't it 'molten fighting spirit'..." Boweier curled his lips, but couldn't cover up the sour taste in his words.

After the dwarves' introduction, Raven and Eric had a preliminary understanding of this fighting spirit.

This is a fighting spirit unique to dwarves.

Unlike humans, dwarves rarely use divine potions to awaken their fighting spirit. In fact, the divine potions used on humans have little effect on them.

When a dwarf lives to 150 years old, he will usher in his coming-of-age ceremony. After going through various rituals, he may awaken his fighting spirit. A few lucky ones will awaken "molten fighting spirit" in this process.

This kind of fighting spirit is hotter and more stable than ordinary flame fighting spirit. Although it is difficult to release, it can be used very well for mineral refining and metal forging. The way to improve it is also unique. It needs to be accumulated and improved bit by bit through continuous refining of minerals and forging of weapons.

Therefore, it is also called "the gift of the master of the forge", and every owner of this kind of fighting spirit may become a future casting master.

This is why Sohei can brag that he is "the pioneer of the forging family that has been passed down for thousands of years."

After arranging the division of labor for the gray dwarves in detail, Raven finally had breakfast.

Then, as before, he continued to take care of the seriously injured soldiers.

It is worth mentioning that they did not receive any harassment for two consecutive days, and received a generous food ration compared to before. The women who were kidnapped gradually found that the Eagle Army was indeed very different from the horse thieves.

So these women began to take the initiative to undertake some odd jobs, such as cleaning, washing and mending clothes, cooking, and taking care of the wounded, which greatly relieved Raven's pressure.

In the next few days, the gray dwarves gave full play to their subjective initiative. Bowell selected four elven-crafted ornaments for Raven from a group of mediocre ones. Not only are they of great collection value, but even Raven, a layman, can feel their beauty.

Therefore, as soon as these ornaments were delivered to Raven, Nancy "intercepted" one of them.

It was a pair of earrings.

The main body was made of silver mixed with mithril, which looked very bright, without the black texture of ordinary silver ornaments. Under the earrings was inlaid a teardrop-shaped top-quality ruby ​​called "Phoenix Eye".

Raven had no objection to this. Nancy had made such a great contribution, and it was nothing to take a pair of earrings.

And when it was worn on Nancy's ears, it swayed like a fire meteor, which showed her lively, hot and quirky temperament, more like the lolita in Raven's impression.

If Jenny was here, she would definitely find it strange.

Although elf accessories are rare, Nancy also has a box, but she has never liked such flashy things, so she rarely wears them.

Time passed, and it was January 1, 1194 of the Bright Calendar, the New Year.

It was also the 30th day since Raven and others left the Eagle Territory.

The casualties in the previous battle were too heavy, and from Raven to the soldiers, no one had the heart to celebrate the arrival of the New Year. The calendar of the dwarves is different from that of humans, and there is no idea in this regard.

So, Raven spent the first New Year after crossing in a dull atmosphere.

But there are also good things.

With the combined effects of careful care and healing potions, several seriously injured soldiers have regained consciousness and are able to walk on their own, and the injuries of the other injured have also stabilized.

The last batch of spoils counted out - magic cores, were also sent to Raven.

Eighty-two first-level magic cores, twenty-one second-level magic cores, and one third-level magic core.

Along with the magic cores, there was also a gray magic scroll.

However, Raven no longer had time to study it carefully. The soldiers' homesickness became more and more serious, and Raven himself could not stop missing the Eagle Territory.

"It's time to set off."

Raven said so.

...