Warriors will die if they charge.

After spending the night sleeping in the tavern lobby, freshening up, and helping Aunt Nora clean, the Rye and Stray Dog teams briefly separated to begin preparations for their rescue of the Boiler.

Agave rope is strong and durable, and is often used as mooring rope for ships sailing in Nileca. A sixty-meter-long, finger-thick rope cost nearly one gold and three silver coins.

Bardin speculated that the boiler, filled with silver ore, might weigh over a thousand kilograms. With the resistance underwater, even if the half-orc beast were to transform into a real orc and activate Berserk mode, it would still take ten beasts to pull the boiler out of the water using only the pulley system.

The correct method is to first drive several sufficiently long iron rods into the ground, buy a winch to fix them in place, and then use them in conjunction with a pulley system.

Marcus handed five gold coins to Hank, the old man who looked after the warehouse at the dock. These smuggled rare items were very expensive; a winch the size of a washbasin was worth several years' worth of savings.

He touched the money bag that was missing a few gold coins and said to Bardin, who was loitering in the warehouse, with a puzzled tone, "Brother Dwarf, don't end up losing your money without getting any treasure."

Bardin poked his head out from a pile of spices and laughed heartily: "Buddy, you need to get used to the fact that adventures don't always pay off. You also need to get rid of your lecherous habit. Neither of the two women you met last night would make a wife."

"Alright, alright, I'll listen to you." Marcus knew very well what the dwarves considered the ideal woman: someone who could brew wine, take care of the family, and bake bread was a good woman—a thoroughly pragmatic woman.

Carrying a winch, pulley system, iron bar, and cable, Marcus bought a curved battle club, a specialty of Linhe Town, from the blacksmith shop. The feeling of smashing an opponent's head into mincemeat was something no man could resist.

Cruel, violent, merciless, and extremely simple to use—swinging—he believed this brutal fighting style was best suited for him.

Preparing these seemingly ubiquitous engineering tools took an entire morning.

The main problem was that Bardin spent more time repairing the winch with his small hammer. He kept complaining that the winch, which was covered in rust, was older than his grandmother, yet he worked more efficiently than the best blacksmith in town.

The two teams agreed to meet at the town entrance. When the rye wine arrived, the stray dog ​​had been waiting for a long time.

Kelly was still wearing that worn-out leather armor, her short, wine-red hair tied back, and a thin, two-centimeter scar on her eyebrow added a touch of heroism and boldness to her pretty face. Her cross-shaped sword was tied at her waist, her clothes fluttering, and her demeanor was clean and neat. She was a completely different person from the charming and ingratiating woman she had been after drinking late last night.

Marcus suspected she had schizophrenic tendencies and enjoyed flirting with men in the middle of the night.

Duncan, the thief with the severed limb, rubbed his lower back and abdomen, his pale face devoid of color. It seemed that the battle with the lovely girl last night had plunged him into a slump. It was unknown whether his right hand, without the ring finger, could fully feel the softness and elasticity of the lovely girl.

Marcus thought it was unlikely to work; the guy looked a bit weak.

As for the orc Ohar, carrying a heavy bag, he spread out his thick fingers and counted off his expenses at the Pig Lung Tavern last night, concluding that he needed to cut back on his budget next time.

Especially Duncan, next time don't go for the best. Turn off the lights and close your eyes. Most women are the same. Marcus didn't have much of an impression of this orc who came from a gold mining background. He only felt that under his honest appearance, there was a shrewd mind.

But they're not as shrewd as me.

No one is smarter than me, except for mages—Marcus added to himself.

Kelly greeted Marcus and Bardin, who were carrying large bags, with polite nods (mainly to Bardin): "Let's get going. We'll use this afternoon to travel, rest outside the mine for the night, and go in tomorrow."

Just as she was about to turn around, Bardin offered a different perspective: "Let's make one thing clear first, Clam, once we're in the mine, who's in charge?"

Bardeen never called anyone by the correct name except himself. Marcus didn't know if he did it on purpose or if he was unfamiliar with Common Tongue. Based on his two days of observation, Bardeen's fluency in Common Tongue was comparable to that of a senior professor compared to Marcus, who was illiterate.

Upon taking command, Kelly's face showed a hint of displeasure, but she said in a light tone, "Of course it's you, Dwarf Master. Stray Dog will handle the goblins. You and Marcus just need to focus on salvaging the boiler."

What happens after we salvage it? Does that orc smash my and Bardin's heads into our necks, turning us into two short, clumsy mounds?

Marcus muttered to himself, he wasn't afraid of the weak-willed thief, the shrewd orc warrior, or the mentally unstable female swordsman, he just wanted that rare card.

The dwarf gestured for Marcus to say something, "You're the captain who won the game, how can you be afraid of a woman? She's not a mage."

"Alright, Kelly, we need to clarify one thing first: how much silver can be extracted from the ore in the furnace. The rule we agreed on yesterday was a 30/70 split, with rye wine taking 30% and you bearing the costs of mercury evaporation, manpower, and other losses incurred during the refining process."

"This will cost a lot of money," Kelly immediately countered Marcus's condition, arguing that the cost of subsequent refining should be split in half.

"But without rye, you won't even see the money."

The orc's thick, sausage-like lips trembled, and he leaned down to whisper a few words in the captain's ear. Perhaps he really was a clever brat, because he convinced Kelly to nod in agreement:

"Yes, but we'll need the dwarf master's help for the subsequent refining; we have no experience with it."

"Let's go then."

Marcus didn't know how much ore a smelting furnace could hold, but Bardeen had given the illiterate man a detailed explanation of the main extraction methods used in the human kingdom that morning.

First, the silver ore was crushed into fine sand, and then a large amount of mercury was poured into it.

Mercury's unique properties allow it to dissolve silver particles in ores, forming an alloy of mercury and silver known as amalgam or mercury paste.

The second step involves washing away excess rock waste to obtain silver-rich amalgam, which is the process that Bardeen predicted for the mine furnace.

The final step is to extract the silver. The amalgam is put into a furnace. Mercury has a very low boiling point, and when heated, it turns into vapor and evaporates quickly. What remains in the furnace as a shiny substance is the silver that people love.

A boiler weighing over a thousand kilograms, assuming it is filled with mercury paste, could extract at least a hundred kilograms of silver.

Currently, 1 peso contains about 10 grams of silver, and 100 kilograms of silver is equivalent to 10,000 silver coins.

The amalgamation process has unique advantages, enabling the extraction of large quantities of precious metals, including gold, while having few drawbacks. Workers near the furnace only occasionally suffer from mercury poisoning due to "improper operation" by inhaling steam.

Inhaling a large amount will result in immediate death. Those who are lucky enough to escape the Grim Reaper's pursuit will suffer a slow death, characterized by coughing up blood, losing teeth, and festering skin. The magical potions required for their treatment are priced at exorbitant levels that laborers cannot afford.

Blood and silver, a seemingly cursed combination of fate.

"Would dwarves use this amalgamation technique? You must value the lives of your people a lot," Marcus asked curiously on the way to Card Hill.

"Of course not. We have a more reliable way to extract precious metals, which is more efficient and safer than any other race. Only the lowest of people would use the lives of their fellow human beings to extract wealth from the land."