When I woke up in the morning, I felt like something was off, so I tried to open my eyes to see where I was but got interrupted by something brushing my tail.
I knew that I should be angry about someone touching my tail without my permission, but Mom's attention just felt too good. Soon, I was back to being a purring mess on the bed before Mom stopped and forced me to get up and go to the dining room, much to my displeasure.
During the meal, I realized what I was thinking earlier and glared at Raina, who was obviously doing that on purpose.
The feeling of having your mind messed with was not a pleasant one.
With that in mind, the moment I finished eating, I rushed out of the house and into the workshop to check on the things I had set to craft yesterday.
The well pumps were finished and ready to be placed along with the two different types of holding tanks and the pressure tanks. The water heaters were still down one as I had run out of materials, but the others were also crafted.
When all of these were finished, I grabbed them and walked to the back of the house. Here, I referenced a second set of the plans I had drawn to make sure that I was placing these things in an open spot.
They originally were not accounted for in the original drawing, and I was now needing to make adjustments on the fly, but that engineering and construction for you, never right on the first try.
While I was delving into my thoughts, I had already found the location where I would place the wells and even placed two of them. I now had two more left, and I would be finished with setting up a liveable house.
The only thing I could ask for at that point would be an air conditioner.
I then finished placing the wells and connecting them to the separate buildings in the compound, as well as placing the pressure tanks and heaters.
With this done, all that was left was to run the power to the water system and make sure that I ran. After that, I was thinking of going for a walk around the mountain as it was sorely needed and also so I could check the mountain for resources.
Most of what I needed right now, is Iron and Copper, but I could also use some tin, lead, and tungsten.
These materials are mainly used for research and to make more and better machines, along with any of the tools or automotive parts that I wanted to acquire.
I could have asked for some from the sect, but those higher-level sect members wanted me to trade it for some favors with them, and I was unwilling to do that.
This means that the only options open to me are prospecting around the mountain.
Checking the time, I see that it is still a way until noon, so I pull out my old backpack with my tools and start running around the mountain. I know that I won't be able to cover all of it, but I still want to cover as much ground as possible.
After Searching for a few hours, I found two different areas where copper ore could be found. The ore in these locations looked different from the copper I found in the forgotten forest, so I tried to have the system show some more information.
When it did, the names of the ore changed and I was able to see more about them.
The ore at the first location was chalcopyrite, which was a mix of copper, iron, and sulfur in a mostly even distribution. This location also had a large concentration of Qi if all the sparks of light I was seeing were an indication.
The second location had a slightly larger concentration of lights and was also a source of bornite. This mineral was made of the same type of material as chalcopyrite but was mostly centered around copper, with a fourth of the ore being sulfur and a tenth being iron.
I then used the last hour to check one more spot. It was here that I found something amazing: willemite. This is an ore that is primarily made of zinc, with silicon and oxygen as byproducts.
If I could break apart the minerals into their baser elements, I would be able to obtain and refine silicon, which is the base of most modern electronics and tools. This does not include the fact that I can make bronze with the zinc I would obtain from this ore.
If there was anything I could consider a blessing in disguise for this mountain, this would be it. The only thing I needed now was a way to extract the minerals.
Opening and checking the tech tree, I find some techs that might be able to help. One of the techs I already had and another was in the industrial era, ready to be unlocked.
When I checked my tech points, I discovered that I had enough to unlock everything in the industrial era and then some. With that thought in my head, I commanded the system to unlock everything in the industrial era.
Soon, a flood of knowledge entered my brain that would allow me to build everything from industrial-era buildings to cars, power tools, and underground construction from the same era.
The moment the flood of information ceased, I heard the sounds of machine guns going off in my ears as the sound of World War Two fighter engines roared and ship cannons blasted.
The sudden sound made me jump a few feet into the air, and my ears rang from the gunfire before my vision went white as the sound of explosions went off.
For a few seconds after, my vision went black, and I thought that I had died again, but a window appeared in my vision that displeased this thought.
[As the industrial era progresses and national powers collide, The Age of War has begun.]
[The Age of War has been unlocked in the tech tree.]
After these messages appeared, my vision came back, and I found myself standing in the same spot.
All the fur on my tail was standing on end, and my hands were shaking from what just happened. it was then that Raina had landed in front of me.
Not even thinking, I lunged forward and wrapped her in a hug as my tail started twitching in place, and my body started to shake slightly.
When Raina felt this, she tensed up for a minute before relaxing again and hugging me back.
I stood there hugging her with my head buried in her shoulder for a few minutes before I released her and stood back.
Somehow, during the period of me hugging her, she moved us over to the courtyard in front of the house. Everything here appeared the same except for the rack of weapons and gear in the corner.
Wanting a distraction from what just happened, I walked over to examine the new addition to the courtyard.
Thankfully, Raina did not say anything and instead started introducing everything, even showing me how to put the padded gear on.
As she did that, I put on the gear and grabbed one of the swords before walking into the center of the courtyard, waiting for Raina to follow.
My actions seemed to have stunned her for a moment as she just stood there, not doing anything, before grabbing one of the swords and following me.
What followed was a one-sided beating that did not result in a large number of bruises this time.
My swordsmanship also had a noticeable improvement over yesterday, but this time I felt like I was being held back by the specific weapon I was using and not solely my lack of combat experience.
What I really needed was a slightly longer blade with a proper crossguard made of spring steel, not the poorly refined iron these blacksmiths called proper metal.
This one small detail would make the swords so much better, but of all the blacksmiths I talked to in town, none of them had heard of or even wanted to consider that there was a better metal than their precious spiritual iron.
As I was getting mad over the stubbornness of the blacksmiths in town, I got sloppy and left an opening in my stance that Raina took hold of.
Raina's strike swept forward, and soon, a section of my hair was floating in front of me as the vision in front of my left eye cleared up.
That was the second time my hair had been cut in a fight, and now that I am thinking about it, why did I keep my hairstyle the same after I went through character creation?
Seriously, this is starting to become a hazard.