Let's forge a furnace first

After seeing Garvin use the 1st-circle psionic spell Hypnotize Beast through his True Sight Eye, successfully brainwashing two male Cavens Rats into squeaking and humping each other, Li Wei speechlessly asked Remlu to run another errand. He told her to convey to those two idiots that they should first learn how to distinguish the gender of a Cavens Rat, then shifted his attention to the progress of the work in the West Mining Area.

Having been baptized by many online games in his past life, he had always believed that even in another world, mining should at least involve ore carts and tracks.

Seeing these guys still stuck at chiseling rock walls piece by piece with pickaxes and running back and forth between the mine and the ore storage registration point using crude, self-made baskets, Li Wei instantly despaired at their mining efficiency.

Given his current size, excluding the necessary meat, he could consume at least sixty thousand pounds of various ores every day.

In other words, according to the current extraction volume of these slackers, after subtracting the mining taxes to be paid to Gershon City, what remained would barely be enough to cover his appetite.

If things continued like this, he didn't know how many years it would take for him to even reach his slumber, let alone his plans for resource monetization and military factory production built upon mineral resources.

"It's just too slow! Efficiency must be increased," Li Wei decided, though he felt a headache coming on. "If only I didn't have to pay taxes... but for now, I have to endure it."

The situation was what it was. The reason Zelandia, such a bizarre settlement, could be tacitly allowed to exist by those Long Ears in Gershon City was due to a few well-known points:

Relying on being located within the Dark Magic Web domain, the Drow's spellcasting abilities were directly restricted; the Drow were currently unable to spare the effort due to the Mind Flayers of Iron Melting Fortress; there was the issue of cost-effectiveness regarding large-scale troop deployment; and finally, the mining tax Tiger proactively offered became the straw that preserved his sliver of freedom.

If this mining income were suddenly cut off, the Drow, even if only for the sake of their reputation, would likely spare no cost in launching a thunderous campaign to conquer this troublesome Lower City, especially since their main forces were currently occupied by the Psionic Slaves of Iron Melting Fortress.

Even with their spellcasting abilities restricted, these Drow were still experts in archery and decapitation tactics.

Since he couldn't cut expenses, he had to find a way to solve the problem at the source.

"Or should I build a furnace first? Solve the power and transportation issues?"

Thinking of this, Li Wei began to rummage through the 'trash' in his Soul Space. This trash was exactly what he had 'held' into his Soul Space bit by bit from the already scrapped Inheritance Dreamscape; it was just too chaotic over there.

If he didn't organize it, it would be like someone used to high-end modern computers trying to find data on a 186 machine that had just been hit by a virus and had its folders scrambled—he would be driven absolutely insane.

In fact, Li Wei felt he had already gone 'insane' many times. There was no help for it; who told him these were his only two golden fingers?

Yes! Two golden fingers!

Li Wei clearly had two golden fingers. With two powerful golden fingers overlapping, he should have become the greatest cheater in the history of Coriel, served as a Silver Dragon Arbiter, opened a harem of all races, and embarked on the pinnacle of dragon life. But why did it turn into what it was now?

If this were any other novel, theoretically, his dragon Inheritance Dreamscape would be like a gentle, watery maiden, always able to provide him with warm comfort (various powerful skills) when he tossed and turned in his dreams.

And the technology-side presence that appeared later would be like a vigorous and wealthy hunk, paving the way for him by tossing out all sorts of unheard-of Black Technology with reckless abandon.

When the maiden and the hunk met, shouldn't they have merged like water and milk, perhaps even giving birth to some new accident and becoming his third golden finger?

But why did they act like ex-lovers who suddenly bumped into each other and saw the other had a new flame, insisting on killing each other, even at the cost of mutual destruction?

"I'm having such a hard time!!!" Li Wei tossed aside the half-corrupted Hydrogen Furnace Design Book and the Void Umbral Energy Conversion Equation, once again becoming a lazy dragon who deeply suspected he was a moron.

Closing his eyes to rest for a while, Li Wei readjusted his mindset and stopped obsessing over the Black Technology categorized in his Soul Space that was like something dug up by archaeologists.

Not to mention these generally incomplete, useless scraps, even if someone gave him the original versions now, it wouldn't be of any use. It was like handing a genuine design blueprint for the Apollo moon landing rocket to an elementary school student—could he build a moon landing rocket just like that?

"There aren't any Arcanists I can trust for now. Otherwise, I could give them some seemingly simple things to study. I'm not asking them to replicate the original, but they could at least learn from it and come up with some useful gadgets. Alas, it's a pity I didn't transmigrate to the Netheril Era." Li Wei consoled himself.

Little did he know, if some Arcanists were to hear his thoughts, they would likely scoff. If a freak like Li Wei had appeared in the Netheril Era, the first thing those Grand Arcanists, who would do anything to uncover the world's truths, would probably do is put Li Wei on their dissection table.

Of course, they wouldn't waste such a good research subject, nor would they let their test subject die easily.

Whether it was his physical body, his soul, the knowledge contained within his soul, or even his thought processes that differed from this world, all would become objects of their study.

"Forget it, let's focus on something more realistic first."

With that thought, Li Wei grabbed a handful of selected iron ore that the Gnolls had transported to his nest. A wisp of scorching flame emerged from between his teeth.

The iron ore in his claws, enveloped by flames, began to melt at a visible rate, even seeping into the gaps between his scales.

Just as the molten iron was about to drip onto the ground, Li Wei began to control his magic, attempting to envelop and shape it.

Sizzle

The scalding molten iron seemed to pierce directly through his magic and landed on the ground, splashing a wisp of smoke. Some even splashed onto his feet.

Li Wei felt an awkwardness akin to peeing one's pants in the wind, realizing things weren't as simple as he imagined.

Firstly, his current magic control ability made it difficult to directly interfere with the material world. Even for Dragons, controlling magic to achieve flight was merely a spell-like effect similar to flying kicks or levitation, combined with their wings to change direction.

Directly interfering with the material world with one's will was the patent of Psionics.

Li Wei, failing in his first attempt, was not discouraged. He simply dug several indentations in his nest with his claws to serve as mold slots, melted the iron ore into magma, and poured it in.

After it cooled naturally, he dug out these stone slabs and used their melted edges to join them together.

After working for a while, Li Wei looked at the square stone-and-iron box he had fashioned with his bare hands and sighed deeply:

"This can at best be considered a Pressure Cooker. I don't even know if it will leak steam. But with current limitations, this is the best I can do. As expected, even knowing the basic principles of a steam engine, actually putting it into practice is still a bit beyond my capabilities as a former liberal arts student."

Li Wei tapped his head and finally decided to resolve this issue as soon as possible. The efficiency of ore mining must be improved before his next slumber.

His Red Dragon form suddenly transformed into a Gnoll. He picked up the pitted 'Pressure Cooker' and said to Remlu, who had just returned:

"Go, have Huozi sift through his resume and find me a few Mages. Preferably ones who have also studied Arcana."

Remlu, who had been excitedly transforming into a Slime and leaping into the pile of treasures, suddenly heard this command and deflated like a leaky ball.

With a protesting 'Meeeh', she reluctantly transformed back into a Merman, picked up her Coral Fork, and went to find Huozi, who was also swamped with work.

Thanks to classmate Fried Potato Is The Best for the 500 reward, and classmate xiaotang246 for the 100 reward. Continuing to ask for Recommendation Tickets for support~