Preparations for manufacturing communication wires got underway throughout Ishigami Village.
With the successful development of antibiotics and Ruri's recovery to celebrate, morale throughout the village reached an all-time high.
Smelting fuel and every other essential supply for building communication lines were being stockpiled at a furious pace!
To install a full communications network and allow intelligence to flow between the factions inside and outside, the most crucial-and scarcest-resource remained high-purity ore.
Natural copper ore was the foundation of the circuits, and the available supply would directly determine how quickly the network could be built.
To avoid delaying their strategic plans and strengthen the Science Kingdom's core capabilities as soon as possible, Senku promptly settled on a plan and organized a mining expedition.
In the end, Chrome, Senku, and Kohaku formed a three-person team, gathered their gear, and set off into the mountains to prospect for ore.
The mountains stretched far and wide, and most high-quality ore lay hidden in deep, treacherous places.
This trip into the mountains was many times harder than their usual work.
Only when the sun sank in the west and sunset light filled the mountain forests did the three finally collect enough high-quality ore and head back to the village, laden with their haul.
Chrome and Kohaku each carried a substantial load of ore, yet neither looked particularly worn out.
Senku alone, despite apparently carrying the smallest and lightest load, was the most exhausted member of the team.
[That's our water-flea protagonist! Thumbs up for you.]
[? Is that supposed to be something to be proud of?]
[Don't... don't give Senku a hard time... that's probably a whole week's exercise for him.]
[Not that little.]
As the saying went, you couldn't compare a scholar to a warrior.
When they reached the village entrance, everyone who had