Michael sighed. The expansion of the Nation of Reborn truly was only hindered by their lack of resources.
"We could slow down the renovation of Angora City to free up some materials," Kong suggested.
Since Angora City was now practically under the Nation of Reborn (thanks to the Duke spending all his time there), Michael decided to go all out in improving their quality of life into Reborn standards. The only problem was that it was already taking in a lot of materials even though it was only in its early stages of development.
For example, the plumbing and sewer system project was only 9% finished even though they had already spent a few months on its construction. It was like a bottomless pit in the way that it consumed materials.
"No, no. Keep the construction as it is," he replied. "We should consolidate our influence in Angora City before the Golden Road is spread further in the Queens region.
For now, I want you to create a team to start planning the roller coaster. I'll deal with the resources problem," he said to Kong.
"As you wish, boss. Who shall I take with me?"
The Department Rebornian Engineers had about 900 members in its midst, most of whom were already busy with their own projects. Of those 900, only about 50 of them were Senior-level Engineers who Kong and Michael trusted that could take control of a project all on their own.
30 of them oversaw the numerous factories back in the Parched Lands and the projects in the King's region, while 20 were in-charge of the different sub projects in the Queens region—10 in Angora City, 5 in the Grafted Cluster, and another 5 in the Golden Road.
"I would need at least 5 Senior-level Engineers and 10 Junior-level Engineers to complete this task boss."
"Take them from the factories. They don't need active supervision from Senior-level Engineers."
"As you wish," Kong replied.
…
…
…
Michael used his [Shadow Transportation] skill to teleport himself to the Grafted Cluster, where the new Reborn mines were working day and night to support Michael with 5,000 tonnes of materials everyday. Unfortunately, that wasn't nearly enough to go around these days.
He just hoped that Priya, the Lamia in charge of the mines, had some good news for him.
"Welcome boss. Is there a problem?"
"Same old, same old," Michael replied. "My forever-hungry company needs more sustenance to grow."
Thankfully though, Priya evolved to become a very specific type of Lamia that could grow her own minerals and resources extracted from deep underground as if they were just normal crops.
As far as Michael knew, she was the first of her kind, so the exact parameters of her new power was still unknown.
"All our machines are working as well as we hoped, boss. We will reach our monthly quota a week in advance, but that will only net us a few hundreds of tonnes more per day," Priya replied as she led Michael through the railroad in the mines, where hard-working men used their spells and skills to extract raw ores from the ground.
The men saluted at Michael with their grease-stained faces before throwing their ores to a mine cart. He smiled back at them and thanked them for their hard work.
"How about your little project?" he asked Priya.
The Lamia Engineer led Michael to a private tunnel that only she could access.
It led to a relatively large chamber filled with rectangular plots of ruffled ground arranged to resemble a farm. But instead of soil, Priya used a mixture of powdered granite and stone. And instead of seeds, Priya used small crystals of raw ores that sprouted out of the ground.
"I experimented a lot on which ground the ores flourished under. The data suggests that using rocks that it's extracted from is best used to make the ore grow. I also need to make sure to replenish the room with all eight manas for it to grow."
Michael squatted down and looked at the small rock of iron growing on the ground.
Using his Supreme Talent, he saw the ore glow as the ore sucked out all the mana from the air and used it to create its own body.
And as he looked around some more, one thing immediately caught his eye.
On the very edge of the mineral farm, he saw a tiny glint of yellow light jutting out from the ground. Even from far away, Michael realized that it was, indeed, actually gold!
He walked towards it and saw three more single 'crops' beside it.
These were silver, lead, and copper!
Somehow, Priya was able to grow minerals that were not even found in this mine at all!
"What are these?" he asked her.
"Oh, that's just a little experiment that I had done," she replied. "I didn't think that it would work, but surprisingly, I was able to make them grow just as well as iron ores."
Michael stayed silent for a few seconds, realizing the potential of Priya's discovery.
"How long do you think before you can harvest all these crops?"
"For normal resources like iron, it will take a few months at the least. But for those exotic materials like gold, probably more," she replied, a bit ashamedly. "I apologize, boss. It's not enough to help with our problem."
"What are you saying? You already helped out a lot. Just continue working hard on this. I give you my full support."
Priya gleamed with joy. "Thank you boss!"
Although Michael wasn't able to find a solution in the mines, he was glad to find out that Priya's little experiments could help the Nation in many other ways.
Growing gold was like growing money.
It would only take time before she was able to grow enough resources to alleviate the scarcity of materials in Reborn, as well as give it another form of revenue.
…
…
…
Finding no solution, Michael decided to take a little break and eat some McTony's chicken.
He teleported himself to the Truck Stop and found himself standing in front of the restaurant that was already filled to the brim with customers.
It seemed that the customer base for the restaurant had grown even larger during his absence. Usually, there weren't many people visiting the Truck Stop during the middle of the day aside from those wanting to refuel. Most wanted to travel while the sun was out.
But now, there were definitely more people deciding to spend precious daylight to eat some McTony's.
Walking inside, the spicy and exotic scent of the Dragon's Whiskers entered his nose, giving him more longing for the famous chicken recipe.
However, his appetite for eating was lessened as soon as he saw how crowded the place was.
Most people were standing all around the occupied tables as they waited for their turn to eat.
He could see people becoming uncomfortable as they sat on their table and ate chicken. Who wouldn't? There would be ten other people standing near them making them feel claustrophobic.
But what were they supposed to do? The only way they could eat chicken was if they waited 30 minutes to an hour for their turn to order chicken.