One cooldown away from completion!

"Come on…"

Standing in front of the wall of furnaces, Theo could do nothing but tap his foot impatiently as he waited for the copper he had just recovered from the mine to smelt through.

Just like iron alone allowed the young man to take his first few steps into industrialization, doing so properly simply couldn't be done without the help of the copper… and all the different items it could be crafted into.

The main problem, however, remained the same.

While crafting, even if Theo ultimately would want to automate it, was something that he could still do directly in his inventory, turning the ores into ingots… actually required him to use a proper smelter.

This downside, something rarely ever introduced to factory games and, if even, often only for much higher grades of materials, was now his greatest limiter when it came to expanding.

One that he could still circumvent with the blocky-era furnaces, but an obstacle nonetheless.