Monarch of Solitude: Daily Quest System

Chapter 2 - 6 Days To Sharpen An Axe

The sun was already high in the sky at noon, but the Gods didn't understand why a certain lich still wasn't making an attempt to move. However, they could no longer use the divine voice message system, exhausting all their tries that day.

Rino was in bliss. The sun might burn his bones, but he didn't feel like moving. The pain was evidence of the living, or in his case, the undead. Although he couldn't make the correct sound effects or project his voice, Rino had magic.

It was magic that started everything, and Rino decided that it would be magic to end everything. He couldn't allow the cycle of misery to continue. It was simply counterproductive. Hence, Rino was buying time by pretending to be asleep in his grave even if he should get moving. Besides, it sounded as if the Gods needed him to do something while pretending to be generous. In reality, the ex court magician could tell. They were desperate. After dealing with all kinds of people in his previous life, Rino wasn't going to be that easily duped. Two could tango.

After the sun rose, Rino discovered some interesting things. Normal undead would not be active under the sun simply because they'd be so badly damaged and might die from exposure. However, he remained completely functional despite the annoying pain. In common magic knowledge, he was a greater evil if his regeneration rate this fast. As expected, he wasn't a common skeleton.

On top of that, he had magical abilities. As he tested his regeneration limits, Rino used earth magic to dig around the grave. He counted a total of fifty-seven other graves. Earth elemental magic came to him naturally. Wind magic came less naturally as he could only conjure a gust to blow away the annoying blades of loose grass that tickled his bones. There was nowhere to try fire magic, although water magic worked well.

Basic elemental magic? Check. Rino felt like a master already. With this, he would be able to make good progress at building a comfortable place to pass his sedentary life.

Now, he was curious about holy magic and dark magic. In his past life, he had holy magic. However, in this life, he was a lich. Was it still possible?

Rino hesitated. This could be the best idea of the century or the worst. If a lich was capable of mastering both holy and dark magic, he was close to the level of Gods. Maybe he would be able to place curses on the Gods because he couldn't possibly kill them. No matter how powerful he was, there would always still be a gap between those who possessed material bodies and those who do not.

Speaking of physical bodies, didn't liches have several spare bodies lying around if the one they were in was damaged badly? That was the reason why people of his world feared liches. Even as a court magician, he hated dealing with them. Even a newly born lich would have a few hideouts and spare bodies to escape to when they were destroyed.

Rino felt troubled. That was a lot of work. To test his theory about a holy magic-using lich, he first had to secure his spare bodies. It wasn't easy to find good bodies around, especially in this grave. He happened to be the only complete skeleton, even if he still had no idea if this skeleton belonged to a male or female before death. For now, all skeletons appeared the same. He only hoped that if his experiment failed, his new body would be a man. Liches could transform into a human appearance, but they normally took on the body's previous appearance. Rino would hate looking ugly or of the wrong gender.

Was this why woodcutters back in his previous world said that if they were given eight days to chop a tree, they would spend six sharpening their axe and two days chopping it? Preparations simply took too much time! No wonder people without magic often complain about how long it takes to cook and clean and farm. For Rino, he never had to bother. Anything could be resolved with enough magic.

Without servants, maids and butlers, Rino started to appreciate the people waddling after him constantly in his previous life. He was already busy enough with so many of them taking care of time-wasting activities. He could imagine not having them take care of things. Now, it was a little too late.

Dark magic was very new to Rino. There were no libraries or grimoires around. He also didn't want to try using holy magic, so the only solution to scan the place. Hence, his only option was to get up and look for bodies that were complete. Once he found something decent enough, Rino would infuse a part of his soul into the body and hide it somewhere safe.

There was only one problem. The sun was too hot, and Rino didn't feel like moving. If only there was a more helpful tutorial about his lich powers from the Gods. Why did they think that giving him a magic projection screen with a real-time direction indicator was better than a book about dark magic for newbies? You can find a location eventually, but you cannot learn dark magic without a guide.

Whatever, the sun was getting hotter, and Rino was eventually unable to withstand the burning pain. He sat up and removed the dirt from inside his eyes, to his surprise. The pain was from literal flames on his exposed bones. So the undead of this world got set on fire when they were exposed to the sun. Rino quickly activated his earth magic to build himself a temporary shelter. The mud hut was constructed with a bony clap, and Rino sighed in relief as the sun got higher.

Now that he had some privacy, he started to think. What would be a good body he could still salvage from the looted graves? More importantly, which bodies were female?

Rino glanced over to the cracked tombstone covered by weeds and sighed. The words might have faded, but Rino also understood that he couldn't understand this world's language and writing. Even if he could find a grimoire or magic book, it would still be useless for him.

The lich mulled over it for some time. The Gods might be desperate, but he was not any better. He needed more information, and they needed him to build that stupid kingdom. You could reason with cows, pigs and sometimes humans. However, one doesn't simply reason with a God.

Rino looked at his daily quest window and made his decision. The Gods can threaten him for all he cares. He would be happier dead anyway. There was no way he would work for free!