Monarch of Solitude: Daily Quest System

Chapter 45 - Potato From A Potato

The tools were unfamiliar to the poor undead teen. He had no idea how to use any of these strange-looking objects, but he knew what he must do to obtain potatoes, even if this was a giant potato plant.

He'd never witnessed such a large potato plant with flowers or fruits, but there was no mistaking what it was. He knew the shape of those leaves too well to be mistaken. However, it was starting to get very dark, and even Rino was having difficulty seeing what was what as the boy searched for something on the ground.

With a whoosh, Rino conjured several fireballs in place of torches that he should really be making now that he had an army of shadows to serve him. It was more efficient to use charcoal or something as fuel than mana for torches if he needed the entire field lit. Rino made a mental note to get to it sometime soon.

The teen dug at the ground and thanked Rino for the light before using his bare bones to scrape at the dirt. The lich frowned. Were those tools for decoration? Why wasn't he using them?

"Use the hoe or a shovel to get through more dirt," Rino jerked his chin over to the tools, but the boy only stared at him dumbly.

Reluctantly, Rino picked up the tool he made from his shoulder blade and demonstrated how a hoe could be used.

"Alternatively, you can use the shovel. It does just about the same thing flicking dirt away."

He held the tools to the teen, who only looked between them in confusion. On Rino's silent insistence that he stopped using his hands to dig, the boy nodded and accepted the hoe, marvelling at how easily he could dig the ground.

Rino was puzzled. The boy was a farmer, but he did not know about tools. Where and how did this lad learn farming from? Did they have different tools in this world? Was he too primitive? However, that was exactly what the tutorial mentioned. He simply substituted the material for something more durable.

"Found one!"

The cheerful report snapped Rino out of his thoughts as he looked at that chunky lump in the teen's hand. It was almost too huge to be held in one hand, but the teen found a way to balance it within his bony fingers. The potato looked heavy, and it was longer than it was rounder.

"This is a potato?" Rino asked and looked at the hole in the ground.

"Yes," the boy reported excitedly and dusted as much dirt as he could from this brown ground tumour.

Rino accepted it hesitantly and inspected it closely. This strange thing resembled something he saw in his previous life. Were potatoes also known as ground beans? It was strange.

The teen watched as his master took the potato from him, looking at it as some form of rarity. Rino did not know what potatoes did, but if he could grow one potato plant from one potato, he might be able to get a whole field of it. Yet, Rino could not find any use for these ground beans. They were undead. The dead do not need sustenance.

"M-my lord?"

Rino pointed at the plant. "Harvest every single potato in there. Leave not a single one behind. I want it done before sun up."

Hearing that he had a new task, the teen no longer dallied. Digging up potatoes would be easy. During the harvesting period, he did this enough times and assured the lich that it would be done even before the sun was up.

Rino left the task to his enthusiastic farmer and returned to his farmhouse using his newly acquired teleportation skill. It consumed lesser mana than it did when he made his trip to the spawn graveyard. Thankfully, he could easily recover this small use of mana. In future, he should stick to using the teleportation pad to conserve energy.

If one potato plant could give him at least five potatoes, Rino's efforts would not be in vain. For now, he had to think of a good location for the farms. Rino knew that most farming work happened during the day. However, his army consisted of undead who was only active from sundown. How could Rino maintain the farm with the help of his minions without facing the wrath of the sun?

He could make them wrap themselves in fabric like how he offered his blanket for his farmer lad. However, he did not have enough fabric to pass around as it was. Using magic was also not an option because farming was very delicate work.

It was near midnight when Rino came to check on the potato harvesting. The farm lad did a good job, but Rino was stunned by the mountain of potatoes he dug up.

"All these came from one potato plant?" he asked in disbelief.

The farm boy nodded. "I double-checked to make sure I haven't missed anything," he explained. Rino could now see the holes in the ground and surrounding area. He wasn't lying, but Rino still found this hard to believe.

The mountain of potatoes tallied to thirty-six tubers. Even that one basket Rino brought would not fit everything inside. The potato that the farm lad first dug up turned out to be a young potato that did not reach maturity. The really mature potatoes were the size of Rino's torso, and even the farmhand was stunned. He'd never seen such monstrous potatoes in his entire life, although he should have expected it after seeing the fallen potato plant.

"How many potato plants can we grow from this?" Rino gestured to the pile. At the very least, he should be able to sow an entire plot from this harvest.

The farmhand looked over to the potatoes and wondered. "My lord, I'm not good at counting. However, one regular potato, a third the size of the first that we found, would yield about five plants alone. We might be able to plant an entire field with everything here if done correctly."

When Rino heard that, he wondered what he needed those seeds for now that he had this. Maybe it was better for him to grow those seeds with magic and have his farmhand collect the potatoes to multiply them.

Now, the only question remains. Would the potatoes grown from his magic produce equally large potatoes?