Monarch of Solitude: Daily Quest System

Chapter 63 - Groundwork

Thankfully, the gnomes learned fast. Rino did not need to tell them what to do. They sorted the building responsibilities among themselves, although Rino summoned a few shadow slaves to assist with the grunt work. Resource gathering should be left to the ones with more muscles and lesser brains. Luckily for him, his undead army never tired.

The sun was almost up, and Rino checked on the fairies. Those working on the farm looked positively exhausted as they switched working shifts with the other fairy team.

This was something new that Rino learned. Some sprites were nocturnal, while others were diurnal. Then again, there were some who simply never slept like the gnomes and brownies. Fairies also hibernated at certain times of the year for some species. Finding out all their different biological schedules became such a pain that Rino delegated talent welfare to a lady with a good head from his shadow slaves. The lich did not know details, but she knew a little about counting while she was alive, making him think she was slightly more intelligent than the other servants he had.

Among the faes who pledged their lives to the World Tree, there were a few sylphs. Rino made them leaders in charge of the fairy community for now, and thankfully, they were intelligent and reliable. Their personalities made them very suitable for mediating fights that often happened between fairies, and Rino did not know what he would do if it wasn't for them.

"Come, make yourselves comfortable," Rino invited the four sylphs he appointed as leaders of the large fairy community.

Each sylph was an elemental specialist, and Rino entrusted them with discussing how many fairies within their community they should send for each project.

The fire sylph decided to settle in the fireplace where it was toasty. Rino watched the water sylph make herself cosy in his sink while the earth sylph simply camped near the door in his garden. The wind sylph was the only one considerably normal as she made herself comfortable inside his farmhouse, floating near Noir's cat tree.

Right, he should have known they would do this instead of gathering at one spot in his house. Then again, it did not matter. Today's meeting was a project briefing about laying the necessary groundwork all over his kingdom.

"Do you have a rough outline of my kingdom's territory?" he asked the wind sylph.

She giggled and relayed what the patrolling fairies saw. There wasn't much to take note of in Rino's territory. It could be said that the area the Gods marked out for this kingdom-building project was the most ideal.

"We spotted mountains, mines, caves, monster dungeons, grasslands, frozen tundras and a little opening to the sea at one corner of the land."

Hearing the summary of where these important landmarks were, Rino sketched them on the newly made hemp waste recycled paper. The fire fairies working at the kiln made enough charcoal for torches, and Rino borrowed some as pencils. He was glad the writing materials came on time.

Presently, the farm was located very close to the forest, and everything that Rino built did not even take up a tenth of the kingdom building space. However, he was too far from where the most ideal plot for the kingdom's capital was. It was a shame, but Rino knew that he would have to relocate again once he had the basic resource production running.

"For now, we will lay the groundwork to test my theory about a chain magic trigger array web. The preparations must be done very carefully so that the crops and buildings are not affected."

The four sylphs paid close attention as Rino explained how the web would work. Much like a spider's web, the web's centre would be where the power source was. Then, it would branch out in various directions for various purposes, only crossing when there was a necessity.

Nobody was surprised to know that Rino intended to use the World Tree as his main power source for this test. However, the confusing part came in when Rino told them there were three main things he needed this mana web to power.

"The first is light. I need this place to be brightly lit even at night. The second thing is a defence barrier. To keep the secret of those who live here, I need a strong illusionary and defensive barrier. The last is a water system for the fields. The gnomes are currently in charge of the sprinkler prototype."

The concept of automatic watering was strange for the sylphs. Rino spent a lot of time trying to explain how the mana web network functioned. He could not even explain to the sylphs how it would be activated because they could not visualise it until Rino chased the water sylph from his sink to demonstrate how runes worked.

"It's a rune in a circle!" the fire sylph hissed, glaring at the sink like something threatening.

The other sylphs reacted less dramatically towards the small water stream trickling from the activated magic circle above the fixed rune. However, they were equally fascinated that a rune could contain such a complex magic circle. The scribble on that huge rune was also something they did not recognise.

"What's that?" the sylphs asked. However, Rino only put a finger to his lips.

"A great magician never reveals all his secrets. However, you should be able to understand the concept now to lay the groundwork for that mana web."

Indeed, it was easier to understand what a chain magic circle spell was after watching Rino activate one. He simply pulsed mana into that one rune, and it triggered several other runes in the underground reservoir to bring water up to the sink as the rune below the clay sink opened a portal to throw that water that flowed down the clay basin to a different location.

This trigger of chain spells sounded complicated, but when Rino explained how they knew what to do when sensing a mana flow for activation, the sylphs nodded excitedly. It was exactly like how the spider spun its web. If one thread breaks, others would still hold the whole network together while it gets repaired.

"We understand now," the water sylph spoke on behalf of the others and asked if they should approach the World Tree to start there.

"No," Rino replied. He had something else in mind. "Please start from the perimeter of this small farm town that I want to build."

He pulled out a map he drew roughly with markings for future building projects that the Gods from above could not see clearly. Rino pointed at the different places within this territory that he wanted the four sylphs to affix his specially made runes.

"There are different types of runes in there. Please do not get them mixed up. At some points, there might be a need for two runes. When that happens, please follow their sequence according to this chart."

Nodding, the four sylphs headed off in four different directions to get started with the web laying. In the meantime, Rino decided to tend to more pressing matters and lay on his bed, switching consciousness with the World Tree.