Monarch of Solitude: Daily Quest System

Chapter 77 - Hunting Game

Evening came quickly, and Rino would not have known if it wasn't for the soap making ladies knocking at the door to inform him that they finished making the soap and washing the slime off the frog skin that they managed to hang for drying.

"We will stop here for today," he told Erika. "Please revise what I taught and practice by yourself until I see you the next time to test you on what you learned."

The female ghoul bowed and thanked Rino before returning to his shadows. Rino had to say, her learning speed was impressive. He managed to teach her all the alphabets, how to read them and write. Then, he taught her how to count to a hundred and explained how written numbers are formed. Even though Erika did not understand what thousands and millions were, she wrote them out when asked in chronology sequence.

Night was finally here, and Rino gathered everyone in the fields. Too much work and no play made Rino a dull boy. If the Gods wanted him to work, they should know better than to put him on a tight deadline. Rino needed time to have fun and enjoy what he was doing because he wasn't getting paid enough.

Who was he kidding? Even if he was paid all the gold in this world, he would still not work for something he did not believe in.

As a supreme leader, Rino must not only produce results. He had to learn how to manage his people, resources and plan for the future. If the gods wanted him to hunt fifteen King Toads, there were several ways to do it. It wasn't difficult to hunt fifteen of them over five days even though one day was gone. These toads weren't very smart, and the sylphs could easily take care of them.

However, Rino was a person who did not believe in wasting opportunities. He still had four days but the next three days were a vacation for him. He wasn't going to do any work during the next three days after the hunt was over tonight. Hence, the best decision was to create competition to inspire his people and produce the best results.

"Greetings, my citizens. As the kingdom is still in its developmental stages, there are plenty of things that will require your utmost support. I will be entrusting certain jobs to outstanding individuals like I have entrusted farming to Fronzo so that I can work on more important things. Tonight, I will explain the rules for the hunting game to select an outstanding individual to act as my Hunting Squad's Commander."

Hearing how there would be a new commander elected, everyone cheered, and Rino winced at the pain that erupted in his head. He was hearing everyone's mental communication through his bond even if there was only silence, in reality, accompanied by the singing crickets of the forest.

The scene of over a hundred undead and a few hundred faes gathering in a potato field struck the gods above as odd. Although Rino was a king, he did not feel like one. Even if he wore a crown, he did not act like one. This magician was through and through a scholar and commoner at heart. It wasn't dislikeable, but Ark wondered if Rino would run into problems as his kingdom expanded.

"It was nice of you to give him five days," Ace mused, and Ark looked away.

He did some reflecting after the last system update incident. Ace was right about Rino, and the kingdom was not going anywhere. Pulling the noose too tightly might backfire on them. The lich already found ways to destroy one world. It wasn't impossible to do it again, ever since he became more powerful. Ark thought that it would be better to work with Rino and get on his good side for once instead of trying to force him to work against his will.

The magician might be lazy, but he had the incredible foresight to know what had to be done after receiving some hints about what the Gods required from him. The tutorials were merely informational guides for Rino if he needed them. His innovation and ability to think ahead made Phil's task of guiding him very simple. In fact, if they were honest, Rino's desire to maximise efficiency in every production cycle worked in their favour.

"I just thought that he deserved those five days," Ark admitted. "The level of advancement he made in less than a month in this new world is astounding!"

Feeling slightly proud, Ace excused himself to listen to the prayers. Ever since Rino offered the first batch of potatoes, Phil and Ace were busy delivering them in various ways to the starving villagers from all over. It wouldn't be long before the potatoes became a staple for this world, thanks to Rino.

Down in the field, Rino explained how he needed volunteers to form hunting groups. They could work together or individually, but Rino only gave them a deadline until dawn to return with their hauls. They could use any method they liked, but Rino preferred the corpse to be intact because they are celebrating the hunting game with toad kebabs, among other things they could make.

The women volunteered to work in the makeshift outdoor kitchen near the kiln that the sylphs would help to build. The goblins and fairies formed a team quickly under the goblin chief's leadership, much to Rino's surprise. Fronzo and the farmers offered to forage for other ingredients that the women needed. Rino watched the arrogant archer and his loyal lackeys form a team quickly and refuse anyone else. Mutt bowed and told his master that he would go alone to bring back as many as he could.

"I require fifteen King Toad sacrifices in this hunting game. Any other smaller hunts are bonuses for the feast that will take place in the stone quarry. We will party till noon, and for the next three days, you can take a day off."

Cheers erupted in Rino's mind again, and the lich had to distance himself for a while to regain his sanity. His people were too lively.

"One more thing. Erika is my secretary."

The ghoul stood up from the crowd and walked beside her master to bow.

"She is in charge of reporting everything to me and will assist in the judging for this competition. You have fifteen minutes to get what you need for the hunt. For everyone else who is not participating in the hunt, line up and get your item enchants from me."

Nobody objected to it, and Rino took it as a good sign.

The groups quickly organised themselves, and Rino found himself doing group clothing enchantment spells for the warriors ready to depart. He might be spoiling them a little with overpowered enchantments such as waterproof, projectile deflection and self-cleaning. However, he really did not want them to start getting in too much trouble and depleting his mana pool by reviving and regenerating infinitely. It was better to prevent than to revive.

"Let it rip!" Rino announced, and the hunters roared with adrenaline before Rino mass teleported them to the edge of the swamp.