Monarch of Solitude: Daily Quest System

Chapter 95 - Swamped (3)

Up above, a certain goddess stretched and yawned. She was stuck managing the new influx of souls waiting for reincarnation after Rino defeated Kragami. Most of the souls that escaped becoming a zombie for eternity rushed for reincarnation. Thankfully, there was an abundance of new bodies among humans thanks to the flood of potatoes they received from the offering system.

"I saw that he made some purchases. How rare," she smirked and looked at Phil, who was monitoring the reflecting pond. "What did he buy?"

The calm god pointed at the little blue flowers in the swamp that Rino was renovating. Stephanie raised a brow. She knew that those flowers were placed in the shop by Phil, but she did not think Rino would buy them because comparing these mana flowers to the potato trade-in, there really was no real use for them. Yet, here Rino was, insisting that every flower had a piece of zombie flesh. No wonder the souls jumped at reincarnation! They had nowhere to return to or remain now that they were free from the necromancer's grasp.

They watched how the lich pitched in to help wherever his subordinates needed the most. The wood planks treatment went smoothly after Rino sliced the trees with his precise shadow cutter magic. Then, he used his shadow whip to distribute the cut chunks of meat to every Water Bell Flower within the area.

No matter how the goddess tried to view it, she could only think of it as ridiculous. Weren't those basic dark magic spells? Why was Rino deliberately finding a use for basic dark magic spells that were better off for combat?

Teleporting was a better skill than shadow skiing, but Rino was trying to dip only his feet into the shadow realm to ski across the water surface like some kind of unholy boat. In her opinion, he was fooling around too much.

For Rino, he was having the time of his life, discovering new uses for basic dark magic spells that his teacher told him to memorise. As a student, Rino was always a more hands-on learner. He remembered best by applying the concepts he learned. This was the perfect opportunity to test his mastery over dark magic.

Seeing that the fairies needed help carrying the treated wooden planks over to the small isle that Rino designated for his paper factory, he opened a short portal to toss the planks in and skied over to the isle to open the portal for the planks to fall out on.

Renovating works never seemed this much fun, and even Phil was slightly envious at how many ways Rino was discovering to simplify taxing tasks.

By the time dawn rolled by, the swamp was semi-functional.

Rino dismissed the tired fairies and gnomes while sending the hobgoblins back to the farm to assist with tunnel digging. He sent Mutt back to inform the day shift gnomes that he wanted a boat commissioned for harvesting reeds and distributing fertiliser.

Then, the lich took it upon himself to head over to the kiln to place an order for cement mix materials. As he was building a treehouse, it would not be possible to build it out of bricks. That would be too heavy. Instead, Rino decided to use enchantment magic to strengthen the house and regulate the temperature. He would also create a sound barrier layer so that the works outside of the treehouse would not disturb his teacher.

The necromancer was a researcher too. Rino designated another smaller hut built separately from the main treehouse for researching and studying purposes. He had all his materials, and now, Rino looked at the huge magic cypress tree.

Construction works progressed smoothly in the swamp even if the sun was up. Rino had to admit, it was easier to work in the gloomy marsh during the day than in the farms. The sun was blocked by the thick foliage above, and even if the sunlight filtered through their leaves, the weakening effect was not as horrible.

Rino constructed the treehouse with care, much to Phil's pride when he saw how much Rino's architecture and building skills improved. The landscaping god was very proud of their chosen saviour, but Stephanie scowled.

Not wanting to remain by the reflecting pond any longer, she went to find her brother to complain about Rino's off-track activities.

Ark discussed some strategies with Phil when his sister barged into the office with a huge scowl on her face. The expression only darkened when she saw Ace. The God in charge of listening to prayers had too much free time while she worked her butt off and their obvious favouritism for Rino put Stephanie in a bad mood.

"How can I help you?" Ark started, trying to be diplomatic as tension escalated. 

Whenever these two were in the same area, he had to play the mediator to avoid any team conflicts. It was tiring, but Ark was used to it. Ace and Stephanie's views were polar opposites. It was only natural that they would clash. However, as the leader of this project team, Ark was responsible for hearing everyone out and finding the best solution based on results. He had to be unbiased and impartial when taking in suggestions.

"Rino's doing something out of the quest guide again!" she complained.

Ark sighed, and Ace rolled his eyes. "Is there a problem that he completed his daily quest faster than the stipulated time? I don't see anything wrong with what he is doing. In fact, he's value-adding to what we never asked him to do. Working more is always better than working less."

Ace's curt reply made Stephanie turn red in anger and embarrassment. She never got along with the obnoxious 'genius' god and hated how he found fault with her every time. However, she did not snap back this time. Instead, she looked her brother in the eye.

"Why aren't we giving him more side quests then? Must the side quest be given together with the daily quest? He's wasting time building treehouses for birds in the swamp!"

Ark highly doubted that his sister meant what she said. However, he still followed her to the reflecting pond to see if Rino was truly building treehouses for birds in the swamp.

When they arrived, Rino was hammering the wood for the treehouse's platform base together and slapping cement mix to hold the structure. However, it looked a little too spacious for birds to live in. If anything, it looked like a vacation home for Rino.

"What is he doing?" Ace asked Phil, who grinned.

"A groundbreaking architecture to save landscape in the marshland. You were all busy, so you missed the battle between Rino and the swamp necromancer. This is a house for the swamp necromancer, who is now Rino's dark magic teacher. As you can see, he is practising basic dark magic spells that his teacher taught him yesterday."

All four gods stared at Rino, who was now a master at manipulating shadows and abusing portals to construct the strange house.

Two pairs of eyes bore into the back of Stephanie's head, but the goddess refused to apologise. If anything, she continued to insist that Rino should be given a side quest to 'stop slacking' despite how hard the lich was working on the treehouse.

In the end, nobody entertained the complaining goddess. Stephanie huffed and stomped back to her office to deal with more reincarnation requests in anger that once more, nobody paid her any attention.

Ark closed his eyes. It was just another regular day in heaven. Honestly, he was tempted to ask for a department transfer to hell if he had to deal with this for the whole time until RIno built his kingdom.

It simply wasn't worth the death of his many brain cells.