Chapter 10 - Suspicious Reward
There was still time for Rino to kill after his side quest was completed. The reward gave him a Basic Fabric Crafting recipe for all four fabric materials available in the area. However, Rino wasn't sure if he was able to produce them with no prior experience. They seemed rather difficult to work with.
Thankfully, there was an update to the daily quest by the time he finished setting up the teleportation pad at his temporary home base. The bricks were drying nicely, and it did not rain.
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Daily Quest #2 (20% in progress) [Chain Quest]
Objective: Build 10 bricks.
Tutorial here.
Reward: Textile Crafting Skills. Side Quest available upon skill unlock.
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Rino looked at the update progress bar and the new category. Chain quest? Wasn't this a DAILY quest system? When did chain quest become a thing? Did the Gods take inspiration from multi-part side quests? Or were they simply terrible at planning daily tasks?
Hearing Rino's inner thoughts, Ark couldn't help but want to cuss. The God in charge of this small world didn't need to be told for his sloppy management. How did Rino find out so quickly?
Beside him, Stephanie and Ace studied the lich's newly built teleportation pads. They were impressed by how resourceful this candidate was. Ark's decision to pull a soul from the destroyed world paid off. As expected of the best magician in the last world. Yet, they had to admit. All geniuses were a little touched in the head. Rino was a very difficult individual to work with, even though there was no doubting his skills.
Rino sighed. It was now daytime, and he didn't have a lot to do. The side quest hasn't updated itself. Maybe the Gods thought he would take a longer time to locate all four materials and did not have enough time to prepare a new side quest for him. Either way, the lazy lich wasn't too worried.
He needed to wait a total of five days before these bricks dried, so there wasn't anything to do.
Ping!
Just as he thought about lazing around, Rino heard a new notification and checked the window. There was a new side quest.
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Side Quest #2
Objective: Gather the materials.
Cotton - 0/20 pods
Flax - 0/100 stalks
Hemp - 0/500 stems
Silk - 0/5 meters
Tutorial here.
Reward: Unlock location for an undiscovered mine.
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The first thing that caught Rino's attention was the reward. Unlock the location of an undiscovered mine? He couldn't help but be sceptical. What if this undiscovered mine was a dud without any good minerals or gems? He wasn't going to be so easily fooled.
All four Gods watching Rino from the reflecting pond felt a chill. How did he know?!
"Did you accidentally put the name of the mine?" Stephanie quickly shot a glare at her brother, who shook his head.
"No mention about what kind of resource it contained. How did he find out?" Ark scratched the back of his head.
On the other side, Phil remained quiet. Initially, they wanted to let Rino have access to the metal and gem mine, but Ace argued that it would cause dispute with the dwarves and humans who were already monopolising it. It was still too early for Rino to find out about other races. There wasn't even a kingdom name to introduce himself as a representative of to convince others to move over and live with him.
Four nervous Gods waited to see Rino's reaction to the reward. Would he bite this bait?
The sun left the horizon, and the weather started to feel hotter. Yet, RIno remained in his little mud shack, unmoving. He weighed the options in a high-speed calculation that not even the Gods listening to his thoughts could follow. After a long time, the lich concluded that there was a 73% chance that the Gods were trolling him. Even if this was an undiscovered mine, it wouldn't be a very valuable one.
However! There was usually a reason behind their actions. So far, their series of daily quests and even side quests were targeting towards making him create certain things. They would rather equip him with skills and knowledge to make his underwear than drop him one from the quest rewards. That meant one of two things.
One, the Gods were poor and stingy. Two, the Gods had no ability to interfere with the world in a material manner.
Personally, Rino believed it to be a little of both.
When the Gods spying on Rino heard his conclusion, they had different reactions from turning red to looking away or coughing awkwardly. The lich wasn't wrong. They were very low on divinity and had to conserve their powers. Sending him material rewards was possible, but it took more divinity than teaching him a skill. However, they weren't going to correct Rino's misunderstanding here. It was better for him to not expect any material rewards from them.
Noon was the hottest time of the day and also the time that would normally make the undead feel the weakest. However, Rino appeared unaffected. His enthusiasm washed away all traces of weakness despite the strong sunlight. Even if that undiscovered mine didn't contain metal or gemstone, it had to at least contain something useful!
Thankfully, the teleportation network was set up and fully functional. It was not as convenient as the shadow hopping skill, but Rino wasn't complaining. Teleportation pads were useful for teleporting not only people but things as well. Unlike a teleportation spell that only teleports a person or people and things in direct contact with them, the teleportation platform acts as a heavy cargo lift. Rino could load up as many items as he could on a platform before sending everything over in one trip. That way, there was no need to make multiple trips.
First stop, cotton. It was the easiest after all. However, Rino wasn't silly. He didn't like having to make so many trips. If he simply completed the quest and collected the bare minimum, these annoying Gods would create a new one in the future and ask him to go for more when a new project came. The lich was a lazy person. He didn't want to do it.
Hence, he was going to hoard everything, as much as this empty field could hold in one trip!