Rino checked his new daily quest and immediately felt his mood dampen when he saw that it was another chain quest. This time, the duration was even longer than the last!

===

Daily Quest #8 [Chain Quest]

Objective: Planting Potatoes

1. Sow the potato seeds

2. Water the field daily

Time Limit: 7 Days.

Tutorial here.

Reward: Fertiliser Recipe.

Claim your reward here.

Penalty: Deduct 24 hours of sleep upon failure and [Curse of Overtime] until quest is forcefully completed.

===

He should have seen this coming. He really should. However, Rino was too sidetracked with his other personal projects and their progress that he failed to do what he said he would. The runes he wanted to make to help him light up his potato field and water them at regular intervals was simply empty talk at this point.

Rino felt ashamed of himself for putting off such an important task. Thankfully, he had enough hands to help him do that manually and enough seeds to sow. There weren't enough farming tools, but Rino decided he could do that over the next few days. Those who did not own farming tools could either do other tasks like building a fence for the potato fields or carrying mulch over.

As Rino dished orders left and right to both faes and shadow summons, he wondered if it would be worth creating an irrigation system. He read about that in the tutorial the Gods provided and thought it would be wonderful to save future manpower when the kingdom expanded. Surely the fields would not be just one acre. Even if he had three thousand fairies helping him with farming, it was still going to be a lot of work for his little helpers. On the other hand, it would be easier to maintain a system built to water all the plants that needed watering without sending fairies to fly all over the place.

For now, Rino supervised the potato sowing process. The shadow farmers were working in the dark with only wisps to guide them. The fairies might not be of huge help when it came to manual labour like covering the soil, but they were very good at following up with watering them.

Rino left through his backdoor to check on the reservoir below his farmhouse. So far, there was nobody assigned to take care of this place. It ran without a hitch, even without anyone actively managing it. This should be the way things worked. Rino loved automation and wished that every task could be done to this level of perfection.

Irrigation was a very tricky thing to implement as different crops require different amounts of water. Rino had no idea which plants need more watering and which plants need less. This was something he entrusted Fronzo with. He was not interested in agriculture when he had capable subordinates to manage it for him. However, he was interested in automating the watering process.

If irrigation was not ideal, would irregular irrigation work?

It might not be fully automated, but Rino thought even a partially automated watering system was better than not having a system at all.

Ace decided that now would be an appropriate time to visit Rino again as Noir. The lich worked hard and needed his encouragement. If Rino could create a good watering system, the God of Prayers could foresee a huge new road paved for them. Rino would be able to grow more than simple potatoes. With this many faes working alongside his shadow summons, Rino would be able to mass-produce crops and offer them to the Gods. It would solve many of the small world's food shortage and starvation issues.

Rino was thinking very hard as he lay on the bed, appearing as if he was sleeping. The reservoir system was very efficient, but Rino did not know if there was a better way of transporting water. The water in the reservoir might not be enough to water all his crops if he ever expanded his fields. In fact, Rino was told that the plants needed nutrients in the water to promote a bountiful harvest.

Rino had no idea what that meant, but he understood Fronzo disapproved of regular distilled water. Strangely, Fronzo was alright when the farming fairies watered the plants using their magic. Mana produced water was acceptable but not mana transferred water. What was the difference? Rino could not understand.

Ace teleported into Rino's farmhouse with a silent whoosh directly and leapt onto the cat tree gracefully before taking aim and pouncing onto the lich's face with his claws out. The magician was in such deep thoughts that he failed to register an intruder in his home. This was unacceptable.

"Just because you learned a few new spells and became a little more powerful doesn't mean you can afford to let your guard down," Noir hissed. "Foolish man!"

The black furry creature's appearance made Rino throw away all his priorities and troubles. His hands moved faster than his mind registered, and Rino cuddled the cat to his chest, rubbing his protruding cheekbones ino the soft underbelly.

"You came back!" he half-sobbed. "You actually returned. I thought you were never going to return after you left so suddenly."

Ace felt bad for visiting only now, but the Gods really did not have it easy the last few days. In a way, he was busy because of Rino. The way the magician sent them on an emotional roller coaster made the black cat feel tired.

Rino realised how quiet and docile Noir was. The black cat seemed to have gone through a lot in the few days they were apart. He could not help but wonder if there was something he could do to cheer this beautiful feline up.

From his previous life's knowledge, cats liked it when they were lightly scratched under their chins. Rino gently tickled Noir's chin and watched as those eyes became half-lidded. It was magical when the cat started to purr lightly, and Rino kept it up for a while, finding the purring sound very soothing.

With the therapeutic activity, Rino found himself diving deeper into his mind. The irregular irrigation system should still use runes as a transfer medium. However, as runes only face one direction, it was not very effective to use only one rune. Rino needed something to help it turn like a weathervane so that the surrounding crops in a fixed radius will receive the same water. Maybe he could use a wind rune to activate at the same time when the watering runes were activated?

Ace was on cloud nine under Rino's skilful ministrations. It just felt so comfortable that when those fingers stopped, he felt a dissatisfied growl rip from his throat. His tiny paws latched onto those boney fingers, demanding attention, but Rino froze like a statue.

Rain clouds. He could create artificial rain clouds over the acre of field that he wanted using rune circles.

Rino looked at Noir and patted the cat now that he had a solution.