With the day fairies working in the field, Rino found that the harvesting work went much smoother as the fairies used earth magic to dig those larger spuds from deep down.

Granary construction was also progressing smoothly as the gnomes switched shifts. Rino saw how the general structure was already laid out. All the gnomes had to do now was gather rough bricks that the fairies were producing to lay them. This was the more labour intensive part that everyone else could help out to make things go faster as the gnomes treated wood planks for the flooring.

Rino checked with his elemental sylphs about the mana web laying progress. They did not need much help but needed more time to finish covering the area thoroughly. The small area testing within the stone quarry worked, and now they had to replicate it everywhere.

Rino thought he would relax a little more before the new daily quest came tonight, but his fun was cut short by a notification sound.

Ping!

Rino groaned silently. The side quest tab updated itself as a reminder that the Gods were watching. There was no other explanation. It had to be deliberate.

===

Side Quest #13

Objective: Harvest King Toad Paralysis Poison

Reward: Paralysis Poison Cure Recipe

===

Ok, this was new. Rino was expecting them to go full into the farming phase of growing other crops or submitting other items but still remain within the agricultural phase. He had no idea what King Toads were or where to find them, so the side quest's prompt was very useful.

They were finally moving on to the last stage that Rino wanted to deal with. The undead does not need to eat, but the living has to. Rino had no idea if he would ever have living subjects in his kingdom, but one thing was for sure. If he found any of Mutt's family alive, they wouldn't be eating potatoes. Not to mention, leather could be useful for many other things.

Presently, Rino had nothing much to do. It was day, and the sun was only becoming hotter. The shadow slaves could only work in the stone quarry, and Rino tried to recall what else he needed to prepare for the new onslaught of quests.

Now that they were moving into the hunting phase, Rino had a feeling the Gods would task him with making weapons of some sort. Considering how primitive tools were considered a scarcity, much like potatoes, the lich would not be too surprised to know weapons were in demand.

There was only one problem. Despite having so many shadow slaves and fae folks under his leadership, Rino did not know many who were combat fit or capable. Hunting and fighting were very different skills, and Rino could not entrust those who knew how to wield a bow to fight against invaders.

Teamwork was a very crucial part of forming a militia. The person in charge must have a decent level of leadership to command the rest of the basic fighters to form groups and deflect waves after waves of attacks from the enemy. Skill mattered less in a group fight. Numbers mattered more.

Many faes who contracted with the World Tree were still wisps. Even if they were given an artificial evolution, the true transformation would still take a long time to stabilise. Rino could not count on them to defend his village should they be under attack. There was no need to worry for now because he was here. Once the defence array was set up after the sylphs finished creating the mana web, Rino had one less problem to worry about. His people would be safe with the power of the World Tree guarding them.

What to do about King Toads? Rino could hunt them himself, but he wanted to use this as an opportunity to pick out a hunter who was good enough to lead the team so that they could hunt without Rino's help.

Honestly, there were not many candidates to choose from. He did not like the ones with skills, but the ones he preferred based on personality lacked the other qualities.

Whatever. As a king, Rino had to make decisions. No decision was usually the worst decision. Given his circumstances, he could only choose the one that would cause the least damage. In future, if he found more capable candidates, he would slowly replace the less capable individuals with them.

Summoning the wind sylph, Rino tasked her to find the location of King Toads in the vicinity. Rino wanted to make a trip to examine their abilities before he held what would be known as the hunting games.

It took approximately an hour for the wind sylph to return with news, and Rino was amazed that these monsters were residents within his kingdom. He knew that there was a marsh, but the area was not really good for developing anything. Rino did not consider developing that troublesome area until the wind sylph informed him that there was an unusual concentration of mana in the area where animals were forcefully evolved into terrifying monsters.

"I will check it out personally," Rino thanked the wind sylph and dismissed her to resume her other assignments.

Hearing that there was a possibility of a magic tree in the swamp, Rino knew he had to acquire that as part of his network. A new magic tree meant that there will be more faes to recruit!

With that, the lich pulled up his hood. The sun was strong, and he did not like the idea of burning up.

As he passed by the fields, Rino was impressed by the earth fairies. Huge potatoes were piling up along the field's perimeter, and the ground with many craters from last night was slowly starting to resemble a normal, even surfaced field once more. He was right to assign some fairies to assist the goblin farmers. Farming really could not be done efficiently without the help of magic.

At the same time, Rino saw a new creation that the gnomes made. The wheel still appeared clumsy, but Rino was familiar with that concept as he watched fairies heap larger potatoes onto the wooden platform with wheels attached. The wind fairies rolled them into the granary that was starting to put itself together.

The gnomes wiped the sweat from their brows, slapping cement while the pixies lifted bricks to stack them. Fire fairies blasted the wet walls to dry them quicker and the granary that was only twice as tall as him yesterday was now five times as tall as the lich. The base wasn't small at all as more potatoes were rolled in.

Rino took a peek at their progress and was amazed by just how quickly things were coming together on this side. The fences around his farm were not done, but they would get to it soon enough. With so many helping hands, Rino was positive that he could expand his farm and have it run by itself even when he left.

Now, it was time to visit the swamp. Rino borrowed some wind elemental magic from his World Tree and lifted himself off the ground. It has been a while since he took flight, and Rino groaned in agony when his hood came off from the rush of wind beneath it, setting his bald skull on purple soul flames.