When Rino returned to his temporary hut in his unbuilt town with the nine ex-bandits, he quickly tested if they were weak to sunlight.

Unlike ghouls, skeletons, zombies and vampires, ghost-type undead should have some resistance to the sun even if they were more transparent and terrible against salt. It did not help that Rino had salt in his shadow sack, but whatever. It's not like they were capable of eating anyway.

The sun appeared in a few minutes, and Rino watched how Mutt shrank in size before retreating into his shadow. The same happened for the shapeshifting spectres, and Rino watched how they became child-sized, reaching his waist under the sunlight. It was a strange feeling watching fully grown spectres that were almost as tall as him shrink to a child's height, but Rino didn't feel bad for them. He made gnomes and goblins, who were smaller than them, work hard under the sun too. The ex-bandits could work overtime gathering materials he needed to construct his tannery.

Acht could only summon up to four shadow tendrils, and the reach was weak. Rino felt his skull burn under the sun, and the hole in his mantle made his shoulder burn with purple soul flames as he conducted his experiments before declaring that the spectres were fit to work in the day and night.

His quest timer marked itself as late, and already, Rino was going to start consuming his purchased day-offs. Thankfully, with the increase in minions from the ravine cave exploration, Rino was confident that he could make a trip back to Noir province. His newly planted magic tree also grew into a young tree from a shrub.

Strangely, this tree was budding, and Rino looked forward to seeing the tree grow fully. 

First, he had to worry about securing expertise in designing a tannery. Rino needed to consult with his crafting managers and tell Fronzo to prepare several vats for soaking the leather. There was no clay in this region, and Rino never realised how important it was for early developments.

At the same time, he did not feel like revisiting the jungle for wood when he had a perfectly functional cypress tree farm and sawmill in Cypress County. Rino only hoped that there was enough space in his shadow sack to store the wood he needed for building. 

Honestly, Rino needed a better way of transporting things from one province to the next. His kingdom wasn't that big, but already he was facing a logistic bottleneck. It was hard to imagine how complex this kingdom was going to look in a few more months. A ruler should not be carting building materials by himself.

Then again, there really isn't a more efficient way currently. Rino suddenly realised how poor he was. He should recruit more people to transport building materials the regular way merchants did in the previous world using carriages and wagons.

The only thing stopping Rino from implementing this immediately was the jungle standing between Noir Province and his unbuilt town. Apart from him, Rino doubted his shadow minions and goods would remain unharmed during the journey. He had to think of something better.

Activating his teleportation pad and telling Mutt to keep an eye on the tannery workers, Rino made his return trip and felt a huge dip in his mana levels.

Thirty percent.

It was not too much of a dip for concern, but Rino wondered if that meant he could only afford to make one round trip per day with this much mana consumed just travelling using the teleportation pad. If he flew, he could save mana on the return trip, but it would take longer.

Maybe just for the first trip, Rino reasoned that splurging a little on teleporting was worth it. It was not a viable long term solution.

The gnomes were getting ready to change work shifts in Cypress County when Rino appeared from the ghost tree. Kragami was about to head to bed when he heard the commotion.

"Good morning," Rino greeted, and his magic teacher rubbed his eyes.

"You're back so soon? I thought you'd be gone for weeks!"

The lich chuckled inwardly. He thought so too. Not much time passed since his departure, and from the looks of it, the managers were doing a great job keeping the place together. Rino was proud of them.

Settling in the treehouse for a cup of actual tea that Kragami experimented with, the lich told his magic teacher about his discovery, much to Kragami's surprise.

"Where were you from? I thought the soul-stealing disease was common knowledge to everyone who lived on this continent. While I have no clue if people from across the sea knew about this disease, it is the reason why everyone hoped to meet the king who could bring the dead back. Many of us believe that when the king appears, humanity will be free from the curse of extinction."

Taken aback, Rino had no idea how to tell his magic teacher that he wasn't from this world. Hence, he quickly diverted the topic to what he did to the bandits and discovered in the rocky mountain range.

Horror reflected in the necromancer's eyes when Rino described what he saw during his travels in the Woods of No Return. Kragami was unexpectedly silent when Rino said he encountered the strangest flying jellyfishes when the night fell. From then on, there was a distant look in his teacher's eyes even when he recounted how he escaped the womanticore.

If Kragami had his opinions, he withheld them. Instead, the necromancer only checked if Rino was physically, mentally and emotionally well after his journey. Visibly shaken but also confused, Kragami examined Rino from top to toe. Nothing much looked out of place except for that hole in his cape.

"Oh, that was made by the snake lady. I have her skin ready to be made into a new bag, shoes and armour. You should wear the armour, it is really good against fire attacks, but I have not tested what else it is resistant to."

"Snake lady?"

Rino took a sip of his tea and continued his story about what he found with Acht acting as a tour guide. The story about finding another living cave, new minerals, ores and killing the cave guardian stumped Kragami. He knew that Rino was a powerful magician in his own league when they fought, even if his common sense and understanding of dark magic were poor. However, listening to the clueless lich's adventures, Kragami felt ashamed to be called a teacher of this monstrous magician.

There was no doubting it now. Rino was the true king from the legends sent to them by gods to save humanity from extinction.