After putting on his newly made boots, Rino found himself examining the potato seeds. He'd never seen them before, even in his previous world.

"Is he serious?" Stephanie scoffed. "They ate potatoes daily for just about every meal in his previous world!"

Phil sighed. Rino's previous world relied heavily on two staple food sources, namely potato and wheat. Rino was a wheat kind of person and often ate bread because it was easier to consume on the go. The ex court magician had little opportunity to be acquainted with potato that is normally served in stews and mashed on the side with meat.

"Let's give him the benefit of the doubt," Ark told his sister. "They know potatoes differently in Rino's previous world. If I recall, it was called a ground bean or something similar. Not many people know that potatoes have seeds either. Most people put a potato in the ground to grow a potato."

Indeed, not many people knew how the original potatoes were grown. Some did not know that potatoes were flowering plants capable of producing berries either. Growing potatoes from actual seeds took way longer than it would by sticking a potato into the ground.

Rino looked confused at the packet of seeds in his hands. The Gods did not have much divinity so sending him a pack of about fifty seeds was what they could afford for now. If Rino wanted more, he had to make offerings. It didn't matter if they were wooden rakes or stone ones. Any of those would be better than the things farmers of this small world used. Presently, the humans of this small world were still mostly hunters. They only foraged and hunted for food. The concept of hunting was still foreign, even if a few have started exploring how it worked.

For Rino, agriculture was very far from what he was comfortable with. The things he did as a court magician did not reach the farmers or the kitchen. Thinking about it, Rino found it weird how he was so involved with the blacksmiths, adventurers, doctors and scholars as a court magician. Before his life as a magician, Rino remembered growing up in bad parts of the country where he mingled among rogues. His first use of magic prompted him to master fire first. It was useful as a distraction and helped to erase traces of their crimes. The second element he mastered was air, but by then, the magician tower had discovered him and took him under their wing. Everything else was history when they found out he had an affinity with almost every element of magic.

Thankfully, he did not need to wait for a long time before the sun was fully visible. The lich took one tiny seed between his bony fingers and decided to keep the rest safe for now. There weren't many seeds here, and if he wanted to experiment, he had to be wise about it. Rino decided to accelerate its growth using the sunlight and nature magic to see what a potato was.

Even Phil had to admit, he was very impressed with Rino's control of magic. The lich was able to forcefully make the seed germinate with the help of magic. It took a lot of effort and concentration to provide the seed with the correct environment required to grow. On top of that, Rino used raw mana as a form of fertiliser to accelerate its growth, unlocking the locked potential within that seed to become a plant in the shortest period it could.

Unfortunately, this sort of thing could only be done as an experiment. It would be nearly impossible to replicate it in this small world without enough mana density in the air.

The potato plant grew from a seed to a young plant. The leaves grew bigger, but Rino still saw nothing that could be harvested at this stage. Hence, he persevered and continued to feed it with mana until it grew almost as tall as him. Still, the plant grew no flowers. Was this not a flowering plant?

"What's that moron doing?" Stephanie questioned. At such a size, the potatoes must be enormous! Yet, Rino wasn't stopping. He continued to feed the plant mana, trying to make it grow bigger. Was he trying to evolve this into a monster?

The Gods watched helplessly from the reflecting pond as Rino continued to feed the plant with mana. Thankfully, he experimented on this near the forest and not near his farmhouse just in case something happened.

"That's odd," Rino thought to himself as the potato plant towered over him. Was this really a plant for farming?

On the bright side, he was starting to see some flowers and fruits forming as the plant started to keel over. Desperate to save it from dying, Rino added more mana, but the poor potato plant seemed to droop further with the excessive amount of nature magic.

Phil remained thoughtful as Rino mourned the death of his first potato plant. The lich harvested some of the berries and wondered if these were edible. It looked too tiny to be filling at all, and Rino wondered why the Gods gave him such a useless seed.

"We might see a potato forest after a while," Phil mentioned in the passing. The potato plant might have fallen over, but it was not dead. In fact, the lingering effects of Rino's mana was only going to serve as fertiliser for a long while.

Ark nodded. Thanks to Rino's intervention, over thirty potato tubers were hiding beneath the ground, spread out on the forest grounds. It should not take long for some animals to come along and steal them, spreading them around in the vicinity and pollinating the flowers for more fruits that would be eaten by birds. In turn, these birds will fly and poop the undigested berry seeds in some other places.

If anything, Rino's failed experiment was doing more good than harm. Phil was very happy about the unexpected development, but Ace remained concerned. If Rino did not know a thing about plants and agriculture, how would he complete the upcoming quests?

Hence, there was only one logical thing to do. He had to go back as Noir to assist this helpless lich from the shadows.

===

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

Dear esteemed readers,

I would like to announce that the story is going premium (locked) from the next chapter. You can unlock the chapters with coins or fast passes. If you are new to the site, this is how the chapters will be priced:

200 words = 1 coin, and 1 coin is worth $0.02

So, the longer the chapters, the more coins needed to unlock them. For 1200 word-chapters, the price will be 6 coins, 2000 word chapters are worth 10 coins, and so on.

Out of these coins, the author will only get 35%, minus 5% tax. The other 65% was divided between Google/Apple (as app store providers) and Webnovel.

HOW MUCH AN AUTHOR ACTUALLY EARNS?

An author gets around 30% of what their novels earn. From a chapter that costs 6 coins, only 2 coins will go to the author. It's not really much, considering 1 chapter takes 1-4 hours to write (depending on the author's health, inspiration, research, etc).

But the more readers unlock the chapters using coins, the more money an author could make. So.. please open the locked chapters with coins if you wish to support me and this novel.

So, if you see a chapter with 1200 words (around 8-9 pages) and priced 6 coins. It means the cost to unlock the chapter is:

6 coins x $0.02 = $0.12

Out of that $0.12 (twelve cents), the author earns 30% or around $0.036

FYI, I have a few contracted books on Web.no.vel, but I still have to do my day job (I'm a piano teacher and English Home Tutor) because those books don't earn enough to live (especially in Singapore). So, you can tell that my books don't make much as of today.

However, I do hope that will change as I write more with more people discovering my books. I really hope that I can pursue writing as a full-time career. It has been the dream and my reason for living.

In exchange for your support, I can promise you my dedication and hard work to see this book written until the end. I have never and will never drop a book in my life no matter how disappointing the financial results and will not leave you hanging. I hope this book can bring you a sense of belonging in the Tiny Army (Official Destiny Aitsuji fandom name) community. If you are new, don't be shy. My discord and social media DMs are always open to freshies who want to talk to me and not just stalk me!

FAST PASSES & OTHER SUPPORT

If you cannot afford to unlock the chapters with coins, and can only use fast passes, don't feel bad about it. I love you too! I know how it feels to be poor and crave books. I understand. I was there. Before Webnowel happened, I use to eat only one meal a day to save pocket money so that I can splurge at the BookFest sale at the end of the year.

Perhaps not now but in the future, when you have been blessed abundantly, you can have the luxury to support the content creators that you love. Might be me, might not be me. Still, I would like you to keep that in mind and create an impact on content creators' lives. Content creation is a lonely road to walk alone. Without support, I might have given up five years ago permanently.

That said, there are also other ways to support the content creator you love without paying for the things they do if you do not have the means.

You can support this book by voting your power stone so it will go up in ranking and become noticed by other readers who can pay them on your behalf. Writing your thoughts about the book in the comments or reviews will give other readers a chance to give the book a try. You are my best promoters that I cannot afford to hire.

At the same time, I would like to thank the silent readers who are reading this book. Even though I don't know you exist, I see your existence in the backend of my statistics for the number of reads, votes and unlocks.

Lastly, if you think this long-ass author note appears familiar that's because MissRealityBites gave this for me to use. It ain't plagiarism cuz this ain't content. Anyone trying to come for me on this is a dipsheet. Period. Her message is the same as what I want to say but she phrases things way nicer for y'all. Only the last two paragraphs were written word for word by yours truly. Everything else is edited or remained the same as I got it. Typos for certain things here are INTENTIONAL cuz censorship.

That said, do your reader side quests as much as possible and I hope you stay as fukking long as you can with this hell of a nonsense ride. So long!

===