After RIno received the report from his farmhand about the number of interested farming slaves, Rino decided to source a cheaper production alternative. Bone tools might be good, but they were painful to mass produce.

With over twenty volunteers, Rino had to find a cheaper material to make farming tools.

While he made twenty new sets of farming tools for weeding and ploughing, he would receive any potato seeds. It might be good for him to start sowing this first acre of land using potato seeds he earned from the Gods.

===

Repeatable Quest #1

Objective: Create the following Farming Tools

1. Rake

2. Hoe

3. Shovel

Cooldown: 8 Hours

Tutorial here.

Reward: 100 Potato Seeds

===

If Rino's math did not fail him, he should obtain at least 500 seeds before the actual planting started. An acre of field would give him about 1,200 potato plants if he spaced them out sufficiently. Rino did not need very long to turn this quest in twelve times. In fact, it only took him four days to get all the seeds he needed to fill one acre of field.

Planting wasn't going to be as big of a problem as compared to preparing the field. The soil's acidity had to be correct, and the only way to do so was to introduce the mulch. Rino did some reading up on what that was. Basically, they were a bunch of decomposing leaves. There were many of these in the forest, but the lich had a problem. He did not know if he was able to bring enough of that stuff to the fields. Thankfully, he was close to the forest. His minions could just work tirelessly, carrying mulch to where they needed to be after the ground was weeded and ploughed.

The only logical solution was to return to the goblin cave for stone and forest for wood. Rino sighed. He did not have a lot of time to prepare twenty sets of farming tools, even if he collected everything he needed before the sun rose. His blanket was still muddy, and rino was leaving it to dry for now. If he wanted more shadow minions to work during the day, he had to make more clothes.

"No point in worrying too much," Rino shrugged. "One thing at a time."

This was something he learned after his death. There was no real need to struggle so much for things beyond his control. If he did his best and things didn't work out, it was not his fault. Similarly, two days was too tight of a deadline after discovering what sort of preparations were required.

If the Gods wanted quality, they should expect less quantity and speed. Rino was not going to treat the field if he did not have the time. There was no time to make clothes for his minions to gather mulch. He also did not have any capable crafters within his shadow army. Rino could only rely on himself to hammer out twenty sets of farming stone tools.

"Let's start with one set every eight hours," Rino reasoned.

It made no sense for him to rush all twenty sets when there was an eight-hour cooldown limit for the reward. He could use the time waiting for the cooldown to do other more productive things, such as making fabric for his minions or preparing the materials for the other farming tools. As long as he did not piece the parts together, they would not be counted as complete tools. Rino was going to exploit this and milk the reward system given to him by the Gods.

Up above, Ace looked at the lich with a smug look on his face while Stephanie rolled her eyes. Phil was too busy monitoring the magic potato plant's spread throughout the land after he sent some birds to eat the berries before Rino could get to them. Ark was updating the system to prepare for the offering tab, so the Goddess stared at Ace.

"Why are you so happy that he's exploiting the system? Doesn't it make you feel like a loser? You need to spend divinities to give him the reward."

At that, Ace only smirked. "In the long run, you will understand what this lich is capable of accomplishing. This kingdom that he intends to build isn't just an empty stone castle. He isn't just a kingdom builder. He is the sole monarch who would build his kingdom from dust."

Indeed, that was exactly what Rino intended to do. Who said that he had to build this kingdom for someone else? He might not have a crown or a throne yet. However, he had an army and the power of knowledge to thwart anyone else. As the ruler of darkness, it was only fitting for this Kingdom to be named after him.

As Rino cut rocks and shaped them into tool heads, his mind wondered. What would be a good name for him? King sounded too stiff and grand. He did not want to be a king who had to consider the opinions of his subjects. If anything, these shadow minions were his slaves. They were not subjects. He had an absolute say in everything.

Monarch sounds nice," Rino nodded. He liked the sound of it and could not help but wonder if Noir found it too tacky.

Then again, every kingdom had a name. Rino did not want to name the kingdom after himself. Rino was such a common name. It wasn't grand enough to intimidate others to stay away. His only aim after building this kingdom was to spend his days idle and alone. He wanted to laze to his heart's content and rest in peace even if he could not die.

"To spend the rest of my days in solitude when the kingdom is up and running. I guess it is only befitting to call myself the Monarch of Solitude. Imagine the faces of other kingdoms when they discover how this kingdom only has one actual citizen - me! I will thwart them with my army of corpses, and nobody can advise me otherwise. Maybe these spud fields will start evolving after drinking the blood of my enemies and turn into something more demonic."

The thought of demonic potatoes made Rino cackle madly, and Ace had to look away at how lame that sounded. Thankfully, Stephanie wasn't around to witness how Rino flicked his cape, pretending to give a speech to non-existent enemies before he slew them on the non-existent potato fields, complete with theatrical sound effects of epic magic.