The sun finally went down, and Rino checked his side quest. He spent enough hours sleeping after returning with Mutt. The lich vaguely remembered tossing all the ingredients they harvested to his minions and left them to decide what they wanted to use. Anything else that could not be used to produce animal feed should be planted to see if multiplying them were possible.

It was a good dream, and good sleep should be rewarded by good results.

===

Side Quest #19 (done)

Objective: Craft animal feed

20/10 Rabbit Feed

30/10 Bird Feed

50/10 Boar Feed

Tutorial here.

Reward: Breeding Grass Purchase Option in Offering Reward Shop

Claim your reward here.

===

Slightly surprised by the number of animal feed his minions made, Rino wondered what motivated them. Then again, this was something Rino appreciated about his minions. They were more hardworking than he was, and the effort was greatly appreciated.

Rino claimed his reward and eagerly checked the Offering Reward Shop. The new item was unlocked, and there were several new purchases that Rino never saw in the earlier update.

===

Item: Breeding Grass Seeds

Cost: 1 GF

Qty: 100 seeds

Effect: Guarantees fertility and induces heat after consumption. Requires mana imbued water to grow.

===

Rino read the effect description and smirked. No wonder the gods were so confident that the animals he captured were sufficient to increase its population. They had a secret up their sleeves all this time.

The batch of breeding grass seeds was free, and Rino did not hesitate, storing it away in his shadow sack quickly. In the meantime, he decided to check the other newly added items to the shop to see if they interested him. If Mutt could improve over time, surely the gods must have developed a better gifting sense.

===

Item: Hormone Honeybee

Cost: 1 GF

Qty: 10 worker bees

Effect: Produces a little hormone honey from water bell flower to reduce growth time required to adulthood by 30%. Dies after two weeks.

===

Hormone honeybees… who would have thought that the gods were becoming better salespeople? They were thinking about selling him a whole package from potato to castle paint. Yet, he could not feel angry. The offer was strangely tempting. However, Rino did not want to buy the bees just yet. He needed an apiary before those bees could be useful.

Thinking about the lengthy preparation process he needed before any of his honeybee purchases could be maximised pained Rino. He did not have enough gnomes to build this town. Maybe he should have stayed in Spudville and expanded on Noir Province's territory instead of establishing a new area independent from where he started.

Before Rino could leave his stone cottage, he heard a new system notification sound that prevented him from doing anything else. It was a little too soon for his main quest to be updated, but Rino wouldn't be surprised if it was updated early.

Ping!

===

Side Quest #20

Objective: Breed Animals

0/1 Rabbits

0/1 Birds

0/1 Boars

Reward: Animal Taming Skill

Claim your reward here.

===

Oh, that was something that would take a while even with his newly claimed breeding grass seeds. According to the extra information provided with the quest, the average time for birthing a rabbit was a month. Giant quails took half that time, and pygmy boars took three months, if not more.

Well, there was no use in wondering if the gods knew what they were doing at this point. Rino was only glad that this was a side quest and not the main quest. Without a time limit, Rino could do more things like building his barn and setting up his town. He wondered if there would be anyone who would apply to live in his town as residents if he advertised it. There was doubt because of the world's literacy rate, but the gossipmonger fairies did a good job the last time. Perhaps he should enlist their help to spread the word again once the magic tree he planted matured a little more.

On the topic of the magic tree, Rino remembered that there was an important question. Did magic trees normally flower and bear fruits? He saw flowers on the World Tree and Cypress Ghost tree, but they never turned into fruits. The fruits on this young magic tree grew bigger by the week and changed colour as if ripening. The lich was both curious and worried about the unusual progress.

Whatever. Rino would deal with it when he remembered later. Although he told the farming fairy to keep an eye on his tree and inform him if something changed, it wasn't so important for now.

Rino left his study and headed to the shabby animal pens. The spectres finally found a way to let the animals out of their cages without risking their escape. Of course, he should have realised that building a bigger cage was a logical solution before he had a functional barn. The only design change to this big cage from the smaller one was the introduction of double doors so that they could wrestle any attempted escapees back into the pen.

"Good evening!" the newly arrived pygmy dwarf greeted enthusiastically. It was Griffith's turn to visit, and Rino vaguely recalled Aiden sulking and downing more mugs of potato beer than they could brew, much to Kragami's chagrin.

"Good evening," he greeted the master crafter, who looked proud of his work with the animal pens. At least the pens were functional and not flimsy enough to be knocked down, as Rino feared. Thank magic for gnomes and their resourcefulness.

The pygmy boars were sleeping, and so were most of the birds. Only the rabbits could be seen hopping around and frolicking on a new bed of straw. Bits of half-chewed rabbit feed cubes were scattered in their pen, and Rino was reminded of a petting zoo meant for relaxation.

"How are the animals?" he asked.

The pygmy dwarf looked at the lively rabbits and shrugged. "None of them dying, everyone eating well. Nothing to worry about for now. Did you want something, my lord?"

Rino nodded, then shook his head. "Not yet. I need to grow breeding grass first to encourage them to reproduce, but I also need you to come up with a design for artificial beehives."

Hearing that there was a new interesting project, Griffith pried for details. All Rino could tell the enthusiastic builder was that he had some special honeybees coming that would stay for a limited time to produce some special honey that could expedite the growth of young animals.

When Griffith heard that, his eyes sparkled, and the pygmy dwarf swore that he would come up with a better apiary design than Aiden could. Honestly, Rino didn't care who came up with the design as long as it was functional and efficient. He left the master crafter alone and walked over to check on his magic tree.

The fruits were swollen by now, and some sparkled with mana. This was a strange phenomenon, and Rino knew he could not delay this matter any further. He had to consult with his teacher about it before the fruits fell from the tree. Maybe he should find a disposable living subject to forcefully feed them the strange fruits to study the side effects. Then again, planting these fruits might be better, although he had no idea if the plants that grew from these fruits would become magical trees too.

Marching to the farms to find the farming fairy, Rino held the bag of seeds tightly. Water bell flowers were crucial for growing breeding grass, and Rino only prayed the grass spread by itself. He passed them the water bell flower seeds a few days ago. Surely it would not take too long to grow water bell flowers and create an artificial pond to collect mana imbued water, right?

His questions were answered when he saw a small and very miserable amount of mana imbued water trickling from the newly bloomed water bell flowers. There were bits of carcasses from cave bats that the gargoyles hunted strewn all over for nourishments, but the system worked.

"My lord!" the farmer fairy greeted and flew over quickly, leaving a trail of glowing fairy dust. "What brings you here?"

Rino nodded and looked at the pond. He was reminded of a swimming hole dug in some noble's backyard for the purpose of water recreation in his previous world. The pond's base was made of clay, and Rino wondered what would happen if the mana imbued water supply overflowed. Then again, they would probably just empty it into the farms using the sprinkler system that wasn't set up yet.

"I have a bag of new grass seeds that will help with animal breeding. Please grow these well. They must be watered using mana imbued water, so choose an appropriate time to start growing them. It's best to fill a whole patch with them, but don't let them spread too much. I don't want the grazing fields to be full of breeding grass. We don't have enough farmhands to deal with animals going in heat constantly."

Receiving the precious bag of grass seeds, the farming fairy bowed and told Rino that she would start working on an isolated grass growing patch. Things were starting to become busy, and Rino checked the timer. Ten more minutes till his main quest updated. It better be something good.