After that discussion, Rino cooped himself up in the study but couldn't find any focus on the task at hand. Those apiary designs were getting more ridiculous, and he knew he was distracted. There were still many hours before night fell. Hence, Rino withdrew some sleep hours and took a nap. Maybe he would be able to think better after he woke up.

Unfortunately for Rino, his sleep did nothing for him, even when it was late in the evening. The sun had gone down, but the question from earlier that afternoon still tumbled around in his head.

​​

Crushing yet another draft, Rino tossed it away. He needed a change of pace. Now that his trustworthy henchmen were here, he could afford to take it easy.

As Rino walked over to the newly built goat pen, he checked the male goat inside. They were still missing a nanny goat, so Rino gave himself a reason to leave the town. He would find a nanny for this lonely billy goat to mate with on the mountain tonight while pondering over the odd culture.

Wasn't it human nature to be curious? Ever since the founding of humanity, curiosity has always been part of what made humans human. It could come in many forms, and no individuals' curiosity was alike.

For magicians, their desire to learn can vary greatly. Rino might be more inclined to find out about how science could benefit the common people with the help of magical tools. However, his teacher was more interested in archaic languages and decoding ancient magic, understanding how it differed from what the empire used.

Another person in the kingdom, like the slave trader, might be curious about how well a new breed of slaves would sell to the filthy wealthy nobles. Maybe a hybrid between an eastern slave and a blue-eyed northern slave could fetch him double the price. It was also a form of curiosity, even if that was driven by a totally different intention. Commoners who baked bread and housewives who cleaned homes also had curiosity. They often sated their curious nature in the form of gossip and socialising in the town square, listening to bards and waiting for the town crier to announce something.

There was no human who wasn't curious. Even the quietest beggar children would have questions, wondering how the bread that someone else was eating would taste. Rino couldn't bring himself to trust Zerg's words when he said all the adults in his village believed ignorance was bliss. There had to be curiosity somewhere, and something was preventing them from expressing it.

There was only one thing that would drive curiosity away, and in Rino's opinion, that was fear.

The nanny that Rino wanted to find never appeared even though he arrived at the area the genesis fairy claims to find it. Hence, he circled around the area for a little more. Maybe the goats were sleeping? It was rather late in the night after all.

Not expecting a notification prompt mid-flight, Rino almost plummeted face-first into the rocks when he heard it.

Ping!

===

Daily Quest #18 (complete)

Objective: Expand Farm

10/10 Acres

Time Limit: 10 Days

Tutorial here.

Reward: Abandoned Dwarven Mine Location

Claim your reward here.

Penalty: Deduct 24 hours of sleep upon failure and [Curse of Overtime] until quest is forcefully completed.

===

Really? He still had a few more days before the quest was turned in. Those trolls worked really hard, and Rino felt slightly bad for making them work even during the day. As an apology, he passed the message along to Erika telepathically to let the farming trolls rest during the day. For now, they should assist Aiden and the gnomes in building that barn.

Rino didn't like the idea of a muddy animal pen for a growing family. If he were to rear animals, he only wanted the best of their kind. Animals might taste better when they were provided better care. Besides, they did not have animal doctors here. It would be a shame to need to kill the whole pen of animals if one fell sick just to prevent an infection. Rino wanted to avoid that the most. Hence, he would rather spend more time and resources to ensure proper hygiene practices.

Settling down on some rocks, Rino looked through his newly claimed reward.

The location appeared quickly in the newly upgraded map function tab. Rino studied it and paused. Apart from looking for nanny goats, he had an abandoned mine to look for. Moreover, the owners of this place were dwarves. He knew their kind had to exist no matter where! Those money-grubbing chums were probably the most stubborn creatures to exist. They wouldn't die even if they were killed. It was something Rino respected them for.

Changing his plans quickly, Rino decided to fly in the direction marked out on the map. He recalled trying to search for more mines in this rocky mountainous range. However, they did not manage to find anything much. They searched on the wrong side of the mountain range, and Rino felt embarrassed to know it was closer to the other edge of the range that they should be searching for if they wanted any success at finding a dwarven settlement.

Just opposite Town Zera, near a river flowing towards the sea, the abandoned dwarven mine was facing the ocean winds. Rino honestly did not expect the mines to be located so close to his chosen settlement. It had to be fated. There was no other explanation.

Then again, maybe the dwarves needed a clean water supply, and it was one of the only places they could establish a secret mining location and dump mining processed waste cleanly. That made a little more sense with hindsight, and Rino pretended he wasn't embarrassed for not thinking about this possibility earlier. Apparently, living in a world full of creatures with inferior intelligence affected his brain's functions from time to time. He found it hard to believe a genius like him forgot all about geographical advantages! He even helped the war ministers make plans for invading the northern barbarians and win that long-drawn war!

Shoving that thought aside, Rino narrowed down the possible mine's location when he found the river leading towards the sea. There were obvious traces of mining activity even if the mines had been abandoned for a while. Rino couldn't believe he never tried to come to this side of the mountain range, too focussed on the beach and the ravines he could find.

The cave's entrance wasn't concealed, but it wasn't easy to access because it was hidden behind a huge boulder covering most of it. It was easy for dwarves to enter and leave the place because of their shorter heights. The wind flow wasn't too strong, and the huge boulder in front blocked out most of the strong sea breeze.

Rino squeezed through the narrow entrance and was met by a terrible maze of rocks and split paths. Some were naturally formed, while others were mined and supported by beams that have collapsed over time and neglect.

Rino decided to follow the mined routes because he supposed those would lead him to the dwarves' main workplace or hideout. However, he found himself in two dead ends, even with night vision following them that Rino had no idea where to go from here. Even tracing his previous steps and taking the other forked path option did not lead him to anything promising.

The air in the dwarven cave was stale, and Rino wondered where the dwarves would hide their workshop in such a place. He had been to the underground city of dwarves in his previous life, and it did not feel this way. Rino remembered there to be more light, more alcohol, fire, meat and boisterous laughter. The most important thing for dwarves was stout and gold. They had a huge vault heavily guarded by a hundred angry-looking dwarven warriors wielding large steel battle axes at all times, and Rino was given a tour by their king, who explained the importance of gold metal to dwarves.

When there was light and metalwork, the air had to constantly flow. Oxygen was the secret to a healthy fire, and Rino did not believe he was looking in the right area. Knowing dwarves and their way around architecture, this was a terrible design. Surely, they could do better.

Thinking back on his trip to the underground city, Rino stood in front of a dead cave wall and thought about what the dwarven king said. Apart from crafting and metalwork, dwarves were also good at something else because they lacked magical capabilities. They researched ways to defeat their enemies using their craftiness despite their stereotyped rashness portrayed in stories.

The dwarven underground city was often built like a maze with many different chambers for different purposes, and finding a way in wasn't easy. Dwarves might not have magic, but they were good at creating contraptions or mechanisms underground to confuse enemies. Coal powered golems was a huge project that the dwarves were working on when Rino visited. They admitted that they hoarded gold because it was the only most responsive to the coal-fuelled energy that the golem fed on. It consumed a lot of power and was not an ideal war weapon, but they assured Rino that it could wipe out the empire if the mithril the empire bought from dwarves tried to turn on them.

That golem demolished an entire smelted bar of mithril in less than two seconds, just before it ran out of power, and Rino was convinced the empire should not make dwarves their enemies.

Examining the dead-end at every nook and cranny, Rino started feeling for any hidden devices that would open the dead path to a secret entrance into the abandoned mines. If dwarves remained the way he knew them to be, he should find a level, button or switch somewhere.