Chapter 6: First Brick

As Rino toyed with his new abilities, time passed very quickly. Midnight came once more, and this time, Rino received a new daily quest.

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Daily Quest #2

Objective: Build 10 bricks.

Tutorial here.

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Staring at the screen for a while, Rino dismissed it. Then, he resummoned it and looked at the screen once more.

Wasn't there one very important line missing? Oh well, the Gods probably forgot about it. Maybe they will update later. Until they do, he was just going to have fun testing the limits of how far his shadow tendrils could stretch before they broke. If one shadow tendril wasn't strong enough, ten would do the trick.

For hours until the sun rose, Rino played to his heart's content like a child who was given a new toy. The Gods watched him impatiently. That b*stard... how could he look at the screen and ignore it so quickly? The sun was almost up. Was he going to waste a day away just like this?

"Do something!" Stephanie urged, and Ark rolled his eyes.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked. Even if they were Gods, it was pitiful to call themselves almighty. The lich in the small world really knew how to toy with them.

From the reflection pond, the four demoted Gods watched the lich clumsily attempt to use dark magic. Ace was the first to find this strange.

"Didn't you say he was the best candidate because of how well he used magic from the previous world?"

Ark nodded. "He is. Didn't you see him use earth and water magic earlier with such proficiency? It was chantless."

Phil raised a brow. Ace had a point. The lich wasn't acting like a very experienced magician when it came to dark magic. He spent a very long time in the mud hut earlier doing strange things away from the eyes of Gods. Could it be that as a court magician, Rino did not know anything about dark magic?

"Do you think he knows what he is doing?" Stephanie asked after watching Rino trip over his shadow tendrils for the third time after weaving the shadows together to make a sturdier jump rope.

According to Rino, he was trying to test the strength of shadow tendrils and how many are required to make a firm telekinetic rope.

As the sun rose, the Gods continued to observe Rino, who soon discovered the importance of his ragged cape.

Sunlight was fatal to many undead. For liches, even they burned under the sun. However, if the sun did not reach him, Rino would not catch fire. His exposed bones caught on fire as soon as the sun peeked from the horizon. However, the cape sheltered most of him, and Rino realised that it did not hurt where the cape covered.

He needed clothes!

Unfortunately, everywhere he looked in his new location, there was only an empty field surrounded by forest with a lake deeper within the forest from the direction he came from. If his knowledge from the previous life served right, this location was perfect for building a huge settlement because of the natural resources available. There was a clean water supply, forest for firewood near the kingdom and very fertile soil for farming where he stood.

Apart from his vast knowledge about magic and other useless things, Rino was completely helpless when it came to life skills. He didn't know how to weave cloth or sew clothes. Even his rock pouch was starting to come apart. How scandalous! The ladies would probably line up to see his rocks drop.

Rino snorted at his bad joke. Thankfully, his uptight butler wasn't around to admonish him for cracking tasteless jokes. So what if he was a courtier with a rank? He wasn't born a nobility. Rules didn't mean anything to him. His nickname as the court's wild horse didn't come without reason. Rino was the only person in the entire kingdom who knew how to frustrate the king to death. Some people claimed he behaved like a ruffian in court on purpose just to have a legitimate excuse to experiment with resurrection magic when the king died from rage. Others said that he acted this way only because he could revive himself with magic even if the king ordered him for execution. It was a little sad to remember how people thought of him as the devil. In honesty, he only behaved that way because he wasn't properly compensated for all his work. Receiving thanks wasn't a payment. Receiving a house, a carriage, gold or horses was considered payment.

When the Gods heard Rino's thoughts, they quickly realised what they did wrong. Ark had forgotten to include a reward for the second daily quest.

"Hurry up and add it in, you idiot!" Stephanie screeched, and Ark glared at her. He was the project leader. Why did she have to call the shots?!

Phil and Ace started to make a list while the siblings argued. Having siblings work together on the same team was akin to a nightmare. Sadly, they didn't have much choice. Rather than waiting for the unreliable siblings, Ace and Phil learned to move ahead once they had a direction.

"Here," Phil presented a list of reward ideas that Ace helped classify by order of importance. "We think that Rino might like these rewards, but we need to give them to him by order of work done. Ten bricks really isn't a lot, so giving him a book about dark magic basics would be too much. We should give him some sewing skills instead of giving him a new set of clothes. He has to learn to work for what he wants."

Ace looked over at the forest. "There are silkworms and cotton in this area. If he wants a tutorial of that, we can arrange it as a side quest for his learning."

Ark looked over the list and agreed. For someone like Rino, who didn't want to work without rewards, the best way to motivate him without spoiling him was to give him the skills but make him work for what he wants to get.

For the second time that day, Rino received another notification from the daily quest system.

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Daily Quest #2

Objective: Build 10 bricks.

Tutorial here.

Reward: Textile Crafting Skills. Side Quest available upon skill unlock.

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Now, they were talking! Rino quickly smashed the tutorial button and followed the instructions step by step.

In no time at all, the first earth brick was ready and baking under the hot sun. Now that he completed the first brick, there were nine more to go. Easy peasy!