Chapter 148: Not as Planned

Ace couldn't believe it. Didn't he say that the main quest should be timeless? Why did the new finalised draft reverse what he had in mind? If Stephanie was an annoying bitch, Ark had to be a crafty fox. Phil was a good old neutral golem, but Ace felt utterly betrayed by the time the presentation was over.

Grabbing Ark by the arm and leaving the office once the meeting was over, Ace glared at his team leader.

"This wasn't what we agreed on!"

Ark was calm. He expected as much. However, as the leader of this team, he had to weigh the pros and cons. Ace might be a very capable god, but he was too involved with this mortal. Favouritism was acceptable but rigging the trials was not acceptable. As the team leader, Ark needed to ensure fairness as much as possible and reduce the risks of system abuse. Rino was too smart for them to allow him such leeway.

"Trust me, this is fair as well. By stalling his side quest progress and offering more main quests in small steps, Rino can still do what he has to without much pressure. The side quest does not have a time limit originally. There is less risk putting this as a side quest than the main quest that he could manipulate and drag on infinitely. We want to keep it professional for as long as possible."

In addition, the gods had more time to plan and prepare for the harvester raids. Monitoring Rino wasn't their only duty, and Ark could see the eyebags beneath Ace's eyes.

"Take this time to clear your work. Rino is in good hands. Phil took the agriculture stage to the next level while Rino works on his improved ecology system within his new town. I just saw how he talked with the gnomes about using waste crops to feed the boars and using their dung as fertiliser. They're slightly sceptical, but he managed to convince them that if pee could be used to treat leather, dung can be useful too."

Ace felt a hand on his shoulder as Ark thanked him for thinking of Rino's interest all the time. Then, the god left, and Ace stared at the reflecting pond. Rino seemed busy foraging in the fields and even plucking petals off a flower to help him decide if it was worth visiting the Woods of No Return.

As much as the god of prayers hated to admit it, Ark was right. It was more logical to put a timeless quest as a side quest instead of the main quest. He should remain objective and not assume that Rino would not take the chance to abuse the system just because he liked Noir. It was not what he planned, but it was acceptable. He let his emotions get the better of himself, and the belated embarrassment heated the god's cheeks. How could he forget that if Rino failed to improve the small world's conditions, their godhood would be forfeit? There were no such things as kindred souls or friends. Walking the path of an immortal was a lonely one. He'd forgotten it when he experienced the unadulterated warmth and affection as a cat. He should stop looking for Rino for a while to get everything under control. It wasn't as if Rino needed him around, right?

The memory of the cloth collar around his incarnate's neck spoke otherwise, but Ace shoved that to the back of his mind. He had work to do.

>>Xxx Destiny Aitsuji xxX<<

Rino checked his quest window again. There was one day till his main quest reset. However, the new side quest was easy to complete, so Rino took a break from designing the barn to finish it. The reward was tempting, after all.

===

Side Quest #19

Objective: Craft animal feed

0/10 Rabbit Feed

0/10 Bird Feed

0/10 Boar Feed

Tutorial here.

Reward: Breeding Grass Purchase Option in Offering Reward Shop

===

Mutt was handling the ingredient scouting with ease. The hog pelts were finally left to dry in the tannery so Rino summoned all the spectres to help him hunt for animal feed ingredients. Everything required salt mushrooms added to the flavour. They had everything they needed under their nose.

"Found another!" Mutt wagged his tail as the huge wolf bounded over to his master with the catch in his mouth, waiting for praise.

Rino looked at the wild root vegetable that Mutt plucked and patted the large shadow snout. Mutt was becoming more reliable as time passed, something the magician appreciated.

They had enough root vegetables for the rabbit feed now, and Rino wondered why the side quest wanted him to make ten feeding cubes for each type of animal. According to the tutorial, the feeding cubes should be packed with the daily amount of nutrients and dried until solidified. The science behind it wasn't explained, but Mutt assured his master that it was better to make domesticated animals eat dry and hard food because it was more difficult to bite. The sense of satisfaction that they normally found through hunting or foraging could be satisfied by a difficult meal.

It made little sense to Rino, but the magician didn't question animal logic. He could see how much hunting appealed to Mutt even though he was an undead that did not need to eat. Animal instincts were very different from human desires, and the thought went back to the living zombies with no desire to learn, live or think. Luckily, animals weren't like those humans. Or, at the very least, he hoped their strong survival instincts would save them from the strange plague.

There wasn't anything Rino needed to do for the boar feed because the farm was growing well with the newly planted water bell flowers in the area. He had to thank Kragami for the foresight, and there were still some potatoes that Rino did not sacrifice for GF credits. There should be plenty of spuds to feed those gluttons.

The problem now was the bird feed. There were several options, and Rino wished he knew just what those birds ate. Some birds preferred seeds while others preferred insects. The most troublesome type of bird feed was leafy vegetables. Honestly, the rocky mountains wouldn't have leafy vegetables. The fields and river banks had none of those either. Rino's only option was the forest in the distance, and he was a little reluctant.

"Bring these back and start working on the animal feed cubes," he told Acht, who obeyed.

Mutt looked at his master, who had slumped shoulders. Those hollow eyes were fixed on the jungle in the distance, and Mutt wondered if his master wanted to return to that hellish place.

"Master?"

Rino smacked his skull with his hand. What was he deliberating for? There was still time, and he was wasting precious cooldown time between main quests thinking about it. Didn't he gather everyone at dusk to find the ingredients needed? It was stupid to even consider if he should return to the jungle.

"Let's go," Rino told Mutt and climbed onto the wolf's back.

"Where to?" the sabre tooth shadow mount asked.

Rino looked at the looming jungle in the distance. Ever since he made his grimoire, the secondary spells activated automatically when Rino needed them. Night vision was useful, and the lich felt fully prepared to take on the jungle now compared to the first time he walked through it and into the ground.

"Be careful of cracks in the ground," he told Mutt. "We're going to find leafy vegetables. Use your nose well."

Mutt tensed. They were returning to that place? Some of the monsters residing in that jungle still gave Mutt nightmares. He couldn't help but run stiffly, but Rino reassured him that things would be different this time. He had night vision, a grimoire, and a mantle with additional enchantments that he mended after the lamia put a hole in it. The stitch work done by the brownie he brought along was so good that Rino doubted Noir would know he accidentally let harm get to the cloak.

The moon shimmered as the shadows of the jungle loomed. For Rino, he could already see some of the more interesting plant life in this jungle. Not everything was edible, and not everything was harmless. However, the tough survival competition also meant that everyone had plenty of opportunities if they knew just where to look.

The leafy vegetables that Rino wanted weren't found on the ground. Those were mostly carnivorous and deceiving. Mutt almost lost his nose when he sniffed too close to a flower. Rino thought his mount would learn after their first trip together but apparently not. The Mutt was wiser from the time they first met, but there was still a lot of room for improvement.

"Can you get into the trees? I think the leafy vegetables we want are there."

Seeing how not every animal in the forest climbed trees, Rino reasoned that the more harmless plants would take refuge and adapt accordingly. He wasn't wrong when Mutt found the first genuine edible plant in a tree. The fruits in the tree were poisonous, but the leafy vegetable that was home to some tadpoles was exactly what they needed.

Over the next hour, they found a huge variety of edible plants and some fruits that Rino tucked away in his shadow sack. He didn't know which plants were good for making bird feed, but it didn't hurt to collect them and replicate them on his small farm.