Chapter 182: T.A.R.O Festival

After a long call trying to dodge questions that might expose his identity as a reincarnated court magician and his relationship to the gods, Rino finally found a good name for this harvest festival. Thankfully, Kragami had a more decent naming sense.

The T.A.R.O Festival, short for [Take Advantage of Revenge Opportunities Festival], was quickly announced.

The trolls started making preparations, and all the killer rabbits offered to farm soybeans when Rino promised them a soybean sack each if they helped farm as many as they could in the next three days.

Acht and his team were on their way back to Noir Province to bring Zerg's villagers over. Most of the things Rino wanted to offer the gods could only be planted in Town Zera thanks to the warmer climate. Things like wheat and rice bagged a higher yield of GF Credits. After the revamp, the pricing system was more levelled and fair. Rino prioritised the crops he wanted to work on.

Surprisingly, reeds were part of the newer items the gods now accepted as an offering, so the fairies became busy under Kragami's command. At the same time, Fronzo and Erika were in charge of farming spuds as much as they could. 

The most popular product of all with the most attractive GF Credit yield was, ironically, the taro. There was just something about the purple potato that made it irresistible to everyone, including gods. Kragami was addicted to the fine beer it made compared to the beer made from regular spuds. Everyone liked the sweet orange flesh on the inside compared to the muddy taste of the regular potatoes.

Taro has become everyone's latest obsession, and there was no need to look for volunteers for this crop harvesting. All the fairies fought to volunteer, and Rino decided to put them on a roster, promising that anyone who helped with the festival at all will be given a purple potato buffet. It could be roasted, made into beer, sun-dried, turned to crispy strips and fried or even flattened into potato cakes.

The newest obsession with taro was when Kragami cut them into extremely fine and thin slices like noodles that Rino knew off in his previous life. Then, they were boiled in animal fat broth and salted. The contrasting flavour of salty and sweet made everyone instantly fall in love with the new soup. In addition, it only tasted better with tea leaves, as claimed by Rina.

Rino did not have the chance to try it yet, but T.A.R.O Festival was a very suitable name. There was little need for everyone else to know why he was calling for a sudden harvest festival if they were blinded by the delicious food they could enjoy if they helped out for the next three days.

Up above, Ace and Phil started clearing out the storage room or more space to put the future offerings. If Rino was this enthusiastic, Stephanie and Ark should work harder to clear all the stock. Discounts were almost as magical as Noir's existence, and if Ace knew that Rino had such a weakness, he could have helped Rino avoid the disaster that Ark created.

As everyone busied in preparation for the T.A.R.O Festival starting in a few hours, time slowly crept by.

Ping!

[You have available discounts waiting in the Offering Reward Shop. Please claim them before they expire in 2 days 23 hours and 59 minutes.]

Rino was still in the middle of helping the fairies expand the new farming plot when he read the system notification. Thankfully, he did not wait for the event to happen. Everyone was already busy farming and pulling out the first batch of grown taro from across the river.

His battle strategy was simple. Rino assigned two-thirds of the available farm space to grow Taro in Town Zera. The remaining was to grow wheat and soybeans while expanding the ready farmland for a greater harvest. The soybean part of the farm was looked after by the very enthusiastic killer rabbit clan. Rino trusted that they did not need any management. Once they filled their sacks, they could fill the dimensional accessories they wore and dump them in the underground storage.

Although the underground storage system wasn't completed yet, the killer rabbits not farming soybeans quickly doubled their efforts to complete the project. In the meantime, Erika was communicating with Rino about the harvesting process in Spudville and Cypress County.

Rino was the busiest for the next three days, running to and from Noir Province and Zera. He continued to empty inventories, storages and granaries to the system and when Fowler asked in front of the whole field of hobgoblins why Rino needed so many offerings. According to the farmer, Rino only previously needed not more than two thousand potatoes in a day. 

Not wanting to expose himself and how he had a system or terrible relationships with the gods, Rino only replied it was to refuel his depleted mana reservoirs used to construct Nightless Underpass. The word started spreading, and everyone simply bought his reason without questioning why Rino was in such haste. If anything, Rino's honest answer only invoked more concern among the ladies who expressed their gratitude towards their king by whipping up good food. 

Rino was glad for the potato cakes and tasty taro noodles. It wasn't a bad idea to work hard and indulge hard in eating what his minions harvested. Hence, Rino ordered the shadow slaves to join the feast in rotating shifts so that they would constantly be working and partying at the same time.

Morale was at an all-time high, and Rino saw how quickly his territory developed. Just two days ago, the opposite side of the river was still just empty banks. Now, trolls were tilling the field as genesis fairies activated the water runes to flood them. The seeds were soaked in the mana-imbued water constantly to prepare for quicker germination, and half of the complex underground storage system was completed.

Rino took this chance to quickly cast an area spell on the windmill building materials now that he had more mana reserves. The more his shadow slaves ate, the faster his mana recovered. The more he regained his mana, the more things Rino found himself doing.

That windmill that was meant to take almost a month to complete was put together single-handedly by Rino while everyone else farmed. Although he still had no idea how the grindstone plates worked, everything else was built according to the gnomes' design. Deezer and Bink may be dragged out of their research cave by Mutt for a while when Rino needed to confirm a few details, but everything else like attaching the vanes to the main axle and the rotating top part of the windmill fitted like a puzzle.

Just like this, three very busy and chaotic days passed with more progress Rino had seen in the last two weeks.

For the first time ever since the opening of Nightless Underpass, Rino brought everyone from Town Zera to Noir Province to meet the others also working under him. The success of the Taro festival was astonishing, and Rino looked at his GF wallet balance.

===

GF Credits: 560

1 GF = 8 hours sleep

10 GF = 1 day off

===

Even better, the miserable number of sleep hours he saved up before the punishment confiscated them so harshly was now back with a surplus. Rino felt the injustice he suffered before was nothing compared to the current joy.

===

Sleep Reward Wallet:

Daily Sleep Withdrawal Limit: 8 hours (reset at midnight)

Available Sleep: 800 hours

===

Hot springs. Good food. Great company.

Rino watched as Fronzo welcomed the Town Zera citizens, offering hospitality by introducing the new bathhouse that Kragami suggested, and Aiden oversaw while Rino was away.

Those from Cypress County also joined the after T.A.R.O Festival in Spudville. Rino took this chance to look around his domain left in the hands of his subordinates. He was surprised by just how many fairies there were. The air was fully charged with mana from the increasing number of contracted fairies with the World Tree.

When Rino visited the kiln, he saw that there were now five huge kilns instead of just one that Rino built personally. This must also be a project that Aiden oversaw. No wonder his teacher claimed that they had been swamped. Apart from clay, the kiln also helped to smelt sand and some hybrid concrete brick for experimenting with.

World Tree Rino had gotten so huge that Rino no longer had to enter that stone mine to see it. Branches were growing out of the cave's entrance now. Hence, the miners chose to mine their stones from the bottom of the rock mountain instead.

The tour was nostalgic and Rino was reminded about his humble beginnings where there wasn't even a proper knife when he first started. However, there was just one place that remained untouched despite the booming developments everywhere.

His humble cottage was still the same as he left it. The cottage must have been maintained regularly, most likely by Erika. Noir's cat tree and basket were still there in case the black feline ever needed a place to return, and the interior was still as dark and gloomy as Rino remembered it.

Home. This was his very first home in a foreign world, and while everyone else partied away at the huge T.A.R.O Festival success, Rino settled in his humble farmhouse with just a flask of taro beer. He stared at the unlit fireplace and reminisced about his better time with Noir, reminded of Noir's master's last words.

"When will you be back?"