Chapter 183: Baby Boom

After the T.A.R.O Festival was over, Rino and Town Zera's folks returned to the town. Zerg's village decided to settle down as farmers in Town Zera because there were simply more farms that needed tending.

It took Rino many days to sort out the other tasks, such as the underground storage and windmill testing. He also had to cast many spells while helping the earth gnomes teach the trolls how to use the new farming tools.

After a hectic week with still not much progress on the grindstone, Rino finally had some time to check his main quest.

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Daily Quest #21(complete)

Objective: Build a Windmill

Time Limit: 30 Days

Tutorial here.

Reward: Complex Food Recipe

Claim your reward here.

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

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With over twenty days remaining before he received a new quest, Rino decided to claim this reward first while he built his dam, finished his barn and underground storage. The next thing he wanted to build was the waterwheel. Thankfully, building a water wheel was a lot easier than building the vanes of a windmill.

The earth gnomes were able to quickly build the water wheel design according to Rino's plans, and things were progressing smoothly with Rina helping out. Rino did not have to lift a shadow tendril before they finished the first prototype. Rino took a step back and walked around Town Zera to update his town planning map with some spare time.

Everything was coming together, but smooth progress always worried Rino. It was usually a signal of calm before the storm. It wasn't as if Rino was pessimistic. He tried his best to believe in the good of all things. However, experience often told him to err on the cautious side because people tend to let down their guard and overlook stuff when things are going well.

The fields Rino allocated land for were successfully turned into productive farmland. The genesis fairies were still fixing the sprinkler systems so that the crops would not grow too quickly. Even with Zerg's village helping with harvesting, they were still rather shorthanded. The crops grew quicker than the farmers could harvest them, a very odd problem that Rino never saw before in his previous world.

The trolls and drows were getting along, the earth gnomes were more tolerable, the killer rabbit clan was making themself useful, and Rino wondered if anything could possibly go wrong at this point. Maybe he was simply overly paranoid.

Then, he walked past the animal pens and heard a cacophony of sounds that made him hesitate to go near. The last time he came around the pens was almost a month ago, perhaps longer. Rino already lost track of time. However, how did the animals in the temporary cages multiply this quickly? It made no sense.

Instead of the handful of animals Rino expected to see, there was now a sizable family in each pen growing continuously.

The large quails that gave birth to the first batch of babies have given birth to six others, and those baby quails were now hopping around playing tag. They were almost as big as the initial quail parents.

More disturbingly, not mentioning the quails, Rino saw how big the little rabbit clan was now over double digits. Didn't Sheila inform him that the rabbits gave birth just a few days ago? Why were there already so many hoppers? The drow did inform him that rabbits bred fast and crazily so as they were constantly in heat. It might explain why the adult rabbits were going at it again.

At the rate that they were multiplying, Rino had a feeling that he might end up with as many rabbits as he did with special force bunnies. That barn project suddenly became a priority. The dam could wait for a while. Rino could easily finish that dam in a day if he abused magic anyway.

"What brings you here, my lord?" Kamiya asked. 

He was managing the massive underground storage building project when Rino teleported right in front of him. The killer rabbit wasn't very startled, but it was unusual for Rino to find anyone in particular. Normally, the dark lord would send Mutt to bring them over or summon them using the bond they shared. It was a little surprising, but Kamiya was convinced it must be important or private if Rino visited personally.

The lich put up a quick sound barrier and cut the message short.

"Those bunnies, is there anything you can do to make them stop humping for a while?"

Not expecting such a personal question, Kamiya blushed even if he was mostly made of shadows. Rino tried not to make it sound personal, but he had no idea about Leporidae biology. It was usually the most effective way to gather information from those who knew about it and most likely experienced it first hand.

For Kamiya, who was the leader of his clan, he must have some experience to talk about it. How else would he get such a huge clan to follow him? Rino did not know if any of his clan followers were his offspring, but as the leader of a monster clan, the duty of creating the next clan head should fall on his shoulders.

For a while, the horned rabbit did not speak. He did his best to phrase his words mentally. It was not a difficult question to answer, but he was embarrassed. No wonder Rino came in person and set up a sound barrier for privacy, catching him alone.

"M-my lord…" Kamiya tried his best to sound decent talking about this. "Why would you like to know? Is any of my clan members causing a problem? I can speak to them and handle it."

"Uh…"

Rino paused. As far as he knew, the shadow rabbits were keeping it in their pants. The only thing he might have a problem with was their constant munching of harvested soybeans, but it was a small price to pay for their diligence and speedy deliveries.

"No, that's not it," Rino cleared his throat out of habit to hide his discomfort even if they were using thought projections to communicate. "I just wanted to know how to slow down the breeding speed for the rabbits in the temporary pen. The barn wouldn't be ready soon enough at the rate that they are going at it."

Hearing that it was nothing to do with his clan, Kamiya relaxed a little. In that case, the problem was more simple. Rabbits will breed whenever they see a mate available. All Rino had to do was physically separate the males and the females.

When Rino heard that, he quickly let Sheila and Bink know that he wanted an extra partition made in the rabbit's temporary holding pen. They currently had the babies separated from their parents. The lich did not think that the female and male rabbit would require separating because there was only one of each. Fowler held the rest of the rabbits in Spudville and Rino wondered if they faced a similar overpopulation problem.

"Is there anything else I could help you with, my liege?"

Rino thought for a while and looked at Kamiya. The horned rabbit was very reliable, so Rino dumped the task of completing the barn project to him so that he could work on the other projects.

So far, Rino had the recipe for complex food but not a good chef in Town Zera. Kragami requested a recipe book for him to experiment with Rino's newest gastronomic inspiration. That was still a project pending, among other things - like building that damned dam.

Oh yes, Rino had to get busy and build his stone cottage by the river that used the water wheel to power something else. He could think of several uses for that water wheel, and honestly, there was no reason to stop at one. He could build several water wheels along the river as long as he had a steady flow of water that could be provided by the water bell flowers if there was a drought.

After all, if he could not stop the rabbits from breeding like crazy, he could put them for better uses such as biological compost and fur coats.

"No, keep up the good work. I have high expectations from you and your clan."

Happy to receive praise, Kamiya bowed, and Rino left in a swirl of shadows. He returned to his study and stared at the newly bound books that Kragami delivered over. 

The reed paper factory production was increased significantly after Erika started teaching Fronzo and the hobgoblins how to read while the goblin shaman taught those who knew magic the basics of magic circles to assist them with chores like mining and gathering mulch.

Feeling the book's bark cover texture and reed fibre strings, Rino flipped to the first page and sighed inwardly. It was always the hardest to work on a spotless page without words.

Picking up the brush made from plucked goat's tail and mixing a little water onto the bone ash pile, Rino started writing. He only hoped Kragami was already familiar with his writing system or Erika would have to act as a translator again.