Chapter 207: Cheese Cubes

Ping!

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Daily Quest #24 (complete)

Objective: Mine some ores

Time Limit: 3 Days

1/1 Coal ore

1/1 Copper ore

1/1 Tin ore

1/1 Iron ore

Tutorial here.

Reward: Smelting 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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Rino was still extending the mana web array when he heard the system notification sound in his head. Slightly surprised that his subordinates found tin and iron ore so quickly, Rino paused his work and listened to the report.

The system registered their discovery as Rino's personal achievement because they were his summons. Thankful that he did not have to go over right now, Rino told the killer rabbit team leader to hold onto the tin and iron ores. At the same time, he told them to listen to Noir's instructions and work a safe travelling route to the new ore deposits.

Claiming his smelting recipe, Rino let that sit in his system archive tab for a while. He would check that after he finished extending the mana web array to the secret vault. As the mana web array was very obvious, Rino had to find sneakier ways to leave waypoints. Eventually, he did it by borrowing the underutilised air vents and sewer tunnels. Having a tiny summon such as a random rat that could crawl through small holes was very useful. Rino forgot when he killed and turned such a creature into his shadow summon, but he never really called on it. It was Mutt who informed his master that there were still some useful shadow summons in the shadow realm that might prove useful.

"Who else is residing in the shadow realm?" Rino asked, and the sabre tooth wolf took a sweeping glance.

"Not many," the hound admitted. "Just maybe a few birds and insects. They're not monster birds and insects, although we have a monster bat and maybe some kind of monster plant. It's quite peaceful here, but nobody else can talk, so it can get a little boring."

Hearing Mutt talking about the summons that Rino never knew he had or how they turned into his shadow soldiers, the lich felt slightly guilty that he neglected them. Then again, any father of so many children would probably forget one or two. He tried his best not to feel guilty but patted the mouse on its head with a finger, silently promising to get some cheese cubes for its effort. Maybe he should assign Mutt the secondary duty of caring for his forgotten children. Yes, that would be more responsible of him.

Not delving too deeply over the accidental discovery of his other shadow summons, Rino spent the next few hours finishing his job while Noir took command over the expert miners.

By the end of the day, Rino returned to Town Zera with Noir using the newly installed teleportation pad. The hundred and eight bunnies were unsummoned for a while and resummoned once Rino was back in town.

Sending the miner bunnies off for a good soybean reward collection, Rino and Noir returned to the stone cottage where the three installed water wheels spun casually.

Inside, Rino saw how the weaving ladies helped themselves with one of the water wheel axles, connecting it to the weaving machine as they threaded linen and cut the woven cloth sizes accordingly. That's right, Rino had forgotten that they came over to weave his urgent order for miner hats and more miner gear for future mining works.

Standing up to bow at the sight of the lord's return, the weaving ladies quickly tidied the workspace and excused themselves. The cooks in the cookhouse welcomed Rino back with his requested pizza. Noir hopped off Rino's shoulder, lured by the scent of freshly caught fish. The lich did not blame him. However, there was a matter that took precedence before he ate.

Preparing a small bowl of cheese cubes, meat jerky and smoked fish, Rino went outside to summon Mutt.

"Master!" Mutt wagged his tail enthusiastically in greeting. The first thing he saw was all the treats in Rino's arm, and the biological reaction betrayed his loyalty when Mutt drooled without actual drool.

Rino chuckled. Yes, he might be a tad too mean to those who were not summoned often. Mutt looked at the meat longingly as he struggled to maintain professionalism in front of the food. It had been too long since Mutt ate, and the last time he ate anything had to be the feast after the hunting competition back in Noir Province. The king toads were tasty, but they could not be compared to what they could make now.

"Here, take these back to the shadow realm for the others to enjoy. The meat jerky is for you. From now on, you're in charge of collecting food for them to enjoy once a week. You can ask the cookhouse staff for food anytime and help with the hunting when I don't need to travel."

Hearing that he was entrusted with more responsibilities instead of just acting as Rino's mount, Mutt rejoiced and lowered his head to the ground as a sign of respect. Then, he grabbed the cloth bundle of treats and returned to the shadow realm to share it with Rino's other summons. 

After Mutt disappeared, Rino went back inside the stone cottage. There was still a lot of work to do, and Rino finished his dinner quickly. The pizza was delicious, but there were simply too many slices, so Rino let the cooks share it among themselves after snatching three from the huge bake.

There was a reason why pizza was comfort food for the busy lich. It could be eaten on the go without fuss as he worked, and Rino abused his new dark magic powers to have shadow tendrils feed him as he rearranged the firewood pile around the furnace area.

At the moment, there was no requirement to use that water wheel device for any smelting activities. Rino looked at the blacksmithing area and sighed. This was not a conducive workshop environment. Having the grindstone and cookhouse at one end, and the blacksmith workshop on the other, with a weaving station between, reminded Rino of the worst kind of industrial factories.

The first thing Rino needed to do was section the stone cottage into three smaller workrooms. He didn't want the heat from the smithing workshop to affect the weavers and their refined work.

Come to think about it, only the section in the centre of this long stone cottage needed soundproofing and an anti-disturbance barrier. The cookhouse was full of heat, fire, sounds and smells. The smithing workshop was full of heat and sounds. Thinking of it this way made things a lot easier for Rino.

The lich made a nice area for raw metal ores to be placed in crates away from the furnace. Firewood and a crate for coal ores remained closer to the furnace side opening that had a neat little trapdoor covering the entrance when not in use so that sparks wouldn't fly out of it and set the whole supply on fire.

The trap door was made out of a stone slab that had to be manually lifted and propped open with a wooden stick when fuel was shovelled into the furnace. It was mounted on a ledge with holes and locked into place with some carved stone bolts. This design must have been inspired by the windmill's two-ton grindstone plates and their axle problems. Rino smiled with pride. His subordinates were learning.

Apart from a place to store smelting items, Rino remembered that he needed an anvil to work melted metal on, a place for casts and a water source to cool off heated metal. He still had no idea how a proper blacksmithing workshop should look like. However, he could start making the necessary preparations for the spaces he needed.

After they finished cleaning the place up, the cooks left the cookhouse, and Noir watched Rino remodel the stone cottage from his corner. The lich paid no attention to the black cat who made himself comfortable on the food preparation countertop.

Calling upon the trolls for help, Rino placed orders for stone bricks to be carried out from the underground storage. At the same time, he assigned someone to prepare enough cement to construct two thin wall partitions between the three spaces in his long stone cottage, leaving a doorway between them so that anyone who needed to pass through could do so.

The construction would take all night, but Ace did not leave to return to his office. Those prayers could wait. If anything, he wanted to see Rino's reaction to the new daily quest and the reward. Phil told him that Rino might work harder and faster to claim the coming quest's reward, but he never told the god of prayers what it was specifically.

Curiosity won over the black cat, and Ace decided to help with the partition building as an excuse to remain around instead of returning to Rino's stone cottage for rest like the lich proposed. Rino found it odd that the black cat offered menial tasks that normally wouldn't interest him. However, he brushed it aside. Maybe Noir was bored.

As the time drew closer to midnight, Noir's behaviour went from helpful to just plain creepy. Rino felt those eyes follow him everywhere as he worked. Seriously, was Noir secretly plotting his demise or something?