Monarch of Solitude: Daily Quest System

Ace wasn't disappointed when the gods complained that Rino was eating away at their divinity and ignoring the severity of the punishment quest. Ark was frustrated. Freezing time to bring Rino into a system dungeon to harvest the crops for offering while giving him free will was a test of their patience.

Although Rino's connection with his minions was severed, he still had his mana. How difficult was it to harvest the crops that Rino already grew? They made the special punishment dungeon so that harvesting was easier on Rino, and he did not need to spend time travelling between two provinces to keep up with the order requirements. Rino also made it clear that he did not feel like making his summons work overtime. His desire to shoulder all responsibilities moved Ark momentarily but now, the god was regretting it.

Even Stephanie had to laugh at her brother's decision. She could always increase the harshness of the punishment, but Ark refused. Phil's smug expression and Ace's satisfaction made the team leader continue sticking to his guns. Besides, it wasn't as if there was completely no progress made. It was a snail's pace, and the system completely deducted all of Rino's accumulated sleep hours. It could not deduct what Rino did not have, so the balance continued to maintain at zero.

Once Rino found out, he laughed for a good while and wondered what he could do in this special punishment dungeon. There really wasn't much the gods could do to him here after he had no sleep hours left. They could always smite him, but the lich doubted they would do it. If magicians were limited by the amount of mana they had, gods should be limited by something similar. Rino concluded they were only doing this because they were at the mercy of something greater than the gods monitoring him.

Revenge was best served cold, and Rino savoured every moment of his punishment. Honestly, it was rather peaceful in this dimension. His mana no longer depleted even if it did not increase. The manual labour was also somewhat therapeutic. It was easy to forget that it really was a punishment for him, and Rino sometimes forgot that he was meant to be building a windmill as he filled up new sacks of soybeans.

When the sleep wallet was emptied, Rino expected the system to make him owe sleep hours from deduction, but nothing of that sort happened. If anything, it simply gave an error message saying that no hours were detected in the wallet, and the balance remained at a constant null.

"One potato, two potatoes, three potatoes…"

Rino's counting drove Ark crazy. The gods who were fed up with waiting started threatening his team and even warned Ark that the deal was off if they did not deliver soon. With the pressure from above, the team leader could not help but hate how idle Rino was in comparison.

"You brought this upon yourself," Ace yawned as he leisurely answered prayers, keeping an eye on Rino.

Phil said nothing and remained neutral. His expression was unreadable, which made Ark very uncomfortable. Stephanie was worried and offered to increase the punishment difficulty by taking over Rino's body to speed the process up, but Ark declined. Taking direct control of a chosen one's body consumed more divinity than sending an incarnate down.

"How many sacks of offerings do we have now?" the leader asked, and Stephanie counted them.

"If he sends the current sack of soybeans, we'd have at least a third of whatever he submitted so far. It's far from the quota required, but we should be able to partially deliver the more urgent orders."

Hearing that they had about a third of whatever they needed, Ark felt a headache starting again. A third of the orders they needed was far from enough. The bulk orders and bigger clients who threatened everything to be delivered in the next few days made up almost seventy percent of the quota they set for Rino.

"Ace, do something."

Ark's sudden order surprised Ace. However, he didn't care if they were in the same boat now. Even if their team was demoted, he had a feeling there would be more dire consequences for the dumb siblings than for him. He had no idea what would happen to Phil but honestly, he didn't want to be told to clean up someone else's mess.

"No."

Shocked that Ace outrightly disobeyed an order, Ark gaped like a fish. Stephanie shrunk back when she saw how fury was building up in the clenched fists. Her brother rarely became angry, but when he did, it was rather scary.

Phil, who remained silent from the beginning, raised a brow at Ark. "Are you asking Ace to clean up the mess you made?"

The question worked like cold water over a raging boner, and Ark's anger died down. Ever since Phil's lightly veiled threat, the team leader did some digging into Phil's background. The god of landscaping was retired now, but he was no minor god in his prime. What a creator level god was doing on their team remained a mystery to Ark. Phil might not be a very important god now, but there were still those within the upper echelon who would pull favours for him if he asked.

"I-I didn't mean to do that. It's just that at Rino's current rate of working, we won't be able to deliver all those orders on time."

The tension was stifling, and Stephanie held her breath. On one hand, she was concerned for her brother and their status as gods if they lost the deal. However, Rino really did not deserve what he was going through now. Ace might be right the first time. If they asked nicely and negotiated instead of trying to oppress Rino, things could be very different. Unfortunately, the pride of gods got in the way of the bigger picture.

Putting aside their differences temporarily, the four gods looked at Rino talking to the wheat stalk he cut down. Phil and Ace shared a look. After the incident with Phil and Ark, the god of landscaping went to find Ace to explain himself. Ace was hurt by the initial betrayal and was very doubtful. However, something about Phil's plan made Ace wonder why the god of landscaping never acted earlier if he knew about the corrupted situation and games that the siblings were playing.

Without much of an option, Ark was willing to consider anything. He absolutely did not want to be the villain, but he still wanted results.

"I have a solution," Ace announced and paused. "However, I have a condition for the both of you."

Nervous, Ark and Stephanie waited for it. 

"Give Phil your system administration rights and limit Stephanie's domain access. I don't appreciate how you locked some of my domain functions. The use of divinity in our group should not be up to your sole decision."

Giving Phil rights to the system as an administrator meant that Ace no longer trusted him as a team leader. Feeling insulted and humiliated, Ark tried to negotiate, but Ace cut him off crudely.

"I don't think you have time to negotiate about power and rights. All your decisions up till now have proved nothing but a huge disappointment to everyone. I can't say that it would be better if I was in charge. Hence, asking Phil to assist and guide us as an assistant leader isn't such a terrible idea. The one stirring up trouble the most from the beginning till now has to be Stephanie. Her words and actions constantly antagonised our chosen one. Hence, my request for her access to be limited isn't unreasonable."

Nothing Ace said was wrong, and the siblings couldn't refute.

"I'll do it. Just help me to settle all the orders, will you?"

Smirking, Ace glanced at the disobedient child in the punishment dimension. Instead of harvesting the taro seriously, Rino took the time to practice drawing new magical arrays in the soil.

"Sure. Send me down again, and I'll talk to him."

Ark looked unsure, but Ace and Phil insisted on it. Ace wasn't sure if appearing as Noir in that strange dimension would give away his identity. However, Phil assured the god of prayers that Ace did not need to show up as Noir. He could assume the form as Noir's previous master instead. They worked on the storyline, and Ace had to admit, he was glad Phil wasn't his enemy.

The god of prayers might be smarter than those siblings, but Phil was like a crafty fox when he was serious. Those siblings and foxy trickster goddesses were no match for someone previously part of the upper echelon. His ploy to put the arrogant team leader in his place was something Ace supported wholeheartedly. However, he declined Phil's offer to help him move up the ranks of godhood.

The weight of responsibility that came with power was something he and Rino despised. It was why, out of the four gods watching over Rino, he was the best candidate to convince Rino to stop throwing a tantrum and return to what he had to do.