Monarch of Solitude: Daily Quest System

After pilfering mass graves for the last three days before his new daily quest updated, Rino saw a drastic increase in his population. He had almost two thousand new members of his shadow society, and while the labour crunch problem was resolved, new issues arose.

However, that new addition to his population wasn't enough to complete that side quest. On top of that, Rino wondered what gave his current townsfolk the arrogance to feel superior to the newcomers.

Sure, the newcomers were very unfamiliar with the system of Town Zera. However, they must have forgotten how everything began. Rino started this town without any support. Every villager that existed here was slowly introduced to the growing territory and integrated along the way. Nobody here was a native resident, so why was there discrimination against the newer townsfolk?

Ping!

Like clockwork, Rino's daily quest updated on the stroke of midnight.

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Daily Quest #33

Objective: Craft a Legendary Artefact

Time Limit: NA

Tutorial here.

Reward: Magic Tree of Fertility Sapling

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

===

NA? The first thing Rino's eyes gravitated to was the numbers in the deadline. He wanted to know what kind of attitude the gods were giving him for this quest's difficulty but was shocked to see that there was none.

What did this mean? Was this the end of his journey? After securing a steady supply of offerings for their faith, did the gods not need his expertise in this world anymore?

The lack of numbers in a daily quest had never happened before. Rino was starting to get used to the extremely volatile timeline for various projects, some more unreasonable than others, but he never thought that the gods would have a change of heart and provide him with a timeless deadline.

One part of the magician wanted to abuse this special privilege, but another part of him knew that trust was a two way street. Initially, he did not trust the gods, and they did not treat him well. While he was not a fool to think that they were giving him better treatment because they were afraid of him, Rino appreciated the space they were giving him for creation.

Presently, the more pressing issue was not thinking of a way to craft an artefact. Although Rino had never crafted an artefact in his previous life, he understood how it could be created. It wasn't difficult, but it was tedious.

Hence, the easiest way to tackle procrastination was to occupy himself with less important matters now that time was on his side. He had to find a way to settle the social problems in Town Zera before introducing a new influx of population.

Based on this quest's reward, the gods must want Rino to quickly expand his empire, and he could only think of two reasons why they needed more undead.

The first reason was probably more short-term. The gods still lacked faith and needed to increase Rino's population because there was education to teach his villagers the concept of offering sacrifices and thanks to the gods for what they have even though Rino should really be the one they worship for what they had.

The second reason was something that remained uncertain as it was only a guess. Based on the side quest's reward, Rino had a feeling this world was heading towards certain doom. The rapid population boom wasn't a happy thing. Children or undead were born to participate in the last war to save it. Even if Rino wasn't a saviour, he was shoved into the role of a king to fulfil the gods' prophecy.

There wasn't a choice in this war's participation. Rino had a feeling this was simply the prelude to something grander after he learned what he needed to know about Harvesters that not even the dwarves knew.

Either case, that was a problem for his future self. Rino did not feel like dealing with it now. This world wasn't his problem. He took care of the previous world already. His job should have been done, so this was just a retirement game.

Studying the social interactions between the newly summoned subordinates and those summoned earlier, Rino noticed how the discrimination occurred more strongly in monsters than humanoid creatures like the drows.

Kamiya's clan and the trolls outrightly did not want to accept the lamia race. Zerg's villagers were less hostile, but they mostly kept to themselves, not wanting to associate with the newcomers. The earth gnomes and drows were probably the only ones who were willing to teach the newcomers anything. Acht and his gang might do it too, but the shadow spectres were far too busy with other projects to assist.

The divided sentiments within Town Zera did not sit right with Rino. He did not build this town only to have it destroyed on the inside. The bathhouse rights were for everyone. Yet, those who were in charge of maintaining the bathhouse denied the newcomers access. Even if they allowed the newcomers access, there was obvious mistreatment in the duration they were allowed to use the hot springs and the priority of their entrance. 

Not to mention, the cookhouse preferred to serve orders of their regulars first, even if the newcomers placed their orders first. This wouldn't do. At this rate, the mistreatment will breed unhappiness that would fester into hatred. Rino could not afford to have his subordinates act divided in self-interest. The soul contract only stated that the shadow summon could not betray its master. The contract could not control how his summons interacted with each other.

Feeling a new headache building up, Rino summoned all the leaders of Town Zera to investigate the mistreatment and reason for doing so. Not everyone was guilty, but Rino had to educate them collectively so that nobody would think of doing anything funny behind his back when he left.

Zerg, Bink, Sheila, Kamiya, Acht, Quasimodo and the troll chief found themselves gathered in Rino's private cottage. The door was shut, and a soundproof barrier surrounded it, making the insides eerily silent.

Rino appeared solemn, more so than they usually saw him. The lich was sitting on his wooden stool by the fireplace, watching the flames crackle. There was no light in the small place, and only those with dark vision could make out his outline.

Making no indication to offer them a seat, Rino waited. He thought of a way to best break the subject and make them squirm in their skin for a while. The silence and stillness started to creep into their hearts as minutes passed without Rino speaking or making any motion in the dark.

Sheila considered speaking up to ask why Rino summoned them, but the oppressing atmosphere made her hold her tongue. They must have done something poorly, or something terrible has happened, enough to make their usually carefree lord behave so grave.

Apart from Sheila, the other leaders started to reflect on their recent actions, figuring out what they did to anger their lord. 

Quasimodo wondered if Rino was angry when he failed to milk one goat one time, causing the goat to dribble milk all over the barn's floor that he cleaned later. Was the waste of precious milk what made Rino angry?

Kamiya wondered if any of his clan members offended Rino lately. The last time there was trouble, it involved his clan members fighting with the drows over whose territory it was to patrol. Ever since his clan members were assigned to do different duties, the argument between the monster rabbits and drows lessened. In fact, they were happier with the arrangement.

The troll chief had no idea what he had done or not done to make Rino angry. However, Acht and Zerg had an inkling they knew what was bothering their lord. After all, Zerg had been trying with the help of his villagers to show the newcomers the rope. However, there were simply too many newcomers and too few teachers. He could barely cope with his workload on top of guiding so many clueless helpers.

Acht felt guilty for not being able to do more. He was busy planning logistic runs for the courier rabbits and overseeing the new sky palanquin car's testing while maintaining the tannery productions. The shadow spectre really tried to help as many newcomers as he could, but apart from giving them a town tour and explaining where they could approach others for assistance and assigning them their tasks with Zerg, the spectre didn't do much.

"Do you know why I've gathered everyone here tonight?" Rino finally broke the silence.

His voice worked like a magnet, grabbing all their attention at once. The purple soul flames dancing in his empty eye sockets burned hauntingly bright, reflecting the seriousness of his tone.

Almost at once, they fell to their knees and lowered their heads. Whatever they did must have been insufficient if their lord was disappointed. It was better to ask for forgiveness and question their wrongdoings after appeasing their lord's temper.

Seeing how afraid his subordinates were, Rino huffed. If they knew how to fear him, they should have learned how to serve him better.

"I said before that all my summons are equal.. I treat all my children fairly the same way I treat those who have sworn their loyalty to me. Yet, why is there a difference of treatment between those who belong to me? Do you think you're superior just because you were trusted with heavier responsibilities? Who gave you the arrogance to decide the worth of another individual when not even I have done so?"