Monarch of Solitude: Daily Quest System

Placing the womanticore's transformed core into the hollow space of Staff Zeraphina, the weapon finally came to life.

Zing!

As the new artefact awakened, Rino realised that Staff Zeraphina was on a different level from the four low-levelled artefacts crafted by the dwarves.

Commanding the other weapons in the secret vault with its aura, Staff Zeraphina expanded its area of influence all over Town Zera like a gentle spring breeze. The harmonising effect of an artificial soul born from a yin-yang philosophy was amazing. Rino could hardly believe what he was seeing. Staff Zeraphina lay lazily on its resting rack, reminding Rino of its resemblance to himself.

With this, the daily quest with no deadline was finally completed.

Ping!

===

Daily Quest #33

Objective: Craft a Legendary Artefact

Time Limit: NA

Tutorial here.

Reward: Magic Tree of Fertility Sapling

Claim your reward here.

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

===

Claiming the magic tree sapling, Rino wondered how long it would take for the gods to assign him the next daily quest. In the meantime, it was a good opportunity to encourage relationships in his empire.

Wasting no time, Rino chose a spot to plant the magic tree of fertility. He wanted more couples to make careless commitments and produce babies. The tree of fertility was not choosy about who the parents were.

In fact, as Rino read what it could do with his appraisal skill, he was rendered speechless.

Did the gods support monogamy or polygamy? Why could the same couple create children with other partners as long as there was consent and commitment to the child's creation?

Apart from taking portions of the parent's mana as a price for child creation, the tree of fertility did not care if the parent was one person wishing for a child or twenty people wishing for one child. It would produce children according to a sample of the wisher's DNA after receiving payment.

In other words, children with three parents or only one single parent could be born. Children between the crossbreed of impossible races were now possible. Deezer and Sheila immediately came to mind, and Rino felt a little happy at the outcome. The unlikely couple may now procreate without having to figure out how to tango within the sheets for it to happen.

Non-compatibility cases between races became a needless concern with this new magic tree that answers any calling for a fair price. Rino had no idea how many of his villagers were keen on baby-making without the actual act of baby-making. However, he wanted to put a foot down and create rules. Babymakers must be responsible for the babies they produce. He did not want his town to be overrun by uncared brats with a knack for destruction.

In any empire, it would be impossible to prevent orphans. As an orphan himself, Rino understood the hardships and never wished it on anyone else. Parents would die from circumstances, and children would be left alone in the world. Fate normally played a huge part for orphans.

However, nobody should ever be an orphan in the empire of undead and magical creatures who were close to immortals. Sure, the way the babies were made could be a little strange. Rino did not want to kink shame anyone or think about how uncles could be making babies with their nephews or siblings deciding to make a younger sibling together a few generations later. It was unethical, but they were dead. Why would things like this apply to his city?

Hence, the only rule Rino wanted to include was that a child born from the tree of fertility must have a registered caretaker responsible for their upbringing and actions. He wanted to rapidly increase his population to the required number stipulated by the gods in his side quest but judging from how he only had half the current population required to meet the target, Rino did not have the resources needed to support five thousand new babies all at once.

Sighing heavily, Rino had a feeling this could be a very long project. Children took fifteen years to reach maturity, and even if Rino expanded his production and accommodations to support the new generation, these things would take time. Every five years, a new batch of children could be created to space things out a little more and lighten the load from existing parents.

From above, Stephanie could not help but laugh when she heard Rino's troubled thoughts. Why did the lich think that the magic tree of fertility would give birth to wailing infants that needed to wean from their mother's breast for a year before they could learn to walk and talk?

She might have forgotten to introduce the special features of the unique magic tree, but honestly, it was more fun to let Rino figure it out himself. Stephanie spent a lot of her divinity budget on this stupid sapling, so the lich should be grateful that she was taking care of all his domestic worries.

Phil and Ace were still busy working on the next phase of the kingdom building project, and they did not expect Rino to complete the artefact so soon. In all honesty, nobody thought that Rino could create an artificial soul using the method he employed. Ordinarily, an artificial soul could take years to cultivate. The tree of fertility was only something to help Rino increase his population quickly by the time a few years passed. In fact, the tree of fertility wasn't meant for Town Zera's project. It was for the uncompleted project that Ace and Phil were still arguing about.

Ark stopped by and wondered why his sister was giggling madly. She used to hate watching duties and never got along with Rino. Yet, he could not understand her gradual shift in opinions and behaviour about the mortal subject.

True, Rino might be brilliant and more capable than Ark thought he would be. However, no matter how strong a pawn was, they were only pieces on the chessboard in the game of gods. A pawn that would not obey instructions was a hindrance to his grand plan. That much never changed in Ark's eyes, even if the results Phil and Ace produced after taking over the small world management improved.

Taking a break from his work, Ark sat beside Stephanie to observe what Rino was doing.

The lich found a spot in the grazing field that his barn animals rarely used because they were very pampered with many assistants bringing them food. Sometimes he thought that these animals were treated better than royalty. It was envious to think about it, but that wasn't why he was here.

The sapling was tossed onto the grazing field, and Rino wondered how long it would take to become a tree. Maybe he should be watering it instead of standing around.

Rino turned his back and was about to leave when he felt the ground beneath him shake. The structure of his barn was compromised as it swayed dangerously, frightening the workers and animals inside.

By the time Rino turned around, the sapling was already sprouting towards the sky with more leaves and more branches as it broke through the soil, digging its roots deeply into the field. The destruction of peaceful scenery was the last thing on Rino's mind. Instead, he was more worried about the seemingly never-ending growth spurt of this magic tree. If it continued to grow at the alarming rate it was doing, Rino would run out of overhead space to contain it. The barrier would be breached, and consequences would be unthinkable.

Thankfully, the Tree of Fertility stopped growing the moment it reached the windmill's height. Rino heaved a sigh of relief just as more townsfolk ran to the site of commotion, dropping whatever they were doing.

Kamiya's clan arrived the fastest and were fully armed with weapons while the farmers nearby came with their mattocks and fierce expressions. Sheila and the earth gnomes were the next to arrive, even if they were working in the mines quite a distance away. The field quickly became crowded, and Rino reassured them that it was not an enemy attack.

Many curious folks stared at the new large tree in the middle of the animal grazing pen. Where did such a large tree come from?

Seeing that almost all of his town was gathered here, Rino decided it was an excellent opportunity to make his announcement. Although he did not plan the revelation this way, Rino decided that there was no point in delaying the news when he could let them know now and be on his way. After all, he had a feeling several couples could not wait to make babies.

"Everyone settle down! I have an announcement to make."

In five short seconds, the commotion died, and everyone trained their eyes on Rino, who amplified his volume so that even those at the edge of his town could hear the important announcement.

"This is the Tree of Fertility gifted by the gods for dutifully providing them with the offerings they needed. For a limited time, the tree will remain in Town Zera, and anyone who wishes for children could pray to it for a child. The only condition I have is that every child born from this tree will be raised responsibly with love."

The announcement caused a huge wave of excitement, and Rino thought it was a good time to disappear before some of his subordinates had funny ideas to ask him to become a co-parent.

With his job done for the day, Rino retreated to the safety of his study for a well-deserved nap.