Unable to speak, when Ace and Phil informed him that Rino submitted all the goods they needed to deliver, Ark and Stephanie were forced to eat humble pie. The scathing look Ace gave them sent them out of the office quickly to deliver the backed up orders.
"I think that you would have no problems if Phil and I took over redesigning the offering reward system?"
With an ugly expression, Ark agreed almost unwillingly.
"Would Rino turn in the crops steadily if you changed it?" Ark asked through clenched teeth. With Phil backing the arrogant young genius god, he started to understand why Stephanie was constantly trying to find faults with him.
Ace shrugged. "Depends on his mood. I could only do my best to appeal to him and hope that this smooths out the bad experience you've both caused him from the mismanagement."
Stephanie fumed but held her tongue. She simply picked up the packages and stormed out. Ark pulled himself together and donned that practised mask of calculated indifference, thanking Ace before he excused himself politely to deliver the goods.
"I look forward to the increased offerings under your wisdom," Ark smiled. "It's a good thing we have both of you on our team. Stephanie and I will start expanding our influences to gather more orders from other gods. If you have any requests for new items to introduce in the offering rewards shop, do let us know."
The false sincerity made Ace shudder after the team leader left. Phil shook his head and ignored Ark's attempt at making amends.
"Don't mind them, I extended Rino's time by a month so that he could concentrate on the other infrastructure projects he had in mind. Feel free to visit him as Noir anytime. I've set aside a bigger budget of our divinity for your use."
Making Phil a system administrator was probably the best thing Ace managed to do in this dumb team. Honestly, he did not need much divinity to do his task. However, he preferred not to be pulled by an overly tight leash by someone who did not know where they were going. With the generous budget allocation, Ace felt like he could finally breathe.
"Thank you."
Phil chuckled and ruffled Ace's hair like an affectionate grandfather. "Don't mention it. Now, maybe you should start working on that reward shop system. I'm clueless about currencies. If it were up to me, I would price the currencies the same as what they sold in vending machines here."
Hearing that, Ace shuddered. "I think I'll take care of the pricing. We don't want a GF credit inflation and Rino abdicating his kingdom building quest just yet. However, I think it's only right that he earns some of those precious sleep hours back. Do you have the list of orders that are currently on hold?"
As the gods busied away, Rino was finally back in Town Zera. All that monotonous farming work gave him some time to ponder about the windmill's failure and how he could improve that for the watermill.
Ping!
The quest was updated once more, and Rino observed that his deadline was adjusted accordingly like a reset. However, there was something strange about the numbers.
===
Daily Quest #21
Objective: Build a Windmill
Time Limit: 30 Days
Tutorial here.
Reward: Complex Food Recipe
Penalty: Deduct 24 hours of sleep upon failure and [Curse of Overtime] until quest is forcefully completed.
===
Wasn't that number previously fourteen? When did the gods become so generous? They didn't just extend his time. They doubled it! What kind of shenanigans were they playing at?
This time, Rino could not help but be a little wary. Apart from this little update, there wasn't anything else hinting at him what their intentions could be.
"Whatever," he concluded. Even if it was just a small apology, he could still put it to good use.
After reflecting on the possible problems he would face after finishing with the windmill, Rino decided that he needed to build a dam to control the flow of water and the speed. COnstructing that dam might take a while.
"My liege?" Sheila asked after Rino did not respond. They were still in the middle of sorting out the structural problems with the windmill when Rino zoned out.
Snapping back to the present timeline, Rino looked around. The trolls were still busy trying to haul huge wooden gears up the stairs of the half-built windmill while the pygmy dwarves struggled to attach the vanes to the main axle at an angle.
Time did not pass for them, even though Rino spent a good number of days in that punishment dimension. It took him a while to remember what he was doing before meeting Noir's master and mass harvesting crops for offerings.
"Oh, get the fairies to use the mana web array to power the windmill's area. We might not be able to complete the windmill mechanically, but with some magic, I think we can smooth some physical problems."
Calling the trolls and fairies to gather around, Rino gave them new orders. Before building the windmill according to the plan, the fairies would first enchant everything with a few spells. Mostly, they would enchant it with resistance, light-weight and waterproofing. Rino would draw a huge area array after the windmill was ready to remove moisture in the area for flour preservation.
"Use cement to seal any gaps on the outside and inside. Pack the walls with dry straws to prevent the chill from seeping in. We cannot light any fires in a windmill, and it is not wise to let any wind inside where the power is processed for packing. I will create a heat regulating spell, but the temperature cannot be too hot."
He was about to dish new orders and sort the duties of his town citizens when there was a system update.
Ping!
Curious, Rino sent them to work and excused himself, checking the latest update.
[Pricing in the Offering Reward Shop has been updated. Discounted rates are limited for a certain period. Kindly use them wisely.]
Discount?!
Rino had to tell his heart to be still as he reread the new system notification. He had no idea how the gods knew about this special D-word, but as a commoner and a very stingy baron, Rino loved discounts! Sales were always his weakness, and even if he had nothing particular to shop for, Rino would drop his research nine out of ten times when he heard that there was a sale festival on-going.
His fingers twitched, and before Rino realised what he did, he was already browsing through the updated Offering Reward Shop. The items there did not seem very different for now, but the prices were a lot more reasonable in addition to the number of things he could offer to the system in exchange for GF Credits.
Under the newest section of the shop tab right at the top was a special banner indicating the three-day time limit offer. Rino tapped on the "Read more" icon and had to sit down from too much excitement.
For only three days starting tomorrow at midnight, the Reward Offering Shop will accept any crops for GF Credits that could be used to turn in for unlimited sleep hours. The lich quickly checked the time as his brain worked on hyperdrive.
Compared to the urgency of building a dam or fixing his windmill, Rino could not pass up this rare opportunity and generosity by the usually mean gods. He would use this discount festival for farming as many crops as he possibly could and rope in as many of his shadow minions and fairies as possible. Anyone who participated will be duly rewarded in the form of alcohol. He only hoped Kragami and the beer production would keep up.
Designing a simple reason to pause every ongoing project, Rino decided to call this the Thanksgiving Festival. It was originally introduced by the church to raise funds for a crisis twenty years ago, appealing to the nobles by threatening them subtly using God's name.
The people who received donated food and survived the famine hailed the church's effort as something to be remembered. The following year, they bought lots of food and offered it back to the church during the same period. The king decided to commemorate the spirit of gratitude, naming the day Thanksgiving and every year. It was a grand festival right after a bountiful harvest.
Rino had no idea what kind of story he should spin for his Thanksgiving event. Would it be too soon? Maybe he could think along the same lines and come up with a new name. However, he soon realised that this opportunity happened because he was punished and not given reasonable time to complete his initial daily quest. Feeling a little bitter over thanking the people who landed him in this predicament, Rino decided against naming it Thanksgiving. Instead, he was going to make this a competition with beer as the reward.
Farm Festival? Beer Festival? Competitive Farming Day?
Rino sighed at his deplorable naming sense. He should ask Kragami for help.
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