Monarch of Solitude: Daily Quest System

"It looks ripe."

"It is."

"How is your mana holding up?"

Rino sighed at the question. After activating the teleportation pad to bring his teacher over urgently, the necromancer insisted that Rino remained laying down or sitting to recover his mana.

"I'm fine," Rino reassured him. "I've dealt with worse."

That wasn't a lie. After knocking himself cold from over summoning the newly acquired goblin undead, Rino's current mana reserves were considerably better. However, it was still far from ideal, just barely above what the lich would consider safe levels.

The town's mana web array was not fully set up, and Rino had no idea what he would do if the monster horde from the Woods of No Return decided to launch a coordinated attack on his undeveloped town.

Kragami told his student that he would think of this as a work vacation. He was excited to check out the new town space and listen to what Rino had in mind for it. However, there was a pressing matter that Rino summoned him over for. The magic tree was bearing fruits, and this phenomenon wasn't heard of before. 

According to magic common sense, magic trees were like widowed ladies who would care for other species like their own children in return for power. They weren't actually capable of siring or birthing anything. Flowers were there for decoration, but they didn't turn into fruits.

Then again, this observation was for one magic tree. Rino crossbred two magic trees, and the result of that crossbred magic tree was producing fruits, ready to fall.

"They look like mangoes."

Rino blinked. "What are mangoes?"

Kragami chuckled. "Very delicious fruit with thick sweet juice but has an annoyingly large seed in the middle that could crack your teeth if you didn't know it was there."

It wasn't answering Rino's question, but the lich didn't have the extra energy to argue. He was sitting on a chair carried out from his stone cottage and watching the magic tree with his teacher in the middle of the night.

There was no mistaking that pulse from the fruit. It was alive, and whatever that was inside it wanted to get out. Kragami watched as the mana concentrated around the fruit, ready to explode. There were several fruits ripe enough to fall from the magic tree that grew to a respectable size.

"Did you name this tree?"

Rino slowly turned to look at his teacher. "Must I name it?"

Kragami snapped his neck so fast with round eyes. "It isn't your soul bonded tree, right?"

Rino shook his head slowly, and Kragami shook the lich taller than him by the shoulders, rattling teeth.

"What are you thinking? Name it now before the fruits fall! Magic trees, like monsters, aren't loyal to anyone unless they are named by a more powerful existence!"

Hearing this for the first time, Rino's mind blanked. He sucked at naming. Why was this a thing now?

"I don't care, just name it something… Genesis sounds good."

Rino took his teacher's suggestion as he wasn't fussy. "Genesis it is."

With that, the magic tree glowed in acceptance of its new name, and the fruits burst open in small flashes of light. Kragami shielded his eyes while Rino tried to see past the stabbing rays. What could it be? The crossbred magic tree between World Tree Rino and the Cypress Ghost Tree should have both its parent trees' traits. Did the fruit give birth to some monsters or mini magic trees?

The creature born from the fruit that exploded in light looked familiar. In fact, Rino knew those fluttering wings and humanoid figures that fitted in his palm. The only exception was the unusual aura around them. If they did not look like those gossip mongers, Rino would have thought they were dryads!

"Fairies?" Kragami breathed as the newly birthed magic tree fairies circled Rino. 

It was the first time he witnessed the birth of a fairy from a magic tree fruit. The normal process of evolution for faes started with a wisp of stray soul fragments that accumulated enough mana. Everything about these fairies made no sense, from their calm personalities to their amplified magical powers.

"Are you really fairies?" Rino asked after studying the five new faes.

The firstborn fairy nodded. "We're fairies but won't be able to evolve. Master, your strength is our strength in return. My sisters and I received the family name of Genesis to serve under you."

It was a strange explanation, but Rino was sure of it now. The fairies were different from the others who sold their souls to the World Tree. If anything, an easier explanation was that the fairies born from the Genesis Tree were extensions of it.

"Can you wield elemental magic?"

As if asking for a magic demonstration show, the five fairies displayed their level of proficiency with magic. Rino and Kragami felt their jaws fall open when the fourth fairy turned out to be a quad-elemental magic user. The least proficient was a dual-elemental magic user, and Rino wondered how much stronger these Genesis fairies could become.

Both master and student learned a lot about the Genesis fairies. They were intelligent, less social, more productive and had a colony mindset where the Genesis tree gives them orders based on Rino's command.

"Could you tend to the farmland? Crop harvest hasn't been great lately because we're severely shorthanded."

The Genesis fairy squad leader bowed and told Rino that she would see to it with her team. The five newly-born fairies flew away in a V formation, reminding Rino of wild migratory ducks.

"That was unexpected," Kragami slumped to the ground, holding onto his wooden staff, and Rino was glad he was sitting on a chair when all that happened. He was still reeling from the shock of learning how magic trees could birth overpowered fairies. There went his plans of using fairies to recruit other fae creatures to serve his new town.

On the bright side, the tree's fairy birthing methods meant Rino could slowly increase the number of labourers as he grew stronger. It was a small price to pay in comparison.

Moving their conversation indoors, Kragami made himself comfortable in Rino's cottage, tossing firewood into the fireplace and lighting it with fire magic. It wasn't very cold here as compared to Spudville, but wee mornings were always chilly.

"Why don't you give this town a name too while you're at it," the necromancer suggested. 

Rino thought about it. He might as well get this over and done with. Knowing his naming sense, he should get help from his teacher.

"Do you have any ideas?"

Kragami grinned. "Genesis town? You have the town's centrepiece already. Might as well make it a theme."

Rino grimaced. It was unoriginal. The town was the starting point for introducing luxury to the world. Leather was a premium good. Animal barns were novel ideas. The plans for a blacksmith workshop and living cave mineral mines wasn't a starting point. It was the start of the consumer revolution.

Then again, the methods employed here were only slightly better than what was going on in Spudville. Maybe Rino should take a step back. He started with practically nothing in Noir Province. Here, Rino had at least one seed to work with. 

"Zera. Town Zera."

That name held both the meaning of seeds and beginning, making Kragami's lips curl into a smile. Yes, it was a good name. Despite what Rino claimed, he had a decent naming sense.

The town was named, the magic tree was named, the fruit mystery was resolved. Rino looked at the number of things crossed out from his to-do list and marvelled at how productive he was despite getting forced to rest. This should happen daily.

"I guess I should start looking into completing Town Zera's mana web array," Kragami mused, and Rino agreed.

His teacher offered to help with the tedious process, so there was no reason to refuse. If anything, Rino helpfully supplied the old man with diagrams of his intended but unfinished magic circuit.

"There's too much to do, so I think the farm is a good starting point," Rino pointed to the detailed diagram of the mana web array, and Kragami agreed. The sooner the farm was up and running, the more they could focus on the perimeters and other aspects.

"Focus on recovering. Zera is in good hands. Also, your breeding grass is growing well. You can watch a show when dawn comes. I heard that your minions wanted to test it on the rabbits because they were the most active, although the birds would be subjected to it immediately after."

Rino blinked then growled. "I'm not going to watch my livestock get horny with each other. As long as they give me babies, that's all that mattered. I don't kink shame, so you can watch if you want. I'll provide the fried potato snacks."

Laughing as he left the stone cottage, Kragami gave Rino his peace. Mentally exhausted, Rino waited for dawn to come and the sun to rise before getting up to stretch his limbs.

No, he wasn't there to peek at the animals getting together. He was simply there to check on the effectiveness of the breeding grass. Anyone who thought otherwise should have their tongues cut out.