Monarch of Solitude: Daily Quest System

Rino sneezed with the clattering of his teeth from the force. He felt uneasy as he cut the smallest branch from the magic tree. It felt as if he was being watched, but the lich could not tell where the enemy was spying on him from.

For now, he would ignore them. There was no point in thinking about what could not be helped. As long as they left him in peace, Rino would let them watch.

Basic elemental rune inscriptions were not difficult. Rino knew them at the back of his hand, so he did not check the tutorial. Magic was magic, after all. There was no need to read that tutorial. The good thing about runes was how they were not biased towards the undead. Rino could finally find a way to use light magic, even if it were to a limited extent. It was still heartening to know there was a future possibility.

The branch was harvested quickly, and Rino tested to see if it would grow if Rino used nature magic on it.

The lich almost whooped in joy when he saw how the branch sprouted some new leaves. Growing his very own magic tree sapling was now a possibility, and without delay, he stored the precious branch in his shadow sack before teleporting back to the farmhouse.

He knew just the spot for it!

As the farmhouse was built closer to Rino's storage pit and above that reservoir, he could not plant the magic tree near him. In fact, he wanted this magic tree to be somewhere safer. There was no place safer than his secret stone quarry. Unlike normal trees that needed sunlight and water to thrive, magic trees only needed a steady mana supply to grow.

Rino had no problem nurturing the tree with mana. In fact, he now knew the perfect way to use the space rock Fronzo discovered while hoeing the ground. Despite such inexhaustible and unstable mana energy, it created the best battery for mana this magic sapling needed. All he had to do was tweak the way he made the array.

The Gods watched as Rino used nature magic to grow the branch a little more, chopping at the new branches growing from his sapling. They had a brief idea about what Rino wanted to do but were slightly afraid when that glowing space rock was brought into the picture. Rino's unique rune inscriptions from the previous world were what caused the world's destruction. Nobody knew how to read his rune inscriptions or thought it was important to check it out. This time, they were more critical of his every action.

With the glowing space rock placed at the base of the newly planted magic tree sapling in the middle of the goblin's cave that Rino now turned into his stone quarry, the lich started his true work.

Thankfully, doing this would complete his current quest for crafting elemental runes of every type. Rino did not mind adding more flavour into the mana generated around the magic tree. After all, if he lived for long enough, Rino might see the birth of the very first six elemental magic tree. It was only a myth and theory that a magic tree could bless mana-less humans with magical abilities from their fruits if given the right conditions. However, it was difficult enough to find a magic tree with elemental magic properties imbued. Even so, the blessing in their fruits was not enough to fully awaken the dormant abilities of magic in a mana-less person. The most that those fruits did was awaken the magical talent within a beast and turn it into a monster that the ex-court magician had to put down.

The tree might not turn lizards into dragons, but it could turn a common fox into an elemental fox monster that razed farms for miles. The level of damage that menace caused was severe enough to be a threat when the king had to order the granary to be opened and food to be distributed for these unfortunate farmers. Rino remembered being tasked to set magical barriers around these trees to prevent others from exploiting them for evil uses. At the same time, it was a subtle way for the kingdom to expand their territory and conquer the lands that belonged to nobles.

Normally, Rino would use blood to strengthen the bond of the rune inscription language used to convince the spirits of his sincerity. However, as an undead, he did not have blood. Breaking bones to shape it in the form of the language wouldn't work even if he tried. Hence, there was only one alternative to creating a very powerful rune.

None of the Gods was magic experts, even though they only knew the basics of magic taught from the Academy. Hence, when RIno started carving complicated patterns on the rocky ground around the magic tree and glowing space rock, they panicked.

"Quick, stop him!" Stephanie gripped Ark so tightly that her brother almost stopped breathing.

Even Ace, who was usually collected, stood up. He leaned forward to get a better look at the rune inscriptions Rino was making on the ground. It looked similar to the ex-court magician used in his lab, but nobody knew what it was. After all, this was a foreign language that was probably invented by Rino.

"Wait," Phil stopped the younger Gods from acting recklessly. He spotted something that might clear Rino's suspicions of destroying the world.

"Look at that. It's an archaic language mixed into the rest of the gibberish. I can understand it as 'contain element'. It's probably not made to destroy the world."

True enough, more of the foreign language started to make sense as Rino's rune inscriptions spanned over the floor almost two meters from where the centre of the tree sapling was. The lich looked like he still had a lot to draw before it was ready for activation.

Calming down, the Gods stared and tried to study the foreign language. Truly, it was astounding that they only understood a few words used in the most ancient languages forgotten by most humans. Once more, they could not help but be astounded by just how brilliant Rino was as a magician. That invented language was complicated to look at, but the effects were not to be underestimated.

When RIno finished the last carving, he stood up and looked at the impressive rune circle. All that was missing now were a few runes to put in the placeholders he created.