To ensure that 8,000 bricks were sufficient to build that simple farmhouse, Rino checked the schematic twice.

The farmhouse had two bedrooms, a huge hall, a small kitchen and a storage room. The outhouse was included in the design, but it was not part of the main building. Rino found that slightly odd, but he could understand. It would be hard to sleep in the same place with the smell. Even though he was a lich and did not need an outhouse, Rino decided to build one anyway to turn that into a luxurious bath area.

After calculation for his modification, Rino decided to make 20,000 bricks instead. In fact, he would make them all out of clay instead of mud. He would need a lot of those for cement anyway. If he was going to make a house, he might as well make a comfortable one. The black cat was a guest he wanted to invite over. A single wall was simply too cold. Rino wanted a double wall with dried reeds as insulation between the brick walls. He would cover everything with cement later, so that’s a lot of ash he required. Not to mention, Rino needed a bigger kiln. This tiny thing isn’t going to cut out for mass production.

The Gods watched Rino contemplate over the number of bricks, and only Stephanie laughed.

“What a brick head,” she mocked. “Just make them as you go along. Why calculate? If you have spares, then just stack them up somewhere. Bricks will always come in handy.”

Irked by the Goddess’ wishy-washy logic, Ace was about to say something when Phil beat him to the punch.

“A true engineer knows how much resources are required to prevent wastage and collateral damage to the environment. Rino is calculating the number of bricks to produce according to the different building phases. It’s a smart move, although we should have made it easier on him by doing the calculations first before handing out the quest.”

Ark felt slightly guilty. He was a project manager and not very well advised about construction projects. The information Ark received from Phil about building a farmhouse was 8,000 bricks. He never considered the other factors. Then again, Rino’s consideration for a special design made Ace blush. Why did this lich put in so much effort for just one cat?

After calculating the chances of production failure, Rino rounded his total number of bricks to 50,000. He did not know if he could get the farmhouse built within three days, but it was best to worry later and do what he could now. There was no time for regrets. Even if he had to act bipolar all day just to replenish his mana for mana powered brick production, he would do so without hesitation.

Just like this, Rino found himself working harder than he ever recalled. As for that black ball of fluffiness, Rino thought about its name. With its fur as dark as night and eyes sparkly like the stars, there was no more befitting way of describing this talking cat who knew dark magic. Noir was going to be the cat’s name. Rino didn’t care. Nobody could tell him otherwise.

Ace bristled slightly when Rino decided on his name without consent. Stephanie was too busy laughing, and Ace shot the Goddess a glare only to see Ark struggling to keep a straight face. Even Phil had a small smile at the side of his mouth. The name was very simple but feminine. Ace should have seen it coming.

“Don’t worry,” Ark tried to console Ace. “Noir can be a gender-neutral name too. It just means black in his language, right?”

The God of Prayers sulked. Rino might not be thinking when he came up with that name. Making too many bricks must have turned him into a brick head somewhere along the line. Stephanie might be right about something for the first time. Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to smite the lich who was highly motivated at wanting to make that perfect home for Noir.

“I think you should visit him more often as Noir,” Phil commented. “He might be lonely with nobody to talk to and accompany him.”

Ace looked at Rino and wondered if that was true. If anything, Rino appeared happier now than he looked in the previous world as a court magician. Although the lich still complained about the sun and having to do work without any pay or appreciation, he wasn’t stressed or spiteful.

Slowly, they saw the shape of the kiln starting to form as Rino expertly wrung clay using water magic, fired them on high heat using the tiny clay kiln and slapped wet wood ash with crushed terracotta powder. The shadow tendrils never stopped working, and from his corner in the clay mine, Rino continued to weave cloth manually. It was a true sight to behold while listening to his alternating thoughts.

“The time they killed those three cats on the street, and I was too late to save them, I let the mother and her two kittens die. What a powerful magician I must be when I couldn’t even bring them back to life.”

Ark and Stephanie fell silent, listening to Rino’s depressing thoughts as his negative feeling welled up. The shadow tendrils worked twice as hard when Rino slipped into his negative thoughts that only spiralled. Ace was slightly worried about that mana going out of control, but Phil reassured them that Rino was still sane. He still knew what he was doing.

“His focus is still present. Take a look at those bricks. The kiln’s foundation is fully laid out now. He doesn’t make more cement than required for any layer, and the bricks are taken out on time. Rino still has his heart set on building this kiln and making his bricks. If he were to go past the point of no return, he would not be able to keep everything working so seamlessly.”

The Gods took a look at Rino’s complicated brick building system. The shadow tendrils looked like they were going all over the place at first glance. Some were manifested while others disappeared. They seemed to cross each other, merge together and break from time to time. However, their dancing never ceased. Upon closer look, Rino had a system going where each cycle would bake one batch of bricks just enough to finish laying one new layer of bricks of his huge kiln. The basket of cement mixture was also calculated and made just enough for him to finish laying that layer of bricks, just in time for the new batch of baked bricks to be ready.

Amazed, the Gods could not take their eyes off this complicated but highly efficient build manufacturing process. Rino wasn’t just a magician. He was a one-man factory and a true genius in his own league. Even Stephanie had no choice but to admit that the lich had talent.