It was still afternoon and the heat became terrible enough for Rino to live indoors permanently. He looked at his system window and claimed the reward for that side quest.

===

Side Quest #10 (Complete)

Objective: Discover the speed of darkness.

Reward: Master the teleporting skill.

Claim your reward here.

===

The moment he claimed the reward, Rino could feel his understanding about teleporting and the shadow realm increase. The profound concept paved the road to more new ideas that Rino could not wait to test out. The possibility of crossing over to a different realm made Rino excited. Perhaps more could be done within that mirror world of silence.

Now, there was a problem. As Rino lay on his bed in the farmhouse, he could feel the tension between his shadow slaves. The humans were not as accepting as the goblins and Mutt was. There were two factions within his shadow slaves and even if Rino could command them, it was difficult to make them coexist peacefully.

Thankfully, the human souls he captured were able to talk, and Rino decided to summon the most outspoken one who seemed like the ringleader instigating everything. The man should be a warrior or combatant of some sort while he was alive because of how quickly he was threatening to pummel others who disagreed with him.

“You,” Rino pointed at him. “Tell me your skills.”

The ring leader kneeled on the ground as he appeared before his summoner. Looking into those hollow eyes and listening to the telepathic voice made him shiver. As an undead now, the man could not defy his master’s command.

“I’m a hunter with the best archery skills of my village.”

Rino wasn’t too surprised at the claim. He did find some kind of quiver buried along with this man, even if his bow rotted away over the years. That arrogance told Rino what he had to work with. However, he was hoping for more than just this.

“Anything else?” he asked, and the hunter felt a chill listening to that voice shoved into his head.

“I-I can dance really well?”

Rino rolled his non-existent eyes and dismissed this man, mentally classifying him as unimportant for now. This man should continue to serve as his mana replenisher.

“Next,” Rino summoned a meek and quiet boy who looked like he was only fourteen when he died. “What are you good at?”

The teen was humble and did not dare meet his summoner’s eyes. “M-my lord, I’m not good at anything.”

Rino wanted to sigh. Of course, what would a fourteen-year-old lad know about the world? Instead, he rephrased his question.

“Can you farm?”

The teen hesitated a little before nodding slightly. His skull wobbled, and Rino felt a spark of hope at his reply.

“A little, my lord. My father taught me some before he died. I was sent to work as a stablehand by my mother when the drought came.”

A stablehand and a farm boy, Rino found the perfect candidate. Not to mention, this boy had a pleasing personality. Surely, he could get along with the goblins that Rino left under his command, right? Compared to the swollen-headed hunter, this boy was someone Rino saw potential in.

“Do you know how to plant potatoes?”

The boy nodded without hesitation this time, and Rino queried how potatoes would be grown from seeds. He did not want to seem like a fool, but the potato plant he grew earlier was a failure. Honestly, he did not know what potatoes were or how they were meant to look like.

The farm boy paused oddly when Rino asked him how they were grown from seeds. In theory, he knew how they worked. However, in practice, most people never grew potato plants from seeds. It was inefficient, so unless there was a drought and the fields were wiped, nobody used seeds to plant potatoes.

“M-my lord, pardon me, but must we start from a seed?”

Rino cocked his head to one side. “What do you mean?”

Stuttering, the farm boy explained that the best way to grow a potato was from a potato. Rino felt like he was told a long, tedious argument between the chicken and the egg’s origin at that vague explanation.

“Can you repeat that one more time? You grow a potato from… a potato?”

The farm boy trembled at the master’s tone. If he was still alive, he might have soiled his pants from just that voice alone, never mind the dark aura threatening to suffocate him. Rino looked at the small skeleton and sighed. There was no use terrorising the farm boy who was only doing what he was told. Instead, Rino got up and checked the sun. It was a good thing that Rino spent so much time trying to sort out the nonsense of his shadows that the sun was going down.

“Here,” he tossed his newly woven blanket at the little skeleton. “Wrap yourself in this. Show me how to grow a potato from a potato. There must be some left. Also, grab those tools from the shed outside near the bathhouse. You might need them.”

Hearing his master’s newest orders, the skeleton bolted upright and scurried to find the tools while draping the blanket over himself. They made their way over to the edge of the forest where Rino grew that huge potato plant.

For some reason, the lich wondered if he could divide his summons into different sections. He needed some for general labour, some for hunting in case Noir dropped by, some for farming and some for weaving.

As of now, there were about a hundred different shadows under his command. More souls were lingering in the grave than he originally thought there were, and Rino was happy that not everything needed to be summoned with a body. The souls whose bodies were completely destroyed could be summoned as wisps. They were very mana savvy, although they could not do much. Still, Rino could borrow them as scouts or telekinetic movers if he needed them. They turned out to make good weavers and reservoir maintainers.

There was only a small problem of summoning everyone at once. Rino’s mana capacity was not as big as he hoped it would be, and depending on who he summoned, his mana regeneration ability could not keep up. As such, he had to prioritise, much like how any ordinary sane person would prioritise their chores.

Today, Rino decided today was officially farming day until he figured out how potatoes worked. He did not notice how the farm boy’s jaw slackened when they stopped at the fallen potato plant.

No, it could no longer be called a plant. If anything, it resembled some sort of ground vine with berries and leaves.

“No,” Rino turned to the farm boy. “Show me how to grow a potato from a potato. You may use those tools at your disposal.”