27 Brick by Boring Brick
Rino returned with all twenty woven baskets full of clay. He hoped this would be all the clay he would ever need for a kiln.
According to the tutorial, he should use clay to build the kiln to fire and bake bricks to full hardness. More interestingly, mud bricks weren't the strongest kind of bricks. If anything, clay was a very important brick making material. Rino wanted to question the logic of making a clay kiln to fire some mud bricks, only to use more clay for more bricks. What use were these mud bricks, then?
Whatever. His head hurt. He had a magic cat to please, and Rino didn't have the spare time to consider anything else.
Rino found the brick mould from before and continued to mould these bricks. However, one mould was too little. He needed to make hundreds of bricks. He wasn't going to make a simple small kiln that could bake only five bricks. If he was doing it to fulfil the quest, that was fine. However, he had a house to build to satisfy the black cat. Rino needed something bigger and more capable of mass production.
As the sun rose, Rino started to feel slightly weak. Collecting clay now would be a bigger hassle than before. He needed some kind of shade, so Rino fashioned a large sun hat from twigs and large leaves that fell from his hemp plants.
The process was very repetitive. Rino built his small clay kiln by the clay mine and decided to shift his modus operandi instead of cluttering his living area with useless structures. The mud bricks were fired quickly in Rino's hastily built clay kiln. He didn't have time to search for firewood and simply controlled the heat with fire magic while letting the shadow tendrils continuously collect clay and mould them.
The clay bricks were quickly dehydrated, and Rino found himself digging a deep hole to throw the dehydrated water into. He had no time for proper disposal and wished that the cat gave him a little more time than three days after claiming the Farmhouse Schematic.
At the same time, Rino collected his Bone Crafting Recipe reward after making the small kiln that he continued to use to bake more clay bricks.
Ping! The side quest was finally updated.
===
Side Quest #7
Objective: Craft a Bone Needle
Tutorial here.
Reward: 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
===
Again with the eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. Rino decided to put this quest on hold. He didn't want to claim the sleep reward when he was so busy. If anything, he would prefer to claim the reward and apply that ability when he found the right time.
From above, Ark considered Rino's suggestions. It wasn't difficult to add a reward bank function for consumables. If Rino was happy to do more quests and claim his rewards later, it was mutually beneficial for the Gods too.
"What does everyone think?" Ark asked his team gathered by the reflecting pond.
Ace thought that it was an excellent idea. Stephanie didn't mind. However, she insisted that the rewards could not be used to escape punishment if Rino decides to sleep for a few days straight and ditch his daily quest.
"About that," Phil said. "I think it would be alright. Normal people sleep for eight hours a day. Rino doesn't do that. He works whenever he is awake, and even when he skives, it doesn't last too long. Rino deserves a rest day if you asked me."
In just a week that Rino came to this new small world, so much was happening. When Ark thought about it, he felt that Phil had a valid point, although Stephanie made sense. If they had an urgent project that could not be put off, Rino's use of his accumulated rewards could cause many inconveniences.
"What about a wallet for sleep hours as a currency?" Ace suggested. "We can limit a daily withdrawal of sleep hours, and Rino can decide how many hours of sleep reward he wants to use within the daily limits."
Ace's suggestion satisfied everyone's concerns, and Ark quickly excused himself to design the sleep reward system and an off day. Stephanie couldn't argue. It was an excellent idea.
Down at the clay mine, Rino worked hard. The sun did not make things easier for him. He sometimes went out of the shadow's range and caught on fire a few times. Not to mention, the heavy use of his magic was depleting his reserves. It did not matter how many depressing thoughts Rino recalled. Whenever he looked at the shadow on the ground, he was reminded of that magic black cat. That would put a smile on his non-existent face, and Rino's mana recovery would stop. It was a bittersweet feeling.
Ping! Finally, his new daily quest updated itself.
===
Daily Quest #4
Objective: Build a Farmhouse [Chain Quest]
1. Build 8,000 bricks
2. Make Cement
3. Lay bricks according to the schematic
Time Limit: 72 Hours
Tutorial here.
Reward: Sleep Reward Wallet.
Penalty: NA
===
Curious about the cement making part, Rino viewed the tutorial and felt his jaw slacken. Why did everything use so much clay?
The tutorial explained that cement was made from one part wood ash, one part smashed terracotta powder and water. He had to burn wood into wood ash and pour it into the water to make a kind of sludge before firing it to a solid clump. Then, Rino had to dilute that clump in the water again and add the terracotta powder to make the cement paste that dried in a few hours, so he had to work quickly once he got to that stage.
Making terracotta and smashing pottery clay was something he could do. He didn't need anything pretty so he could make tiles or something to smash. Wood ash was easy to make in a kiln. Rino had no complaints.
However, the three-step process of making cement that dries quickly cannot be hastened. Anything that could not be mass-produced hastily and automated was Rino's worst enemy. He had 8,000 bricks to make for the farmhouse, but already, Rino hated this monotonous process. He had to build this brick by boring brick on top of standing under the sun and risking damage if he got out of the sun hat shadow's protection.
How miserable!
However, Rino wasn't going to give up. The rewards were too good this time. ON top of that, this wasn't a 24-hour challenge. It was a chain quest with just about enough time to complete before that cute black cat returned. Rino was going to work hard to change that cat's mind.
