Filling up his newly made reservoir was a tall task. Even the Gods were impressed Rino lasted so long using multiple spells concurrently. It was safe to say that the lich was a monster. No regular liches could do a tenth of what Rino accomplished, even if they excluded his nimble fingers and weaving skills.
"Do you think he would revolt if we increased his workload?" Stephanie wondered.
Ark looked at his crazy sister. "Do you want him to revolt?" he asked and poked her forehead with full force. "Don't cause more trouble for him. It's good enough that there is progress."
The Goddess in charge of the life cycle pouted. "But I put in a lot of effort in making the punishment system! When are we going to use it?"
Ace groaned. "Think about our divinity accounts, will you? Why would you be stingy over sending messages but allocate so much divinity into the punishment system? The man hasn't even done anything out of line. Look at him! He built a functioning water supply without us having to issue it as a daily quest. This is a mid-stage thing."
The God in charge of prayers had a point, and even Phil agreed. Their candidate might have a disagreeable personality. However, he was doing very well. It hasn't even been a week. There was no need to cast judgement so quickly. Everyone had a different working style. There would always be friction in the beginning whenever a new team was put together. It was so for Gods and more so for mortals.
Unaware of the argument up in heaven, Rino rested for a while. He couldn't feel his depleted mana recovering fast enough. How odd! Magicians should be able to recover their mana passively and quickly if they had nature around them. Mana was life energy, and magicians were containers for the life energy they absorbed from their surroundings. He couldn't understand what was wrong.
His thoughts started to spiral darker when he realised how precious magic was to an undead. Perhaps creatures of the dark recovered mana differently? He really needed to learn more about dark magic before it was too late. Due to his excitement at his newfound freedom, Rino failed to consider safe mana limits and over-exhausted himself. If his high-speed regeneration ability depended on his mana, Rino wouldn't survive a hit from the monster moths.
The depressing concerns and worries unknowingly helped Rino refuel his depleted mana supply, not that the lich was aware of it yet. He continued to think of alternative plans to work safely and a defence arrangement for his humble hideout.
Twenty minutes later, Rino did not feel as weak or tired as before.
"Hm? My mana seemed to have recovered on its own. What happened?"
Clueless, Rino did not dare to splurge on spells. He had a few things left to do using magic to hasten the material preparation process. Thankfully, the Gods did not specify the quantity Rino had to finish preparing. He could do a small bundle of flax, hemp, cotton and silk each.
The easiest way to counter procrastination, from Rino's experience, was to start with the easiest tasks that took little to no effort. Hence, he started with the silk threads he collected into a large yarn.
===
Tutorial:
[Silk Processing]
1. Unravel silk threads from cocoons.
2. Dye the silk in the desired colour. Wash and dry. (optional)
3. Twist them while winding them into a spool for weaving and sewing.
===
Looking at that description, Rino would consider this almost complete. All he had to do at this point was twist the threads and wind them into a spool for weaving and sewing.
It wasn't hard to make 4 spools fashioned from wood. Rino was quick with his knife work, even with a rat bone blade. The spools weren't the evenest in size, but they served their purpose as Rino cut a meter off the main silk yarn to coil it around the spool.
===
Side Quest #3 (25% in progress)
Objective: Prepare the materials for weaving.
Tutorial here.
Reward: Uninterrupted sleep for 8 hours.
===
Rino grinned when he received that message. It was exactly what he wanted. With one down, there were only three more to go. The second least complicated material to process would be cotton.
Not wanting to waste too much of his collected cotton pods for thread making, Rino chose the smallest pod and started spreading the white fluff inside. There were several little black seeds where the white fluff grew around, and Rino frowned as he referred to the tutorial. Those had to go.
===
Tutorial:
[Cotton Processing]
1. Separate the cottonseed from the cotton fibres.
2. Spread and card/comb cotton fibres to smoothen it out.
3. Draw/stretch cotton fibre strands into thinner strips, separating them.
4. Twist stretched cotton threads and stretch them out while winding them into a spool for weaving or sewing.
===
Rino looked at the second step. The cotton was starting to fly everywhere with the breeze in his mud hut, so he had to seal it up and work in darkness. It was difficult to make a comb. However, he remembered the dead rat and the rib bones he threw out. They might be too thin to use as a weapon, but for a comb, they were perfect!
Locking his cotton in the mud hut, Rino went to the place he tossed the rat carcass to. However, he approached stealthily. There were other creatures around the spot, and Rino readied his earth spikes. Ravens were finally here to finish off the carcass. What a lucky day for him!
The Gods watching Rino were not ready to see more massacre. Those ravens feeding on the rotting rat corpse earlier now joined the rat in death as Rino drowned their corpses in a water bubble while heating it with his fire magic.
"Do you think he is hungry?" Stephanie squinted.
Liches shouldn't need to eat or feel hunger. Why was Rino cooking the poor ravens? As they watched, Phil started to understand what the ex court magician was doing. He couldn't help but admire the lich's innovation.
Rino saw how the corpses were changing colour. Hence, he stopped boiling the water bubble and let the water bubble burst.
The corpses were steaming, but Rino got to work immediately with his bare hands, the perks of being undead. He plucked the feathers dry, gutted the birds and separated flesh from the bones. Rino cleaned the bones, polishing even the rat bones. He had a plan for them - a plan that might give him more resources he sorely lacked.