Novel Bin Chapter 46 - Stupid Spuds
Midnight came quickly while Rino and his farmhand were moving potatoes to the teleportation pad.
Ping!
The familiar sound made Rino pause. He looked at the chaotic mess and told the farmhand to take command of this unholy operation of multiplying potatoes before calling a few goblins to assist. The goblins chattered angrily at the sight of a human skeleton but a harsh eyeballess glare made them cooperate.
While the goblins worked with his farmhand in the background, Rino turned to leave. If anything happened here, he would punish all of them.
He headed back to the farmhouse hastily, ready for the next daily quest. Whatever it was going to be, Rino knew that his reliable farmhand knew what to do.
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Daily Quest #7 [Chain Quest]
Objective: Prepare the field for a potato farm
1. Weed the field
2. Plough the field
Time Limit: 2 Days.
Tutorial here.
Reward: Shadow Sack Inventory Skill
Claim your reward here.
Penalty: Deduct 8 hours of sleep upon failure and [Curse of Overtime] until quest is forcefully completed.
===
Rino looked at the quest again. Another chain quest? He was slightly confused. It was simply preparing the field for farming potatoes. According to the tutorial, he only needed to prepare one acre of land. Would weeding and ploughing take that long?
Then again, he wasn\'t the expert. Once the farmhand was done with moving the potatoes, he would consult him. In the meantime, Rino had to worry about a good potato storage solution. Unlike wood and plant fibre, potatoes were edible, and the last thing Rino wanted was for his hard grown potatoes to rot.
At the same time, he wondered if he could use magic over the next two days to grow more potato plants from the seed he had. After all, he might not have enough potato seeds to sow an acre full of these things yet. The cross-pollination thing that he read from the tutorial also sounded fairly interesting. Could he grow bigger potatoes if he cross-bred it?
The field was decided to be far from the edge of the forest. Rino did not want any wild animals barraging and trampling on his precious crops. In fact, he wanted to build some sort of barricade around the potato fields to deter any trespassers. The tutorial mentioned that potatoes were susceptible to many external threats, including temperature, climate, disease and bugs.
These spuds were a handful now that Rino thought about it. They weren\'t easy to grow or harvest. In fact, the more he read, the more headache he had. Potato seeds took about a month to grow on potatoes, and not all of them will grow into potato plants. Those that did would turn into five to eight plants if they were given the right condition.
The right conditions were a slightly warm but damp dark location that Rino currently did not really have. Too much water would cause these spuds to rot, and Rino did not want to risk it. The tutorial mentioned that he should see \'potato eyes\' sprout in a week to know which are good potatoes capable of becoming seeds and which potatoes are just not going to turn into plants. However, it still took these eyes about two weeks more to become small plants that can be placed into the soil.
This process was simply too lengthy, and Rino wondered how the Gods were going to assign him this quest. From growing the potato to harvesting them without the aid of magic, Rino had a feeling it was going to be a very long chain quest.
Up above, Ark sighed. He agreed. Phil suggested something to help with this lengthy chain quest that made a lot of sense. A repetitive quest was a thing now after they wanted Rino to turn in more tools. However, if Rino failed to water for a single day, the spuds would die and suffer. They couldn\'t really risk the growth of Rino\'s first harvest using such a system. There had to be something more efficient before they introduced a quota quest. That was something the Gods were still discussing over. It was why they gave Rino two days for the weeding and ploughing for an acre of field.
Ultimately, Rino decided to cut corners on his potato storage and made a mud shack beside his bathhouse. The place should be relatively warm with heating from the house and water from the bath. It was the perfect place for growing potato eyes.
It took the farmhand a while to transfer all the massive potatoes to the makeshift mud shack with the help of the goblins. Rino felt proud seeing how the potatoes fit nicely in the mud shack. There was enough space for them to be spread on the floor for now, and Rino praised the hardworking summons for doing such a good job.
"Rest for now," he told them. "The next part of the job is weeding and ploughing the field. I don\'t have enough tools for everyone, so I will make more now. Once you return to the shadows, ask if anyone else wants to volunteer for the farming project. I prefer willing volunteers."
After dismissing them, Rino went back into his farmhouse to read the tutorial. There was so much about planting potatoes that he never knew. That potato plant near the forest would remain the way it was for a while, and Rino wondered if it would continue to grow spuds if given enough time.
"Ah, there it is. They shouldn\'t be planted again after a harvest as it would result in weaker plants and less bountiful harvest in the next round. I guess we should just go back to get the seeds from those fruits instead," Rino sighed as he read the lengthy tutorial.
There were several stages to potato farming. Rino groaned as he read the first of four important processes when it comes to farming potatoes. The preparation part alone already took a month. He could not imagine keeping up the constant effort for the next part that was planting.
Apparently, one doesn\'t simply stick a growing potato \'seed\' into the spoil and cover it, expecting splendour results. He had to cut the seeds into a good size before doing it. In addition, there was some mention about letting them rest for a day or so after cutting to make them more rot resistant. Rino wanted to bury himself and ignore all the details. This has got to be the most complex tutorial ever, even for a chain quest, and Rino hasn\'t even gotten to that part of it.
Not to mention, these spuds were very picky about the kind of soil they grew in. First, it had to be cold. Rino figured that it should be a good time for these spuds to be planted because Noir claimed it was cold outside.
Then, these spuds wanted acidic soil, and Rino had no clue if his soil was acidic enough for potatoes to grow. The potato plant he grew using magic didn\'t count. If the soil was not acidic enough, it would not form potatoes. Rino had to \'treat\' the soil before planting, which would happen in the next two days. Yet, the lich had no idea where he was going to find \'mulch\'.
As his farmhand kindly explained, growing potatoes came with several pitfalls, but Rino ignored all the diseases and pests for now. He had enough on his plate to worry about before even the ten-week long rowing process could begin.
After ten weeks, potatoes should be fully grown, although Rino had no idea if they would be as big as the potato tree that he grew with magic. However, there came the tedious part if they did not all perish from everything in those long ten weeks.
The harvesting.
Rino had no idea if this third crucial process was more tiring than the preparation stage. When potatoes needed to be harvested, they weren\'t simply dug from the ground like what the farmhand did earlier to his magically grown potato plant.
These crops had to first be cut down, and the potatoes should be left in the ground for about two weeks to toughen and mature with no watering. Rino could not control the weather, and if rain decided to pay him a visit when it was harvest time, he would just give up on this farming thing entirely. The Gods can use the [Curse of Overtime] on him because he wasn\'t going to do anything. It would be a waste of his efforts.
Assuming he got past everything till the harvesting point and managed to dig the spuds without any difficulties, Rino would have to \'cure\' the potatoes before they were \'ready\' for anything. Curing the potatoes involved making them a special storage place that was cool, dry and dark for two whole weeks. The potatoes should not be washed at all so that they can mature and toughen their skins to prevent rotting or something.
At this point, Rino could only wonder why he bothered reading the entire tutorial. Planting potatoes sounded like such a pain. This chain quest was going to be worse than the kiln and clay one. Rino looked at the reward and wondered what would happen if he passed this quest up. Would the Gods be nice enough to place this as a reward for any other quests?
After consideration, Rino decided to tough out this first part of the chain quest. He wanted the inventory skill. It would be very useful for many things in the future, increasing his efficiency to be lazy.