Eight hours and a beautiful dream of cat heaven later, Rino woke up to reality with a system sound notification.

Ping!

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Daily Quest #19

Objective: Plant new crops

0/1 Rice

0/1 Wheat

0/1 Corn

0/1 Soybean

Time Limit: 14 Days

Tutorial here.

Reward:  Intermediate Culinary Skill

Claim your reward here.

Penalty: Deduct 24 hours of sleep upon failure and [Curse of Overtime] until quest is forcefully completed.

===

The first thing Rino did was look at the tutorial provided because he had no idea what rice was. It was a product grown in the eastern lands in his previous world, but he never ate it before or knew what it looked like.

From the tutorial that now came with images, Rino learned that rice was a lot like wheat when they were ripe. The only difference was how there was no grinding of rice into powder after they were de-husked. Instead, those shiny white grains were the product ready for consumption.

He doubted it tasted good, but there was no denying how eastern beauties had a softer charm than the ladies from his empire. It must be in the rice they ate daily, and Rino was curious to know the addiction.

However, there was something very strange about the planting method of rice compared to corn, wheat and soybeans.

"The land has to be deliberately flooded and drained?"

To any farmer worth his hoe, this idea was ridiculous. Everyone knew that waterlogged roots would rot, and it was easy for diseases to spread without giving the roots enough air to breathe. Too much water was as harmful as too little water.

The requirements of this new daily quest weren't unreasonable. Rino was given two weeks to get it done, and the fields were ploughed. With fertiliser and mana imbued water, the plants can grow in half that time after they were sowed. However, Rino had no idea how to grow rice with the water situation.

Basically, the growing conditions of rice were very different from potatoes. Rice needed a warmer climate to grow with slightly acidic clay soil. The only place with that kind of soil was near the river. Rino did not think the land near the Genesis Tree was suitable. Thankfully, the expanded acres of farmland spanned all the way to the river. They only needed to create one closer to the river to use the clayish acidic soil.

Alternatively, Rino could ask Fronzo to prepare more fertiliser and mulch to treat the current soil. Preparation might take a while, so it was better to start as soon as possible. Rino wasted no time and told Acht to arrange another trip to Spudville to collect as much mulch and fertiliser as he could. He informed the logistic manager using their telepathic soul bond and read the rest of his rice planting tutorial.

Rice seeds that he found and shared with Kragami should be soaked as preparation for at least twelve hours before they could be planted. He thought it was odd, but it might be better to follow the tutorial for once. Rino did not know about rice, and he doubted anyone else in this world knew more than he did.

Once the trolls received instructions from him, they quickly soaked the rice in water after confirming if they should soak it in mana imbued water or ordinary water from the river. Rino decided to run a little experiment of his own and split the rice into two batches to determine if there would be a difference.

At the same time, he did not allow the farming fury in charge to idle. Together with the genesis fairies, she had to try and grow the rice using nature magic to duplicate the seeds.

At this point, Rino did everything he could do for the planting preparation stage for rice. He had to wait for fertiliser to be brought over before reconditioning the soil for growing rice. He did tell the fairies to create an earth wall partition between the designated rice field plot closest to the river for easier field draining during harvest.

With the earth wall, flooding an acre of farmland should be fairly simple. He did not know how rice fields were designed, but he did not want the flooded field to affect other fields. Would water travel underground and affect other crops?

Suddenly, Rino had no idea what was the best method to grow rice. He did not want to risk the entire farming project because of an unusual crop growing method.

Maybe he should ask the trolls to create a separate plot of farmland just for rice on the opposite side of the river. It was further away from the farming spot and way out of Town Zera's protection borders, but it was a necessary sacrifice for the sake of completing the daily quest and experiments.

Apologising to his subordinates for the sudden change of plans, Rino explained what they needed to do before Fronzo delivered the fertiliser. The earth wall project was abandoned quickly as the trolls took up hoes to cross to the other side of the river.

Thankfully, the river depth wasn't too deep, and they could waddle across easily. The soil there was much easier to work with, so with all the female trolls working on it simultaneously, Rino knew it would be ready in a few hours.

Likewise, the fairies were rapidly extending the mana web array to attach water runes and nature runes to inspire the growth of these plants. They asked if they should link the runes to the mana imbued water or the river, and Rino told them to hold that off for a while. He had no idea which was better.

Only time would tell, and Rino hoped that he did not have to wait for twelve hours to know which water was better for growing rice. In fact, he called for an emergency meeting using the World Tree to ask Fronzo and the farm managers in Spudville about this strange irrigation farming method.

Nobody heard of flooding fields as a farming method, but Fronzo assured Rino that water trapped in clayish soil is not so easily dispersed as the soil structure traps it inside like a basin. Hearing that, Rino was relieved. However, Fronzo suggested building a huge structure beneath the rice field like a pot with proper drainage piping to prevent the water flooding other fields in the area if the rice paddy field was in the same area as the rest of Rino's crops.

"Alternatively, you can try constantly wetting the soil using the sprinklers instead of flooding the field."

It made sense, and Rino promised to consider it. He wondered if it was possible to get Fronzo over to help him with his agricultural experiments in Town Zera for a while. Maybe he would do that when Zerg's villagers became a little more independent.