Kragami spent less time with Rino in the farmhouse. Compared to the gloomy lich who preferred staying indoors, Kragami was quite the outgoing person. It might be due to the lack of intelligent company or many decades in the marsh that made him crave conversation. Rino did not stop his magic teacher from going where he wished. He even offered his teacher a tour guide in the form of a shy fire pixie.

Kragami was also rather surprised that he was now the mayor of Cypress County, which was still a work in progress project. Giving the necromancer an excuse that he was busy practising dark magic and unable to manage such a huge territory, Rino handed all the responsibilities of managing the swamp to the original owner.

Needless to say, that was the first place Kragami explored. He wasn't sure what a mana web array was, but Rino told him the Cypress Ghost Tree will manage that. All his teacher had to do was start furnishing his treehouse and research hut. The rest would be taken care of by his newly appointed crafting manager Aiden.

The blue-haired pygmy dwarf was very helpful, and Kragami got along well with his first assigned intelligent subordinate even though Aiden technically pledged loyalties to Rino. The swamp looked very different with so much landscaping effort. Those blue water bell flowers lining the edges of the swamp river banks created a very pretty contrast against the dull brown and mossy green. The water looked less muddy as if they had been purified, but Aiden quickly explained to the mayor that it was water with mana imbued in them. This was important for helping the cypress tree farm and reed farm grow faster.

Looking at his student's mana web array, Kragami felt slightly inferior. It was a very different kind of magic. Despite Rino's lack of basic knowledge about dark magic, his control in magic and mana manipulation ability were many tiers above Kragami's. Rino's ability to create and maintain such a complex array went beyond Kragami's imagination. Even among magicians, Rino had to be a grandmaster or sage. No wonder he was able to become a lich at such a young age! The student would soon surpass the master.

Back in the farmhouse, Rino left everything in the hands of his trusty subordinates. Now that a system for work was in place, Rino felt a huge load off his shoulder. It was time to focus on learning the writing language of this world.

Rino was working on a tricky rune character when the system notification made him drop the quill pen. Ink splattered everywhere, and Rino could only thank himself for the black dye he insisted on for clothes. At least it wasn't obvious now that he had black ink splatters on them. Still, he would clean it later.

Ping!

===

Side Quest #14 [Chain Quest]

Objective: Shoot 10 arrows daily for a week

0/7 Days

Reward: Basic Archery Skills

===

Rino read it twice to check if he misread it after confusing the languages he was learning.

Nope, he did not misread his new side quest. It was a chain quest in the side quest with an extremely unappealing reward. Didn't the gods know how useless archery was for magicians? Rino could shoot fireballs faster than an archer could nock his bow.

Still, this side quest gave Rino a rather good idea about what the gods wanted him to do. After that hunting quest, this much should be obvious. The only thing that annoyed Rino was how he had to be the one firing those ten arrows daily now to clear this quest. Thankfully, it wasn't something renewable like creating farming tools.

In any case, it was time to make a bow and some arrows or gather the materials needed to craft them.

"Fowler," Rino summoned.

He had no idea what the hunting squad commander was doing before he summoned the lesser vampire but Fowler was in a state of undress too vulgar for the lich's taste that he momentarily considered making Fowler a skeleton again.

"M-my lord!" the hunter stammered as he covered his exposed lower half, wondering if he should still kneel to greet the lich.

Rino only stared at the lesser vampire, who appeared to be having some adult fun before he was summoned. Fowler averted his gaze as Rino scrutinised him with hollow eye sockets. His erection withered, and Rino thought that the hunter looked too pathetic despite his superior breed.

He hoped that the lesser vampire wasn't getting frisky with Erika but who was he to judge anyone else's romance? For Rino, he didn't know if any undead could reproduce, but he tried not to think about it. Thankfully, Fowler's state of undress meant that the lesser vampire failed to realise the ink blotch on Rino's clothes.

"Fowler," Rino started with a deadly edge to his voice just to drive fear into this numbskull. "I don't care who you fool around with, but don't ever let me see you in such a sorry state. It hurts my eyes."

Stammering with fear and embarrassment, Fowler bowed humbly and knelt on one knee to apologise. Rino rolled his non-existent eyes at the crotch shot and took a small peak at the size. It was slightly bigger than what he had when he was alive, so Rino decided to be meaner to this slave.

"I have a new task for you and your squad."

The archer listened closely, and Rino declared his interest in learning archery. He demanded a bow and ten arrows to be made by tomorrow night and dismissed the eyesore. The hunting team did not have much to do. Rino thought that they should know a thing or two about making traps and bows. The deadline he set was slightly tight, seeing how they did not have any ready materials.

In all honesty, it would not be difficult if Fowler was on good terms with the gnomes or goblins. However, the prideful lesser vampire was constantly stepping on everyone's foot, so now, it was his problem to resolve. If Fowler could not give him the bow and ten arrows he demanded by the deadline, Rino would have all the reason in the world to demote him and replace another more capable hunter from within Fowler's team to take up the role.