Monarch of Solitude: Daily Quest System

Chapter 73 - Toad Specimen

Using the shadow realm to scout, Rino discovered many toad species and variants in this forest. Perhaps it was because he was near the marsh, but the forest was a very popular spot for all kinds of toads.

Some toads hid under rocks, and others lived on trees. However, the king toads did neither. They simply rest under the shade of trees in the open. Rino thought it would be easy to spot them with their blue and yellow-striped skin, but when they had their eyes closed, the lich missed them very easily.

He hated to admit it, but these toads were skilful masters of disguise. When prey came close, they would strike with their purple tongue and wait for the poison to take effect before crawling over to devour them. RIno hid behind a tall bush to watch the king toads in their natural habitat.

His initial guess about them was right. They were too big to have any threats. Most other creatures avoided them, and they loved to camouflage near ponds or rivers where many animals would come to drink. The king toad that got devoured must have been unlucky to run into a serpent monster.

Rino had to choose a king toad to kill as the sun was going down. As this was going to be Rino's first king toad, he wanted to choose the biggest to have more materials to work with. Running experiments required a lot of resources, and Rino did not have that luxury at the moment.

Of the five king toads Rino found throughout the day, he knew just the unlucky toad to choose. It was bigger than the rest and unlike the other toads hiding behind rocks, and under trees, this toad was half-submerged in the water.

Teleporting back to the pond where he found that fat toad, Rino approached it carefully. He did not want to damage this specimen too badly, and the easiest way to preserve the corpse entirely was to either suffocate or drown it.

Rino chose the latter as suffocating the toad would require borrowing magic from the World Tree again. The process was a little more complicated, so Rino opted for the path of least resistance.

The chosen toad specimen struggled valiantly for nearly twenty minutes before it finally croaked. Rino thanked the system for giving him the shadow sack skill. Without it, the lich had no way of transporting this big boy back.

The evening was approaching, and Rino decided to appreciate the rare view of the setting sun from high above, choosing to fly back with his haul.

As Rino flew, he checked the countdown timer for the daily quest to be updated. The nocturnal workers should be waking up now, and Rino wondered who he should entrust dismantling this huge toad's corpse.

The fairies were not immune to poison like the undead. He would call for them to assist otherwise. However, Rino did not know any suitable candidate who was skilled with the knife among his shadow army. In fact, the lich had no experience with the knife. He wondered if any of those villager skeletons he summoned and enslaved were butchers before their deaths.

Speaking of which, maybe the arrogant hunter had some experience. After all, hunting and corpse dismantling had to come as a set. Rino did not know any hunters who only killed animals but not cut the useful parts out for processing. Back in his previous world. Rino often accompanied the king's sons on hunting trips as an emergency healer.

There were archers and guards on the royal hunting ground who would protect the princes if a wild animal decided to go berserk. The professional hunters were usually somewhere within the royal hunting grounds chasing prey in the princes' direction to make the game more fun and reduce the sport's difficulty.

However, Rino knew that whenever the princes shot a pheasant or a hare, these professional hunters would take care of the dead animal, removing arrows, fur, feathers and slicing open their bodies on the spot to preserve the freshness of the catch.

For royalty, hunting was merely a sport. For commoners, hunting was for survival. He remembered asking these hunters why they had to drain the blood and dismantle the animal once they were killed quickly. It was gory and not a pretty sight. Most ladies would faint seeing such brutality.

The hunters merely replied that it was easiest to work with a warm carcass than a cold one. Working with a cold corpse would mean that it had a higher chance of getting infected or spoiling. Their efforts would be a waste, and parts would not be as good as they could have been. Rigour Mortis was also a pain to deal with, so the best method of not wasting a hunt was to dismantle the corpse at once.

Thankfully, the shadow sack existed in a different dimension. Time flows differently there, and it does not have things like bacteria. Rino didn't know if air existed in that realm, but he was willing to bet that it didn't.

It was dark when Rino returned, and already, the granary was looking seventy percent complete on its walls. The gnomes were busy designing the roof structures and waved to their monarch when they saw him.

The fields looked like they were ready for a new batch to be planted, but Rino did not know what Fronzo had in mind. Hence, he swooped down to hold a brief meeting to find out more.

Fronzo bowed humbly and kept his back straight, remembering what Rino told him. He looked at the monarch stiffly and tried to be formal but failed clumsily, much to the lich's amusement.

"At ease," he told the capable farm manager, who was only half a head shorter than him now. "What are your plans after the potatoes are fully harvested?"

Fronzo nodded and looked over to the hardworking goblins. With the help of fairies during the day, all they had to do was recondition the soil for a new batch of potatoes to be planted while expanding new farming plots.

"My lord, we are currently reconditioning the soil with mulch after harvesting while waiting for the potatoes to sprout eyes for replanting. At the same time, I will be arranging for new farming plots to be marked out for weeding. The night shift will handle the weeding and ploughing work, while the day shift handles the sowing and watering. I understand that my lord has an urgent need for spuds, so we will keep the harvesting rate constant and space the planting of each acre one week apart."

Satisfied that he chose a competent farm manager, Rino patted the skeleton on his shoulder and told the lad to keep up the good work.

"Don't forget to let the lady know the numbers. When the granary is built, you need to be involved with the inventory checks. Do you have enough tools?"

Fronzo blushed and nodded. They had enough tools made, but some of them were brand new and needed Rino's help to enchant them.

"Bring them to the farmhouse. I will do them later. Also, find some time to build fences around the farms so that the crops will not be trampled on carelessly."

"Yes, my lord!"

Satisfied, Rino left towards the forest. A toad was waiting to be dissected.