Killing the Frog by Borrowing a Knife

"Croak~ croak~"

The overbearing Pond Frog used its tongue to precisely stick to a twisted, crawling insect on a tree, reeling it back into its mouth to chew vigorously.

Its two bulging cheeks looked like milky-white bubbles.

Arthur closed his eyes to ponder the methods suggested by Parrot Gro, but none of them were executable.

The Pond Frog's skin contained poison glands capable of secreting toxins; while the mantis's twin blades could pierce the skin, they would also be killed by the venom.

An incident involving a "dog licking a frog" had occurred on the Old Continent, where a hunting dog licked a Pond Frog and died of poisoning shortly thereafter.

"Charge! It's not my true body anyway!"

"Might as well give it a try!"

He remembered that frogs have poor dynamic vision, so he moved slowly through the grass, his sharp twin blades twitching with anticipation.

He circled behind the Pond Frog and suddenly vibrated his wings, rushing toward it.

The sharp mantis arms flashed with a cold glint, slashing into the Pond Frog's body, and blood became visible to the naked eye.

The skin was indeed as thin as Parrot Gro had said, easily breached by the mantis arms.

Before Arthur could make another move, the Pond Frog spun one hundred and eighty degrees, opened its blood-red maw, and swallowed the mantis whole.

It's dark?!

Damn it! What is this sticky stuff?!

Arthur's consciousness returned to his true body; this mantis operation had failed, and the Pond Frog was proving difficult to deal with.

Outside, the sky had darkened, so he ate a few hard biscuits, washing them down with rum.

The Sailors patrolling on the deck whispered to each other:

"Strange, how come we haven't seen Captain Arthur many times since we boarded the Great White Shark!"

"It is a bit odd. Why does Lord Arthur always look like he hasn't woken up?"

"I heard Captain Arthur is a Transcendent who possesses extraordinary power."

"Could it be that the longer he sleeps, the stronger his combat power becomes?"

Arthur enhanced his hearing to catch the conversation in the sea breeze, his mouth twitching uncontrollably.

Phew~ fortunately, the Great White Shark often docks, and there are no goats on board.

Otherwise, who knows what kind of rumors would spread!

He stored one "Ease," one "Fear," and one "Enchantment" within his [Ritual], then took out the Fear Musket and the Whale Herder Sword.

"The next part will be a tough battle, and then I will have to change my identity; I'm afraid I can't take my old belongings with me."

Arthur prepared to use the "Fear Musket" as a backup option for a "Substitute for the Old Shell," and he could attempt to convert the Whale Herder Sword into an extraordinary item.

If he could find a better "Substitute for the Old Shell," the Fear Musket could still be utilized.

White Sand Island.

Arthur descended once more, appearing near the Pond Frog and hiding behind a patch of grass in the form of a mantis.

It was unrealistic for him to kill the Pond Frog himself; he had to borrow a knife to kill the frog.

He stealthily increased the distance, confirming the gap between them; the Pond Frog would need to pursue for a while.

Vibrating his wings, he leaped rapidly through the grass, his twin blades swinging to cut through the blades of grass as he sped off into the distance.

Arthur looked back; the Pond Frog hadn't reacted, acting like a fool.

Forced by necessity, he could only jump in place, slashing at the grass to create a disturbance and attract the Pond Frog's attention.

The Pond Frog moved with lightning speed, crawling rapidly toward Arthur; he only began to fly away when the distance closed to one meter.

After chasing for a distance, Arthur wasn't paying attention and let the Pond Frog get within one meter.

Arthur looked back at the Pond Frog and saw the fat figure soar into the sky, flying toward the heavens from a meter away and descending like Mount Tai pressing down.

"Croak!"

The Pond Frog had captured one mantis.

After gorging itself, a trace of confusion appeared in the Pond Frog's eyes; there had been so many mantises lately.

It abandoned its usual steadiness, walking with a swaggering gait as it searched for food in the grass.

[He has descended upon White Sand Island.]

Arthur jumped up on the spot without a word, attracting the Pond Frog's attention, and fled without looking back.

He maintained a safe distance of one and a half meters; if the Pond Frog showed any signs of slacking off, he would hop in place to pique the frog's appetite.

"Jili gulu~ dududu~"

"Jili gulu~ dadada~"

The sound of indigenous communication rang out, and Arthur ran toward that direction, provoking the Pond Frog from time to time.

The Pond Frog hopped over with a rhythmic thud, its large eyes fixed on the mantis leaping about, savoring the aftertaste of its recent snack.

It had to make this insect pay the price for provoking the frog!

The two natives were conversing when they suddenly saw the Pond Frog pounce, causing them to stand up in terror.

They retreated backward while brandishing the stone spears in their hands.

Arthur lay motionless on the ground to avoid being struck by the spears; the Pond Frog was too large a target and was hit in its fragile body by a spear.

The poison glands on the Pond Frog's skin were highly toxic, but without direct skin contact, it was just a frog.

As the Pond Frog lay on the ground twitching, the natives stabbed it twice with their spears, blood seeping into the soil.

The two natives exchanged a few words, broke off two branches to pick up the Pond Frog, and scraped their stone spears against its skin.

The stone spears were successfully enchanted → Venomous Stone Spear.

Having finished with the Pond Frog, the natives tossed it aside and headed toward the beach with great excitement.

Arthur lay motionless in the grass, relying on his natural camouflage to save his life.

He crawled over to the Pond Frog to see if he could possess it; the frog's size and abilities were far superior to those of the mantis.

After trying his best and failing to occupy the shell, Arthur abandoned the frog's corpse and began walking toward the opposite side of White Sand Island.

As time passed, the mantis traveled through the forest, hunting insects to replenish his energy.

"Huh?!"

After finishing a caterpillar, Arthur took a few steps forward and saw a stretch of snow-white beach.

At the boundary between the beach and the grass, three tall palm trees grew, their emerald leaves interspersed with a faint golden hue.

Golden Palm Leaves?!

Special meant extraordinary, and extraordinary was roughly equivalent to Beyonder materials.

The environment of White Sand Island could grow Twin Coconuts, the main material for Sequence 7 of the Scholar Path, so it could naturally nurture other materials as well.

Arthur scurried over, relying on his meager wings and sharp mantis arms to climb up the Golden Palm tree.

He used his mantis arms to saw back and forth at the base of a Golden Palm Leaf.

"Creak, creak~"

"La la la~ la la la~, I am a hardworking lumberjack~"

Humming an unknown tune, he managed to sever a Golden Palm Leaf through his unremitting efforts.

The massive Golden Palm Leaf fell onto the beach, kicking up a gust of wind.

Arthur climbed down from the tree and circled the Golden Palm Leaf, feeling a bit of a headache.

How was he supposed to transport this thing back?

[He saw the "Golden Palm Leaf," a trivial extraordinary material.]

[He took away the "Golden Palm Leaf."]

The Golden Palm Leaf vanished from his sight, as if torn apart by an invisible hand.

Arthur hopped and skipped until he found a patch of grass, then lay down beneath it to return.

He tossed the "Golden Palm Leaf" into [Research] to study it and see which path this special material belonged to.

He also took the opportunity to "Dream Entry" and get a good night's sleep.

Fog City, the capital of the Tudor Dynasty, the jewel of the Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets.

At Stuart Castle, Arena returned to her family by carriage, clutching her longsword as she stepped into the family estate once more.