Rise of The Demon General

Amon had less than a month left, so he immediately got to work. He went to the area where he had seen the wild spirit herbs before. The soil there would certainly be fertile.

He spent days transferring the soils into his black space ring. He did feel the soil in this ancient dimension contained more aether than the soil outside. So he had to bring as many as he could while he was here.

The labor took a long time considering he had to scoop the soil before it could be transferred. Unlike water where he could simply put his ring inside and had it suck the water in.

Every time he had placed sufficient soil, he would place the spirit herbs in.

When the land inside his space ring grew, the water he absorbed from the cavern was no longer sufficient. He had to find more water. He had encountered several rivers during his journey before entering the pyramid, so he went to one.

He never approached any of these rivers before because he didn't know what lurked under its surface. At the moment, he was willing to take some risks. But even so, he avoided the ones that had murky water and chose one that had clearer water. This way he could somewhat see what was beneath it. Due to this, he wasted several more days looking for one.

Even when the river looked peaceful, Amon still approached the river carefully. His Swan Dagger was ready in his hand. The river's water was flowing steadily. Amon chose the part of the river where it was the shallowest, hence he could see its depth and made sure there was nothing suspicious.

Still, he didn't completely convince himself he was safe even when he could see the inside of the water. There was, after all, an invisible snake in this dimension. Why couldn't there be an invisible fish?

He stood beside the stream in alert for a while. Nothing seemed to agitate the water. After a long observation, Amon finally came down to the water. He placed his hand which had the black space ring and started sucking the water in.

He had built a reservoir inside the little world in his space ring by shaping it using the soil he had placed inside. He also put in lots of stones to make it solid. Everything that went into his space ring could be easily moved around with his mind, so he had no trouble building and arranging things inside. The water that he sucked was placed inside this reservoir.

He had also built some kind of simple irrigation system that brought the water from this reservoir to distribute to the plants he had placed inside his space ring.

The water level of the river was starting to slightly lower due to Amon's action. After a long hour, the reservoir inside his space ring was almost filled up.

As he was about to end drawing the water from the river. He felt a stirring in the water. He turned to his left and saw a large shadow underneath the water.

Amon immediately jumped away at the same time that shadow leaped out from the water, towards where he was before.

The thing landed on the dry land beside the river and Amon got a good look at it. It was a giant bullfrog, but it only had three legs. Two hind legs and one center leg which was directly under its throat. It had golden skin and several fins along its body.

Amon recognized this spirit beast from the encyclopedia of spirit beasts which was one of the books he had gained from the pyramid legacy. It was called Three-legged Toad. It was a higher inferior spirit beast.

Its danger, aside from its tremendous strength, came from the poison excreted around its skin. Amon felt lucky he had learned about this toad before encountering one. Otherwise, he wouldn't know that its golden skin was laced with poison. One accidental touch could be fatal. The only way to deal with this toad was from a distance.

It also had another weapon that it liked to use, which it was using now. It croaked as its large round eyes stared at Amon. Its wide mouth opened then a red and long tongue shot out.

Amon had prepared for it. He jumped sideways once the toad opened its mouth. At the same time, Amon threw three flying daggers. The dagger pierced the toad's skin. The toad roared painfully. This toad did not have unpenetrable scales like the Ethereal Bronze-skinned Snake he had fought before.

Another thing notable about this toad was it was highly resistant to poison. Hence, Amon didn't waste his poison knife on it. In the case that the knife lodged inside the toad's body and couldn't kill it and the toad decided to flee, Amon would have lost a precious poison knife.

After seeing his knives could pierce the toad's skin. Amon equipped his small crossbow and started shooting. The toad jumped forward to approach Amon, but Amon moved back and kept his distance. With this kiting method, he lured the toad away from the river while continuing to riddle the toad's body with bolts.

The crossbow wounds were shallow for the toad. But with so many of them, the injuries were building. The toad lost a lot of blood and finally realized its life was in danger. It decided that Amon was not a suitable prey. It turned back and started jumping away, trying to get back to the river.

Amon wasn't going to let it go. For this toad, the encyclopedia didn't list all its valuable body parts, but Amon did not doubt that one of them might be the ingredient to one of the recipes in his 101 Primal Poison Tome.

The toad had become slow after losing so much blood, but Amon continued to keep his distance. He didn't take a risk to land a big blow. A moment of carelessness could turn a situation fast.

Amon applied Soul Searching Shot in his next crossbow shot. In his current Master level, his bolt flew in a curve and struck the toad's left eye accurately. The toad croaked in pain as it trashed around. Amon took the chance to land more bolts onto its body.

After a while, the toad finally stopped. It was just a few more jumps to reach the river, but it had no more strength to make a jump. It was still breathing though. Amon stayed at a distance and waited. He still didn't approach despite the obvious victory. A beast on its death bed could still be dangerous.

When the toad was completely not moving and Amon couldn't hear its breathing or its heartbeat, Amon took a step forward. He fired another bolt onto the toad's throat. No response. The beast had truly died. Then only did Amon approach.

Fighting a beast with prior knowledge compared to fighting one without any knowledge was completely different. Amon made a resolution to read more about the spirit beasts' encyclopedias he had gotten from the cavern. There were lots of these encyclopedias, he had only read a few of them. He was glad one that he had read mentioned this Three-legged Toad.

Amon removed one of the bolts riddling the toad's body. It was melting. The poison from the toad's body had corroded the wood. This meant all these bolts were useless now. He would have to make new bolts to replace this.

The book mentioned that it took a day since the toad died before its body stopped secreting poison. So he needed to wait before he started dissecting the toad's body. Amon took a thick glove and wore it before touching the toad's body and transferring it into his space ring. His glove made a hissing sound and started melting as it produced smoke. Amon removed the glove and threw it away.

Amon then went to the woods filled with trees that bore spirit fruits. He didn't go inside the woods, however, he had no intention to encounter the Ethereal Bronze-skinned Snake again. He stayed outside the rim and started hacking on one of the trees. The wood of this tree was very sturdy. It would make for excellent bolts.

He cut the downed tree into smaller parts and started shaping them into small bolts. He had no metal for the top, but the wood was strong enough and should be able to pierce solid objects on its own as long as he sharpened it enough.

He labored a full day to make the bolts before resuming his task of inserting soil into his space ring. The soil around this wood was also good. He planned to put more in and started transferring these trees into his space ring as well.

Days passed as he worked. Amon left the toad's body inside for longer than needed. He only took it out for dissection after three days had passed. Inside its body, multiple small poison sacks were under its skin. These poison sacs were no doubt valuable ingredients for poison-making. Amon stored these sacs with the other valuable parts that he could harvest from the body. After that, he returned to his routine.

When Amon estimated that only two weeks were left of their time inside this dimension, One small corner of the space inside his ring already had what looked like a small plantation. With various spirit herbs and several trees that bore spirit fruits.

Amon didn't forget to hunt the Four-seasons Worm he found previously. He only collect the dead ones before, now he captured the live ones and put them inside his space ring. With this collection, he should have no problem experimenting and producing more poisons from the 101 Primal Poison Tome.