Before dawn, Rino heard the familiar system notification.

Ping!

===

Daily Quest #10 (complete)

Objective: Hunt King Toads

15/15 King Toads

Time Limit: 5 Days.

Tutorial here.

Reward: Basic Culinary Skill

Claim your reward here.

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

===

There were still at least two more hours before dawn and Rino wondered if this was a good idea. He had a feeling that before dawn, half of the king toad population in that forest would be erased at the rate his loyal warriors were working.

Thankfully, things in the kitchen were doing well. The ladies cooked the frog meat after helping to cut and wash them. He had to say that these ladies knew their way with a knife better than the hunters did.

Then again, Rino did not give the hunters any knives with magical enchantments. These clay sculpted kitchen knives were probably sharper than anything the hunting team used. It sliced through sinew and tendons like butter. Only the bones were left intact, and Rino saw eight neatly lined up king toad skeletons surrounding the huge kiln.

The farming team brought back many interesting herbs, and already, Rino could not wait for the feast in the stone quarry cave. It smelled divine!

The lich smashed the option to claim his reward. Those who do not work do not get to eat. Even if he was the king, he had a feeling nobody would give him seconds if he simply stood around without helping.

Armed with his very basic culinary skills now crammed into his empty skull, Rino picked up a knife and let his body do the work. He still could not understand how these skills worked. Ever since he claimed the rewards for successful quest completion, Rino never questioned how he could skillfully accomplish a task if it was a skill. Then again, textile crafting came almost naturally to him because Rino simply applied that knowledge of operating a loom to magic automation. It did not count as a physical skill. If anything, that felt like a consultation guide for Rino.

Cooking was a different matter. There was a before and after comparison for this. When Rino first attempted to cook mashed potatoes for Noir, he remembered how he held the knife. It was clumsy, awkward and ineffective for peeling. Now, he was moving the blade with small but fluid motions using his wrist and fingers to peel potatoes with the ladies. He still had no idea how he was doing this. The basic culinary skill made him aware of the right things he should be doing as if there was an invisible string controlling his movements and preventing him from making amateur mistakes.

Impressed by their king's ability to help in the kitchen, the women became less timid and more chatty. As Rino worked, he listened to them talk about more interesting things he never knew about in this world.

Despite having many similarities to his previous world, Rino learned that there were some differences.

For starters, magicians were not common. Those that existed were usually outcast instead of honoured.

Secondly, lizardmen did not exist. Religion did not exist either. Instead, the villagers prayed to monsters and magic trees. Rino did not know why they would pray to monsters but sacrificing an old person or a 'cursed' child in the village every few months was how these villagers chose to worship their monster gods. In the same way, villagers would abandon their kin at the magic trees to act as 'fertiliser' for their plant gods.

"What about kings? How many kings are there in this land?"

At that, the women shook their heads. "Everyone wants to be the king, but there is nobody worthier than the king of the legends. Only those who can bring back the dead can be king. That's why everyone else tries to become skilful enough to become the king's servants."

Hearing that, Rino was intrigued. There was a legend in this world about a king, but there was no king. In that case, this king who could bring back the dead had to be a necromancer!

Was this why his summons did not resist following him and joined his shadow army? It was all thanks to the legends going around in the world.

The huge pot containing all the toad fats, bones and meat boiled. Rino stirred it and watched as the women added chopped greens. He sniffed the pot and felt his soul quaking. This smelled too good not to try eating! 

He wasn't even mad at how the women used king toad bones to make soup stock. If anything, Rino was beginning to wonder if regenerated lich bones made good stock too. He definitely needed a king toad minion now to get infinite toad bones. It was definitely not for the sake of turning it into soup stock. 

Ok, maybe that's half the reason. The other half of the reason was that these king toads had bones bigger than his. It would make good building structures.

As the dishes were completed, Rino helped the ladies carry them to the stone quarry. He had to admit. The fairies were very good at decorating the stone cave for a celebration. Thanks to the constant mining activities, there was enough room for everyone. He decided that this should be the new gathering spot for large meetings from now on. The farmhouse was getting too crowded as his army expanded.

In an hour, it would be dawn. Rino informed all the hunters that they should wrap up and bring their last prey back for submission. Any hunted prey that remained in the forest would not be counted towards their score or the game.

Hearing that, the goblin chief stopped all hunting activities. They had too many corpses to haul back, given the short time frame. The farmers who were now idle offered to help them, and Rino did not stop them when Fronzo asked for permission to assist the goblin chief.

Apparently, the goblin chief and Fronzo were close friends after seeing how Fronzo treated the goblin farming volunteers fairly. They could put aside their differences and see past each other's species to form a harmonious working relationship. The same could not be said with Mutt and the human archer. The goblin chief hated them from the bottom of his heart and would never forget the grudge.

The food smelled so good that Rino was now tempted. He stuck a finger in the mashed potato dish that the women prepared and stuck it in his mouth.

Surprisingly, even without a digestive system, Rino was able to consume that. He felt the food turn into mana. It wasn't much, but it was still mana. What a surprise!

Most interestingly, he was able to taste something faintly even if he couldn't smell too well. With this new discovery, Rino wondered if Noir would try the dishes the women cooked. They were not only safe for consumption but also tasty.