"Let's have one last go at it. If I don't eat the dead food, I'll always eat the alive ones."
Du You turned his head and left. He didn't know whether the giant toad had noticed him yet. But knowing that he was not in danger this time, he decided to take a chance. Soon, Du You returned to the place where he had been catching rabbits.
"There really are lots of rabbits here, even white ones." Du You eyed the scene before him.
Without fully setting up the trap, he had already caught three rabbits. One was strangled by the neck, one was tied by the leg, and the last one was bound at the waist; none of them could escape.
"I'm gonna use these two live ones." Du You came up with an idea, resetting the triggered traps and replacing them elsewhere. He decided to use all the trap cages left. He was not planning to take them back.
There are no dangerous beasts or humans about in this place, so rabbits have become somewhat overpopulated, more than the giant toad could eat. White rabbits, which would hardly survive in the wild, have managed to grow large here. Du You tied the two live rabbits and brought them to the side of the mound.
"These cute little rabbits, just feed the giant toad."
With a wicked smile, Du You pinches the mouth of a white rabbit and stuffs in the spiky fruit of a mandrake plant. The rabbit probably won't live long after this, but at least it won't die immediately.
"All or nothing, go, little rabbit." Du You shouted inside his heart and threw the rabbit over again.
Just like before, while the rabbit was mid-air, the toad didn't move a bit. But as soon as the rabbit fell to the ground and began to struggle, the toad's gaze changed.
As the rabbit struggled to get up to flee, the giant toad couldn't stand it anymore.
Such a giant creature and yet so little food here. It usually had to conserve energy by minimizing activity. An opportunity of a meal , how could the giant toad possibly resist? It opened its mouth, a flash of black light, and the rabbit disappeared.
Du You was about to leap for joy: "Great, finally it ate something. I knew it, how could you resist such a cute little rabbit?" A huge weight lifted off Du You's heart.
There was one more, just like before, after handling it, he tossed it over. Sure enough, the giant toad also ate this rabbit.
"Looks like you just don't like dead food. As long as it's alive, you probably love whatever you can gulp down."
However, after waiting for a while, the toad didn't show any reaction. Du You found it a bit strange. "Why hasn't it reacted yet? Could it be that the mandrake here is not effective? Wait, could it be that this huge toad needs a larger dose?"
Du You recalled how the rabbit slowed down significantly when he stuffed mandrake fruit into it. It wasn't just from the injury, which meant the medicine must work.
"If the dose is not enough, then I'll just increase it." Du You ran back and found more rabbits caught. This time even more, five in total. Like before, Du You tied up the rabbits, took them to the spot and began feeding them the medicine. He reset the other traps for the next hunt.
After a few rounds of feeding, Du You noticed every time he appeared, the giant toad turned its gaze towards him, apparently recognizing him as the feeder now.
"I knew it, the toad has probably associated me with no threat and couldn't be bothered. Perhaps because it's never seen a human before and doesn't know if I'm edible, otherwise, I would have been eaten by now."
Du You grumbled to himself while continuing to feed the giant toad. After going back and forth for over five hours, maybe even longer, the number of rabbits he caught was well over sixty.
If he kept going , the rabbits at the place he found would soon be extinct. He would probably need to switch locations.
"Could it be immune to mandrake? If that's the case, all my work has been in vain."
Du You doubted the effectiveness of his method but at this point, he could only press on. While catching rabbits, Du You looked around and found, other than rabbits, pheasants, and other small animals, there were really no dangerous beasts around. He wouldn't even encounter any large creature for several days.
This giant toad before him is his only chance.
He kept himself busy. After more than eight hours, finally, the giant toad started to show signs of illness. It fell over, its body shivering, unable to hold itself up. Normally, it wouldn't react this way.
"Great, it's finally taken effect." Du You noticed that the toad no longer ate the rabbits he threw but used an ice arrow to shatter them in midair.
"Did it realize too late? Too bad it's already too late. The fact that it's not eating anymore means it's definitely been affected. Giant toad, you better just drop dead." Du You was waiting for the toad to weaken even more.
It kept launching attacks around, seemingly venting or doing something else. Its tongue would hit a tree, smashing it, or hit a rock, crushing it. Ice arrows were often shot out too, which were even more terrifying. A previous ice arrow skimmed past Du You, making his whole body shiver, almost becoming stiff. Content orıginally comes from 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹·𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲·𝗻𝗲𝘁
Such an attack, an ordinary person would not be able to withstand it. If someone else encountered it, they would either flee or be killed. For his own safety, Du You kept his distance from the toad and observed from afar.
Time ticked away minute by minute. The effect of his concoction was slow to take, but it was effective nonetheless.
After two hours, the giant toad was growing weaker. Its four legs were almost stiff, and its breathing was becoming weaker. For the past twenty minutes, the toad had not used any ice arrows, and the tongue attack had stopped long ago.
"Looks like it's out of strength. This uninhabited wild toad is probably not playing dead."
After weighing it over in his mind, Du You's eyes became resolute. "If you seek wealth then risk must be taken. I've done so much already, just one step left, let's risk it."
He thought there was no need to fight, but it seemed that a fight was still inevitable at the end.
Du You drew his long sword and slowly approached, testing the water. When he realized the toad really didn't react to him, that was when Du You plucked up the courage to go around and climb onto the toad's back.
He tightly held onto a bump on the toad's body, Du You took aim with his long sword and stabbed downwards.