Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

Chapter 727: Chapter 416 Slowly Turning Pale_1
 

Negris was worried about his followers, those few he managed hard to gather; he hoped that they would not be affected.

“I’ll go check.” Durken stated, feeling uneasy upon knowing that a wizard capable of casting Eighth-Level Magic was nearby. Not investigating the situation thoroughly would keep them far from peace.

“Let’s go together,” Negris suggested.

Durken cast a spell on himself, his figure gradually disappearing into the darkness, then said, “I will go ahead, sir. Stay alert and maintain a safe distance behind me.”

This was a matter of course. As a subordinate, he was expected to take the lead to eliminate any threats to his master, thus buying time for those who followed should any attack occur.

From this perspective, Durken was indeed a reliable subordinate.

However, Ange was somewhat perplexed about this arrangement until Negris explained it to him. In comprehension, Ange immediately accelerated past Durken, saying, “I’m taking the lead.”

This was the more sensible arrangement as Ange was merely projecting his presence in the scene while Negris and Durken were physically there.

However, their caution proved to be unnecessary as they didn’t encounter anyone along the way. When they arrived in Desert Town, they saw nothing but clueless people.

Upon inquiring, Durken found out that these people were the residents of Desert Town. When the robbers came, they killed everyone who dared to resist, kidnapped all the women, and chased the rest out of the town.

These thieves seemed to be looking for something. They remained in town and showed no sign of leaving, that is until tonight, when a team made up of a magician and his followers arrived. They barricaded all the thieves inside and demanded the release of the hostages.

When the thieves released the kidnapped women, the wizard cast a Meteor Shower spell, causing the entire town along with the thieves to collapse into a large pit.

Now, in the place where Desert Town once stood, there was only a sizable pit left, with none of the town’s buildings remaining.

Durken asked, puzzled, “Indeed, Meteor Shower is mighty, but its casting speed is quite slow. Why didn’t the thieves run away?”

An old man who claimed to be the mayor smiled bitterly, “They did run, but they got blocked by the followers of that magician. They couldn’t escape. We attempted to plead to the mage not to destroy the town, but his followers kicked us aside. Ah, now everything is gone.”

“Were there many followers of the mage? Enough to trap all these thieves in town?” Durken asked.

“Quite a lot, dozens of them,” the old man responded.

“Like, perhaps, an assassin pretending to be an old man like yourself?” Durken asked curiously.

The old man’s expression changed instantly, his stooped posture straightening rapidly as he glared sharply at Durken,” How did you figure it out?”

Durken slightly smiled, “Don’t be overly anxious, I mean no harm. I have been watching these thieves for quite some time but did not expect you all to make a move first.”

The old man looked Durken up and down skeptically, unable to gauge the depths of his abilities. He realized that his adversary was possibly much stronger than himself.

However, this made him believe Durken’s words because anyone capable of seeing through his disguise at first glance wouldn’t be a thief.

The old man reached towards his face and with a swipe, revealed a young man’s face. Then, drawing his thumb vertically across the center of his forehead, he said, “Phantom, the assassin. Pray, share your name.”

“Just call me Giliguletirakusurierobarivofukisbret,” Durken made up a name on the spot.

“Alright, Bret.” Phantom squinted at Durken with a dangerous gaze, obviously realizing that Durken was messing with him.

Durken shrugged and asked nonchalantly, “So why did you disguise yourself as the mayor?”

“I’m checking if there were any fish that escaped the net. It seems now that there are none, so I will take my leave.” Phantom again dragged his thumb across his forehead, which appeared to be his way of salutation.

Having said this, his figure slowly began to fade.

Durken quickly asked, “Why did you have to kill these thieves?”

Phantom disappeared into the night, but his voice still echoed, “Just passing by, and they weren’t pleasing to my eyes.”

“But why destroy the town as well? Where am I supposed to stay tonight?” Durken continued questioning.

Phantom didn’t respond again, seeming as though he had already left.

Durken shifted his gaze and fixed it onto another empty spot, asking, “I’m asking you, why destroy the town too?”

“Cough, cough, how did you find me? Anyway, it was destroyed, so it was. How bothersome it would have been to search each house individually. Blasting the town saved us the trouble,” Phantom’s voice emerged from the vacant spot, “Cough, cough, I genuinely am leaving this time, farewell.”

Durken’s gaze followed, quickly moving to another side, staring at the emptiness.

It was a while till the emptiness echoed with grumblings that gradually receded.

Durken watched the figure in the distance, a look of scornful contempt on his lips.

Returning to Ange’s side, Durken reported back everything he found, then began discussing the matter with Negris.

“Perhaps it was a group of mages passing by who couldn’t stand the thieves’ behavior, so they took care of them on the spot, leaving the bodies all huddled together. If they were really after those thieves, they would’ve taken the bodies away at least.”

Negris asked in confusion, “If it was simply out of disgust, why destroy the town as well? Doesn’t seem like acting heroically.”

Durken speculated, “I guess the followers of the mage were a very professional team. They didn’t want to go into the town to search house to house, so they advocated the mage to bomb the town along with the thieves.”

“Didn’t you say there were town residents who pleaded for mercy?”, Negris pointed out.

“That one who pleaded was also from the mage squad. So, I say, they were professional, as they had people lurking in ambush, obviously intending a comprehensive purge. Town residents probably never got to see the mage; they were stopped by the followers.”

Durken’s deductions made Negris have some speculations, “An unworldly noble mage, leading a group of professional followers, passed by here, and devastated the thieves due to resentment?”

Durken nodded and added, “Then the followers took care of the aftermath. The mage achieved a heroic feat, while they left satisfied and had something to brag about during future parties, saying that they saved an entire town.”

This was indeed how noble mages often behaved – they acted as they pleased, leaving messes behind that others would clean up. They didn’t realize their meteoric descent also brought destruction to the residents’ places to live.

In the desert, where temperatures could drop below zero at night, having nowhere to take shelter was immensely dangerous.

But regardless, it was still better than the thieves occupying the town, at least those women were saved. Everyone began to clean up the ruins of the town, trying their best to find usable supplies.

At this moment, Ange suddenly looked towards another direction outside the town.

Desert Town was on the edge of the desert, one side being an uncultivated wasteland, the other side wasn’t much better, only sparsely sprouting grass.

The sparse grasslands were unsuitable for grazing but would grow some mushrooms and rare herbs, which were the pillars of the Desert Town’s economy. But now, a strong scent was wafting from the sparse grassland.

Before Ange could figure out what the smell was, an Art of Explosion erupted in the night. Not too long after, a mare carrying a well-dressed female mage sprinted out from the murky grasslands.

Alongside the mare, there was a man panting, with his tongue hanging out. His face was clearly the Phantom Durken had seen not long ago.

Noticing a group of people ahead, the panicked female mage shouted, “Run! Run! It’s the Undead Tide, the Undead Tide! Oh dear!”

Unknown of what caused it, but her horse suddenly knelt forward and collapsed, throwing the female mage off its back and failed to stand up again.

The female mage got up, turned around to check on her horse but was dragged by the Phantom to keep running.

The female mage began to cry, took one last tear-filled glance at her fallen horse, then started running staggeringly. After several steps, she quickly cast Fire Speed Blade on both herself and the Phantom to significantly boost their speed.

As she ran past Durken, the Phantom said on the basis of acquaintanceship, “Run! It’s the Undead Tide, Skull Tide, run!”

The remaining townsfolk had already scattered in all directions. The moment when the female mage yelled, they all kicked their legs to run towards the desert. Even those who were injured, lying on the door panels, struggled to get up and hop away as far as they could – undoubtedly illustrating the enormity of the Undead Tide.

Ange and his acquaintances, who hadn’t heard about the Undead Tide, were now staring off into the distance. Soon, two flickering blue lights appeared in the darkness, floating like ghost fires in a graveyard. But why were there two of them?

Before anyone could figure it out, more sets appeared… two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight pairs. In the distant darkness, a line of ‘ghost fires’ suddenly emerged, spreading towards the unseen ends.

This wasn’t ghost fire – this was clearly a row of glaring eyes of undead skulls.

As these skulls advanced, behind them emerged rows after rows after rows of more and more skulls, gushing out of the darkness like a tidal wave.

Even Durken couldn’t help but panic, so many of them? Should he run? Would they attack witches?

Just then, Ange bent his waist and let out a silent howl from his soul.

The silent howl of the soul gradually spread out, perceptible only by the undead.

The fast-flowing undead tide suddenly slowed down. If they had been running before, they were now wandering. The surging tide turned into a drifting stream.

“What did you do? How could these skulls obey your command?”, Negris asked in shock.

Ange tilted his head and said, “I told them, to stop running.”

The Undead Tide, which lost its speed, also seemed to lose its destructive potential. The skulls went from running to drifting around, but when they reached Ange’s vicinity, they immediately changed direction and drifted away at an even faster speed.

In the rear of the Undead Tide, a dozen necromancers stared at the gradually slowing Skull Tide, with question marks sprouting in their minds, “What the hell happened? Why is it slowing down?”

“Is there an obstacle ahead? Like a ditch or something? Otherwise, why is it slowing down?”

“Impossible, we’ve studied the route, there’s no impediment that could hinder the Skeleton Sea.”

“Then why did they stop?”

“Could it be… there’s territory of a High-Order Undead creature ahead?” A mage said hesitantly.

In an instant, all necromancers fell silent, looking at each other for a moment, each seeing the other’s face turning pale.