Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

“Hold them off, I’ll go ahead, and don’t let them see me.” Tossing out these words, Anthony ran off in the opposite direction.

If the Church of Light found out that he, a Cardinal, appeared in the depths of a desert thousands of miles away late at night, and was mingling with a bunch of undead, no amount of Holy Water would wash him clean.

“Good! Nice call! Prepare for battle!” Rogge, rejuvenated from his previous despair, bellowed with vigor. The sudden contrast left his underlings from Dark City somewhat flabbergasted.

Negris and Brooks couldn’t help but mutter amongst themselves: “I think Anthony shouldn’t be a bishop, he should be heading to the confessional.”

“How do you know he hasn’t sat in one before? Maybe this ability was developed in the confessional. Every believer enters solemnly to confess their sins and then leaves rejoicing. The Church is sure to promote him fast.”

The undead creatures of Dark City definitely prepared themselves for an attack and connected the wagons into a wall in the swiftest manner possible. Spikes were laid leaning on the enemy’s side to prevent them climbing or hitting the wagons.

Between the wagons, crossbows smaller than siege crossbows were stuck in the gaps, aiming forward.

Inside the wagons, shooting holes were opened, the witches hiding behind them, aiming ahead.

But that was still not enough, Rogge turned to Negris for help: “God of Knowledge, do you have a mage? Help me immerse the wheels in the sand to prevent them from using hooks.”

Negris was stunned: “Among your over-3,000 Witches, you still lack a Mage?”

Rogge was also stunned: “Why would we not? It’s incredibly expensive to train a mage.”

“But… there are over 3,000 of you witches, a Witch-King, and the Undead Saint. Can you possibly lack mages.”

Rogge shook his head disdainfully, “Clearly you’ve never taken care of people. Nurturing a mage is so expensive. Do you know how much a set of novice mage practice equipment costs? Do you know how much the training of the mage dual-language costs per hour? You must know how much a wand and a robe cost, right? Do you know how many Demon Crystals a novice mage consumes in a year?”

The more he spoke, the angrier and more animated he became.

Negris hurried to stop him: “Alright, alright, I understand your financial plight.”

“Of course, Dark City has always been under siege, making it difficult for magic practice boards and books to come in. We can’t teach on sand boards, can we? The mages outside have already started using Illusion Panorama Three-dimensional Practice Books. If they want to know the effect after the magic forms, they just have to open the practice book. They can even make themselves the target of attack and experience what it feels like to be hit by magic, while we have to explain it verbally, which leads to significantly varying results.”

Speaking of this, Negris felt smug, their Dragon Clan’s bloodline could impart all the skills and experiences for casting spells after awakening, as if they had cast them themselves.

But the undead also have soul contact.

“Exactly, now we mainly adopt the old-to-new approach, where an old mage takes under his wing two apprentices and grinds it out slowly. However, magic is too reliant on talent and after a while, when the initial enthusiasm fades, many people become mediocre. That’s why most of Dark City’s inhabitants are mediocre mages.” Rogge sighed.

Upon hearing about talent, Negris glanced at Ange. Could anyone be less talented than a farming skeleton?

The challenge of nurturing a mage is multifaceted and includes significant investment, adequate teaching resources/materials, and abundant practice opportunities.

Practice makes perfect, but how can one grasp the true essence of magic without casting it thousands of times?

However, casting magic requires magic power. Once an apprentice mage casts five or six Level 1 magic spells, they run out of magic power and can’t practice any further.

Rich mages can use Demon Crystals to regain magic power, but poor ones can only rely on meditation, with the possibility of regaining full power the next day.

When others practice dozens of times a day and you only a few times a day, the progress is bound to be different.

Additionally, there are the practicing books, the magic wand, magic garment, magic accessories, those who can afford it might even receive illusion aided teaching; hence the progress of richer mages and poor ones are not on the same level.

For humans, the golden age of learning magic is around ten to twenty years. After this period, one’s understanding of magic becomes fixed, and it becomes difficult to make major breakthroughs.

So, early stages of magic learning lay the groundwork for later achievements, determining how far a wizard can progress, and the quicker, the better.

Why do the poor take up the sword? Because it’s cheap.

Fill your belly, grab a wooden stick, and wildly hack and slash around, and you might become an outstanding swordsman.

“Oh, don’t you have Undead Holy Fire?” Negris asked, Undead Holy Fire is like the bloodline inheritance of the Dragon Clan, a divine artifact for illusion-assisted teaching.

A bunch of undead witches gathered around the Undead Holy Fire, and once they immersed their consciousness in it, they could immediately immerse themselves in their predecessors’ learning process. Meanwhile, they could also share their own insights, adding to the experience database.

The experience gained by a wizard, through the Undead Holy Fire, could be quickly passed on to other undead witches, highly efficient.

“Hey, we don’t have such a thing, if we did, it would be great. We have over three thousand undead witches, if only ten percent could become outstanding wizards, hehehe… Forget about it, do you have any mages here?”

Rogge looked in the distance, the Silver Knights had already appeared at the end of the night. He quickly asked if there was no mage, he would have to dig one up himself.

“Ange.” Negris said to Ange, “Can you bury the wheels in the sand?”

Ange cast a streak of magic, landing right under each carriage wheel, then pressed her palm down.

Boom! All the wheels immediately sank into the sand, and the bottom of the carriage sat directly on the sand.

Five seconds, job done.

Rogge’s eyes widened in shock: “Such precise control? Could this be… the one Negris called ‘Ange’ just now?”

“This is Lord Ange, the successor to the Undead Godhood and the new Undead God,” Negris introduced to Rogge who had lived through the Undead Empire era using former titles.

Rogge kneeled down in one knee and said solemnly, “I pledge my loyalty to the Undead God. I, Black Knight Rogge, am at your service.”

A strange symbol floated up from Rogge’s body.

Ange curiously looked at the symbol, which was wholly different from those offered by his subjects’ worshippers.

“That’s a Loyalty Oath, accept it quickly. Rogge pledges his loyalty to the Undead God, a promise of eternal loyalty. The difference between it and a Soul Oath is that if you fall, he will not vanish with you. And his loyalty is dedicated to the Undead God, you can control him only when you possess the Undead Godhood,” Negris explained.

“Oh.” Ange accepted the Loyalty Oath, then asked, “Do you know how to farm?”

“What?!” Rogge was taken aback by this sudden question. Farm?

Negris face-palmed, the vision was already taking form in his soul. Black Knight Emperor Rogge, carrying a large sickle, floating above orderly fields, crops neatly falling in his wake.

Don’t doubt, if Ange could make Little Angel carry a poop pail, he would absolutely make Rogge mow the lawn. Negris had already started worrying about Rogge’s future.

The Silver Knights rushed forward, a column of light shot straight towards the carriage wall.

“Using Holy Light Flash as their first move? Have they gone mad?!” Rogge’s face changed drastically.

PS: It’s Children’s Day, I am going out to play, so just one update for today.