Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

Upon reopening that magic spatial bag, lo and behold, it was filled to the brim with blank magic scrolls. Two of them were already transcribed, stuck at the mouth of the bag – no need to look, just reach for it and you’d grasp it.

Clearly, the bag’s lack of a magic lock was designed to make the scrolls easy to insert and remove. This just made it even more convenient for Ange and the others.

“Alright, we can now copy the teleportation scrolls. Thanks to that female mage, thank you Fortuna.” The turn of events left Negris with a mix of laughter and tears.

He was just thinking about how great it would be to have a teleportation scroll and lo and behold, blank scrolls were presented to him. In addition to this, they also gave him a Spatial Magic Codex to ensure he transcribed accurately.

Unable to resist, Negris flipped open the second copy of the ‘Archmage’s Manual’. Diaries like these were very personal, much like a mage’s journal. Out of courtesy, Negris hadn’t planned on going through it.

But the problem was, the title was too enticing. Why was it called ‘Archmage’s Manual’? Was the mage named ‘Archmage’? Or was this a Archmage’s mind going awry?

Upon flipping through two pages, Negris quickly closed the book, exclaiming: “Madness.”

“What did it say?” Lightning, being naturally curious, asked.

“I don’t understand it, just some insane-like lines and numbers,” Negris admitted awkwardly.

Lightning smirked: “Just because you don’t understand, you’re calling it madness, pshaw.”

“It’s not me, she claimed it herself.” Negris showed the name inscribed on the book pages, feeling deeply that it was fitting: “Ange, keep it safe. We’ll return it to that little girl someday. We’re not standing on ceremony in using her blank scrolls – consider it payment for guarding her book.”

“Oh,” Ange received it and placed it inside the Resting Camp.

But before they started copying the scrolls, there was a resounding, rumbling noise. The stone door behind them trembled as it slowly opened.

Barely did the stone door crack open, countless worms surged out like a flood, flying and crawling towards Ange and his companions.

Negris gasped, suddenly understanding why the powerful female wizard had shrieked and ripped off all her clothes. The sight before him gave him chills: “Did that wizard poke into a worm nest?”

Ange forcefully stomped on the ground. Instantly, the Instant Death Halo blocked the stone gate, catching everything coming out of it. All the beetles and insects’ lives were accelerated.

Those that would have lived another two or three days, in the halo, would barely crawl three or five meters before they uncontrollably flipped over, twitched, and died. The flying insects, although faster, had even shorter lifespans. After flying a similar distance, they fell like rain.

In the blink of an eye, a pile of insect corpses blocked the exit of the stone gate within a three to five-meter radius.

“The bodies are… are they blocking the way?” Inside the stone gate’s staircase, a bewildered mantis wondered aloud. He found his commanded insects were trapped inside the stone gate, perishing in vast numbers: “Why did they die? They can’t be killed that quickly just by stopping. Also, how did the corpses block the gates? Eat the bodies, quickly!”

Without any apparent command, the insects began gnawing at each other’s corpses. But this didn’t slow down the insects’ death toll; as this wasn’t a blockable magic, but rather a range-effective halo. Even if the corpses blocked the insects inside the stone gate, the insects inside were still affected by it.

Only after moving away from the range of the halo could the insects rid themselves of its influence. They separated into a clear line from the dead insects. On one side were the dead, on the other the living.

The man shuddered: “This… Is this Life Acceleration? The legendary Life Acceleration?”

The mantis man turned his fear into joy, excitedly pulling out a long-winged beetle, also known as the Winged Emperor. His Winged Emperor was the size of an open palm.

He placed the Winged Emperor on the ground, entered the range of the halo, shoved the insect corpses aside and fed them to the Winged Emperor.

It seemed he wasn’t affected by the halo. Looking at his shriveled palm, it was clear he was also a type of necromancer.

Seeing the Winged Emperor had munched sufficiently, the mantis man whistled. It immediately crawled towards him, entering the halo’s range, and its outer appearance visibly changed.

This change led to the Winged Emperor madly lunging at the insects, devouring the corpses industriously.

Midway of devouring, the Winged Emperor suddenly twisted its head.

When other animals twisted their heads, their bodies would also follow suit. But not the Winged Emperor, when it twisted its head, its body didn’t move. It ended up separating its upper body from the rest, splitting into two.

The two halves of the Body quickly grew into separate entities, each turning into fully-formed Winged Emperors.

By this point, the mantis man had exited the range of the halo and suddenly whistled.

The two Winged Emperors immediately turned around and moved towards him, moving out of the reach of the halo.

Once they left the reach of the halo, their bodies stopped changing. The newly sprouted parts gradually hardened into a shell, which was no longer as soft as when it first sprouted.

The man guided them back into the range of the halo again to devour the insect corpses. The two Winged Emperors grew visibly fast, reaching the size of a watermelon when they once again twisted their heads, splitting themselves up into four parts.

Four Winged Emperors formed, and the mantis man guided them out to grow and harden. Then he again led them back in and let them feast to grow their bodies.