Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

The most conspicuous amongst them was a giant skeleton standing three meters tall.

The word ‘strong’ used to describe a skeleton might sound a bit strange, because after all, a skeleton consists only of bones, what could possibly make it strong?

But this skeleton was, indeed, robust. The joints were bulky, the bones were solid, even the fingers and toes were short and stout. Everything about it spelled rugged.

This was a golden skeleton – three meters tall, robust and sturdy. Despite its formidable potential, it stood cautious and restrained, crouching just like a quail.

“Move along, please. Careful!” Bewildered, the golden skeleton made efforts to shuffle around its peers, apologizing in a confused manner.

Accidentally using a bit too much force, a snap! and the head of an Ashbone skeleton next to it was pulled off.

“Ohhh, it fell off…” The golden skeleton said with remorse and guilt, and speedily ambled over to pick up the head of the Ashbone skeleton with the intention of reattaching it.

But as soon as it picked up the skeleton’s torso, with a crack, it snapped two of its ribs. Probably from a bit too much effort.

“Ohh, they broke… I’m sorry…” Apologizing guiltily, the golden skeleton tried one more time and yanked forcefully. With another crack, the skeleton’s lumbar vertebrae snapped off.

The golden skeleton’s voice was close to tears, “I knew it… I…always mess up… I’m such a dimwit…”

The Great Sage passing by, seeing this scene, couldn’t help but say, “Big Bone, just dump it in a pile.”

“Okay.” Responding and called Big Bone, the golden skeleton hurriedly dumped the heap of bones it was carrying. In the process, another arm bone got dislocated.

Crunch crunch, the severed head of the Ashbone skeleton rolled to the neck vertebrae and reattached itself, grasping the dislocated arm bone and reestablishing it, crawling a few paces ahead with both arms, before coming to the realization that it was missing something.

Grappling the lower end of its own figure, the Ashbone skeleton, without bothering to reassemble completely, scrambled a safe distance away with a roll, then turned its direction and looked toward Big Bone, silently opening and closing its jaw.

Scratching its head, the golden skeleton mumbled in a dejected tone, “Sorry…”

The Great Sage said helplessly, “Big Bone, you should act harsher. Just show a bit of aggression, and these low-level skeletons will not dare approach you. You have too much force and are too overpowered; little taps or knocks will disassemble them.”

“Oh…” Big Bone responded, hung his head in disappointment for a moment, suddenly lifted his head up, started waving its hands around and made a spooky and ferocious face with wide-open jaws, going ‘yow yow’ with loud shouts.

Finished doing that, it asked, “Am I scary?”

The Great Sage nearly lost it and burst into laughter, while trying to maintain a serious face by saying, “Scary, way too scary, I’m terrified!”

All the while, he began to radiate his imposing authority, an undeniable force for ordinary skeletons, with the instant result that surrounding low-level skeleton zombies moved and scattered, leaving a gap of several meters.

“Yow~yow~” Big Bone thought it had successfully scared them off, and continued idly scaring around.

The Great Sage shook his head and floated toward the purple-golden skeleton saying, “Harvey, how come you are here? It’s been nearly three hundred years since you set foot on the frontlines.”

Turning around, the skeleton named Harvey nodded at the Great Sage, “A few days ago, inside a communication domino, a person claimed to be the Undead God.”

“Oh, you mean that one. It’s fake. Pretty clear a human child found the communication domino and initiated a random voice message.” Responded the Great Sage.

He had also heard about that communication. At the time when the voice on the other end was solemnly claiming he was the Undead God, the Great Sage had had a weird feeling. He wondered what the Undead Empire was like now, and what the King… how was he doing.

Harvey shook his head, “I’m not referring to the human but to our soul, that frontline transit station soul.”

“Oh, Yeah, hehe. Young souls are usually more agitated and that’s pretty natural. Those at the transit station are either neophyte undead or witches, mostly less than a thousand years old and most originated in this plane. It’s common for them not to be able to control their emotions, you shouldn’t take it to heart,” The Great Sage responded.

Harvey turned around and looked him in the eye with a strange tone, “Great Sage, you can’t possibly think I am here to complain, can you?”

“No way,” the Great Sage shook his head, “the new Undead King, Lord of Mourning, purple golden skeleton Harvey, what could possibly cause someone of your stature to travel this far just for that? There must be something important; what brings you here?”

Harvey didn’t answer immediately but looked up at the sky as if he was contemplating something.

The Great Sage also followed his gaze upwards, but apart from the dangling light band, the sky looked no different than usual.

After a long pause, Harvey suddenly said, “What do you think, is the King still there?”

Taken aback by the question, the Great Sage hesitated for a moment before responding, “He’s possibly, presumably, probably, maybe… gone, who knows? Haven’t we talked about this before? Why bring it up now all of a sudden?”

“Then why didn’t we disappear along with him?” Harvey questioned.

“Err, we all felt the severance of the soul connection at the very last moment. Perhaps the King used some kind of power to forcibly disconnect the soul network, allowing us to survive,” explained the Great Sage.

This topic was something they had debated mutually a few thousand times over the course of the first three hundred years and had already come to a consensus. Right now, the Great Sage was just spitting it out repetitively just as regurgitating already learned materials.

“So, I am merely the new Undead King? I cannot become the King’s most loyal warrior like Locke?” Harvey expressed his regret.

Pausing momentarily, Harvey continued, “We have come to an understanding that the King is no more. Breaching the human defense, getting back to the Resting Palace would be meaningless. So, I’ve been too lazy to come to the frontlines all these years, instead I would rather stay peacefully asleep, strengthening my bones.”

“But having heard the fervent shout of that young soul, I’ve come to realize that I was mistaken.”

“We’ve come to mutual understanding, confirming the absence of the King, but the young souls have not, they perhaps believe that, the Undead Empire still exists.”

“Merely being stood up to by the humans. Break through the defenses, and they’d be able to reach the Resting Palace, be in the presence of his majesty, and become subjects of the King.”

“For these young souls, I think it’s time for me to make a move. Seven hundred years ago, when I had just breached the realm of the Lord of Mourning, my power hadn’t fully stabilized. Now, I have stabilized and truly become the Lord of Mourning; the human defenses cannot hold me off.”

“The time has come for the Resting Palace to welcome its new Lord.”

PS: I cannot delay it anymore, I’ve almost lost my perfect attendance…ease with the aows!