Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton
Chapter 1323 - Chapter 1323 Chapter 884 Lord Skeleton Can I Hire You

Chapter 1323: Chapter 884: Lord Skeleton, Can I Hire You? Chapter 1323: Chapter 884: Lord Skeleton, Can I Hire You? Negris had always mistaken Little Bone as Ange’s avatar, proxy, or projection, so he treated Little Bone the same as he treated Ange, thinking that at worst, Little Bone would ignore him just like Ange did. He never expected Little Bone to actually run away…

The moment it happened, Negris finally remembered that Little Bone was a Silver Skeleton who had always been slippery, ready to run if it couldn’t win a fight, and ready to surrender if it couldn’t escape. Moreover, since there was no Soul Contact between him and Negris, once Little Bone was gone, Negris had no clue where to find it.

Realizing the severity of the situation, Negris started to panic, “What… what… what do I do now?”

The female mage suggested, “Lord of Knowledge, why don’t you come back to the academy with us first? Once we find Mr. Bone, you can leave, or we can ask a priest from the Hall of Knowledge to pick you up?”

Negris had no choice but to follow the female mage back to the academy. Whether or not the Hall of Knowledge would recognize him was another issue. Having known Anthony for a long time, he was all too aware of how cunning these godmen could be.

…

While everyone was too busy being sick to notice, Little Bone quietly slipped away from the airship and stealthily boarded another one, finding a hiding spot.

Little Bone didn’t know where it wanted to go; it just wanted to escape the incessant chatter of the Bronze Dragon. Little Bone had spoken more in its entire lifetime than the Bronze Dragon did in a single day.

Negris also liked to nag it, forbidding this and that, which was really annoying.

Before long, the airship it was hiding on drifted away from the Starburst Array and descended towards the land below.

The world that Ange had created was overly abstract; it didn’t have the conventional shape of normal planes. All the land was one large flat surface, whether it was the desert of the Land Forbidden to Gods or this Stellaris Continent.

It surely had to be because Ange got used to playing with the Simulated Magic Formation, though the Simulated Magic Formation had only one side, whereas the land in the Void had two, one dark and one light.

The sunlit side was enveloped in sunshine with sunrise and sunset, featuring mountains, seas, rivers, and lakes, all complete. The surface was covered with atmosphere; it had the hydrological cycle, wind, and rain, capable of supporting life.

The dark side, however, never saw sunlight; the environment was harsh, entirely unsuitable for any form of life, much like the old Abyss Dimension.

The airship landed in a desert town on the edge of the Stellaris Continent. When the old captain opened the cargo bay to start unloading, he got a shock, “Ah! A skeleton? You scared me. How did you get on my ship?”

Alerted by the captain’s scream, the crew rushed in and, upon seeing Little Bone, asked in surprise, “An Ashbone Skeleton? Why is there an Ashbone Skeleton? Boss, did you buy this?”

“Are you dreaming? All my money goes to your commissions, how could I afford to buy a skeleton? Nice try, though. I bet when we were docked, someone’s skeleton got on the wrong airship. I’ll send a transmission to check whose skeleton is lost, and we’ll return it next month,” the old captain grumbled and scolded them.

The young crew member, disappointed, said, “I thought you were being generous, boss, buying a skeleton to lighten our workload. Turns out it’s just lost.”

But then he perked up, “Well, boss, since we’re only sending it back next month, why don’t we make it work for us in the meantime?”

“Ah, spit on that. Do you have a Soul Crystal? Can you afford to keep a skeleton? Can you make it move? And you still want it to work for you? You lazy bone, do your own work, or I’ll dock your pay,” the old captain said angrily.

The young crew member, unfazed–being scolded was a daily occurrence on the airship–smiled cheekily, “Fair enough, but if I can make it move, it can work, right? Hey, little skeleton, help us out please? Help us unload the cargo?”

After thinking for a moment, Little Bone picked up a nearby box and walked towards the ship’s exit.

“Whoa, impressive strength for an Ashbone Skeleton,” the young crew member exclaimed in admiration.

Furious, the old captain kicked him in the rear, “You get to work too, or I’ll dock your pay.”

Little Bone could have used pollination magic to move all these goods, but since they said ‘move,’ then ‘move’ it is. With Little Bone’s help, the airship took less than half the usual time to unload the goods.

Then everyone let the air out of the airship’s balloon and dragged it into the warehouse. The young crew members were sent off to clean up, leaving Little Bone somewhat bewildered by the side.

The old captain came over and handed Little Bone a Soul Crystal, smiling as he said, “You work swiftly. This is your commission. I’ll ask around at the dock to see if anyone has lost a skeleton and then send you back, but it won’t be until next month. You stay here for now.”

After he finished speaking, the old captain smiled, patted Little Bone on the shoulder, and left.

Commission? Little Bone held the Soul Crystal in his hand, baffled. This word was appearing in its life for the first time. Could moving things earn a commission? What use was a commission?

Indeed, it was a profound question. The old captain paid Little Bone a Soul Crystal because skeletons need Soul Crystals; they are energy, ‘food,’ to be ‘eaten.’

But Little Bone had never needed to absorb a Soul Crystal and had never acquired the habit of replenishing its soul with them from childhood.

If it’s not needed, just put it away for now. Little Bone clasped the Soul Crystal in its hand, and when it opened its hand again, the trace of the Soul Crystal had already disappeared.

There was noise from the side of the warehouse. Little Bone turned its head and saw several small heads scream and shrink back, then gigglingly run away. The naive voices faintly arrived from afar:

“Wow, is that a skeleton? It turned its head–how scary!”

“It’s not scary at all. People turn into that when they die. They all were people once; it’s not scary.”

“Grandpa Marcus says that’s an Ashbone Skeleton, a very strong one–very impressive. It works harder than Grandpa Marcus and Lazy Darija combined.”

“Wow, stronger than Grandpa Marcus?” As for Lazy Darija, he seemed to be outright ignored: “But it doesn’t look gray? It seems sort of purplish-black.”

“That’s just because it’s unevenly black which makes it gray. I heard that the big cities with big arrays have lots of skeletons. Our little town is too poor; we can’t afford skeletons.”

“What can a skeleton do?”

“Skeletons can do lots of things. I heard skeletons are incredibly strong, fireproof, can’t drown, don’t tire, can move things, put out fires, retrieve things from underwater, plant crops and trees; all can be done by hiring skeletons. Sadly, our place is too small, we can’t afford skeletons. Now, good for us, we have a skeleton.”

“Keep dreaming; you can’t hire a skeleton–you don’t have money for the commission.” The children teased each other as they ran off into the distance.

Such a lot they can do? Move things? Firefighting? Planting crops, planting trees?

So many new terms, all first-time words for Little Bone, leaving it somewhat puzzled, standing there in a daze.

As the sun turned down and night fell, Little Bone finally snapped out of its daze, ready to find a place to hide. It had always maintained this habit: rise at sunrise and rest at sunset.

But just after taking a few steps, Little Bone felt something approaching and turned its head to look. Through the warehouse wall, Little Bone ‘saw’ a human child groping his way towards it.

This human child was one of those from earlier in the day. As soon as he rounded the corner and saw Little Bone looking in his direction, he jumped with fright and zipped back behind the wall, shivering.

After trembling for a while, the human child took several deep breaths, quietly encouraging himself before boldly stepping out. He took out a Soul Crystal and with a trembling voice said:

“Skele … Skele … Mr. Skeleton, I … I can hire … hire you to help me pick some herbs? My sister is sick and needs herbs for treatment. Some of them I can’t reach. Can I hire you?”