Shane's gaze fell upon the pouch, a flicker of curiosity passing through his eyes.
Although this flash of curiosity vanished in an instant, it was keenly caught by Elon's eyes.
This couldn't help but put the druid in a great mood, and his tense face finally relaxed a bit.
Since yesterday, he had been constantly shocked by Shane's various actions, always on the receiving end of the impacts Shane brought him. Now, it was finally his turn to show off and reclaim some ground.
A mysterious smile appeared on Elon's face as he suppressed his slight sense of pride. However, he was in no hurry to open the pouch and show Shane. Instead, he turned and walked toward a patch of sandy land near the edge of the pool.
Shane watched him, raising an eyebrow slightly, his gaze following Elon until the latter stopped about ten meters away from the pool.
Planted there were the seabuckthorn-like shrubs he had recently sown. They were growing well, their branches already starting to spread outward, and the sand around the plants had become much firmer.
But other than that, it was still just a patch of sand, devoid of life.
Elon did not go particularly close to the plants. He chose a spot slightly farther away, stopped, squatted down, and began to scoop away the sand with his hands.
By the time Shane walked over to Elon's side, the druid had already dug a small pit. He then pulled out another pouch. Compared to the previous one, this one was much more delicate, deep green with vine patterns embroidered on the surface.
“Dry bean seeds.”
Seeing Shane approach, Elon explained softly. He then untied the pouch and took out a few seeds from its depths.
The seeds were dark brown with a faint waxy luster on their surface.
Elon then placed the seeds into the sandy pit and covered them with sand again.
After completing this step, Elon's body suddenly froze. His brow furrowed once more, and his lips trembled as if he wanted to say something but couldn't get the words out.
Looking at Elon's behavior, Shane was somewhat puzzled. But soon, he saw Elon glance at the nearby saplings and then cast a look toward him, and he instantly understood why the druid was acting this way.
The druid wanted him to help water the seeds but was too embarrassed to ask, or perhaps he also wanted to observe how Shane used death magic to stimulate plant growth.
Amused by this realization, Shane chuckled inwardly. He had no intention of teasing Elon for his hesitant demeanor.
With a serious expression, he fixed his gaze on where the dry beans had been planted and asked sincerely in a low voice, “Do you need my help?”
Hearing this, the druid's body trembled slightly. He took a deep breath, slowly let it out, and replied, “Yes, please. Thank you.”
Shane nodded without saying more. He turned and commanded a skeleton to bring fresh water over. Taking the wooden ladle from the skeleton's hand, he scooped up some water and carefully poured it over the sandy soil where the seeds were buried.
Then, he leaned down, placed his hand on the ground, and began to gather death magic, sending tentative pulses down into the sand.
This scene was fully witnessed by Alicia, who was standing not far away.
She watched the two of them with great interest. A glimmer flashed in her violet eyes, and a faint smile played on her lips.
These two, who clearly belonged to factions that were mortal enemies, were actually standing side by side in the sand, planting beans together. If anyone from the Empire were to witness this scene, they would find it utterly absurd.
But to her, it was mostly just amusing.
With that in mind, Alicia looked at Shane. Having studied the theoretical foundations of magic, she could feel the death magic gathering at his fingertips, slowly permeating beneath the sand.
Before long, it reached the seeds beneath the soil. However, he did not rashly make contact, instead carefully circling the edges of the seeds.
Unlike the active seabuckthorn-like plants, the seeds were currently dormant, with almost no detectable fluctuations of vitality.
If he were to stimulate the seeds in the same manner he did with the seabuckthorn, he would likely kill them before they could even sprout.
Thus, he needed to stimulate the seeds in a much gentler and more delicate manner than he had with the seabuckthorn, like adding fine tinder to a weak, flickering flame.
So, he adjusted the frequency of his magic output, compressing the probing energy until it was thinner than a strand of hair.
Then, he guided this extremely thin thread of death magic slowly toward the seeds.
Instantly, the seeds trembled slightly, as if responding to Shane's actions.
This caused the corners of Shane's mouth to curl into a confident smile.
As the magic penetrated deeper, he could clearly feel the vibration of the germ growing increasingly frequent. In no time, it felt as though it was about to be “born.”
Right at that moment, Shane felt another force of magic probing inward.
He looked up at the druid and saw that Elon had also placed his hand on the soil, eyes closed, sensing the changes.
He did not interfere with Shane, merely monitoring carefully from the side like an observer.
Yet when he noticed that incredibly fine thread of magic Shane was wielding, he couldn't help but gasp. Such exquisite magical control was something even he had never witnessed before.
However, his attention was quickly drawn to the vitality within the seeds.
He realized that in its struggle against the death magic, the seeds were beginning to activate. A preparatory life stage that should have taken several days or even longer was completed in just a few breaths. This rapid transformation forced a gasp of admiration from him:
“To think...!”
Elon suddenly snapped his eyes open, his dark green pupils filled with shock.
The shocked expression on his face lingered. At this moment, he was thoroughly shaken by the tenacity of life itself.
Under the stimulation of death magic, the dry bean seeds had not succumbed. Instead, they burst forth with an intense will to survive. This was completely different from what he had previously imagined.
It wasn't that Shane was using magic to force their growth; rather, they were struggling on their own, fighting desperately to live and grow.
And what Shane did was merely give them a reason to struggle.
“Life...”
In an instant, a flood of emotions rushed into his heart. Elon's voice trembled, and a tear slid down from the corner of his eye. His voice grew so low it sounded like a prayer: “How magnificent.”
After a long while, Elon calmed down and looked at Shane. There was no longer any struggle or resistance in his eyes, only endless admiration.
This necromancer did not force life to submit to death. Instead, he utilized death to make life itself unleash an incredibly powerful force.
In his decades as a druid, Elon had never seen such understanding and insight into life from any of his peers, nor in any records left behind by their predecessors.
Yet the man before him had truly demonstrated it using his own method.
To the side, the changes in Elon's expression naturally did not escape the watchful eyes of the princess. Although she did not release her own magic to sense what was happening, she had read more than enough from the shifts on Elon's face.
The awe on his face right now was genuine and completely undisguised.
It was also something the princess had never seen in all her years of knowing Elon.
Yet today, in the presence of a necromancer, an exile of the Empire, he had shown it.
The princess's gaze fell upon Shane. She had initially thought him to be merely a valuable asset, but now his potential seemed equally unfathomable.
Such a person must never be allowed to slip through her fingers.
Alicia's lips slowly curved upward as she pondered, her fingers gently rubbing together, clearly plotting something.
Meanwhile, Shane was entirely focused on the changes in the bean seeds, completely oblivious to Elon's expression and the princess's private schemes.
Soon, stimulated by Shane, the bean seeds began to absorb the surrounding moisture. After swelling slightly, tiny green sprouts broke free from the seeds and pushed their way upward, only to stall just as they were about to break through the soil.
What was going on? Was the magical stimulation not enough?
He had expected the sprouts to break through the sand layer, but to his surprise, they stopped right here.
“Alright, leave the rest to me.”
As Shane furrowed his brows, debating whether to increase the stimulation of death magic, Elon suddenly spoke up, drawing Shane's attention to him.
Shane watched as Elon pulled out the ordinary linen pouch once more, reached inside with his thumb, index, and middle fingers, and pinched out a tiny bit of grayish-brown powder.
Shane narrowed his eyes, staring intently at the substance on Elon's fingertips. He watched as Elon sprinkled it onto the sandy soil above the bean seeds and began to chant under his breath.
Just a few syllables in, Shane suddenly felt a rich surge of vitality permeating downward from the surface of the sand. This life force was vast and enduring, giving off the feeling of standing before primordial nature.
Immediately after, this life force gathered around the bean seeds, enveloping them. Then, the transformation began.
The radicles of the bean seeds began to elongate, extending downward in search of moisture and nutrients. The previously stalled plumules were reactivated once more, growing upward.
In the next second, within Shane's field of vision, the sprouts broke through the sandy soil and began to unfurl.
A look of surprise appeared on Shane's face, but it did not last long. The changes detected from the roots left him with an expression of sheer disbelief.
He lowered his head and stared at the sandy ground, his burning gaze seemingly trying to pierce through the sand. He could hardly believe that the roots of the dry beans would actually turn into something like this.
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