Chapter 34: The Entire Army Reaches Level 15! The Hero Compass Locks Onto a Second SSS-Rank Hero’s Tomb!

Clouds raced past the giant dragon as Ophelia’s dark golden scales gleamed brilliantly in the sunlight.

On the system map, the marked coordinates were steadily drawing closer.

[Remaining Distance: 1,987 km]

...

After flying for about half an hour, John glanced at the wasteland terrain rushing past below. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind.

"Ophelia, lower our altitude."

"Yes, my Lord."

The dragon folded her wings and plunged down from the clouds, flying just a few dozen meters above the treetops.

In the forest of Blackiron Trees below, John spotted several grayish-brown figures moving through the undergrowth.

A pack of Wasteland Hyenas, numbering around forty or fifty, was surrounding a lone Rockscale Lizard and tearing into it.

John raised his hand and swept it through the air. A black rift split open in space.

"Everyone, out."

VMMMM—!

The entrance to the Legion Dimension expanded abruptly, releasing all the troops inside.

Since John was deploying them from the back of a dragon traveling at high speed, the dimensional exit opened directly beneath Ophelia’s wings. The Dragon Knights and Frost Mages all tumbled out of the sky.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

"Leave none alive."

John’s voice rang out from high above.

The leading Dragon Knight raised his right hand. Dark purple Dragonbreath Sword Intent gathered along his blade before a streak of purple-black sword energy swept across the battlefield.

Two hundred columns of icy blue light shot into the sky simultaneously, converging above the fleeing hyenas to form a vast, frost-blue cloud covering hundreds of meters.

VMMMM—!

-1,280!

-1,150!

-1,900!

Dense clusters of damage numbers appeared across the battlefield.

[Your army has killed Wasteland Hyena Lv. 5 (2-Star) x47, gaining 1,350 EXP!]

[Gold Coin +145!]

[Your unit "Undead Dragon Knight" has reached Lv. 2!]

[Your unit "Frost Mage" has reached Lv. 2!]

John glanced at the experience bars and nodded in satisfaction.

"Keep moving."

Over the next several hours, John employed the same tactic repeatedly.

[Your army has killed Bone-Spiked Dire Hyena Lv. 6 (2-Star) x312, gaining 15,600 EXP!]

[Gold Coin +4,680!]

[Your unit "Undead Dragon Knight" has reached Lv. 8!]

[Your unit "Undead Frost Mage" has reached Lv. 7!]

[Your hero "Ophelia" has reached Lv. 11!]

John glanced at Ophelia’s level and immediately understood what was happening.

Although she hadn’t personally participated in the fighting, she was the commander of the formation. Naturally, she received a share of the experience earned by the monsters her troops killed.

"Let’s keep going."

Just like that, most of the day passed before John and his troops finally reached the marked location.

Along the way, his army had wiped out tens of thousands of monsters.

The Dragon Knights and Frost Mages had gained the most levels.

John opened their status panels for a quick inspection.

[Unit: Undead Dragon Knight]

[Rank: 6-Star (Mid-Tier)]

[Level: Lv. 15]

[HP: 1,500 → 6,000 (Primordial Blessing ×4) → 7,500 (Lv. 15 Growth)]

[Attack: 1,000 → 4,000 (Primordial Blessing ×4) → 5,000 (Lv. 15 Growth)]

[Defense: 300 → 1,200 (Primordial Blessing ×4) → 1,500 (Lv. 15 Growth)]

[Unit: Undead Frost Mage]

[Rank: 6-Star (Mid-Tier)]

[Level: Lv. 15]

[HP: 1,000 → 4,000 (Primordial Blessing ×4) → 4,800 (Lv. 15 Growth)]

[Attack: 1,300 → 5,200 (Primordial Blessing ×4) → 5,800 (Lv. 15 Growth)]

[Defense: 200 → 800 (Primordial Blessing ×4) → 1,000 (Lv. 15 Growth)]

[Hero: Ophelia]

[Level: Lv. 14]

[HP: 21,000 → 29,000]

[Attack: 3,900 → 4,800]

[Defense: 2,100 → 2,700]

As for his resources...

[Gold Coin: 487,650]

[Food: 328,400]

[Wood: 268,400]

[Stone: 272,900]

[Iron Ore: 281,200]

The resources collected from fighting monsters along the way had significantly increased his reserves.

John didn’t hesitate any longer. Settling himself on the dragon’s back, he reached into his inventory and took out the brass compass.

[Hero Compass]

This was the exclusive reward for completing Odin Town on Hell difficulty for the first time. It could detect the exact coordinates and ranks of all hidden Hero’s Tombs within a certain radius.

The more resources invested, the larger the detection range.

John glanced at the compass’s description one more time, then spoke without hesitation.

"All in."

He opened his resource panel and pushed the allocation for materials to the maximum.

[Resources Consumed: 250,000]

[Hero Compass Detection Radius Expanded to: 1,000 km]

VMMMM—!

The brass compass began vibrating violently in his hand. The concentric circles engraved on its surface started spinning at tremendous speed.

The dark golden needle at its center swung wildly for two seconds before suddenly locking into place.

A translucent projection shot out above the compass, unfolding into a three-dimensional map before John’s eyes.

The map was densely dotted with points of light.

Green, blue, purple, gold, deep red...

Different colors represented different ranks of Hero’s Tombs.

Green indicated B-Rank, blue indicated A-Rank, purple indicated S-Rank, and gold indicated SS-Rank.

As for deep red...

It represented SSS-Rank.

John’s gaze swept rapidly across the three-dimensional map before quickly locking onto the most conspicuous target.

Slightly south of the map’s center, a deep red point radiated a dazzling glow.

[SSS-Rank Hero’s Tomb · Frostspine Mountains]

[Distance: 480 km]

[Status: Unexplored]

John looked at the red point, the corners of his mouth curling upward slightly. The distance was well within the range he had anticipated.

"Ophelia, fly toward that location."

"Yes, my Lord."

The giant dragon changed direction and sped toward the coordinates marked on the map.

...

The surrounding environment gradually began to change.

The black and brown earth of the wasteland slowly gave way to gray permafrost. The temperature dropped rapidly, and John’s breath turned into white clouds of vapor.

Beyond the horizon, endless snow-covered mountains rose from the earth.

[System Notification: You have entered a special region—"Frostspine Mountains."]

[Warning: High-intensity elemental energy signatures detected in this region. Explore with caution.]

[Environmental Effect: Elemental Erosion—All units in the party gain 1 stack of Elemental Erosion every 30 seconds. Each stack reduces movement speed by 5% and inflicts 50 points of elemental damage per second. Stacks up to 10 times.]

[Current Elemental Erosion Stacks: 0]

John raised his head and looked ahead.

Countless tiny points of light moved between the snow-covered peaks.

The lights were red, blue, yellow, purple, cyan, and white, all six colors interwoven across the mountains.

And this was precisely the location indicated by the map.

"Ophelia, descend."

Ophelia folded her wings and plunged down from the clouds.

The giant dragon swept over the snowy peaks, her powerful air currents scattering the snow into a vast white cloud that danced through the air.

Her four dark golden claws landed firmly on the frozen ground at the edge of a valley. The ice beneath them cracked with a deep, muffled rumble.

John swung himself down from the dragon’s back, his boots touching the frozen earth.

BOOM!

Spiderweb-like cracks immediately spread across the ice beneath his feet. A shockwave sent shards of ice flying in every direction, raising a circular wave of snow.

Suddenly, the surrounding snowfield began to tremble.

Shh-shh-shh-shh-shh...

Countless footsteps surged toward them from every direction.

John glanced at the status panel that appeared in his field of vision.

[Total Elemental Monsters in Current Region: 9,999/9,999]

[Status: All Hostile Units Have Locked Onto You]