Chapter 354: Saving the Suffering

The number of people using this teleportation array was small.

After landing, they quickly scattered and vanished.

Luo De also pretended to leave, actually shattering a 【High-Level Invisibility】 magic ring and secretly following the tracker.

Without Tally accompanying him this time, lacking her Shadow Magic assistance, it was indeed troublesome.

Whether sneaking into shadows to track or using 【Secret Shadow Trace】 to locate, both were excellent skills, hard to detect.

Luo De had never been good at such operations.

Fortunately, the middle-aged woman tracker was not a mage and had not noticed the person lingering far behind.

Along the way they passed a river.

On both sides of the river, it was clearly visible that grasslands had once been there, now crushed under volcanic ash, dull and lifeless.

The river water was filthy, mixed with volcanic ash, so heavy that even the sound of flowing water could not be heard.

A sky-wide curtain of ash coated the entire world in a thick gray filter.

Even Luo De felt his nose become uncomfortable.

He could only pull out his spellbook, learning a 【Air Filtration】 spell while following the man ahead.

Fortunately, it was only a second-rank spell.

After glancing at it twice, he learned it.

"It's so boring without a girl around."

Luo De sighed, unable to help missing Tally, who loved to cling to him.

He kept following.

The tracker arrived at a forest filled with makeshift camps; through the pierced canvas walls, he could see many dusty, grimy survivors inside.

With winter arriving, no food and contaminated water sources, the hardships of ordinary people were obvious.

The middle-aged woman tracker delivered them some food and supplies.

Then she headed to the next gathering point.

Again, she delivered food and supplies, repeating the cycle.

"Hmm."

Luo De found it boring.

He had originally thought following this woman might lead him to the mastermind behind her.

Now it seemed pointless to keep trailing—better to let Shi Laimu Black just step in and use 【Memory Devour】 directly.

As for her rescuing these refugees…

Luo De felt no moral burden; if she needed killing, she'd be killed.

I'm not the 【Hero】 the half-deer people talk about—I can't care for everything under heaven. First, take care of myself.

"Huh?"

Speak of the devil.

Luo De had planned to deal with the middle-aged woman after this gathering point.

But he turned and suddenly saw a half-deer girl.

Beside her stood a woman in silver armor, holding a silver steel spear.

The woman radiated fierce energy, her eyes sharp, her spiritual essence solid and refined—clearly a top-tier fighter in her rank.

They were distributing food.

The refugees kept calling out, "Hero!" with every word.

Clearly, this was a pair of 【Hero Giver】 and 【Hero】.

"Indeed, heroes who save the suffering are especially likely to appear in places like this… hmm?"

The fierce woman suddenly lifted her head.

Her eyes flashed like lightning, locking onto Luo De's position.

In one motion, she flung her hand—her silver armguard turned into a phantom, and a streak of emerald magical light shot out, instantly crossing space to strike directly at Luo De's throat.

Luo De reacted instantly, sidestepping effortlessly as if he had foreseen the move.

【Precise Prediction】 had shown him her action beforehand.

BOOM!!

The large tree behind him exploded into splinters, pierced clean through.

It was a green straight-bladed short dagger.

After piercing the tree, the blade retained its momentum, paused half a second in midair to shed inertia, then spun backward to stab at Luo De's back.

At the same time,

a monstrous steel spear with a snakelike, grotesque head swept toward him, roaring with power, tearing through the air with a thunderous crack.

A pincer attack from front and back.

Luo De grinned at the fierce woman's icy gaze.

Blue-white spiritual mist spread like flame, then erupted!

A colossal bronze dragon spirit swelled and exploded outward like a tidal wave!

Trees around them were instantly shattered, flipped, and driven backward into the earth.

"ROAR!!!"

A dragon's roar followed.

The gray ash veil of the volcano was instantly blasted open into a vast empty space by the sonic wave.

The fierce woman's face turned pale.

There was no time to dodge—she could only watch helplessly as the solid bronze dragon slammed into her, hurling her backward.

BOOM!!

She crashed into the ground, churning a deep furrow like a plow.

But her combat experience was vast; she knew never to turn her back on an enemy, so even as she was struck, she twisted with all her strength, spat out a mouthful of blood, and faced her opponent again.

Yet when she looked toward the man's direction, he was gone.

Only a splash of exploded mud remained on the ground.

The woman slowly straightened, her frowning face filled with defiance.

"Lady Grei! Are you alright?!"

The half-deer girl rushed over, worried as she saw her 【Candidate Hero】 covered in mud.

She cast a Cleansing Spell and pulled out several healing magic potions.

The woman named Grei took a deep breath and stopped the half-deer girl from opening the potions.

"Kira, no—Kawa's current environment makes magic supplies hard to obtain. Use them sparingly."

"But but… Lady Grei spat blood!"

"It's nothing. Just a minor injury."

She raised her hand toward the distance.

Moments later, the emerald straight-bladed dagger flew precisely back into her hand.

She examined it.

Found a tiny notch on the blade.

She winced in pain.

"Was that guy seventh-rank? Even Lady Grei couldn't take him down?"

The half-deer Kira grumbled.

She found the man utterly hateful—he had hurt her Candidate Hero!

"No, he's not seventh-rank."

"How is that possible? Lady Grei is universally recognized as invincible below seventh-rank! He must be using a hidden-rank artifact—just look at how he hides himself!"

Grei did not deny it.

She too believed no sixth-rank could have put her in such a disadvantage.

If they faced each other again, victory was still uncertain.

She looked up at the ruined refugee camp, churned by the blast wave, and felt a surge of loathing toward the man.

With such power, he didn't even help ordinary people escape—yet he destroyed their few remaining shelters like this.

Despicable.

He must die.

Grei suppressed the rising kill intent within her, reminding herself not to be disturbed by such a worm.

Yet, inexplicably, she asked:

"Kira, did your 【Hero Judgment】 react to that man?"

The half-deer girl was surprised she'd ask that, and shook her head.

"Not at all. Such an evil, hateful villain could never be a 【Hero】. Only someone like Lady Grei, a righteous emissary, deserves the title!"

"True… What's the next condition for 【Hero Judgment】?"

"No, Lady Grei—I can't guide your heroic deeds. Only when you decide to do something and succeed does 【Hero Judgment】 unlock, granting stronger power… So, what will Lady Grei do next?"

Grei fell silent for a moment.

"After the Super Volcano in Dusk Mountain erupted, it cracked open a new labyrinth entrance—cruel monsters escaped from inside. Rumors say they've appeared near the Black Cloak Mountain not far from here. I plan to go clean them out."

(End of chapter)