Chapter 2: The Mausoleum of Heroes

The battle had ended long ago, and Evergreen of Ten Thousand Years arrived with reinforcements, finally annihilating the skeleton soldiers left behind by Li Bin. He led his team over to Evergreen of Ten Thousand Years' side.

At this moment, Evergreen of Ten Thousand Years had finished tallying his losses and was glaring fiercely in the direction Li Bin had departed, cursing loudly.

“Stop cursing already. I told you before, unless it’s an emergency, don’t bring enemies to the guild. Look at what you’ve done! Didn’t you realize that even just a few of his heroes were more than you could handle?” As soon as Evergreen of Ten Thousand Years saw him, Evergreen of Ten Thousand Years’ Youth began scolding.

“How was I supposed to know? At first, I only saw two heroes and thought he was just some minor character,” Evergreen of Ten Thousand Years argued.

“A minor character? Are there minor characters like that? Didn’t you see he had something like a moving village? He could very well be a VIP player.” After venting his anger, Evergreen of Ten Thousand Years’ Youth finally calmed down, letting out a sigh. “Forget it. The guild will deal with this for now. Next time you run into that player, we’ll see. Do you remember which way he went?”

“I think he headed toward the direction of the Hero’s Tomb,” Evergreen of Ten Thousand Years recalled after thinking for a moment.

“That’s a relief. Otherwise, the upcoming battle at the lumberyard would have another variable.” Evergreen of Ten Thousand Years’ Youth sighed. “Here are 5,000 gold coins. Use them to replenish your troops.”

“Brother… this—”

“Enough. You’re my brother, after all.”

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Meanwhile, Li Bin, who was busy accounting for his losses, received the latest report from the Graveyard Demon. A troublesome matter now lay before him: his troops had taken the wrong path.

If he continued in this direction, Li Bin would need three extra days to reach his original target—the Amazon Tribe.

But if he turned back to the original route, not only would it cost him an extra day, he might also run into Evergreen of Ten Thousand Years’ troops again, which would surely lead to another chaotic skirmish.

Weighing the pros and cons, Li Bin decided to take the safer route, even if it meant spending three more days.

However, he had no intention of letting Evergreen of Ten Thousand Years and his guild off the hook. After muttering curses about the so-called Black Moonstone Guild, Li Bin temporarily added this guild to the top of his list of future enemies.

“Master, the battle losses have been calculated,” at this moment, Todina entered and spoke.

“Go ahead, I’m prepared for the worst,” Li Bin sighed.

“In this battle, we lost nearly half of our skeleton soldiers, a third of our corpse troops, and almost a fifth of other units,” Todina reported truthfully. “All we gained, apart from thirty standard souls, fifty standard corpses, and three units of gems, was far outweighed by our losses.”

“I understand your point,” Li Bin sighed. “I’ll have the Graveyard Demon rest here for a day, and grant you two-thirds recruiting rights for the next few days. However, you’ll have to handle the recruiting costs yourselves.”

“Thank you, Master.” Todina was overjoyed. She knew the daily output of skeleton soldiers and corpse troops from the Skeleton Altar and Corpse Laboratory within the Graveyard Demon. Even with only a third recruiting right each, they could recruit two small squads of skeleton soldiers and one small squad of corpse troops within four days.

Adding in the heroes’ discounted recruitment costs, they would quickly restore their subordinate armies’ fighting strength.

Watching Todina walk off with a delighted expression, Li Bin shook his head helplessly and ordered the Graveyard Demon to grant partial permissions to Todina and Deirdre for the next few days.

Born a commoner, he had never possessed the mindset of a leader, which led him to indulge his subordinates. What consequences this indulgence would bring, even Li Bin himself could not say.

“Master, here is the map we’ve just drawn. Please take a look.” At this moment, a thief appeared behind Li Bin like a ghost.

Li Bin turned, took the map, and calculated the direction for the next three days’ journey. Suddenly, he noticed a strange symbol on the map.

“What is this?” Li Bin pointed to the symbol composed of the undead building icon and the letter F.

“This is a random dungeon, Hero’s Tomb,” the thief replied.

“Oh.” Hearing the words “random dungeon,” Li Bin understood. Random dungeons were treasure houses from various factions scattered across the continents. Each hero could enter a dungeon and challenge it once; the victor would receive rewards from the dungeon.

Among them, the free faction’s Dwarf Hills provided the most monetary rewards, the Soul Mechanic faction’s Serpent Queen’s treasure house offered the most resources, while the best rewards came from the Human faction’s Griffin treasury—after all, defeating forty ordinary griffins would grant a little angel, a rare opportunity.

Of course, the Dragon Kingdom, which produced vast resources and artifacts above level three, was not counted by players, since defending against at least ten dragons was a challenge few could attempt.

The Hero’s Tomb was the undead faction’s random treasure house. Regardless of their faction, if a hero brought their troops and defeated the undead within the tomb, they would receive money and artifacts.

But this reward was only granted once. If a hero entered the dungeon again after claiming victory, not only would they gain nothing, but their morale would also decrease by two.

Knowing such a valuable place was nearby, Li Bin began planning how to maximize his gains from this dungeon. He quickly issued several orders to the Graveyard Demon and had the Will-o’-the-Wisp slaves notify the heroes of the nearby location.

He allowed them to act freely, so long as they handed over one-third of their dungeon rewards.

Todina and the others were thrilled upon hearing the news. After all, the Hero’s Tomb was one of the easier random dungeons; the worst scenario would be facing three level-four vampires and other undead.

If luck favored them and they encountered the simplest challenge—five small squads of skeleton soldiers and one squad of skeleton warriors—the heroes could easily return without losing a single subordinate, claiming the 1,000 gold reward.

After a brief discussion, the impatient Todina borrowed three squads of skeleton soldiers from Deirdre and hurried toward the Hero’s Tomb.

Half a day later, she returned with 3,500 gold coins, boasting to the other heroes of her legendary feat: challenging five squads of skeleton warriors, two squads of corpse troops, and one squad of ghost soldiers with a single large squad of skeleton soldiers.

However, it was later revealed that Todina had only faced two squads of skeleton warriors, two squads of corpse troops, and one squad of ghost soldiers, earning 2,000 gold coins. The rest was thanks to her subordinate, the Skeleton General Danamu.

This stirred not only Deirdre but even Lidas, who disregarded the morale impact from undead troops, borrowed some soldiers from Todina, and hurried toward the nearby Hero’s Tomb.