Chapter 38: General of the Southern Expedition

On the way back to Dunmei, Locke thought of something. Why didn’t Eliza appear much during this period of time when they were back home at the Reynolds estate?

Hence, Locke quickly opened Eliza’s status bar to check, and discovered that Eliza had actually evolved passed her infancy stage in such a short period of time. Eliza was entering its teenage stage!

Locke had never heard of such a thing. Shouldn’t dragons enter adulthood directly?

Seeing Loke’s complicated expression, Clifford asked worriedly, “Did something happen? You look like you’re struggling with your thoughts!”

Upon hearing his words, Locke immediately waved his hand and explained, “Well, I just found out that my baby dragon is suddenly evolved into a teenage dragon!”

Hearing this, Clifford could not help but be surprised. “Teenage dragon? I’ve never heard of such a thing! I only know that dragons will evolve from infants to adult dragons. This is the first time I’m hearing of a teenage dragon!”

However, what piqued Clifford’s interest was how Locke knew that his young dragon had evolved into a teenage dragon. He knew that Locke was keeping quite a lot of secrets from him.

“Forget it! When it fully evolves into a teenage dragon, we’ll see what its situation is like!”

Seven days passed quickly, and the two arrived at the Dunmei Kingdom.

He did not even have time to rest before arriving at the Dunmei king’s palace.

After seeing Locke, the king immediately heaved a sigh of relief. Then, he said to Locke, “From today onward, we will suspend your other tasks in the Dunmei Dark Blade Dragons, but the position of team captain is still yours. The abyssal forces on the southern front are very active. Dunmei has lost a mid-rank general! Now, I’ll give you a new position! I hereby appoint you as the General of the Southern Expedition. You’re in charge of the frontlines of the war! You just need to destroy the undead creatures in the abyss. I’ve arranged for other people to deal with those generals!”

Hearing this, Locke dropped to one knee in front of the king. The king stood up and walked over to him, placing a new medal on his chest.

“Clifford, I now appoint you as Locke’s deputy and mentor. I’ll leave the rest to you!”

After saying that, he walked to Clifford and whispered in his ear, “Sorry for troubling you!”

After hearing the king’s words, Clifford’s fatigue was mostly restored.

After getting up, he immediately flew toward the Hanos Science and Technology Tower with Locke.

Before they entered the battlefield, they had a very important mission, which was to get a new set of equipment at the Hanos Science and Technology Tower. Locke also needed to get the new core of the steel dragon from Lamira.

Because they flew in on the Steel Dragon, Locke did not need to pass through the gate to reach the top of the tower.

As soon as they stepped into the tower, Ischel Fergus quickly appeared before them.

“Ms. Lamira has instructed me to take you to the underground factory to retrieve the dragon core!”

They followed her to the underground factory. In a huge container filled with liquid floated a dragon core. This was the dragon core and heart for Locke’s Steel Dragon!

Seeing Locke in a daze, Ischel Fergus immediately explained to Locke, “This is the heart I recently obtained from a dragon in the southern battlefield! The heartbeat that you saw just now made it look very much alive. It was actually made from the heart of a dying adult dragon! Originally, this dragon heart was supposed to be used as the core for the second generation Steel Dragon, but Lamira insisted to fuse it into this…”

As she spoke, Ischel realized she’s said something she shouldn’t have and immediately stopped.

Locke walked over and placed his hand on the vessel. Soon, the heart in the transparent glass slot turned into a ray of light and merged with the tattoo on Locke’s wrist. The contract on Locke’s hand changed slightly and it turned into another color.

At the same time, Locke also felt the power of a powerful dragon essence.

“Congratulations to the host for directly entering the second stage. From now on, the Steel Dragon can be upgraded manually!”

Upon hearing this news, Locke could not help but feel happy. He did not expect to obtain so many benefits from this! After obtaining the dragon’s heart, they followed Ischel Fergus to the weapons armory to pick out new equipment for Clifford.

When they were well prepared, they departed. The steel dragon spread its wings and they flew toward the battlefield in the southwest direction. Because it had obtained a powerful dragon essence, the Steel Dragon grew from 100 meters to 200 meters. The Steel Dragon also obtained new methods of attack using its head, eyes and mouth. All the steel scales on the wings could be shed, and it could manipulate its attack based on all nine elemental attributes it possessed. Other than that, its heart was capable of releasing huge amounts of magic elemental energy.

The first thing they did when they arrived at the battlefield was to follow the easternmost part of the battle line and head west. Along the way, the Steel Dragon continued to bombard the ground with light elemental scales!

In just over an hour, the enemy army on the southern front was greatly reduced.

Seeing the Steel Dragon controlled by Locke, the morale of the soldiers on the ground soared.

The Earth Dragon cavalry immediately blew the horn to charge, and the infantry soldiers and artillery soldiers behind them all became valiant and fearless.

Within these few hours, under Locke’s leadership, the Dunmei army drove all the undead creatures from the abyss into the mountains in the south.

In less than four hours, the battle had ended. All the soldiers raised their weapons and cheered. The sounds of cheers resounded throughout the lands. Even Locke, who was hundreds of meters in the air, could clearly hear the cheers from the ground!

However, everything was not over after the battle ended. All the abyssal creatures had just temporarily retreated. The main battle would happen at night.

Seeing that the war situation below had stabilized, Locke immediately commanded the Steel Dragon to descend to the frontline command camp. The one who received him was the first prince. When he saw the Dunmei Dark Blade Dragon’s Team 5 Captain badge and the Southern Expedition General’s badge on Locke’s chest, he felt a deep sense of helplessness. This man who was many years younger than him had left him helpless.

As the Grand Marshal, not only did he have a lower position than Locke, he even had to personally take the initiative to greet Locke. For the sake of the Donmei Kingdom, the first prince quickly calmed down. With a smile on his face as he walked to Locke’s side and greeted him, “You must be Reynolds Locke! Hi, I’m Dunmei Jeffrey! Locke and Sir Clifford, thank you very much for your assistance!”

Locke was extremely polite. Upon hearing his name, he immediately bowed to Jeffrey.

“Greetings, Your Highness!”

Seeing that the other party was so easy to get along with, First Prince Jeffrey immediately walked to his side and helped him up.

“Thank you so much for your contribution in today’s tough battle! Let us proceed to the command center to strategize our next move!”