Chapter 10: Preparing for Battle

People often say that peaceful days pass by quickly; in fact, whether it is peaceful or not, as long as one is particularly busy or particularly leisurely, time always passes quickly.

In the blink of an eye, two days passed. The weather was excellent during these two days. Allen directed Yamila, and Yamila directed the others, moving the entire camp into the newly built village near Carrock. The villagers integrated together without any signs of resistance, working together to build the village well. Allen did not know how they communicated, but to his ears, all the words were Chinese.

Artimenner, as a very experienced engineer, originally wanted to concentrate all efforts on building a Lord's Longhouse first, but was sternly refused by Allen, who demanded that the defensive wall be built first.

This was because Fatis had brought back bad news during his patrols over the past two days; there were always some sneaky things following them in the forest on the other side of the river. Some parts of the forest on the other side were quite close to the Anduin River, and the birds startled in the forest could be traced intermittently along their patrol route to the vicinity of the village. Even a fool would know there was a problem, let alone Fatis and Cress, who often stood on Carrock and were not stupid; they soon discovered the scouting Wolf Riders.

Allen certainly knew what was going on. He had robbed the Orc King of his tribute; could the guy just let it go? Ordinary people wouldn't, let alone the Orc King, who was extremely petty, eccentric, and fond of playing heavy metal music. Perhaps he had already composed a song, ready to capture Allen, tie him to the ceiling, and play for him while whipping him, singing a line and lashing Allen once to vent his hatred.

To avoid the aforementioned scene from actually happening in reality, Allen immediately convened a meeting. The attendees included Fatis, Desaiwei, Artimenner, Alayen, Yamila, Bandak, Cress, Duosili, and Karl. At the meeting, Allen solemnly stated that the village wall must be completed by tomorrow evening. It didn't matter if it was a bit smaller, but it must have a defensive function. This part of the work would be led by Artimenner, with Yamila, Duosili, and Karl assisting.

Over these two days, Artimenner had become increasingly polite to Allen, calling him "my lord" at every turn, as if he weren't the same person who had called him "boss" three days ago. Regarding Allen's orders, he stated that even with 24-hour rotating shifts, the task would be completed within the specified time.

The second matter was reconnaissance. Reconnaissance had to be carried out in the north, south, and west. Except for the Mirkwood in the east, which was relatively safe, the other three directions could be attacked. After all, the Gundabad in the north was the Orcs' lair, and Orc Town was in the Misty Mountains to the west. They might attack directly from the shallows near Carrock, or they might cross the river from the Old Ferry and attack from the south.

The reconnaissance work was handed over to Desaiwei, Fatis, and Cress. Now, Cress could stay on Carrock every day; whether she was willing or not, she had to stay. For this, Allen issued a death order amidst Cress's pitiful gaze.

After the meeting, Allen did not remain idle. He deeply understood the principle that time waits for no one, but what annoyed him was that the Simulator had entered a cooldown after the summoning, with a cooldown period as long as over thirty days. Although the use of Dinar, renown, and honor was not affected, the speed of accumulating strength was greatly reduced. Angry, Allen took stock of his assets while silently complaining about his useless Simulator in his heart.

So, how much stuff did Allen actually have? First, there were over eight thousand Dinar stored in the chest in his room, as well as a small bag of gems; this was in terms of money. As for weapons and equipment, he had one undamaged Heavy Cavalry Lance, one Knightly Longsword, one Steel Shield, one Greatsword, one War Bow, one set of Sleeveless Plate Armor, one set of Chainmail Hauberk, one Great Helm, one pair of Gauntlets, and one pair of Plate Boots. He had two horses: one Hunter Horse for daily riding and one Warhorse for charging. Speaking of this, we must mourn for three seconds for Alayen's heavy daily workload, because most of the maintenance work for this equipment was done by Alayen, including but not limited to feeding the horses. Of course, now Alayen had an entire honor guard to help him handle these tasks.

As for the food, arrows, crossbow bolts, soldiers' spare equipment, horses, simple maintenance tools, tents, and other sundries in the camp, although theoretically they were all bought with Allen's money, these things were not his private property, so he didn't pay too much attention to them. In short, Yamila's reply was that it was currently enough and he didn't need to worry about it, and Allen didn't want to worry about these trivial matters either.

In short, after taking stock of his assets, Allen suddenly became idle, so idle that he wanted to know how much his own body was capable of that his brain didn't know.

At first, he competed in strength with a Swadian Knight, and he could hold his own in a tug-of-war against four Swadian Knights alone.

Then, in a weighted running competition, he left the other contestants behind by an entire street, so he had to reluctantly reward himself with the gems he had brought out.

He competed in archery with Desaiwei, and whether on horseback or on foot, Desaiwei had to admit defeat.

He prepared to test his melee skills against others, but not a single person was willing to stand up and spar with Allen.

Only when competing in throwing skills with Cress was he beaten black and blue by her, and he made a promise that the next time Cress caused trouble, he would definitely not get angry.

Through these competitions, Allen finally knew how strong his attributes, skills, and proficiencies from the game really were. His hearing and vision were also far sharper than the average person's. His comprehensive strength would be no weaker than any protagonist in the stories—oh, only counting the category of normal people, for example, some Maia who looked like an old man, or some Elf who was impossibly handsome; no one wanted to compete with them.

Of course, these competitions only took less than half a day. Once idle again, in order not to look redundant, Allen had to go shirtless and carry logs, building the wall together with the villagers. This was actually a very important matter; no one knew when the Orc King would launch an attack. Building the wall early could better protect the villagers who had no combat capability. Allen had also planned that if the wall wasn't built and the enemy showed signs of attacking, he would take the villagers and the supplies and run to Mirkwood to take refuge. Although they might get lost, might be affected by the evil forces in Mirkwood, or might even be invited to "have tea" by the Forest Elves, it was still better than being slaughtered by Orcs. "Save the people and lose the land, both can be recovered; save the land and lose the people, both are lost." Allen understood this principle.

In fact, at the very beginning, Allen had thought about building the village in the forest, but this would greatly limit the speed of development. Moreover, Mirkwood was the territory of the Forest Elves. Allen didn't know if Thranduil would mind such a large group of people living directly in Mirkwood. Although in both the original book and the movie, Thranduil's attitude toward Humans was quite good, "those who are not of our race must have a different heart." Allen still wanted to be his own master. Moreover, Allen extremely wanted to have a go at the Orcs and let that fat guy who liked heavy metal music know his power. Peace must always be fought for with strength.

Fortunately, until the wall was built, the Orcs' attack did not arrive. Allen was also very satisfied with this defensive wall. The entire wall consisted of a circle of log palisades. For convenience, two gates were opened: the main gate faced the direction of Carrock, with a gentle slope in the middle leading directly to Carrock, while the back gate faced the direction of Mirkwood.

The entire camp was not particularly huge, a circular camp covering an area of about two thousand square meters. It was just enough to accommodate everyone hiding inside without appearing crowded. It wasn't built too high, only a little over a person's height. Each wooden stake had a gap of 15 to 20 centimeters between them, nailed together with wooden boards dismantled from the original camp. Then, following the method of the original camp, a mound of earth one meter high and half a meter wide was built inside. This could not only prevent the enemy from pushing over the palisade but also make it convenient for the guarding crossbowmen to attack the incoming enemies.

On the outward-facing part of the wall palisade, many sharpened branches were kept. Where there were no branches, many sharpened sticks were also placed on top. Furthermore, Allen asked the villagers to roast the sharpened parts with fire, as it was said that this would make them harder.

At the same time, Allen also asked the villagers to level the surrounding terrain, and he took the Si Qi and ran many laps around the edge of the village in full gear to tamp down the ground.

The branches left over from logging were evenly piled on the ground a dozen meters away from the camp; there were a dozen piles. The grass around the camp was also all cleared away. Allen was prepared to use these things to make a big gift package for the Orcs who came to attack.

But to Allen's surprise, it had already been two days since the camp was built, and apart from the enemy's reconnaissance still existing, the surroundings were very calm. Calm was of course a good thing, but this exceeded Allen's speculation. Allen knew that the Orcs living in the Misty Mountains were actually unwilling to leave the Misty Mountains.

For Orcs to raid a village or launch a battle, they had to communicate and coordinate with the Wargs to do bad things together, which required a certain amount of time. But the current situation was too far from what Allen had expected. The surroundings were truly too calm; there was no sign of any large-scale biological gathering. Such calm was not a good thing. The longer the calm before the battle, the more violent the storm that this battle would stir up.

In his expectation, the enemy should have launched an attack last night.

If he were the Orc King, he would have immediately organized manpower to prepare for revenge the first day he received the news, while arranging for Wolf Riders to scout the enemy's situation. The second day would be spent waiting for the soldiers' preparations and allies' replies, such as discussing the distribution of spoils with the Warg leader of the Misty Mountains, how much to feed them, and how many slaves to keep for himself. The third or fourth day, he should have led his troops out to eliminate Allen, the scum who dared to provoke him, at night. But this was already the fifth day; sporadic reconnaissance continued, but the attack did not arrive as scheduled.

This made Allen feel a bit uneasy, feeling that the preparations he had made were not enough to cope with this battle that was bound to happen. Therefore, on the third day after the camp was established, he approached Karl and explained the current situation, hoping that Karl could find forty able-bodied men to help assist in the defense. Upon receiving the news, Karl was very panicked; he didn't expect that after only a few days of peaceful life, the war would start again. Allen hurriedly comforted him, telling him that this was a battle that had to be faced, that he had a plan in mind, and that it wouldn't last long, but he needed his help.

Helpless, Karl had to reluctantly find forty people according to Allen's requirements. Allen looked at the villagers gathered in front of him, whispering to each other, and sighed silently in his heart. From the bottom of his heart, Allen didn't want them to participate in this battle. If possible, Allen would rather they have a peaceful life. But now the entire team was in danger of being wiped out, and they had to make an effort for themselves and for their families, just like when they were fleeing in panic in the valley.

Allen steadied his mind, opened the Simulator to recruit these Rhodoks, and upgraded them at the cost of five renown per tribesman. Watching the Rhodok Crossbowmen standing in the camp with a faint white light emanating from their bodies, Allen felt his tense heart relax a little.

Rhodok Crossbowmen were the only troop type on the Calradia continent that could possess decent combat power at a low level. They had no protective equipment, and their melee skills were also terrible, but the light crossbows in their hands were quite powerful and could cause decent damage to enemies wearing light armor within a certain distance, not to mention the Orcs in the Misty Mountains who had poor equipment. As long as they shot in the right place, it was estimated that one shot could take one down.

Now with these forty Rhodok Crossbowmen, Allen had one more point of confidence in the upcoming battle. As a result, that night, the Orc King stood Allen up again, and the attack still didn't arrive. However, it is worth mentioning that Allen paid the wages of all his subordinates that day, and his already not-so-rich small treasury was hit hard.

On the fourth day after the camp was established, Allen, who still hadn't received any news, became increasingly restless. He began to set his sights on those pitiful two points of honor. He wanted to draw a prize. He had never liked playing card-drawing games, and could even be said to be resistant to them. "Mysticism doesn't change bad luck, and paying doesn't change fate"—he deeply agreed with these two sentences, and he had always been wary of things that could not be calculated or had no patterns.

So for many days, he had no desire to use these two points of honor. But now the situation exceeded his calculations, and the result was sliding further and further in an unpredictable direction. He couldn't calculate how many troops that hateful fat guy was going to gather to attack his village of only five hundred people. He could only hold tightly to all the chips in his hand and throw them onto the gambling table.

In the end, Allen still used one point of honor.

Simulator: 【Are you sure you want to use honor to draw a prize on the Calradia continent?】

【Yes/No.】

Allen, who chose "Yes," waited for the draw result with a nervous heart. There were no sound or visual effects; the Simulator directly gave three choices, asking Allen to choose one out of three.

The first prize was a full set of luxury full-body plate armor, including a luxury Great Helm, a luxury full-body Plate Armor, a pair of luxury plate Gauntlets, and a pair of luxury Plate Boots. 【This set of armor can be said to be the pinnacle of armor on the Calradia continent. Wearing it, your survival rate on the battlefield will be greatly increased, and its shining brilliance will also make it easy for your soldiers to notice your heroic posture fighting on the front line.】

The second prize was very simple: ten thousand units of wheat, each unit enough for fifty people to eat for a day. 【The villages near Dherim had a bumper harvest this year, and wheat is in large supply; you can have as much as you want, as much as you want.】

The third prize was ten fully armed Nord Royal Guard. 【They are the most powerful infantry on the Calradia continent. The Jarl they followed died suddenly in the Nord civil war. These Nuo Huang have lost their families, their land, and their status. They don't know who to fight for now. If you are willing to provide them with food and lodging and pay a weekly salary, they are willing to fight for you and become your private soldiers.】

Looking at these three prizes, Allen was stunned. This wasn't a prize draw at all; this was a forced treatment plan for decision-making anxiety. In the current situation, Allen could only choose the ten Nord Royal Guard, but Allen was also very short of food. He didn't have much food on hand, and he couldn't keep buying it with Dinar. The Dinar was being used less and less, almost running out. He also liked the armor very much. If he had drawn the prize at the beginning, he would definitely have chosen this option. This set of armor, if bought in Calradia, would cost at least several hundred thousand Dinar, and it was hard to come by. It would be good to put it in his castle in the future for others to envy.

With a feeling of reluctance, Allen chose the ten Nord Royal Guard, and with a feeling of infinite regret, watched the ten Nord Royal Guard walk out from the white light.

They came to Allen, and a giant with a "shining bald head," a ferocious face, and sharp eyes came to Allen and said: "My lord, I heard that you are willing to give us a chance, provide us with food and lodging, and are willing to pay us a weekly salary?"

Allen looked at the ten fully armed, sturdy Nord Royal Guard with Great Axes on their backs in front of him, and nodded calmly, saying: "Hmm, yes."

Gangding looked back at his brothers, knelt on one knee with the other Nord Royal Guard, and swore: "Then we will be willing to fight for you."

After a short ceremony of allegiance, Allen took these Nord Royal Guard and found Fatis, letting Fatis take them down to rest.

Regarding the remaining one point of honor, stimulated by the rewards, Allen used it again, but the rewards that appeared this time were very abstract. It wasn't about whether they were good or not, they were just very strange. The first prize was fifty thousand Dinar, the second prize was also fifty thousand Dinar, and the third prize was one hundred thousand Dinar.

Allen looked at the three types of rewards given by the Simulator, helplessly covered his forehead, and chose the one hundred thousand Dinar. If he had a choice, Allen would still want ten Nord Royal Guard to cope with the attack that might come tonight.

As a result, that night, there was still no movement.

On the fifth day after the camp was established, the sun was high in the morning sky, and there were no clouds for thousands of miles. Allen, who had been waiting for the Orc King to "keep the appointment" for a long time, stood on the newly built wooden watchtower, looking at the prisoners digging trenches ten meters outside the wall with a strange expression.

Yes, Allen had already started to have designs on those prisoners. He was wondering whether to provide them with weapons and let them make an effort for their own lives, but they hadn't been honest these past few days. A few Sea Raiders even wanted to escape, but were brought back one by one by Allen, who was riding a horse and holding a large wooden club.

They were also not thinking straight; where could they run to? Looking at the direction they were running, they were definitely going to send warmth to those spiders in Mirkwood.

Just as Allen was continuing to struggle with whether or not to give the prisoners weapons, Desaiwei rode her horse directly into the camp, her urgent voice waking Allen from his thoughts.

"My lord, there are signs of large-scale biological gathering in the forest on the other side of the river. They are advancing toward here along the forest on the other side of the river."

Finally here? After hearing the news, Allen jumped down from the wooden platform in excitement.