Chapter 256: The Burst of

I don't know when it started, but a rumor akin to a mythic poem suddenly appeared on this part of the land in the western Rhovanion region.

The content of the news was indistinguishable between truth and falsehood, yet it vaguely coincided with several previous, rather bloody rumors.

That is, the Redwater River and the Running River have the protection of a certain powerful deity; any Easterling warrior who crosses the river and stains their hands with blood will bring misfortune back to their tribe, and at some unpredictable time, a powerful knight covered in flames will descend from the sky, bringing devastating destruction to the tribe.

When that happens, steel will take the life of every living thing, including livestock; and fire will consume every trace that remains.

When the rumor spread, there were naturally those who didn't believe it. An Easterling captain clad in armor, drinking in a tavern, said with a sneer: "This is a trick by those pigs west of the Redwater River. This talk of the river being protected by a deity is nothing more than an excuse thought up by guys who lost a battle."

But no sooner had he finished speaking than a wooden mug with a metal handle flew over, hitting the mocker's back with a "bang," followed by a retort-like clamor: "Do you deny the existence of the Great Emperor Sauron? Or do you think you possess power comparable to a god?"

The ones who threw the mug were naturally those tribal leaders who had fled in disgrace from the battlefield. After losing their followers, they could only scrape a living under more powerful rulers. Seeing someone mocking them, they were naturally burning with rage.

Although they also knew that the true version of this rumor was that the people of Rhovanion had crossed the Redwater River from the west, launched a revenge attack with lightning speed, and defeated them with a crushing posture despite being outnumbered.

However, who wouldn't want to gild their own face a little?

Being defeated by a few hundred cavalrymen when leading a force of ten thousand is a naked humiliation, but if these cavalrymen have the protection of a deity, that is naturally a different matter; it sounds better when told to others, doesn't it?

Protected by his armor, the captain who was hit didn't suffer any injuries, and since the topic involved the Dark Lord, he couldn't think of any better retort, so he could only vent his dissatisfaction with his fists.

A vicious punch hit the slightly intoxicated dissenter, but it didn't knock him to the ground. After shaking his head, the opponent roared and pounced on him. The two immediately wrestled together, using whatever moves were effective—eye-gouging, crotch-kicking, neck-locking.

Before long, all the patrons in the tavern spontaneously moved the tables and chairs, leaving a sufficiently spacious area for the mocker and the dissenter, and then began to jeer, as if such things were commonplace.

As for the tavern owner and the servers, they held two-colored cloth strips, asking the onlookers if they wanted to participate in betting, and the odds looked quite tempting.

Such things were indeed commonplace in Zendar, the most central city in the Rhovanion region, especially in taverns with complex crowds and where drinks were sold.

Fine wine can drive away sorrow, but it can also make people lose themselves.

As for Allen, who caused all this, he had already set out on the road back home half a month ago. The story was fabricated by him, but it was polished and widely spread by Baal; this was part of their transaction.

After some hammering, although Allen didn't know how good the effect was, he was relatively satisfied with the attitude Baal had shown for the time being, and the transaction between the two sides went very smoothly.

This war suddenly launched by Allen, besides rescuing the clansmen of Tiehaer, also helped some other dwarves regain their freedom in a scattered manner, most of whom came from the far-off Iron Hills of Orokani, and there were even a few from the Iron Hills, which could be considered helping Dain find his missing clansmen.

For this matter, Baal paid a great price. When he traded with other tribes, he had already paid for the supplies in advance. Transactions between Easterlings did not rely entirely on precious metals; most of the time, it was a state of barter, or trading people for people.

Only in those very prosperous cities with abundant supplies could gold and silver currency circulate completely, while the tribes scattered in various places did not have such trade conditions. Most of the time, they lived a self-sufficient life; storing some gold and silver was enough, as that stuff couldn't be eaten.

This point was somewhat similar to the Rohirrim living in Calenardhon.

However, by the end of the transaction, Baal couldn't be considered to have lost money. According to the logic of the Easterlings, he might even have made a profit.

After Allen defeated the coalition of those Easterling leaders head-on on the battlefield, he immediately sent people to take over several tribes that had lost the protection of their warriors. It could be said that the population, livestock, and slaves behind the walls all belonged to Allen, for him to take as he pleased.

It was just that Allen had no way to take everything away. Livestock was a bit better; he let the slaves who had gained their freedom drive them to the Redwater River and send them back to Rhovanion via the bridge built by transport ships.

Pastures were everywhere on the wilderness; those sheep and horses could just graze their way there, and there wouldn't be any problem at all.

As for wealth like gold, silver, and jewelry, Allen distributed a portion on the spot according to military merit, bestowing it as a reward to the cavalrymen who fought with him, while the rest was loaded onto large carts and dragged away by the extra horses to enrich the treasury of Aierfuwan.

War, after all, could be considered one of the fastest ways to make money.

The biggest problem, however, lay with those captives. The population of several tribes combined was at least nearly twenty thousand, not counting the prisoners of war Allen had his cavalry capture on the battlefield. In any case, Rhovanion could not accommodate so many Easterlings.

When Ashur was defeated, Allen had taken in a batch of Easterlings, and at that time, he had even classified them according to their appearance. Over the years, there had indeed been some Easterlings who, because they were attached to a stable life, began to serve Allen.

It was just that this proportion could not be considered very high. Rhovanion was still dominated by the fair-haired and fair-skinned Northern Humans, and the hatred between the two sides was long-standing. Without any major events, it would be difficult for the two sides to live together in the short term. However, the Khergits in the Horse Pasture Village, because there were many similarities in appearance and living habits between the two sides, quickly accepted the existence of the Easterlings.

According to the situation at the time, Allen re-established a village in the area further north of the Horse Pasture Village for those Easterlings to live in. Currently, the population was approaching one thousand and was gradually increasing.

Allen felt that if he brought all these Easterlings back at this time, the population distribution of Rhovanion would instantly show a state of parity, and by then, the two sides with hatred might erupt into ethnic conflicts that would be difficult to handle.

Even if all the Easterlings were prisoners of war, it was still a very dangerous decision.

Such things would be difficult to handle even in the era his past life lived in, let alone in Middle-earth, where civilization was more backward. At the very least, today, at the end of the Third Age, Allen had no way to solve it, unless he engaged in slavery in Rhovanion, using iron chains and shackles to decorate terror to enslave these Easterlings.

But if that were the case, wouldn't Allen become Sauron's successor? By then, the scene would be absolutely spectacular; just thinking about it felt exciting, and Allen was not willing to try.

Therefore, looking at this population that could help him develop rapidly, Allen could only harden his heart and give up a portion, taking back all the younger children and their mothers, as well as the adults who were not bad-looking, which also amounted to more than five thousand people.

As for those left behind, they were all dumped on Baal, making the number of this guy's subordinates increase by more than two times in an instant. Although it was still not as good as Ashur who returned from Mordor, his strength could be considered to have entered the middle-to-upper level.

And besides the population, Allen also left a lot of grain for Baal, right in the warehouses of those tribes.

It wasn't that Allen didn't want it; who would complain about having too much grain?

It was really because the distance was too far to move it away. If a unit were specifically sent here to transport grain, then with the people eating and horses chewing along the way, not even a quarter of it could be transported back to Rhovanion; the efficiency was always too low.

And one would have to constantly bear the risk of being attacked by other Easterlings; it was really not worth the loss. It was better to leave it behind as one of the conditions for the transaction.

Baal, hearing that he could receive a large population, was naturally overjoyed. Any tribal leader with a brain knew that population was the most critical resource, especially since many of the people Allen distributed to him were young and strong who would be warriors once they picked up weapons.

This gave Baal, who had been struggling quietly for more than ten years, a very unreal feeling. In the past, he had increased his population by dozens or hundreds, but this time it was more than ten thousand, making Baal feel a bit stuffed.

However, greedy by nature, he still immediately agreed to Allen's proposal and patted his chest, indicating that he would provide a steady stream of more population to Allen in the future, and guaranteed that they would be fair-haired Northern Humans, or dwarves who were accidentally captured; even if they were Easterlings, they would be good-looking ones.

Looking at the excited Baal, Allen didn't care whether this guy would do anything unfavorable to him after his strength increased. Those tribes combined were easily defeated by him, let alone Baal, who only ate the leftovers?

Allen only told this Easterling warlord when he left that without his consent, no Easterling was allowed to approach the Redwater River and the Running River; otherwise, don't blame him for coming back again.

Allen hadn't forgotten about Ashur's messenger. If he didn't let Baal approach the river, then he naturally wouldn't be able to provide the information on that letter, and as long as Allen observed Ashur's movements every once in a while, it would be easy to find an opportunity to intercept and kill that Easterling commander who had once ravaged Rhovanion.

This grudge, Allen would definitely settle; it just needed the help of time, especially now that he had suffered huge losses.

In this war that took place at the turn of spring and summer, Allen didn't lose too many subordinates. The knights, attendants, and those auxiliary troops who followed him suffered very few casualties, but Allen's Dinars were almost exhausted.

Because all the dangerous battles that required charging and fighting were completed by the Lion Knight Order. By the time the last battle was fought, the establishment of the Knight Order was directly reduced by one-third. Not to mention the cost of summoning them during this time, just to replenish the establishment of the Knight Order next would require more than one hundred thousand Dinars. Even if Allen had two towns in Calradia, it would take more than two years to earn it back.

For Allen, this kind of small-scale battle was genuinely making money, and when the Knight Order was charging the coalition formation, Allen also used his newly acquired ability on the Swadian Knights, greatly increasing the formation-breaking ability of these heavy cavalrymen, which was why they could defeat the enemy so easily.

And this ability was finally found by Allen in the Magic Continent in recent sporadic simulations—the third gem, the burst of "Fire Stone" flames.

【"Fire Stone" Burst of Flames: Possessing this item, one can ignore conventional temperature changes and can summon burning flames from the gem by consuming the Qi in the body. Under the illumination of the flames, the combat effectiveness of all friendly forces can be greatly improved. Please note that the Qi consumed by this ability is very huge. After the state subsides, the soldiers will fall into a short-term state of weakness, which can be recovered by eating.】

【Consuming "Fire Stone" Burst of Flames can obtain two abilities, the ability list is as follows.】

【Ability 1: Manipulate Flame, consume the Qi in the body to summon a flame manipulated by thought. The more Qi consumed in a short time, the higher the temperature of the flame, and the larger the burning range.】

【Ability 2: Flame Ascension, by consuming Dinars, one can improve the physical fitness of subordinates in a short time. Each soldier needs to consume a certain amount of Dinars. The amount of combat effectiveness improved is positively correlated with the Dinars consumed. In short, the more spent, the greater the improvement. In addition, particularly powerful existences are not affected by this ability.】

The first time he obtained the ability, Allen did some experiments with himself and his subordinates. Except for himself and the Twilight Knights, other cavalrymen could receive the enhancement of the ability, and the enhancement was very exaggerated. In the case of maximum expenditure, physical fitness could be improved to nearly double.

It was just that after opening the ability, Allen's Dinars disappeared bit by bit like flowing water. The benefit was not non-existent; perhaps because money was spent, the soldiers would not enter a state of weakness after the ability subsided and could still maintain a certain combat effectiveness.

And the process of obtaining the gem was also very strange. After Allen obtained the Water Stone in the Magic Continent, the prompt of the Star Horn changed to "The power of the gods is sealed somewhere, and before that, you may need to obtain the supreme glory of a warrior."

If it were in a game, then Allen would need to go to the capitals of major kingdoms to inquire if there were any recent competitions, and the gem would be the prize for the champion. But the simulation was not a game; it might be very similar, but many places were completely different.

For example, Allen had already obtained the second gem, but he hadn't obtained the protagonist's initial key item, the Golden Badge, nor had he encountered some extremely important characters, such as the dark-skinned Rolf, and another girl named Yamila.

Clearly, the plot's direction was by no means linear like a game, and the role Allen played was not the destiny protagonist of this period.

But regardless, Allen needed to figure out the true meaning of the prompt, so the wise man most likely to understand this matter should be the ruler of Zendar, Count Arassis.

But Allen, who hurried back to Zendar, encountered a particularly familiar young man on the road, and the golden badge on his chest shone with eye-catching brilliance in the sunlight. ===== CHAPTER 257 =====