Chapter 86: The Plan to Take the Initiative

After the New Year, time arrived at the year 2942. In Allen's memory, this was a peaceful year, a year when the Northern Men could develop with peace of mind.

Moreover, this year's spring seemed blessed by the gods; the temperature warmed up particularly early, and even the snow on the peaks of the Misty Mountains began to show traces of melting after the New Year.

During this period after the New Year, Allen also conducted several simulations, traveling to Pendor and the Calradia Magic Continent respectively.

The simulations in Pendor made no progress. Allen had originally wanted to open several new identities to see if he could gain more opportunities, but as a result, both new identities died in battle.

Even with his strength increased once again, Allen could not guarantee his absolute safety in Pendor, especially since the ones he encountered this time were organized Dawn Knights and Dawn Dragons.

Just thinking about it made Allen want to curse. He had finally managed to get the identity of a Village Chief, only to run into this bunch of fanatical god-worshippers who liked to burn first and ask questions later. Dog-like things, they would just come and burn the village for no reason, not even giving a chance to explain. The final result was that the unarmed Allen died under the mass charge of the Dawn Order.

The other time was even more difficult. Having descended into Silver Blade Fortress, Allen actually encountered a siege by the "Slayer" Wolfbird of the Misty Mountains. While Allen was struggling to break out with his people, he was caught up by Wolfbird leading his men personally.

In order to cover the civilians' escape, Allen died under a great axe after fighting desperately. Those civilians did not escape either; they were captured and taken back, and their fate can be imagined.

Although Pendor was extremely unfavorable, Allen's identity as a Bounty Hunter in Zendar had made some progress.

Having fought bravely in several bandit-suppression operations, he had already gained the recognition of the Free Knight Rogue.

Allen's reputation for being heroic and fearless had already spread throughout Zendar, gaining the approval of most Bounty Hunters. If Allen were willing at this moment, he could already organize his own Bounty Hunter team to strike at nearby bandits.

The only problem was that he had no money in Zendar and might not be able to hire many hands. This was a bit difficult; he could only wait for his Minister of Finance, Manid, to "tribute" some startup capital to him.

All in all, through several simulations in less than a month, it brought Allen a total of 40 points of reputation and an income of 5,000 Dinar, which was much better compared to the previous few years.

At the very least, he wouldn't appear as a serf carrying a hoe, a slave in shackles, or cannon fodder about to face the battlefield. With such identities, even if Allen had extraordinary combat ability, he would be treated as a spy, an alien, or an evil sorcerer—garbage identities—and be hunted down and killed by local noble armies.

Such a harvest could actually be considered just so-so; the main thing was that without gaining fame, the harvest was a bit lacking.

In this warm weather, Karl, who was in charge of farming matters in Wilderness Town, led his subordinates to start this year's busy farming work early. After all, the plan for the year begins in spring.

The migration policy proposed by Yamila also began to have initial effects. Townspeople constantly began to pack up their families, driving ox carts, and heading north, preparing to establish more farms between Horse Pasture Village and Wilderness Town.

After all, there were over a hundred kilometers of fertile land between Horse Pasture Village and Wilderness Town. Roads had long been cleared there, and now there was no threat from the Orcish, making it the perfect time to reclaim the land.

As for the south, Allen had not opened it to the residents; he could not yet guarantee the safety there.

Although Fatis had led over a thousand soldiers to clear the Mirkwood again before the New Year, how could a thousand people clear a forest of tens of thousands of square kilometers in just over a week?

Therefore, the land in the south must wait until the intelligence system was fully established before it could be opened for the residents to migrate.

Allen had also looked for Cress about this matter before the New Year. She was currently training some birds in Beorn's garden.

Once the training was finished, Cress would head to the location in Mirkwood near the Old Ferry and release the birds there.

After a certain amount of time, these birds would return to Beorn's garden and inform Cress of what they had seen and heard.

Relying on this method, he would make an initial attempt to monitor parts of the southern Mirkwood. If it proved feasible, he would arrange for more people to go to Beorn's to learn later.

After finishing their studies, they would establish intelligence stations in Mirkwood to form a relatively tight intelligence network and complete the monitoring of Mirkwood.

However, things must always be done step by step. Let Cress try the effect first.

After the New Year, the Great Eagle that flew in as usual brought Allen some bad news: a large number of Orcish could actually still be seen in the vicinity of the High Pass.

For this reason, Allen arranged for Cress to take Grim and make a trip to Orc Town to scout the specific situation there.

Yes, after the New Year, with Beorn's consent, Allen accepted Grim as his second Attendant and, as a deputy, to cooperate with Cress's work.

It was just that Allen felt that the young yet steady Grim might be more suitable than Cress to be the head of his intelligence agency, but Grim hurriedly shook his head and refused.

"No, no, no, Big Sister Cress is more suitable for this position."

A helpless Allen could only officially entrust this position to the free-spirited Cress.

Having received the order, an exceptionally excited Cress set off with Grim. This was the first time she had been assigned a task by Allen alone, and as a Captain at that.

After arriving at Orc Town, she spoke with the small animals nearby and obtained some information about the Orcish.

Feeling it wasn't enough, she ignored Grim's obstruction and entered the depths of the Misty Mountains tunnels again.

Relying on her own high skill and bold heart, and with Grim there to support her, Cress even snuck into the cave where Allen had shot and killed the Orc King.

There, she saw dense crowds of Orcish; the number was definitely no less than a thousand.

Subsequently, she was discovered. The Orcish's vision in the dark was far better than that of Humans. If it weren't for Grim turning into a great bear and carrying her to fly out quickly, she would likely have already ended up in an Orcish iron pot.

However, Cress didn't care at all, nor did she feel lingering fear; instead, she rode the great bear all the way down from the Misty Mountains.

After returning to Wilderness Town, she immediately reported the specific situation near the High Pass to Allen, and even took out a simple map.

"This looks a bit like Artimenner's sketches. When did the relationship between the two of them get so good? And isn't Artimenner in Lake-town?"

Allen looked at this stick-figure drawing that could barely be understood, his heart full of doubts.

But Cress didn't care about that much; she pointed excitedly at a cave on the map and said:

"Boss, here, here. The squirrels that just came out to forage told me that many dirty black guys entered this cave from this position. I looked at the tracks; there are at least several hundred of them."

Then Cress pointed to a gap and continued: "This position, this position, is the cave where you said you were ambushed last time, Boss. There are also fresh signs of activity there, and the numbers are large and messy."

Speaking of this, Cress continued excitedly: "Also, also, I even snuck into Orc Town once. I counted simply, and there are at least nearly a thousand Orcish entrenched there. Boss, are you preparing to attack that place? Take..."

Before the words "me along" could be uttered, the increasingly excited Cress noticed Allen's expression and recalled the words Allen had cautioned her with.

"Didn't I tell you that it was enough to just ask the small animals around for information? With just the two of you, you went into the depths of the Misty Mountains to scout. Do you know how dangerous that is? I even specifically had Grim follow you."

There was no need for Cress to recall; Allen's worried and stern words had already been spoken.

"The information obtained outside isn't accurate, is it? Besides, after Grim transforms, he runs very fast."

Cress's voice of rebuttal grew lower and lower, until Allen could only hear the sound of her lips colliding.

This was also what Allen was worried about. This young girl, who was almost 20, was certainly much steadier in character than when she climbed Carrock before, but her spirit of daring to take risks had never changed.

Such a personality was actually very suitable for an intelligence officer, but it would also bring more danger.

"It seems I can only find a way to get Cress more things to save her life in the future."

Allen sighed helplessly and waved his hand, "Go, go, go find Grim to play, ah."

"Oh." Cress pouted and went out, but after walking out the door, she quickly recovered, mounted a horse, and ran toward Beorn's garden. There were still dozens of birds waiting for her to train there, which was a very fun thing for Cress.

As for Allen, he was frowning, constantly tapping the table with his fingers, considering how to deal with those Orcish entrenched in Orc Town.

Alice quietly served Allen a pot of tea and then quietly exited the conference room; she had to go find Holimion to start today's training.

"I cannot do as Cress said and lead soldiers to charge directly into Orc Town. The environment there is too complex and too dark. For my soldiers, there is no advantage at all. I cannot do this! That is playing with their lives."

"Then how can I lure those Orcish out of Orc Town? And make them come out in full force?"

With the "tap," "tap," "tap" sound of fingers knocking on the table, Allen suddenly thought of something; coincidentally, it was something he had just been thinking about a short while ago.

It was still the Iris Disaster, the death of Isildur; there was a very important item in that event, and that was the One Ring.

According to some legends, the One Ring has an inexplicable attraction to dark creatures, and it was precisely this attraction that ultimately led to the death of Isildur.

At that time, Isildur had already used the power of the Ring to run far away from the battlefield, but in the end, Orcish still tracked him down.

Having just been abandoned by the Ring and crawling onto the shore, Isildur, because his position was exposed by the light of the Star of Earendil, this King of all the Dúnedain, died miserably in the Gladden Fields.

Allen believed that this incident must have been influenced by this Ring.

Besides that, during the War of the Ring, when Frodo and Sam were walking in the Dead Marshes, Khamul, flying in the sky, was also guided by this attraction to search for Frodo's figure; it is conceivable that the Ring has this ability.

But Allen felt that the ability of this Ring fluctuated; when it was in the hands of Gollum, it was relatively docile, and when in the Shire, the Nazgul were so close to Frodo yet still did not find this Ring.

Regarding these strange signs, Allen could only guess that these should have a lot to do with Sauron's state at the time, the distance between the One Ring and its master, and even the will of the Ring itself.

Allen was wondering if he could rely on the attraction the One Ring had for these dark creatures to lure the enemies of Orc Town out to attack him voluntarily?

If it could be realized, of course, this would still require coordination with some plans.

However, the top priority was to first seek the consent of Bilbo Baggins himself; having had one unpleasant experience, Allen did not want to personally touch that Ring.

If he wanted to successfully execute this plan, then Allen had to get the help of this close friend.

At this moment, Bilbo Baggins had just finished his fourth meal of the day, oh, that is, afternoon tea, and was lying comfortably on a chair, basking in the warm early spring sun to digest his food.

For a Hobbit, it would be even better to have a pipe of tobacco right now, but unfortunately, even Gandalf had no stock left.

However, Bilbo Baggins did not care, because soon, he would return to the Shire, and there were still several chests of treasure waiting for him to dig up in the Trollshaws; from now on, this Hobbit would never be short of money to spend.

"Bilbo."

A voice reached Bilbo Baggins's ears from afar; he, who was about to fall asleep, sat up with a start, then opened his sleepy eyes and saw Allen walking toward him.

He rubbed his sleepy eyes and said, "Allen?"

In fact, he had just had lunch with Allen and Gandalf, and now he was basking in the sun while Gandalf had gone out to attend to his own business.

However, usually at this time, Allen was busy with matters of the territory and rarely came to chat with him, so Bilbo was slightly puzzled to see Allen at this time.

Allen did not consider that much; after sitting down, he stated his purpose directly. His relationship with Bilbo Baggins did not need so much formality; that would instead make it seem very distant.

"Bilbo, in fact, I have a matter that requires your help."

"What matter is it?" Bilbo was very puzzled; in his view, Allen was already a very powerful Human lord, so what could he possibly be troubled by?

Subsequently, Allen explained his plan to Bilbo Baggins in detail: he would take a small team of elite Cavalry as bait to enter the valley in the lower reaches of the High Pass.

After attracting the enemy's attention, a large army that had been prepared in advance would swoop in from behind; as long as a suitable defensive position was found, the danger would not be particularly high, and there was no shortage of caves in the valley.

In fact, before Allen came, he had already arranged for Desaiwei to take people to scout the terrain.

But at the end, Allen briefly mentioned the characteristics of that Ring and emphasized that it might attract the attention of the Orcish.

Bilbo Baggins, who had been carrying the One Ring for half a year, had already been influenced by the Ring by this time, but the degree of influence was extremely low and would not change his kind nature; it only deepened his possessiveness toward this Ring.

This possessiveness made Bilbo Baggins naturally ignore the danger Allen mentioned.

Actually, Gandalf already knew at this time that Bilbo Baggins had such a Ring, but having very little knowledge of the Rings of Power, he had never thought that this Ring was the most important one.

After all, before forging the twenty master rings, the craftsmen of Eregion made some trial pieces, and the plain appearance of the One Ring easily caused Gandalf to have such a misconception; moreover, this Ring could only bring Bilbo Baggins the power to slip into the Unseen World, which was really not powerful enough.

As a friend, Bilbo Baggins readily agreed to Allen's request and discussed with Allen that it would be better to schedule this matter for when they returned to the Shire.

The Hobbit, who had already experienced quite a lot of danger, did not think there was any danger in this matter; after all, he knew that Allen's army was still very strong, and with comparable numbers, it would only be a slaughter for the Orcish, not to mention the help of the Skin-changer.

And this matter was known to Gandalf when he returned in the evening, and he also decided to participate in this battle.

It was just that Bilbo Baggins did not inform Gandalf about the Ring, only saying that he would help Allen solve this trouble on the way home.

Gandalf did not have any doubts about Bilbo Baggins's words; after all, this Grey Wizard was also a person who dared to think and act—if he had an idea, he would strive to do it; where would he have so much time to consider so much?

Allen had not thought about inviting Gandalf to participate in this operation, but he had also considered the reactions of these two friends.

Allen was certain that Bilbo Baggins at this time was already unwilling to talk to others about the One Ring.

Although this was an evil Ring, its charm was undoubtedly high, enough to make two people as close as brothers turn against each other.

Gandalf's urgent desire to return to Valinor, as well as his slightly irritable and direct personality, also determined that he would not have too many questions about this operation.

Therefore, Allen would not worry about the identity of the One Ring being exposed in front of Gandalf.

Now was not the time to clarify everything; the time Allen had been in this world was too short, and the strength he had accumulated was still far from enough.