After dealing with the Watcher in the Water, Rynar returned to Riverguard, chewing on some black bread.
The thought of his ruined fishing nets and the broken Galleon ship at the hands of the Watcher instantly soured his mood.
The black bread, already hard to swallow, became even less appetizing...
"I'm having such a hard time..." Rynar muttered helplessly, complaining about the cursed winter as he opened the territory page in his system.
The desolate Riverguard floated on the screen, and once Rynar focused his attention on it, he immediately received the current details of the city:
Riverguard:
- Area: One square kilometer.
- Buildings: 1 dilapidated lord's castle, 82 crumbling residences, 18 unstable residences, an old stone wall (under repair), a stone well, and a blacksmith shop.
- Military force: 303
- Population: 104 (Trainable civilians: 31)
- Evaluation: A lonely king leads the remnants of his people back to their homeland. This barely inhabitable ruin provides them with some shelter, but the looming darkness still threatens the fledgling kingdom. Aside from fishing, the town has no productive capacity, and its strong military might be its only strength. Note: The town has no potential for war, and one defeat could lead to its total destruction.
Abilities:
1. As the only remaining territory of the Zaltarion Empire in Middle-earth, it will attract the remnants of the Zaltarion people. The system will guide a wave of Zaltarion refugees to the town daily; the lord is expected to take care of them.
Civilians from this area can be trained as Rapid Infantry.
"Ridiculous!" Rynar dismissed the system's light screen with a wave of his hand. He only had 104 people, with just 31 men fit for service.
And the most absurd thing was that the town had no other productive capacity besides fishing...
Rynar felt trapped. The town lacked any real productivity; other than fishing, the only other option was blacksmithing.
Sure, they had a lava forge, but without an alchemist, it was only useful for basic metalwork.
And when it came to smithing, weren't the Dwarves of Erebor much better than his own half-baked blacksmiths?
It was winter, and Rynar couldn't send his people out to cultivate land, and hunting was too dangerous because of the orcs lurking about.
So, he was just stuck feeding over a hundred mouths for nothing—the only use they had was helping the soldiers with the city's fortifications...
Passing by the blacksmith shop, Rynar noticed Edmund hammering away at the magic forge, reforging a steel longsword.
It made Rynar feel somewhat relieved; after all, his soldiers' equipment was in dire need of repairs.
The iron armor was manageable, but the leather under-armor was now impossible to replace.
Most of his three-layer-armored knights were down to just two layers, with the outer plate armor and the chainmail beneath still intact, but the inner leather layer was worn out and useless.
Rynar couldn't help but think: this isn't a game...
In the game, you just pay to repair equipment durability, but in real life, you actually have to replace it!
Now Rynar finally understood why knightly orders were such a prestigious yet scarce force—because they were unaffordable!
After the high-intensity battle of Erebor, his knights were in worse shape day by day.
The large-scale wear on their equipment had severely weakened their strength, and that wasn't even considering the damage to their warhorses...
"Please, just give me infantry... I've learned my lesson! I won't play with knights anymore..." Rynar groaned, completely defeated.
"We need to build a leather workshop first..." Rynar began to plan in his mind. Leather armor, as a strategic resource, required a full leather workshop to produce in bulk.
Although individual households could tan leather, the process was far too inefficient for large-scale production.
"Let's check out the marketplace; maybe I'll find something useful." Rynar thought for a moment and decided to try his luck there.
"Hmm, Zaltarion City Guards? Not needed!"
"Zaltarion Knights? Pfft, I can't afford them."
"A high-level fire staff? What would I even use that for?"
"Wait! A sacred artifact! The Ring of Glory!" Rynar rubbed his eyes in disbelief.
The Ring of Glory was a mythic-level artifact from the game, ranked higher than legendary items.
As the first of the Nine Sacred Rings of the Knights, it possessed the unique ability to enhance a knight's starting skill—Glory—which wasn't much weaker than Gandalf's Ring of Fire.
The Nine Sacred Rings were created to counter the Nine Rings of Power worn by the Nazgûl, the Black Knights.
Each of the nine sacred rings corresponded to one of the knight's skills, representing the highest virtues of knighthood.
The first was the Ring of Glory, which enhanced the knight's Glory skill, making the knightly order under the bearer's command even stronger.
- The second, the Ring of Mercy, enhanced the Mercy skill, allowing knights to take half damage when using the skill.
- The third, the Ring of Justice, doubled the damage dealt to evil creatures when using the Justice skill.
- The fourth, the Ring of Loyalty, granted immunity to all mind-affecting attacks when using the Loyalty skill.
- The fifth, the Ring of Charity, doubled the defensive bonuses for all units in range when using the Charity skill.
- The sixth, the Ring of Protection, rendered the target invincible while the Protection skill was active.
- The seventh, the Ring of Courage, provided immunity to control effects when using the Courage skill.
- The eighth, the Ring of Humility, doubled all beneficial effects when using the Humility skill.
- The ninth, the Ring of Sacrifice, allowed a knight to be resurrected after using the Sacrifice skill, with a cooldown period of one year.
Of these, the Ring of Sacrifice was undoubtedly the most powerful.
Sacrifice, being the ultimate ability of knights, burned their life and soul for a burst of immense strength.
A knight could only use it once in their lifetime, and when the light of Sacrifice shone, it marked both the knight's most glorious moment and their downfall.
However, the Ring of Sacrifice allowed a knight to use this ultimate skill multiple times, making it an unbelievably overpowered artifact.
In the world of knights, no other profession could rival them, especially during their apprentice phase.
Have you ever seen a profession start with nine skills right after waking up? Knights were ruthless like that.
Along with their Glory skill, which empowered the knightly order as a whole, the other eight skills were a combination of buffs and auxiliary abilities, making them a core force on the battlefield.
These nine skills didn't just define a knight's abilities; they embodied the spirit of knighthood itself, similar to the assassin's creed.
"500,000 wealth points? That's cheap?" Rynar was astonished at the price tag.
"Well... makes sense. After all, the Ring of Glory is probably the weakest among them..."
Rynar's excitement faded, and he sighed.
The Ring of Glory was one of the lesser sacred artifacts. It offered personal benefits weaker than some of the other rings, and even its group bonuses were no match for the Ring of Charity.
Its main function was to boost the overall strength of a knightly order under its bearer's command, and even then, the enhancement wasn't overly strong.
The only reason it was considered a sacred artifact was that it could amplify the strength of an unlimited number of knights. Imagine having 100,000 knights using the Glory skill with this ring—it would even put dragon riders to shame!
"Sigh... back to square one. Buy it." Rynar reluctantly spent 500,000 wealth points to purchase the Ring of Glory.
It hurt! He had only scraped together a million wealth points after raiding Thorin's treasures, and now, more than half was gone… He slid the ring onto his right index finger with a heavy heart.
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