"System sign-in…" Rynar said weakly, hanging in his hammock.
"Sign-in successful! Congratulations, host, you have received 10 Elaris Woods Rangers."
"Seriously? Today you didn't give me any iron ingots or anything useful…" Rynar lay in the hammock, feeling like a lazy fish, unwilling to get up.
This frustrating system always handed out useless junk. No, it wasn't that it was useless—it just wasn't what Rynar needed right now.
What he needed most was food! He was almost pulling his hair out from worry.
The supplies he had bought from the dwarves were gradually running out as the number of people increased.
Last night, Reynard had counted and discovered that even with rationing, given the current population growth in Riverguard, they wouldn't last until spring.
Within three months, the number of civilians in Riverguard would at least surpass a thousand.
Thinking of this, Rynar couldn't help but envy Aranthor. He had inherited a well-established force.
Although they had been forced to migrate south, most of their supplies had been preserved.
They had brought along hundreds of wagons filled with provisions, and the civilians themselves had carried additional supplies.
Excluding the Orcs, their situation was definitely better than Rynar's.
"Let the civilians chop down more trees to build wooden boats for fishing.
Relying solely on the soldiers' output is simply not enough, and wasting precious military strength on this is not feasible either," Rynar thought to himself.
"Caslow, what are those people from the Frostfire tribe across the way up to?" Rynar asked as he lifted the tent flap and stepped outside, just in time to bump into Caslow.
Since Caslow rode out on his dragon (wyvern) every day for reconnaissance, he was quite aware of the surrounding movements.
"They? They're chopping down trees to build walls. I just noticed they have a few earth mages, but unfortunately, they're pitifully low in level.
They can't create enchanted stone bricks, so they can only release spikes to break the stone for wall construction," Caslow replied thoughtfully.
"Then their progress should be quite fast, especially since they have a large number of people, and wooden walls are the easiest to construct," Rynar shrugged.
"As long as they have walls, they shouldn't fear attacks from the orcs.
After all, they still have over five hundred soldiers left, and at least a hundred of them are professionals.
With a population base of nearly four thousand, they have significant war potential," Caslow expressed great hope for their human allies across the way.
"True enough," Rynar nodded.
Rynar wondered if, in Middle-earth's history, there had ever been a migration of northern humans southward.
He had never seen any traces of them, but if such a group had indeed migrated south, their fate would likely have boiled down to two possibilities: either they merged with Bard's Dale or were wiped out in wars with the orcs of the wasteland.
However, the northern humans led by Aranthor didn't seem particularly skilled in cavalry.
They appeared more like a tribe adept at infantry combat. The cavalry Kingdom of Rohan, adjacent to Gondor, was also composed of northern humans.
Rynar couldn't help but marvel at how the combat strength of northern humans surpassed that of the humans of Middle-earth.
"Your Majesty, a team of Elaris Woods Rangers has come to pledge their loyalty to you," Reynard found Rynar.
"Alright, bring them to see me," Rynar said calmly; the system's sign-in reward had finally arrived.
"Your Majesty, may the Elaris Woods Forest protect you and me." The rangers bowed in greeting.
This was Rynar's chance to size up the most mysterious of the Elaris Woods Rangers in the game.
This ranger team originated from the Elaris Woods Forest.
Who knows what they had endured, but their dragon-slaying achievements had indeed made them one of the most legendary units among all troop types.
During the Dragon-Human War, the only human army that had managed to land on Dragon Island was the Elaris Woods Rangers.
They possessed extraordinary strength, coupled with superb archery skills and special professional abilities, allowing them to take down numerous drakes during the conflict.
The subsequent scarcity of human dragon riders was closely tied to the Elaris Woods Rangers' accomplishments, as three-quarters of the drakes on Dragon Island were slain by the rangers.
Of course, that battle also led to the Elaris Woods Rangers being reduced to an endangered species…
(Note: In the world of the Lord of the Rings, without the existence of Valar or Maiar, the immortal land of Aman in the West no longer exists, replaced instead by a vast Dragon Island teeming with countless dragons and various magical beasts.)
"Ah, if only I had received this earlier, maybe Lake-Town could have been saved…" Rynar sighed inwardly.
As dragon slayers, the Elaris Woods Rangers possessed a unique skill—Falling Dragon Arrow.
This magical arrow could almost ignore the high defense of dragon scales, ensuring that every shot found its mark.
Rynar nodded in satisfaction. The Elaris Woods Rangers lived up to their reputation as a proper ranger unit, showcasing high attack, high agility, and low defense to perfection.
Their exquisitely crafted mithril longbows were strung with bowstrings made from dragon tendons.
The dragon-scale armor barely protected their torsos, and to maintain agility, they wore only dragon-scale greaves and vambraces.
The Rune Battle Blades strapped to their backs demonstrated their formidable melee capabilities.
Closely connected to nature, they wore no helmets—only dragon-scale headbands as decorations.
"Not everyone can be like the Battanian archers," Rynar agreed, nodding.
The heavy armor and agile movement of the Battanian archers made them appear completely unlike typical ranged professionals.
The Elaris Woods Rangers had successfully restored Rynar's impression of archers.
Indeed! Archers in heavy armor were heretics. However, Rynar was very intrigued by the Avalon Rangers residing at the northern end of the eastern mountain range.
As one of the few hybrid martial and magical practitioners, Avalon Rangers stood atop the professional hierarchy of the entire continent.
This small kingdom composed of dark elves had birthed the strongest rangers in Middle-earth. If given the opportunity, Rynar wouldn't mind assembling a few teams of Avalon Rangers.
These practitioners, who deviated from the fragile nature of light-armored classes, were akin to can openers and harvesters—Rynar was full of anticipation regarding this.
"You can stay here and serve as my personal guards," Rynar finally decided after some consideration.
Given the small number of Elaris Woods Rangers, forming an independent unit would be insignificant in any battle situation.
It was better to keep them by his side to guard against attacks from the sky.
Rynar didn't know if the Orcs had sky knights, but Sauron had a group of abyssal behemoths at his disposal.
It was better to call them demonic dragons rather than abyssal beasts.
Their appearance, resembling bipedal dragons, along with their massive demonic energy fluctuations, indicated an undeniable connection to the dragon race.
Even if they weren't true dragons, they were certainly top-tier sub-dragons.
In the later stages, Rynar would definitely have to confront Sauron.
This small team of Elaris Woods Rangers was crucial for protecting Rynar from the sky knight assassination tactics.
Facing an army with sky knights without any anti-sky knight troops was extremely disadvantageous.
Just refer to Azog's forces during the three-race coalition's power struggle.
If not for receiving aid from the bats of the Battle of Gondor, Caslow, who had lost his ability to restrain, would definitely tell them what dragon riders meant for them.
Even Caslow, constrained in his abilities, had caused unimaginable casualties and devastation to the Orc army, and the orcs invading Dale could speak most authoritatively on this matter—after all, not everyone could be blessed by dragon speech magic.
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