Finally Got the Place Figured Out

"Are you full?" Roland clapped his hands and asked.

"I'm done, my lord," Caslo said.

"Then let's go. Hopefully we'll find a village or town today and figure out where we are..." Roland sighed.

"Yes, my lord," Caslo replied.

"My lord! We might have trouble!" Caslo suddenly grabbed Roland's horse's reins.

"This is Gundabad Warg dung!" Caslo explained.

"So..." Roland's face darkened.

"That's right, there are Orc Warg Riders nearby!"

"Damn it! On guard!" Roland suddenly raised his Tower Shield.

"Thunk!" An Iron Arrow was deflected by the shield.

"Caslo! Summon your dragon! Get up there! Now!" Roland shouted in alarm.

In the distant woods, shadows flickered. Between the rustling branches, Orcs riding Wargs charged out, with an endless stream of Orc infantry following behind.

"My lord, we must have entered Orc territory!" Caslo said bitterly, quickly pulling out a Dragon Flute to summon his drake.

"For the glory of a knight! Charge!" Battle Qi Flame surged, covering Roland and his warhorse in battle qi as he spurred his armored Shire Horse toward the hundreds-strong Orc army.

"Shing!" Roland's sword sliced off an Orc's ugly head.

"Bam!" Roland's Tower Shield blocked a scimitar swinging at him, then he thrust his sword forward. The sharp Dragon-slaying Sword easily pierced the Orc's chest.

"Roar!" A stirring Dragon's Roar rang out. Caslo ascended on his drake.

The Orc army visibly faltered, giving Roland a chance to lop off a few more heads. The next second, a wind blade several meters wide spat from the drake's mouth, quickly splitting into palm-sized blades. A dozen Orc Warg Riders caught in the blast were shredded into minced meat along with their Wargs, making Roland's stomach churn.

Ominous Draconic Magic chanted. Roland immediately turned his horse and fled—good grief, staying within range of a Draconic Magic spell would take a truly reckless mind.

The Windwing Drake flapped its wings, and a tornado whipped out, growing thicker and thicker. It swept forward, sucking up nearly half the Orcs and hurling them hundreds of meters into the air before they rained down like hailstones...

"Roar!" Caslo drove the drake after the Orcs, sending wind blades raining down to dismember them below. Roland could only follow behind, staring at the corpses in a daze, without even a chance to finish them off—since the Orcs on the ground were either torn apart or turned into chunks, brutally so.

Finally, the last Orc was blasted to smithereens at the edge of the woods. Caslo descended contentedly.

"My lord, all dealt with!"

"Mm, good. Put the dragon away! You ride this one." Roland pointed to a nearby Shire Horse, a reward from the system just now—the First Blood achievement.

"Scorched Earth: Completed. Successfully annihilated the Orcs, leaving none alive. Reward: Fully Armed Novice Knight *10."

Roland saw the final reward and was quite satisfied. After all, a Novice Knight with supernatural power was far stronger than the mightiest cavalry, and there were ten of them. Best of all—fully armed.

Sure enough, after summoning these ten Novice Knights, Roland felt it was totally worth it! Uniformly equipped with triple-layered barded Shire Horses, Steel Plate Armor, Steel Cross Shields, Steel Longswords, Steel Lances, Ironwood Bows, and a Mithril War Mattock each (specialized for armor-breaking—one hit on an iron can and it's a sure kill), truly armed to the teeth. The most impressive part was their capes, each bearing the Dragon Emblem from his own Mithril Armor. The twelve of them looked mighty and imposing!

5 days later...

"What the—this is a village?" Roland thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.

"Yes, my lord. It's a village, but it doesn't seem too friendly toward us..." Caslo said, looking at the closed wooden gate and the militiamen on the walls on alert. With his sharp eyesight, Caslo could even see their hands already on their Hunting Bow strings.

"Oh! God! Lads, put your weapons away, relax!" Roland ordered.

Hearing this, everyone stowed their weapons.

Roland rode up to the village gate and looked up at the villagers on the wall.

"Um, excuse me, we're just travelers. We'd like to find a place to stay for the night. We can pay," Roland said sincerely.

"Is that so? Where are you strangers from?" an elderly villager above spoke up.

"Uh, I'm from an empire in the East. These men are retainers I recruited in Gondor." Roland took off his helmet.

Sure enough, seeing Roland's black hair and black eyes, the villagers above began murmuring among themselves. After a while, they seemed to have reached a decision.

"Alright, you may enter and rest, but we ask that you not use weapons to fight within the village, and do not disturb the villagers."

"As you wish, we will comply," Roland quickly agreed.

"Creak..." The wooden gate slowly opened. Roland hurriedly called everyone to dismount and enter. But as soon as they stepped inside, Roland had a guess.

"I'm not in the Shire, am I..." Roland muttered to himself, because standing before him was a row of little "dwarves"—or more accurately, Hobbits, the most familiar kind!

"Hello, excuse me, where is this? We got lost on the wasteland." Roland quickly grabbed someone to ask.

After some inquiry, he confirmed that he was now in the northernmost part of the Shire, and not in the Middle-earth of the movies, but the continent of The Lord of the Rings.

"That makes things easier. I know the map of Middle-earth well!" Roland rubbed his chin.

"By the way, what year is it? Caslo, go find out."

"Yes, my lord."

"What! The year 2940 of the Third Age!" Roland exclaimed in surprise.

"What's wrong, my lord?" Caslo asked with concern.

"There's something quite interesting, and I'm considering whether we should get involved." Roland was referring to the dwarven expedition—the Hobbit storyline.

"Thorin Oakenshield is a decent friend after all. If we want to establish a foothold in this land, we need to unite forces we can win over." Roland muttered to himself.

Since this was a modified Middle-earth, the power system had changed drastically—most notably, there were no gods! With far more spellcasters (at least more than the original Middle-earth, which only had five wizards), no one knew how this expedition would turn out. After all, back in the game, many lord players had led their forces to help Thorin successfully reclaim the Lonely Mountain.

"Let's go! To Hobbiton!" Roland finally decided to lend a hand.