Magic Rune Stone Bricks

"Shield Bash!" Facing the surging Orcs, although the Lagrange City Guards despised them from the bottom of their hearts, they still gave them the highest level of "treatment."

"Bzzzt—" Battle Qi rapidly spread across the tower shields, forming glowing Battle Qi shields several times larger than the shields themselves.

"Bang! Bang!" A series of impacts rang out. The city guards raised their great shields, stepped back half a pace, then slammed forward viciously.

After a burst of bone-cracking sounds that made their teeth ache, every Orc struck by the glowing shields fell to the ground twitching. Those lucky enough to survive were pinned to the ground by the steel spears of the city guards who rushed after them. After that strike, the Battle Qi on the shields dispersed, and they became ordinary shields once more.

"Why are there more and more Orcs the longer we fight..." The Lagrange City Guards were dumbfounded. It was like they had kicked a hornet's nest. Watching the Orcs continuously employ piecemeal tactics, the guards could only feel helpless.

"The civilians should be safe by now, right? We should retreat too."

"We need to find a way to shake them off. Flowing City is ahead—we can't lead the Orcs there."

"Our Battle Qi has been greatly depleted. We need to break away from the battle and rest quickly."

Taking advantage of the lull before the Orcs attacked again, everyone spoke at once.

"Awooo..." After a wolf's howl, everyone's expressions instantly darkened.

"Wilderness Warg Riders!" Their pupils shrank.

"Clatter—" Amid the scrape of Iron Armor, the Lagrange City Guards swiftly formed a three-layered circular formation. The soldiers on the outermost layer held steel spears and shields, those in the middle raised throwing spears, and the innermost soldiers lifted hand crossbows.

"Awooo—" Dozens of Wargs charged over with their riders. The gathered Lagrange City Guards instead let out sighs of relief. Fortunately, they were not Warg knights. Though Warg knights and Warg Riders differed by only one word, their strength was worlds apart. A single Warg knight could easily kill more than a dozen ordinary Warg Riders.

"Don't worry. Hold the formation—they won't charge!" The Lagrange City Guards reminded one another. Warg Riders without charging skills had no way to deal with the huddled Lagrange City Guards. Faced with guards bristling with weapons, they could only roar from afar. Having already attained relatively high status among the Orcs, they were nothing like those brainless ordinary Orcs. Seeing no advantage to be gained, they raged impotently for a while before leading the other Orcs away into the wilderness...

"Hello, Lord Ladyl." Roland took the initiative to find Ladyl. He had come to ask Ladyl to reinforce Flowing City's defenses.

"Your Highness, what is it?" Ladyl lay cheerfully in an old wooden chair, basking in the winter sun.

"I need you to create Magic Rune Stone Bricks to reinforce the city defenses!" Roland explained his purpose.

"Hmm... I see. But what specifications do you need for the city wall?" Ladyl sat up, his expression turning serious. He needed to know the exact requirements of the task.

"Using the current wall as a foundation, build a wall five meters high and five meters wide." After some thought, Roland decided to first lay the groundwork for upgrading it to a ten-meter-high wall next time.

"How long do you need it completed in?"

"This winter." Roland thought for a moment.

"Dragon God above! Are you trying to work this old man to death?" Ladyl's eyes widened. He had never expected his king, who looked so upright and honest, to actually be such a black-hearted capitalist.

"Your Highness, have you considered how much mana it will take for me to condense Magic Rune Stone Bricks with magic, stack them into a wall, and then cast a reinforcement spell over them again? Besides, I'm merely a humble War Mage. My total mana isn't anywhere near that much! There's no holy spring, Moon Well, or Sun Well here. I can only restore mana through meditation..." Ladyl went on and on. In short, his answer was two words—keep dreaming!

"Uh..." Roland awkwardly rubbed his nose.

"Lord Ladyl, this is what I had in mind. You only need to create the Magic Rune Stone Bricks. You won't have to use magic for the hard labor of building the wall—I'll have the Knights do it for you. You only need to reinforce it at the end." Roland hurriedly offered a compromise.

"By that calculation, I'll need to make enough Magic Rune Stone Bricks for forty-five meters of wall every day... Fine. This old man will put in the effort." Ladyl pondered for a moment before finally agreeing to Roland's proposal.

"Oh, right! Your Highness, a small wandering unit of Lagrange City Guards has come to join you. They should be arriving soon." Just as Roland received the answer he wanted and was preparing to leave, Ladyl hastily told him the news. In his view, Lagrange's Glory shone upon this last lord, and countless people had come to his side under the Dragon God's guidance.

"I understand. I'll send someone to receive them." Roland immediately realized that old Ladyl must have sensed the arriving Lagrange City Guards.

"Your Highness!" The Lagrange City Guards had barely arrived before the city when they saw Roland standing atop the ruined wall, his head tilted at a forty-five-degree angle as he gazed at the sky, posing as dramatically as possible.

"Rise! Welcome back into the radiance of Lagrange's Glory..." Roland extended a hand, signaling for them to dispense with formalities, while launching into another round of persuasive rhetoric. Sure enough, stirred by Roland's words, the Lagrange City Guards, who had never seen the darker side of human nature, nearly swore to the heavens that they would die in service to King Roland.

Ivy happened to see this scene as she passed by. The little girl's eye twitched, and she suddenly felt that her lord must have the potential to become a high priest—a great con artist.

There, ready-made bricklayers. Deep within Roland's heart, the laugh of a construction foreman rang out.

"What?" Upon hearing Roland's arrangements, the Lagrange City Guards' minds instantly went blank... What kind of lord was this? He was actually ordering Imperial city guards like them to do such manual labor... Then they saw the knights in standard Imperial knight armor removing their armor one after another...

"..." The Lagrange City Guards exchanged speechless glances, then silently removed their infantry armor and joined the great brick-moving family.

"Huff, huff, huff—" Old Ladyl panted as he leaned against the wall and sat down. Clearly, his mana had been depleted. Before him was already a small mountain of Magic Rune Stone Bricks.

"That's all of them. Take them away." Ladyl pointed at the pile of stone bricks engraved with magic runes before him. These bricks bore the Fortify spell. Compared with ordinary stone bricks, structures built from them would be sturdier. Roland had seen the walls of Lagrange City, which had at least ten spells inscribed upon them and could even reflect magical attacks. The Magic Rune Stone Bricks Ladyl was creating now were only the most basic kind, but considering that this was still the era of the Battle of Erebor, there was not yet much need for advanced walls. If this were the era of the War of the One Ring, such walls would have been rather inadequate.

Since there were no transport carts, the Knights had it easier—they tied the bricks with ropes and hung them from their horses' backs. Without warhorses, the Lagrange City Guards could only carry the bricks themselves. Soon, nearly two hundred people bustled up and down a section of wall less than fifty meters long, building it with great enthusiasm. Ladyl closed his eyes and began to meditate as profound mana slowly rose around him...

"Life has finally gotten on track..." Watching everyone work, Roland smiled with satisfaction.

Second update. Please send recommendation votes and invest, dear readers.