Erlino Ranger

"System, check-in..." Roland said weakly from his hammock.

"Check-in successful! Congratulations to the host for obtaining 10 Erlino Rangers."

"Damn, you finally didn't give me iron ingots or desks today..." Roland lay on the hammock like a salted fish, unwilling to get up. This scam system only gave useless junk every day. No, it wasn't that they were useless, it's just that they weren't Roland's immediate needs. Right now, Roland was short on food! He was so worried his hair was turning white. The supplies bought from the Dwarves were gradually becoming insufficient with the ever-increasing population. Last night, Reno took stock and found that even with strict rationing, given the daily population increase in Flowing City, they wouldn't make it to spring. Within three months, the civilian population of Flowing City would have to break the one-thousand mark at least.

Thinking of this, Roland couldn't help but envy Bai Yi. He had inherited a complete faction. Although they were forced to migrate south, most of their supplies were preserved. They had hundreds of large carts, and coupled with the supplies carried by the civilians themselves, excluding the Orcs, their lives would definitely be much better than Roland's.

"Let the civilians chop more trees to build wooden boats and fish. The soldiers' output alone is not enough, and it's also not good to waste precious military strength here," Roland thought to himself.

"Caslo, what are the people from the Kadan Tribe across the river doing?" Roland lifted the tent and walked out, coincidentally meeting Caslo who was coming towards him. Since Caslo rode his dragon out to scout every day, he was quite aware of the surrounding movements.

"Them? They are chopping trees to build city walls. I just discovered they have a few Earth Mages, but their levels are pitifully low. They can't produce Magic Rune Stone Bricks, so they can only cast earth spikes and shatter them to build walls," Caslo said after thinking.

"Then their progress should be quite fast, after all, they have many people, and wooden and stone walls are the easiest to build," Roland shrugged.

"As long as they have city walls, they should not fear the Orcs' attacks. After all, they still have over five hundred soldiers, and at least a hundred of them are professionals. A population base of nearly four thousand can provide them with great war potential," Caslo placed great hope on their human allies across the river.

"That's true," Roland nodded.

He didn't know if history's Middle-earth also had this southward migration of Northern humans. Anyway, Roland hadn't seen any traces of them. If such a group of Northern humans had indeed migrated south, their end would be one of two: either they merged with River Valley City under Commander Bard, or they were annihilated in the war with the Eastern Yi people of the wilderness.

However, this group of Northern humans, Bai Yi's faction, didn't seem particularly skilled in horsemanship. They were more like tribes adept at infantry combat. The Riding Kingdom next to Gondor, Rohan, was also composed of Northern humans. One had to sigh that the combat power of Northern humans was indeed much stronger than that of Middle-earth humans.

"My King, a group of Erlino Rangers has come to pledge allegiance to you," Reno found Roland.

"Mm, bring them to see me," Roland said calmly. The system's check-in rewards had finally arrived.

"Your Highness, may the Erlino Forest protect us," the rangers bowed in greeting.

Only then did Roland have the chance to examine the most mysterious Erlino Rangers in the game. This group of rangers was born from the Erlino Forest near the Rhûn Inner Sea. Who knows what they went through back then, but their dragon-slaying achievements indeed made them one of the most legendary troop types among all units. During the ancient Human-Dragon War, the only human army that ascended Dragon Island was the Erlino Rangers. They possessed extraordinary strength, combined with exquisite archery and special professional skills. During the Human-Dragon War, they killed quite a few Wyvern species. Later, the scarcity of human Wyvern Knights was closely related to the achievements of the Erlino Rangers back then. After all, three-quarters of the Wyverns on Dragon Island were killed by the Erlino Rangers. Of course, that battle also directly reduced the originally normal number of Erlino Rangers to an endangered species...

(Note: In the world of the Ring System, without beings like the Valar, the immortal land of Aman in the West also ceased to exist. In its place was a vast Dragon Island, where countless dragons and various magical beasts lived.)

"Sigh, if only they had given them to me earlier, perhaps Lake-town could have been saved..." Roland sighed inwardly.

As dragon slayers, the Erlino Rangers possessed a special skill – the Dragonfall Arrow. The magic arrows imbued with this technique could almost ignore the high defense of dragon scales, making it possible for every arrow to hit its mark.

Roland nodded with satisfaction. The Erlino Rangers were indeed a proper ranger unit, with their high attack, high agility, and low defense characteristics vividly displayed. The finely crafted Mithril Longbow was strung with Dragon Sinew, and the close-fitting leather armor sewn from Dragon Scale just protected their torsos. To maintain their body's flexibility, they only equipped greaves and vambraces polished from Dragon Scale. The Rhûn War Blades on their backs indicated their considerable melee capabilities. Close to nature, they did not wear helmets, only a headband polished from Dragon Scale as decoration.

"So not everyone is like the Bannaria Archers," Roland nodded in agreement. After all, the heavy armor and agile movements of the Bannaria Archers made them completely unlike a rear-row profession like archers. The Erlino Rangers successfully made Roland feel the presence of archers. As expected! Archers wearing heavy armor are all heretics. However, Roland was very interested in the Avalon Rangers of the Avalon Elf Tribe, who lived at the northern end of the eastern mountain range. As one of the few dual cultivators of martial arts and magic, the Avalon Rangers could be said to stand at the pinnacle of professionals on the entire continent. This small kingdom composed of dark elves had produced the strongest rangers in Middle-earth. If there was an opportunity, Roland wouldn't mind acquiring a few teams of Avalon Rangers. Such professionals who changed the fragile bodies of light armor classes were simply can openers and reapers. Roland was full of anticipation for this.

"You will stay and serve as my personal guards," Roland decided after some thought to make these Erlino Rangers his personal guards. After all, these rangers were few in number, and forming them into a separate unit would be like a drop in the bucket for any battle. It would be better to keep them by his side to defend against attacks from the sky.

Roland didn't know if the Orcs had sky knights, but Sauron had a clan of Abyssal Beasts. Rather than calling them Abyssal Beasts, they could be called Demon Wyverns. Their appearance, similar to Two-legged Wyverns, and their massive demonic energy fluctuations all indicated an undeniable relationship with dragons. Even if they weren't true dragons, they were top-tier Lesser Dragons.

Later, Roland would definitely have to clash with Sauron. This small team of Erlino Rangers would be Roland's safeguard against sky knight decapitation tactics. Without an anti-sky knight army, it would be very difficult to face an army with sky knights. For details, please refer to Azog's brothers, who had a numerical advantage over the three allied forces. If this friend hadn't received the aid of the Gundabad War Bats, the unhindered Caslo would have absolutely shown them what Wyvern Knights meant to them. Even the restrained Caslo inflicted unimaginable casualties and blows on the Orc army. The Orcs who invaded River Valley City have the most say in this, after all, not everyone can be graced by Draconic Magic.