Land of Shining Stars

"Dawn? Morning Star Flower? These are out-of-season plants again," Reno said helplessly after hearing Roland mutter, sighing inwardly. What kind of place was this, filled with strange, out-of-season plants?

"Mm, the general area is around here, but the entrance to the barrier depends on the Morning Star Flower to guide us," Roland rubbed his chin.

Morning Star Flowers are symbiotic plants that grow with trees. Normally, they look exactly like the branches of the trees they grow on, sprouting similar branches and leaves. They can only be found in autumn. They bloom at dawn, absorbing the last starlight of each autumn day. They are a type of magical plant that can be used to concoct many magical potions, but their blooming period is very short. Although they open every dawn in autumn, they only bloom for half an hour at most each time.

"Let's wait. We don't have much time. Hopefully, we can find them in one go, otherwise, we'll have to wait until the day after tomorrow," Roland said tiredly, rubbing his temples.

"Ah~ Your Highness, please forgive my disrespect," Reno yawned, touching his nose sheepishly.

"It's fine, I'm sleepy too... These Star Elves are really idle," Roland complained.

"System, check in!" Roland thought inwardly. It was well past midnight, and he could check in now.

"Check-in successful. Congratulations to the host for obtaining 100 Dorwinian Heavy Swordsmen."

Roland, who had no expectations, was stunned for a moment. Did he get something? And it was swordsmen, a professional class. Roland burst into carefree laughter. After all, even a large number of external reinforcements couldn't compare to the centaurs he had under his command.

Speaking of which, these Dorwinian Heavy Swordsmen were quite interesting. Dorwinia was located on the west coast of the Inner Sea of Rhûn. Currently, the chariot people should be living there. Those people were allies with Mordor and were constantly clashing with Gondor. This situation only ceased after the Lagrange Empire successfully occupied the Rhûn region. But it was only the Third Age, and the Lagrange Empire hadn't even appeared yet... However, this didn't stop Roland from praising the Dorwinian Heavy Swordsmen.

The classification of swordsmen was: Apprentice Swordsman, Swordsman, Elite Swordsman, Skirmisher Swordsman, Guard Swordsman, and Hero. They mostly fought with swords and shields, renowned for their powerful positional warfare capabilities. Their mobility was relatively poor, but this changed after advancing to Skirmisher Swordsman, at which point they would gain mobility comparable to Rangers.

Dorwinian Heavy Swordsmen were also called Rhûn Swordsmen. They were the most cost-effective soldiers that could be recruited in the Rhûn region. They were loyal, brave, and well-equipped. Apart from lacking ranged attack capabilities, they were practically omnipotent. Of course, the Dorwinian Heavy Swordsmen produced in Dorwinia City could be considered the cream of the crop. They were one of the few armies on the entire continent of Middle-earth that could directly block the charge of Knight Orders (and in the game, they were also the only professional soldier that most players could obtain to counter Knight Orders).

Dorwinian Heavy Swordsmen wore Monster Hide Armor on the inside, Mithril Chainmail on the outside, and then Steel Infantry Plate Armor over that. Most outrageously, they even wore a layer of Linen Infantry Armor, plus a large cloak on their backs... It could be said they wore 5 layers of armor. Their Steel Tower Shields made their frontal defense even more absurd, and the magic patterns attached to them gave them good magic resistance. Their most trusted weapon was a 1.5-meter-long Star Silver Steel greatsword. The Mithril Dagger tucked at their thigh was their last line of defense. Besides these, they had no other weapons, sacrificing ranged attacks and mobility for outrageously high melee defense.

A hundred-man unit of Dorwinian Heavy Swordsmen could form a Dorwinian Round Formation, which was a shield wall formed by tower shields in a circle, with the remaining tower shields placed overhead to block arrows and descending magic. The gaps between the overlapping shields allowed them to easily pass their swords. When they slammed their tower shields heavily into the ground, except for attacks with a significantly higher level difference, even Knight Orders of the same level could not break their defensive formation.

"What is this? Are we planning to form a shield wall with Dorwinian Heavy Swordsmen and march them out to sell when we fight the Orcs? It seems like we could do that..." Roland pondered silently. After all, given the Dorwinian Heavy Swordsmen's ability to attack and defend, Azog might really be unable to deal with them.

"Forget it, if Azog personally attacks, it'll be for nothing," Roland shook his head, expelling these absurd thoughts from his mind. He still needed to think about how to properly fight the Orcs. This was too unrealistic.

"Your Highness! Is this a Morning Star Flower?" Reno suddenly called out to Roland.

Roland looked up. Unknowingly, the sky had already revealed a hint of rosy light. Dawn was approaching...

An ice-blue flower quietly bloomed on the branch. The starlight from the sky poured down like flowing water, thread by thread, into the flower.

"That's right! It's this one!" Roland scrambled up the tree in a flash and quickly examined the Morning Star Flower.

"Did you find anything, Your Highness?" Reno stared for a long time but found nothing unusual.

"Indeed, there is. Look where the pistil of this flower is pointing?" Roland asked.

"West?" Reno was unsure.

"I think so too. Let's go west and see if there are any other Morning Star Flowers," Roland jumped down from the treetop.

"There's one here!"

"Let's go check it out!"

"West."

"Then continue west."

"Wait! There's one here!" Roland stopped Reno.

"My Lord! The pistil is pointing east!" Reno exclaimed excitedly. They had finally found a flower with its pistil pointing in a different direction.

"Quick! Search the surroundings for anything with a six-pointed star pattern," Roland also became excited. He hadn't slept all night, but now he was full of energy.

"Okay!"

"There's no path here!" Reno said doubtfully. The forest ahead had become dense, and thorns and bushes had completely filled the gaps between the tree trunks. Reno drew his Dragon Pattern Sword, which could cleave through Dragon Scales, and heavily chopped at the trees in front of him.

"Dong!" A powerful force rebounded from Reno's sword, almost making him lose his grip on the hilt.

"Are you kidding me? My Dragon Pattern Sword can't cut trees anymore? Wait! This is a barrier!" Reno initially thought he had lost his strength, but he didn't expect to be ambushed by a hidden barrier.

"Your Highness! There's a barrier here!" Reno shouted, disregarding whether it would attract anyone's attention.

"Where?" Roland hurried over upon hearing the news.

"That's right! It should be here! Let's circle around the barrier and see if we can find a six-pointed star array," Roland confirmed by touching the transparent barrier in front of him.

"Okay."

Roland drew his sword and cut down a nearby tree to mark it, then he and Reno began to circle along the barrier.

After walking for nearly half an hour, they finally found a six-pointed star array half-buried in the ground in a place overgrown with weeds.

The entire six-pointed star array was carved from a single, massive stone slab. Roland recalled that Star Elves had quite a few barrier exits, and this should be one of them. He wondered if it was still effective; if not, they would have to find other stone slabs.

"Do you know Elvish?" Roland suddenly asked, looking up.

"Uh... Yes." After all, how could the famous Reno not know Elvish? He had commanded many elves after all. (In the game)

"Good, that's great!" Roland then remembered that this thing needed to be activated with Elvish.

"The forest weeps in flames, the people tremble in darkness. The king who wields the power of the stars will descend in shadow. Dispel the night's mist, leave the wanderer's loneliness. Carrying the sacred heart of salvation, the Land of Shining Stars!" Roland began to chant softly.

"Say it in Elvish," Roland instructed.

"What?" Reno looked utterly bewildered. Was his king losing his mind here?

"Speed! That's the activation phrase!" Roland rolled his eyes in exasperation, ignoring Reno's dumbfounded stare.

"Oh, oh, right!" Reno quickly responded, then recited Roland's words with great feeling in the Elvish tongue.

The previously dull hexagram suddenly began to twinkle with a soft starlight, as enchanting as the night sky. The Land of Shining Stars opened its arms to the world...

Second update, please vote with recommendation tickets. Readers are welcome to join our group chat, the group number is in the comment section.