Five years were enough for many things to happen. Roland's Lagrange Kingdom had, for the time being, gotten onto the right track. The only thing troubling Roland was that the main quest had changed due to the system reboot and update. Otherwise, he would have already claimed the reward by now. After all, the entire region from Flowing City to the southern reaches of Lulong Fortress was firmly under the kingdom's control. Town after town had sprung up, and these settlements scattered along the banks of the Swift River were now the kingdom's blood reservoir, controlling vast stretches of villages and farmland and supplying Flowing City and Lulong Fortress with vital support.
As for Roland's vassals... the only two with real potential for development were Duke Apophis Breo and Lord Ismir. Five years of hardship had tempered both men until they were capable of standing on their own.
Duke Apophis Breo, the stubborn holdout of the Misty Mountains, had inherited the Junlin Family's spirit of arguing to the bitter end and fully embodied the Junlin Stubborn Spirit. No matter how beasts, Orcs, Goblins, and other creatures harassed him, he simply refused to budge. Instead, he tirelessly reinforced Junlin Fortress. Thanks to the Refugee Refresh Mechanism, he had actually held on. With nearly forty thousand people and three thousand elite soldiers, Apophis Breo had directly split the Misty Mountains in two, cutting off contact between the northern and southern mountain regions. With Rivendell at his back, he had confidently exchanged blows with the Orcs several times. Since the Forbidden Spell War had left the Nazgûl of Fortress of Gundabad coughing blood, no high-tier combat power had entered the fray for the time being, giving Apophis Breo the feeling that with no tiger in the mountains, the monkey ruled as king.
However,