Chapter Summaries

Omsk led the Orcs on a tiring chase into a basin while his cavalry fled and fought off the Warg Riders. Once every Orc had entered, Ajax and Caslo began gathering dragon power above them.

• Omsk and Badel diverted the cavalry to tire out the pursuing Orcs, while the tribal chiefs urged their soldiers onward with promises of captured armor and weapons.
• Roland worried about the battle from his castle, and Nyx tried to reassure him as Omsk continued leading the Orcs in circles.
• Omsk’s cavalry entered the basin, and the Orcs accelerated after them as more than four hundred Warg Riders charged from the pursuing force.
• Omsk ordered a reverse charge against the Warg Riders, while Badel and the centaurs shot down dozens of them with arrows.
• After Lavien confirmed that every Orc had entered the basin, Omsk ordered his troops to flee as Ajax and Caslo gathered Fire Dragon Power and Wind Dragon Power above the Orcs.

Ajax and Caslo cast forbidden spells that unexpectedly merged into the Grand Forbidden Spell Flame Sweep Space. The spell spread beyond its intended range, threatening both the Orcs and the kingdom's soldiers as Omsk fled for his life.

• Ajax and Caslo chanted and unleashed their wind- and fire-element forbidden spells against the Orcs.
• The Orcs recognized the danger and panicked as the spells erupted, while Lov and an Orc Lord urged them to flee.
• Omsk ignored Lavien's warnings and stayed nearby to watch the spells from outside their apparent range.
• Renoil and Caldo sensed that the spells were too powerful, then realized their combined effects had distorted space and created the Grand Forbidden Spell Flame Sweep Space.
• Caslo realized the Grand Forbidden Spell could also hit his kingdom's soldiers, while Omsk identified the danger and galloped away.

Omsk and Ajax’s fused Forbidden Spells devastated the Orc forces at the Pan-Asian Basin, leaving a deadly zone and securing a sweeping victory for the Lagrange Kingdom. Caslo returned to Roland with news of the win and almost no casualties while the troops were still crossing the Grey Mountains.

• Omsk survived the spatial Grand Forbidden Spell Flame Sweep Space, which left the basin saturated with fire, wind, and the Power of Collapse.
• Ajax reported that some Orc Lords, including all the fifth-tier Orcs, had escaped, but Omsk accepted the outcome and ended the pursuit.
• The Lagrange Kingdom’s victory at the Pan-Asian Basin became famous, with the Orc tribes nearly wiped out and the Barren Stone Tribe withdrawing unscathed.
• Omsk led the victorious force south, while Baron Badel and Lavien marveled at the destruction caused by the Grand Forbidden Spell.
• Caslo told Roland that the Orcs had been defeated with only one minor injury; Ajax had gone to rest, and the other troops were still crossing the Grey Mountains.

Roland and Yun Feng discussed the danger of Grand Forbidden Spells and Dragon Marshal Osbaia’s brief achievement of divine power. After Omsk’s team returned with collected coins, Roland decided to establish Lagrange’s currency and set its denominations, leaving Yun Feng to oversee its production.

• Yun Feng warned Roland that Flame Sweep Space was a Grand Forbidden Spell and described the greater power of the Divine Forbidden Spell Yanfu Space.
• Yun Feng revealed that Dragon Marshal Osbaia had once wielded divine power in a mortal body, but Roland recalled that the strain had killed him.
• Roland left Yun Feng with the documents and went to spend time with Nyx.
• Omsk’s team returned with Gold Coins and Silver Coins, and Roland chose to recast and circulate them rather than convert them into wealth points.
• Roland and Nyx agreed that Lagrange needed its own currency, and Roland’s council chose to retain Imperial Dragon Coins while Yun Feng promised to oversee their quality.
• Roland ordered salaries paid in money, instructed Lance to buy surplus grain, and set one Gold Coin at one hundred silver coins and one silver coin at one hundred copper coins.

Roland arranged for five Griffon Knights to be selected after Ladyl reported that the griffons had entered their growth stage. The griffons accepted their riders, and Roland asked the Dragon Knights to train them, leaving the new squad ready to begin basic flight and combat training.

• Ladyl told Roland that the five griffons had grown enough for Knights to be selected, and Roland went to inspect them.
• Roland learned that Griffon Knights only needed to be Novice Knights and offered twenty Crossed Bauhinia Knights as candidates.
• Holyn volunteered to become a Griffon Knight because Sky Knights could travel quickly, and he gained a griffon's recognition.
• Holyn and four other men filled the griffon squad, but Ladyl could not train them, so Roland asked Caslo and the Dragon Knights to take over.
• Caslo agreed to train the griffons, and Roland asked him to teach them to fly and fight.

Roland reassigned government work so Yun Feng could focus on making equipment for the new Griffon Knights. When Roland visited their training, his loud shout startled Holyn’s young griffon and sent Holyn tumbling from the sky.

• Roland asked Caslo to train the Sky Knights and sent him to Yun Feng to arrange magical saddles and equipment.
• Yun Feng confronted Roland over his workload, and Roland agreed to transfer government affairs to Lance while Marcus oversaw construction in Delvin Village.
• Two days later, Yun Feng delivered five griffon saddles, five Sky Knight lances, and fifty aerial javelins to Caslo.
• Roland and Nyx went to see the Griffon Knights training, and Roland shouted for Caslo to assemble the troops.
• Holyn fell from his griffon after Roland’s shout startled the young mount, and Nyx and Caslo rebuked Roland.

Roland received a Knight Mentor through the system’s check-in and met Adilai, a veteran who could train knights and teach hidden profession skills. Adilai pledged loyalty to Roland as Emperor, while Roland insisted he was only king for now.

• Roland accepted that the Griffon Knights needed time to mature, then spent a month with Nyx while the griffons continued training.
• Roland checked in with the system and obtained a Knight Mentor, exciting him because he had a Knight’s Certificate and tools to test Battle Qi talent.
• Roland summoned the mentor and met the old knight Adilai, who pledged loyalty to him as Emperor of the Lagrange Empire.
• Roland corrected Adilai that Lagrange was a kingdom and he was its king, then asked about Adilai’s abilities.
• Adilai said he could teach knight skills from the first through sixth tiers, along with advanced skills and certain hidden profession skills.

Roland appointed Adilai to establish a Knight's Sanctuary and recruit Knight Squires, drawing an overwhelming crowd of eager applicants. Yun Feng was assigned to help Adilai manage the recruitment, which ended with Adilai announcing the initial requirements and more than three hundred citizens stepping forward.

• Adilai introduced himself as a Sixth Tier Hero and agreed to train Knight Squires, asking Roland for certificates and Battle Qi Awakening Stones.
• Adilai chose the abandoned eastern district for training, and Ladyl began making Magic Rune Stone Bricks for the site.
• Roland's recruitment notice spread through the kingdom, and many young people gathered to apply for Knight Squire positions.
• Adilai asked Roland for help handling the applicants, and Roland ordered Yun Feng to assist him.
• Yun Feng addressed the crowd, and Adilai announced the health, height, and age requirements; more than three hundred citizens stepped forward.

Adilai selected twenty recruits for the reserve Knight Squires and began training them, while Roland and Yun Feng discussed the kingdom’s military needs and threats from surrounding enemies. Roland hoped to build up his knights quickly, but the chapter ended with him still lacking the certificates needed to recruit warrior and archer instructors or awaken mages.

• Adilai chose twenty recruits with some kind of riding experience and began their first lesson on oaths and loyalty.
• Yun Feng reported that registration and supply allocation had exhausted him, and Roland explained that hundreds of unassigned Shire Horses were grazing in Tupte Forest.
• Roland and Yun Feng assessed the enemies surrounding the Northern Territory and agreed that the Chariot People’s massive light cavalry posed a serious threat.
• Roland rejected using Swift River Infantry to stop the tribes because he would not accept the resulting casualties.
• Yun Feng said Caslo had reached the peak of the fifth tier, and Roland agreed to seek a way to help his Dragon Knights become Dragon Marshals.
• Roland anticipated receiving new Novice Knights each month but remained concerned that he lacked a Proof of Overlord, a Proof of Hunter, and a Proof of Sage.

Roland realized the Grassland Elves had been living with the centaurs in Tupte Forest after forgetting about Valfay for over a month. He decided to visit them and fulfill his promise to witness Valfay become Elf King.

• Roland discussed recruiting Knights himself and agreed to slow military expansion because the soldier population nearly matched the civilians.
• Roland remembered Valfay and sent a guard to find out what had happened to the Grassland Elves.
• Valfay enjoyed life in the wilderness with his people, then realized Roland might have forgotten them and angrily confronted a knight who briefly found him and rode away.
• A soldier reported that the Grassland Elves had moved to Tupte Forest to live with the centaurs.
• Yun Feng urged Roland to win over the Grassland Elves, and Roland recalled his promise to witness Valfay become Elf King.

Roland challenged Valfay to a spar, and Caslo fought the Sixth Tier Huntsman in his place. Caslo defeated Valfay with his foot-combat spear technique, leaving Valfay alive but injured and insisting he had not used his archery.

• Roland and Valfay traded barbs until Roland ordered Caslo to fight him.
• Valfay drew Manikati and agreed to spar with Caslo, while Roland watched.
• Caslo used his dragon lance to keep Valfay at range and struck him with Breaker Dragon Lance, sending him crashing into a tree.
• Roland healed Valfay, who recovered enough to stand and asked Caslo about the technique.
• Valfay accepted his loss in close combat but pointed out that he had not used his archery, and Roland mocked him for not facing Caslo's dragon either.

Roland learned that Valfay had brought the Grassland Elves to the centaurs’ lands to investigate wild griffins and possibly tame them. They waited for the scouts to locate the flock, while Roland weighed the danger and the likely nesting grounds.

• Valfay showed Roland an adult griffin feather and revealed that he wanted to tame griffins so his tribe could live independently in the wilderness.
• Roland warned Valfay that two adult griffins hunting together indicated a nearby flock capable of killing dragons, but Valfay said he had sent scouts to find their nest.
• Roland agreed to wait for the scouts’ report, since he was interested in griffins but did not want to risk his people or Dragon Knights unnecessarily.
• While they waited, Roland estimated that the flock had at least five pairs of adults, while Valfay guessed there were only three.
• Valfay said the griffins had flown northwest toward the Misty Mountains or Grey Mountains, and Roland worried that a nest in the Misty Mountains would mean dealing with goblins.

Roland and Valfay searched for griffons, but the discovery of eighteen adults convinced Roland that their forces were not strong enough to capture the flock. He left Valfay to consider seeking allies from the Woodland Realm and Singri Kingdom.

• Reno asked Yun Feng to authorize supplies for his troops, and Yun Feng assigned him a hundred heavy cavalry to escort the shipment.
• Roland grew impatient while waiting for Valfay’s rangers to return with information about griffons.
• The rangers reported that they had found eighteen adult griffons in the Grey Mountains.
• Roland ordered Caslo to warn their people to prepare air defenses and said they lacked the strength to confront the flock.
• Valfay proposed capturing the griffons, but Roland refused unless they could enlist troops from the Woodland Realm and Singri Kingdom.

Roland warned Valfay not to provoke the griffins, then visited Delvin and assessed the growing town’s defenses and need for troops. He assigned Marcus a small cavalry force and planned to clear the surrounding wilderness of beasts.

• Roland warned Valfay that attacking the griffins would endanger his people and might bring the flock to Flowing City, but Valfay left anyway.
• Roland visited Delvin with Caslo and learned from Marcus that the town’s population had exceeded eight hundred and its defenses were nearly complete.
• Marcus told Roland that wild boars were damaging the farmland and that Baron Badel’s guards and Centaur hunting parties could not stay to protect it.
• Roland checked the Territory Panel and saw that Flowing City had a severe military-to-civilian imbalance and many troops available.
• Roland promised Marcus one Knight of the Crimson Lily and ten cavalrymen, then said he would organize a force to clear beasts from the surrounding wilderness.

Roland worried that Flowing City’s small population could not grow quickly enough, then learned that its harvest had made food supplies more secure even as the army consumed enormous amounts. He left with Yun Feng to tour the city and visit Adilai, hoping the Knight Squires would become Novice Knights.

• Roland asked the system how to increase the refugee population and learned that Flowing City did not qualify as a city, while he controlled two castles.
• Roland asked Caslo about the harvest, then returned to Flowing City to consult Yun Feng.
• Yun Feng reported that Flowing City had harvested nearly two thousand tons of grain and that Delvin had several hundred tons more.
• Roland and Yun Feng discussed the army’s food demands, and Yun Feng estimated that supporting the soldiers would require at least fifty thousand people.
• Roland invited Yun Feng to walk through the city and visit Adilai to see how the Knight Squires were progressing.

Roland watched Adilai train the Knight Squires and discussed the limits of Lagrange Kingdom’s military and expansion with Yun Feng. He chose to focus on settling and developing the kingdom rather than risking scarce troops, while Yun Feng worried that this caution squandered opportunities.

• Adilai knocked the Knight Squires from their horses with technique alone, then told Roland it was too early to test them for Battle Qi.
• Adilai said he expected to find several promising Knight candidates within a month, and Roland urged him to prioritize training quality over numbers.
• Yun Feng explained that Lagrange Kingdom could currently train only Knight and Griffon forces, both difficult to produce in quantity.
• Roland said the kingdom needed to absorb and develop its territory before expanding its army, and Yun Feng warned that Mordor and Dol Guldur could threaten them.
• Roland refused to risk his limited troops in distant battles, while Yun Feng privately considered his caution wasteful.

After the Grand Forbidden Spell devastated the Orc forces in the Northern Territory, King Han led the Barren Stone army on a panicked retreat north. Thorin learned that Lagrange had cast the spell and decided to preserve his alliance with King Roland by sending him fine arrows and greetings.

• The three Frost Bone Tribe chieftains survived the Grand Forbidden Spell but returned home badly injured, leaving their tribe's strength broken for decades.
• Han Xuyang led his Barren Stone soldiers north at a record pace, abandoning the south after witnessing the spell's aftermath.
• Dwalin and the dwarves noted that Orcs had stopped approaching their defensive lines and reported the change to Thorin.
• Kili told Thorin that the Dragon Hawk Knights had identified a Grand Forbidden Spell cast by the Lagrange Kingdom.
• Thorin chose to maintain his friendship with King Roland and sent Fili and Kili to deliver fine arrows and his greetings.

Roland welcomed Kili and Fili, who brought gifts and apologies from Erebor, then hosted them at a banquet in Flowing City. They became eager to buy his erguotou, which Roland sold at a steep price in exchange for grain.

• Ajax spotted the Dwarven caravan on its way to Lagrange, and Roland prepared to receive the visitors.
• Fili and Kili reached Lagrange, accepted a cavalry escort, and apologized to Roland for Erebor’s failure to stop Orcs from invading the south.
• Kili and Fili gave Roland refined steel shields, armor-piercing arrows, and ingots, and Roland warned them about the griffin colony in the Grey Mountains.
• At the banquet, Fili praised Roland’s strong liquor, and Yun Feng suggested selling it as a local specialty.
• Roland called the liquor Thousand Mile Drunk and convinced Kili to buy it at a price of a ton of grain per jar.

Roland’s concerns about Middle-earth gave way to news of danger near Flowing City when Eastern Yi scouts attacked. As Gondor knights traveled toward Erebor, Roland ordered his forces to prepare for the Eastern Yi’s expected arrival.

• Roland discussed Middle-earth’s worsening troubles with Yun Feng after seeing off the Dwarves.
• A Gondor party rode through Mirkwood, turned back to avoid its dangers, and fought off an Orc ambush.
• The Gondor knights concluded that Mirkwood had fallen to darkness and continued toward Erebor by way of the eastern plains.
• Badel reported that Eastern Yi scouts had attacked near Flowing City, and Lavien reacted angrily because the Eastern Yi had devastated his forces.
• Roland ordered the guards to notify Lulong Fortress and gathered his cavalry to prepare for battle.

Roland ordered Lagrange’s forces to prepare for the approaching barbarians while Jessiava traveled north under the protection of Gondor’s Swan Knights. After the knights fought off pursuing Warg Riders, the Orc commander chose not to follow them toward the north.

• Roland ordered Baron Badel to ready his troops and Valfay to bring his people back as the kingdom prepared for war.
• A group of Gondorian knights escorting Jessiava fought off Warg Riders and set out toward Erebor to resupply.
• Jessiava’s journey south and meeting with Turgon were recounted: Gondor paid him for the goblin contract, dissolved its oath, and sent Swan Knights to escort him north.
• The Swan Knights charged into Warg Riders attacking their party, killing several before continuing their journey with Jessiava.
• An Orc commander found the slain Warg Riders and abandoned the pursuit because the north held a powerful human realm.