Others Are Here to Fight, You Are Here to Avenge, Awesome!

The fighting had reignited in the Barren Mountains, and the Krim Fortress in the rear was just as busy.

After returning from the ruins of Blackflame Pass, General Baldwin, who was stationed there, immediately began repairing the fortress. Most of the work was being done underground. Several Earth priests had also been invited to renovate its subterranean structure and reinforce it with Earth spiritual energy.

Clearly, General Winterwolf didn't want the tragedy of Blackflame Pass to be repeated in his own sector. The ratmen posed a serious enough threat to force General Baldwin to enter a state of war ahead of time.

The Krim Fortress covered an enormous area. It was less a single fortress than a small cluster of them: a defensive zone made up of one large and three smaller forts, built atop mountain passes encircling the eastern side of the Filthy Swamp. Its depth wasn't as staggering as Blackflame Pass's, but it still had two full defensive lines.

For the past four hundred years, this had been the true front line against the Black Calamity, so renovating it was no easy task. On top of that, most of the Silver Dwarf priests were still beneath the Barren Mountains, dealing with tunnel affairs and reinforcing the Maginot Line. The support General Baldwin could get was extremely limited.

And he had already returned the armed blood thralls he'd been given to Transia. Then, with more than ten thousand troops sent to the Barren Mountains, the Krim Fortress had ended up with a temporary manpower shortage. It was enough to leave anyone exasperated.

Still, there was some good news!

Earlier, when the general had asked the lords of the various estates in the Kafhovka region to cooperate with the war effort, they'd always found some excuse to drag their feet.