Seeking Aid

After repelling the Centaurs' attack, all the nobles quickly counted their losses, treated the wounded, and began an emergency meeting.

The meeting was brief, and the conclusion decisive. One word: retreat!

The fact that the Centaur Chieftain was a Legendary Expert dealt a severe blow to everyone's confidence, including Marquis Prague himself. After fighting for so long, he had only managed to hold his own against the opponent. Yet the Centaur Chieftain had unleashed a powerful move at the very start of the battle, throwing their formation into disarray. In practical terms, Marquis Prague had been less useful than the Centaur Chieftain.

The Centaurs' collective combat strength also terrified the nobles. A mass charge by over a thousand Centaurs was simply horrifying.

They were the Pioneering Alliance's finest elite force, yet with roughly equal numbers, they had nearly been routed.

One could imagine what would happen when ordinary soldiers faced the Centaurs. It would absolutely be a one-sided massacre!

One noble had died, more than twenty Knights had perished, and their elite soldiers had nearly been wiped out. Whether they sought aid from demi-human races or negotiated terms with the King, they first had to withdraw and recuperate!

They also abandoned the so-called outpost plan. Even if they built one, they would not be able to hold it. After resting for a night, the Pioneering Alliance immediately set out for the Kingdom of Lucanir the next day.

Marcus's outstanding performance in this battle had astonished everyone, and his earlier advice now seemed all the more reasonable.

Together with the active performances of Knights such as Harrot and The Bald Man, Marcus finally became a core figure in the alliance. Marquis Prague's mistaken judgment and leadership also made many realize that great strength did not necessarily mean great leadership.

Although Marquis Prague's status remained high, no one would unconditionally support his decisions anymore.

Marquis Prague himself reflected on many things. After becoming a Legendary Expert, he truly had lost too much caution and reverence. He had nearly caused all the nobles and Knights to be wiped out.

Though the Pioneering Alliance had suffered a major setback, it was not necessarily a bad thing. From then on, they could adjust their mindset and face pioneering more cautiously. Furthermore, the core Bloodline Nobles and Transcendent Knights had suffered few casualties. Only four or five hundred elite soldiers had died, which was not an excessive loss.

What thrilled everyone most was that two of the three most crucial herbs needed to make Hero's Water had already been discovered in the Eastern Lands!

The three herbs naturally grew in similar environments. Having found two of them, they had a high chance of finding the third. Even if they could not, they could reluctantly substitute other herbs. This meant humanity could once again possess Hero's Water and produce new heroes and noble bloodlines!

Marcus also felt immensely gratified. More important than the discovery of the herbs and becoming a core member of the alliance was the Pioneering Alliance's unwavering resolve.

Even after learning that the Centaur Chieftain was a Legendary Expert and that the Thunder Tribe was incredibly powerful, not a single noble house suggested withdrawing!

Humans might be a weak race, but they were not a cowardly one!

After they returned to the Eastern Province, the Kingdom's other nobles eagerly watched the spectacle. More than eight hundred had departed in high spirits, while only just over three hundred returned in a sorry state.

The King sent another envoy to negotiate terms. He stubbornly refused to yield on the crucial matter of sharing land, while demanding nearly half the herb output with outrageous greed. As if he had them in his grasp, the nobles all gritted their teeth and refused to cooperate with the King.

That left them with no choice but to seek aid from other nations and demi-human races.

Marquis Prague had a good relationship with the Dwarf Kingdom, so he went to seek Dwarven support in exchange for the abundant mineral resources of the newly opened lands.

Marcus had the greatest charisma among the nobles, so he went to the Elf Forest to seek the Elves' aid in exchange for the Sun Orb.

Harrot finally learned what the Sun Orb was. It was said that after a Sun Priest died, his soul ascended to heaven while his body was cremated into a pearl containing mysterious power.

That was the Sun Orb. Unfortunately, humans had no information regarding its specific uses. Other than the Elves, no race knew what the Sun Orb did.

Anyone could tell that it was certainly a treasure, but the Elves were only willing to trade this treasure with humans and would never reveal any information about it.

Humans had no choice. They did not dare offend the Elves by forcing the matter, for the Elves of this world wielded magic! Unlike Magical Beasts, which could only instinctively cast one or two kinds of spells, the Elves possessed a complete magical system that could be learned, studied, and strengthened through practice!

The Elves' racial combat power was undeniably among the continent's greatest. It was only because their population was small and most of them preferred to remain in the Elf Forest that the Orcs held the position of continental overlords.

Even an army of a million Orcs could not break into the Elf Forest. The three human kingdoms lay north of the Elf Forest, positioned between the Elves and the Orcs.

In a sense, humans were also protected by the Elves from extermination by the Orcs. The Red Orcs had no intention of attacking the Elves, so they focused their main forces on the war against the Green Orcs in the north. The Orcs in the south were merely small and medium-sized tribes.

As for the other demi-human races, their relations were either mediocre or they were too far away. Besides seeking aid from demi-human races, the Pioneering Alliance also appealed to the other human kingdoms.

The nobles of the other kingdoms could not join their Pioneering Alliance due to legal restrictions, but they provided considerable support in supplies, equipment, and weapons. After all, this pioneering expedition was a rare chance for humanity to obtain Hero's Water, and many were willing to do them a favor.

Especially the Kingdom of Qiat. As the main force resisting the Orcs for years, its nobles had suffered devastating casualties. Of its more than two hundred noble families, only half remained. They desperately craved Hero's Water. If they had a large stockpile of Hero's Water when the Orcs invaded again, they could not only better resist the Orcs but also create many more nobles.

Several great noble houses of the Kingdom of Qiat jointly provided three hundred Magical Warhorses, and Grand Duke Lance, a Legendary Expert, was willing to take action against the Centaur Chieftain alongside them. These were the Kingdom of Qiat's two greatest trump cards. There was no need to explain the value of a Legendary Expert, and the Magical Warhorses were treasures as well.

Ordinary Magical Beasts were rarely domesticated on a large scale because their offspring could not inherit their mutations, and their violent temperaments made them difficult to tame.

However, several core families of the Kingdom of Qiat possessed the secret of transforming ordinary horses into Magical Beasts, allowing them to artificially create Magical Warhorses.

These Magical Warhorses not only possessed strength and speed far beyond ordinary horses, but could also use some low-level magic. Paired with Transcendent Knights, their combat power was extraordinary.

Unfortunately, their numbers were extremely limited. Even at its peak, the Kingdom of Qiat had only a little over a thousand. Otherwise, even under Grand Duke Lance's leadership, they would not have been suppressed so badly by the Orcs. Providing three hundred Magical Warhorses at once and sending Grand Duke Lance to help meant they were truly exhausting their reserves.

If the Kingdom of Qiat's gender ratio and population structure had not already become severely unbalanced, and if so much land occupied by the Orcs did not need to be reclaimed, they likely would not have merely supported them. They would have mobilized their entire kingdom to pioneer the lands themselves.