The Lord of the Rings: Lords of Middle-earth.

Chapter 711 The Unexpected Mercenary

Despite the minor incident with the wandering orcs, neither Caslo nor Kaldor took it to heart. Caslo wouldn't even bother with such low-level cannon fodder unless absolutely necessary. Kaldor, on the other hand, was quite warlike and had no goodwill towards the orcs or dwarves. After all, one had scattered black arrows all over Middle-earth, and the other had shot black arrows at him. Fortunately, Lagrange and Ilubo were allies; otherwise, Kaldor would have become a second Smaug, giving the dwarves two whole nests of enemies!

“We’re telling you, if you keep looking like this, you might not even find a suitable place to rest tomorrow…” A muffled voice came from Caslo’s shoulder. Kaldo was speechless at Caslo’s headless wandering. Caslo’s greatest advantage as a dragon knight was his field of vision, but he insisted on wandering around aimlessly like a peasant.

"Let's go, let's go up to the sky and take a look. The village those orcs mentioned shouldn't be far away!" Kaldor's figure suddenly doubled in size, and his saddle appeared in the void.

"Tsk! When I'm rich, I'll definitely forge you a suit of dragon armor! With dragon armor, we'll never have to fear black arrows again!" Caslo smacked his lips as he looked at Kaldo's bald body. Clearly, the Storm Dragon wasn't perfect yet; after all, a fully-formed dragon knight even wears heavy armor on a dragon! The solid dragon scales and thick dragon armor immediately put dragon knights at the top of the list of most annoying characters! If you're lucky enough to encounter a dragon knight wearing dragon armor with the Thorn Reflection skill, that would be even more fun. The Reflection Shield and the Refraction skill mean that hitting me is like hitting yourself!
"Wait until you have the money! The price of a full set of dragon armor would bankrupt King Roland!" Kaldo said casually. The kingdom couldn't even gather enough materials for dragon armor, so Caslo's wish was destined to remain a distant dream!

As the pinnacle of the empire, each piece of dragon armor is an epic-level piece of equipment. Moreover, as a soul-bound piece of equipment, the creation of each set of dragon armor is a testament to immense wealth. It can be said that without vast financial resources, even a kingdom with a top strategist like Yunfeng could not create dragon armor. Dragon armor is truly a microcosm of the empire! Only the most powerful nations can unite their alchemist associations and blacksmith guilds across the country to gather materials from all corners of the world to forge dragon armor, and the current Kingdom of Lagrang clearly lacks this capability.

As a dragon knight, the desire for dragon armor is inevitable. During the imperial era, dragon knights received custom-made dragon armor from the state free of charge. In return, dragon knights were required to accept the command of the empire and pledge allegiance to the emperor! Strictly speaking, only the combination of a dragon clad in dragon armor and a knight wearing dragon armor constitutes a true dragon knight. However, nowadays, most kingdoms employ untrained, unarmored dragon riders, and given the current state of Middle-earth, a single dragon knight can be incredibly effective on the battlefield! Therefore, the difference in skill without dragon armor is not apparent.

However, the lack of dragon armor still has a significant impact on the kingdom's dragon riders. For example, when faced with dragon-slaying crossbows and black arrows, the kingdom's dragon riders can only stand by and watch, not daring to approach at all. The corpse of Smaug, the last one to set an example, is still warm! The dragons themselves don't want to test whether dragons are more durable than mutated giant wyverns... especially with the presence of Kaldor and Kaslow, who are probably the first dragon riders in Middle-earth in thousands of years to come so close to being shot down!

“That’s true!” Caslo thought about the dragon armor and then dared not even think about it. You have to know that expensive mithril and adamantite are just the most basic materials. You can imagine how expensive the other materials are! Let alone saving up for eight lifetimes, even Roland would have to empty his own pocket to get a full set!

"Let's go, let's find a place to sleep first!" Kaldor urged. He could sleep under the open sky, after all, the dragons' powerful physique made them the most adaptable creatures in Middle-earth. But humans were different; these creatures could burn to death even if they got wet in the rain. Kaldor naturally wouldn't let his knights sleep in the open.

"Whoosh!" With a powerful flap of its massive wings, the dragon took to the air, its flight virtually silent! While it would be difficult for other dragons to fly without making a sound, for a wind dragon like the Storm Dragon, which controls the wind element, air currents are as easy as their own arms!

And so, the man and the dragon floated in the air like a gentle breeze, carefully observing everything below, trying to find the human settlements mentioned by the orcs.

“I see! My knight, I’ll send you down! You can sleep in a warm bed tonight!” Kaldo laughed heartily, his voice echoing in Caslo’s heart.

"Thank you for your help! Remember to hide well!" Caslo patted Cardo on the back to indicate that he could land.

……

"This is the village those orcs were talking about? It's certainly not big!" Caslo surveyed the village with interest. After careful observation, he discovered that the village's outer walls were built with logs as the base and rammed earth as the foundation. In this wasteland, as long as they didn't encounter a regular orc army, the human militia armed with hunting bows and pitchforks could easily defend the village! However, that second-tier orc warrior was a problem. If there weren't any professionals among that orc squad, even without Caslo's intervention, those orcs would still suffer heavy losses at the foot of these walls!
"Halt? Who are you?" Soon, someone spotted Caslo spying on them. Instantly, several heads popped up on the city wall, pointing their bows and arrows at Caslo. However, their hostility dissipated considerably after seeing Caslo's luxurious plate armor!
"I am a wandering knight who is passing through. I have been traveling in the North! I just happened to be passing through your land and wanted to stop by to rest and replenish my supplies!" Caslo put on the appearance of a wandering knight.

"Wandering knight? Where's your horse? Why doesn't the knight have a warhorse?" The men above exchanged glances and then shouted at Caslo.

"Interesting! Not militia?" Before Caslo could speak, Kaldo's voice rang out. After sharing his vision with Caslo, he clearly noticed the problem with the guards' uniforms. They were too formal! So formal, unlike a village militia!
“Mercenaries!” Caslo immediately recognized the group’s origins. This neatly dressed, well-equipped but undisciplined group was clearly mercenaries!
"Interesting! This is getting more and more interesting!" Caslo became interested. A migrating village in the wilderness could actually afford to hire a mercenary team? This greatly aroused Caslo's curiosity. Although Kaldo didn't say anything, his serious eyes betrayed him. Everyone has curiosity, but this duo was obviously more curious.

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