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

Chapter 996 A Personal Expedition?

"Dragon Blood! Are you crazy? Am I crazy?" Roland couldn't help but blurt out as he looked at Marquis Al-Tegran Franz's face, which was trying hard to maintain a smile. A second-tier scroll using dragon blood! That would drain Long Xi dry! If the expeditionary force were to be fully equipped with it...

“A single scroll requires only a drop the size of a grain of rice!” Marquis Al-Tegran Franz quickly added.

"Hmm? Oh! My dear Marquis, let's discuss the feasibility of this project!" Roland was taken aback, then his expression changed. But then again, who do they think they're looking down on with this little bit of consumption? If word got out, people would think our kingdom doesn't have dragon blood! Make it! Make ten thousand servings!

“Uh… dragon blood is enough! Here’s the recipe; other low-level mages just need to know how to draw magic runes!” Marquis Al-Tegran Franz nodded, indicating that they could probably draw low-level magic runes.

"Good stuff!" Roland nodded in approval. A life-saving consumable that could be made from a trace of dragon blood, Roland certainly wouldn't have too many!

……

"Your Majesty? You wanted to see me?" Maple Forest Orchid, who had been summoned from Lagrange City by Roland for a face-to-face meeting, was still a little confused. He thought to himself that he had only spent all his time with his wife Lilith and had not done anything heinous!

"Here's something, take a look! I need some of Longxi's blood!" Roland didn't beat around the bush and directly pulled out the scroll that Marquis Al-Tegran Franz had given him.

"Shining Shield Scroll? Hmm?" Maple Forest Orchid was a well-informed Dragon Knight Commander who recognized the second-tier scroll, which used dragon blood as its main energy source, at a glance.

"This thing should be a closely guarded secret of a mage family, right? You managed to find it?" Maple Forest Orchid recalled. Back then, some mage families used this as a mainstay of their economy! After all, dragon blood wasn't particularly rare in the Empire, and the blood production of the Light Dragon Clan was quite high!
"Is Lord Yunfeng able to manage his time?" Fenglin Youlan did not refuse, but instead asked whether Yunfeng had enough time.

“He doesn’t need to worry about this. A second-tier mage is enough!” Roland shook his head.

"Ha! I was wondering why this thing was produced in such large quantities back then! So it can be mass-produced without alchemists!" Maple Forest Orchid suddenly realized. After all, compared to mages, alchemists are just an even rarer profession among mages. "Master mages" are already extremely rare, and alchemists, who are even more expensive than mages, are even rarer!
“Hmm!” Roland nodded and then looked at Maple Forest Orchid.

“No problem, Longxi can afford to bleed a little… The blood lost from fighting dragons is enough to make a whole pile!” Fenglin Youlan understood Roland’s look and waved her hand dismissively.

"Aren't you going to ask how much you need?" Roland retorted.

"The power of a second-tier magic scroll is just so-so, how much energy does it require? The energy contained in dragon blood is more terrifying than human magic power!" Maple Forest Orchid shook her head. You're not dealing with forbidden spell scrolls or anything. A mere second-tier magic scroll, a bucket of dragon blood would be enough for you for half a day!
"Okay! Thank you, Long Xi!" Roland nodded to Long Xi, who had climbed out of Maple Forest Orchid's arms.

"Click!" Doss quietly crawled out of Roland's arms, and then opened his small mouth and a cold current rushed out. A spinning ice tornado appeared on the table and gradually turned into a crystal clear ice bucket under Doss's breath control!

"The ice bucket condensed from ice-attribute dragon power can preserve the vitality of the dragon blood, enough for you to use it before the power within it dissipates!" Dos nodded. As for why no one mentioned his blood was also usable... no one was crazy enough to use the blood of a golden dragon to create a second-tier scroll. "Crack!" Long Xi lifted a dragon scale, and instantly a wisp of dragon blood meandered down along the gap in the scale. A few strands of eerie blue light flashed within the crimson dragon blood, a manifestation of ice-attribute dragon power, and also a state of its energy dissipation.

"That's enough! Thank you, Miss Long Xi! You've gone to a lot of trouble!" Roland nodded to Long Xi in thanks, looking at the amount of dragon blood in front of him that was about the size of a dwarf beer mug. After all, dragons, apart from knights, had no subordinate status. As the guardian dragon of the McDougal family, Long Xi had the right to refuse to provide Roland with her own blood, since dragons and royalty only had a cooperative relationship.

"I hope this helps Your Majesty. If there's nothing else, we'll head back to Lagrange City!" Long Xi nodded to Roland. The amount of blood he had lost was nothing to a dragon, but without a Dragon Knight Commander to guard Lagrange City, Maple Forest Orchid, though she didn't say it, was quite worried. So Long Xi took this opportunity to bid Roland farewell.

“Yes, go back. Nyx and your wife are in Lagrange City!” Roland nodded. Although he didn’t think there was anything that could give Lagrange City, with its two or three dragons, a quick and easy victory, Roland, who had learned to be cautious and seek stability, would not allow even the slightest instability to occur.

"Yes, Your Majesty! Take care!" Fenglin Youlan bowed and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Roland suddenly reached out and pressed down on Maple Forest Orchid's shoulder.

"?" Maple Forest Orchid turned around and looked into Roland's eyes.

"Take good care of Lagrange City for me!" Roland didn't say much, but patted Maple Forest Orchid's shoulder forcefully.

"You intend to lead the army in person?" Maple Forest Orchid's eyes sharpened instantly.

“There are some things that I have to do! Do you know how terrifyingly astronomical the cost would be if we had to conscript laborers to transport the food needed to supply this army for a year?” Roland asked in a deep voice.

“Space equipment…” Maple Forest Orchid asked, frowning.

"Who else but me can carry the provisions for thousands of people for a year?" Roland sighed.

Small-scale wars are contests of morale, equipment, and individual combat prowess. However, with large armies, once the superior combat strength of both sides is balanced, the only remaining concern is logistics! In ancient armies of 100,000, only 20,000 to 30,000 were truly usable combat soldiers; the rest were either auxiliary troops or laborers transporting supplies. In the rugged terrain of the North, teeming with monsters and orcs, maintaining a supply route for a few thousand would require tens of thousands of soldiers. The total number of soldiers escorting supplies along the route would be no less than that of an expeditionary force. This approach isn't impossible, but it requires a stable and powerful regime! Currently, only Gondor and Rohan among the human kingdoms in Middle-earth can achieve this!
"I'm not going. If something goes wrong on the expeditionary force, we'll be dragged down to death! Besides the provisions the Northern Alliance has scraped together, where else along the way can we independently feed and sustenance a force of several thousand full-time soldiers?" Roland said with a headache. This army includes a large number of professionals and off-duty soldiers; their supply needs far exceed those of those old farmers who go to war with pitchforks! The pitiful grain production of Beorn Territory and Lion Territory is simply insufficient to supply the army's needs for a large-scale march, which is why Roland insists on joining in!
"Don't tell anyone when you get back, especially not my wife! Just pretend you don't know! Remember that! Otherwise she'll worry about me again!" Roland patted Maple Forest Orchid's shoulder and brushed the dust off him.

"Take care on your journey!" Maple Forest Orchid remained silent for a few seconds before slowly nodding.

“Darian! Deliver this to Marquis Al-Tegran Franz! It’s time to test his organizational skills!” Roland pointed at Dragonblood through the open window, where the sun shone brightly.