Heroes of Might and Magic: Grand Consul

Chapter 155 Cursed Armor
【Cursed Armor (Combination Treasure): When worn by a hero, attack +4, defense +4, spell power +3, knowledge +3.

Curse Descends: When a hero enters battle, he inflicts a curse on all enemy units, including Slow, Curse, Weakness, and Doom, lasting until the end of the battle. This curse can be dispelled.

It is composed of four treasures, without being forged or synthesized, and still occupies four treasure slots, but its attributes are enhanced when all are worn.

Evaluation: This armor contains four terrifying curses. If the enemy cannot remove the effects, they are on their own.

Combined treasures can be combined into one piece of equipment, which can be worn in any slot except for the original treasure. Furthermore, combining treasures reduces the hero's mana cost, allowing the hero to equip more treasures.

However, this requires an extremely powerful blacksmith to synthesize, and it also requires a huge amount of resources. The power consumption of the treasure's spell is related to the blacksmith's skill level and the strength of the combined treasure.

Currently, ordinary heroes can only wear a maximum of 6 treasures. They can wear cursed armor and have such powerful debuff skills, which is quite practical.

"Ivan, you are wearing the cursed armor. On this expedition, you will command all melee units and wait for the opportune moment to strike."

Among all the ruling heroes, Ivan's artifact attributes are relatively low, and he needs strong defensive abilities, making him a good choice. Orin is also suitable, as his troops can achieve surprising victories, which might have unexpected effects, but Orin is better suited to carrying ranged artifacts like the Treant Bow.

Su Mu felt that dealing with the undead in the ancient ruins would require a tough battle, and that as long as Ivan could establish a foothold, he could influence the course of the war.

"Thank you for the treasure, Lord!"

Ivan showed no resistance to treasures that appeared evil. He had no prejudice against treasures; as long as they could be used to his advantage, they were suitable power.

Su Mu has not yet sealed the four-piece set in the Eight Kings Hall of the Prison. If a suitable blacksmith helps to synthesize it, it can be put into the Eight Kings Hall later.

As for the Titan Armor, he placed it in the hall, lifted the void seal, and made it a new sealed treasure.

Wearing this treasure, although the Eight Kings Lord bestows the abilities of the sealed artifact upon the ruling hero, Su Mu, as the ruler, can also enjoy the characteristics of the ruling hero.

Maggie then used Dream Domain Studies to learn the Undead Slayer technique, combining it with her high spell power to maximize her combat effectiveness.

The Titan Armor could have been given to Maggie, and with the attribute bonuses, it would have been a very strong damage dealer. However, she doesn't have advanced air element mastery, so Su Mu is the one to increase her spell power.

Meanwhile, having obtained the Philosopher's Stone, Forrest focused all his efforts on building the Arcane Sanctuary, completing its final construction just last week.

He summoned the monks accumulated in Longlet Castle and sent them directly into the sanctuary to advance in rank, gaining extraordinary advancement. Due to the special effect of the second attic, the effects of calamities could be offset through prayer, and the monks' output was at full value.

In addition to the church's own production, more than 20 mystery worshippers have been gathered in just a few weeks.

After training them for a while, Ouling had grown to love these powerful ranged units. He believed that these were the extraordinary units that best suited him, capable of both enduring enemy attacks and engaging in melee combat without fear.

In short, all-around!
This great battle will be a perfect test of our strength.

For this mobilization, Su Mu made a tough decision, allocating 500 shield soldiers, 300 earth archers, and 400 wilderness griffins.

The Thunder Swordsmen replenished their ranks to 65, and all Arcane Prayer members joined the battle.

The heroes are mainly Orin, Ivan, and Maggie, with Sumu acting as a mediator.

There are still a few high-level troops, but given that Kuraki Castle has only been developing for a short time, we are already quite satisfied with this level of strength.

This expedition is not intended to destroy the ancient ruins in one fell swoop. The main purpose is to unite with the Church of Light, rescue Soya, and establish a foothold in the northern part of the Xilin Plain.

We need to find a way to deal with the Argyll family's identity issue. If there's really no other way, we should take this opportunity to directly use the Blood Beacon and simply use the Undead Grand Duke to deal with Isildur, which would be making the best use of them.

Fearing there might be some conspiracy, Su Mu decided to send a large army over.

Whitestone City currently has thousands of Blood Poison Zombies. Last time, due to the emergency, we didn't have time to deal with them. This time, we'll take the opportunity to wipe out the remaining undead, otherwise the Forgotten Buildings will continue to accumulate energy, which will also be a hidden danger.

Looking at the nearly 1,000-strong army, Forrest said with a hint of regret: "This month is a month of calamity, otherwise the army could have been even larger."

With such a formidable army guarding the area, the entire Xilin Plain is under your control!

Su Mu patted the chief treasurer on the shoulder. Forrest was always assigned to defend the city during every battle, yet he never complained. To be honest, in terms of defending the city, many of the heroes present were probably better than Forrest, but Su Mu still trusted him the most.

Kuraki could lose any combat hero, but he couldn't lose Forrest. He was the ultimate logistics officer, strategizing and winning from afar.

Leaving him in Kuraki is another form of protection.

"We are suffering, but others are suffering even more. Since no one is producing soldiers, reducing consumption becomes the most important thing."

I will be as careful as possible, conserve my strength, and wait for an opportunity to counterattack!

Everyone could see that Elton's national strength was weak and its internal corruption rampant, barely managing to hold on to the war. For now, they could only adopt a defensive strategy, a frustrating fight, but one that preserved a sliver of hope for the future.

Defense is not about cowering and hiding at home waiting. If you do that, your space will be extremely limited, your resource areas will be scarce, and you won't be able to support your army at all.

Helping Argyle deal with the undead plague of the ancient ruins is not only a way to gain trust and prestige, but also a way to resolve a deep-seated worry. This battle is unavoidable.

We can't wait until the other side has the upper hand; by then, it will be too late.

Su Mu's only hope is that the kingdom will not cripple itself and that the front lines can hold out for a little longer.

Time waits for no one; war is about finding breakthroughs in imperfect movements—this is Su Mu's philosophy of war.

"Let's go!"

The army set off, heading north.

……

Norton in the North has been silent for a week.

Having suffered a defeat, Isidore's troops did not want to waste their strength and retreated.

But the past few days have been too calm, which made Commander Isildur somewhat suspicious. Could it be that something has changed on the other side?
Pegasus general Lambert Brooks launched another probing attack, and Norton finally responded. Several heroes went into battle, using magic to wear down the probing dwarves, who didn't even get close to the city walls.

This was originally just a routine probe. Seeing that the opponent's defense system was solid and the same as before, there was no way to break through.

But the observant Lambert noticed something amiss: Duke Salman of the North was not on the city walls. Usually, he was the one standing at the front lines, boosting the morale of the soldiers and directing the heroes to cast spells.

As a hero who had suppressed the northern border for decades, Salman was highly respected among nobles and soldiers.

Unexpectedly, he did not appear today.

Another detail is that the heroes of Norton City seemed quite anxious. Faced with the dwarves' high magic resistance, they didn't choose close combat. Instead, they unleashed all their ranged firepower and magic to drive them away, seemingly not wanting the dwarves to approach the city. What were they afraid of?
Lambert had a feeling something was happening in Norton, but the lack of information made it impossible to make a judgment. Perhaps he should use the thieves to gather some information before making a decision!
After a long while, Lambert called a retreat.

The few northern nobles standing on the city wall finally breathed a sigh of relief. Faced with the siege of the city by Isildur soldiers, they unconsciously became tense.

Even if he wasn't nervous, the Duke was dead, and Gabe Salman remained silent, returning to Winterfell with the Grand Duke's body, intending to inherit the title first.

Although the soldiers were unaware of the news, the nobles guarding the city had already cursed Gabu to death.

At such a time, if the morale of the troops is not stabilized and the city is not defended, but instead the troops return to fight for power, the morale of the troops will be unstable in an instant once the soldiers below learn of this.

However, they had a close relationship with Gabe and had no choice but to support Gabe in inheriting the dukedom; otherwise, if Rhodes beat them to it, they would probably not be forgiven.

Now all we can do is hope. Isildur has suffered several defeats and dares not launch an attack. Gab quickly seized control of Winterhold and sent troops to support the border.

"Ugh! What kind of mess is this?!"

With the death of Duke Salman, the nobles immediately lost their leader, and their morale plummeted.

(End of this chapter)