The Swordsman of Faerûn

"Your brother?" William felt his calves start to shake, but his strong will kept him from losing his final control.

The woman wandered gracefully among the rice piles, like a daffodil playing in a stream. While provoking William's heart, she said, "My brother fought with you in the Valley of Shadows. Cheap. That's bad, William. You know I can't let my brother be bullied. So let's fight too!"

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Men lose blood when they fight with men, and lose money when men fight with women.

William has never been afraid of fighting with others, because he has basically never lost a knife fight.

But fighting for the waist is different, and William has suffered a lot in this regard.

In fact, William is still very confident in his physical strength, especially since his great strength, it can be said that he has almost reached a very high level of control over every piece of flesh and blood in his body.

Under normal circumstances, let alone a fierce battle between the two sides, even if there are ten nights, it is not impossible for Jinna to fail.But in this world there are existences that cannot be measured by common sense, such as goddesses, of course they are literally goddesses, not the kind of lovers in dreams.

Phelan's version of "Bai Suzhen" was the first existence that made William suffer from the "humiliation" of defeat. At that time, William really felt as if his waist had been cut off, which was extremely miserable.

The second one that made William feel a little powerless was a half-human, half-goat beautiful woman. Fortunately, William was able to control himself that time, and he didn't get too entangled with her after a little taste.

What really made William feel that he lacked the dignity of a man was the damned Essex warlord, the invincible Geyon Harvey. That guy was not gentle, and William hated her deeply.

But this one in the barn is another extreme existence, she is so gentle, so considerate, so intoxicating, like the old wine in the cellar, the more you drink, the more delicious it is; Qingquan, sweet and bitter, makes people feel a little fresh.

Here, William didn't feel any feeling of being suppressed, only tolerance, warmth and relief, just like a kind old mother, healed the inexplicable loneliness and longing for the world that had been suppressed in the deepest part of William's heart. Feeling apart.

William leaned against each other, intoxicated by the bottomless sea, and an inexplicable warm current lingered in his heart.William is not a fool, he knows exactly what kind of existence he is with this so-and-so.

He asked in a low voice: "My goddess, what should I call you?"

The goddess said: "No need, William. I am very happy to meet you, because I feel another ancient and powerful power in you, a power that is enough to make me detached. You are the real Son of the Earth, my William, I must thank you."

"Son of the Earth, I can't bear this title." William, who emptied the magazine, sighed against the boundless waves. At this moment, he felt an unprecedented peace, but he couldn't help being a little restrained.

The so-called sons of the earth are somewhat similar to the voters of the goddess of magic, but their influence is much greater. The reason is that each son of the earth has the power to almost regulate the climate. Wherever they walk, the land will become fertile , the vegetation is prosperous, the weather is smooth and the weather is smooth, disasters are not prosperous, the desert is turned into an oasis, and the wildness is turned into a paradise. Therefore, the son of the earth can be called a god of blessing and a saint who walks in the world.

Of course, the weakness of the Sons of the Earth is also obvious, that is, the Sons of the Earth usually don’t live very long, and their life force always burns at nearly ten times the speed. If he became a son of the earth, then his lifespan, which should have been able to last for 80 years, would be exhausted within six years.

Therefore, in the eyes of most people, the Son of the Earth is not only a blessing, but also a terrible curse of death.

If William becomes the son of the earth, then his lifespan of 3000 years will be reduced to 300 years or even shorter, but if he really becomes the son of the earth, 300 years is enough for him to turn Faerun into the entire multiverse The most perfect and prosperous land of abundance.

The goddess was not surprised by William's refusal.No one in this world is willing to become a son of the earth for no reason. If he is not forced to a desperate situation and has a fearless spirit of sacrifice, who would be willing to exchange his life for the happiness of others.

By the way, the status of Son of the Earth does not enhance the victim's personal strength.

The goddess kissed William's forehead, and then said: "May the original spirituality bless you, William. The earth will be your strongest backing, but wherever you stand on the land, there will be abundant products, good weather, and no disasters. You The country will be a country of happiness, a country of abundance."

William looked at the goddess in surprise and asked, "Goddess, have you really turned me into a son of the earth?"

Goddess Ninas smiled and said: "No! I just blessed you with the power of the earth. William, I know that you are planning to build a super city like Waterdeep City. This is a subsidy I give you. I I hope that when that city is founded, I will name her."

William really didn't feel any difference in himself, he couldn't help asking curiously: "Goddess, did you come to me just because of the trivial matter of naming my city?"

The goddess smiled softly and said, "First of all, I didn't come to you, but you came to my place. You descended from the sky, and you have been living in this holy place. Also, a great city The naming of the city is not a trivial matter, the greatness of Waterdeep City has forged ＊＊＊＊. Sorry, I can’t tell you the real name.

Believe me, if you can also create a super city with a population of one million, then you as the city builder will be immortal, and I as the city namer will also get great benefits. "

After saying this, the goddess did not wait for William to respond, but showed an inexplicable charming look, and said, "William, you ask too many questions. As punishment, I will deprive you of your ability to be a man for the next ten days, hehehe—— —”

Then, William felt his body start to burn, and a pair of waists let out an overwhelmed wail...

William hardly knew how he left the barn. He only remembered that his whole body was so limp, but his mind was so calm that it was almost negative, as if he didn't care about everything.

William is no stranger to this feeling. He experienced it once when he encountered "Ferren's version of Bai Suzhen".That time William was much worse than now. Anyway, this time he still knew what he had done, instead of being slapped by God in a daze.

What's more, William's harvest this time is quite big. The goddess in the barn not only made him enjoy an unforgettable joy, but also gave him a lot of material support, such as this Golden Wheat Sheaf Monastery, It will be William who provides stable food and grass support.

All the grain in the twelve huge barns will be taken by William, and the priests of the Goddess Tangia will also join William's army and government as allies, contributing to the future kingdom.

William is quite satisfied with this. After all, being able to get the support of a team with superb agricultural technology is by no means worse than getting a Xiao He for a country that is under construction, and it is even better from a practical point of view. many.

The soldiers who followed William did not wait outside the barn. They were entertained by the priests of the monastery with a sumptuous banquet. When William found them, these guys were drinking malt brewed from the highest quality grains. liquor.

Although William himself just got up from the belly of the goddess, and his standing was not very upright, he still felt a little annoyed. Is this his army? !

When the leader of your family was dragged into the barn by the goddess, instead of rushing up to save him, you ran to the side to drink and have fun. Is it plausible? !

William wanted to improve military discipline, but he also knew that this kind of thing should not be rushed, so William could only ask the vice-principal of the monastery to remove the banquet, and then let them pour ice water on the drunken soldiers.

What?You ask why William only seeks the vice president instead of the principal?Sorry, the head of the principal is hanging on the city wall of Ashaban Beach, acting as a shocking pendant.

To be honest, the Goddess used that to calm the killing intent in William's heart, otherwise he would definitely clean up the priests of the Golden Wheat Sheaf Monastery, the kind of cleaning where the head is moved, so as not to leave the main house The remnants of long-term cronies made trouble for him.

While waiting for the drunken soldiers to return to their souls, William had an open and honest conversation with the vice-principal, or more should be called Priest Alyosha, a middle-aged strong woman who looked like five and three, and then he finally knew that the Although the Eladas priest who was killed had the highest status in the Golden Wheat Sheaf Monastery, his prestige was not very high, and he had almost no cronies.

The reason is that the priests of Eladas were too obsessed with the politics of the Misty Valley, and he was unwilling to work in the fields with the priests of the monastery.But anyone who has really farmed the land knows one thing very well. Farming is a very hard job, especially in the absence of mechanized farming, it is simply a torture that is almost like torture.

The priest of Eladas, who has transformed into a politician, is no longer willing to run to the fields under the sun to do what he considers "very lowly" work like a muddy leg. He has broken away from the Mother Earth The collective of priests deviates from the teachings of the Mother Earth.

So when William's subordinates killed the priests of Eladas, the priests of the Golden Wheat Sheaf Monastery not only did not hate them, but were grateful to them and entertained them with rich food and mellow wine.

When all the soldiers came to their senses and stood in front of William with a guilty conscience, William didn't say much, but said with a stern look: "Unless it's a celebration banquet after the victory, this is the only time to get drunk. Once!" Instead, they ordered everyone to start carrying food.

It wasn't just the soldiers who were carrying the food, the priests of the Golden Wheat Sheaf Monastery also joined in to help, and later a group of support staff from Ashaban Beach, led by Jie'er Liangge, also joined in.

But these people are still not enough to bear the huge moving demand, and the farmers of the surrounding farms are also included in the scope of the convening. This is not an easy task, because those farmers don't like tiring work, even if William promised They are not willing to accept employment even if they are paid handsomely.

Only then did William realize that these so-called farmers were not real farmers, but more precisely, they were landlords. They did not work or only participated in a small part of the labor. Mercenary to complete.

William couldn't help but took a deep breath. He knew that if he wanted to really use the resources of Misty Valley, he might have to carry out a rather drastic land redistribution to break the comfort of those farmers.

But William didn't say anything, but sent someone to gather those mercenaries who were willing to work.

It is not easy to recruit a large number of mercenaries similar to Maike in the non-busy season, but William did not pay too much attention. He just left a long-term recruitment order for mercenaries, and then sat down with a batch of food. The boat departs.

William needs food from Misty Valley, Dagger Valley and Shadow Valley in the north, Battle Valley and even Deep Forest Valley in the south.

William first went to the Shadow Valley in the north. He and a few little girls sailed upstream in a magic boat. The long fleet carried a large amount of grain, which was enough for the people of Shadow Valley to enjoy the reality of being ruled with peace of mind.

Indeed, when the fleet arrived at the port of Shadow Valley Town, and the people of Shadow Valley who were working hard were called to carry the heavy grain, almost everyone had a rare smile on their heavy faces.

With enough food, people finally no longer worry about whether they can survive the cold winter.

However, there is one thing that makes the people of Shadow Valley quite unhappy, that is, the grain transport fleet did not unload all the grain, but only half of it, and the remaining half was transported to Dagger Valley.

Fortunately, William promised that there would be a steady stream of food from Misty Valley in the future, which made the people of Shadow Valley a little calmer.

Originally, William wanted to continue sailing upstream and return to his loyal Dagger Valley, but a very unfriendly news came from the south, which forced William to temporarily suspend his trip.

An army aimed at rebelling against William is gathering near Feather Falls in Feather Valley. It is said that this army has brought together the power of all the valley city-states that William has not occupied, as well as the support of Comanthor and Sembia.

Of course, the food that should be sent to Dagger Valley cannot be stopped, so another person who has the ability to control the magic ship at this time, the great sage Elminster, is entrusted to act as a temporary food officer to deliver food instead of William.

And William took the other half-empty magic ship and went down the river with a group of reinforcements from Shadow Valley, including the captive knights from Misty Valley.

After returning to Misty Valley, they reloaded a batch of grain, and formed a thousand-man army consisting of Dagger Valley, Shadow Valley and Misty Valley, and went to Battle Valley downstream along the Asaba River.

At this time, the Battle Valley is full of changes, and countless spies and spies are active in this land, because everyone knows that following the battle against King Lashan two years ago, another battle that will determine the future direction of the valley. The battle is about to be staged here.

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William's army has a total of less than 2000 people, and most of the soldiers' fighting will is not very firm, because most of these soldiers were still loyal to another lord a month ago.However, these soldiers are not without advantages. Their combat skills are relatively good, and their individual combat power is very outstanding.

In fact, only some members of the elite team from Dagger Valley, some cloud giants, and some former Setheren soldiers from Deep Forest Valley were the ones who were really willing to fight to the death for the leader William.

Of course, the Frost Giant Cubs who are loyal to Phinea will follow their grandmaster Phinea to fight to the end for William.

William knew very well that if he wanted to completely integrate an army into a whole with combat effectiveness, he could not create differences because of his origins, but had to take "the capable go up and the mediocre go down" as the most fundamental rule.

Because the military is the most direct violent organization, the ability of the individuals who are its components is also the most intuitive.When they entered the battlefield, everyone's standard of survival was the same.Those who are capable win, and those who are mediocre lose; the winner lives, and the loser dies.

Therefore, the army is the place where seniority is the most important, and it is also the place where seniority is the least.

William broke up all the non-cavalry humans, and then mixed them into a standard battle group, and appointed those who had a better reputation in combat as the head of the battle group.

In order to effectively organize these unreliable soldiers, William had to use many people he did not trust as officers, such as Storm Silverhand, Charenty, and some elites from the Harper Alliance.

Of course, many people William was willing to promote also got the opportunity, such as the two sons of Boros Habershield's family, Jieer Liangge, the priest of Alyosha of the Golden Wheat Sheaf Monastery, and the former high-ranking officer of Sethren Valley. Warrior Marvell Sherwood and more.

There is no doubt that the newly reorganized legion is a piece of cake, but as long as they are operated well, they still have the opportunity to grow into a powerful battle group.For example, winning a few battles to boost morale, and then engaging in regiment building to unify the thinking of the soldiers can basically bring this army together.

But the most reliable is not the legal army under William, but the castle under construction in front of them.

With the help of Xiaomi Luna, William can almost open the gate of flames for a whole day, and then the labor and material resources from the flame world are almost fully utilized.

The flame giants poured a 20-meter-high obsidian foundation. The reason why obsidian was chosen as the foundation material is because obsidian has the characteristics of glass, which is very resistant to water erosion and relatively stable in a humid environment.

In fact, if the time is not too tight and the construction period is too tight, the engineers from the flame world would like to choose another kind of rock as the material of the foundation-quartzite, which is what we usually call crystal.

The hardness of crystal rock is second only to diamond, corundum, and topaz, and its hardness is far superior to the most refined steel. Unlike those precious stones whose ingredients are scarce or have complicated causes, crystal rock itself is the oxide of the most silicon element in the world. ——Perfect crystals of silicon dioxide.

How common is silica? The earth we step on, the soil, rocks, and magma are mainly composed of silica. Therefore, if you want to prepare crystal rock, the raw material is not a problem, the key is the preparation technology.

Because it is not easy to perfectly crystallize the molten silica, even if the temperature control masters from the flame world have the technology in this field, it will take enough patience and time to complete the real operation.

The loyal Flame Engineers claim that when this war is over, they will definitely build a real crystal castle for their lord on the Prime Material Plane, Faerun.

In this regard, William can only say, as long as you are happy.However, this time is indeed not a good time to build a crystal city. After all, even if the value of crystals is slightly lower than normal gems, it is a bit too extravagant to build such a castle, and it is easy to cause public outrage.

After the foundation was completed, the engineering team began to pour the outer defensive wall.The height of the defensive wall is compared with the height of the cloud giant, at least as high as two cloud giants.

The wall is two feet wide, that is, six meters, and there is a parapet about a person's height on the outer edge of the wall.The so-called female wall is the thin low wall on the top of the city wall on the outer edge to cover the bodies of soldiers defending the city wall. Usually, the female wall also has crenels for watching the enemy shoot arrows.

After asking William's opinion, the engineers who built the city wall still chose obsidian as the base material of the city wall, because the origin of this obsidian is very simple, and it only needs to cool the semi-liquid magma extremely quickly.

In this way, the construction speed of the obsidian city wall has been greatly improved, because the engineering team does not need to wait for the rock to cool naturally in order to ensure the perfection of the city wall material, which is an advantage that many other rock materials do not have.

It's not that William can't help with the pouring of the city wall. After all, his fire control ability is top-notch even among the flame natives.However, as the lord of all flame creatures, the flame engineers would absolutely not allow him to do such tasteless work, because it would mean their incompetence and shame.

So after William opened the Flame Gate, he became a little idle?

Of course it was impossible to be idle, and in fact William became busier.

There is a crucial problem that William has never resolved, and that is the problem of intelligence.The time for William's rise was too short, and coupled with the fact that he was in a hurry, he never made any arrangements for the intelligence work of his own army, and it should be said that he didn't care at all.

There is a saying that goes well, if you know yourself and the enemy, you will never be imperiled in a hundred battles.

In the way of war, intelligence comes first.William's understanding of the surrounding kingdoms and city-states mainly comes from several aspects.One is the hearsay from the surroundings. Caravans often pass by the city-states in the valley, and they can always bring you the latest anecdotes and news. Can find something really useful.

The other one is a suggestion from some "well-meaning people". For example, Elminster once analyzed the status quo of the city-states in the Valley and their surrounding forces for William. He denied it, but he helped William establish an overall overview of the situation in the entire Sea of ​​Falling Stars area.

Others, such as Dove, Storm, Charenty, Boros, etc., were all asked by William about their views on the surrounding city-states. As the saying goes, one person counts on one's shortcomings, and everyone counts on one's strengths. With the help of these people's respective perspectives, William almost completely grasped The situation in the entire valley was overwhelmed.

William also has an unexpected source of information, which is the devil lurking along the coast of the Sea of ​​Fallen Stars.There is an essential difference between these evil guys from hell and those chaotic demons. They basically come to Faerun for some purpose.

As the best of the devils, Sophie Manaso, the Pleasure Demon, has been trying to show William her worth.The information provided by the devils and their allies lurking in human society has almost continuously gathered in Ms. Sophie's hands.

Then this very scheming devil took this information as his own promotion chip. When William went north to Shadow Valley, Sophie Manasuo brought him the most important information, about the enemy gathering in Feather Valley news.

One thing that is quite surprising is that the initiator of this coalition was not the leader of a certain valley city-state or a prominent figure in the surrounding kingdoms, but a priest named Aldan Ambrose, who was said to be from the southwest Amn, by the way, he's the priest of Tempus.

This is interesting.

Generally speaking, it is rare for a Tempus priest to initiate a war like this.

Although Tempus is the god of war, the priests of Tempus usually don't start wars easily. They will only join the war that is bound to happen or is happening according to the situation, and then join the righteous (usually weak) side.

However, William's journey to unify the valley, in a conventional sense, does not matter the distinction between justice and evil. As long as William does not kill innocent people indiscriminately, and does not extort money, no one can blame him.

In terms of legal force, William is not the dominant side compared to the kingdoms around the valley.Of course, if William can't use the Flame World Flame Army, he must belong to the side that crushes the enemy.

William now has six reorganized infantry regiments, each with about 300 people, consisting of Storm Silverhand, Charenty, Harper Ranger Doria Harker, and the new deputy captain of the Dagger Valley Elite Team——Leopard Girl Eva , Alyosha, the priest of Tangia, and the high-ranking warrior Marville Sherwood served as the head of the battle group, and some elites or people with outstanding talents, including some elite harpists and Jieer Liangge, served as the deputy head.

There are also two cavalry regiments, the Orthodox Mist Knights led by Weslifus Habershield, and the miscellaneous cavalry led by Holfast Habershield.The so-called miscellaneous cavalry does not mean that they are a rabble, but that their sources are rather mixed. There are some cavalry from Shadow Valley, Deep Forest Valley, and Bow Valley, and some unorthodox Mist Knights from Misty Valley.

Their strengths are indeed mixed. There are elites who are not even weaker than the selected Mist Knights, and there are also rookies who can't draw a bow or lift a gun on horseback, and can at best run fast on horseback.

William did not dislike these followers who brought their own horses, but organized them into a scout cavalry team.

Of course, William also has two troops as trump cards, the giant siege brigade composed of cloud giants and the frost battle group composed of frost giant cubs.The leader of these two teams is Phinea, William's most loyal woman and general.

As the second son of the Habershield family, Holfast has been in charge of running the White Hart Hotel, the ancestral property of the Habershield family, but it doesn't mean that Holfast doesn't know how to command the cavalry. The experience of being greeted and sent to him in the hotel made Holfast better at observing words and demeanor and listening to information.

Holfast cherishes the opportunity William gave him to lead troops very much. He has always hoped that he can command the cavalry to charge on the battlefield like his father, but it is a pity that he has a better brother above him, and Misty Valley does not have one. A second mighty cavalry was at his amusement.

Even if there were, the council of six would not allow the Habershield family to have two more powerful cavalry commanders.Therefore, before William conquered the Misty Valley, Holfast could only hide in the White Hart Hotel to spend time, such as listening to the exaggerated adventures of those brave adventurers.

When William recruited cavalry in Misty Valley, Holfast saw the opportunity and even changed his name to apply. When his identity was exposed by those familiar fellow villagers, William did not drive him away, but After listening to his ideas, he entrusted this ambitious young man with a heavy responsibility.

Since the entire scout cavalry team was good and bad, after discussing with William, Holfast made two different groups. One was to use an elite cavalry as the squad leader to lead a group of rookies to be responsible for the surrounding areas of the Three Rivers. Touring and training.There is also a real scout horse scout composed of all elite cavalry, responsible for armed exploration of the Essebra area of ​​the Battle Valley and the junction of the Battle Valley and the Feather Valley.

As the head of the scout cavalry, Holfast must personally lead the elite scouts into the danger zone.

On this day, Holfast led a group of seven elite scouts to sneak into the outskirts of Essebra. Each of them had three of the best fast horses, which allowed them to easily complete the long-distance raid. scouting tasks.