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

Chapter 109 Tavern
"Check-in successful! Congratulations, host, you have obtained 50 Lordaeron Rangers!"

"Holy crap! I got a good troop? I've turned bad luck into good luck?" Roland rubbed his eyes. He had been signing up for miscellaneous items for over ten days, but he hadn't been able to use many of them. The sudden appearance of a troop reward surprised him a little.

However, once Roland saw the type of troops involved, a look of utter dismay immediately appeared on his face…

"What the hell is this? I thought it was a Lordaeron Knight! What good is a Lordaeron Ranger?!" Roland wailed like a defeated dog.

The Duchy of Lordaeron is located in the forest at the eastern corner of the Rune Inner Sea. The entire forest belongs to the fiefdom of the Grand Duke of Lordaeron. Lordaeron is most famous for its people, who are almost all half-elves. Combining elven and human characteristics, they produce knights, rangers, and archers renowned throughout the continent...

Lordaeron Knights aren't particularly strong among knights. Because they are half-elves, they rejected heavy, bulky plate armor, opting instead for lighter chainmail and postarms. In the early game, Lordaeron soldiers were considered utterly useless by players. The only units with decent stats besides the Knights were the Rangers, but even the Rangers weren't cost-effective compared to regular lords. While they could equip greatswords, round shields, and plate/chainmail, their high price deterred most lord players. As for the Knights themselves… this unit was a tragedy in the early game. They couldn't compete with Lagrange Knights in a head-on charge, their defense was inferior (they never wore plate armor for the sake of lightness), and their speed… well, nobody could outrun them. The only reason they remained in the players' sights was that they were the only unit in the game capable of charging smoothly through jungles. Their superior horsemanship and excellent eyesight allowed them to gallop through the jungle and wield their spears to kill enemies…

Then, by chance, a player discovered the hidden inherited skills of the Knights of Lordaeron...

In The Lord of the Rings, every officially named knightly order has its own inherited skills (excluding Roland's Holy Light Knights...). Knights from different regions possess different advanced skills, but the knights of Lordaeron all inherit a secret technique—counterattack!
In layman's terms, if they are wielding lances, using this skill is called a "counterattack"; if they are wielding bows and arrows, it's called a "reverse shot." This skill grants the Knights of Lordaeron the ability to attack in the opposite direction during a charge. So, in one battle, players discovered that their forces were losing more men chasing the Knights of Lordaeron than in a direct confrontation, and this revealed the Knights of Lordaeron's hidden skill. Suddenly, the Knights of Lordaeron went from being unwanted to being highly sought after, with countless lords hoping to recruit a squad of them to serve as rearguard.

"Tsk tsk tsk! Back in the day, I was a man who led a squad of Lordaeron knights! That reverse charge was amazing!" Roland couldn't help but fall into memories. Who would have thought that the knights, who seemed to be fleeing, would twist their upper bodies and swing their weapons, unleashing a terrifying killing intent?

"Forget it, a ranger it is. At least it's a ranged unit." Roland shook his head, deciding to let go of these sour grapes thoughts.

“Your Highness!” Radil’s voice interrupted Roland’s reverie.

"Oh? Um...where were we?" Roland asked embarrassedly. He had been so caught up in the ups and downs of the Lordaeron Rangers that he hadn't paid any attention to what Radil was saying.

“Nothing, Your Highness. It’s just that I heard you still have quite a bit of Smaug’s flesh and blood here, is that right?” Radil’s eyes gleamed with shrewdness.

“Uh…” Roland grinned and immediately understood that this old guy probably had his eye on Smaug’s flesh and blood. He didn’t know who told him that… Roland could only nod and admit that he still had Smaug’s flesh and blood in his hands.

"Great! I was just worried about not having enough energy-rich magical beast flesh to feed the griffins! Smaug, this mutated giant dragon, should be enough to feed these five little guys until they grow up!" Radil waved his hand kindly towards the sky, and a figure darted back into Radil's robes like a gust of wind and lightning. It was none other than the griffin cubs that had just slipped out.

Roland was suddenly seized by a playful impulse. He bent down and tilted his head, staring at the robe the griffin had just crawled into, trying to figure out how such a big little creature could fit into a mage's robe. But the next second, a little eagle's head also popped out, looking up at the sky...

The man and the griffin stared at each other, and the little griffin, seeing Roland's tilted head, turned its eyes to the side as well.

"Hehe! How interesting! I didn't expect griffins to be so cute when they're young!" Roland smiled, and his gloom vanished instantly.

“Yes! Who would have thought that a year later they would be able to fight all kinds of creatures!” Radil stroked his beard and sighed. “Then I won’t bother you any longer, Lord Radil. I’ll take a stroll around the city…” Roland teased the little griffin for a while, making it circle around his legs and cry out incessantly. Then Roland stopped and bid farewell to Radil, deciding to take a closer look at his city.

"Your Highness, farewell!" Radil gave a mage's salute to Roland in farewell.

……

"Come and take a look! Fresh Changhu whitefish! Only 2 copper coins a piece! Want one, folks?" the fishmonger shouted enthusiastically.

"Fresh winter mushrooms! Picked from the wilderness! Delicious! Nutritious!" The women in the gathering team also laid out the wild game they had found.

"High-quality charcoal! Less smoke, longer burning time! 3 pounds for one copper coin!"

Although the population is only a little over two thousand, the industrious Lagranges have already created a bustling market on the main avenue of Rapids City. Roland even discovered a small tavern within it!

Roland casually pushed open the wooden door of the tavern and squeezed inside. A wave of heat mixed with the smell of cheap liquor hit him, causing Roland to close his eyes. After a few seconds, once his eyes had adjusted, he reopened them and began to look around at the only tavern in the city of Swiftstream.

"Good heavens! This is truly an eyesore!" Roland thought to himself.

The tavern wasn't large. Compared to the massive taverns of my previous life and even in games, which often spanned thousands of square meters, this tavern, less than 300 square meters, felt incredibly cramped. Roland estimated there were at least a hundred people inside! There were even quite a few familiar faces among them—they were all off-duty soldiers. A semi-circular bar was set up against the wall at the far end, the niches in the wall crammed with bottles and jars of liquor. A young woman sat behind the bar, tidying up and directing the staff; needless to say, she was the owner.

"Not bad! You actually managed to open a tavern here?" Roland glanced at the cheap ale in the jar and casually pulled over a high stool to sit in front of the woman.

"What would you like, guest? Drinks or food..." The woman glanced up unintentionally and was immediately stunned.

“Your Highness… I didn’t mean to steal your wealth… I… I paid taxes…” After seeing Roland’s face, the woman immediately knelt down and crawled out from behind the bar. Strictly speaking, without a business license issued by the lord, what they did could be considered “stealing” the lord’s wealth and could be executed by the lord.

"It's alright! Get up!" Roland waved his hand to indicate that he didn't care about the matter. Anyway, he had already paid the taxes, so he could open the store if he wanted. Roland got a headache just listening to those miscellaneous rules about liquor franchises and the like. As long as it didn't violate the law, Roland didn't want to make things difficult for anyone.

"I don't mean to blame you, I'm just curious where you got your drinks?" Roland looked at the woman in front of him with curiosity.

(End of this chapter)