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

Chapter 146 Route Planning
“These fools are truly despicable! Now I finally understand why human spellcasters are so rare…” Jessie Ava looked at Lance with disdain.

Lance touched his nose, feeling extremely embarrassed. Indeed, ignorant people often mistook naturally awakened spellcasters for demons because they couldn't control their awakened magic power, which often led to out-of-control situations. For example, fire spellcasters would inadvertently release their magic power and ignite surrounding objects, while water spellcasters would cause places to become dark and damp. Ignorant people would fear these unknown powers, which often resulted in them secretly using vigilante justice to execute these newly awakened spellcasters.

“There’s nothing we can do. Ordinary people don’t have access to these things. It’s not surprising that this happens in villages without noble leaders. What’s most tragic is that most villages don’t have noble leaders at all.” Lance sighed. Middle-earth isn’t the Middle-earth in the game anymore. Every village lord here is at least a noble. How could ignorant villagers know the details of professionals?
"It's really speechless. By the way, what do you plan to do with this girl?" Jessie shrugged helplessly. Indeed, the lack of education has made ordinary people dull-witted. They can only resist these uncontrollable natural awakeners based on their deepest fears.

“Let’s bring her with us. We’ll test her talent when we get to Rohan, and then see what profession she should choose.” Lance shook his head. As for leaving this girl here… why save her in the first place?
……

"Hmm..." The girl on the straw mat opened her eyes and murmured.

"Oh? You're awake." Jessie, sitting next to him, gave what she thought was a very friendly smile.

"Ah~!" A piercing scream assaulted everyone's eardrums.

Lance flung open the curtain and rushed in: "What's going on?"

Then he saw the girl huddled in a corner, shivering, wrapped in a blanket, and a bewildered Jessie.

"A monster...a monster?" The girl quickly spoke up after seeing that the person who came was a human she knew, hoping that Lance could drive it away.

"Uh, girl, you've misunderstood. He's my friend. Don't worry, he won't hurt you!" Lance assured her, encouraging the girl with his eyes.

"Don't be afraid, I am a goblin king, I don't eat children!" Jessie Ava felt deeply hurt after seeing the girl's suspicious eyes! That damned bard portrayed goblins as man-eating monsters, and although people in the city knew it was nonsense, it still had a lot of appeal to people in the countryside!
“Hello, Mr. Goblin…” the girl said timidly.

"Hello, lucky girl!" Jessie Ava said kindly. Indeed, this girl was incredibly lucky. First, she successfully crossed the chasm from ordinary person to professional; second, she happened to encounter Lance and his group just as she was about to be killed. She was truly fortunate!

"Miss, can you tell me your name?" Lance asked in a low voice.

“My name is Nina Bonn, you may call me Nina…” Nina said timidly.

“Okay, Nina, but I’m not a knight, I’m a warrior. You can call me Lance.” Lance was amused by Nina’s cautiousness. “You probably can’t stay here any longer. Come with us from now on, and we’ll give you the most suitable career plan…” Lance rubbed her head, feeling quite pleased. After all, anyone would be happy to have a spellcaster for free.

"Get some rest, we'll be leaving tomorrow!" Lance waved to him and then left her tent with Jessie.

"Alright, my lord, what are your plans for tomorrow?" Jessie Ava immediately began to tease him sarcastically after entering Lance's tent.

“Alright, let’s go back and take a boat south to Argonus, then take the land route around Lagos Falls and see if we can find a boat to go down the river,” Lance said calmly, unfolding a somewhat blurry map.

"Not going to Rohan?" Jessie Ava asked.

"I've calculated that with the supplies we successfully obtained this time, plus the food we already had, we can travel for almost ten days! In these ten days, we should be able to find Rohan's villages along the riverbank, so we won't have to travel by land anymore; land is too slow!" Lance rubbed his temples. Who knows what might happen to heavy cavalry under high-intensity marches? After all, these tin cans don't have the perks of riding two or three horses. Of course, Roland couldn't afford that either. Whether in war or peacetime, the price of warhorses is always despairing. Even if Roland could get some freebies from the system every day, it wouldn't help, because the shortage of warhorses was too great!
“That’s a good idea. Good night, I’m going to rest!” Jessie Ava took off his hat, bowed slightly to Lance, and then slowly walked back to his tent.

The early spring night was deep. Apart from a few hidden Lordaeron rangers, there were only some heavy cavalrymen on night patrol. Even while resting in the village, Lance still arranged the night defenses according to the lowest intensity of warfare.

……

"So Your Highness, aren't you going to say anything?" Yun Feng slammed his hands on the table and leaned forward, staring at Roland with an unfriendly expression.

"Ahem, I just noticed we were running low on magical items, so I went to get some from you..." Roland lied through his teeth.

"A little? A hundred million! You could have just emptied my potion reserves, and you could have taken the best weapon, but taking all the spellcasters' cultivation resources is going too far!" Yun Feng said viciously. After coming out of the alchemy experiment, he was shocked to find that not only was his "high ground" lost, but even his "crystals" had been stolen!
"Your Highness, it's not that I'm criticizing you, but it's your business if you like Grand Duke Nyx, but it's going too far to use my things to please her!" Yun Feng was practically in tears. All those precious cultivation potions, meditation aids, and rare items had been taken away by Roland.

"Ahem, you're already a sixth-level sage, someone who's already at the top of the professional ranks, why are you competing with that little girl for resources?" Roland said, feigning disdain.

"Don't I need to maintain my own state? Do you currently need a girl with talent and potential, or a sixth-tier sage who can cast forbidden spells at any time using magical artifacts?" Yun Feng's expression was unfriendly. Although he wasn't a spellcaster known for combat, he could still use his profound understanding of elemental power to cast a complete forbidden spell with the help of external objects! (Alchemist: Not good at combat is only relative. If you anger this master, the ultimate sage can still cast a forbidden spell on you!)
"Huh?" Roland's eyes widened. He never expected that even a magical black hole like the Sage could release forbidden spells with the help of external objects. Are forbidden spells so worthless now? Roland couldn't help but feel that forbidden spells with their demanding casting conditions were like cabbages.

(End of this chapter)