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

Chapter 36 Divine Artifact - Ring of Glory
Having dealt with the underwater watchers, Roland returned to Swiftstream City. As he munched on his black bread, the thought of the wrecked fishing nets and smashed galleons by the underwater watchers instantly made him feel nauseous, and the already unpalatable black bread became even less appetizing...

"This is so hard..." Roland complained helplessly about the damn winter, then casually opened the territory page in the system.

The solitary city of Swiftflow floated on the screen. After Roland focused his consciousness on it, he immediately received information about the current state of Swiftflow.

Swiftstream City:
Area: One kilometer in radius.

Building units: 1 dilapidated lord's castle, 82 crumbling houses, 18 shabby houses, a dilapidated stone wall (under repair), a stone well, and a blacksmith's shop.

Troop strength: 303
Population: 104 (31 civilians who can be trained)
Evaluation: The lonely king leads his surviving people back to their homeland. This ruin, barely offering shelter from the wind and rain, brings them some solace. Darkness still threatens the newborn king. The town has no productive capacity other than fishing; its formidable military strength is perhaps its only redeeming quality. Note: The town has no war potential; a single crushing defeat could wipe it out.

Abilities: 1. As the only territory of the Kingdom of Lagrange in Middle-earth, she will attract the remnants of Lagrange. The system will guide a wave of wandering Lagrange civilians to her territory every day, hoping that the lord can properly settle them.

2. Allow the recruitment of local civilians to train swift infantry.

"Outrageous!" Roland casually waved away the system's light screen. After all this time, he only had a population of 104, with only 31 male citizens fit for military service. The most outrageous thing was that he had no production capacity other than fishing...

Roland is now extremely conflicted. The town has no production capacity whatsoever. Apart from fishing, the only thing they can really do is blacksmithing. Although they have a lava forge, without an alchemist, this thing is really only good for blacksmithing. And speaking of blacksmithing, aren't those dwarves in Lonely Mountain much better than Roland's half-baked blacksmiths?
It was winter, and Roland couldn't possibly send his people out of the city to clear the land. Hunting was risky, as they might encounter orcs... In the end, he was essentially feeding over a hundred mouths for nothing; their only use was helping the soldiers build the city...

Roland, passing by the blacksmith's shop, saw Ren Xiaoqiang hammering away around the magic forge. In no time, a fine steel longsword was reforged. This made Roland feel gratified, as his soldiers' equipment did indeed need some repairs. The iron armor was fine... but the leather inner armor couldn't be replaced at all. As a result, most of the knights who wore three layers of armor only had two layers of steel armor left. Apart from the outermost plate armor and the inner chainmail, the inner leather armor had been worn down and lost its original effectiveness.

Roland just wanted to say that this wasn't like a game... In a game, you could replenish equipment durability by paying gold for equipment wear and tear, but in reality—you had to replace it! Roland finally understood why the Knights Order was so powerful, yet they had so few members to support—they simply couldn't afford to! Since the intense Battle of Lonely Mountain, Roland's knights had been getting worse every day. The massive wear and tear on their equipment couldn't be replenished, greatly weakening the Knights Order's strength. And that didn't even take into account the wear and tear on their warhorses and equipment...

"God, just give me infantry... I'll behave! I won't play knight anymore..." Roland said, utterly dejected.

"The leather workshop must be built first..." Roland began to plan in his mind. After all, leather armor, a strategic resource, requires a complete leather workshop for mass production. Although leather tanned by ordinary families can be made into leather armor, the efficiency is too low.

"Let's browse the online store; maybe we can find something useful." Roland thought for a moment and decided to try his luck at the online store.

"Hmm, Lagrange City Guards? Not needed!"

"Lagrange Knights... Get out! We can't afford to support them."

"A high-level fire-elemental staff? What use would I have for it?"

"Holy crap! A divine artifact! The Ring of Glory!" Roland suddenly rubbed his eyes in disbelief. The Ring of Glory is a mythical item in The Lord of the Rings, its level surpassing legendary items. As the first of the Nine Rings of Honor, it possesses the unique versatility of enhancing a knight's initial skill (Glory), comparable to Gandalf's Ring of Fire. The Nine Rings are the counterpart to the Nine Rings of the Dark Knights, each corresponding to one of the nine knights' different skills, representing the knight's ultimate good. The first Ring, the Ring of Glory, enhances a knight's skill (Glory), making their knightly order even stronger.

The second Ring of Mercy: Its ability is to enhance the knight's skill (Mercy). When a knight with the Ring of Mercy uses Mercy, the damage he receives will be halved.

The third Ring of Justice: It can enhance the knight's skill (Justice). When a knight wearing this ring uses Justice, the damage dealt to evil creatures will be doubled on top of the original damage.

The fourth ring of loyalty: It can enhance the knight's skill (loyalty). When a knight wearing this ring uses loyalty, he will ignore any mental attacks.

The fifth Ring of Compassion: It can enhance the Knight skill (Compassion). When a knight wearing this ring uses Compassion, the dual resistance increase effect within the range of the Compassion skill is doubled.

The sixth Guardian Ring: It can enhance the Knight skill (Guardian). When a Knight wearing this ring uses Guardian, the target is invincible while the Guardian effect is active.

The seventh Ring of Courage: It can enhance the Knight skill (Courage). When a Knight wearing this ring uses Courage, he/she ignores any control effects.

The eighth ring of humility: can enhance the knight skill (humility). The knight wearing this ring receives double the buff when using humility.

Ninth Ring: Ring of Sacrifice: Enhances the Knight skill (Sacrifice). When a knight wearing this ring dies after using Sacrifice, he or she can be resurrected. The resurrection effect has a 1-year cooldown.

The most powerful of these is undoubtedly the Ring of Sacrifice. Sacrifice, as a knight's ultimate move, involves igniting life and soul in exchange for exponentially increased power. In essence, a knight can only use Sacrifice once in their lifetime. The moment the light of Sacrifice shines is both the knight's most brilliant moment and their moment of demise. The Ring of Sacrifice, however, grants a knight the ability to use Sacrifice dozens of times throughout their life, making it an incredibly overpowered artifact. For the knight class, no other class can defeat a trainee knight, as their skill slots are equally bottomless. Have you ever seen a class with nine skills upon awakening? Knights are ruthless; besides the skills that grant them the honor of the knightly order, the other eight skills are various status and support skills, solidifying their position as a mainstay on the battlefield. These nine skills are not merely knightly abilities but also represent the knightly spirit, a spiritual pursuit similar to the creed of an assassin.

"50 wealth points? That's so cheap!" Roland exclaimed in disbelief when he saw the price tag on the back.

"Uh... that's true... after all, the Ring of Glory is about this price..." Roland sighed, his face falling. The Ring of Glory was probably the worst one among them... after all, in terms of individual bonuses, it was inferior to other rings, and in terms of group bonuses, it was inferior to the Ring of Benevolence. Apart from increasing the overall strength of the knights, it didn't have much use, and the bonuses weren't that powerful. The reason it was among the artifacts was that it could amplify the knights in unlimited numbers. As long as you used the Glory skill together under the ring's owner's command, you could get a comprehensive amplification. Imagine what it would be like if you had 10 knights and used this thing... even if a real dragon knight order came, they would be reduced to ashes.

"Waaaah... I'm back to square one. I bought it." Roland reluctantly paid 50 wealth points to buy the Ring of Glory. Sigh! It hurts! He scavenged millions of wealth points from Thorin to buy just a few items, and now more than half of them are gone... Then he slipped the ring tightly onto the index finger of his right hand.

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(End of this chapter)