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

Chapter 442 Dragon Roar
"Holy crap!" Roland froze for a few seconds, then cursed and started running.

"Huh?" Caslo had just taken a bite of bread and walked a few steps when he realized that Roland hadn't followed.

"Where is he?" Caslo stared in shock at the sparsely populated street. Not only had Roland run away, but the knights had also chased after him, leaving Caslo alone, bewildered in the north wind.

……

"Lafitte!" Roland rushed in.

“Your Highness! You’ve come at the perfect time!” Lafitte Anthony smiled and gestured for Roland to enter.

"Tell me the situation!" Roland looked at the dragon egg placed on the pile of magic crystals in front of him.

Roland stared at the wooden table in front of him, which was covered with white linen. A pile of scattered magic crystals was placed on it, and the dragon egg was placed in the center of the pile. The dragon egg was constantly drawing magic power out of the magic crystals, and there were many broken transparent crystals on it, all of which were magic crystals that had been drained of magic power.

“They should be hatching soon; I see fine cracks on the eggs… If possible, you’ll have to stay here for the next couple of days.” Lafitte Anthony nodded to Roland.

“The dragon egg could hatch at any time, so you’d better be prepared!” Lafitte Anthony continued.

"Okay, is there anything I need to be careful about?" Roland asked modestly. After all, this wasn't a game where you could just click a button and be done. Real-world baby dragons definitely needed care, and Anthony, one of the Dragon Rider families, certainly knew this very well.

"..." Lafitte Anthony stared at Roland with a strange look, making Roland feel a little uneasy.

“Your Highness, that’s a dragon! Not a kitten or puppy, it’s not that fragile.” Lafitte Anthony’s lips twitched.

"Oh, oh, oh." Roland nodded repeatedly.

“Alright, Your Highness, I’ll be going now. Please feel free to contact me if anything comes up. I’m always here!” Lafitte Anthony said to Roland.

“Okay!” Roland said gratefully.

After seeing Lafitte Anthony off, Roland sat down in a chair and let out a long sigh. Well, it's just a few days of being stuck in the castle and not being able to go anywhere. Roland didn't care. After all, there was nowhere to go in the dead of winter. Spending a few days in the castle with a wife but no kids and a warm bed wasn't bad either.

"Oh right, I think I haven't settled the rewards for the second Battle of Azanubiza yet!" Roland suddenly slapped his forehead, because he hadn't fought the battle himself, so he hadn't remembered it for a moment.

"System settlement of task rewards!" Roland lazily nestled in his chair and covered himself with his leather jacket. Although there was a roaring fireplace, the cold wind still kept blowing in.

"Settling the task..."

"Congratulations, host, on successfully completing the mission—Battle for Glory!"

"Calculating rewards!" "Congratulations, host, you have been granted one chance to draw a random number of troop types!"

Roland rubbed his hands together as he listened to the system's voice, feeling a little itchy. He looked at the dragon egg and said, "Let me borrow some of the dragon race's luck!"

After saying that, Roland stood up, touched the dragon egg, and then nodded in satisfaction.

"With the blessing of the Golden Sacred Dragon, I will surely escape my unlucky streak and become incredibly lucky! I am the ultimate lucky one! System! Draw rewards!"

Roland swung his fist arrogantly, as if that would magically grant him incredible luck and allow him to smuggle himself into Europe. But as everyone knows, gamblers never have a good ending, and luck can't be changed by spending money...

"Royal Dragon Riders, Royal Champion Knights, Wall of the Continent, Royal Mage Order, Dragon Magic Council..." Roland muttered to himself, referring to the most elite professional soldier classes in the Lagrange Empire.

"Congratulations, host, you have successfully obtained 300 Lagrange City Guards!" The system's voice seemed to have gained some warmth and... a hint of mockery?

"Damn it!" Roland gritted his teeth so hard that his molars almost broke!
Logically speaking, this reward isn't bad. After all, three whole squads of Lagrange City Guards are top-tier Tier 2 warriors—they'd be a mainstay of the Lagrange Empire in the game. But Roland was furious! These were precious random units! What are random units? They're units you can even draw from the Dragon Riders! And the Dragon Rider configurations vary at different times; at their peak, they had four Dragon Rider Commanders!
If Roland were to draw the Dragon Riders, he would immediately take down Dolgodor and Gombard, then launch an expedition to Rune to restore the territory of the Lagrange Empire, and finally go to Mordor to utterly crush Sauron. Yes, the kind of crushing that you can do at will. Even if Sauron becomes a demigod, or even a true god, he would still kill four Dragon Riders!
“Sigh…” Roland shook his head. Although it was a bit greedy, it was indeed a way to quickly resolve a series of events. Sauron would probably be grateful to the system god when he found out, after all, the story of the Third Age of Middle-earth almost came to an end…

The dark forces in the north and south were unaware that they had just narrowly escaped death. Even without the Dragon Riders, if Roland had produced a Champion Knight Order, he would already be leading an expedition to Dovinian.

"The Dragon Rider Commander has vanished..." Roland shook his head and said regretfully. With Caslo and Ajax's talents, if they didn't have any fortuitous encounters, the fifth rank would already be their peak. Moreover, their dragons had basically reached their peak growth. The possibility of the two of them breaking through to Dragon Rider Commander was slim. In addition, the advancement of Dragon Riders was inherently more difficult than other professions!
Because when a dragon knight and a dragon sign a dragon knight contract, they share not only life and other resources, but also combat power!

This explains why dragon knights advance incredibly quickly in the early stages, but at a snail's pace in the later stages. In the early game, the dragon shares its immense power with the knight, allowing them to quickly break through rank bottlenecks. Later, when reaching rank six, the dragon knight not only needs to reach rank six in their own dragon power, but also needs to help the dragon overcome a Cataclysmic level monster… This is why dragon knights are often called perpetual motion machines! The shared dragon power gives dragon knights the largest "blue bar," and each dragon knight is a humanoid dragon.

"Snap!" Just as Roland was pondering and feeling regretful, a crisp sound suddenly rang out in the quiet room.

Roland turned around abruptly. A crack had already appeared on the dragon egg, running from top to bottom, with fine cracks spreading outwards along it.

Roland watched quietly as the life inside struggled to break free of its shell...

"Crack, crack..." The cracks grew larger and larger, and finally, with a crisp crack, the top of the eggshell was pushed open.

"Welcome to this Middle-earth, little fellow!" Roland smiled gently. This was a miracle of life, and a miracle of the system. This being from a thousand years ago had once again radiated the brilliance of life a thousand years later.

"Gah gah gah!" The baby dragon's cry echoed from inside the eggshell.

"What the heck? How did it hatch into a duck?" Roland was bewildered by the quacking sound in the wind. Although there was no wind in the house, the storm in his mind had already ravaged him.

"This dragon's roar is strange!"

(End of this chapter)