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

Chapter 47 The Land of Shining Stars
"Dawn? Morning Glory? These are out-of-season plants again." Renault sighed helplessly upon hearing Roland's mutterings, thinking to himself, what kind of place is this, with all these strange out-of-season plants growing here.

"Well, this is roughly the area, but we'll have to rely on Mingchenhua to tell us the location of the barrier's entrance." Roland rubbed his chin.

The Bright Star Flower is a symbiotic plant with trees. Normally, it looks exactly like the branches of a tree, growing branches and leaves just like the trees it symbiotically supports. It can only be found in autumn. It blooms at dawn, absorbing the last starlight of autumn. It is also considered a magical plant and can be used to make many magical potions. However, its flowering period is very short. Although it blooms every dawn in autumn, it only lasts for a maximum of half an hour each time.

"Let's wait. We don't have much time. Hopefully, we can find them in one go, otherwise we'll have to wait until the day after tomorrow," Roland said wearily, rubbing his temples.

"Ah~ Your Highness, please forgive my disrespect." Renault yawned and touched his nose, feeling embarrassed.

"It's okay, I'm sleepy too... These star elves are really bored," Roland complained.

"System check-in!" Roland thought to himself. It was well past midnight, so he could check in now.

"Sign-in successful. Congratulations to the host for obtaining 100 Dovenian Heavy Swordsmen."

Roland, who had been completely unconcerned, was suddenly taken aback. He'd gotten a good item? And it was even a professional swordsman! Roland immediately laughed without a care in the world, since no matter how many outside helpers he had, they couldn't compare to the people he had on hand.

Speaking of the Dovenian Heavy Swordsmen, that's quite interesting. Dovenian is located on the western shore of the Rune Sea, and it's currently inhabited by the Chariot People. The people there are allies with Mordor and are constantly at odds with Gondor. This situation only ended after the Lagrange Empire successfully occupied the Rune region, but it's only the Third Age now, and the Lagrange Empire hasn't even appeared yet... However, this doesn't stop Roland from praising the Dovenian Heavy Swordsmen to the skies.

Swordsmen are ranked as follows: Apprentice Swordsman, Swordsman, Elite Swordsman, Guerrilla Swordsman, Guardian Swordsman, and Hero. Most of them fight with swords and shields, and are known for their strong positional warfare capabilities. They have relatively poor mobility, but this will change after advancing to Guerrilla Swordsman, at which point the swordsman will gain mobility comparable to a ranger.

Dovenian heavy swordsmen, also known as rune swordsmen, are the most cost-effective soldiers that can be recruited in the Rune region. They are loyal, brave, and well-equipped, and are all-rounders except for their lack of ranged attack capabilities. Of course, the Dovenian heavy swordsmen produced in Dovenian City can be considered the best among them. They are one of the few armies in the entire Middle-earth that can directly block the charge of the Knights (and are also the only professional soldiers that most players can obtain in the game that can counter the Knights).

The Dovenian heavy swordsmen wore beast-hide armor underneath, mithril chainmail over it, then steel infantry plate armor, and most outrageously, a layer of linen infantry armor on top, plus a wide cloak on their backs… essentially five layers of armor. Their steel tower shields made their frontal defense even more absurd, and the enchanted runes gave them excellent magic resistance. Their 1.5-meter-long Star Silver Steel Greatsword was their most trusted weapon, while the mithril shortswords tucked into their thighs were their last line of defense. Besides these, they had no other weapons; sacrificing ranged attacks and mobility made their melee defense ridiculously absurd.

The Dovenian Heavy Swordsmen, a hundred strong, can form the Dovenian Circle Formation, a circular shield wall made of tower shields. The remaining shields are placed overhead to deflect arrows and magic from the sky, with gaps between the overlapping shields allowing them to easily thrust their longswords forward. When they slam their shields into the ground, only attacks of vastly different levels can break through their defensive line; even knightly orders of the same level cannot breach it.

"What's this? Are you planning to form a shield formation with Dovenian heavy swordsmen and sell them out during the war with the orcs? That seems like a viable strategy..." Roland pondered silently. After all, given the Dovenian heavy swordsmen's ability to both attack and defend, it seemed that Azog really couldn't do anything about them.

"Forget it, what if Azog personally intervenes and we're just wasting our time?" Roland shook his head, banishing these brainless thoughts from his mind. He should focus on how to properly fight the orcs; this was too unrealistic.

"Your Highness! Is this the Mingchen Flower?" Renault suddenly called out to Roland.

Roland looked up, and before he knew it, a glimmer of dawn was breaking through the clouds; daybreak was approaching…

A blue ice flower quietly blooms on a branch, and the starlight from the sky falls among the flowers like streams of water.

"That's it! It's the one!" Roland quickly climbed the tree and began to examine the Bright Star Flower closely.

"Have you found anything, Your Highness?" Renault stared at it for a long time but couldn't find anything amiss.

“There really is one. Look at this flower, which way is the stamen facing?” Roland asked.

“The West?” Renault asked uncertainly.

“I think it’s west too. Let’s head west and see if there are any other Brightflowers.” Roland jumped down from the treetop.

……

"There's one here!"

"Go up and have a look!"

"The west."

"Then let's continue westward."

"Wait! There's one here!" Roland called out to Renault.

"My lord! The flower's stamen faces east!" Renault exclaimed excitedly, finally finding a flower's stamen facing a different direction.

"Quick! Look around for anything with a six-pointed star pattern." Roland was also excited; he was full of energy after not sleeping all night.

"it is good!"

……

"There's no road here!" Renault exclaimed in confusion. The forest in front of him suddenly became dense, with thorns and bushes filling even the gaps between the tree trunks. Renault drew his dragon-patterned sword, which could cut through dragon scales, and cleaved the trees in front of him with a heavy blow.

"Thump!" A strong force rebounded from the sword in Renault's hand, almost causing him to lose his grip on the hilt.

"Are you kidding me? My Dragon Pattern Sword can't cut down trees? Wait! This is a barrier!" Renault originally thought he couldn't wield the sword, but he didn't expect that he had been tricked by a hidden barrier.

"Your Highness! There's a barrier here!" Renault shouted, not caring who it might attract.

"Where?" Roland came running after hearing the news.

“That’s right! It should be here! Let’s search around the barrier and see if there’s a six-pointed star array.” Roland touched the transparent barrier in front of him to confirm.

"it is good."

Roland drew his sword and chopped down a nearby tree to mark the area, then he and Reno began to circle around the barrier.

After walking for nearly half an hour, the two finally found the six-pointed star array half-buried in the ground in a place overgrown with weeds.

The entire hexagram array was carved from a single, massive stone slab. Roland remembered that the Star Elves' barrier had quite a few exits, and this should be one of them. He wondered if it would still be effective. If it was ineffective, then he would have to find other stone slabs.

"Do you speak Elvish?" Roland suddenly looked up and asked.

"Uh...yes." After all, how could the famous Raikou not know Elvish? He's commanded quite a few elves. (In the game)
"Okay, that's good!" Roland then realized that this thing could only be activated in Elvish.

"The forest weeps in the flames, the people tremble in the darkness. The king who commands the power of the stars will descend from the shadows. Dispel the mists of night, depart from the wandering loneliness. Carrying the sacred heart of redemption, to the land where the stars shine eternally!" Roland murmured.

“Say it in Elvish,” Roland said.

"What?" Renault was completely bewildered. Was his king acting crazy here?
"Speed! That's the activation key!" Roland rolled his eyes helplessly, ignoring Renault's idiotic look.

"Oh, okay!" Renault quickly replied, then translated Roland's words into Elvish with great expression.

The six-pointed star, which had been devoid of light, suddenly began to twinkle with a soft starlight, as enchanting as the starry sky. The place where stars shone opened its arms to the world...

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(End of this chapter)