After a night's rest, the next day, July 12th.
Lear summoned his troops and organized supplies at dawn.
After settling the bill at the Rose House, he mounted the finest black horse in the caravan, had the swamp dweller catch up with the 30 wagons carrying goods, and slowly headed out of the city.
Two hundred neatly lined-up wetland lizardmen followed on either side as guards.
Rally the troops and march into the wilderness!
He had been looking forward to this day for a long time.
My mood is quite high at this moment.
In the early morning, there were not many pedestrians on the streets, and the wide streets were very empty.
The thick bluestone pavement is over 150 meters wide, with eight carriageways on each side and enough pedestrian walkways.
There are as many as twenty such main roads, connecting horizontally and vertically, dividing the entire city of Loran.
The sheer scale of the project involved simply transporting these bluestones to the city.
Obelisk-roofed buildings stand on both sides of the street; these houses are old and exquisite, varying in height and interlocking.
The stained glass windows reflect a dazzling light, and the exquisitely carved hero reliefs on the walls tell the story of the city's past and glory.
At the crossroads stands a clock tower that is over twenty meters tall.
The enormous, dwarf-cast, angular cross-shaped brass clock was ticking away.
Every year at the exact 3, 6, 9, and 12 o'clock, the city is enveloped in the deafening sound of bells.
No matter where you are, you can hear the sound of time.
The Loran family spent a thousand years building this magnificent city.
It is also the most powerful shield for the northern provinces of the Griffin Empire against the encroachment of the wasteland.
A dazzling pearl.
After passing through the bustling streets, the convoy slowly passed through the tall and magnificent city gate of Loran.
Lear looked back and saw the towering city walls, which seemed like immovable mountains.
It is over 100 meters high!
His appearance was marked by war, like that of a veteran with distinguished service records.
On the city walls, various heavy siege weapons stand tall.
Catapults, crossbows, arrow towers—they were countless and densely packed together.
At the city gate, two colossal warrior statues, each 120 meters tall, stand majestically, each wielding a heavy sword, their blades crossed in mid-air.
It's as if it's declaring to the outside world that the city of Loran is insurmountable.
These two statues have been rebuilt no less than ten times during the wars, and each time they have been rebuilt, they have become taller than before.
This is practically a symbol of the city of Loran.
A clear eagle's cry made Lear instinctively look up.
In the sky, hundreds of griffins, the imperial emblem with wingspans of tens of meters, soared.
These ferocious creatures form a sky defense line, and if needed, ten or a hundred times more can be launched at any time.
Lear took a deep look at the magnificent city and felt a surge of pride.
His future territory will be the same!
Without lingering, he waved and ordered the army to speed up their march.
Outside the city stretched endless expanses of farmland.
The lush green wheat fields swayed gently in the breeze.
It brings endless beauty to people.
After traveling more than ten kilometers, the city of Loran gradually disappeared from sight.
In this magical fantasy world, even the timid craftsmen like the swamp people are much stronger than humans.
The marching speed was not slow.
They set off at dawn and stopped to rest at noon when they found a well by the roadside.
Several hours had passed, and they had already walked 30 kilometers, but no one looked too tired.
I had dinner made with Noya Rice last night, so I don't need to cook for the next few days.
That saved a lot of trouble.
The area within a hundred kilometers of Loran City is a safe zone.
The guards patrol daily and eliminate any threats they discover immediately.
The wide roads built in Loran, paved with bluestone, are wide enough for people to ride on with ease.
Washing my face with clean water, my fatigue disappeared.
Continue on your journey.
As the sun was setting, they traveled another 40 kilometers before finally setting up camp.
Traveling 70 kilometers in a day is already considered very fast.
This also gave Lear a new understanding of the power of ordinary people in this fantasy world.
Nighttime is very dangerous and not suitable for traveling.
After arriving at a small town, the convoy set up camp.
The next day, they continued until noon, when they finally emerged from the straight and wide bluestone road.
The road surface suddenly turned into a bumpy, muddy road, and the speed of travel began to slow down.
The area extending 100-200 kilometers from Loran into the wilderness is a controlled zone.
Every few days, the Griffin Legion will come to patrol. If a certain number of monsters gather, they will be targeted and eliminated to prevent them from growing in size.
However, a small number of wilderness monsters still exist.
The selection of pioneer lords is currently prohibited in this area.
Because it falls entirely under the jurisdiction of Loran City, officials are dispatched every year to establish villages and towns and reclaim land.
Continuing 200-300 kilometers into the wilderness, we entered a restricted area.
Every two weeks, the city of Loran will conduct a patrol. If a large number of wild creatures gather, the army will be dispatched immediately to eliminate them in order to prevent them from impacting the controlled area.
This area is also the region most frequently chosen by pioneering lords.
Several sizable pioneering territories were established here.
It is within the reach of Loran City, yet it is not directly threatened by the wilderness, making it the safest option.
The area is within the monitoring zone, ranging from 300 to 500 kilometers.
Loran City will monitor this area to a certain extent, and even if a large-scale gathering of monsters is discovered, it will not take action rashly unless the other party enters the guarded area.
As a result, the level of danger began to rise sharply.
500 kilometers away lies the undeveloped wilderness. Loran City only sends out the Griffin Legion to patrol the wilderness periodically to prevent large-scale military gatherings.
However, the Griffin Legion often suffers losses when it enters the area.
Orcs, barbarians, serpent people, grey dwarves, undead—almost every race roams the depths of the wilderness.
The spheres of influence they ruled varied in size.
It is said that far beyond the wilderness lies a powerful ogre empire, whose strength is no less than that of Loran City.
However, the journey was too long, and the wilderness blocked all of this, making it impossible to verify.
Upon entering the controlled area 100 kilometers away, Lear ordered Bain to take out several pieces of dried dragon dung and place them in a ceramic basin.
Bain looked at the dried-up dragon dung with some trepidation.
"Sir, if the earthworm excrement is stored for too long, it will lose its odor and its effectiveness will be greatly reduced."
He looked somewhat annoyed. When he was inspecting the supplies earlier, he had asked Lear about them, and Lear said they were ready, so he hadn't looked at them closely.
It seems we were too careless. Without the earth dragon's droppings, the number of monsters we encountered would probably have multiplied.
The difficulty of this journey will increase dramatically!
Lear looked at the hunched, wrinkled swamp hero and smiled.
"No need to worry, this isn't earthworm excrement."
"Hags, drip fresh blood into it."
He waved as he spoke.
The wetland lizardman hero behind him immediately stepped forward.
They pulled a large, plump rooster weighing over ten kilograms out of a carriage.
He just twisted her neck.
The rooster's head was snapped off alive, and with a series of frantic flaps of its wings, blood splattered and soaked into the ceramic basin.
In no time, the dried dragon dung was soaked through.
In just a few breaths, the surrounding magic seemed to be drawn into a black hole, rushing wildly into the dragon's dung.
An indescribable pressure emanated from the excrement.
Everyone felt a chill run down their spine for no apparent reason.
It was as if they were being targeted by some terrifying abyssal monster.
"Dragon dung?!"
Bain took a few steps back, his legs trembling, and cried out in alarm.
His gaze changed again.
Adults can even get their hands on things like this?!
Dragons are the world's top predators, and dragons of pure blood can directly reach the extraordinary realm in their old age!
Anyone associated with dragons, even those of mixed bloodline, possesses considerable power.
The best way to survive is to avoid danger.
No one wanted to get close to Longwei. It was tantamount to getting close to death.
Li Er nodded slightly, without saying anything more.
Let the army continue its march!
The dragon's might can spread two or three kilometers away.
Some sensitive life forms can even sense something from more than ten kilometers away.
The safety of the fleet has been greatly improved.
On the 13th and 14th, after traveling for another two days, we passed through the controlled area and entered the warning zone where the danger level had increased significantly.
They had been more than 200 kilometers away from Loran City until now, when they could finally officially step into the wilderness.
After setting up camp for the night and having dinner, Lear didn't rush to sleep but silently kept watch until late into the night.
Finally, the time on the panel reached 12:00 AM on July 15th!
New information quietly surfaced in the intelligence system of my mind—
[The intelligence system has cooled down and can be refreshed. Refresh now?]
Lear was invigorated.
It's time for the third intelligence update!