Chapter 419: Promotion to the Eighth Ring

Richard originally planned to organize manpower and reenter the undead world to investigate and find ways to hunt down some of the undead. Nowadays, Harland Territory refines a lot of Styx potions every year. The supply of dragon blood fruit and moonlight grass is very sufficient, and only soul crystals are lacking.

If you enter the undead world once a year and destroy an undead creature base, you can make up for this gap. With the help of Styx potions, the mental power and magic power of the magicians of the Harland Territory Mage Association will be significantly higher at the same level.

The increase in mental power and magic power will not only make it easier to advance to the professional level, but also greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the magician. Even if you refine three of the cheapest elementary Styx potions, the magic power can increase by 17.5, which is enough to release two first-level spells.

For magicians below the high level, releasing two more first-level spells at the same level can almost determine the outcome of a battle.

Last year, William did not return to the North Frontier on the birthday of the goddess. Sylph has now gone to the mouth of the Black River. Without the protection of the two legendary melee fighters, Richard can only postpone the time of entering the world of the dead to avoid accidents.

Richard has just returned to William Castle from Graveson, and took time to visit Philip with Sofia.

After nearly a month of adaptation, Philip's arrogance has decreased a lot. After a long time with the slaves in the farm, Philip has also made friends with several younger contract slaves.

Children's feelings are sincere. They will not be swayed by power and interests like adults. Richard did not expect that Philip, the son of the Duke, would become friends with several contract slave children.

Time flies, and in a blink of an eye it is June, and the summer harvest is about to come. Philip also spent three months of contract slave life in the farm. After three months of hard life training, Philip's mind gradually began to mature.

Under the guidance of Jennings, Philip's breathing method finally got started, and he felt the qi in his body, began to awaken the fighting spirit seed, and successfully promoted to a primary warrior student.

After entering June, Richard asked Philip to move out of the farm. Before leaving, Philip also made a request to Richard, hoping to pardon several friends' families as freemen in advance.

Richard readily agreed to Philip's request and took him back to Fort William.

Philip first reunited with his fiancée Vivian for a few days and relaxed for a while, and then he had to work in the brick kiln factory to experience the life of a freeman for nine months.

Because he had experienced a more difficult life as a contract slave, Philip adapted faster this time.

Philip's education was on the right track, and Richard put his worries aside.

Entering the 3273rd year of the Dawn Calendar, Richard's mage level was further improved in May this year, and he was successfully promoted to an eight-ring mage.

After being promoted to the eighth ring, Richard's mental power was further improved to 60 points.

After his mental power was increased to 60 points, Richard awakened the talent of the body of thunder and lightning.

The lightning body talent is similar to the flame body, both of which are elemental magic talents. Awakening the lightning body doubles Richard's resistance to thunder magic and increases his meditation speed to absorb and refine lightning elements. When releasing lightning magic, Richard's magic consumption will be reduced by half, and the power will increase by one third.

Normally, a magician needs to consume thirty points of magic to release a three-ring magic lightning beam. According to standard magic rules, the lethality is about forty-five degrees.

Li Cha awakened the lightning body talent, and it only takes fifteen points of magic to release a three-ring magic lightning beam. He himself awakened the powerful spellcasting talent, superimposed the lightning body, and the lethality of this spell will reach about one hundred and twenty degrees.

One hundred and twenty degrees of lethality is usually far more than six-ring magic, and slightly inferior to seven-ring shaping magic.

If Richard holds a lightning staff and releases a three-ring magic lightning spell, superimposed with the effect of the lightning staff, the magic will only consume about ten points, and the lethality will increase to one hundred and eighty degrees. The lethality of 180 degrees is far beyond that of the magic of the eighth ring, and second only to the magic of the ninth ring.

After being promoted to the eighth ring, Richard's magic power has reached 1440 points. If he holds the lightning staff, it is enough to release 144 lightning beams.

If Richard acts as a turret mage, 144 lightning beams are fired, which is equivalent to releasing 144 nine-ring spells, and the firepower is enough to defeat a regular army.

Even if the equipment level of Harland Territory is well protected by a combined shield, it is impossible to withstand more than 100 consecutive powerful magics.

However, a regular army cannot just take a beating without fighting back. Facing the enemy's long-range attack, Richard must release a protective spell. If the two sides fight head-on, if the will of the regular army is superimposed to the limit, Richard cannot be a regular army opponent. Even if he holds a legendary magic item such as the Starlight Necklace and the Lightning Staff, it still cannot change this.

Four starlight bombs will definitely not kill a legion of soldiers. At most, 5,000 to 6,000 people can be killed. As long as the morale can be maintained, the remaining 10,000 soldiers can drown Richard with a spit from each person.

But a mage with extremely strong lethality like Richard is actually more difficult to deal with than a legion.

After Richard awakened his second elemental magic talent, his mental power was superior to that of a legendary first-level mage. He also had legendary magic items such as the Starlight Necklace, Starlight Bottle, and Lightning Staff in his hands. Except for magic resistance and spell selection range, other means were superior to those of a legendary first-level magician.

Richard, equipped with the Starlight Necklace, was actually as difficult to deal with as a legendary magician.

A legendary magician cannot fight you to the death in a war and hold on to the end.

The magician's methods are mysterious and unpredictable, and his ability to save his life is extremely strong. He can not only open the dimension door and enter the other dimension to hide, but also master the teleportation. If he fights near the magician tower, he can escape instantly. In addition, the magician also masters the strange spells of levitation, flight, substitution, shape-shifting, teleportation, deformation, shrinking, etc.

In actual wars, high-level magicians are much more difficult to deal with than warriors and knights.

If a legendary magician disregards his face and is bent on sneak attacks, assassinations, and ambushes, it is enough to bring down a human kingdom.

Unless you have enough intelligence power and set traps in advance to prevent the legendary magician from escaping.

More than a decade ago, Elena of the Venus family successfully manipulated a civil strife. If it had not been calculated by Duke Brener, the ruling position of the Grant family might not have been maintained.

Richard was promoted to the eighth ring in May, and Wendy also went further in June. Successfully promoted to a seventh-ring mage, because of good luck in the past two years, he used the Water of Life and the legendary Styx Potion continuously. After being promoted to the seventh ring, Wendy's mental power increased to 42 points, and she awakened the talent of magic doubling.

After Wendy's promotion, Harland Territory already had five high-level mages, among whom Richard, Sofia, Wendy, and Wendy all had mental power exceeding 40 points, awakened powerful spellcasting, and magic doubling talents. Their mental power was much higher than that of mages of the same level, and they could actually fight across levels and easily defeat opponents of the ninth level.

Wendy's current mage ability is actually much higher than that of Pansy and Evans of the Grant Mage Association. Pansy and Evans are already ninth-ring mages, but their mental power has not exceeded 40 points, and they have not awakened the talent of magic doubling. Although they have mastered more spells, they are actually not as powerful as Wendy.

Sophia's mental power is three points more than Wendy's. Because of her outstanding talent, her magic power is nearly 300 points more than Wendy's. 300 points of magic power is enough to release three nine-ring spells. Sophia's strength is obviously superior to Wendy.

Undine and Eve are both elf wizards with very good talents. Their strength is also stronger than that of wizards of the same level. Now the senior strength of the Harland Wizard Association has far exceeded that of the Grant Wizard Association, and it can gradually be compared with the first-class magic organizations.

Although Sylph went to the East Coast Province, with the promotion of Richard and Wendy, the strength of Harland has increased, and the time to eliminate the ogre tribe has gradually matured.

Last year, Richard exchanged territory with the Duke of Edward, and the ogre tribe has been surrounded on three sides by Harland. Since Vera Castle fell into the hands of Harland, the legendary ogre's lair is only about 40 to 50 kilometers away from Harland.

It takes at most one and a half days to send troops from Vera Castle to attack the ogre's lair.

The only problem is the lack of logistics. In last year's war, the orcs caused too much damage to the economy of the Duke Edward, especially in the border areas such as Vera Castle, where there is almost no population.

Although the two sides exchanged territories, this situation has not recovered.

Last year, Harland had plans to march south, but he did not want to cause trouble, so he did not take action against the ogre tribe.

After the winter, the losses in the southward battle were not light, and Richard could not spare his hands. Now that he has reorganized 20,000 prisoners of war from the East Coast United Kingdom, and has rested for more than half a year, the combat effectiveness of Harland's army has been restored. Richard is ready to attack the ogre tribe, and the minimum goal is to drive the ogre tribe away.

In fact, since January this year, Richard has drawn a lot of capable personnel from the direction of Martins Castle, and many conflicts have broken out with the ogres.

In just two or three months, Harland led and killed more than 600 professionals and eliminated many ogre teams.

In dozens of consecutive small-scale conflicts, about 400 ogres were killed.

The number of ogres in the eastern part of the Eagle Mountains is very small, with a maximum of about 2,600 people. Now, after years of consumption, especially the attack after the beginning of spring this year, the number of ogres has dropped to less than 2,000, and the space for activities has also been greatly reduced. Now the scope of activities has gradually shifted to the west.

After Harland Territory exchanged territories with Edward and Fox Duke Territory, the ogre tribe has been surrounded by Harland Territory on all sides, and basically has no way to survive.

Around the ogre territory, there is the newly built Roman Castle in Harland Territory in the north, Martins Castle in the east, Vera Castle in the south, and Soya Castle in the west.

With the development of the situation to this point, the ogre tribe can be said to be desperate.

Now the only factor that restricts Richard from sending out a large army to fight against the ogres is the logistics supply and the population along the way.

In the feudal lord era, the main factors that limited population growth were the distribution of territorial resources, population carrying capacity, and surrounding situation.

Every noble lord wants to increase the population because population is a very important wealth.

As long as the population is born and successfully raised, it can be sold in the serf market.

A male slave of 17 or 18 years old is often sold for more than 20 gold coins, and even a cheaper female slave can be sold for more than 10 gold coins. If it is a beautiful female slave, the price is even more incalculable, and the highest can be sold for hundreds of gold coins.

Therefore, the nobles will try their best to hope that the serfs will have more population.

However, the noble fiefdom is limited by natural resources and economic development level, and it is impossible to increase the population indefinitely. When the population increases to the edge of the territory's carrying capacity, the nobles must control the number of people and find ways to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.

The usual method is to sell serfs for gold coins while separating male and female slaves and keeping them under strict supervision to prevent them from mating at will. Through various means, the number of slaves is maintained at a certain level.

Today, Harland Territory is vast, with an area of ​​780,000 square kilometers, which is roughly equivalent to the three northeastern provinces in Richard's previous life. The natural conditions are slightly better than those in the three northeastern provinces. At least the temperature in the Samba River Basin is not as harsh as that in the northern part of Heilongjiang.

Although there are mountainous areas such as the Eagle Mountains in the territory, there are also large plains formed by the impact of the Heilongjiang River Basin and the Samba River Basin. Even with the productivity of the feudal era, the population carrying capacity is at least about 50 million people.

Today, Harland Territory has a total population of only more than 7 million, which is far from the time when the population cannot be carried.

Therefore, Richard has always encouraged population reproduction. Whether it is free people or contract servants, as long as they get pregnant and give birth to a child, they can receive subsidies issued by the Harland Territory government. The subsidy for giving birth to a child is about six silver coins a year.

Six silver coins are equivalent to one and a half months' salary for ordinary people. If you use them to buy food, you can buy about 500 kilograms. If you buy coarse grains, you can buy 800 kilograms. Eight hundred kilograms of grain a year can barely feed two adult serfs.

Because Harland Territory has been issuing birth subsidies, the birth rate has remained at around 5% in recent years.

This number is a very scary data, which means that even without foreign population, the population can double every fifteen years.

Fifty years later, the population will increase eightfold, and then Harland Territory will also face a population crisis. If the territory cannot be expanded, it will eventually explode on the spot and cannot bear it.

Richard knows that in this era without entertainment and contraceptive facilities, if fertility is not controlled, the birth rate can usually be maintained at more than 3%. Although the birth rate is high, due to the underdeveloped medical field, the death rate is also very high, and the population of most countries can basically maintain a balance.

If a severe war is encountered, the population will be greatly reduced.

Because of the invasion of orcs, although the Grant Kingdom buys slaves from outside every year, it has basically not increased much population for more than a hundred years.

This time, the increase from more than 30 million to 50 million is mainly due to the annexation of the territory population of the Delong Kingdom.

Because of the significant improvement in medical standards, the mortality rate of Harland Territory has dropped sharply, and the population is increasing very fast. After more than 20 years of establishment, the population of Harland Territory has increased from nothing to more than 7 million.

Although the total population of more than 7 million is large, there are actually not too many people near the four castles of Vera, Soya, Martins, and Roman.

Near the two castles of Vera and Soya, only 20,000 contract slaves have migrated, and the number of castle garrisons is only about 1,000 people, which is simply unable to provide logistics for the army.

Although the population near Roman Castle is larger, it is only about 30,000 people, and there are 4,000 garrisons, but the food reserves are very small, and it is simply unable to serve as a logistics base for the army to go out.

Although Martins Castle is the farthest from the ogre's nest, about 200 kilometers away, Martins County has a population of more than 300,000, which can barely provide a large amount of supplies. In addition, the railway line has been built near Songtao Castle, and the supplies in the rear can be transported to Martins County by rail.

Therefore, the forward base can only be chosen in Martins County. After years of reconnaissance, Richard has already made a plan and decided to split the troops into two groups. One group will start from Martins Castle and march along the northern foothills of the Vera Mountains. The other group will start from Songtao Castle and march along the upper reaches of the Kaia River, cross the Vera Mountains, and join the northern army.

Wherever the army passes, it can just eliminate all the scattered ogre tribes.