Chapter 498 Legendary Level 2
In the past eight years, the army of the Kingdom of Harland has expanded to 450,000, and the territory of the homeland has increased by nearly 300,000 square kilometers.
The increased territory comes from the orcs. In the past eight years, the Kingdom of Harland has developed to the eastern part of Prilan and established the East Prilan Province, and the territory of the Orc Empire has been occupied again.
If the territory can be extended to the seaside, the territory can be increased by more than 200,000.
After the Battle of Samba River, Melonla, the commander of the Governor's District of the Orc Grassland, decided to abandon the territory in the north of the Kingdom of Harland. So it has become very simple for the Kingdom of Harland to expand its territory.
If the entire Bolton Forest in the north of the Kingdom of Harland can be included, the territory of the Kingdom of Harland will exceed three million.
In the past eight years, the situation in the surrounding countries has not changed much.
The civil war in the Kingdom of Delong has also ended for three years.
Although Richard provided a large number of advanced weapons to the rebels, King Anton was far ahead in terms of population and economy. In addition, the Holy Glorious Empire made great efforts to support them, and the rebels eventually became weaker and weaker.
It was not until three years ago that King Anton attacked Ram Castle, killed the last rebellious duke, and put down the rebellion.
From the outbreak of the Delong Civil War to King Anton's suppression of the civil unrest, the war lasted for nearly seven years.
The seven-year civil war devastated the land of the Delong Kingdom. By the end of the war, the total population was only 15 million.
Compared with before the war, it was reduced by 11 million.
Of course, not all of these 11 million people died in the war.
About 3 million people became war refugees and were swallowed up by Haland, Grant, Maya and other territories. 4 million people were sold to the Kingdom of Haland by the rebels in exchange for arms and money. 2 million people fled to the barren mountains, most of whom died of famine caused by the war, and the last 2 million died in the massacre caused by the war.
The Kingdom of Haland took advantage of the war to buy 5 million contract slaves from the Kingdom of Delong. With the natural reproduction of the domestic population, the current population has exceeded 40 million.
Grant and Maya also made money from the war, accepted some of the fleeing nobles, and the population increased by more than one million.
Although the population decreased by 42%, the Kingdom of Delong unified its thoughts and eliminated internal troubles.
Even after seven years of civil war, King Delong still insisted on running schools.
The Kingdom of Anton showed great courage, using more than ten times the salary to poach people from the Kingdom of Harland, recruiting unsuccessful talents, and using teachers recruited from the Kingdom of Harland to open elementary and middle schools. Now the earliest children have graduated from elementary school, and some middle school students have been trained.
With enough talents, the development of the Kingdom of Delong is getting faster and faster, and it has not been interrupted by the war. On the contrary, because of the war, various technologies have improved a bit.
After the civil strife was quelled, the actual potential of the Kingdom of Delong was second only to the Kingdom of Harland, and the reform of the political system has also begun to show results. The business field is extremely active, and science and technology are also developing rapidly, on the eve of a big explosion.
During the war, the Kingdom of Delong also seized three magic crystal cannons. After the research of the legendary wizard of the Holy Glorious Empire, the manufacturing process of super magic metal materials and launching runes has been cracked.
In the last war, the knockoff magic crystal cannon made by the Holy Glorious Empire has appeared.
Although the knockoffs made by the Holy Glorious Empire have a slightly shorter range and a higher manufacturing cost, it is not difficult to make improvements after passing this threshold.
This is not beyond Richard's expectations.
After the invention of new technologies, there will inevitably be technological diffusion.
The enemy is not a fool, especially a powerful force like the Holy Glorious Empire, which also has talents inside. After discovering a new weapon with powerful lethality, it must be cracked.
Even if there is no such opportunity, as long as the Holy Glorious Empire continues to invest gold coins in research, the manufacturing process of the magic crystal cannon can be kept secret for at most five or ten years.
After all, the level of magic civilization of the Holy Glorious Empire is already very high. Even if you have seen the real thing from afar, you can figure out some of the technologies.
In fact, the reason why the magicians of the Holy Glorious Empire quickly cracked the manufacturing process of the magic crystal cannon was that they had already laid a good foundation and only had to do the finishing touch.
In the past eight years, Richard's eldest daughter Margaret has been promoted to the ninth ring. At the age of 34, she was promoted to the ninth ring, which was faster than Richard and Sofia.
In the Harland Mage Association, many people have been promoted, including Anne, who was promoted to the ninth ring, Bella and Butler, who were promoted to the eighth ring, and Harrison, Barica, and Dilson, who were promoted to the seventh ring.
Richard was also promoted to the second legendary level last year.
After being promoted to the second legendary level, Richard engraved the second legendary spell in the mental space.
The name of this spell is Phoenix Flame.
There are many names for the phoenix. The monks like to call it Phoenix, the priests call it Sunbird, and the wizards named it Arcane Ashes.
In the ancient wizard era, the Dawn Plane was still called the White Tower Plane. It was rumored that there was a population of phoenixes at that time, and they were the partners of the White Tower Rule Wizards.
After entering the Age of the Seven Gods, the phoenixes became very rare. It was rumored that the God of Fire Element had extended an olive branch to them. These beautiful and deadly creatures became followers of the God of Fire Element and had long since left this world.
It was said that the sky where they flew would be left with brilliant flames, and when they landed, everything would turn to ashes, and the flames on their bodies would only go out at the moment of death.
Phoenix Flame is a public legendary spell template, widely circulated in the Dawn Plane. It is rumored that this spell is a Phoenix race bloodline spell, and its lethality is very considerable.
As long as it is contaminated a little, it can cause hundreds of kills, and even the soul will be destroyed.
Phoenix Flame is a fire attribute large-scale lethal legendary spell, which can directly summon a sea of fire two kilometers away. One spell can destroy an infantry battalion, and its lethality is only slightly worse than that of a starlight bomb.
After being promoted to the second-level legendary, Richard's mental power increased to 91 points and his magic power increased to 2184 points. Although it is not comparable to demigods and gods, it is already extraordinary among legendary magicians.
Most legendary third-level magicians are weaker than Richard.
And legendary fourth-level magicians are very rare in the Dawn Plane.
At this time, the Harland Mage Association already has several nine-ring mages. Wendy and Undine are ready to break through the legendary realm, while Anne and Margaret have only been breaking through the nine rings for a short time and need to accumulate for a period of time.
After eight years of development, the Harland Mage Association has more than 4,000 formal members, and the number of apprentices has increased to 50,000.
Every year, the Mage Association can add four to five hundred magicians.
The number of people added in a year is almost comparable to that of neighboring countries.
Three years ago, Wilde took a bottle of true nuclear potion and was promoted to a legendary knight. Now he has replaced Sylph and is stationed in the Red Moon Plane as the commander of the Red Moon Plane garrison.
Viscount Rand in the north of Prilan also broke through the bottleneck and was promoted to a legendary warrior. Including Wilde and Rand, the Harland Kingdom already has eight legendary professionals. This does not include Richard's father William, who also climbed a step three years ago and broke through the second legendary level.
Jennings' promotion speed is faster than William, breaking through the second legendary level six years ago.
Although the life span of elves is much longer than that of humans, it is relatively slow to advance to a higher level. Whether it is a pure-blooded elf like Sylph or a half-elf like Sutton and Undine, none of them have advanced to a higher level in the past decade.
Soros was a little lazy after being promoted to Legendary, and no longer insisted on practicing breathing techniques every day. Now he is over 80 years old, and he should indeed live a more relaxed life in the next thirty or forty years.
In the past eight years, Richard's eldest son Philip and Vivian have given birth to four children. The two grew up together and had a very good relationship after marriage, contributing to the development and growth of the Harland family.
If all family members were like aunt Wendy and sister Margaret, who did not fall in love or get married, the rule of the Harland family would end in one or two generations.
The second son Rex is already eighteen years old, but because he has a quarter of elf blood, he looks younger than his peers.
The eighteen-year-old prince is already at the time of engagement.
The circle of choices for the princes of the royal family is very small. Rex's wife can only be chosen from the princesses of the nearby kingdoms and the legitimate daughters of the great nobles in the territory.
Among the nearby countries, the Kingdom of Harland has a close relationship with Grant and Stanik.
The eldest son Philip has married the Kingdom of Grant, so the second son Rex cannot choose in the Kingdom of Grant. However, there is no princess of the right age in the Grand Duchy of Stanik, so Rex can only choose a marriage partner within the territory.
There are indeed suitable candidates within the territory of the Kingdom of Harland.
First of all, Rex's uncle, the Duke of Sutton, has a daughter of the right age, Windsor.
Windsor is Rex's cousin, who is already thirty-six years old, two years older than Margaret. According to human age, the two are indeed not very suitable.
But Windsor has three-quarters of elf blood, and her life span will exceed four hundred years. At the age of more than thirty years old, she looks like a girl of fourteen or fifteen years old.
Under normal circumstances, the life span of Rex and Windsor is quite different, and it is not suitable for marriage. After all, Rex's life span is only 156 years old. After he dies of old age, Windsor will have to be a widow for many years.
But whether it is Undine or Sutton and Sylph, they all have the intention to make the cousins closer.
Secondly, Jennings's second daughter, who is one year younger than Rex, is Rex's cousin and is also a good candidate.
Today's Harland Kingdom has only one duke and three earls. Wilde and Rand's merits are still a little short of being promoted to earls.
The remaining two great nobles, Romen and Soros, have no suitable candidates.
Romen is very old and has been bedridden for three or four years. Once he dies of illness, a bloody battle for the title will inevitably break out within the family.
Moreover, Romen himself has no daughter of the right age. Letting Rex marry Romen's granddaughter is far from the same status. Richard also doesn't want his son to intervene in the battle for the title of the Romen family.
Soros does have a daughter of the right age, but she is not a legitimate daughter, and her status is much worse. Moreover, after marriage, the generation is a bit messy.
The marriage of nobles in the Dawn Plane doesn't care much about seniority. The nobles are all relatives.
For example, some perverted nobles like the Jonathan family are very common in order to ensure the purity of their bloodline.
But Richard's soul came from another world, and he formed a complete world view long ago after crossing. Even if he came to this world for half a century, many ideas are still deeply rooted and cannot be changed.
There are two candidates for marriage, and Richard asks Ricks for his opinion.
In a centralized feudal country like the Kingdom of Harland, nobles cannot have the conditions for free love. Since you have enjoyed the rights brought by the nobles, you must fulfill the obligations of marriage.
Free love is a synonym for cowardice and irresponsibility in the Dawn Plane, which will be despised by the mainstream of society and bring shame to the family's reputation.
Rex has received this kind of education since he was a child, and he has no idea of free love under the influence of this. He directly chose his cousin Windsor, who he is more familiar with and has more feelings for.
Rex made a choice, and Richard immediately selected a date and drafted a marriage contract.
Shortly after Rex got engaged, Richard received intelligence and prepared to attack the legendary white dragon's nest in the north of the Samba River.
This legendary white dragon is an old female dragon. It has been entrenched in the north of the Samba River estuary for more than 500 years and has always been a trouble for the orcs.
After the Harlander defeated the orcs, it only managed the Prilan area at first, which was still very far away from the legendary white dragon's nest. The two sides lived in peace for many years.
After that, the construction of the Haikou Castle at the estuary of the Samba River had entangled with this legendary third-level female dragon.
As the Harlander Kingdom developed towards the east of Prilan, the conflict between the two sides intensified.
In recent years, this white dragon, along with the black dragon that was severely injured by Richard and McMillan, commanded his two-legged flying dragons to attack the towns and villages of the Kingdom of Harland many times, causing more than 10,000 casualties.
Because the legendary white dragon has an elite dragon army under its command and is far away from the core territory, the Kingdom of Harland did not bother this legendary white dragon.
Now the legendary white dragon is getting more and more aggressive, and Richard decided to solve this hidden danger.
The lair of the legendary white dragon is located in a steep mountain stream, surrounded by dense forests for 200 to 300 kilometers. It is far away from the core town of the Kingdom of Harland, and it is extremely difficult to send a large army to attack.
Especially the magic crystal cannon, which cannot be transported to the front line at all.
Because the two legendary dragons are leading, Richard did not dare to send magic airship troops to fight with them in the air.
After careful consideration, Richard decided to raid from the sea and send an elite force to raid the white dragon's lair.
The legendary white dragon's lair is close to the sea, 20 to 30 kilometers away from the coastline. Although the nearby coastline is full of cliffs and there is no suitable landing base.
However, the steep terrain is not a problem for the elite professional army.
After making preparations, Richard led 600 elite infantry, 200 magicians, 200 lion knights, a total of 1,000 elites, to attack the lair of the legendary white dragon.