This young master truly has the ambition of a hero.

So Behemoth took the initiative to discuss with Grandor the possibility of differentiating the students' education based on their talents and future career aspirations. Those more suited for research could naturally be trained according to Grandor's curriculum, while those mages more suited for combat should be allowed to leave school and experience real-world combat after completing their theoretical studies.

So the two brothers joined forces to promote this educational reform, and one of their training teams came to the north of the empire, just in time for the second expedition of the Northern Alliance.

Dick was naturally delighted to have so many mages assisting him, but out of a sense of responsibility as a graduate to his juniors, he felt it necessary to explain the risks and requirements of this expedition to everyone beforehand, in order to prevent anyone from disobeying orders.

To Dick's slight surprise, when he introduced himself to the group of magic apprentices, they did not look down on him in the slightest because he was a half-elf. Instead, they immediately let out excited exclamations, and the young men and women's eyes were filled with undisguised admiration.

Unlike the aristocratic circles that emphasize so-called bloodlines, the world of magicians values ​​strength more.

If you have the strength of a Saint-level being, let alone a half-breed, even a dog, ordinary people would have to bow respectfully before leaving.

Dick is the youngest Saint-level mage in the history of the Empire. This news was brought back by Behemoth when he returned to the capital. No one doubted it. As Dick's mentor, Grandor was so happy that he was practically flying, and he would show off to almost everyone he met.

"How do you know my disciple is a Saint-level expert?"

With the strong promotion from these two big names, Dick became quite a sensation at the magic academy.

He was actually quite famous when he was in school, but his reputation was mixed.

On one hand, he has never lost a duel and has made a fortune by winning staffs. On the other hand, as Grandor's most valued disciple, he was still a low-level mage until graduation, which made many people who disliked him mock him behind his back, saying that his talent was nothing special and they really didn't understand why Master Grandor valued him so much.

Although some speculated that Dick had intentionally hidden his strength, no one expected that he had hidden it so much and so deeply until the truth was revealed!

Generally speaking, graduating from magic school at eighteen years old only means one has just entered the world of magic. Being able to advance from apprentice to the lower rank is considered acceptable and within the normal range. The middle rank can be considered elite, and the higher rank represents extremely rare geniuses.

Dick graduated with the rank of a low-level mage, and the reason he was ridiculed was mainly because he was a disciple of the archmage Grand Magister Grandor. It was like being tutored one-on-one by a Tsinghua professor and barely passing with a score of 60, so it's no wonder that others mocked him.

Now that Dick has become famous in the North, many of his younger schoolmates naturally idolize him. Especially those students from noble families who are ineligible to inherit the title because they are the second son or a son born out of wedlock, Dick's rise to power is like a classic wish-fulfillment story for them. They can seamlessly empathize with him and are so excited that they want to go for a run.

So the students rushed forward to shake hands with Dick, and some even took out their notebooks on the spot, asking their idol to sign them.

Influenced by the idol effect, this mage group, mainly composed of students, voluntarily participated in this wilderness expedition and unconditionally obeyed Dick's command.

The students had no objections because Dick was a Saint-ranked mage, and the teachers had no objections because Dick was Grandor's prized student, and they believed that Dick would not be like the ignorant local lords who would use a precious mage as a cannon turret.

Dick certainly wouldn't intentionally persecute these bright but foolish junior students, but it's impossible for him to completely refrain from having ulterior motives towards these valuable talents.

Lagug is currently lacking everything except corncobs. These are dozens of soon-to-be graduates who have received a complete higher education from the Imperial Capital Magic Academy. They may lack practical experience, but their foundation is much more solid than those self-taught, unorthodox magicians. Moreover, because they have received systematic education, they have rich theoretical knowledge, so they would also be good educators.

If Dick can retain some of the people, then he can consider building a relatively basic magic school in his own territory!

Chapter 188: Cooperation with Hidden agendas

In the following days, the armies of the Northern Alliance allies arrived one after another. In addition to the original seven lords, some "observers" who applied to join later also brought their own troops, and the total strength of the allied forces quickly exceeded 20,000.

Such a large-scale troop buildup could not possibly be done silently, so orc scouts soon began to sneak out onto the wasteland across the fjord.

The news quickly reached Ramon, the orc capital, who learned that the human forces had amassed a considerable number of troops and ships on the southern shore of the fjord. He immediately thought of the "base-trading tactic" that had forced him to retreat during the Winter War.

In terms of the outcome of that war, the orcs did indeed come out on top, and Ramon gained the most of the benefits. They reaped a great deal from their invasion of human territory, seizing a large number of people and food. Moreover, Ramon also used the humans to weaken those opposition factions that were not on good terms with him.

If it weren't for the fact that his hometown was raided later, resulting in the loss of three valuable Saint-level experts, Ramon could almost have claimed victory.

According to his original plan, he would lie low for a period of time to recuperate and digest the gains of the war. The defection of the Dead Tree Party gave Ramon hope of accelerating the country's development.

However, the human race was clearly not the type to suffer losses without seeking revenge. Their counterattack was exactly what Ramon had anticipated, so he had been on guard all along.

Ramon believed that the humans would most likely replicate their previous successful tactics, sending their army by ship directly into the heart of the wasteland to once again press on the orc capital.

Ramon had anticipated this. When rebuilding the orc capital, he used captured human laborers to learn how to build city walls. Traditional orc settlements consisted of clusters of tents surrounded by a wooden fence. This was sufficient to protect against nighttime attacks by wild beasts, but it was no match for the full-speed charge of human heavy cavalry.

In addition to building city walls, Ramon also implemented coastal defense early warning systems. They deployed patrol teams and beacon towers along the western coast. If the human fleet attacked again, the beacon towers, emitting black smoke, would quickly notify the rear, giving Ramon time to assemble troops and prepare for the counterattack.

However, just in case, Ramon proactively sought help from his elven allies, hoping to leverage their intelligence network to obtain more information about the human army.

The intelligence provided by the Dead Tree Party further confirmed his speculation: the human army would definitely attack from the sea, just like last time.

Six months have passed since the end of the Winter War. During this time, Ramon has been busy with his "hybridization plan" to increase the number of orcs. This has turned the human women they captured into miserable breeding machines. Moreover, because orc babies are larger than human babies, many pregnant women die in childbirth, almost becoming disposable breeding grounds.

The elves of the Dead Tree Party witnessed Ramon's hybridization plan and were shocked by his insane and absurd idea.

The Deadtree Party had its own plans; their ultimate goal was to restore the elven dynasty, and the orcs were merely a tool they used temporarily to achieve their objective. Therefore, while the Deadtree Party's leadership outwardly cooperated with the orcs and supported their growth, they carefully maintained a moderate level of support, fearing that the orcs might actually rise to power, replace the humans, and then turn against the elves.

So some elves stationed in the orc capital secretly reported their discovery of Ramon's hybridization plan to their superiors.

Prior to this, the Dead Tree Party had maintained limited cooperation with the orcs. Although they had long heard that Ramon enjoyed taking in human women and fathered many mixed-race orc offspring, they simply thought it was Ramon's peculiar taste, like some humans having a penchant for mates.

It turns out that Ramon is a complete madman; he actually wants to "upgrade" the orc bloodline, turning the entire race into half-orcs.

These hybrid offspring truly combined the best of both worlds, possessing both the robust physique of the orcs and the intelligent minds of the humans. Crucially, these half-orcs were also fertile!

If these orcs continue to intermarry with humans, their offspring will gradually become infinitely similar to humans as their bloodline is diluted, eventually merging completely into them.

But Ramon's goal was clearly not to integrate his race into the human race, but simply to transfer his race, introducing only half of the human bloodline.

On the one hand, he required pure-blooded members of his tribe to intermarry with humans to produce orcs, but on the other hand, he prohibited orcs from intermarrying with humans, instead allowing orcs to intermarry among themselves. The offspring born from these intermarriages remained orcs, almost forming a new race capable of stable heredity.

This was hard for the elves to accept, so many elves stationed in the orc capital believed they should immediately stop providing aid, because what Ramon was doing might actually turn these guys into a more threatening force than the humans.

However, the leaders of the Dead Tree Party clearly had no intention of ending the cooperation. The old guard hiding on the islands were unimpressed, firmly believing that everything was under control. They even thought Ramon's actions were a good thing, as it would intensify the hatred between the orcs and humans, making them irreconcilably enemies. Once they were both severely weakened, the elves could reap the benefits.

With the intention of stirring up trouble from both sides, the Dry Tree Party has been busy lately. They spread rumors throughout the empire, telling people how miserable the humans who were captured by the orcs are now, in order to incite public resentment and force the empire to send troops to punish the orcs.

Meanwhile, they continuously provided Ramon with various military intelligence concerning the human race, creating a tense atmosphere that the human army was about to invade, thus inducing Ramon to continuously expand its military and prepare for war. They provided them with a lot of weapons and equipment, but they were reluctant to provide real technical assistance and put forward many harsh conditions. Some technologies were only given in half, deliberately setting restrictions and strangling them in core areas.

With the limited assistance of the elves, the orcs did indeed see a significant improvement that was immediately apparent. Many of Ramon's direct troops were equipped with exquisite metal swords and armor. However, the metallurgical technology that he longed for was only developed in some very low-level workshops, and neither the output nor the quality was of any practical use.

In the words of the elves who tricked Ramon, this is called cultivating their "craftsmanship spirit." Blindly expanding production like the humans will not produce good products.

Ramon knew that the elves had ulterior motives and were not genuinely sincere in helping him, but he had no other choice.

Moreover, readily available weapons and equipment can indeed quickly enhance the army's combat effectiveness, especially now that the human race is clearly preparing to use force, their meager production capacity is indeed too late.

Chapter 189: Crossing the River

As intelligence gathered, Ramon became increasingly convinced that the human invasion would once again come from the sea. He divided his elite forces in two: one was deployed east of the orc capital, while the other was positioned on the southern front, directly opposite the Imperial border legions.

Meanwhile, in Newport, with the arrival of the last ally, the Second Expeditionary Force had grown to over 20,000 men, including about 4,000 cavalry, 10,000 elite infantry, and the remainder being supply troops. Some weaker noble private armies were also incorporated into the force. Assigning them to frontline combat units might not necessarily be more helpful than disruptive.

It is worth mentioning that our old friend, Earl Hoffmann, also came with his men this time. They arrived relatively late, but brought two thousand soldiers with them, which can be considered as their entire force coming out.

Once upon a time, Earl Hoffman was one of the top three most powerful figures in the entire northern region. However, after the orc invasion, the northern lords underwent a reshuffling. The Seven Heroes of the Northern Alliance rose to prominence, with Dick, commanding six thousand elite soldiers and several Saint-level experts, firmly securing the top spot. Earl Banner rose from third to second place, and Marquis Richard, the former top-ranked lord, although suffering heavy losses, was still a weakened force, only dropping from first to third. But Hoffman, from second place, plummeted out of the top five entirely.

It's not that Hoffman has become weaker, but rather that everyone else is getting stronger while he's stagnating.

During the Winter War, the territory of Earl Hoffman became a bridgehead for human resistance. Although it was not completely captured, the territory west of the Nie River became the front line and was almost completely destroyed.

Moreover, during the later stages of the war, Marquis Richard seized power within the Allied forces, first ousting a number of powerful figures, including Dick, and then orchestrating the "Battle of Eideid," a disastrous operation that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people. This caused severe damage to the Allied forces' strength and reputation, forcing panicked refugees to continue fleeing eastward, unwilling to remain in the Earl of Hoffman's territory to await their deaths.

When the war was over, Count Hoffmann did the math and found he'd lost everything. Meanwhile, the eastern region hadn't suffered any direct damage during the war and had even become much stronger due to the influx of people.

So for a time, Hoffman regretted that he had chosen the wrong side, and his resentment towards Richard, his terrible teammate, was so deep that he even considered killing him!

Now, the flexible and adaptable Hoffman is applying to join the Northern Front and actively repairing his relations with lords like Dick, having completely put aside any thoughts of competition from the past.

After the troops had assembled, Commander-in-Chief Dick finally convened a military conference to inform his allies of the actual battle plan.

The previous intelligence deception was very successful, causing the orcs to misjudge that the Northern Alliance was planning another surprise attack on the orc capital. As a result, they concentrated their main forces inland and focused their attention on the east coast.

But Dick did not intend to attack the well-prepared orc capital. His real objective was to reduce the enemy's manpower. While Ramon's main force was lured away, the expeditionary force would do its best to wipe out the orc tribes in the southern wasteland, help them to establish a scorched earth policy, and directly cut out a "separation zone".

As many have said, when orcs added humans to their diet, there was no possibility of peaceful coexistence between the two races. It was a life-or-death struggle for survival. To speak of humanity to these savage beasts was to be inhumane to one's own kind.

Therefore, Dick not only wanted to eliminate the orc tribes in the southern wasteland, but also to destroy the water sources on which these tribes depended for survival, so that even if the orcs managed to escape the extermination, they would not be able to continue living in their original settlements, and ultimately turn the isolation zone into an even more uninhabitable no-man's-land.

For the past six months, Dick has been sending people to scout the southern part of the wasteland and has discovered hundreds of orc settlements of varying sizes. Some of the larger settlements have begun to show signs of urbanization and are marked on the map as a north-south line that leads all the way to the orc capital in the heartland.

Clearly! This was Ramon's route of advance, and those large settlements also served as military outposts.

During the meeting, Dick played a video clip showing Lucoa using a recording crystal to capture images of a large settlement during an aerial reconnaissance mission.

When the lords present saw that the orcs were not only cruelly enslaving the humans who had been captured, but also skinning and drying the slaves who had been worked to death, many of them were filled with rage.

Although nobles, as the ruling class of the feudal society of the empire, had a corrupt and decadent side, the lords who were willing to come here and participate in the expedition to fight the orcs at least had a sense of responsibility and courage. Dick not only wanted to show this to the lords, but also to the knights and soldiers below him, both to arouse their anger and to confirm the righteousness of the expeditionary force.

"Gentlemen, according to our estimates, the orcs will receive the news three to five days after we cross the fjord, and it will take Ramon ten to fifteen days to arrive with his army. So, conservatively speaking, we have at least two weeks to achieve our goal of mopping up the enemy. The expeditionary force will move from east to west, destroying eleven large settlements and eighty-three small settlements along the way. The orcs in these areas number over 400,000. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? But don't worry, these 400,000 orcs are scattered, and their level of weaponry is very low. Therefore, we must not only be fast, but also ruthless! In addition, I have also contacted the border legions on the western front. They will also take the initiative to attack and contain the main enemy force in front of them in order to support our operation here."

After the battle plan was explained, the lords present all expressed no objection. So that night, the ships moored in the new harbor took advantage of the darkness to leave the harbor, and instead of heading east, they sailed west into the fjord.

The fleet, propelled by the rising tide, reached a point eight kilometers upstream. Here, there were gentle slopes on both banks suitable for landing. The fleet lined up side by side on the fjord, and the sailors on board took out chains and planks that had been brought up beforehand from the cabins. On the shallows on both banks, there were pre-built modular pier platforms constructed by dwarf craftsmen, which could connect with the ships on the water to form a huge floating bridge.

The pontoon bridge was completed before dawn, and most of the expeditionary force stationed in Newport started cooking in the early morning. After the soldiers had eaten and drunk their fill, they set off under the starlight and arrived at the location of the pontoon bridge just as dawn broke.

Looking at the bridge on the water, built with boats as piers and wide enough for people and horses to walk on, the soldiers cheered loudly, while the lords accompanying them all admired the skill of Dick's men.

Building a pontoon bridge isn't exactly a brilliant idea, but building it quickly and well requires real skill.

All vessels used for building pontoon bridges have been specially modified, with railings on both sides that can be quickly removed, and the mast in the middle of the hull removed beforehand to reduce obstacles that would obstruct passage.

The piers connecting the two banks are even more interesting. The south bank is human territory, so construction can be carried out openly. The north bank, however, is orc territory, so only two rows of piers were secretly built in advance, disguised as ordinary reefs, but with slots reserved on the top. Before the landing day, engineers would bring the prefabricated pier components and sneak over at night to build them.

Dick's professional engineers built a large pontoon bridge, 1,700 meters long, in less than five hours in the narrow part of the fjord.

Thus, the 20,000-strong Northern Alliance Expeditionary Force, almost completely undetected by the orcs, swiftly crossed the fjord and marched in a mighty force towards the orc tribes on the wasteland.

Chapter 190: This Moment, Just Like That Moment

More than 60 kilometers north of the fjord, in the wilderness, there is a small orc tribe of several hundred people. They call themselves the "Stone Pile Tribe" and use the stone piles stacked into pillars as their tribal totem. The entire tribe has only recently responded to the call of the Beast King Ramon and migrated here to settle down. In the very center of the tribal stronghold is a pool of water that springs up from the ground.

Although the wilderness is vast, the living environment here is extremely harsh. Most of the area consists of barren cliffs and gray-brown deserts, making water the most precious resource.

For a long time, the Shidui tribe were nomadic peoples with no fixed abode. Because their strength was really limited, they were powerless to compete with those large tribes for stable water sources. Therefore, they could only migrate from place to place with the seasons. Until one day they encountered the orc Ramon, and the tribe's fate finally took a turn for the better.

Like many small and medium-sized tribes with limited strength, the Shidui tribe both respected Ramon's power and longed for the promises he made. As a result, the entire tribe followed Ramon and became his supporters.

During the winter war, the able-bodied men of these small tribes joined Ramon's army and, together with Ramon, stormed into human territory and plundered extensively.

The Shi Dui tribe sent over a hundred people to fight this battle, but less than a third of them returned. However, the generous Beast King kept his promise and granted the Shi Dui tribe a "fiefdom" with a stable water source, as well as a full five hundred human slaves.

At first, the old chieftain of the Stone Mound tribe didn't understand what a "fiefdom" was. The orc who came to read the Beast King's orders explained it to them. A fiefdom is land that belongs exclusively to the Stone Mound tribe. This land was a reward bestowed upon them by Ramon in his capacity as the Beast King. Other tribes are not allowed to seize it; otherwise, the Beast King will personally intervene to uphold justice for them.

As long as Ramon remains the Beastmaster, this promise will remain valid forever.

So the Stone Mound tribe moved to this land with the slaves given to them by the Beast King. Sure enough, no other tribes came to compete for it. The human slaves also made up for the tribe's lost labor force due to the war. In the eyes of the orcs, they were a group of talking two-legged sheep who could be driven to work and also slaughtered for meat. Therefore, the orcs called these human slaves "Rupa", which means "livestock" in the orc language.

Because they were living a “wonderful life” that they had never dared to dream of before, the entire Shidui tribe worshipped Ramon, the Beast King, with utmost reverence. The first thing the old chief did every morning was to kowtow to the sky and pray for King Ramon’s health and continued success!

As usual, the old chief got up and began to pray without even eating breakfast. Many men and women from the tribe followed suit and bowed their heads. But before they could finish their blessing, everyone suddenly felt the earth begin to tremble, and the tremors became more and more intense.

Several young men who had fought alongside Ramon suddenly realized something, their expressions changed drastically, and they quickly lay down on the ground to listen carefully before getting up and looking south.

On the distant horizon, billowing smoke and dust were rapidly approaching.

"what is that?"

"The earth is angry (earthquake)?"

"Cavalry! Human cavalry!"

The first to react was an orc veteran with large burn scars on his face. He had fought against the human army and had been to the west bank of the Nie River. He was among the first orcs to witness the charge of the human heavy cavalry and was one of the few survivors of that battle. Therefore, he knew the power of heavy cavalry.

In his experience, human soldiers were indeed inferior to orcs in infantry combat, especially in small-scale skirmishes. Three or five orcs could easily rout a dozen or twenty human soldiers in a sneak attack.

However, the human army's cavalry is very powerful, especially those armored cavalrymen who are covered in armor plates from head to toe, and their impact in open areas is terrifying.

Before the veteran could warn his men, the opposing cavalry had already charged up to their camp.

At this moment, the cavalry at the front suddenly parted, revealing several gaps and exposing the mages they had been protecting in the second row. They had already prepared their offensive spells, and the first move was a round of mid-level area-of-effect spells, Exploding Fire Rain, which directly blasted away the simple fences around the camp along with many orcs.

Of the five hundred cavalrymen, only the fifty riders at the very front of the column were fully armored knights. They served as the spearhead of the column, crushing the orcs of the Shidui tribe like a swarm of tanks. The light cavalry following behind wielded their sabers to harvest the scattered stragglers, while the horse archers flanked from both sides, ensuring that it was a net of annihilation, with no one escaping.

In the first wave of attacks, the old chieftain of the Shidui tribe was trampled into a bloody pulp by the cavalry. The few orcs who were still putting up a stubborn resistance were targeted, and the squad leader in charge of command brandished his blood-stained longsword and roared.

"Kill them all! Wipe out every single one of these beasts!"

"Captain Lauren, are you even killing those orc children?"

Hearing someone question his orders, the squad leader turned and glanced at the speaker, a young mage in a magic school uniform. Lauren remembered him; he was one of only two mid-level mages among the five assigned to his command, making him a priority for protection.

The young mage felt a little intimidated when the captain, who exuded a murderous aura, glared at him. But then he looked at the orc child not far away, who seemed to be stunned by the bloody scene before him, standing there motionless with a fleshy piece in his hand.

Seeing this, Lauren said nothing, dismounted, walked up to the orc child, and snatched the jerky from his hand. The orc child seemed to wake from a dream, bared his teeth, and tried to pounce and bite, but was kicked seven or eight meters away by Captain Lauren, a high-ranking warrior, and died on the spot.

The magician had never experienced the Winter War, and had never killed anyone with his own hands while he was in the academy. He longed to make a name for himself, but he also had the kindness of a young man in his heart and couldn't bear to see this scene.

Captain Lauren walked up to him, handed him the half-eaten jerky, and asked in a mocking tone.

"Guess what kind of meat this is?"

"This... Captain, why are you asking this?"

The magician was momentarily stunned, not understanding what it meant. He subconsciously took the jerky and examined it carefully. Just as he was about to put it under his nose to smell it, he heard Captain Lauren say in a deep voice.