175: Chapter 175 Frontline Defeat

"Ulysses, I can see that Lord Lister holds you in high regard. You must work doubly hard and not fail his trust and cultivation."

"I will tell your mother, brother, and sister about your situation after I return to Telris. In the future, you can send letters via Lord Lister's Magic Cloud Eagle."

"This is a special permission from Lord Lister, a great grace. Do not push your luck and trouble the Lord too frequently."

At the border area of the Iron Thorn Territory Branch leading towards Coridinglo, Bradley stood by the carriage and solemnly exhorted Ulysses, who had grown much taller and stronger.

Although his tone was somewhat stern, his eyes were filled with deep gratification and pride.

It had only been a few short days since their group arrived at the Iron Thorn Territory Branch.

The originally quite immature Ulysses had already transformed from an ordinary youth who wasn't even an Apprentice Knight into a Bronze Rank 2 Full Knight.

Looking at his son, who had clearly matured a lot, Bradley would have suspected his son was possessed by another person if they hadn't seen each other every day for the past few days.

"I'll leave Mother and the others to you, Father."

Ulysses nodded heavily, his expression firm. "Please rest assured regarding everything else, Father. I will definitely cultivate hard and strive to become a powerful knight as soon as possible, swearing my life to serve Lord Lister."

"By that time, I believe I will surely bring even more brilliant glory to the family."

"Good, good, good!" A rare flash of excitement appeared on Bradley's face.

Ever since Ulysses joined Lister and displayed powerful knight cultivation talent, the ambition to revitalize the family that Bradley had buried deep in his heart had completely surfaced.

He knew well that the family's business could bring them temporary prosperity, but it could not bring eternal glory.

To maintain this prosperity, one must possess powerful strength, and the source of that strength is knights—the transcendents.

Originally, because of the mutual love between his younger daughter Rachel and Spartacus, he had already been somewhat unable to restrain the ambition in his heart.

Now with the addition of Ulysses, he naturally let himself go completely.

One was his biological son, and the other was one of the knights Lister valued and trusted most—a powerful knight who was almost certainly destined to be his son-in-law in the future.

With these two people, why would the Mandy Family worry about not prospering? It might even be possible to become an upper-class family in the kingdom in the future.

The only thing he found a bit regrettable was that he only had one daughter, Rachel. If only he had one more daughter—

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but envy his old friend Kim. With Isabelle there, the Cole Family would likely be even more prosperous than the Mandy Family in the future.

But it might not be too late now. After going back, he could have a good talk with his wife. Having one more daughter shouldn't be a big problem.

After indulging in his fantasies, Bradley looked not far away at Lister, who had specifically given them space to say their goodbyes.

"Lord Lister, as for the supplies you need, I will have the family's local shops deliver them as soon as I reach Coridinglo."

"If you have any other orders in the future, please do not hesitate to notify us. My Mandy Family will definitely do our utmost to complete them."

"As for Ulysses, I entrust him to your care."

Nodding slightly, Lister said with a smile, "Rest assured, Bradley. This place is Ulysses' second home."

There were no redundant polite words, but it allowed Bradley's heart to settle completely.

Finally, after saying a word to Spartacus, he boarded the carriage Lister had specially prepared for him.

The grand convoy that had come was reduced to a single carriage upon return, but it filled Bradley's heart with infinite expectations for the future.

Coridinglo, the Earl's Mansion.

At this time every afternoon, Theodore would sit on the balcony enjoying afternoon tea, but today he was in no mood for it at all.

Looking at the frontline battle report just sent back by the Magic Cloud Eagle on the table, his brow furrowed deeply into a tight knot.

"Second High Orc—Pioneering Lord defeated—urgent need for reinforcements."

After reading this battle report, Theodore rubbed his temples hard with both hands, fearing that if he kept reading, he would get high blood pressure.

In fact, the arrival of a second High Orc as reinforcement had long been within his expectations. After all, as the Count of the Western Border, his intelligence gathering on the Beast Tribe was very deep.

But what truly surprised him was the identity of the High Orc who came to reinforce this time—

According to the intelligence, the Beast Tribe had a total of three High Orcs: the leader Gustat, the Beast Tribe's first warrior Tharos, and the High Priest Bartholomew.

The second High Orc who came to reinforce this time was the High Priest Bartholomew, and it was precisely because of him that Theodore felt surprised.

Because the position of High Priest was of great importance to the Orc tribes, even to some extent no less than the leader.

So most of the time, the High Priest would not show his face, even if the tribe launched a war.

And Bartholomew was even more mysterious; even Theodore had only seen him twice, and both times were only from a distance, with no actual combat experience against him.

But not having fought didn't mean he didn't know the opponent's general abilities. Intelligence penetration had long since ceased to be anything new for both the Human Race and the Orc Race.

Moreover, the abilities of the High Priest position were obvious; Theodore just wasn't clear on Bartholomew's specific abilities.

Montgomery, who was at the front line and felt the same way, was retreating steadily under the combined attack of Tharos and Bartholomew, forced to retreat to the defensive line.

It would be fine if it were two melee attackers, but one melee and one ranged attacker posed a very large threat to Montgomery.

Theodore also felt this was somewhat tricky, but fortunately, the situation was still within controllable limits, so he didn't feel panicked.

However, the defeat of the Pioneering Lords gave him a massive headache and made him furious.

A few days ago, when the Beast Tribe retracted their army, he had sent people to the northwestern region of the Pioneering Territory to issue a military conscription order.

Although these lords were reluctant, they went obediently. He had thought that even if these guys were usually quite poor, they should have some ability.

But who would have thought that after many of them reached the front line and faced the Orc army face-to-face, they would show their true colors? Every single one of them was scared to death and was defeated by the opponent in just a few moves.

While there were lords who weren't afraid to face the Orc army and maintained a fighting spirit, there weren't many who could actually kill Orcs and achieve victory.

One must know that the number of troops from the frontline lords was much higher than the Beast Tribe's army. To be put at a disadvantage like this was simply the joke of the century.

At this moment, Theodore finally understood the "good intentions" of those lords within the kingdom.

After rubbing for a while and finally feeling a bit more comfortable, he looked at the battle report again and let out a long sigh of foul air.

"Sigh~, it seems I must continue to conscript Pioneering Lords. I hope more useful lords will appear in the southwestern region."

He was very clear about the situation in the southwestern Pioneering Territory; they also faced huge pressure from the outside.

But compared to the pressure from the Beast Tribe now, those tribal forces would just have to be set aside for a moment. He only hoped the terror of the cold winter would allow them to suppress any bad ideas in their hearts.

Thinking of this, Theodore ordered loudly to the air, "Summon Commander Wells and all Knight Squad captains to the meeting hall for a meeting immediately."

"Yes, Earl." A respectful male voice came from outside the door.

After sending off Bradley's group in the morning, Lister took advantage of the rare sunny weather to hold a field combat exercise.

The location for this combat exercise was the Tianping Mountain Range. Except for Red, all other knights participated.

For this, Lister specifically ordered the mining workers to all return to their dormitories to rest.

The purpose of the exercise was twofold: one was to train the military command abilities of Spartacus, Sejin, and Aier; the other was to train the field combat abilities of the other knights.

All knights were divided into three balanced teams based on their strength, commanded by Spartacus, Sejin, and Aier respectively.

The first stage was a battle between the three teams. No matter what methods were used, the last team remaining would be the winner.

The second stage was a field individual battle royale training for all Bronze Knights except for the three leaders—Spartacus, Sejin, and Aier. The last person to survive would be the winner.

The third stage was also battle royale training, but the mode was slightly changed: Spartacus and the other two acted as hunters, while the other Bronze Knights were the prey. The last three to survive and evade the "hunt" of the three would be the winners.

The three stages could provide comprehensive training for everyone, greatly enhancing their response to such situations in the future.

Of course, the rewards for the winners were also very generous, all being precious resources to aid in cultivation.

After Red finished reading all the rules loudly, the three small teams, already divided, quickly dove into the Tianping Mountain Range from three different directions like fish entering the sea.

Once the three teams reached their designated locations, the first stage of the exercise would begin upon the signal of Raymond's cry.

Sitting under a small temporary tent, Lister tasted fresh fruit tea while watching the receding backs of the three small teams.

Once their figures completely disappeared, Lister said with a smile, "Red, Thomas, sit down and have some tea together."

"Thank you, Lord Lister." Red and Thomas didn't stand on ceremony; after saying their thanks, they sat down directly.

Joining the tea-tasting group along with the two of them were Christina, Flora, Lucina, and the little ones like Bai Ze, who had all come along.

Because Odinton remained in the territory to handle official business, Lister didn't disturb him to come along.

Of course, compared to tasting tea, Lister felt that Odinton might prefer handling official business.

Odinton: Lord Lister, that's pure conjecture on your part; I like tasting tea too.

Not long after the three teams entered the Tianping Mountain Range, Raymond's cry reached the ears of Lister and the others from the sky.

The first stage of the combat exercise had begun!

However, while it had begun, Lister and the others outside the mountain range couldn't see a thing.

This also made Lister involuntarily think of the tracking shots from his previous life. Unfortunately, making that happen in this world was still a fantasy.

However, Lister did know that some powerful mages, wizards, and other transcendents could use their own powerful magic power to grant special materials the function of remote image manifestation.

Unfortunately, his current wizard power was still very weak and could not achieve such a defiant ability.

Without thinking too much about these things, Lister leisurely tasted tea and snacks while summoning the white ancient book in his mind.

Four divination messages soon appeared one by one before his eyes.

[Divination 1: Due to your excellent reputation for treating Serfs well, Brutus and Locke were able to quickly integrate the Black Bear Territory into the lands of the Ironthorn Territory without much effort. All management and development are proceeding in an orderly fashion.]

Seeing the first divination message, Lister's lips immediately curled up.

The integration situation after acquiring the Black Bear Territory had always been something he cared about very much.

He had thought it would still take some time to completely integrate into the Ironthorn Territory.

Now it seemed he had still underestimated his own reputation, which could actually play such a large role in promoting this matter.

But on second thought, reputation was something extremely important on the road to success for any ruler, regardless of the world, so it wasn't that surprising.

Of course, he was mainly happy and didn't feel any arrogance.

He believed that the efforts of Brutus and Locke in this process were definitely no less significant than the effect of his reputation.

Moving his gaze down to the second divination message, the joy in his heart grew even stronger.

[Divination 2: Because Carlyle consumed the dragon blood fruit you specifically left behind, he successfully advanced to a Silver Knight this afternoon.]

When he left the Ironthorn Territory, he had only left behind one Silver Knight, Locke, which still made him feel worried from time to time.

After all, the geographical location of the Ironthorn Territory could only be described as neither good nor bad; many dangers still existed, such as the Hengduan Mountains and the Mist Forest.

Furthermore, the number of people he had offended before wasn't small. Although he hadn't left any traces, he was afraid that like that Deacon Bentham last time, someone would use remote tracking and positioning on him.

Therefore, having one more Silver Knight in the base of the Ironthorn Territory settled his worries a lot.

He continued to look down—

[Divination 3: The defeat on the frontline battlefield has made Earl Theodore extremely furious. This afternoon, he will dispatch the Golden Knight Wells to reinforce the front line and send messengers to the southwestern Pioneering Territory to conscript.]

The third divination message didn't surprise him, but it did cause a bit of mild astonishment.

What was surprising was that the frontline battlefield had suffered a defeat so quickly.

In his memory, the number of people in the Beast Tribe wasn't very large. If the forces of those Pioneering Lords in the northwestern region gathered, they would definitely far outnumber them.

"It seems those Pioneering Lords are probably not very useful; otherwise, with such a large numerical advantage, it would be absolutely impossible to result in this situation."

After a bit of internal criticism, Lister continued to look at the fourth divination message. His originally good mood suddenly became somewhat heavy.