Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest

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Where did such a big Angel Envoy like me go?

Roman racked his brain but to no avail and had no choice but to recruit all four remaining ones.

The fourth one turned out to be Deacon Seth.

The fifth one was his attendant, the chef Bob.

The sixth one was a guy named Tarma.

The seventh one was called Balrog.

Maybe his luck was really good for the first three times, so for the following four, he drew all One-Star Angel Envoys, and their stats were a plain 5E attribute, indicating they were just ordinary people.

Okay, so here's the question.

Why out of seven Angel Envoys, are four of them his own people?

And why does he have to spend resources to draw them out as Angel Envoys?

As for the other three, he hadn't even heard of them.

Roman racked his brain but couldn't figure it out.

He entered the [Angel Envoy Management] interface and saw the role cards represented by the seven Angel Envoys neatly arranged on a blank interface.

He first clicked into Aaron's character interface and frowned at the sight of complex options such as [Upgrade], [Skill], [Special Weapon], [Transfer], [Token], [Relationship], and so on.

[Upgrade], as the name suggests, unlocks the attribute cap of an Angel Envoy through [Experience Book].

The [Skill] option is the same, used for enhancing the various skills of an Angel Envoy through a [Skill Book].

[Special Weapon] is a weapon crafted exclusively for the Angel Envoy.

[Transfer] is the development direction for Angel Envoys, with many classes such as Vanguard, Guard, Mage, Sniper, Specialist, Heavy Equipment, and these main classes can further be divided into different subclasses.

[Token] involves the mechanism of drawing duplicate characters.

[Relationship] is the degree of influence between Heavenly Destiny and the Angel Envoys.

...

Firstly, experience books and skill books are not available, requiring the synthesis of attribute experience books using extraordinary resources like [Fine Gold], [Mithril], [Mountain Copper], [Steel], and [Magic Stone].

Special Weapons are unavailable, requiring extraordinary resources to forge.

Transfers cannot be performed due to prerequisite conditions.

Tokens cannot be drawn due to lack of resources.

Relationships, however, are quite decent.

The relationship degree between Roman, Aaron, and Green is extremely high, fluctuating between 70% to 80%.

As for the other, unfamiliar Angel Envoys, the relationship isn't as high, basically only around 10%—Roman temporarily doesn't understand how this relationship standard is measured.

Whatever needs to be done requires a large consumption of extraordinary resources.

As a descendant of the Riptide Family, Roman isn't exactly unfamiliar with these extraordinary materials.

After being enfeoffed, all he had left besides over twenty Gold Coins was the extraordinary resources he carried with him.

These extraordinary resources all come from the underground mines.

Any mine has the possibility of gestating Magic Ore, but only after refinement can it be called Magic Stone, or Magic Stone.

And Fine Gold, Mithril, and Mountain Copper through Refining Magic, also have various mystical effects.

Equipping Conquest Knights with them would greatly enhance their combat power.

Conquest Knights are Transcendents.

The levels are divided by rank, from First Rank to Ninth Rank, and a Ninth Rank Transcendent is the peak Transcendent.

Roman believes that when the terrain and scene are appropriate, even the mightiest Ninth Rank Transcendent can't withstand the frontal charge of 100 fully armed, well-trained, fearless First Rank Knights.

Even if they can withstand and kill all 100 First Rank Knights, they will still fall to the 101st First Rank Knight.

Only, the battlefield is complex, and how much chance of success remains debatable.

The gap between low-rank Transcendents and high-rank Transcendents is not absolute.

High-rank Transcendents are often scarce.

The last renowned Ninth Rank Transcendent was the Conqueror Emperor—the first-generation Riptide Grand Duke followed that Conqueror to enter the gates and thus received the Duke title.

But they were figures from more than a century ago.

During the Conqueror's peak, he aimed to open a navigation route in the Nether Sea and build a magnificent fleet, bringing a large number of elite troops, personally embarking on an expedition to a mythical place of convergence.

As a result, he fell seriously ill when crossing the ocean, and his fleet also encountered storms and terrifying sea monsters, ultimately failing to return.

Over a hundred years have since passed, and this land has never birthed a second Ninth Rank Transcendent.

Are Transcendents powerful?

Yes, very powerful!

Roman himself is also a First Rank Transcendent.

He, Green, and Aaron, three Conquest Knights, could kill the entire population of Sige Town, with their only reason to stop being exhaustion.

A farmer facing Conquest Knights is like two thousand sheep encountering three tigers—only to scatter in a panic.

But if those were two thousand wolves that wouldn't flee?

There would be no need for two thousand, just 50 or 30, facing three tigers would yield a very different result.

As long as the gains and losses are comparable, no sacrifice is unacceptable.

But expecting lanky, weak-willed farmers to make sacrifices is your fault.

Roman's theory is essentially that in the face of a large-scale organized army, all Transcendents must bow their arrogant heads.

Perhaps this is due to it being a Fantasy World.

The human clan in this world actually has very formidable physical potential, more fearsome than humans in the past life.

There is no clear threshold between mortals and Transcendents, meeting basic conditions, eating well, targeted training, high-intensity exercise, as long as they don't ruin themselves, they will be First Rank Transcendents.

Hence, world-class weightlifting champions and boxing kings from the past life coming to this world can also be regarded as Transcendents.

Especially some heavyweight boxing champions, their punch attack power, to say the least, is a D-.

Thus, in Roman's view, the ranks of Transcendents are unimportant, and what is most important is how to turn sheep into wolves.

...

Roman gestured to summon a male slave, gave him a few instructions, after which the male slave nodded and quickly went to Sige Town.

Green sat cross-legged on the grass, wiping his Big Sword.

Without raising his head, he said, "Is our noble lord going to pamper his land today again? Please allow it a rest, the people serving it are already plenty."

Roman didn't care about this teasing remark.

"No, I'll be going to Sige Town in a while."

Green froze slightly, his eyes instantly bursting with a sparkle, as he knew Roman was up to something, so he quickly got up, darting into his room like an arrow off the string, "Wait for me... hmm? Aaron, you're so fast?"

From next door, Aaron walked out, clad in shiny armor, with minor amounts of Mithril embedded on the surface of this armor, making the whole set gleam brilliantly.

Holding a closed helmet in his left hand and a Broad Sword hanging on his right side, he said in a calm voice, "As a Conquest Knight, one must always be prepared!"

"Nonsense! You just put on this armor, didn't you!"

It was noon.

Roman, leading two fully armored Conquest Knights and Deacon Seth, rode fast horses toward Sige Town.

After Moor got the message from the male slave, he called all the residents to gather in the town's common ground.

The crowd was abuzz with discussions, while Moor kept wiping the sweat on his forehead with a handkerchief.

Unknown how long they waited until the sun rose higher in the sky.

They faintly heard the sound of hooves and then vaguely saw four figures riding on majestic horses from afar.

The sound of hard horseshoes stepping on the solidified dirt road was extremely muffled, like tramping on their hearts.

Like waiting for a judge's verdict, everyone's heart was uncontrollably nervous.

Roman pulled the reins ahead of time, easing the speed, letting the horse trot to the front of the crowd.

With a scale above a thousand people gathered together, Roman's sight was filled densely with heads, he knew the group before him was his subjects.

His subjects!

This made Roman feel a peculiar emotion in his heart.

Moor came forward, hands down and bending over, bowing deeply:

"Honorable Lord Roman Riptide and Knight lords, thank you for enduring the travel…"

Roman appeared very heroic, with thick hair laid loose on his shoulders, like a newly grown lion.

Due to his long-term training, his face had distinct features, and his voice was also very loud.

"Moor, are these all the people of Sige Town?"

It was the first time the folk of Sige Town heard their lord speaking, and the first time seeing the exalted Agricultural Officer bowing lowly under the tall shadow of their lord.

Moor wiped his sweat and said, "Yes, all the population of the villages are here."

Roman nodded; today was to make a stance and get these people mentally prepared.

He looked toward the crowd in front, at their numb and rough faces, necks shrinking, their expressions cowering, yet from the depths of those stiff eyes flickered a faint gleam.

All awaited with both fear and anticipation for him to clearly convey his intentions.

Compared to the truly numb and rigid farmers outside, there was still a bit of vitality visible on their faces.

Decades without noble oppression, Agricultural Officer Moor oddly behaved like a decent person, without overly harsh treatment of the farmers here, although he allegedly gained significant benefits from it, he wasn't insatiable.

Life was hard, but survival was possible.

Yet his own appearance wasn't very fitting.

These lowly people have probably cursed him ten thousand times in their hearts, hoping he would roll as far away as possible.

But outwardly still maintaining humility and submission, fantasizing about him, this noble lord, showing great mercy, giving them a way to live in the coming days—best if maintaining the status quo, still only needing to hand over fifty percent of the taxes.

Roman dared to assure that if he did issue such orders, these folks might actually worship him.

Of course, being a bit harsher wouldn't matter—in fact, it might actually make them feel secure.

It seems that his previous actions have led to misunderstandings among them.

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