For Rhodes, time is his biggest enemy.

After the Midsummer Festival, there is still half a year to enter the winter rest period. During this period, Rhodes' mission can be said to be very heavy - he not only needs to build the fortress, but also complete two five-star tasks to ensure that his guild will not be demoted, but also train his subordinates to prepare for the war that is likely to occur next year. Through Chauvin's intelligence network, Rhodes has obtained a lot of information about the Kingdom of Light. As he expected, now the domestic turmoil in the Light is continuing, and the approval rating of the president of the parliament has dropped to the extreme. It seems that it will be difficult for him to be re-elected next year.

However, not everything has developed like history. From this information, Rhode also learned that because he had solved the trouble of blocking the trend of trade, the stagnant trade exchanges have reopened, which has made the opposition in the country of Light not as strong as in the history of the game. On the other hand, because Parfield did not cause riots, Grand Duke Lydia had enough energy to free up his hands to face the possible situation in the Kingdom of Light. Rhode trusted Lydia's political wisdom very much. Before leaving Golden City, he had a very short exchange with the other party in private.

At that time, Rhode had already vaguely raised the threat about the Land of Light, and judging by Lydia's appearance, she also had Chen Zhu in her heart. But because of this, Rhode couldn't say too much. He now understands that the prophet is not that easy to be. Sometimes you know the correct history, but you can't believe what you say, because in your opinion, the established future has countless possibilities for them. Just like because of personal experience in the game, Rhode believes that the Dark Dragon Kingdom will take this opportunity to attack, but for those who live in the present, whether the Dark Dragon Kingdom will attack is still an unknown.

Fortunately, Lydia also knew that the new successor of the Dark Dragon Soul was a very strong person, and she also knew the situation in the Dark Dragon now. After learning about this, Rhodes could only say that. Since Lydia already knew about the Dark Dragon and now there was no trouble with Parfield and Fengshang's trade route. Then there should be no problem. Of course, if history really changes, then it is naturally a good thing for Rhodes. And if history has not changed, then it is very important for Rhodes to prepare for the future.

Although the situation seems optimistic, Rhodes feels that this battle may eventually be inevitable.

In the history of the game, the reason why the Kingdom of Light triggered the conflict in the Soragang Mountains was that the president of the Light Country Parliament had fallen and he could not be re-elected, so he colluded with military generals who supported him to try to develop the Soragang Mountains incident into a local war. He also hoped to obtain re-election and return the support of the people.

However, the old man with dizzy eyes did not expect that this time the Dark Dragon Kingdom did not maintain restraint. The reason was very simple. The newly appointed Dark Dragon Soul heir has a strong personality. After he took office, in order to enhance national strength, he made certain changes to the originally strict system.

The Dark Dragon Kingdom is a country with a very strict hierarchy. This is not only determined by its system, but also by the people living in it themselves. In the Dark Dragon Kingdom, most of the lives are dark creatures, including death knights, lichs, corpse ghouls, bloodsuckers, dark elves, etc. Since most of the Dark Dragon Kingdom are undead creatures, this also causes their power level to be incapable of resisting the high-level death knights, and ordinary

Corpse ghouls cannot violate the command of the blood-sucking species. This is determined by the characteristics of the undead creatures themselves. They are originally undead who have lost their lives and continue to survive by unnatural powers. Because of this, the strength of their power directly determines the IQ and ability of these undead creatures. Therefore, the hierarchy of the Dark Dragon Kingdom is very strict. You can't let a high-level blood-sucking species communicate with a corpse ghoul who is not even organized in a good manner. The latter's IQ has not yet developed.

Therefore, in the Kingdom of Dark Dragon, there is a system of pyramids. At the top is the Dark Dragon itself. Further down are the four demon generals - "Soul Chaser" Baronde, "Blood Earl" Esvir, "Master" Garcia, and "Fallen Angel" Shalier.

Among them, except for the "master" Garcia who is a human, Baronde, Esvère, and Shalier are all racial leaders of the undead, blood-sucking species and the fallen angels. This force structure has lasted for many years until the reform of the new Dark Dragon Soul came.

In order to enhance the power of the country, the new Dark Night Dragon Ion promoted several "lower races", including the dark elves and gray dwarves, some original "lower races" were valued, which naturally caused a conflict between the old nobles and emerging aristocrats. After all, political resources are limited, and the cake is so big, one more person is less. Moreover, the four demon generals generally look down on those lower races, so they are naturally unwilling to let them share resources with themselves.

It is precisely because of this that the current political situation in the Dark Dragon Kingdom is also very ups and downs. Emerging forces need to perform enough to prove that they are worthy of this qualification. The old nobles need to safeguard the interests and dignity of their own race. It is useless to just rely on their mouths and must be proved.

War is the best way to resolve all these disputes. Once the war begins, the Dark Dragon Kingdom can obtain additional resources and land to allocate them to emerging races, and the old nobles can also use this to show their strength and majesty, and swear that they have enough power to ensure their status. For emerging races who are eager to gain recognition and enhance their status, war is also the fastest and most convenient way for them to enhance their strength and show their importance.

However, the Dragon Kingdom of Light did not notice the undercurrent flowing in its neighbors. They foolishly thought that this provocation would be the same as before, and the two sides would quarrel, and then declared the situation tense, and took advantage of this time to exclaim. At most, a local war would start, and it would end soon. They did not expect that for the Dragon Kingdom of Darkness, they would doze off, someone sent a pillow. Soon, the Dragon Kingdom of Darkness developed the local war into a full-scale war.

Rhodes could persuade Lydia to be careful, but he was out of reach for the Council of Light. If the other party was so stupid that he wanted to start a war on the Dark Dragon Kingdom, then Rhodes really had no choice. I'm afraid even Lydia could not do anything - you can pull someone away and tell him to tease the ferocious hunting dog is a very dangerous thing. But if that person insists on going up and getting bitten, you can't defend it no matter how hard you are.

As for being thrown down by a hunting dog and bite off your neck, it is even less than what you can influence.

If it weren't for the Duchy of Mun that had half the buffer zone at the junction of the two countries, then Rod wanted the Dark Dragon Kingdom to attack the Kingdom of Light as soon as possible, so that the other party could not cope with it. At least in that case, they would have no time and energy to attack Moon.

Unfortunately, this possibility does not exist, and in the end, you still have to find a way by yourself.

Standing on the balcony and staring at the mercenaries below, Rod nodded slightly.

“Is this what we picked out?”

"Yes, leader."

Canary stood beside Rhodes and smiled slightly. After she and Xiao Xiao Bubble Gum appeared, the power structure of the entire guild changed again. Of course, there were not much changes in general. Marlene was still in charge of the vice president's affairs, while Lijie was still the representative of the spiritists. Shana was also the captain of the entire stronghold garrison, and Cabos and Anne's positions did not change at all. Canary and Xiao Xiao Bubble Gum were only responsible for training. Of course, Rhode also told others that if you have any questions, you can ask Canary and Xiao Xiao Bubble Gum for advice, but at most they were consultants. Because neither of them could leave the stronghold, it was naturally impossible to do those complicated tasks.

But in fact, the power of the two is almost the greatest in the entire mercenary guild except Rhodes. The reason is that everyone in this guild except Rhodes must train under their hands.

And at this time, everyone realized that their training method was really unique, of course, thanks to the blessing of the Mystery Ball.

After activating the semi-plane space of the Mystery Ball, Rhodes can create various scenes and virtual enemies to train, and those losers will not die, but will be forced to send them out - this is very similar to the dungeon in the game. In fact, Rhodes also brushed it as a dungeon.

For these mercenaries, this period of training was a nightmare for them. Everyone was broken up and combined into different groups, and next, they would enter the semi-plane space led by canary and small bubble gum, where they would welcome the enemy's battle.

At the beginning, the two people's request was very simple, just to require these mercenaries to eliminate the enemy within the established time and complete the tasks. However, with the deepening of training, various rules and restrictions began to increase - for example, the spirit master must ensure that how many people survive when the training is completed, and the warriors responsible for defense must ensure that how many spell casters can survive to the end, and others also have various tasks to complete. They not only need to learn how to maximize their strength, but also learn how to avoid attacks, cooperate with others to protect themselves and their companions. Learn how to "beautiful and forward-looking consciousness and sharp micro-work" - to be honest, they completely don't understand what these two ladies mean.

The mercenaries were in pain, but for the canary and the little bubble gum, it was also in pain.

The biggest difference between players and indigenous people is their attributes and talents. The player's talent tree is common, and the only tendency is to specialize in the direction. Just like Canary is the mage who maximizes output, she will naturally specialize in the Fire Wind talent, while the little bubble gum controls the flow, so her talents are basically auxiliary.

In other words, players' talents grow straight and have traces to follow. But on the other hand, the talents of the indigenous people are tilted and grow, and they all have them. It is no wonder. After all, they are not players, and they cannot intuitively see the development of their talents. Naturally, they will train in which aspects they think are suitable for them. As the saying goes, no one is perfect. You cannot expect a spirit master to output, nor can you expect a mage to do mt. In this way, the effect will naturally be very tragic.

Xiao Xiao Bubble Gum has complained to Rhode more than once. She felt as depressed and painful as taking a copy with a group of rookies who had never played online games and who had been randomly added to the point of the randomness. What's even more depressing is that these rookies can't wash and delete the account and practice again. The latter sentence has become a popular term for the mercenaries in the Starlight Guild after Xiao Xiao Bubble Gum repeatedly complained. When they think that someone's performance is too bad and is not good at all, these mercenaries will pat the other person's shoulders by the way of Xiao Xiao Bubble Gum, and then said with a look of regret that "You can't. Delete the account and practice again..."

Of course, they themselves don’t know what “delete the account and practice it again” means.

Training is painful, but for these mercenaries, it is also exciting.

At the beginning, many people were actually not satisfied with this rigorous training. They only barely continued to carry out for the sake of the two strong men. However, with the deepening of the training, they were surprised to find that their strength had improved leaps and bounds. In the past, they could not break through a little even if they were training for ten days and half a month. But now, after almost every day, they can feel that they have made some progress, and it is not a little bit or two.

In this regard, there is a bonus of the Mystery Ball - within its influence, the training speed is three times higher, which naturally has a great impact on these indigenous people. More importantly, the points of Rhodes, Canary and Little Bubble Gum. In fact, the so-called talent tree is just to digitize people's efforts and intuitively reflect it. This is like a person full of artistic cells but without a mathematical mind. He does not upgrade his "art" talent, but instead adds all skill points to "mathematics" that can only be upgraded to level three or five levels. As a result, his ability is not exerted, and his potential is not enough to improve to mathematics.

The top end, nothing will be achieved. Now, Rod and others carefully observe the fighting methods of those mercenaries to give them the appropriate "upgrade route". Some people are good at defense, while some people like to attack. Some people have a good sense of technical rhythm, while some people have a strong sense of overall situation. These people have not been able to make breakthroughs before. This is largely because of this. They cannot see the conflict between their talent tree and their professions, so they naturally cannot make good judgments and training directions. Now, with the guidance of Rod and others, these mercenaries who have found the right direction will naturally become more and more adept at training. After tasting the sweetness, these mercenaries

In the first half of the month, Rhodes was almost exhausted. Every time he trained, he would follow the team to go in, observe their battles by the mercenaries, and talk to them one by one after the training, pointing out their key points, the direction of training and the shortcomings that need to be supplemented.

Marin and others were not idle either. Although their training direction had been designated by Rhodes, their tasks were far from being so. They not only had to fight with the team, but also had to give orders, sort out the battlefield, and command their subordinates. Among them, Marin, as Rhodes' deputy, needed to grasp the overall situation and make adjustments at any time. Lijie had to lead the spirit master to protect and heal other mercenaries. Both of them had high understanding and did a good job.

But on the other hand, Annie... could only shake her head.

Originally, Rhodes and Canary had the idea to ask Anne to lead the shield warriors to protect, but they soon discovered that Anne performed very well in personal battles, but if she had to lead the team, she had no idea what to say. For Anne, her command had only two simplest commands, "Everyone! Come with me!" and "You go first! I'll take it!"

Of course, this kind of command cannot integrate the entire body well.

In the end, Rhode had to make a new decision to let Anne be responsible for protecting Lijie and other spellcasters. In the regular battle, Mt is divided into two layers, one layer responsible for the outer protection and the other layer responsible for the inner and outer protection. Originally, Rhodes' idea was to let Anne command two layers of protection at the same time. But now it seems that as long as Anne takes the inside out, he will be grateful. As for the outside protection......it is only possible to find others. Of course, finding people is a long process. Before that, Rhodes can only serve as a part-time job.

Although there is a bonus of the Mystery Ball, it took a whole month and a half to achieve the goal required by Rhodes - now, it is almost June. Rhodes is ready to set off to the Land of Atonement. His primary goal is to build a fortress, and next, he will face two five-star missions.

"How many people are there in total?"

"There are 25 people in total, the leader of the group, just the number of people in one group. Their loyalty is beyond doubt, and their strength can stand the test."

Hearing Canary's answer, Rhode sighed and then looked down. At this moment, the twenty-five mercenaries were standing there seriously, arranged in a straight row. Although their number was not large, Rhode knew very well that these twenty-five people were elites who passed all the training and assessments and completed the target tasks perfectly. It can even be said that these twenty-five people already possessed a certain level of player level.

"Of the twenty-five people, there are eleven swordsmen, two shield warriors, three spirit masters, five rangers and four thieves, plus Miss Marlene, Miss Lige and Miss Anne... I think there should be no problem."

"Hope so."

Rhode nodded, his face also loosened. He had been exhausted for the past month and a half, but it also made Rhode miss him a little - he remembered when he had just established a guild. In order to make the new members who joined the guild feel a sense of belonging to the guild, Rhode helped them to set up a dungeon, give them some skills, and tell them some battle experience. Every time he set up a dungeon, he had to remind them to point it again and again, and let them not be nervous... Looking back now, the nanny-like life was very tiring, but it was very fulfilling. The foundation of Starlight was also laid out in this way. Those rookies later became important figures in the Starlight Mercenary Group. Some of them chose to leave, but most of them stayed in the end.

So, among these people, how many people can stay until the end?

After I left, I will leave the stronghold to you. Watch it carefully and contact me anytime if you have anything to do... and help me take good care of Christie."

"I understand, leader."

Canary smiled and nodded, then she looked at Rhode intentionally or unintentionally.

"Bubble has a very good relationship with her, I don't think you need to worry about this."

"I understand, that's why I'm worried about this... I'm sorry."

Rhode smiled bitterly when he heard Canary's answer. As Canary said, Xiao Xiao Bubble Gum and Christie had a very good relationship. At the beginning, they all expressed some surprise at Christie's existence, but they still accepted the girl very quickly. For Christie, Xiao Xiao Bubble Gum is the closest existence to her in the entire guild, and the relationship between her peers is always better. For Xiao Xiao Bubble Gum, she also likes Christie's plain and gentle attitude. Compared with those rigid NPCs that only talk to her "adults" at all, Christie is much closer.

Of course, Rhodes was not worried about the problem with their relationship, but he was worried that some habits that were not worth learning from were also transmitted to Christie... If it really turned out like that, it would be a big cutlery for Rhodes. So, in desperation, Rhodes had to ask Canary, hoping that she could watch Little Bubble Gum and not let this second-second lady infect Christie, who was originally well-behaved and obedient, become secondary. If it really turned like this, Rhodes would not even cry.

"When are you going to set out? Leader?"

"In two days, after all the preparations are done, we will set out. I want to try to get faster and clear all obstacles to the forest trails by July."

Hearing this, the girl lowered her eyes, as if she was thinking about something. Then, the Canary raised her head slightly and leaned into Rhode's ear.

"Then, wait a moment... come to find me later, the leader." (To be continued)
Chapter completed!