章節 123: Chapter 14

The reports Ben's generals imparted to him were hard to calmly listen to. The price they paid to stop the Rodara invasion was higher than Ben could have imagined. The main reason was his troops had been scattered during the defense of Woodford City and he had pitted such a small force of men against the large Rodara army.

The wounded and dead were teleported back to Dragonshome. The wounded were placed in the Hospital and the dead were buried with honors in the Cemetery located between Dragonshome and the sect.

Ben began to rethink his policy of coming to the aid of others with his military in the future. He prevented his stores from being captured by the Rodara Kingdom, but the losses of his men were just as devastating if not more than losing a couple stores.

When he thought about it rationally there wasn't any proof the Rodara Kingdom would have even interfered with his businesses. The initial trouble caused by the Rodara troops were not purposely directed at him.

His pride did not allow him to submit to being extorted and his people paid the price. In his anger, he wanted revenge and to strike back at the Rodara Kingdom and his people had once again paid the price with their lives.

The consequences of his actions were much different from the games he always loved to play. He had learned a lesson during this short campaign to choose his battles wisely and to pick his fights when and where he had the advantage.

Deep down he knew he wasn't much different from the Rodara King. Ben wanted to rule lands on this large continent. With so many people living here and the higher levels of Qi and Mana present, it was hard not to want to expand his kingdom to this new continent.

The Rodara cultivators were the perfect excuse for him to declare war and to counterattack the Rodara Kingdom and fulfill his desire to claim a corner of these new lands for himself.

Even though he knew he had changed and was now like the other king's who set their covetous eyes on their neighbor's lands, he still chose to proceed with his plans to invade the Rodara Kingdom.

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[New Continent Map]: https://i.postimg.cc/sxBKQfb1/Novel-2-Map.jpg

Now that he had stood beside the Caegon Dynasty to eliminate the invasion it was the perfect time to make a move on Rodara before they or any surrounding kingdoms found out Rodara had actually lost eighty percent of their fighting force.

The Caegon Monarch had warned Ben that there should have been some men left in reserve at the capital city from the levied civilian troops to protect the capital against outside attacks from the northern kingdoms during their invasion.

The troops defending the Rodara capital city would be close to the same numbers as what Ben would bring along to attack. This did not worry him if he could use his elite troops to work as one cohesive unit without the interference of allied troops he believed he could win with very few casualties.

The Caegon Monarch had also warned Ben to keep an eye on the northern Kingdoms. Their civilians were experienced combatants. Every winter the beasts from the north would come down from the northern highlands to raid the northern kingdoms.

For some reason, these beasts would only attack the lower kingdoms during the winter. Once it began snowing in the lower kingdoms the northern kingdoms would begin recruiting civilians to fight against the continuous raids into their lands.

Ben was also told those northern kingdoms used the threat of their experienced troops to force the southern kingdoms to send them food. The elevation was much higher in the northern kingdoms and the sandy rocky soil made proper farming difficult.

With not being able to farm enough food for their large populations and the winter raids of the beasts it put the northern kingdoms in a position where they had to look outside their kingdoms for food.

It had all started out as a mutual agreement for the weaker southern kingdoms to sell food to the northern kingdoms for discounted prices. Over time the northern kingdoms grew arrogant. They felt if they were the ones who were protecting the southern kingdoms from the savage beast men raids they should be given better deals. Over the years they continued to pressure and threaten the lower kingdoms for better food prices to the point they were no longer paying for the food they received.

If one of these aggressive northern kingdoms had found out Rodara Kingdom's military might was in such a disadvantaged state they might make a move before Ben could. If they were bold enough to force them into sending them food for free through treats, why wouldn't they simply invade Rodara when they were now in such a pitiful state.

It could be even worse if they all joined their troops together and sent them down to fight against Ben. If those three kingdoms were to seriously pool all their troops together it could be possible for them to send an army of close to one hundred thousand men.

All Ben could do is cross his fingers and prepare to invade Rodara before word of what had happened made it back to one of these northern kingdoms. Once those northern kingdoms heard of his military strength he hoped it would persuade them from attempting to pressure Avalon into sending them free food.

'I should head back and get everything taken care of so that I can get a foothold in the Rodara capital city before any more trouble is sent my way.' Ben thought as he cast Zoom to teleport off to Dragonshome and begin preparing for the Rodara invasion.