Grugesh’s direct subordinates had mostly finished reorganizing and changing into their new armor. A thousand-man regiment consisted of a thousand heavy-armored ogre soldiers and four or five elite ogre warriors, a formidable force capable of sweeping away several noble fiefdoms.

On top of that, Grugesh had recruited several smaller tribes to fight alongside him. This army was more than enough to inspire despair in the vast majority of the northern lords.

Far away from the front lines, Richard, who was still resting in Barand, had yet to realize the challenge that awaited him.

Having just accepted Baron Bandel’s surrender, Richard was in quite a good mood. In the past, he’d had to rely on cunning schemes and ruthless tactics to expand his territories without declaring war, and every bit of progress had been painstakingly won like a worm slowly gnawing through a piece of wood. Now, however, some lords were showing keen interest in joining him before hostilities even began.

Barand might not be a large territory, but it was a good start. When one is strong enough, they would find that certain things will follow their wishes without any effort on their part.

“Sir, we’ve gathered all the animals you requested.”

Earlier, Richard had ordered Ron to collect as many animals as he could within a day, and Ron had spent the last twenty-four hours carrying out the task.

These strange things were better left to Ron to handle, as far as Richard was concerned.

Ron brought Richard to a large enclosure that contained some thirty different species of animals, ranging from common ones such as cows, sheep, pigs, rabbits, and field mice to more ferocious beasts like giant bears and wild wolves. In a single day, Ron had rounded up just about every type of animal Richard could think of in the northern lands.

To avoid arousing the suspicions of others and spreading strange rumors, Richard ordered Ron to dismiss all the soldiers nearby, leaving only the ones produced by the System.

“Let’s start with you.”

Richard walked toward an helpless mountain goat, unsheathing his sword with a clang. The frightened goat tried to shrink away but was blocked by the fence, powerless to escape Richard’s demonic clutches.

The goat’s blood flowed down the blade, and Richard touched a finger to it, activating the breeding function in the stable tab. His face darkened as he examined the expected results.

Breeding expected effects with northern mountain goat bloodline: endurance -30 percent, speed -40 percent, carrying capacity -30 percent.

“Confirming breeding?”

All negative effects? What was the point of confirming that? Richard’s face filled with distaste as he canceled the breeding process. He hadn’t expected that it would produce only negative results, but then again, his initial expectations had indeed been too optimistic.

After picking up his spirits, Richard began another attempt.

“Speed increased by thirty percent, carrying capacity decreased by twenty percent, stamina decreased by thirty percent.”

Shaking his head, Richard looked at the attributes. Although increasing speed was a good thing, decreasing carrying capacity and stamina made the whole endeavor meaningless.

After canceling the breeding, Richard moved on to the next subject. This time, it was a rare wind bird, a treasure Ron had brought back from the northern lands.

Compared to the livestock from earlier, Richard’s movements were much gentler this time. With a quick slice to the wind bird’s leg, he collected a small sample of blood to activate the stable’s breeding function before releasing the frightened little creature back into the wild.

“Speed increased by sixty percent, stamina increased by sixty percent, carrying capacity decreased by thirty percent.”

The first two attributes made Richard’s eyes shine. Both were significant positive additions, but when he saw the negative effect, his face twisted as if he’d eaten a fly. With such a low carrying capacity, this horse could not be used as a mount for a heavy-armored cavalryman.

“Stringy meat, nothing more.”

Richard couldn’t help but howl in despair. The horse bred with these characteristics would certainly be useful, as the sixty percent speed and stamina boosts were substantial. Such a horse would be worthy of being called a steed, and it would serve light cavalrymen tasked with reconnaissance duties exceptionally well.

The issue was that Richard didn’t lack for reconnaissance options. Griffin aerial reconnaissance was quite satisfactory, and even if they needed to supplement it with ground-based reconnaissance, there wasn’t an urgent need for a specialized reconnaissance horse.

What Richard needed was a strong, powerful horse that could carry a fully armored knight, clad in its own protective armor, and still move swiftly across the battlefield, trampling enemy camps underfoot. He needed a valiant steed, not a swift scout.

“Ah…”

After trying out all the animals, Richard found that there was no breed that satisfied him completely, and he could only sigh.

If he had to pick the tallest dwarf, only the new breed developed from the wild ox came close to meeting Richard’s requirements: “Ten percent increase in speed, ten percent increase in stamina, and a twenty percent increase in carrying capacity.”

Though the increases in each category were modest and fell short of Richard’s expectations, the improvements were still improvements, and the beasts could be used as heavy cavalry mounts, if barely.

The main issue was that Richard’s standards were too high. If one were to use a normal heavy cavalry, they would stop after one or two charges to remove their armor and rest. A warhorse bred from the blood of wild oxen would be more than enough, possibly even overkill.

But Richard wanted his heavy cavalry to be composed entirely of quasi-knight-level fighters, both horse and rider draped in full suits of heavy armor, wielding weapons so massive they’d be better suited to a door. They would need to charge repeatedly while maintaining a certain level of mobility.

In this world, there were humans who could don heavy armor and wield massive weaponry for extended periods, but horses lacked the ability to do so, so such a monstrous unit had never appeared.

Richard had thought he might be able to breed a warhorse far surpassing even the Western Frontier’s great steeds using the stable’s breeding function, and thus form his own armored cavalry.

What a pity. The idea of raising a dragon and draining it for blood was not something he could ignore.

Just as Richard sighed, a rumbling sound emerged from the dirt floor of the enclosure, as if something was trying to break through.

Richard and Ron noticed the movement simultaneously and exchanged a glance. They took positions around the area, alert.

“Rustle, rustle!”

With a shower of dirt, a tunnel suddenly appeared on the flat ground of the enclosure.

A dog-like head poked out from the tunnel, sniffing its surroundings. As it glanced up, its eyes met those of Richard and Ron, and it quickly became alarmed.

“Bark, bark…”

Before the creature could shrink back into the tunnel, Richard grabbed it by the nape of its neck and hauled it out.

This dog-headed man was one of the prisoners kept within the camp. Under Richard’s orders, the allied forces had hunted down and killed every last one of the cannibals, but those who surrendered were taken captive.

Though gnomes were brave, their bravery dwindled when even their masters, the cannibals, fled. Aside from those who escaped or died in battle, there remained at least a thousand gnome prisoners.

The gnomes may have been regarded as mere tools and waste by their masters, but in Richard’s eyes, they were exceptional laborers. Loyal and brave, they ate little and slept even less; they would make excellent miners and road builders, enjoying a life of luxury every day as they toiled.

Yet, unexpectedly, some of the gnomes did not wish to enjoy the blessings provided by Richard, and not only did they refuse, they even dared to run away. In a mere few days, they had excavated a long tunnel. If it weren’t for their bad luck in digging right up to Richard’s feet, they would have escaped.

However, this incident gave Richard a much more direct impression of the gnomes’ excavation capabilities. You seem quite capable of digging; my mines are lacking just such skilled workers.

Holding the pitiful gnome, Richard prepared to execute it in front of the other gnomes as a demonstration of what awaited those who tried to flee.

Yet, just as he was about to climb over the fence, Richard recalled his initial experiments on the unfortunate goat and had a strange thought.

He drew his sword and slashed the gnome’s arm, letting a spray of blood bloom from the creature’s wound. Then he clicked on the training function in the stable window. What the hell, he thought; I’ve got nothing to lose. Besides, I’ve yet to test this feature out.

Speed +60%, stamina +120%, carrying capacity +100%.

Characteristic 1: Robustness—After training, the warhorse will become more robust, its physique growing 20% larger.

Characteristic 2: Cruelty—Hidden deep within its genes is an instinct for cruelty that makes it more excited in the midst of slaughter.

Characteristic 3: Bloodline—With noble red dragon blood, it is unfazed by flames and possesses greater resistance to high temperatures.

So that’s what happened. The red dragon was the culprit behind the disaster…