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LOTR: TMCP Ch. 18
🕑 Added 2025-07-08 16:19:43 +0000 UTCNot knowing how to ride a horse? This problem didn't trouble Garrett for long.
Under the innkeeper's watchful gaze, he clumsily mounted the horse. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the innkeeper several times almost reach out to help. Yet, the moment he successfully got on the horse, a familiar sensation surged through him.
It felt... similar to cooking.
Whenever he wanted to move, the horse beneath him seemed to respond in perfect sync with his intentions. As soon as he had a thought, the horse would act accordingly.
It was the system, it was assisting with the controls.
He could tell that this assistance could still be overridden at any time; he could take over with his actual skills if he wanted. But for now, he had no intention of doing that.
With the system's help, he immediately felt more confident.
---
Early the next morning, Garrett rode one horse and led another, went to a farmer's house to retrieve two chickens, put them into a cage, and set off on the road.
This return trip wasn't any shorter than the journey there. Although the horses ran faster than he could, they still needed rest and feeding.
When he finally saw Wayfort again, he let out a sigh of relief. There were no signs the stronghold gate had been tampered with, so it seemed things had been peaceful.
After settling the two horses and two chickens, he returned to the stronghold to organize his supplies.
First came smelting.
He tossed all the gold items he'd bought from Bill into the salvage smelter. Luck was on his side, and he ended up with four gold ingots and a single gold nugget.
He immediately crafted two golden carrots.
Garrett went over to the horses and held out a golden carrot to one of them. The horse seemed curious about the golden carrot. It didn't bite right away, sniffed it first, and after confirming it was just a different-colored carrot, took a bite and started chewing.
Soon after, a few red hearts appeared above its head.
Wasting no time, he pulled out the second golden carrot and fed it to the other horse.
The two horses naturally leaned in toward each other.
Not long after, a notification sounded.
[Achievement Unlocked: "The Birds and the Bees"]
[Description: Successfully bred a pair of animals.]
Looking again, a slightly dazed-looking foal was now nestled between the two adult horses. One of the horses seemed startled by the sudden appearance of the foal, widened its eyes, and backed away several steps.
But Garrett was overjoyed.
He got lucky.
The foal had a speed stat of 11, inheriting the genes of the fastest horse. Its health was at 26 points.
While the two adult horses were still curiously inspecting their spontaneously-appearing offspring, he brought out the two chickens and fed them wheat seeds.
Before long, a chick with bright, alert eyes was born.
Looking at those intelligent eyes, he couldn't help but think, These creatures all look so much wiser when they're young.
At that moment, with a foal in his left hand and a chick in his right, he felt the future looked bright indeed. He didn't even bother resting that day, he grabbed a pickaxe and some cobblestone and started tearing down and rebuilding the stronghold walls.
In just one day, he expanded the territory to more than double its original size. He also set up new agricultural and livestock zones, along with a dedicated horse paddock and feeding area.
At this point, the territory around Wayfort was already quite substantial, tens of thousands of square meters. Anyone who saw it would probably assume it belonged to some high-ranking lord.
During the expansion, he didn't forget to continue breeding animals. Once there were at least two offspring, the original two horses and chickens were no longer essential.
After some thought, he fenced off a separate area to keep the original animals apart from the newly bred ones. With that done, he continued planning the agricultural zone.
Pumpkins, wheat, potatoes, carrots, corn, onions, ginger, garlic...
Another day passed. Looking at the neatly organized zones before him, he felt a deep sense of satisfaction.
The crop seeds were growing well, and although the pasture was still somewhat sparse, it would surely fill up as breeding continued. As for the horses, he only had a few so far, and gold was running low, so breeding had to be put on hold. Still, he at least had horses to use, horses that could run continuously without resting, with a fuel consumption of just three blades of grass per hundred kilometers, and even those were more symbolic than necessary.
All in all, Wayfort was thriving.
That night, the first perfectly cube-shaped pumpkin grew from a vine, ripened with the help of bone meal.
He placed it atop an iron block and summoned the first iron golem of his territory.
Clang!
The moment the iron block and pumpkin touched, they fused together, transforming into a three-meter-tall iron construct with long arms, covered in moss and vines.
Unlike the blocky version in the game, this iron golem had a more realistic appearance, its form was somewhat more rounded, but that dopey expression remained unchanged.
As soon as it was summoned, the iron golem began patrolling the territory, wandering here and there. The golem's targeting system was simple: If hostile, attack. If not hostile, ignore.
---
A day later, twenty iron golems now roamed the stronghold.
With so many guardians, any small group under a hundred could easily be dealt with. Even several hundred orcs wouldn't be impossible to handle. It could be said that the territory's security now had a solid foundation.
And so, another week passed.
The crops in the territory had already yielded their first harvest. Seeing the stored vegetables in the warehouse, Garrett felt genuine satisfaction from the abundance.
That very night, he pulled a few onions and made sautéed beef with onions. It was absolutely delicious.
This life... felt like something out of a dream.
One day, while he was out mining as usual, he spotted three wild cattle drinking by the lake.
He immediately changed course and quietly crept toward them. This time, instead of charging in sword-first, he spent considerable effort corralling one of them, subduing it, and bringing it back to the stronghold.
[21/30]
These wild cattle really were different, so much health!
The next day, he lay in wait by the lake again, and eventually spotted another bull.
Same approach, subdue it, drag it home.
And just like that, the two cattle now had each other's company in the pasture. Garrett, in return, had unlimited milk and successfully bred two calves using wheat. His future meat supply was now secured.
This was what you'd call a win-win, he won twice.
After the cattle, he discovered wild boars wandering nearby. So he repeated the same method: Hide, approach slowly, trap, subdue, drag home.
Once the wild boars were settled in, he also took the time to build a simple egg collection system. Basically, it was just a few hoppers placed under the chicken coop, connected to a chest. That way, he wouldn't have to collect eggs by hand anymore.
Ever since returning from Bree, his past two weeks had been incredibly productive, he hadn't been idle for a moment, always mining or tending to crops and livestock.
As a result, even though he was constantly using iron, his inventory kept increasing. And the iron vein he was mining showed no signs of depletion, the supply still seemed abundant.
Everything was progressing smoothly, and resources were accumulating steadily.
Two days later, he prepared to head east.
Early in the morning, he saddled the faster of his horses, equipped it with iron horse armor, and was just about to depart, when an unexpected visitor arrived.
Halbarad.
"Hey there!"
Fully equipped, Garrett greeted him from afar. "How have you been lately?"
"Well enough."
Halbarad glanced around Wayfort, looking surprised. "This place seems... different. It appears much larger, and..."
He looked at the farmland and pastures within the walls and added, "I don't recall seeing any of this during my last visit..."
"Oh, I planted all that just a few days ago."
A few days ago?
That corn looked like it had been growing for two months!
Never mind, logic doesn't really apply to this fellow.
As a Ranger, Halbarad had slowly learned to accept Garrett's peculiarities. He looked at Garrett, dressed for travel and leading a somewhat vacant-looking horse, and asked, "It seems I've come at an inopportune time. Heading somewhere?"
"Yes, I'm planning to visit Rivendell."
"Rivendell..." Halbarad gave Garrett an appraising look.
"I know the way, there's a small trail across the plains that leads there. I hope you don't lose your way."
The experienced Ranger began explaining the route to Rivendell.
