Chapter 161

Wayne followed Thorin for half the town, and outside a low-roofed house where dwarves lived, he met Balin, who was busy smoking pipe-weed; he was an old dwarf whose eyes revealed a gaze of wisdom.

After they met, there wasn't much small talk; Wayne was invited into the house, and the dwarf had no tea, but instead poured him a cup of pure dwarf ale.

"This is Balin, a master architect among dwarves; he participated in the design of many famous buildings in our Dwarf Kingdom, including the royal palace."

"This is Mr. Wayne; he wants to hire a group of dwarf craftsmen to go to the Shire to build an estate."

After a simple mutual introduction, the two sides didn't stand on ceremony and quickly entered the normal transaction process.

Facing a customer like Wayne, who was not short of money, had high emotional intelligence, and was also eloquent, there were no waves between the two sides, and they successfully signed the labor contract very quickly.

According to the agreement between the two sides, about thirty dwarf craftsmen would go to Hobbiton in the Shire to help Wayne build the estate.

However, because they were an outside work team, Wayne needed to provide food and lodging for the dwarves and pay a one-third deposit in advance, about two hundred and eighty Middle-earth gold coins, before the dwarf craftsmen could start work.

This price was actually about the same as what the old hobbit Ford had speculated, conforming to market conditions; the dwarves did not take the opportunity to raise the price.

After the two sides discussed all the matters, Balin told Wayne that the dwarf craftsmen would wait until the day after tomorrow to set off, because many tools and equipment needed to be transported, and personnel also needed to be arranged; this waiting time was necessary.

Regarding this, Wayne naturally had no objections; letting professional people do professional things had always been his principle.

However, since that was the case, during the time Balin and his workers were preparing, Wayne's time became free.

Thinking of the bounty task on the notice board and the reward of three hundred gold coins, Wayne politely declined Thorin's invitation to dinner and said with a smile:

"Prince Thorin, Mr. Balin, you can prepare dinner first; I'll go see if I can find the black bear Beorn."

"Perhaps when I rush back, I can still catch your dinner."

After parting with the two dwarves, Wayne still remembered the surprised and shocked expressions in the eyes of the two dwarves, and felt a little secretly pleased in his heart.

However, these days, if you want others to look at you with admiration, it's not enough to just use your tongue; you have to show real skills.

He quickly found the female painter in Bree town by asking passersby for directions; she was a woman in her thirties named Sodanina, who was very plump and had a good appearance, but unfortunately, her family was happy, with her husband and children by her side, and Wayne was not the type of person to break up a home.

After some conversation, upon learning his intention, the female painter saw that he was alone and immediately tried to stop him, hoping he would not take risks in the forest alone; even if he wanted to hunt the black bear Beorn, it would be best to form a combat team and act together.

Unfortunately, Wayne's attitude was firm, and his words and actions were full of confidence; seeing that repeated persuasion was useless, Sodanina told the witcher everything about the discovery of her brother's corpse and some speculations in the town about the whereabouts of this black bear.

And Wayne also successfully obtained an expert-level task from the female painter.

For these few months, he had only been able to receive ordinary tasks from the hobbits, and he was already a bit bored, while the level of the expert-level task also hinted to him that the strength of this black bear could not be considered powerful.

After saying goodbye to Sodanina and her family, Wayne did not care about the surprised gazes of the people around him, took out the magic flying carpet directly, and then rode it, flying towards the location of the black bear Beorn.

The speed of the flying carpet was very fast, and it ignored the terrain; in less than half an hour, he arrived at the place where the black bear often haunted.

Unfortunately, at this step, Wayne could only rely on luck to find it.

However, obviously, in terms of good luck, he had always been favored by fate.

Just as Wayne was flying silently in the air, searching for dozens of minutes, a huge roar of a wild bear reached his keen witcher hearing.

Wayne was immediately invigorated and flew over following the source of the sound.

The forest outside Bree town had quite lush vegetation, but due to people's logging, the number of trees was not particularly dense; through the gaps between the trees, it was easy to see the scene on the ground.

Soon, amidst a huge noise, he saw a huge black bear chasing an injured wild deer in the forest. The black bear's running speed was very fast, and although the wild deer's movement trajectory was very tricky, after running for about a few hundred meters, it was pounced to the ground by this huge black bear, which opened its bloody mouth and bit off its neck in one bite.

Seeing this situation, Wayne felt a joy in his heart; most wild beasts are at their most relaxed moment when eating, and no matter how strong this wild bear's body is, as long as it is a flesh-and-blood body, it is always quite fragile when facing a sneak attack.

Just when this black bear was observing the surroundings vigilantly while eating flesh and blood in big mouthfuls.

Wayne's flying carpet had already silently stopped at a height of more than ten meters above the black bear.

He slowly drew out the huge treasure sword named Oathkeeper, put a strengthened version of the Quen Sign on himself, and then squatted on the flying carpet, his eyes staring fixedly at the black bear's heart position.

Waiting for a few minutes, just at the moment when the black bear was halfway through eating and lowered its head to gnaw on the deer's internal organs, Wayne's body jumped lightly, leaping down from a height of more than ten meters, holding the two-handed greatsword, aiming at the black bear's heart position, carrying the sound of the wind, like justice descending from heaven, and stabbed it in fiercely.

With a 'puchi' sound, the sound of flesh and blood tearing.

The two-handed greatsword, more than a meter long, penetrated the black bear's fur, bones, and internal organs, and without any obstruction, directly stabbed the black bear through, pinning it fiercely to the ground.

Although the black bear's dying struggle threw Wayne away fiercely, such an action also tore the fatal wound at its heart into a larger wound, accelerating its death.

And after dealing a fatal blow to the black bear Beorn, Wayne did not intervene in the battle again, but cautiously followed behind the black bear, standing outside a safe distance, watching it stagger away with the two-handed greatsword stuck in its heart.

Unfortunately, after escaping less than two hundred meters away, the black bear Beorn could no longer hold on, and with a trail of blood, it pounced to the ground and slowly lost its breath.

Just as mentioned before, as long as it is a flesh-and-blood life, no matter how powerful, it is always so fragile when facing a sneak attack.

Waiting for ten minutes until the black bear Beorn's blood almost stopped flowing out from the huge wound, Wayne stepped forward to step on the black bear's back, pulled out his treasure sword, recalled the flying carpet in the sky, and slowly inserted it into the scabbard.

Looking at the black bear's huge corpse, Wayne pondered for a few seconds and frowned slightly; fortunately, he had prepared thick ropes in his storage bag in advance.

Although the magic flying carpet made by Yennefer was very strenuous to bear the weight of one person and one bear, as long as the magic power output was increased, it could barely fly.

And when he used a rope to hang the huge black bear corpse under the flying carpet and transported it back to Bree town, landing on the town square, only about three hours had passed since he left the town.

Some onlookers saw the black bear's corpse, and looking at its prominent physical characteristics, they immediately understood that this was the black bear Beorn who had been put on a bounty, and soon spread this good news throughout the entire Bree town.

Wayne did not keep a low profile; after putting the magic flying carpet into his arms, he held the sword hilt with both hands, with the scabbard resting on the ground, posing in a confident but calm posture, standing in the town square, accepting the gazes and admiration of everyone.

About ten minutes later, a middle-aged bald hobbit squeezed through the crowd and found Wayne, who was being watched.

After a conversation mixed with exclamation and admiration, this official in the town respectfully offered the bounty reward and loudly announced the good news that Beorn had been eliminated to the surrounding onlookers.

He praised Wayne, the hero who eliminated the evil beast, and announced that he had become a permanent friend of Bree town.

And in order to make this reputation even more widespread, Wayne, who was not short of money, was not stingy at all; he turned his hand and handed this huge sum of three hundred gold coins to the hobbit official, and loudly announced that he would use this huge sum to invite everyone in the town to drink and celebrate together.

Middle-earth is worthy of being an ideal world in fantasy; this move by Wayne immediately caused a carnival and admiration from everyone in the town, and no matter men or women, old or young, all looked at him with worship and respect.

And among these crowds who admired him, Wayne also discovered Thorin, Balin, and a group of dwarves with complex gazes.

However, Wayne did not approach them immediately; he first found the female painter Sodanina, who was crying with joy in the crowd, and completed his expert-level task in a conversation of comfort and blessing.

Then, under the gaze of many people, he walked to the dwarf prince and said with a smile:

"Thorin, there's no need to trouble you to prepare dinner tonight."

"Why don't we use my bounty to have a good drink together."

(End of this chapter)