Chapter 252: Mirkwood and Elves

Seeing that the giant bear had turned back into human form, Wayne blew a whistle at Robin.

Pets raised by Taming Technique are obedient. Having received the master's order, the Deathclaw immediately retracted his claws and no longer pressed the giant to the ground.

The originally ferocious and terrifying expression also instantly converged. Actually, one could see a trace of harmlessness from this huge beast face, making the giant with dense hair quietly breathe a sigh of relief.

Until this time, he climbed up, revealed his dense hair, first looked at the others of the expedition team, and then said to Wayne and others in somewhat raw common language: "Who are you, why are you approaching my house?"

"What kind of creature is this beast with a terrifying appearance, why did he attack me?"

Bilbo, who was riding on a small mare, upon hearing this, immediately retorted:

"It was you who rushed down from the hillside, looking like you were going to pounce on us. You looked so fierce, if we didn't stop it, maybe we would have been eaten by you."

Beorn, who was called by Gandalf, was slightly stunned, then stood up, bowed and apologized:

"Sorry! After turning into a giant bear, my thoughts might be a bit difficult to control. I just saw you approaching my house and wanted to come over and see."

"My name is Beorn, I am the owner of this house, and I don't want to hurt you."

Seeing that his attitude of apologizing was quite sincere, everyone didn't care about anything anymore. After all, this should also be considered the fault of the expedition team, approaching other people's houses without the owner's consent.

However, the reason why they would do this was also because Gandalf said that the owner of this house was his old friend, which made everyone let down their guard.

Facing everyone's questioning gaze, the Grey Wizard was also very embarrassed. He stroked his white beard, his expression sincere, and said to the giant who was a head taller than him: "Don't worry, Beorn, we are here to visit you. Although we haven't met formally, I have known you for a long time."

"I am the Grey Wizard Gandalf. This time passing by here, I am preparing to go to the Lonely Mountain opposite the Mirkwood with this team."

Gandalf's eloquence was very good, lying and coaxing, and saying some ambiguous words, it was very easy to fool Beorn, who was kind-hearted and hated Orcs very much.

This giant, although he didn't like the greedy and stubborn Dwarves, heard that their group had beheaded the famous pale Orc Azog in the Misty Mountains, immediately developed a sense of worship for this team, and his attitude became very enthusiastic. He invited them to be guests at home and took out rich food to entertain them.

As a member of the Skin-changers, they were a semi-giant race from a distant place, generally two and a half meters tall, with dense hair, gentle personality, and also had a sworn enemy with Orcs.

Now, the entire Skin-changer clan only had Beorn and a few others left, and the others died in the siege of Orcs. This was a sworn enemy. Beorn always kept it in his heart and often found opportunities to destroy the actions of Orcs and hunt these scum from dark forces.

Therefore, as long as they were hostile to Orcs and righteous people willing to fight against Orcs, they could get the favor of this giant.

Thus, after a long journey of three months, the members of the expedition team finally found a relatively comfortable residence, rested well in Beorn's huge wooden house for a few days, and relieved the many fatigue of the journey.

And Wayne, by virtue of his superb cooking skills, powerful strength, and the legend of crushing the entire Orc Town alone, easily gained the favor of this giant with a relatively simple personality.

Even in these few days of rest, he helped Beorn complete several expert-level tasks, destroyed several Orc outposts nearby with him, and hunted some large animals, adding many food-like supplies for everyone's journey through the Mirkwood later.

Soon, three days passed in a flash. Everyone in the expedition team had a good rest in Beorn's residence. Although the time was still sufficient, in order to reach the Lonely Mountain as soon as possible, they still proposed to say goodbye to this friendly giant, and under the escort of this giant bear, entered the Mirkwood.

Before parting, this survivor of the Skin-changers stated that if a war between Orcs and them occurred in the future and help was needed, as long as there was a signal, he would arrive immediately and fight against the Orcs with everyone.

Beorn, who could turn into a giant bear, was undoubtedly a powerful force. If he could be put on a giant bear armor, he alone would be equivalent to a small heavy cavalry, invincible on the battlefield.

Gandalf seemed to be waiting for this promise. As a military advisor against dark forces, for thousands of years, his main task was to unite those poor people who were persecuted by various dark races, unite everyone's power, and fight against the Dark Lord Sauron together.

Since many years ago, every time they could defeat the army of dark forces, there was no shortage of this labor wizard running between various forces, handling various contradictions for the alliance of justice.

Of course, the personality of this Grey Wizard was indeed very kind, the kind of good person who could sacrifice himself for others.

Whenever others were in trouble, Gandalf would actively help, and he was not the kind of person who specifically waited for others' families to be broken and then came to use others' hatred for the sake of the overall situation.

Unfortunately, compared to the White Wizard Saruman, the Grey Wizard Gandalf was too compliant with principles and too easy to trust others, so he would often suffer some deception and use, and did not look so powerful.

After entering the Mirkwood, the speed of the expedition team slowed down instantly. Compared with ordinary forests, the trees in the Mirkwood were extremely lush, and they were all huge primitive trees that blocked the sun.

Not only that, the branches of these trees were twisted and complicated, and the roots at the bottom were also tangled, just like one by one tripping ropes, and there was no flat space at all.

The most troublesome thing was that the ground of the Mirkwood was not ordinary grass or mud, but mud and puddles similar to swamps, which made the horses of the crowd very difficult to move forward. In the case of not being familiar with the road conditions, they even often had to turn back because the road ahead was difficult to travel, delaying a lot of time.

However, this time, because of the Grey Wizard Gandalf traveling together, the crowd did not have the phenomenon of fainting because of the dark magic in the forest as in the original work.

The Grey Wizard was best at lifting various curses and traps, possessed profound knowledge, and helped the members of the expedition team solve many troubles. However, the giant spider descendants that appeared in the forest made this Grey Wizard feel very uncomfortable, making Gandalf clearly feel that the power of dark forces had invaded every place in the world unknowingly, constantly breeding and expanding. Perhaps the time for the Dark Lord Sauron to reappear was not far away.

Although Gandalf had already expected this kind of situation, the predicament in reality was more serious than he imagined and had reached the point where it must be dealt with.

Therefore, one day, before everyone went to sleep, the Grey Wizard told everyone a piece of news.

"Sorry, Thorin, Wayne, after everyone walks out of the Mirkwood, I must leave the team first and return to Rivendell."

"The dark power in Dol Guldur is breeding too fast. Radagast told us that the Witch-king of Angmar seems to be gathering his troops there."

"We Wizards must concentrate our power and weaken his power before the Witch-king of Angmar is ready."

"Otherwise, for the entire Middle-earth, it will be a disaster."

After saying such news, seeing Thorin's face a bit gloomy, but not opening his mouth to oppose, he immediately added:

"However, Thorin, don't worry, there are still three months before the secret passage mentioned on your father's map opens. I will definitely come back to find you before this."

"And fight against Smaug with you."

Perhaps because of the painful experience of the broken arm and avenging his father and grandfather, this young Dwarf Prince seemed to have matured a lot.

Although his face was still a bit unhappy, he did not blame Gandalf, but patted the Grey Wizard's shoulder, barely squeezed out a smile, and said:

"Don't worry about us, Gandalf, Middle-earth needs you, this Wizard. Go and fulfill your duty. Come back to find us after you have dealt with it."

"Don't worry about Smaug. We have Bilbo, this thief, and Wayne here, we will definitely succeed."

After a speech, not only did the Dwarves of the expedition team discover the growth of Prince Thorin, but even Wayne had a slight change of view on this handsome Dwarf Prince.

Perhaps the reason why Thorin's personality was so extreme before was because he carried too much. Now that he had killed Azog, this enemy, he had already put down the burden in his heart, showed the spirit that a prince should have, and was no longer as stubborn and stubborn as before.

If the other party really grew up and had the spirit of a king, he didn't mind helping Thorin become the new King Under the Mountain and continue the friendship between the two sides.

Time soon passed another half a month. The expedition team kept moving forward in this endless dense forest and had already reached the deepest part of the forest.

Here, they discovered more and more giant spiders, and many places that were difficult to detect were left with a large number of spider web traps by these monsters in the dark.

In this dense forest where there was no sun shining and the line of sight was not clear, it was full of dangerous traps and predators waiting for prey at any time.

However, this environment, although very dangerous and makes people feel uncomfortable, the journey of Wayne and others was not as dangerous as imagined because of the existence of the Deathclaw, this super-standard existence.

Whether it was swamps, giant spiders, or dark magic, these fancy things were just minor tricks in front of the Deathclaw, who was eight meters tall and had incomparable strength.

Since Robin was arranged by Wayne to explore the way in front, most of the difficulties in the Mirkwood were like decorations.

Whether it was tree roots or giant spiders, they could not stop the Deathclaw's advance.

Sometimes when crossing the swamp, Wayne would directly order the Deathclaw to cut down the surrounding trees and use them as floating bridges on the mud, allowing everyone to pass better.

And those giant spiders in the dark, although their intelligence was relatively low, they were not fools like beasts. They were descendants of the evil Ungoliant, and like the Wargs of the Orcs, they could even be classified as intelligent races. They were all creatures that had their own thoughts and could communicate.

Facing an enemy like the Deathclaw whose appearance could not be countered at a glance, they would not take the initiative to provoke it at all.

A few days later, when the expedition team struggled to pass through the depths of the dense forest, Wayne suddenly felt that a group of people seemed to be surrounding them.

He reached out to stop the team from moving forward, looked up at a shadow above his head, and sure enough, found a swaying human figure.

Without being polite, Wayne threw a stone with force, bang, directly smashing a humanoid creature wearing armor from the tree, making a painful groan. Looking at his appearance, it was a handsome male Elf.

In an instant, not only did all the Dwarves pick up their weapons and make a defensive posture, but dozens of Elves wearing green armor and holding huge bows and arrows suddenly appeared on the trees, looking at each other nervously.

And as if feeling the vigilance of the master, the Deathclaw, who was originally walking honestly on the side of the team, immediately opened his bloody mouth and let out a huge beast roar that resounded through the entire dense forest, making everyone's eardrums ache faintly.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 253 =====