The next day, Gu Xiaoheng woke up very early.

In other words, it could be said that he did not wake up so early voluntarily. It was the noise made by the dwarves in the courtyard early in the morning that woke him up from his sleep unbearably.

"Oh, this is really... Maeve? Why are you in my bed?!"

Gu Xiaoheng was just about to check the player panel as usual when he saw a pair of jade arms as white as snow hugging his elbows. The owner of the jade arms, Maeve, was lying lazily beside him, deep in sleep.

.

It seemed that Gu Xiaoheng's words woke up Maeve who was enjoying a wonderful sweet dream. The angel sister who woke up in a hurry waved her hand to wipe away the unknown saliva flowing from the sweet dream at the corner of her mouth, raised her head and explained with a smile.

:

"Hey, sir, don't be angry! There was thunder last night. As soon as the thunder shook, I was scared and ran straight to you! You were sleeping too deeply, so I unconsciously fell asleep holding you in my arms.

Well..."

Angel, are you still afraid of thunder???

Facing the guilty expression on Sister Angel's face, Gu Xiaoheng could only wave his hand to let the matter go.

"Okay, Maeve. But was it really thundering last night? Why didn't I hear it?"

"It's true, sir! But the sound of that lightning strike was particularly loud. Maybe someone used lightning skills near the manor."

After nodding his head to agree with Maeve's guess, Gu Xiaoheng went downstairs with Maeve.

...

When he came down from the second floor and came to the first floor hall with a view of the courtyard, Gu Xiaoheng saw what his group of dwarf guests were doing so early in the morning - the dwarves were using the hoof trimming tools in the stables.

, trimming the hooves and replacing new horseshoes for their batch of ponies that serve as mounts!

Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the dwarf team, saw Gu Xiaoheng's figure and put down the tools at hand and walked towards him.

"Good morning, Mr. Eternal! Thanks to the hoof trimming tools in your stable, we can put new horseshoes on the horses in time. Those damn gravel roads have worn out the shoes of our horses along the way!"

The dwarves behind Thorin were busy repairing the horses, but Gu Xiaoheng still saw excessive anxiety and eagerness on the faces of many dwarves. They seemed to be very eager to get on the road, as if they would ride as soon as the horses returned to normal.

Just like leaving.

Seeing this, Gu Xiaoheng couldn't help but feel curious. "Sir Solin, it seems that you are very anxious to get on the road. Is there something urgent that happened?"

Thorin's eyes suddenly darkened, and then he said: "My nephews, Fili and Kili, these two great young men did not arrive here in time to meet us as agreed this morning. We are going to follow the instructions I gave them earlier.

Leave a mark and go back along the main road to find them. Once the horseshoes are changed, we will set off!"

"Okay, let's go with you. Anyway, I don't have much luggage to pack."

Seeing Solin's guilty expression, Gu Xiaoheng smiled boldly and patted his shoulder to comfort him: "There are more people, more effort! Don't worry, there are so many of us, we will definitely be able to find those two of you who don't know who you are.

Of the missing nephew.”

At this moment, Geralt, who was eating breakfast alone in the restaurant, also came out.

After a while, the dwarves who had replaced the horseshoes nodded to indicate that everything was ready and they could set off.

.....

The area around the manor is almost entirely covered with dense woods, holly trees, sentinel trees, pine trees...

Of course, such a large forest is by no means just a small group of life including trees and forest animals. On this morning when the sky was a bit foggy, the forest road welcomed a new group of visitors, Gu Xiaoheng and the dwarves.

Moving along the road, as we get further and further away from the manor, the color of the land in the forest returns more and more to its original essential color - black, brown and a little light gray.

The color of the land can only be seen after removing the thick layer of white snow covering the surface. There is no doubt that the traces of winter have already set foot on this bitter cold land in the north...

This couldn't help Gu Xiaoheng recalling the strange things he and Geralt Maeve encountered when they visited this land a few days ago - encountering Neviron who was cursed to become half beast and half human, and his true body

Verena, the companion of the vampire succubus.

However, since he inherited the bloody manor of Navellon, he relied on the manor's own garrison of forest bears and vampire banshees to clear out the weaker and more aggressive forest wolves and other wild animals in the surrounding woods.

Weird people.

The strange scene in front of me could only be seen after leaving the vicinity of his manor.

Riding the mare named "Carrot", Geralt pointed at the white snow under the horse's hooves and sighed: "Eternity, have you seen it? The long summer that belongs to this land has long passed, and it is enough to cause all things

The cold and dead winter is coming!"

Hearing Geralt take the initiative to talk about the arrival of winter, Gu Xiaoheng couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed and strange.

After all, in a sense, the real leader of the winter in the North and even the entire Kingdom of Cintra is him, the new master who unsealed Frostmourne.

It's really weird to be the mastermind but pretend to be a nonchalant bystander and talk about what he did in the past...

"Stop! This mark..." Thorin, who had always been leading the race on horseback along the way, raised his hand to signal everyone to stop. Then he pointed to a knife-like weapon on the side of the road that was marked with an "X" shape.

The mark explained: "This was done by Fili Qili. My two nephews made another cut on our single horizontal line mark. They must be nearby here!"

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately raised their heads and looked around.

However, to everyone's disappointment, the surrounding scenery still looked familiar: dense trees, snow-covered land, and the familiar chirping of birds... It was nothing like what they saw along the roadside when they came.

different.

"It seems that Fili and Kili are not here. Are they in any danger?"

"Perhaps they were delayed by something last night?"

Facing his dwarf companions shouting their own speculations, Thorin replied categorically: "What could delay them all night in this place less than an hour's walk from the manor? They must be nearby,

Everyone, look carefully! We can’t abandon any of our companions! Any of us!!”

After hearing the leader's order, the dwarves faithfully spread out to search. However, facing the dense bushes and woods, Bombur, who was walking slowly due to his fat body, couldn't help complaining:

"It would be great if Gandalf were here. Wizards are always good at finding people to help them!"

However, what was waiting for him to complain was Thorin's stern tone: "Gandalf has already arrived in the Shire to contact the Hobbit Snitch for us! Gandalf doesn't know how to clone himself and appears here instantly, looking for Fili.

, we can only rely on ourselves for Qili’s affairs!”

[Ding! You have activated the side plot mission 1 of the legendary mission "The Lonely Mountain Expedition": Looking for the dwarves Fili and Kili! Mission reward: The minimum guarantee is 3500 experience points, and there are other unknown items as rewards]

After learning that the mission was successfully activated, Gu Xiaoheng didn't waste any time and directly raised his hand to indicate that he had a solution.

"Don't worry, everyone, I have a way, just look at me!" As he spoke, a black and gray slime spread from the edge of the Frostmourne sword in Gu Xiaoheng's hand, and finally turned into a mimetic history.

Lime's appearance.

Dwarves: What are you doing with a slime?

What Gu Xiaoheng did next really shocked the crowd of dwarves watching.

In almost a few breaths, the slime that activated its mimicry skill transformed its jelly-like body out of thin air into the shape of an eagle that could flap its wings and soar into the sky.

"Go and look for any traces of the two dwarves nearby!" Gu Xiaoheng gave the order and became 100% loyal. The slime in the shape of an eagle spread its wings and flew into the air to look for the two dwarves Fili and Qili.

The trace is gone.

When Gu Xiaoheng turned around, what awaited him were the stunned expressions of the dwarves.

"Torino! Am I right? Slime has turned into an eagle that can really fly?!" Bombur excitedly slapped his big belly. As for the shock of the other dwarves,

Emotions are not much less than his.

The majestic image of Gu Xiaoheng with his incredible skills was immediately established in the hearts of the dwarves. After all, in a critical situation where his companion was suspected of being in danger and missing, having a companion who mastered magic in the team was really reassuring.

After a while, the slime in the form of an eagle flew back and brought everyone a slightly thrilling and heavy news: near a cave not far from everyone, it discovered a row of slime as thick as half a tree stump.

Large footprints and several discarded ropes.

"Thorin, should we go take a look?" Balin, the oldest in the dwarf team with a long gray beard, took the initiative to ask the leader's opinion.

Faced with foreseeable risks, and thinking of his two good nephews and the good boy who were still missing, Thorin gritted his teeth and said resolutely: "Let's go, everyone, bring weapons and be ready to fight at any time!!"

.....

Ten minutes later, everyone looked at each other in disbelief at the long series of huge footprints on the muddy ground that stretched all the way to the dark entrance of the cave at the end.

Picking up the short piece of rope abandoned by the bushes that the Mimic Slime first found, Thorin observed it carefully for a moment and then shared his judgment with everyone: "This was deliberately cut and thrown away. The edge of the knife

I am very familiar with the cutting marks - only Kili would do this."

After a pause, the dwarf leader quietly said the thought that appeared in the minds of everyone present: "Fili, Kili must be in that cave. We need to break in and rescue them!"

When he heard that his group was about to break into the dark cave with no light to rescue their companions, even Bahrain, the most brave and fearless in the team, nervously stared at the long series of huge and terrifying footprints on the ground. saliva.

However, knowing that their companions were in trouble, the dwarves' belief that they would never abandon their companions quickly overcame their fear of unknown enemies of large size. Dwarves are such a loyal and brave race.

The dwarves drew their swords one after another, holding warhammers and shields, and silently followed Thorin and Gu Xiaoheng into the entrance of the "ferocious beast-like" cave, without saying a word of complaint from beginning to end.

....

It was pitch dark inside the cave, and the dim environment made the dwarves and Gu Xiaoheng's group's journey very difficult.

Fearing that raising the torch rashly would alert the enemy to the arrival of the crowd in advance, the dwarves could only huddle together and rely on the "glorious hand" Gu Xiaoheng gave them to light the candle without being discovered.

As for Geralt, the only one in the team who has "dark vision" and can see everything clearly in the dark, he takes the lead as the team leader and takes on the important task of guiding everyone forward.

As they walked, the dwarves felt that they bumped into a tough back - it was Gu Xiaoheng who was walking in front of them and suddenly stopped.

Due to the height difference between them and Gu Xiaoheng, a tall human, the dwarves, who were already eleven people sharing the weak light of a candle, could not see what was happening in front of them. They could only lower their voices and ask: "What's going on?"

What answered them was Gu Xiaoheng's "hush" in as low a tone as possible.

"Geralt said they saw Fili and Kili! Don't worry, they are safe, they are just tied up."

Fili and Kili are still alive?! Hearing this good news, many dwarves, who are naturally optimistic, almost jumped up and clapped their hands to celebrate each other.

Facing the chaotic situation where the dwarves might cause big trouble, Thorin glanced majestically at the dwarves under his command, nipping this blind celebration in the bud.

After suppressing the random and optimistic dwarf companions, Thorin tried his best to squeeze in beside Gu Xiaoheng and inquire about the detailed situation.

"It is true that your two nephews are not injured at all, but their situation is not safe... Look, the enemy is setting up a hot pot right there to cook them!"

As Gu Xiaoheng turned aside to give Thorin space to look at the scene in the distance, Thorin finally saw the reason why Geralt asked everyone to stop.

At the end of the cave, there were three tall giant-like figures sitting around a huge fire made of beech wood.

On top of the fire, a ridiculously huge iron pot was being artificially propped up to emit heat, and two dwarf captives were struggling to prevent the giant figures from putting it into the pot so that they could cook and eat it (oddly). The two brothers (Li and Feili) together formed this terrifying scene.

Under Thorin's gaze, the huge figure sitting on the edge turned around and took a barrel of wine he had snatched from somewhere at his feet.

Under the uncertain firelight, most of the giant monster's face was shrouded in the darkness of the cave, and finally the true appearance of this group of monsters was revealed: a fat head, bent legs, and unusual savage facial features.
Chapter completed!