It can be seen that the news that the approximate location of the secret door has been found has boosted everyone's morale very quickly.

Even the smile that had not appeared on Thorin's face in the past ten days, Bilbo could see a hint of joy from the slightly raised corners of Thorin's mouth.

I have to say that compared to other dwarves, Thorin, who rarely shows unnecessary emotions, is considered a qualified leader. Because at this moment, other dwarves may have suppressed their emotions for too long in the past ten days, and they have rebounded a bit today.

terrible.

In the small camp, in addition to the bright bonfire providing light, it also provided everyone with scorching warmth to drive away the coldness of the cold night. In the lonely and lonely moment, the dwarves were all excited as if they were drunk.

The drunkards were humming all kinds of traditional dwarf songs and dancing around the campfire. This made Bilbo, who had always been a little worried about the safety situation around him, shake his head after seeing this.

However, even though he strongly disagreed with the dwarves' classic half-time celebration of opening champagne, he knew that he did not have enough authority in front of the dwarves and did not take the initiative to stop it.

Often at this time, Thorin, who often strictly controls everyone's daily actions, would stop them with words.

However, for some unknown reason today, Thorin did not express any dissatisfaction or stop the dwarves' slightly reckless behavior.

Since Thorin didn't stop him, the Hobbit Snitch, who was very aware of his ABCs, naturally chose to watch indifferently.

According to past bad luck, Bilbo always thought that they would be attacked by some evil non-bird creatures like the crows seen at the foot of the mountain that night because of the dancing and dancing of the dwarves.

However, he was in fear all night, but in the end he didn't hear any sound of enemy attack.

The consequence of staying half asleep and half awake all night to be alert to enemy attacks was that the poor Hobbit Snitch had a bunch of thick black circles under his eyes until he set out on the road.

Seeing his strange appearance, the enthusiastic dwarves didn't seem surprised at all. Instead, they happily embarked on the relocation work of moving the camp.

Yes, after previously discovering the approximate location of the secret door, the dwarves had long expected that Thorin would lead everyone to move the address of the old camp.

Needless to say, the location of the new camp will be moved from its original location halfway up the mountain to a location close to the mountain col where the secret gate is located.

Facing the relocation work of the camp, the dwarves who had celebrated all night last night seemed to have lost their excitement, and everyone's motivation was a little slow when working during the day.

After spending half a day climbing up and down the mountain col, the dwarves used ropes to pull up all the supplies needed for the camp from the mountainside.

Also in order to defend against enemy attacks, Thorin also asked Bilbo, who is lighter in weight and has a flexible personality, to temporarily act as a sentinel at a nearby high place when everyone is moving and working, all in order to be on guard against the possibility of appearing at any time from the sky or the exit of the mountain pass.

enemy attack.

Fortunately, until the relocation and relocation of the camp was completed, the enemy attack Thorin was wary of did not arrive.

After moving the camp closer to the secret door, Thorin immediately led everyone to refocus their efforts on finding the detailed location of the secret door.

Perhaps Thorin's ancestors did not give detailed instructions for their descendants to find the secret door when they built it, or perhaps Gandalf did not explain it clearly when he gave Thorin the map containing the secret door. Anyway, Thorin and the dwarves

To this day, I haven't found any clear way to reveal the secret door from the map.

This means that the dwarves have no effortless ingenuity. They can only use various tools brought from Changhu Town to knock on the wall like stupid primitive people, and use the wall to make random changes.

The sound of the knocking echoing continuously was played to estimate the location of the secret door.

Obviously, this was not a good idea in Bilbo's opinion and did not work. The knocking echo attempt was quickly abandoned because the dwarves were worried about destroying the secret door without knowing it.

Bilbo sat at the door, feeling very lonely and tired. Of course, there were no steps or thresholds here, but everyone was accustomed to calling the grassy area between the mountain wall and the entrance of the col the "doorway."

With the first one, there was soon the second one. Soon, Bilbo was surrounded by dwarves who came to rest after being tired from looking for work. Perhaps the dwarves were not extremely tired at the moment, but just relatively tired.

Their depressed spirits are more worrying than their bodies.

In such a low morale state, nothing changed even if Thorin discovered a path that might lead to the secret door - this was not the first time that a similar path had been discovered. After more than three disappointing experiences,

No one in the entire expedition cared about trails like this anymore.

When everyone discovered the trail, their morale did improve, but now it has fallen to the bottom again. However, everyone still refused to give up easily.

....

The boring and endless exploration of locating the secret door continues.

The morale within the entire expedition team is getting lower and lower. At first, Thorin, as the leader of the team, would cheer everyone up energetically. However, after many days of no progress, even Thorin himself seemed to have doubts.

, his face was no longer as relaxed as it was at the beginning, but instead his brows were frowning like a sad old dwarf.

During his free time that day, Bilbo was still squatting on the ground as he had been for the past few days.

Suddenly, an idea flashed in the hobbit's mind, and a strange idea suddenly appeared in his mind.

Bilbo suddenly understood. He forgot all the dangers and stood on the top of the mountain, shouting and waving desperately, telling the dwarves to come back soon.

The people who were closest immediately ran cautiously along the narrow mountain ridge, suspecting that something important was going on. Others shouted to Bilbo from above and asked the hobbit to pull everyone up from below by pulling the rope.

.

Bilbo quickly explained to everyone. The dwarves who heard his explanation couldn't accept it for a while. Look at me, I look at you. Many of these people saw that the dwarves were all related by blood. They were cousins ​​from each other's families.

I saw the light of eagerness on my face.

Soon, the hobbits, who had no choice but to do anything, unanimously agreed to Bilbo's idea of ​​trying.

Maybe you won't suffer any loss if you try, and even if you fail, it will just be a waste of half a day. With this thought, the dwarves stood quietly next to the gray rock, their beards swaying, and they continued impatiently.

Watch.

Under the leadership of Bilbo, everyone watched the sun set, and the whistling wind in their ears kept telling everyone the fact that nothing happened.

Maybe the Hobbit idea is completely nonsense!

Following this idea, the complaining side of the nature of some dwarves was fully revealed, and they all blamed Bilbo for his whims. However, in the face of doubts, Bilbo still stood unmoved.

The new moon had just left the horizon and night was about to fall. Suddenly, just when everyone was most discouraged, the last ray of sunlight broke through the clouds and fell on the gray rock like a finger.

Everyone heard a very clear scratching sound - a piece of thin rock fell from the mountain wall, and a small hole suddenly appeared three feet above the ground.

The dwarves were worried that this opportunity would be fleeting, so they rushed forward and pushed the door open, but it was of no use.

"Key! Put the key into the keyhole quickly!" Bilbo shouted the name of Thorin who was keeping the key in the team.

Hearing everyone's urgent calls, Thorin, who was also standing at the scene but behind everyone, hurried over.

Thorin stepped forward, took the key from around his neck, and inserted it into the exposed keyhole.

The keys cooperated perfectly and started to turn! Kada! The light disappeared, the sun set, the moon disappeared, and night enveloped the earth.

At this time, everyone worked hard to push the door. Part of the rock wall became loose, and a long and narrow gap appeared, and gradually expanded. It could be seen that there was a door five feet high and three feet wide. It slowly and silently opened inward.

Open. It seems that the darkness flows out from the black hole on the mountain wall like steam. In front of everyone's eyes is a dark cave that can't be seen, leading straight into the depths of the lonely mountain.

.....

The dwarves stood at the entrance of the dark cave and argued for a long time. Finally, Thorin revealed the real reason why they took Bilbo with them on this trip.

"The next part is up to you, Bilbo, come on, help everyone bring out the gems!"

Upon hearing the news that he was alone, Bilbo's eyes instantly became round due to his master's surprise.

"What? What about you? What do you mean it's my turn to play a role? Shouldn't you go in with me?"

Bilbo's expressions and movements showed his hesitation and resistance at this moment. Are you kidding me? Thorin and a group of dwarves were clearly saying that they wanted to enter the Lonely Mountain Kingdom occupied by the dragon Smaug even before the secret door was opened.

!

"We can't go in too far. There may be the sleeping dragon Smaug behind the secret door. This dragon has a very good sense of smell and has long been accustomed to the smell of our dwarves, but you, Bilbo, Hobbit

It should be very unfamiliar to people. So no matter what, the final journey will be walked by you alone!"

Bilbo shook his head even more dissatisfied with Thorin's words.

After arguing for a long time in front of the opened secret door, the old dwarf Balin and others took the initiative to suggest that they accompany the hobbits for a short walk before parting ways. As soon as this suggestion was made, the argument that seemed to end without knowing when was finally over.

.

.....

When the hobbit began to crawl into the cave, stars began to appear in the sky. Entering was much easier than he thought. This was not an orc's cave, nor a simple tunnel of wood elves. This was during the heyday of the dwarves.

The constructed passage is as straight as if measured with a ruler. The floor is flat and the walls are smooth. Even the slope was calculated from the beginning and has not changed at all. However, no one knows what kind of dark place it leads to.

Know.

After a while, Balin said "Good luck!" to Bilbo, and stopped where he could vaguely see the entrance. Here, relying on the echo of the cave, he could still hear the conversations of people outside. Then

, the hobbit put on the ring, and after knowing that the cave would have an echo effect, he moved more cautiously and silently into it. He was trembling with fear, but his little face showed a determined expression. He was already the same as at the beginning

The hobbit who forgot to bring his handkerchief was completely different. He had not had a handkerchief for a long time. He loosened the dagger from his waist, tightened his belt, and continued to move forward.

"Bilbo Baggins, you have finally reached your destination this time!" he said to himself: "That night, you stepped into this adventure yourself, and now you have to find a way to pull your own foot out! God!

What a fool I am!" The part of him with the weakest Tuk blood spoke: "The treasure guarded by the evil dragon is of no use to me at all. I really hope I can wake up and find that this tunnel is

How nice it would be to have our own home!"

Although he complained wildly about the immoral behavior of the dwarves who could not walk this dangerous road with him, Bilbo, who had long recognized the existence of these companions, mustered up the courage and insisted on moving forward.

After a while, he was far away from Thorin, Balin and other dwarves, and fell into a completely lonely situation.

At this moment, he felt a strange burning warmth providing inexplicable warmth all over his body.

"Strange, this seems to be warm wind? But now I am in the dwarf palace under the mountains, where is the warm wind coming from?"

After walking for a long distance, Bilbo became more and more convinced that the warm breeze he felt was not an illusion.

As he got closer and closer, the light became stronger and stronger, which made him more certain. It was a kind of light that became redder and redder, and the inside of the tunnel became warmer. Wisp by ray

Steam drifted past him, making him sweat all over his body, and there was a terrifying loud roar like hot water boiling.

The sound always got brighter and brighter, and soon it turned into the snore of some huge monster sleeping and snoring in the red light.

As you can imagine, a short hobbit walked to the end of the tunnel, came to an opening about the same size as the entrance, and stretched his little head out. In front of him was the end of the cave dug by the ancient dwarves in the mountains.

bottom.

It was pitch black here, and Bilbo could only guess how wide it was; however, in the center of the floor was a dazzling red light—that was the red light emitted by the dragon Smaug!

The huge red dragon just lay there, sleeping undisturbed. Wisps of black smoke came out from its sharp teeth and nostrils. The fire in its belly was not so strong when it was sleeping.

.

Under its limbs and tail, as well as the entire cave, are filled with all kinds of gold and silver jewelry, including uncast gold and gems, as well as exquisitely carved works of art, all of which are stained with a certain color.

A layer of bright red strange light.

When he saw the true appearance of this evil dragon for the first time, the part of Bilbo's mind that had previously been sung by the townspeople in Long Lake Town about the ancient evil dragon that destroyed Dale Town and the dwarf kingdom of Lonely Mountain popped up sentence by sentence.
Chapter completed!