The orc army from Moria set out early. Gandalf, who had escaped from Sauron's clutches, anxiously awaited support from the White Council, while the dwarves headed to the Lonely Mountain ahead of schedule to begin their operation.
The rhythm of the music suddenly accelerated.
Just like Levi's footsteps.
"Something's not right. At this pace, the army will arrive before the dragon is even dealt with."
The timeline was disrupted.
What caused this?
From what he could see, the only change should be that he had brought Gandalf out early, preventing him from being imprisoned and tortured by Sauron.
This also exposed Sauron's plans prematurely. Perhaps this Dark Lord sensed some kind of crisis and directly abandoned his lurking and preparation, choosing to immediately march on Erebor in full force.
On the plains at the edge of Mirkwood, Levi stood on a high hill, gazing at the mass of black orcs below. Honestly, this number was quite excessive. Probably not just the army from Moria, but even scattered orcs from the nearby wilderness had been gathered.
"That is..."
Levi squinted and saw a small squad joining the orc army. An orc who was tall even by human standards ran to Azog, stayed briefly, and then also merged with the army.
If he wasn't mistaken, that should be Azog's son, Bolg.
Now this army had two commanders, one primary and one deputy.
Stroking the sword in his hand, Levi felt quite eager. He suddenly remembered an ancient legend.
According to some tales, the wielder of Orcrist was the Lord of the Fountain of Gondolin: Ecthelion. In the battle when Gondolin fell, he used Orcrist to slit the throats of over a thousand orcs, consecutively killed two orc chieftains and three Balrogs, and finally perished together with Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs.
From then on, orcs would tremble with fear at the sight of that sword, feel terror upon hearing the name of the Lord of the Fountain, and even now, after two ages had passed, his lingering power remained.
It had to be said that this First Age elven lord was truly fierce. According to this legend, he might have been even more formidable than the current Levi.
What he had accomplished, Levi felt he might not be able to achieve.
"It's just a pity that now isn't the time."
Looking at that massive army, Levi shook his head.
If the numbers were only in the hundreds or thousands, he could try, but tens of thousands of orcs... that number could definitely surround and kill him, with nowhere to dig even if he tried.
There were still ways to attempt decapitation, but whether it was worth it was another matter. Now wasn't the time.
More urgent was the situation at the Lonely Mountain.
Arriving earlier would allow for earlier preparations.
Thorin in distant Lake-town thought the same.
At night, a group of dwarves secretly slipped out without Bard's knowledge, using the cover of darkness to circle around to the back window of the armory.
"Thorin, isn't what we're doing a bit wrong?" Bilbo whispered.
"This is someone else's armory after all..."
"There's no time to consider such things, Master Baggins."
Thorin took a sword passed out from the armory, drew it to examine it, and nodded.
"We're just temporarily borrowing some weapons. Besides, I've inquired. The mayor and guards of this town have quite a poor reputation. Taking these things is actually contributing to the townspeople."
In the time it took to say a few words, the dwarves had completed their operation, each obtaining suitable weapons. At this time, the night patrol was also approaching, so Thorin quickly called for everyone to leave.
Thus, the group of dwarves successfully obtained what they wanted and departed without notice before dawn, heading for the Lonely Mountain.
However, the next day, someone suffered misfortune because of their actions.
"Bard." A somewhat smug figure blocked the archer's path, tilting his head up to call his name.
Bard looked at him coldly: "Alfrid, do you have business with me?"
"Yes, of course I do!"
Alfrid clapped his hands, and a squad of guards appeared behind him.
"A batch of weapons in town was stolen. I suspect it was either you or accomplices you're harboring. Now please come with me to the jail for a detailed discussion, Master Bard."
"Arrest him." Alfrid leisurely gave the order.
"What? I never did such things!"
At this time, Bard had no idea what the dwarves had done. In his view, this was all just an excuse the mayor had fabricated to eliminate him.
This day would come sooner or later anyway.
"Alfrid!" Bard clenched his fists, and his sudden shout of the full name startled the Master's deputy of Lake-town.
"Bain, take care of the house."
After instructing his son, Bard left with the guards without resistance.
This was an unavoidable, man-made disaster. Temporary evasion would be meaningless.
"Let me see what schemes you have..."
Click.
Levi pulled out his pickaxe, broke open the great gate of the Lonely Mountain, and slipped in directly through the main entrance.
Hard to imagine that this stone wall several meters thick couldn't stop Smaug. It had simply charged through and collapsed this heavy gate easily and without obstruction.
To stop it, you'd need to build a wall at least dozens of meters thick.
If everything went without error, Smaug should still be napping in the deepest cellar. This was an opportunity. If it wanted to come out, it would have to pass through a very long tunnel, break into the council chamber, and reach the main gate.
In other words, theoretically, as long as this route could be blocked, Smaug could be trapped. Even if it couldn't be trapped to death, it could at least be prevented from coming out for a long time.
With various methods in mind, Levi quietly walked forward.
Upon entering, his attention was immediately drawn to a massive golden dwarf statue. So much gold. If melted into liquid, it could form a small river. If all of it were knocked down and turned into gold blocks, it could probably fill several large chests.
No wonder Smaug was stunned when it first saw this statue.
The wealth the dwarves had collected was indeed incomparable in this world.
Shaking his head, Levi didn't touch this golden statue. In this world, rashly moving things that belonged to others could very likely cause problems. Perhaps no one could see what Levi was doing, but the world would silently record everything.
There are always watchful eyes above.
Passing the council chamber with its massive golden statue, he reached the corridor leading to Smaug's lair. Levi stood at the end of the corridor, looking into the pitch-black spacious interior, and stopped.
It could only be said that this was worthy of dwarven construction. Just this one passage was at least several thousand meters long.
After marveling for a few seconds, Levi pulled out a bucket of lava and a bucket of water, built blocks to the highest point, and poured them down.
The red-glowing lava unscientifically extended downward infinitely until it hit the ground and spread a few more meters before stopping. Then Levi poured a bucket of water beside the lava. With a series of sizzling sounds, all the downward-extending lava turned to stone.
Repeating this process, soon the exit from the tunnel's end to the council chamber was blocked, with a thick stone wall rising up like a mountain barrier that had appeared from nowhere.
"Still not enough."
Digging up the floor, Levi buried all the TNT he had and hid it with stones.
This was all his inventory.
I'll help you repair the terrain afterward...
After burying the TNT and looking at this corridor again, Levi fell into thought.
Arrow traps couldn't be made. Even if they could, they'd be useless. Lava traps were even more pointless; for a fire dragon, this would just be taking a bath, at most a bit hot, probably wouldn't even cause damage.
What other traps could be set up?
"Are you finished with your little tricks, human?"
"Should be finished." Levi instinctively answered.
Huh?
A massive wave of scorching heat came from behind.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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