To be fair, Bilbo was absolutely right.
Quite a lot had indeed happened in these few months. Levi had personally killed over a hundred orcs.
He had also successfully transformed from a complete novice who knew nothing into a battle-hardened veteran who could fight with deadly calm in any situation. Although he hadn't fought any major battles, he frequently engaged in lightning-fast assault and ambush operations that left enemies scattered like leaves in a storm.
Having experienced multiple battles, unknowingly, Levi's temperament had undergone a profound transformation.
"You look like you've been to very distant places. Did anything interesting happen, Levi?"
"Quite a lot did happen indeed." Levi felt somewhat emotional.
Seeing his expression, Bilbo knew the next period wouldn't be boring... this master chef was quite good at telling stories.
"If I'd known you were coming, I would have gone to buy some fresh food. For lunch today we'll eat something else first, then after eating I'll go to the market..."
Bilbo rummaged through the food storage shelves, already planning what to eat for the next few days.
However, regrettably, Levi only stayed for one day.
Time together was always brief.
Early the next morning, he mounted his horse and prepared to depart.
"Won't you stay a bit longer, Levi?"
Bilbo felt somewhat regretful.
"Haha, don't worry, Bilbo. We'll meet again."
Bilbo put his hands on his hips and nodded.
Watching Levi's departing figure, his thoughts also flew to the horizon, thinking about the stories he had told yesterday.
Trollshaws, orcs, Rivendell, elves...
All these novel things made the hobbit yearn for them, even wanting to... no, forget it. Adventure? Impossible. This kind of tiring life without guarantees... how could it compare to the comfortable days at Bag End?
Shaking his head, Bilbo returned inside.
But he still couldn't help looking through the window toward the distance.
...
Several days later.
In the woods near the River Lhûn, Levi galloped on horseback wearing gleaming elven steel armor, weaving between towering trees while cursing involuntarily.
"What the hell, how are there orcs in this place too!"
"Roar!"
And wargs too.
At this moment, at least a dozen snarling wargs were chasing him through the forest, their massive paws thundering against the earth. Five of them carried orc riders who whooped and jeered as they pursued their prey.
He should have known better than to take this shortcut.
With this small force, Levi wasn't afraid at all.
But his horse was.
Neigh!
Momentarily inattentive, his horse was struck by an arrow from the archer behind, immediately rearing up and stumbling to a halt.
This pause immediately allowed a warg to pounce forward and sink its fangs into the horse's rear with a vicious bite.
These beasts particularly liked biting rear ends.
"Get lost!"
Levi thrust his sword backward with lightning precision, piercing the warg's skull instantly. The corpse tumbled behind while he turned back and fed his horse some wheat, watching its health bar restore to full.
If this had been an ordinary horse, it would have been shot or bitten to death several times over by now.
The orcs behind shrieked and loosed another arrow, the shaft whistling past Levi's head and making his breath catch.
"Tsk."
Seeing that constantly taking hits wasn't working, he had to switch to his bow and shoot an arrow backward.
Whoosh...
As expected, it missed completely.
"Haha!"
The pursuing orc let out a mocking laugh.
It had to be said that having archery skills inferior to any random roadside orc archer was quite embarrassing for Levi.
"Laugh, laugh all you want. If I weren't on horseback, I'd get down and slaughter you all!"
He gritted his teeth but didn't stop drawing his bow.
What he lacked in accuracy, he'd make up for in quantity.
Shoot enough and he'd eventually hit something.
After all, he had plenty of arrows.
Ever seen an archer carrying hundreds of arrows?
As wargs fell one by one with arrows protruding from their hides, the orcs behind realized something was wrong.
Did this person have infinite arrows?
They couldn't see where his arrows were coming from.
"Bah, trash! Come down and fight if you dare!"
An orc taunted.
"You asked for it!"
Rounding a massive oak tree, Levi leaped off his horse with lightning speed, his hands moving in a blur as he placed several cobblestone blocks to seal the path behind him while actively running backward to intercept wargs trying to vault over the barrier.
Seeing Levi voluntarily approaching, the wargs couldn't be bothered with the horse blocked by cobblestone behind them. With bone-chilling roars, they charged straight at him like a pack of demons unleashed from hell. However, Levi simply danced between them, his blade flashing left and right, cutting down two wargs in elegant, deadly arcs.
These two wargs only managed to tear away one hit point from him, which was restored in the blink of an eye.
Following these two wargs, a pack of late-arriving beasts surged forward one after another. Some clamped their jaws around Levi's waist, others tore at his thighs with razor-sharp fangs, and some even leaped up to gnaw at his head. Within seconds, he was completely covered in snarling wargs, but only the occasional -1 floating by proved they couldn't cause much damage... no matter how savagely they gnawed, it wasn't as fast as his health regeneration.
The greatest damage they caused was probably psychological... covering Levi in foul-smelling saliva.
What followed was simple.
Just kill... then continue killing.
"Aha, you're dead!"
Seeing Levi covered in wargs and surely doomed, an orc charged forward with his cleaver raised high, victory gleaming in his eyes.
However, the next moment, a sword pierced through a warg's body and stabbed straight into his throat with surgical precision.
"Damn it, still biting so tight even when dead."
Levi pulled off the wargs hanging on him like grisly ornaments and pursued the remaining few orcs in their belated terror.
[Blue Mountain Dwarves Faction Reputation +15]
[Lindon Regional Reputation +10]
Reputation increase notifications appeared, signaling the complete annihilation of this ragtag squad.
He opened his faction interface and suddenly noticed that Lindon regional reputation had somehow reached 160, but he didn't seem to have done anything in this area.
"Huh?"
Levi suddenly discovered something.
Lindon and Rivendell reputation were apparently interconnected.
But thinking about it, that made sense... these two were originally from the same family, so counting as one faction was reasonable.
He'd also established good relations in Lindon.
As for the dwarves...
Currently, at least the Blue Mountain dwarves' attitude toward him had reached friendly... no need to worry about being questioned when he arrived.
Breaking down the cobblestone, he remounted.
Levi continued westward, soon reaching the riverside.
After crossing the River Lhûn and walking a bit further, he'd reach the Blue Mountains.
However, swimming on horseback was obviously unrealistic.
He pulled out his crafting table and assembled a rectangular boat on the spot. He pushed his horse onto it first, then got on himself, selected a direction, and began rowing.
The small boat wasn't large... just right for one person and one horse.
The two oars kept rowing and turning under his operation, driving the small boat across the cloud reflections in the river, leaving gentle ripples behind.
Rowing wasn't slower than riding, and before long, this not-particularly-narrow river was crossed.
Standing on solid ground again and gazing into the distance, Levi knew he wasn't far from his destination.
He opened the paper map he'd gotten from Bilbo again.
This map... no one knew who had drawn it or when... didn't mark the specific location of Thorin's Halls.
But it didn't matter. Once he went there personally and completed the map exploration, he could just mark it on his system map himself. He'd never have to worry about not finding it again.
Although the map didn't have the address, Levi still knew the general direction.
It should be... southwest.
Most of the travel time was tedious and boring.
It wasn't until the evening of the next day, looking at the mountain peaks at the horizon's end and the glimmer of light at the mountain's base, stepping onto solid, well-maintained roads, that he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He'd arrived.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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