bookbashuk Chapter 161 The Expedition to Moria
Chapter 161 The Expedition to Moria
Chapter 161 The Expedition to Moria
Under the tutelage of Elrohir and Elladan, Dui's martial arts skills improved rapidly.
If he was a fragile mage before, now even without using magic, he can fight orcs head-on with his flaming sword or spear, Egeros.
During this time, he drank another Ent beverage.
The Ent drink made him grow a little taller, barely breaking the two-meter mark.
This made him stand out as one of the taller elves, even among them.
Besides his height, the biggest gain was that his body became stronger.
Before the effects of the Ent drink wore off, he was full of energy every day. Even when being trained by Elohir and Elladan, he remained vigorous and grew stronger.
To this end, he specially made several more potions of growth potion, and then sent the giant eagle Saurondo with the potion to Fangon Forest to trade with Treebeard for Ent drinks.
Sorondo can no longer be considered a fledgling eagle. Under Alwen's careful care and the magical dry food of Lambas, his body has grown rapidly and his wings have become strong enough to support him to soar and fly near the top of the clouds.
After Dui fed him the Ent drink, his size doubled, becoming even larger than an adult giant eagle.
So Zorondo officially became Dui's messenger, carrying the potion across thousands of miles to Fangon Forest and successfully traded for the Ent Drink.
Treebeard was very fond of the giant eagle Zorondo and specially treated him to Ent drinks.
So when Zorondo returned to Windcloud Peak with the Ent drink, Dui saw a giant eagle that was twice the size of its predecessor.
Dui could only marvel at Zorondo's good luck.
Zorondo is not yet a fully grown man, but he is already larger than the largest eagle king in the Misty Mountains, with a wingspan of nearly 30 meters.
Its wings flapped, whipping up clouds and swirling like the legendary roc that blots out the sky.
Once he was able to fly, Zorondo no longer needed to be fed.
The residents of Hogsmeade, at the foot of the mountain, can see the giant eagles flying every day, soaring into the distant wilderness to hunt at sunrise and returning to their nests in the tall Mawron trees at sunset.
Bilbo also received a gift from Dui on his birthday—an Ent drink.
The effect was immediate; Bilbo grew a full 8 centimeters taller, becoming the tallest Shire hobbit.
Bilbo was overjoyed and hosted a banquet in Hobbiton, inviting all his neighbors to witness his change in height.
Time passed by as Dui and Alwen dated, and Dui was trained by Elohir and Elladan.
Until one day, a raven brought news of Gandalf.
The dwarves have decided to launch an expedition to Moria.
And the one leading the group was an old acquaintance of Dui's—Bahrain.
Thorin Oakenshield, as the King of the Mountain, will not participate directly in this expedition, but he will still fully support Balin in reclaiming Moria and restoring the glory of the dwarves of Kazardom.
The dwarves wouldn't normally make a decision so quickly.
After all, not to mention the orcs in Moria are difficult to deal with, the Balrogs entrenched in the Moria mines are the biggest threat.
The Balrog was far more terrifying than the dragon Smaug; the once mighty kingdom of Khazad-d'Um was destroyed overnight at its peak.
Therefore, the dwarves were hesitant and divided in their opinions about reclaiming Moria.
But as Gandalf traveled north to intervene, he brought with him news that Dui was willing to help.
The dwarves' confidence immediately soared.
Not to mention that two powerful wizards, Gandalf and Duyle, would be willing to help, Duyle also has a dragon, Smaug, at his disposal.
They believed they had a high probability of winning.
"Duir, it's been a long time!"
Inside the castle, Elder Balin, a dwarf, emerged from the green flames of the fireplace and greeted Dui warmly.
Then, seeing his tall figure, she looked up with a surprised expression.
"My God, Duir, what have you eaten? How have you grown so tall?"
"A small gift from the Tree Man," Dui explained with a smile.
Balin looked at Dui with some envy, shook his head and said regretfully, "The tree people are not very friendly to us dwarves. It is said that they have even clashed with our ancestors. Fangon Forest has always been a forbidden area for dwarves."
Dui thought to himself that the dwarves liked mining and forging, which inevitably involved cutting down trees, so it was no wonder they had a bad relationship with the tree people who protected the trees.
After all, he had previously burned down the trees in the old forest, and was almost considered an unwelcome guest by the tree people.
It's quite strange, really. The plant goddess Yavanna and the craftsman god Auli were husband and wife, but their creations—the tree people and the dwarves—were extremely hostile.
This can only be described as another kind of fate.
The two then began discussing the details of their collaboration.
As the representative of the dwarves and the leader of the expedition, Bahrain was fully authorized to cooperate with Dui.
Furthermore, once Moria is reclaimed, Thorin Oakenshield will not directly rule Moria. Instead, Balin will become the lord of Moria, enjoying autonomy similar to Dain Ironfoot of the Iron Hills.
Balin was very generous. As a partner, he promised to give Dui half of Moria's treasure after the recapture of Moria, and also promised Dui permanent ownership of one-tenth of the mithril mine.
In other words, one-tenth of the mithril mined by the dwarves in the Moria mines will belong to Dui.
Even Dui was somewhat surprised to hear Bahrain's report.
Moria is rich in mithril mines, and mithril, as a very precious magical metal, has extremely high value. The mithril armor that Thorin gave to Bilbo alone could buy the entire Shire.
Before the Balrog awakened, Kazardom had already built a prosperous kingdom with the mithril it produced, and its wealth was far greater than that of the Lonely Mountain.
Now Bahrain is willing to give up one-tenth of the Mithril, and permanently at that, which is a huge and continuous source of wealth.
Since Bahrain is so sincere, Dui naturally accepted it with a smile.
Smaug was always complaining about being broke, so this expedition to Moria was decided to let him contribute.
Having reached an agreement on cooperation, Bahrain did not linger. They agreed to meet again in a month and then left the castle to return to Lonely Mountain to prepare manpower and weapons.
Meanwhile, Dui began preparing for his upcoming trip to Moria.
He was about to face the Flame Demon, a Maya-level being.
Moreover, unlike Gandalf and other Maiar whose power was restricted, the Balrog had no such restrictions.
Although Middle-earth was nearly torn apart after the War of Wrath, and the Valar restricted it from unleashing power exceeding the limits of the material world.
But Balrog's power is undeniable; even Sauron, who lost the One Ring, did not have an absolute chance of winning.
According to Gandalf's description of the Balrog, the Balrog is essentially a spirit of fire and shadow, whose main ability is to manipulate fire for melee combat.
The Balrog was originally a Maiar associated with fire, the "Guardian of Fire." Before Morgoth was fully corrupted and adorned with brilliant glory, the Balrog was attracted to him and followed him. Later, it fell into darkness with Morgoth and transformed into the terrifying Balrog.
In response to the Balrog's fire attacks, Dui created a fire-resistant potion based on Professor Snape's Potions notes.
When Harry Potter was in his first year of school, Snape set up a very dangerous wall of black flames in the basement of Hogwarts to protect the Philosopher's Stone.
Even Voldemort, possessing Professor Quirrell, couldn't get through the flames. He could only pass through by guessing the answer to the logic puzzle designed by Snape, obtaining the fireproof potion, and drinking it.
This fire-resistant potion can withstand all magical flames except for Fiery Blaze.
Dui wasn't sure how the flames released by the Balrog compared to the Fiendfire, but he still needed to be prepared for both possibilities.
So for the next month, he began trying to replicate the potion.
For some of the potion ingredients that did not exist in Middle-earth, Dui consulted Darrigast, the brown wizard and herbalist of Middle-earth, based on the medicinal properties noted by Snape.
Darrigast, being a Maiar who served the plant goddess Yavanna, was intimately familiar with all the plants and animals of Middle-earth and immediately provided Dui with materials that had similar medicinal properties.
With the help of Darrigost, Dui modified several Middle-earth materials and, after several failed attempts, finally succeeded in creating the fire-retardant.
Moreover, its effect is stronger than that of the original fire retardant.
Dui caught a lone orc, fed it fire retardant, and then unleashed a fiery inferno.
Although Oak was eventually burned to ashes by Fiendfire, Dui was pleasantly surprised to find that Oak, who had drunk the potion, managed to withstand the Fiendfire for a few more seconds before being burned to death.
Dui was overjoyed with the result and, without hesitation, fed the other Ok a bottle of fire retardant.
This Orc endured the Fiendfire for over a minute before being consumed by it.
Although the time was so short, Dui was very happy.
With the fire-retardant potion, he felt more confident when facing the Flame Demon.
Not content with that, Dui continued to produce fire-retardant agents in the days that followed.
By the time the appointed day with Balin arrived, he had already prepared five pots of potion.
If it weren't for the complexity of potion making and the lack of time, he would have prepared to make even more fire-resistant potions.
As green flames ignited in the fireplace inside the castle
Gandalf and Bahrain emerged from inside one after the other, with Bahrain carrying an iron box.
"Duir, it's been a while, and you've changed so much!" Gandalf said, looking at Duir with some surprise. "You look more like a warrior now. Have you been training?"
Dui nodded, a wry smile playing on his lips as he reminisced about the past. "Uh... Elohir and Elladan trained with me."
Gandalf, with his keen insight, understood instantly, a smile spreading across his face as he joked:
"You are 'Twilight Star,' who stole their treasure. The fact that the elves didn't drive you out of the valley is already a testament to their good manners."
I remember when the human Beren wanted to marry the elf princess Lúthien, King Ting'gol of Doriath strongly opposed it, even proposing a very harsh condition: he demanded "a Silmaril from the crown of Morgoth" as a dowry to try and discourage him from marrying Lúthien.
"You're lucky. Elrond is a kind lord who wouldn't deliberately make things difficult for you. Otherwise, you wouldn't have suffered this much, and he would have used the opportunity to help you become stronger."
Dui nodded with a smile, his eyes showing no resentment: "I know, Gandalf, Lord Elrond, and Elohir all cherish and love Arwen very much."
Then, he asked curiously, "Gandalf, where have you been all this time?"
After all, it shouldn't have taken this long just to persuade the Lonely Mountain dwarves to embark on an expedition to Moria.
Gandalf didn't hide anything: "I went to the Black Wilds. You know that besides contacting the Orks, that man is also trying to win over the Black Wilds, so I wanted to see if there was any way to stop him."
(End of this chapter)