From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 274 The Dawn of Unity

"We shouldn't continue discussing this issue. Something far more important than the Ring of Power has happened on this continent - Sauron is back." Ivy sheathed the Beast Bite Sword and jumped onto the Golden Horn again. "I saw an orc army gathering outside Dol Guldur before. They marched along the edge of the Black Forest and went upstream along the Anduin River. Their target must be the Lonely Mountain."

"I also saw them when I was imprisoned in Dol Guldur. They are well-equipped and tall, very different from the orcs living in the Misty Mountains. They are more like orcs from Mordor." Gandalf nodded, confirming what Ivy said. "We can't leave them alone. If Smaug and Sauron join forces, everyone living in the Rhovanion Wilds will be destroyed!"

"You are imprisoned in Dol Guldur? Gandalf?" Saruman once again found an excuse that he thought was suitable and challenged Ivy, "I told you to come here together! Why don't you follow my orders!"

"I don't remember promising you anything, Saruman." Ivy looked at the white-robed wizard coldly. There was only a desire for power in his eyes, but he had no idea of the fundamental logic of Middle-earth.

"My actions are entirely for Gandalf, he is my friend. I am neither a member of the White Council nor your subordinate. Remember this, White Wizard." Ivy turned her horse's head and said, "I am going to Lonely Mountain to slay the dragon. You can handle the orcs' affairs yourselves, White Council."

"Wait, wizard." Galadriel, who had been silent all this time, spoke up. "Sauron was right in one thing. The age of the elves is over. Mortals must fight to the end for Middle-earth. Lothlorien does not have the strength to support the Lonely Mountain, and Rivendell is far away. But the Woodland Kingdom in Mirkwood can, as can the dwarves in the Iron Hills. Middle-earth has never lacked righteous armies, but it has lacked leaders who can bring them together."

Galadriel paused, then handed the crystal bottle in his hand to Ivy: "The crystal bottle contains the light of the Great Star of Hope. You are about to face a deeper darkness. The Star of Hope will illuminate your way forward. I know you can make good use of it. Take it, young man. This is the only help I can give you."

Ivy looked at Galadriel for a while, then bowed on horseback and said, "I will never forget your help, Lady Galadriel."

After taking the crystal bottle of Star of Hope, Ivy said nothing more and rode away without saying a word.

Saruman did not move his gloomy eyes away until Ivy's figure disappeared in the shadows of the trees.

"What are you thinking of, old friend?" Gandalf pulled his pipe from his pocket and was dismayed to find that it had been broken by the impact and the fight.

"He is too young. I am worried that he will become the next Dark Lord." Saruman turned around and said compassionately, "The Ring of Power should never have been forged. It is an evil gift left by Sauron to the world."

"Don't worry about him." Gandalf put away the broken pipe with a distressed look and put it back into his pocket. "He has the ability to take the Ring of Power from the hands of the Nazgûl, so he has the ability to keep it well. It will not be safer with you or me than with him. You know this in your heart because we are the same."

"No, he has neither beard nor wrinkles." Saruman turned and left without speaking to anyone else.

"Come with us, Mithrandir." Galadriel watched Saruman go away, then looked back at Gandalf. "You need food, rest, healing, hot water and new robes."

"I really miss the golden forest of Lothlorien, but I can't stop yet." Gandalf sighed, "I want to find the Eagle King who lives in the Misty Mountains. He will definitely not sit idly by and watch Sauron's orc army. If I want to catch up with the next battle in Lonely Mountain, I must travel day and night."

"I'll go for you, Mithrandir." Elrond said, wiping his elven sword clean and putting it back into the sheath. "The White Council should make more contributions to the security of Middle-earth. The young wizard is right. You can rest in Lothlorien for a while, and then go directly to Lonely Mountain to join the battle. The Eagle King has had contacts with Rivendell for a long time, and I will find him."

"Thank you, Lord Elrond!" Gandalf smiled happily. Even an old wizard who often lived in the open air could not stand the dirt and smell on his body. It would be great to be able to take a bath and change clothes in Lothlorien.

----

"Although its strength is not strong, it provides a lot of experience points." Ivy continued to ride on the Golden Horn on the treetops of the Black Forest, and took out the Grimoire of Destruction to confirm how much experience points he had gained from the Ringwraiths.

I don’t know, I’m scared.

I didn't feel how strong these Ringwraiths were, and they gave me a lot of experience points. When Ivy fought against the Ringwraiths, the pressure he felt mainly came from their numbers. He didn't really take a single Ringwraith seriously.

Even the Witch-king of Angmar, who claimed that he "could not be killed by humans", had his ring cut off by Ivy's sword, didn't he?
Taking into account the experience gained from killing the giant spider in the Black Forest, Ivy can now upgrade the career level of [Splendid Warlock] or [Sword Master] to level 11.

It just so happens that both of them can allow Ivy to obtain a new sixth-level spell slot, but [Dazzling Warlock] can only obtain one, while [Blazer] can obtain two. Moreover, [Blazer] has a growth feat and a bonus feat at level 11, while [Dazzling Warlock]'s new feat will be at level 12.

Therefore, in order to further enhance his combat effectiveness before slaying the dragon, Ivy chose to upgrade the professional level of the Sword Master.

The new class ability of the 11th level [Swordmaster] is called [Graceful Reflexes], which has a similar effect to [Combat Reflexes], both of which increase the number of opportunity attacks per round. However, [Graceful Reflexes] is improved by the Intelligence adjustment value, while [Combat Reflexes] is improved by the Agility adjustment value.

Even better, the number of opportunity attacks provided by the two can actually be accumulated. In other words, Ivy, who has 20 points of agility and 22 points of intelligence, can now make a total of 12 opportunity attacks in a single round of combat, which is really important for group melee.

If Ivy encounters a similar battle with the Ringwraiths next time, she can even drink the healing water in the golden cup while standing still and waiting for the Ringwraiths to attack and then counterattack. After all, [Backhand Strike] combined with two abilities that increase the number of opportunity attacks is really too amazing.

In addition to the new professional abilities, two specialties also provide significant enhancements to Ivy.

The first is the metamagic feat [Persistent Spells], which allows Ivy to cast spells with a fixed range or against herself, with the duration increased to 24 hours.

Moreover, this metamagic feat can be integrated with Ivy Warlock's spell points, allowing Ivy to use 6 spell points to complete metamagic.

For those buff spells with limited duration, this metamagic ability is a great help. For example, when Ivy faced Smaug's hard scales, she could extend the duration of Ghost Strike from one round to a whole day. This is truly a fire and fire blow. After all, with Smaug's huge body, his defense level is almost entirely supported by his natural dragon scales. Without the protection of dragon scales, Smaug would not perform much better than a farmer in cloth clothes when facing Ivy's beast bite sword.

The sixth-level spell Empowered by Flame is another spell that can be very effective when facing Smaug and is worthy of being supermagic.

The effect of this spell is very simple. It allows the fire element, one of the four basic elements, to penetrate Ivy's body, allowing him to directly obtain the lighting effect of a human-shaped torch and be completely immune to fire damage.

As for the remaining two effects that can cause fire damage, Ivy thinks they are just extras. As long as you are immune to Smaug's breath effect, who cares about that little bit of damage?

However, the slightly embarrassing thing is that Ivy, whose warlock class level is only level 9, only has 11 points even if the two spell points provided by [Super Magic Mentor] are taken into account. It is completely impossible for her to perform sustained super magic on two spells at the same time.

Fortunately, the Flame Empowerment that Ivy wants to perform supermagic has element-related descriptions, and the spell point cost can be halved by the professional ability of [Elemental Supermagic]. Otherwise, Ivy must consume spell slots to restore spell points after completing a persistent supermagic before performing a second persistent supermagic.

As for the second specialty, Ivy chose a swordsman arcane [Foresight Strike], which allows Ivy to spend one arcane point to predict the battlefield situation before attacking, and gain double the attack range in the next round of action.

It is also an option to increase the melee ability. Ivy can use [Vision Strike] to frequently make opportunity attacks on a crowded battlefield, because all enemies moving within his attack range will trigger Ivy's opportunity attacks, unless they actively create a vacuum zone around Ivy, otherwise such movement is absolutely unavoidable. With new expertise and spells, Ivy feels that Smaug is basically a piece of fish on his chopping board. As long as he performs normally, Smaug's attacks will basically not pose a threat to him, while Ivy's attacks can easily break through the dragon's defense. This unequal battle is exactly what the mage is good at.

He hesitated for a moment before deciding on the Dragon Slayer Specialty, but he eventually chose the more versatile [Visionary Strike]. This had something to do with the Dragon Slayer Specialty's advancement tree. To fully utilize the Dragon Slayer Specialty, at least two or three specialty slots were required, and Ivy didn't have many specialty slots now, so it was better to choose fewer abilities that would add icing on the cake.

However, there is another dragon-related specialty that is worth choosing - [Dragonsmith], which allows Ivy to use the body parts of real dragons to make magic items. When combined with other manufacturing specialties, more powerful finished products can be created.

Smaug's body is large enough, so there must be a lot of materials that can be cut out. As long as they are used properly, Ivy's equipment can be updated again.

It's interesting to say that Smaug was still sleeping in the gold of Lonely Mountain, but Ivy had already started to think about how to use its parts.

----

Ivy returned to the Woodland Kingdom faster than originally planned, because he didn't have to rest on the road this time, and Golden Horn couldn't help much in the battle with Smaug, but Ivy had to take care of it. So it was better to get to the Woodland Kingdom faster and temporarily foster Golden Horn there so that it could recover, while Ivy led the dwarves to the Lonely Mountain to complete the dragon slaying operation.

However, plans never keep up with changes. When Ivy arrived at the Woodland Kingdom, she found that the gate to the forest was closed.

"Tell King Thranduil that the wizard Ivy Dum is here to visit!" Ivy shouted outside the door.

"You are not welcome here, wizard!" the elf behind the door shouted back, "Leave!"

"What happened? It was like this before I left?" Ivy guessed that the actions of the Master Thief had paid off, and the dwarves must have escaped from the Elf King's dungeon.

"The king's prisoners have escaped! No one can enter or leave without the king's order!" The guard was still willing to answer Ivy's questions, even if it was a bit time-consuming.

"Please tell King Thranduil that I bring a warning, a warning about Dol Guldur and the orcs!"

The elves behind the door discussed for a while, then sent someone to report, and the others informed Ivy: "We can't decide, but we have gone to ask the king!"

Although the palace of the Woodland King is large, the speed of the elves is unparalleled.

So after a while, the main gate of the Woodland Kingdom opened again, and Thranduil walked out from behind the door with a solemn face.

"Wizard, you are much faster than I expected." Thranduil seemed unhappy. Perhaps in his mind, Ivy, as a wizard, must have been involved in the dwarves' jailbreak, even though he had left long before the jailbreak took place.

"It's all thanks to Golden Horn's help. We advanced on the treetops for a whole day and night and just arrived at the Woodland Kingdom." Ivy said with a smile.

"You never told me that there was a fifteenth person in your expedition team." Thranduil threw his long cloak and led the way into the door.

"Oh! You must be talking about Mr. Bilbo Baggins, our Hobbit Master Thief." The surprise on Ivy's face did not seem fake. "You know, thieves always have some little tricks to avoid being discovered. I am often troubled by not being able to find the thief. In fact, I thought he had turned around and went home. I never thought he would sneak into the woodland kingdom and let your prisoner go."

Thranduil shook his head, not intending to pursue the issue further: "What is your warning? About the orcs?"

"Have you seen them?" Ivy was a little surprised. After escaping from Goblin Town, Ivy seriously injured the pale orc Azog. The opponent's injuries should not heal so quickly, and there is no possibility that he will continue to chase the dwarves. How did the Woodland Kingdom know about this?

"They pursued the Dwarves across the Forest River. We captured one alive, and he had only one thing to say." Thranduil paused before continuing, "The time of the Orcs has come."

"Do you know anything about this, wizard?"

Ivy was silent for a while and asked, "You should have participated in the Last Alliance War, right?"

Thranduil stopped and stared back at Ivy.

"The owner of the ring is back." Ivy nodded at him, confirming his guess. "The Necromancer of Dol Guldur is his hidden identity. But I, Lady Galadriel of the White Council, Lord Elrond, Gandalf, and Saruman, temporarily drove him back to Mordor. But his power is still growing all the time. He even sent an army of orcs to bypass the Mirkwood and head to the Lonely Mountain."

"Sauron's goal is very clear. He will unite with Smaug in the Lonely Mountain and defeat all the good forces in the Great Wilderness of Rhovanion, so as to monopolize the manpower and resources of the entire region for his ambitions..."

"Impossible!" Thranduil shouted, "Sauron is dead! He can never return to Middle-earth!"

"I know it's hard for people to believe my words alone, but I happen to have other evidence here." Ivy took out the Ring of Power that belonged to the Witch-King of Angmar from his pocket. He was afraid that he would never be able to get the ring out again after throwing it into the Grimoire of Destruction, so he carried this more famous ring with him. Now it came in handy.

Staring at the golden ring in Ivy's palm for a long time, Thranduil calmly asked: "What should I do, wizard?"

"Lord Elrond of Rivendell has gone to the Misty Mountains to seek help from the Eagle King. The dwarf Dain Ironfoot of the Iron Hills is a cousin of Thorin. As long as Thorin calls with ravens, they will obey the king's orders. If combined with the elves of the Woodland Kingdom, it will be enough to defeat Sauron's orc army." Ivy named several allies who were close to the Lonely Mountain and had the ability to come.

"What about the dragon? Who can deal with Smaug who is entrenched in the Lonely Mountain? All he needs is a breath of fire and these armies will be completely burned to ashes!" Thranduil questioned, "Those thirteen dwarves can't deal with Smaug, let alone a thief you mentioned!"

"I will be responsible for dealing with Smaug." Ivy said calmly, "That's why I came here."

"I don't mean to doubt you, wizard." Thranduil's doubtful look did not disappear, "But you are alone, and lying in the gold of the Lonely Mountain is a dragon as big as a mountain!"

"His flames cannot hurt even a corner of my clothes, and his scales are not even as defensive as a piece of paper in front of my sword." Ivy's powerful voice echoed in Thranduil's throne room. "The warriors of the Woodland Kingdom do not need to go out at the beginning. Gather the humans in Long Lake Town and wait for good news from Lonely Mountain. Then enter Dale City and rely on the city walls for defense. The elves, humans and dwarves living in this land will unite to fight against Sauron's evil conspiracy!"

　Ten thousand ten thousand!
　　Wow!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)