I reforged the glory of the magic ring in Middle-earth

Chapter 87 This is embarrassing

When Thorin heard Tanes' words, he showed an expression of confusion.

Tanes noticed his expression and motioned Thorin to look at the three rock giants. He explained, "From the moment I saw the rock giant throwing rocks at us, I felt something was strange. I didn't sense any hostility from him."

Thorin said, "Perhaps it's just because the other party is covered in rocks that he can't feel it?"

Tanes shrugged. "Perhaps you're right. After all, the concept of hostility is too vague to be believed. But Thorin, did you notice? The stone man who threw the stone didn't attack you after getting close. Instead, he punched the companions coming from behind."

Bernard came over at this time and agreed, "Tannis is right, and we were just walking on the knees of a rock giant. If it wanted to kill us at that time, although Tanis and I would be fine, Qili and the others who were with us might not be."

Thorin fell silent, and Bilbo asked curiously, "But Mr. Tanes, why did it throw stones at us in the first place?"

Tanes was also silent for a while, then said in a strange tone: "I think the stone might not have been thrown at us. Weren't we on a rock giant before? I'm afraid the stone was thrown at it."

Bilbo's mouth twitched. "Then why throw such a horrible stone at your companions..."

Tanes said: "For us, that rock mass that looks like a small hill is indeed very terrifying and deadly. But for them with their huge bodies, it is probably just something like a pillow."

"I never saw such a hard pillow," said Thorin.

Tanes shrugged again. "You haven't seen a rock with four limbs that can play around, have you? Well, anyway, we are safe now, but the rain is still heavy. Balin, how long will it take to get out of the Misty Mountains?"

Balin wiped his face, squinted his eyes at the road ahead that flickered in the lightning, and shouted back, "I don't know either, Mr. Tanes. To be honest, I'm not sure how to get there now, because those rock giants have completely changed the surrounding landscape. I can't tell whether the rain will stop first or we'll get out of the canyon first."

Thorin immediately said, "Then we'll go a little further and find a cave where we can shelter from the rain. We'll rest there tonight. If the rain stops tomorrow morning, we'll wait until it stops before setting off again."

Tanes also nodded: "I think this is a good idea."

Bilbo opened his mouth. "What if the entrance to the cave where we're resting is the mouth of a rock giant?"

Thorin's sharp eyes stared at him, making Bilbo shrink his head: "I mean, if..."

Thorin said calmly, "If that's the case, I hope you can use your methods to communicate with the rock giant and beg it not to shut its mouth while we sleep, Mr. Snitch."

Bilbo immediately shut his mouth.

Afterwards, Thorin and his group checked to make sure that their important belongings were not lost in the commotion, and began to move forward cautiously.

Although the rock giants were far away from them, Bilbo's words made the dwarves feel that all the rocks they could see were like sleeping rock giants.

I was really scared.

As Bilbo walked, he continued to talk to Tanis, "Actually, I have another question. The road we came here must have been destroyed by the rock giants. How is Gandalf going to catch up with us?"

Tanes touched the mail on his chin. This question really stumped him.

He said uncertainly, "Gandalf is a powerful wizard. Perhaps he has other ways to find us. Believe in the magic of wizards, Bilbo. Since Gandalf said he can, then he will definitely find us."

At this time, Thorin shouted from the front: "We found a cave, let's go in quickly. Fili, Kili, and Dwalin, you three go in and explore first. There are very few unoccupied caves in the Misty Mountains."

Fili and Kili nodded, and Dwalin had already grasped his battle axe in his hand the moment Thorin gave the order and carefully entered the cave.

Fili and his team's exploration work was quickly completed. Qili poked his head out of the cave and shouted to the people outside, "It's safe inside. We are very lucky. We didn't find any traces of wild animals. It looks like an uninhabited cave."

Thorin nodded and motioned to the dwarves behind him to let them in.

After the last dwarf entered, Thorin stopped Tanes, who was about to enter the cave, and asked the same question as Bilbo.

"How can Gandalf catch up with us in this situation? If he never catches up, I will not stop to wait for him," said Thorin.

Tanis also said to Thorin as he had answered Bilbo, "Trust Gandalf, a wizard is never late. Perhaps he has some special magic that can directly locate our position and rush over quickly."

Thorin nodded. "That's good. I was worried that if he really followed the way we came, he would die at the hands of those three playful rock giants."

Tanes entered the cave and found nothing inside except the dust that had accumulated over time.

The dwarves had already hung their wet clothes and backpacks on the protruding rock peaks in the cave, and then lay down on the dusty ground without any disgust.

Even with the dwarves' physical strength, they felt very tired.

Bilbo was the same. He felt that his feet were almost numb from being soaked by the rain, but he just kept silent and didn't complain.

He seldom complained about such things anymore. After such a long journey, Bilbo knew that complaining would not help with the problems he encountered.

Bofur did not rush to lie down. He suppressed his fatigue and reached out to Bilbo, pulling the even more tired hobbit aside and helping him take off his heavy backpack.

"Thank you, Bofur." ​​Bilbo put his hands on his knees and took a breath before expressing his thanks.

Bofur had collapsed on the ground by now, waving his hands weakly: "It's all right, it's what I should do, Bilbo."

At this time, after Thorin confirmed that everyone had entered the cave, he looked up at the thunderstorm outside that was not about to stop before walking in.

He saw the dwarves lying in all directions in the cave, and then saw Bilbo rubbing his hands and blowing air into them to keep warm. He frowned and said, "You are all still wet. No matter how tired you are, you can't lie like this. Fili, Kili, you two will be responsible for lighting the fire and keeping your bodies warm."

Fili and Kili could only stand up from the ground reluctantly, leaving behind a dwarf-like water mark where they lay.

Then Fili was in trouble. Kili saw that his brother did not move and asked, "What's wrong?"

Philip searched the cave with a troubled expression, and finally sighed, "There are only rocks here, where is the firewood? Are we going to burn our own clothes?"

"Ah, this." Qili blinked and found that what Fili said was indeed correct.

Fili continued, "And there's another problem. We've been in the rain for so long, the tinderbox in our bag might not be usable now."

Qili nodded. "So, we can't build a fire and keep ourselves warm?"

Then they both looked at Thorin at the same time, and Thorin obviously realized the problem.

Thorin admitted that he had not thought it through, but he was unwilling to lose face. The dignity of their elder made Thorin turn his gaze to Tanes.

"Tanis."

Facing Thorin's almost pleading gaze, Tanes smiled helplessly, nodded, and then extended his hand.

But he soon stopped and said to the dwarves lying in the cave, "Please make some space for me. I don't have room to make a fire."

"If only Gandalf were here at this hour, we would never have to worry about making a fire."

"Yes, he touched the wood with that ring, and it started a fire."

"It would be better if he wasn't so long-winded."

Then Tanes saw that the dwarves were unwilling to even get up. They grumbled among themselves and wiggled like earthworms to make room. Tanes: "...Okay."

In the blink of an eye, Tanes had a few more things in his hands.

There were broken ropes, some gray-black plants of some kind filled with liquid (the dwarves couldn't identify them), and a flying insect that sent sparks flying when it flapped its wings.

In fact, it is the ropes looted from the demihumans, the slimy mushrooms found near the Eternal City, and the Martian butterflies that like to fly around the fire.

Although Tanes can also cast spells to create fire, his magic power consumption has been a bit high recently, so he wants to save as much as possible.

Although he has other magic recovery items in his backpack.

In short, the readily available Martian butterfly is more cost-effective.

Tanes wrapped the rope around the viscous mushrooms and did the same thing to nearly ten of them, throwing them into the space made by the dwarves, and then threw the Martian butterflies up as well.

The thick liquid mushroom was ignited, and a raging flame instantly burned, dispelling some of the coldness in the cave.

Then, under Tanes's twitching gaze, the dwarves crawled to the fire again to warm themselves.

Bilbo stood up too, and sat down near the fire, with his palms facing the flames.

He asked curiously, "Oh, what kind of plant is this, Tanes? It can actually be burned as firewood?"

Tanes simply replied, "Slurry mushrooms. The liquid on this plant is similar to fuel oil and can burn for a long time."

With the warm fire, the exhausted dwarves and Bilbo soon fell asleep in the warmth, snoring one after another.

Bilbo was even more tired, and fell asleep quickly even though the dwarves were snoring very loudly.

Thorin did not rest, but sat down with his back against the entrance of the cave and took on the responsibility of keeping watch.

He looked at the thunderstorm outside the cave, wondering what he was thinking, and then he heard the sound of footsteps.

Tanes tiptoed over so as not to disturb the dwarves.

"What?" Thorin asked in a low voice.

Tanes said, "You can also go and rest. I will leave the duty of keeping watch to Egon."

Thorin thought about it, nodded, and did not refuse.

He was indeed tired and needed to rest.

Then Thorin found that Tanes was walking deeper into the cave with Bernal and Millicent.

"What are you going to do..." Thorin asked curiously.

Tanes said, "Fili, Kili, and Dwalin probably only checked the outside of the cave when they first checked. They didn't notice there's a sideways passage that leads further inside. I want to go to the other side of the passage to see where it leads, so I can eliminate any danger in advance."

Thorin frowned slightly. "What if there's a trap in this passage? Even you wouldn't be able to avoid it in such a narrow space, right?"

"This is easy. I will use this to trigger the mechanism in advance, so there will be no danger." Tanes had an unknown piece of black stone fragment in his hand, with faint golden runes and withered branches with dark blood on it.

[Markit's Prison] was purchased by Tanes from a traveling merchant friend named [Patch].

As the name suggests, it was originally only used in battles with Markit.

However, later when Tanes was exploring the caves or catacombs in the border area, he accidentally discovered that this prison device could indiscriminately affect those traps or invisible doors, so he used it as a weapon to explore unknown caves and catacombs.

Although Thorin didn't know what the thing in Tanes' hand came from, considering the other party's identity, Thorin didn't say anything.

After all, if something really happened, he and his fellow dwarves would be lying on the ground, but Tanes might still be alive and well.

After Thorin found a comfortable place to lie down and rest in the cave, Tanes also began his action.

Millicent said, "Tannis, after you've tested to see if there's a trap, let me go in first. I'm a woman, taller and slimmer than both you and Mr. Bernard, so I have a wider range of movement in this passage."

Tanes looked at his own physique, then looked at Bernal who was wearing the beast armor without breathing, and nodded.

He then slammed Markit's prisoner to the ground, and golden ripples appeared briefly.

However, there was no change in the narrow passage. There was no sound of any trap being triggered, nor was there any movement of an invisible door appearing.

Tanes looked inside a few more times and said, "It seems there really aren't any traps, but Millicent, you'd better be careful."

Millicent nodded and was about to go in when the three people present heard the sound of some mechanism slowly turning and tiny vibrations began to come from the ground.

Then the dwarves woke up from their sleep and screamed: "Ah~~~~!"

The ground where they lay suddenly cracked and opened downwards like a door, letting all the sleeping dwarves fall in.

Thorin was a light sleeper, so the vibration woke him up first, but he still couldn't avoid falling in.

"Bilbo!"

Thorin, who slept relatively close to Bilbo, gave a hurried shout and pushed Bilbo away from the open ground before he fell, causing the hobbit to wake up confused from his sleep.

Egon was quick-eyed and quick-handed. He was in charge of night watch and always held the dragon hunting bow in his hand, with an arrow always on the loose bowstring.

He fired an arrow, which pierced the collar and cloak of one of the dwarves and pinned him to the steep rock wall of the deep pit.

But when Aegon wanted to shoot the second arrow, the dwarves had already rolled down the rock wall to somewhere unknown.

"I'll follow the dwarves!"

Egon didn't hesitate at all. He simply left a few words and slid into the deep pit along the rock wall.

Everyone present fell silent and looked at Tanes in tacit understanding.

Tanes' mouth twitched. He glanced at the prisoner in his hand and immediately put it away. He said awkwardly, "Well, I didn't expect that we would sleep on the mechanism."

"Mr. Tanis, can you help me pull it up... I feel like my clothes can't support my weight anymore."

At this time, Ori's somewhat frightened voice came from the deep pit. The dwarf that Aegon had just rescued in a hurry was the most knowledgeable and least skilled in fighting dwarf.

"Please lend a hand." Tanes said immediately with a serious expression, as if he was not the one who opened the mechanism door just now.

(End of this chapter)