Hogwarts wizards who signed in to Middle-earth.

Chapter 161 Expedition to Moria

Through training with Elrohir and Elladan, Dui's martial arts skills improved rapidly.

If he was a fragile wizard before, now even without using magic, he can rely on the flaming sword or the divine spear Aegros in his hand to fight against the orcs head-on.

During this time, he drank another Ent drink.

The Ent drink made his height increase a little bit, barely breaking through two meters.

This makes him one of the tallest even among the elves.

In addition to his height, the bigger gain is that his body has become stronger.

Before the effect of the Ent drink wore off, he was full of energy every day. Even when he was trained by Elrohir and Elladan, he was still full of energy and became stronger and stronger.

To this end, he specially made several more pots of growth potion, and then asked the giant eagle Thorondor to take the potion to Fangorn Forest to trade Ent drink with Treebeard.

Sorondo is no longer a fledgling. Under Arwen's careful care and feeding with the magical dry food Lembas, his body has grown rapidly and his wings have become strong enough to support him to fly in circles near the top of the world.

After that, Dui fed him Ent drink, and his size doubled, becoming larger than an adult giant eagle.

So Thorondo officially became Dui's messenger, flew thousands of miles with the potion, came to Fangorn Forest and successfully traded it for Ent Drink.

Treebeard was very fond of the giant eagle Thorondor and specially treated him to Ent drink.

So when Thorondo returned to the top of the world with the Ent drink, what Dui saw was a giant eagle that was twice as big.

Dui could only sigh at the good luck of this guy Sorondo.

Although Thorondo is not yet an adult, he is already larger than the largest eagle king in the Misty Mountains, with a wingspan of nearly 30 meters.

When its wings flapped, it swept away all the clouds and wind, like the legendary Roc covering the sky and the sun.

After being able to fly, Sorondo no longer needed to be fed.

The residents of Hogsmeade, who lived at the foot of the mountain, could see the giant eagle flying every day. It flew off to the distant wilderness to hunt at sunrise, and flew back to its nest in the tall maelstrom tree at sunset.

On Bilbo's birthday, he also received a gift from Dewy - Ent drink.

The effect was immediate. Bilbo grew a full 8 centimeters taller and became the tallest Hobbit in the Shire.

Bilbo was very happy about this and held a party in Hobbiton, inviting all his neighbors to witness his height change.

Time passed day by day as Due dated Arwen and was trained by Elrohir and Elladan.

Until one day, a raven brought news of Gandalf.

The Dwarves have decided to march on Moria.

And the leader was an old acquaintance of Dui's - Balin.

Thorin Oakenshield, the King under the Mountain, will not directly participate in this expedition, but he will still fully support Balin in regaining Moria and restoring the Dwarf glory of Khazad-dûm.

Originally, the dwarves would not make a decision so quickly.

After all, not to mention that the orcs in Moria are difficult to deal with, let alone the Balrog entrenched in the mines of Moria, who are the biggest threat.

The Balrog's terror far exceeded that of the dragon Smaug, and the once powerful kingdom of Khazad-dûm was destroyed overnight.

Therefore, the dwarves were hesitant and had different opinions about retaking Moria.

But as Gandalf went north, he brought news that Dewi was willing to take action.

The dwarves suddenly gained confidence.

Not to mention that there are two powerful wizards, Gandalf and Duir, willing to take action, and Duir also has a giant dragon Smaug in his hands.

They believe there is a high probability of winning.

"Duil, long time no see!"

Inside the castle, the dwarf elder Balin walked out from the green flames of the fireplace and greeted Dui warmly.

Then I saw his tall figure and looked up with a surprised expression.

"Oh my god, Duil, what did you eat? How did you grow so tall?"

"A little gift from the tree man." Duiwen 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 even had conflicts with our ancestors. Fangorn Forest has always been a forbidden place for the dwarves."

Dui thought that the dwarves liked mining and forging, which inevitably involved cutting down trees, so it would be strange if they had a good relationship with the tree people who protected the trees.

After all, he had almost been listed as an unwelcome person by the tree people because he had burned trees in the old forest.

It's quite strange that the goddess of plants, Yavanna, and the god of craftsmen, Aulë, are husband and wife, but their creations, the tree people and the dwarves, are very hostile to each other.

This can be said to be another kind of fate.

The two then began to discuss the content of the cooperation.

As the representative of the dwarves and the leader of the expedition, Balin has full authority to cooperate with Dui.

And once Moria is reconquered, Thorin Oakenshield will not rule Moria directly, but Balin will become the lord of Moria and enjoy autonomy like Dain Ironfoot of the Iron Hills.

Balin was very generous. As a partner, he promised that after Moria was recaptured, he would give Dui half of Moria's treasure and also promised Dui permanent ownership of one-tenth of the mithril mines. In other words, one-tenth of the mithril mined by the dwarves in Moria's mines would belong to Dui.

Even Dui was a little surprised when he heard Balin'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 can buy the entire Shire.

Before the Balrog awoke, Khazad-dûm had 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 one-tenth of the mithril share, and it is permanent. This is a huge and continuous source of wealth.

Since Bahrain was so sincere, Dui naturally accepted it with a smile.

It just so happened that Smaug was always complaining about being poor, so he was asked to contribute to this expedition to Moria.

After the cooperation was agreed upon, Balin did not stay long. They agreed to meet up in a month, so he left the castle and returned to Lonely Mountain to prepare to organize manpower and weapons.

Dui also began to prepare for the upcoming trip to Moria.

He has to face the Maia-level existence of Balrog.

And unlike Gandalf and other Maia whose strength was restricted, the Balrog had no limits.

Although Middle-earth was almost torn apart after the War of Wrath, it was restricted by the Valar and could not release powerful forces that exceeded the limits of the material world.

But the power of the Balrog is unquestionable. Even Sauron, who lost the One Ring, does not have an absolute chance of winning.

According to Gandalf's introduction to the Balrog, the Balrog is essentially a spirit of fire and shadow, and its main ability is to control fire and engage in close combat.

The Balrog was originally a Maia related to fire, the "Guardian of Flame". He was attracted and followed Morgoth when he was not yet completely corrupted and covered in brilliant glory. Later, he fell into darkness with Morgoth and turned into a terrifying Balrog.

In response to the situation where the Balrog releases flame attacks, Dewi made a fireproof potion based on Professor Snape's potion notes.

During Harry Potter's first year, Snape set up a dangerous wall of black flame in the basement of Hogwarts to protect the Philosopher's Stone.

Even Voldemort, who was possessed by Professor Quirrell, could not pass through the flames. He could only guess the answer to the logic puzzle designed by Snape, obtain the fireproof potion and drink it before he could pass through the flames.

This fireproof potion can resist all magical flames except for the fierce fire.

Dui didn't know how the fire released by the Balrog compared to the Fierce Fire, but he still needed to be prepared for both situations.

So within the next month, he began to try to replicate this potion.

For some of the potion materials that were not available in Middle-earth, Dewy also consulted the brown-robed wizard Darraghast, the master of Middle-earth herbs, based on the medicinal properties marked by Snape.

Daregast was worthy of being a Maia serving the goddess of plants, Yavanna. He knew all the plants and animals in Middle-earth like the back of his hand, and he directly provided Dui with materials with similar medicinal properties.

With the help of Darraghast, Dewi replaced several materials from Middle-earth, and after several setbacks, he finally succeeded in making a fireproof potion.

And the effect is stronger than the original fire retardant.

Dui captured a lone Orc, fed it a fireproof potion, and then released the Fiery Flame to burn.

Although the Orc was eventually burned to ashes by the Fiendfyre, Dui was surprised to find that the Orc, after drinking the potion, still held on in the Fiendfyre for a few seconds before being burned to death.

Dui was very surprised to get this result, and without any regrets, he directly poured a bottle of fireproof potion into the other orc to feed it.

This orc endured the burning of the fierce fire for more than a minute before being devoured by it.

Although the time was so short, Dui was very happy.

With the fireproof potion, he would be more confident when facing the fire demon.

As if that wasn't enough, Dui continued to make fire-retardant potions in the following days.

By the time the day he had agreed to meet Balin arrived, he had already made five pots of potion.

If the potion was not complicated to make and there was not enough time, he would have continued to make more fireproof potions.

As the castle's fireplaces lit up green flames,

Gandalf and Balin came out one after another, and Balin was carrying an iron box.

"Dui'er, I haven't seen you for a while. I'm really surprised by your changes!" Gandalf said to Dui in surprise, "You look more like a warrior. Did you train?"

Dui nodded, his mouth curled up with a bit of unbearable memories, "Uh... Elrohir and Elladan accompanied me to train."

Gandalf saw through everything and understood it instantly. A smile appeared on his face and he said jokingly:

"You stole their precious 'Evening Star'. The fact that they didn't drive you out of the valley is a testament to the elves' good manners.

I remember when the human Beren wanted to marry the Elf Princess Lúthien, Thingol, the Elf King of Doriath, was very opposed to it and even put forward a very harsh condition: he asked him to use "a Silmaril from the crown of Morgoth" as a betrothal gift to marry Lúthien, trying to make him give up.

"You are very lucky. Elrond is a kind lord and would not do anything to deliberately make things difficult for you. Otherwise, you would not only suffer this little bit, but he would also take the opportunity to help you become stronger."

Dewi smiled and nodded, no resentment in his eyes. "I know that Gandalf, Lord Elrond, and Elrohir all cherish and love Arwen very much."

Then he asked curiously, "Gandalf, where have you been all this time?"

After all, it shouldn't take so long just to persuade the dwarves of Lonely Mountain to march to Moria.

Gandalf did not hide it: "I went to Dunlodge. You know that man not only contacted the Orcs, but also tried to win over the Dunlodge people, so I wanted to see if there was any way to stop him."

(End of this chapter)