The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 372 River Valley City (Please subscribe, please bookmark, please vote)
"My friend, why don't you stay here for a while longer? Did we neglect your hospitality?" Thranduil asked as he hurried into the palace in a suit of armor. He has been very busy recently because he found that the magical plants brought by Llane were quite effective against the evil spiders in the woods. He began to build a green defense line with the elves to temporarily enclose the woodland near the capital.

So he had been leading his men to set up defenses outside the city during this period. Just now, he heard that Ryan was leaving, so he hurried back from outside riding a giant elk.

"Everyone is very enthusiastic, but I came here to trade. I heard that if you go downstream along the rushing river near the Elf King's Palace, you can reach Changhu Town. There is an abandoned river valley city along the rushing river in Changhu Town. I want to rebuild it as the core of my trade in this place."

Thranduil had no objection to hearing that the town they were going to occupy was an abandoned town of humans. It had nothing to do with the elves anyway, not to mention that the city had been completely abandoned, so there was nothing wrong with occupying it morally.

But Thranduil was a little worried about Smaug, the dragon that destroyed Dale decades ago. But after watching Lion demonstrate how to use a piece of ordinary steel to penetrate a three-meter-thick rock, he was relieved and also had hope that Lion would defeat the dragon.

After weighing the pros and cons and hesitating for a while, Thranduil made up his mind and told Prince Legolas standing aside: "Legolas, Mr. Llane may need some local guides and help this time. So you lead a team of elves to help him."

After that, Thranduil turned to Llane and pleaded, "I hope you can ensure Legolas' safety this time. If Smaug is too powerful, please retreat in time. I don't want any elves to die because of this."

Thranduil is more of a politician, he pays more attention to the interests of his group. So unlike Gandalf who killed Smaug for the sake of mankind, he sent his son out this time mainly to get closer to Llane. It will be convenient for them to exchange what they have in the future, because what Llane brought this time has fully proved its value, he has now taken back the land around the royal city with those plants.

Ryan certainly understood his approach, because he had done the same thing in previous worlds.

Legolas seemed very excited, thinking that he could finally leave his hometown and see the outside world. He also took the opportunity to get away from his father and get in touch with Taoliel.

Yes, Llane discovered that there was a faint affection between Legolas and Tauriel. In the movie, Tauriel met Kili when she was looking for comfort after being hit by Thranduil. And Kili saw Tauriel half-truthfully when he was between life and death after being poisoned. Under this kind of accidental combination, the two developed feelings.

Now none of this has happened, so naturally it is completely different from the movie. After leaving Thranduil, Llane found that the relationship between Legolas and Tauriel was rapidly rising. When Llane and his friends left Mirkwood, the two had become a formal couple.

After entering Lake Town at night, the first thing Llane did was to look for Bard, the descendant of the King of Dale. Bard was a middle-aged man who made a living by ferrying and selling goods. After learning of Llane's purpose, Bard tried his best to persuade Llane not to do so, because he was worried that Smaug would come to Lake Town to retaliate against the residents here.

"I swear I have a way to kill Smaug and bring a better life to everyone. These elves can testify that I have that ability." Bard looked at the elves with some suspicion. Tauriel stepped forward and told Bardelaine about the changes he had brought to the elves in Mirkwood.

"If that's the case, you need to show me these. If you can do what you said, I am willing to give up the position of King of the Valley to you. Anyway, I am just a commoner now. But you have to swear that you will not lure Smaug here even if you fail." After listening to Taoliel's words, Bard lowered his head and thought for a while, then raised his head and said to Ryan.

After all, Bard's ancestors once missed the opportunity to shoot Smaug, which brought shame to the family, so now he only wants to protect the people here, and he is not very attached to the throne. "Okay, I promise you." Llane promised him, and then joined Bard's team and set off. When Bard left, he also carried the black arrows at home on his back. Llane took out some gold and silver and gave it to Bard's wife as a reward for Bard's long journey with him.

"Thank you." Bard, who saw this scene, expressed his gratitude on the road. Because they brought horses with them when they came out, they arrived at the ruined River Valley City after most of the day.

The city is now a dead ruin. After Smaug destroyed the city, some people tried to stay. But Smaug flew in at night to hunt them for food, especially pure maidens. After a few times, there was no one left in the city.

After entering the city and taking a general look, Ryan began to release a large number of steam robots to rebuild the city. The sound of the machines running and the blazing flames of the boilers brought life to the dead ruins.

Bard was a little nervous about this because he was worried that this would attract Smaug. After his explanation, Llane realized that Smaug could actually enter and exit the Lonely Mountain freely, which meant that the dwarves in the movie were looking for the secret door just to find the Arkenstone through the secret passage without alerting the dragon, and the Lonely Mountain was not closed.

Ryan had only seen the synopsis of the movie The Hobbit, and he originally thought that the dragon would only come out of the Lonely Mountain after the dwarves opened the door at the beginning of the plot. However, there was a solution now. Ryan took out several Gauss cannons made by mixing the Gauss rifle principle with alchemy in the Fallout world and placed them on several commanding heights near the Lonely Mountain. He also remelted the black arrows and made them into armor-piercing shells with Valyrian steel and a little bit of mithril, and distributed them to each Gauss cannon.

"Leave it to us." After learning how to use the Gauss Cannon, Bard and the elves began to head to the exit of Lonely Mountain to prepare for battle. Because there was only one place in the entire Lonely Mountain where the dragon could fly out, they only had to wait for Smaug to fly out after being enraged. Ryan believed that as top shooters, they should be able to accurately hit Smaug.

More than a week later, Dale City had been cleaned up, but Smaug still did not come out of his cave.

"I think it may be because there are too few of us and we really can't lure the dragon out." Bard gave his analysis after hearing Ryan's concerns.

"But we can't just sit here and wait. Dale City will be repaired soon. If Smaug is there, the city won't be able to develop. So I decided to blast it out."

"It's not too difficult to get Smaug out of the cave." After seeing the Gauss Cannon with armor-piercing bullets made by alchemy penetrate more than ten meters of rock, Bard was full of confidence in defeating Smaug. "I think as long as we make enough noise at the gate of Lonely Mountain, Smaug will definitely come out. Because he is a bad-tempered dragon, he will never allow anyone to cause trouble at his doorstep."

"Okay, then we'll set off tomorrow during the day. I'll find a way to get Smaug out, and then we'll kill him together." Ryan finally made the decision.

(End of this chapter)