No matter the result, hope was always a good thing to have. These two weapons were at least A tier. YinKong and Heng would gain a substantial increase in power if the weapons could be released from their bounds, which exceeded every reward they had obtained in this world so far.
Zheng was feeling excited as he patrolled the mine. The mine was extremely spacious. Despite its name, it had a height of over ten meters. One could rode an elephant here, not just horses. The elephant just had to ignore gravity.
The first day of journey inside the mine was peaceful. According to Gimli, they were still outside the residential area of Moria. The underground city was so big that they might not run into the orcs. The group let down their guard slightly seeing the peacefulness of the first day. They were not as suspicious to every little thing. Then they set up camps on a flat area, lighted the fire and cooked their meals. After all was set, the group finally got the opportunity to rest.
“So that means you elves have the same Explosive Shot technique? Oh, you guys call it Double Bladed Shot. Strange name.” Heng got along with Legolas because they both used bows and both could use the Explosive Shot technique. Heng was also a kind-hearted person. They exchanged tips about their techniques.
“This technique harms both the enemies and you. I can only use twenty shots at most even with constant regeneration from my life force. My arms will become swollen that prevents me from drawing the bow. If it’s the Triple Bladed Shot, I can only use it three times.” Legolas smiled. The elves were such a fair race that the girls blushed at his smile.
Heng looked at his silver bow. “Triple Bladed Shot? If three arrows are already so difficult, what kind of technique is the nine arrow shot that can pierce through the sun?”
On the other side, Zheng and YinKong were sparring with Aragorn and Boromir. The characters were surprisingly strong due to the altered difficulty. Aragorn and Boromir could use Battle Qi. Zheng had seen this ability when he fought team Devil. It didn’t last as long as Qi nor did it had the healing property, but it had a much higher burst potential.
Zheng wasn’t a match for Aragorn if he wasn’t in Explosion. Explosion would push his strength above Aragorn by quite a bit. And Destruction would allow him to one shot Aragorn. Of course, since this was simply a spar, neither side used their strongest moves. Zheng couldn’t be sure this was Aragorn’s limit.
Boromir on the other hand was crying from the spar. It wasn’t that YinKong was too strong. She couldn’t beat Boromir in a face to face fight without using her self created technique. The invisible property of Excalibur plus was such a great addition to her assassination techniques. Zheng wouldn’t fight her so easily. Boromir underestimated her for being a little girl and fell to a disadvantaged position. He couldn’t make a come back unless he were to fight a life and death battle.
The four of them stopped sparring before long. Boromir’s clothes were in strips. The knight attire turned to that of a homeless. YinKong nodded at Zheng without saying a word then headed to the bonfire. Zheng gave a rather awkward smile at Boromir and said. “Sorry, she’s just like this. She always makes the situation awkward. Haha. Don’t overthink it. She’s not a match if you two were in a battle for life.”
Boromir stared at YinKong. After Zheng’s words, he smiled but then turned back to staring at her. Zheng had a bad feeling about this.
The group entered a cycle of eat, walk, and rest. Four days passed before they realized it. Gandalf got lost on t he way but they came back to their path. The group finally arrived at the gate of Moria. A magnificent palace with pillars five meters in diameters standing on both sides. The pillars weree carved with symbols and pictures. There were hundreds of these pillars.
The group walked through the palace. As they passed by a small room, Gimli rushed inside. The rest of the group followed after. Once inside the room, they saw a shaft of sunlight shone down through the ceiling onto a crypt. Gimli wailed on the crypt.
Gandalf walked over and read. “Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria.”
“He is dead.” Gandalf took off his hat. His voice sounded helpless. “It’s as I feared. There are no dwarves left in Moria.” He bent down and picked up a book.
The players observed the room. This seemed like a meeting room of the dwarves. There were documents scattered on the ground and maps hung on the walls.
Neos walked through the room. He seemed like he was walking casually but his eyes were examining the map of Moria hung on the wall. After a while, he waved at Zheng and Gungnir. “Take a look. The map labeled the storage room of the dwarves. There are a lot of ores but it also takes a lot of ores to refine into the final product. The dwarevs have many years of savings. So we are better off taking these refined metals and minerals instead of taking mining. We can exchange days to come back later if anyone wants to get mithril.”
Zheng and Gungnir looked at each other. They both nodded and agreed with Neos. Neos continued. “The location of the storage room is a bit strange. There might be casualties if we head there without a plan. The task lands on you, Zheng. The Nightmare is the only thing that can go there safely.”
Zheng asked. “You still haven’t told us where the room is located.”
“A room to the side of the Bridge of Khazad-dum, the bridge that collapsed during the escape in the movie. The record here shows there are one kilogram of mithirl and two ounces of ithildin. It will be up to you whether we can obtain these.” Neos said.
Mithril was light and had a low density. One kilogram would be the size of the shirt Frodo was wearing. His shirt was made of mithril mixed with other metals. A kilogram of pure mithril was over 30000 points from God. It was enough to craft dozens of energy storage rings.
“Fuck it. No risk no gain. Its like running on flat ground anyway with the Nightmare. The only worry is if the situation become worse than the plot. The powers of orcs and Balrog are also not known.” Zheng sighed.
Something would be worng if God were to let them get past Moria so safely. So the Balrog could be insanely powerful. However, if the Balrogu was so powerful, he wouldn’t abandon it for the metals. He wanted to kill it for the energy stone and rewards.
Gungnir could tell what Zheng was worrying. He bit his teeth and said. “If you go get the metals, we will only take a quarter. And we will protect your team members when you are not here. Another thing, Neos and I have no use for a fire energy stone. If we are the ones who killed the Balrog, the energy stone is yours. And if you killed it, you still get the energy stone. Deal?”
“Fine, then…” Zheng agreed but the decision was difficult. A bang brought their attention away before he could say anything else. One of the Hobbits accidentally made a corpse fell into the well. The crash echoed throughout halls. Everyone halted their voices. The echos faded after a long while but then drums were booming from all sides. They could faintly hear the growls of orcs.
