Chapter 28 - First to Arrive

"Phew..."

"Dead at last."

Morgan let out a long sigh as he looked at the huge troll that had fallen to the ground in the distance.

Speaking of which, some people on the expedition team might think it was easy for Morgan to kill these trolls, just wiggle his fingers.

And indeed... it was.

Aside from the fact that you have to run a lot, keep your eyes open and aim your bow until your hands hurt.

Physically, archers have it easier than melee fighters.

However, the real fatigue for an archer is mental.

This is because an archer carries a limited number of arrows.

This requires the archer to be very focused every time he fires his bow to kill more enemies.

After a battle, one can imagine the mental exhaustion of archers.

The warrior consumes physical strength and the archer consumes mental energy, and neither is easier than the other.

This is because fighting is a very dangerous activity.

At this point Morgan knows how difficult and mentally taxing it can be.

Of course, his fellow archer Kíli the Dwarf might have some idea.

"Hey, Gandalf, where have you been."

"I thought you'd disappeared..."

Looking away from the huge troll corpse, Morgan turned his head to look at Gandalf, who wasn't far away, and laughed, approaching him in long strides.

"I'm just going for a break, you know, the stubbornness of dwarves, sometimes it's really, really unbearable..."

Gandalf shrugged at Morgan's question and said, somewhat helplessly.

Of course Morgan knew what Gandalf was referring to.

During the month-long journey, Thorin and the dwarves had demonstrated their stubbornness many times.

"Relax, the world knows how stubborn dwarves can be."

Morgan walked over and smiled reassuringly.

Gandalf shook his head wordlessly and turned to look at the huge carcass of a troll in the distance and frowned, "How did you meet these monsters?"

"I don't know exactly."

"When I showed up, Kíli and Fíli were dealing with one of the monsters."

"But I think the creature stole our horses."

Morgan shook his head, also looking at the corpse in the distance, and said.

"Do you know what this monster is?"

Morgan turned to Gandalf and asked him knowingly.

"The only other evil monster of this size is the troll, or rock troll among trolls."

At Gandalf's words, Morgan picked up on the detail and asked, "You mean there are other kinds of trolls?"

Gandalf said nothing, but looked up at the sky.

It had stopped raining completely by now and the sky was much clearer.

Knowing that the rain was unlikely to continue, Gandalf took out a pipe, filled it with tobacco and lit it skillfully.

"Baah..."

Gandalf took a beautiful puff and exhaled the smoke, before slowly opening his mouth.

"Of course, there is more than one type of troll."

"As far as I know, there are several types of trolls, such as mountain trolls, rock trolls, and cave trolls."

"The troll we have here is a rock troll that can only be found at dusk and at night, and turns to stone when it sees the sunlight."

Gandalf's words were followed by a voice that suddenly interjected.

"It turns to stone when it sees sunlight?"

"That means they can only be found at night, so why are those three here?"

Thorin approached with a group of dwarves and, hearing Gandalf's words, immediately asked in confusion.

"That's exactly what I was wondering."

Gandalf nodded his head and continued to puff on his pipe.

"Could it be that this troll is afraid of sunlight and often comes out at night, but that doesn't mean he is afraid of daylight?"

"He doesn't go out in the daytime when there is sunlight, maybe it's just that he hates daylight."

"But when it rains, they don't have to worry about direct sunlight."

Morgan pondered and suddenly opened his mouth.

"Well, that makes sense..."

"It's the only way they could be here, as Morgan said."

Gandalf exhaled his smoke and said confidently.

"The presence of these rock trolls here means their caves must be nearby as well."

"I have heard that many of these creatures like to collect things, so perhaps we should go to their cave."

Gandalf looked at the group as he put away his pipe after a long puff of smoke.

"Excellent!!!, I don't even have to say anything."

Hearing Gandalf's words, Morgan couldn't help but give him a nod in his mind.

"So the monster likes to collect things?"

"We'll definitely have to check it out..."

"Maybe these monsters like to collect treasure as much as dragons..."

"How do you know dragons like to collect treasure..."

"I've heard of it..."

"I don't know, but surely someone else does, Gandalf, am I right?"

"What..."

"I said dragons like to collect treasure... surely you've seen the dragon's treasure."

"I don't know, maybe, maybe..."

Watching the usual squabbling, the group began to disperse in search of the rock troll's cave.

Morgan stood in the woods, looking left and right.

He walked quickly in the direction from which the three trolls had come.

The huge, messy footprints clearly pointed the way to Morgan.

Looking behind him, he saw several dwarves who had chosen the same direction as he had.

Morgan's steps were quick and he quickly distanced himself from the dwarves.

The expedition team seemed to have been awakened by an unintentional comment from the dwarves during the previous fight: "Maybe these monsters like to collect treasure like dragons...".

So looking in the direction Morgan was heading, the few Dwarves behind him chose to go in the other direction.

Though he wasn't sure if he could find the troll cave before the rest of the Dwarves.

But even if it wasn't him.

Morgan was determined to get hold of the Elven Sword in the troll cave.

Because he was qualified to do so.

Morgan followed the troll's huge footprints and advanced quickly.

When there were no other dwarves behind him, Morgan simply ran.

With his agility upgraded to LV2, he was now much faster than before.

Fortunately, he had chosen the right direction.

When he found himself in front of a deep, dark and spacious cave, Morgan exhaled a huge sigh of relief.

At last, he had found it before the rest.

Now it was time to reap the rewards.

Morgan lifted the corners of his lips, pulled his swords from his belt and entered.