Chapter 18: First meeting

[At night]

The members of the expedition team were camping in a mountainous wilderness, where only rocks could be seen all around.

The deer hunted by Aldril and Kili were taken by the dwarves to be prepared for dinner, as well as to prepare rations for the road.

Adding the meat from the deer, as well as a variety of vegetables and greens, made today's dinner very hearty, though naturally dwarven dinners are usually like this, as they tend to eat a lot.

"Tsssssss."

A pot was suspended on a makeshift base made of stones; underneath, wood crackling from time to time brought the simmering meat soup to a boil.

This pot of venison soup gave off a delightful aroma, making the bellies of several of the dwarves growl.

Dinner was a time for the expedition group to relax after spending a full day hiking in these arid mountains. Of course, despite their relaxation, the expedition group did not let their guard down, as they have entered territory where several groups of orcs have been spotted.

While the dwarves were preparing dinner, Aldril was on top of a rock, not far from the camp, enjoying the cool evening breeze and also standing guard.

With a bit of curiosity, Aldril opened his system and focused on world exploration, which had only gone up very little, almost nothing.

[World scan: 0.41%]

"It's been a whole month now and I haven't gained any attribute points despite killing all those deer and bears along the way. At least the world exploration has gone up a bit," Aldril thought, with a positive attitude.

A few days ago, world exploration went up 0.01% and he is grateful, even if it is a small percentage.

Looking at the dwarves, Aldril gave a sigh. After demonstrating his bow skills, he was assigned the job of being the team's hunter alongside Kili.

"Aldril!"

In his moment of contemplation, a shout rang out, calling out to him. Turning around, he saw that dinner was ready and they were calling him to come eat with them.

Approaching them, Aldril filled a bowl of venison soup, poured himself a glass of fruit wine and began to enjoy a relaxing moment.

While enjoying his dinner, Glóin stood up and, with his glass raised, said, "Here's to Aldril and Kili, who managed to bring a good portion of meat that allows us to enjoy this dinner!"

"Hey Glóin, you've had enough to drink."

"Yes! We don't have enough wine to toast every dinner."

"We can toast with water. Maybe it's possible you can get drunk on that, hahaha."

"I agree!"

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha."

The witticisms of the dwarves made the atmosphere cheerful, making everyone laugh.

...

It had been a month since the team had left Hobbiton. Because they entered the wild mountains and thus possible orc territory, there was no town in between.

Because they are all in the wild mountains, there are no villages or towns along the way, so the drinks the dwarves brought were being consumed very quickly.

Now there is a lot of dried food left that is easy to transport and preserve, such as some dried vegetables, potatoes and dried meats.

As for the drinks, it is easy to see why they were consumed quickly; after all, the dwarves used to drink a lot.

After they had dined, the night became quieter, without any noise. Only the cool wind of early autumn remained. Aldril, Bilbo and Gandalf were sitting on top of a rock, enjoying the night sky.

While Bilbo and Gandalf enjoyed smoking, Aldril was drinking fruit wine. He had never had an alcoholic drink before, but a few weeks ago he was encouraged to drink the fruit wine and was pleased with the wine.

"Ahh, smoking on this night sure is relaxing," Bilbo said, as he closed his eyes pleasantly.

Laughing lightly, Aldril offered some wine to Gandalf. "Would you like a sip?"

"No, thank you. I have some here." Gandalf declined as he shook a canteen he pulled from his tunic.

Rising, Aldril stretched and climbed down from the stone.

"All right, I'll go to sleep, remember it's your turn to stand guard, Bilbo; don't fall asleep."

Opening his eyes in surprise, Bilbo jumped. "Is it really my turn? But I'm no good at standing guard," he said quickly, but his protests fell on deaf ears, as Aldril only waved his hand dismissively.

He knew that, even though Bilbo was no good at standing guard, there were he and Gandalf, who had good instincts and could easily tell when there would be danger.

Watching Aldril leave and Bilbo's nervous face, Gandalf laughed. "Don't think too hard, Bilbo. If you see anything wrong, just shout."

...

As the night grew darker and the moon disappeared into the clouds, a campfire could be seen burning in the makeshift camp and around it several sleeping dwarves could be seen.

Only one small hobbit was awake, looking around nervously; next to him was a sleeping Gandalf. All around was silent, as if the whole world had fallen asleep. This made the already nervous Bilbo even more nervous.

In front of Bilbo, was Aldril leaning against a rock, with his sword and bow beside him.

Just then, Aldril opened his eyes, as he had felt a sense of danger. Being able to see well in the darkness, Aldril was able to identify a group of orcs deep in the forest moving silently towards them.

At that moment, without hesitation, he stood up and grabbed his bow. This action unnerved Bilbo, who was unable to say anything in the face of Aldril's shout that made everyone in the party wake up.

"Orcs!" "Shiss!"

After his shout, he shot an arrow, hitting an orc squarely in the head, killing it. Hearing Aldril's shout, all the team members stood up.

The orcs, seeing that they were exposed, stopped being silent and ran to confront the group. Without having time to think about why the plot was different from what he remembered, Aldril fired an arrow again, successfully killing another orc. This whole process happened in just a few seconds.

The dozen dwarves who were selected to participate in the restoration expedition were dwarves who had experienced some fights with the orcs in the past and the younger ones were dwarves with good sword skills.

After being awakened by Aldril's shout, they immediately reacted without panicking; they just quickly grabbed their weapons and faced the orcs.

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Surprise chapter for the two hundred power stones!!!!

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