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*****
"Roar!"
Following the dragon's roar, countless massive fireballs descended from the sky, smashing the sturdy fortress to pieces and inflicting innumerable casualties upon the Imperial soldiers within.
"Don't just stand there gawking, kill that thing!"
"Guards, get the villagers to a safe place!"
"Oh, I'm on fire! Someone help me!"
"Gods, our attacks are useless against it!"
Faced with the dragon's sudden appearance, even the most elite Imperial soldiers were badly frightened.
Under General Tullius's command, the Imperial soldiers quickly launched a counterattack against Alduin.
Countless sharp arrows shot forth, intermingled with many powerful magical arrows, as well as spells cast by the Imperial mages.
However, when these attacks struck Alduin, it was as if they were merely scratching an itch; they caused no damage whatsoever.
On the contrary, Alduin unleashed a torrent of dragonfire, leaving a swathe of death and injury in his wake.
Powerless, General Tullius had no choice but to organize the soldiers to lead the town's villagers in an emergency retreat, forcing them to hide in the underground chambers of the Helgen fortress.
The very instant Alduin appeared, George had used brute physical force to snap the ropes binding his hands.
He then snatched a longsword from a nearby Imperial soldier and proceeded to free Ulfric, Ralof, and the others.
For him, this was a simple matter.
He had no intention of joining the Stormcloaks, but casually sowing a seed of goodwill might prove useful later on.
Crucially, even if he didn't help, Ulfric and the others would have found an opportunity to escape shortly anyway; the result would have been the same.
"Thank you. We're heading over there!"
Ulfric and Ralof, having been freed by George, first expressed their gratitude, then tried to pull him along toward the tower on the right side to escape Alduin's attacks.
George, however, waved his hand and refused.
"It was just a small effort. Perhaps we'll meet again if fate wills it."
Tossing aside the Imperial longsword, George charged directly toward the fortress entrance.
The fireballs Alduin summoned with his roars were deadly to other people, but to him, they were manageable.
Even without using any magical resistance, the fireballs striking his body would, at most, burn away his clothes; they were incapable of harming his physical body.
Besides, with his speed, he could dodge them with perfect precision.
Rather than entering the underground passages with Ralof and the others and getting entangled with the Dragonborn and the Imperial soldiers, it was far better to leave Helgen immediately and distance himself from the gaze of the Dragon God Akatosh.
Dodging left and right, casually knocking aside any Imperial soldiers who blocked his path, and trying his best not to attract the attention of Alduin overhead, he moved along the shadows of the buildings and quickly arrived at the entrance he had first come through.
It wasn't that he was afraid of Alduin. Not only had Alduin just finished fighting the three heroes and been banished for over two thousand years, leaving his strength at less than one-tenth of its original, but even at his peak, Alduin's actual power was inferior to that of a Daedric Prince.
And George's own strength, if placed in this world, was comparable to a fairly strong Daedric Prince.
However, the power of a Daedric Prince could only be maximized within their own plane; they were unable to exert much of their strength in the mortal realm.
Of course, this was all just his speculation based on his time playing the game.
It couldn't be treated as a fundamental fact.
A game was a game, and reality was reality. The information from the game could only serve as a rough metric.
The specifics would have to be judged based on his own encounters later.
With his current strength, if he encountered a threat, he could generally sense whether he could win or if it posed a danger.
At least for now, based on his own senses, the Alduin circling overhead did not pose a significant threat to him.
However, he couldn't use his energy right now and could only rely on his physical body, so the outcome of a confrontation was uncertain.
Therefore, it was best to avoid conflict if possible, especially considering the need to avoid Akatosh's notice.
"Locked."
Arriving at the main fortress gate, George discovered it was locked and couldn't be opened normally.
If he could use an unlocking spell right now, it would be no problem at all, but he couldn't use his magic, so he had to think of another way.
"Jump over it?"
He glanced at the height of the gate, then back at Alduin, who was still circling the fortress. He shook his head.
Although the fortress gate was high, it was nothing to him. A light jump would be enough to clear it.
But that would undeniably attract Alduin's attention.
So, he chose another, more direct and effective method.
Turning his body sideways, George leaned his shoulder against the gate, pushed off hard with his back foot, and his entire person smashed a human-shaped hole directly through the thick wooden gate. He then easily escaped Helgen.
Compared to the chaos currently engulfing Helgen, the minor noise he made breaking the gate wouldn't attract the attention of any person or dragon.
"To think that I, a magician, would have to resort to this method to open a door."
After escaping Helgen, George glanced back at Alduin, who was still circling and breathing fire over the town. He shook his head with a smile, then turned and began walking north along the road.
If he remembered correctly, the nearest town, Riverwood, should be to the north of Helgen.
"I need to find a way to get some money first."
As he walked along the road to Riverwood, George began to formulate his plan.
He intended to stay in Riverwood for a couple of days, buy some books about this world from the local shops, and gain a more detailed understanding of this "real" world's situation.
After that, he would visit Whiterun, and finally, take a carriage to Winterhold, to the College of Winterhold, to learn this world's magic.
As long as he learned this world's magic, he could then begin to use the energy within his own body.
According to Ilúvatar's advice, as long as he didn't use magic from outside this world, he wouldn't be so easily discovered.
Moreover, the best way to gather knowledge about a new world was to learn its magic; nothing was closer to the world's fundamental essence.
But the prerequisite for all of this was that he needed money.
It came back to the same problem. Because he couldn't use magic from outside this world, he couldn't use Transfiguration to create gold and gemstones as he usually did.
He had actually considered, just as he was leaving, whether he should follow the game's logic and swipe a few sets of Imperial armor to sell.
But he quickly vetoed that idea.
In the game, all looted weapons and armor could be sold at blacksmiths and general stores, but this was not a game.
If he really took stolen, standard-issue Imperial weapons and armor into a blacksmith or general store, he would likely be arrested by the town guards the moment he stepped inside.
Furthermore, he couldn't use his small world, nor could he use spatial magic, so carrying a large pile of weapons and armor was simply inconvenient.
"What about gathering some alchemy ingredients along the road?"
In the game, one could also make money by picking various potion ingredients from the roadside and selling them.
But as he looked around at the various flowers and plants all over the ground, he rejected this idea as well.
Similarly, in reality, with unfamiliar flora everywhere, and having just arrived in this world, he had no way of distinguishing which ones were valuable potion ingredients and which were just common weeds.
(End of Chapter)