Third Age, March 2939.
At this time, there were still two years, one month, and twenty-five days until the Lonely Mountain expedition, which Bilbo was unaware of.
After bidding farewell to Bilbo Baggins and leaving Hobbiton, Arthur followed the map he was given and walked south along the Brandywine River.
He had been traveling for five days.
The closer he got to Minhiriath on the map, the more sparsely populated Arthur felt the area become.
Moreover, this world was not as peaceful as he had imagined; he had encountered about two groups of hostile creatures along the way.
They were humanoid creatures riding wargs, with dark grey skin and hideous appearances.
Arthur even wondered if they were intelligent beings, as these seemingly humanoid creatures would immediately nock an arrow and shoot upon seeing him, giving Arthur no chance to communicate with them.
But it was precisely this 'fight-on-sight' style that made Arthur feel as if he had returned to the familiar The Lands Between.
So, he swung his Greatsword, smashing these disgusting creatures, who looked like they had never bathed, along with the wargs they rode, into a pulpy mess.
After seeing more than half of their companions fall, the enemies began to flee.
Having fought his way through The Lands Between, Arthur would not let enemies who attacked him escape. Torrent immediately demonstrated the advantage of a horse, catching up to and killing all three of the fleeing disgusting creatures.
However, it was because of this pursuit that Arthur strayed from the Brandywine River and arrived on a plain covered in green grass.
He was now a bit unclear about his position on the map.
But these two battles were not without their benefits; at least they allowed Arthur to understand some things about himself.
Firstly, the most intuitive point was that his physical condition had not changed compared to when he was in The Lands Between; it was still the same as before.
Secondly, regarding the use of magic and Prayers, both could be used normally, and their power remained unchanged. However, his Cerulean Flask was empty, and besides the Star Fragments, which were consumed one by one, he currently had no means to replenish his magic during combat.
This was also why Arthur rode Torrent to pursue and kill those hostile creatures; otherwise, he would have blasted them with magic long ago.
Finally, there was the elden ring within his body.
Arthur tried to summon it from within himself, but the elden ring only appeared for a moment before receding.
But Arthur could feel that it wasn't that the elden ring wasn't responding to him, but rather that it needed to be in a specific location to truly respond.
In other words, he still had to follow the words of Iluvatar, the creator god in his dream, and be on the land of Minhiriath.
But where was he now?
Arthur looked around, feeling lost. Besides the corpses of his enemies, smashed by a greatsword and scattered everywhere, there was only the boundless sky and a lush green grassland with fresh sprouts emerging from the earth.
Occasionally, there were mounds of earth or a few greyish-white rocks sticking out of the grassland, with a few sparse, ancient trees standing here and there.
Moreover, the terrain of this grassland was not flat, but rather undulating. Fortunately, there were no unpleasant terrains like swamps.
As a horse, Torrent would not sink into a swamp, but the mud brought by a swamp would still be very unpleasant for it and for Arthur, who was riding it.
Torrent carried Arthur with light steps, and Arthur held the map Bilbo had given him, trying to find some obvious landmarks on the map to confirm his current location.
The man and the horse walked like this until the sun reached its highest point in the sky. Only then did Arthur guide Torrent into a small grove, planning to eat some dry rations there before continuing.
But as soon as he approached the small grove, Arthur heard the clang of swords, the language spoken by the enemies who had attacked him not long ago, and the low growls of Wargs.
Additionally, he heard voices different from those disgusting creatures and Wargs, but Arthur could not understand the language they spoke.
Didn't Iluvatar say he would let me understand the languages of the intelligent beings of this world?
With this question in mind, Arthur dismissed Torrent back into his whistle, preparing to investigate the grove.
This time, he did not use the Greatsword against the orcs, but instead pulled out the classic combination of a King's Army Straight Sword and a Brass Shield.
Because in the grove, the Greatsword was a bit cumbersome and inconvenient for chopping.
What's more, the terrain was relatively complex, and enemies could easily ambush from blind spots, so Arthur chose the versatile straight sword + one-handed shield combination.
Of course, both the King's Army Straight Sword in his hand and the Brass Shield were fully upgraded.
Arthur, shield in his left hand and sword in his right, entered the grove where the sounds of fighting grew more intense.
He cautiously used his sword to clear away vines and weeds, wary of traps left by either side fighting in the grove, while approaching the sound.
"Accursed orcs! Retreat and crawl back to your masters like the dogs you are!"
An angry roar came, and Arthur understood this sentence.
Then came the sound of something heavy smashing a head, and the wails of Wargs.
"Struggle all you wish; you cannot escape your death. And your head will be food for the Wargs. They will suck your brains dry and crack your skull open." A voice, as if choked with phlegm, replied to the other party.
Arthur was now very close to the battle. He hid himself behind a thick tree, then peeked out to observe the two sides engaged in the struggle.
One side, as Arthur expected, was exactly like the two groups of enemies that had attacked him before: ugly, disgusting creatures riding Wargs.
But the other side was a race Arthur had never seen. They undoubtedly had human appearances, but they were shorter and resembled hobbits, with beards so thick they could serve as bird nests and were longer than their hair.
From the recent conversation, Arthur easily understood that the disgusting creatures who attacked him were called "orcs," and these short, heavily bearded humans were called "dwarves."
On the field, there were a total of five dwarves; one of them was injured and protected by the other four behind him. They held axes or warhammers in their hands, raising their shields to constantly resist the attacks of the orcs and wargs.
As for the orcs, there were many more. Arthur counted carefully: apart from the seven or eight corpses of orcs and wargs lying on the ground, there were still eleven orcs and seven wargs.
Clearly, the situation was very unfavorable for the dwarves.
The orcs were also very clever and did not rush in all at once. Perhaps the dwarves had just shown this group of orcs the miserable consequences of close combat with their axes and hammers.
Under the guidance of one of the orcs, they split into two combat groups.
One group of orcs kept a slight distance from the dwarves, took down the short bows hanging from their waists, and continuously used arrows to cover their companions.
The other group of orcs, along with the wargs, constantly attacked the dwarves with melee weapons, preventing them from timely blocking incoming arrows with their shields.
This combat method was very effective. Arthur had only just peeked out to observe the situation for a few seconds when two dwarves, whose shields failed to block arrows in time, were wounded by close-range orcs with weapons and fell to the ground.
"No!!"
Among the remaining two dwarves, one with a shorter beard and a sturdier, taller physique than the other four dwarves, glared at the orcs before him, his eyes bloodshot and teeth gritted.
His movements were also a few points more agile than the other dwarves. The two orcs and one Warg that tried to attack from his side were cleanly beheaded or cut in half at the waist by his axe.
Arthur now knew he could not observe any longer. If he didn't act, these five dwarves would be slaughtered by the orcs.
But he did not rush out recklessly.
Earlier on the plain, Arthur had relied on Torrent's mobility to maneuver around these Orcs and Wargs multiple times. Now, he wasn't riding Torrent, and he wasn't very familiar with the terrain in this grove.
Rushing out recklessly would cause Arthur unnecessary harm, and fighting multiple enemies alone was something he had suffered a lot from in The Lands Between.
So Arthur reached out and grabbed a few times in the air, taking out two ceramic pots from his spatial backpack, their surfaces occasionally flashing with lightning.
[Throwing Item - thunderbolt]
Eat my thunderbolt, orcs!