Chapter 1

The dim sky pressed down low, swirling storm clouds, coarse gravel, and the gray-yellow bristly seabuckthorn bushes — these were the defining characteristics of the Gray Dwarf settlements.

Though the name "Gray Dwarf" contained the word "dwarf," they were actually very different from dwarves. In the world of Lord of the Rings, dwarves, gray dwarves, and hobbits were all under a meter tall, but their differences were quite distinct, somewhat similar to the races of dwarves, goblins, and gnomes in the world of WOW (World of Warcraft).

The most distinctive features of the Gray Dwarves were their pair of large, protruding ears, their disheveled hair, and their wickedly sharp smiles. Living in this harsh land for years, even young Gray Dwarves had deeply etched wrinkles on their faces, and their flesh and blood had a foul, fishy stench. Even their souls were twisted and broken, making them completely useless to dark creatures. This was the only reason they could survive here and deal with dark creatures.

Fang Senyan walked through the Gray Dwarf camp with a gloomy face. Clearly, this horrific massacre had occurred some time ago. The stench of decay filled the camp. It was evident that all the Gray Dwarves had resisted, though it seemed to be of little use. The expressions frozen on their faces were often those of terror and panic.

At the ankles and backs of several Gray Dwarf corpses, Fang Senyan discovered strange gripping injuries, frostbite, and puncture wounds. Besides these, there were blast injuries and lacerations caused by shrapnel. Franklin then used a "Detect Energy" ability and told Fang Senyan that there were very chaotic magical disturbances here.

Fang Senyan then noticed that the area around the Gray Dwarf settlement was showing an eerie and vigorous vitality. Sparse vegetation had begun to grow sporadically. Strangely, these plants were not growing where the corpses had fallen — where the environment should have been more nutrient-rich — but appeared in some seemingly unreliable, scattered locations.

"I know who did this," Fang Senyan said, straightening up. "It's that guy from the Stockholm team, Drogba! Only his high-level ability, 'Prison of Mist,' could imprison these goblins and kill them all without exception! It seems the item I extorted from him must have been quite precious, causing him great distress. To vent his anger, he came all the way here to do something so strenuous and unrewarding."

Reef frowned and said, "But how could he know our destination was here?"

Fang Senyan said calmly, "You seem to have forgotten something. There are many other Contractors who entered this world with us and accepted the same mission. With the overwhelming strength of the Stockholm team, finding out this kind of information is as easy as flipping a hand!"

Franklin suddenly took a deep breath and said nervously, "Then… is it possible that he has set up a trap here to ambush us?"

Fang Senyan shook his head and said, "That's unlikely. His attack here must have cost him extra to stay in this world longer. He should have returned long ago. More importantly, even if he ambushes me, he might not be confident in killing me. It’s hard to say if I might turn the tables on him."

Reef frowned and asked, "Then what should we do next?"

Fang Senyan thought for a moment and said, "Call the guide over and ask if there are any other Gray Dwarf settlements nearby."

Franklin called out a few times, but the guide did not answer. Everyone became nervous because the Stockholm team might well have ambushed them.

Finally, they found the guide next to a Gray Dwarf underground cave. He was indeed killed by the Stockholm team. A trigger-activated ice magic trap had frozen him into a block of ice. The guide still maintained the appearance of kneeling on the ground and searching. The greedy, ecstatic expression on his face was plain to see.

The ice trap had been placed on the guide who had led Drogba and his team here. Fang Senyan, with his extraordinary memory, clearly remembered that this guy seemed to be called Samomo. He had died without any warning. The surprised expression on his face showed that he had not expected to be attacked at all. The few rubies exposed on his chest were still shining in the wind of the Gobi Desert. Their guide was clutching a ruby in his hand.

Seeing this, even the dumbest person could guess what had happened then: Fang Senyan's guide, out of morality or some other purpose, wanted to look for the body of his colleague and was attracted by the sparkling ruby on the corpse. As soon as he reached out, the ice trap was immediately triggered.

This trap seemed simple, but it calculated human nature to the extreme. It also cut off the possibility of Fang Senyan and his team having the guide lead them to find the next Gray Dwarf settlement. Even after leaving this world, Drogba was still calculating so precisely. One could not help but admire the extraordinary depth of his scheming.

Fang Senyan and his team now had about two days left. Forty-eight hours was far from enough to return to Eriador and then hire another guide. So now it seemed they only had one choice: to spend these forty-eight hours searching the surrounding area, hoping to get lucky and find another Gray Dwarf settlement.

However, since their choice was so obvious and narrow, it was hard to say whether Drogba would set up another trap to deal with them. After all, the Stockholm team's strength in the world of The Lord of the Rings was deeply rooted, and even the Eight Nazgûl could be mobilized by them…

"We're going back," Fang Senyan suddenly said calmly.

Everyone was surprised and asked, "Going back where?"

Fang Senyan said calmly, "To Eriador, of course."

Reef paused, in disbelief, and said, "But it's too late for us to go back now."

Fang Senyan said calmly, "Who said we were coming back? We can't stay here any longer, we have to leave immediately! Drogba planned this, it must be a chain of events. Did you notice? A large portion of these Gray Dwarf corpses have bite marks. Once it gets dark, some terrifying creatures might come to feed."

Franklin smiled and said, "Our main mission didn't say anything about penalties for failure. According to convention, the default penalty should be to force us back to the Space. Being able to get to this point, I think we've already exceeded our goals. A little less Space reward isn't a big deal."

Franklin wasn't lying. He was sincerely saying this. He believed that his greatest gain in this world was finding a way to join this team called Ace. To be honest, with Franklin's strength, it wouldn't be difficult to join a large team. However, to join a silver team!! That could only be described as hitting the jackpot.

The corner of Fang Senyan's mouth revealed a ghostly smile. "It's too pessimistic to say the mission has failed now. I don't think we've reached the end of the road. You know what? I just saw the name of another teleportation point at the Eriador teleportation array. I thought, maybe we can go there and try our luck. At least Drogba can't stretch his hand that far, right?"

Next, the group spared no expense in rushing the packhorses back to Eriador. This time, they worked all the packhorses to death on the road, squeezing the remaining sixteen hours out of those precious forty-eight hours.

Then, they went to the teleportation array and requested to use it, but were ruthlessly rejected.

The reason was simple: the guide who had set out with them, called Rubaba, had not returned.

Because there was already a precedent of one guide, Samomo, not returning, Rubaba's return was seen as a major event. Fang Senyan and his team explained that their guide had died in an accident, but no one would listen to their explanation. More importantly, these greedy guys had their eyes on their rich possessions because teleporting four people to Isengard would definitely cost a lot of gems.

Under these circumstances, it was actually the Mist Song girl who acted first.

She took the lead in nocking and drawing her bow with clear and swift speed, and at the same time shot two extremely sharp arrows, piercing through with a "thwack, thwack" sound and deeply embedding themselves into the body, piercing through the arm of a dark, stout fellow in the distance, and pinning it to the wooden board behind him.

This guy let out a shrill scream. A wine bottle in his hand slipped to the ground, and then shattered with a crash. In the next second, a raging fire rose up, engulfing him and causing him to scream in great pain.

These guys seemed to have been planning for a long time, and even brought out Molotov cocktails. The guy who was shot showed a cruel look on his face under the scorching flames, and actually cut off the arrow shaft nailed to his body with a backhand knife, and then rushed out, rolled around on the ground, and shouted loudly: "Kill these robbers, they tricked our people into the depths of the Gobi and then killed them, they must be followers of darkness."

Under this guy's instigation, the rest of the guide natives also screamed and pounced towards Fang Senyan and his team. These people used thick-backed long knives, leaping up and slashing down, not leaving themselves any room, and not leaving any room for the enemy.

At this time, Fang Senyan was also facing the attack of two guide natives at the same time. He completely ignored the knife slashing at his head, and the +7 West in his hand flashed with a cold light, directly stabbing into the abdomen of one of the enemies! And after the sharp blade entered the body, he deliberately made the wound extremely large and deep! Amidst a long scream, blood and internal organs overflowed, shocking the eye!

At the same time, the knife of another guide native had already slashed on his shoulder, but it was clamped by Fang Senyan's muscles, making it difficult to advance an inch!!