Alone and Infinite

As a city-state that once had close ties with the Lonely Mountain Dwarf Kingdom, the Valley State's armory is filled with equipment crafted by the dwarves.

These weapons, infused with trace amounts of rare metals, remain sharp even after a century.

These equipment were distributed, and fifty bows and corresponding arrows were 'bought' from the Elf King, with the payment deducted from the share due from the 'Lonely Mountain Treasure'.

As mentioned before, apart from women and children, the survivors were all able-bodied men. They were reasonably agile and their archery skills were generally between LV2 and LV3.

Some can even reach the level of being proficient at LV4.

Thus, the previously loose-fitting residents of Changhu Town appeared exceptionally capable after donning armor and taking up weapons.

The apostles were even more delighted with their equipment. Although the equipment was of low quality, just ordinary green, it was a complete set.

Unfortunately, none of them could be taken out of this world.

Generally speaking, the gains of these new apostles after completing the solo trial are approximately 3 attribute points, 1500 points, 1 to 2 pieces of green equipment, 1 to 2 pieces of white equipment, and a number of consumables.

They usually possess one skill, but their proficiency is very low, generally around LV1, which means they can use it, but that's about it.

Li Xia only found out about this when he overheard other Apostles chatting through the Scott Combat Assist System.

The rewards from serendipitous encounters are much higher. For example, if Li Xia obtains the green bloodline, he could potentially become incredibly wealthy by selling it.

The remaining option is to join a team. Although you won't be able to obtain equipment that exceeds your own tier, you can find some green items and consumables in the team's equipment pool at a fairly favorable price.

Therefore, a complete set of green armor and weapons directly elevated these apostles, who were originally relatively low-ranking, to a higher level.

After issuing several faction quests to strengthen the defenses of Vale, Li Xia strongly advised Thranduil not to lead his soldiers to Lonely Mountain.

In the end, each side brought ten people, carrying the flags of the Forest Kingdom and Long Lake Town, and headed towards the River Valley State.

Upon approaching the gate, they discovered that Thorin had already completely sealed the gate to Lonely Mountain with stones.

A deep yet clear voice came from within the gate: "Who goes there? Why are you fully armed, coming before Thorin, son of Thalein, the King of the Mountain, intending to start a war?"

"Thorin Oakenshield, if you consider the retinue of a king as an army, then every meeting of the king is a battle."

Thranduil's voice rose and fell, like an aria, giving it a strange, sarcastic quality.

"you!"

Thorin choked for a moment, then said in a harsh voice:

"Thranduil, I have not yet avenged your imprisonment of me. Take your elves and go back! I know what you want! I will not give you a single coin!"

Thranduil sneered, clearly well aware of the dwarven nature corrupted by greed.

So he directly brought up Li Xia: "This is Xia the Dragon Slayer. He killed Smaug with his own hands, and you obtained the treasure through his hands as well."

Isn't this none of your business?

Moreover, he is the leader of Lake-town, and as a descendant of the Riverdale clan, he is rightfully entitled to inherit the Riverdale kingdom. Much of your treasure was stolen from Riverdale by Smaug. Doesn't he have the right to discuss this with you?"

Surprise and hushed whispers came from inside. After a long while, Thorin said, "He may be qualified, but only if the elves return to their homeland will I speak with the leaders of Lake-town."

Li Xia shook his head: "No, Thorin! I'm afraid you don't understand the seriousness of the matter. The Elven King must be here because this negotiation concerns the fate of Lake-town, the Forest Kingdom, and the Lonely Mountain Dwarves."

We must discuss this—

After a pause, he decided to use a sarcastic tone:

“If you are unwilling to come out and meet us, then we will leave immediately. I have never seen a true king cower behind a high wall and only dare to speak from behind it.”

The arguing inside immediately escalated, and after a while, Thorin's cold voice finally rang out:

"can!"

A short while later, several ropes were thrown down the high city wall, and several dwarves and a tiny man even smaller than the dwarves slid down.

Thorin looked very imposing, especially in his magnificent armor, but Li Xia's attention was entirely on the little man.

He is Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit and the holder of the One Ring.

Li Xia had absolutely no interest in the One Ring; frankly, the only good thing about it was the name.

The Elf King's retinue began busily preparing again, but this time they couldn't manage to put together a beautiful meal.

They could only lay a cloth on the ground, so the three leaders sat on cushions (Thorin and Thranduil both looked unwell).

"Thorin, I've come here mainly to tell you some news. The Orks of the Misty Mountains have all been mobilized and are digging tunnels using the Leyline Worms."

Lonely Mountain is in danger.

Thorin's face immediately darkened, but he quickly regained his composure:

"Thank you for the advance warning, but the dwarves will not fear the Orks—"

"Your reliance, your cousin from Tieqiuling, won't arrive for another three whole days. And how many of them will they bring? Five hundred? A thousand?"

Li Xia sneered:

"The Ork army numbers in the tens of thousands, and they are faster than your cousin. If you think you 13 dwarves can hold Lonely Mountain, we're leaving now."

After you've secured Gushan, we'll discuss the compensation issue for Changhu Town.

You don't actually think you can get away with not paying compensation for alerting Smaug and destroying Lake-town, do you?

Thorin shut his mouth and stopped talking. He didn't doubt what Li Xia said, because the agreed payment would definitely be settled afterward, just like the payment he gave Bilbo Baggins.

"If you think you can force me to hand over the treasure this way, then—"

Nobody wants to steal your treasure!

Li Xia interrupted him without hesitation, saying directly:

“I prefer to call this a mercenary act! We are sending troops to fight against the Orks, and you should bear the cost of sending troops; this has always been the principle.”

Thorin closed his eyes and stopped speaking. In fact, as long as the nerve of 'stealing the treasure' was not touched, this dwarf king's abilities were quite outstanding.

The dwarves around him looked at him expectantly. These dwarves did not have Thorin's 'dragon disease' flowing in his blood, nor did they have an infinite greed for gold.

After a long while, Thorin finally spoke slowly:

"If everything is as you say, I am willing to make a pact with the elves and humans and offer a certain amount of wealth as a reward."

I swear in the name of the King of Turin!

[Announcement to all: The Human, Elf, and Dwarf factions have reached an alliance. The Quartermaster will be available to apostles of all three factions. Existing contribution and bonuses remain unchanged.]

[Announcement to all: The final main quest has begun!]

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1. Monthly pass 2. Recommendation vote

Chapter 58 We look forward to you becoming the true king!

The apostle, who had just been shocked by the announcement to the whole community, stared with his mouth agape, wondering how the trial world had become like this.

The dwarves felt like the sky had fallen; each of the three factions had its own unique characteristics.

Prior to this, the human faction was very weak, with extremely low contribution levels. They had many faction missions, but the rewards were meager and the payouts were mediocre.

Therefore, few people are willing to go. Those low-level apostles would rather infiltrate the elven camp and earn some contribution points to exchange for an elven archery manual.

Alternatively, you could go to the dwarven faction and exchange for a basic mineral identification book or a dwarven blacksmithing book, which would at least be useful.

The Elf faction has a moderate number of quests, moderate rewards, and moderate payouts, which is why the Elf faction has the most players.

The dwarf faction has fewer missions but higher rewards, and is mostly comprised of confident apostles.

For example, several people named by Claude, such as Aaron Gur, Madwoman, and Knight, were all from the dwarf faction.

Now things are much better. Quartermasters are shared across the three factions, which is not bad. The key is that the leader of the human faction is also an Apostle, who can issue missions on his own and has extra bonuses!

What's the point of playing this game? Just destroy it already.

Li Xia ignored the wails of the other apostles and directly opened the exchange page.

[Dwarf Faction Shop]

1. Mithril Sword (Blue)

Reputation Level for Exchange: Revered

Exchange contribution points: 1500 points

2. Mithril Shield (Blue)

Reputation Level for Exchange: Revered

Exchange contribution points: 1200 points

3. Mithril Inner Armor (Blue)

Reputation Level for Exchange: Exalted

Exchange contribution points: 1000 points

30. Shiny Gold Coins

Reputation level for exchange: None

Exchange contribution points: 5 points

The quality of items exchanged by the dwarves is indeed much higher than that of the humans. Apart from the Enlightenment Potion, which is exchanged for special items, the best item the human faction can get is a blue bow.

Li Xia suspected that if he hadn't happened to become the leader of the human faction, he probably wouldn't have been able to accumulate the 3000 points needed to exchange for the Enlightenment Potion by the end of the trial.

For the dwarven faction, mithril swords, mithril shields, and inner armor are all widely applicable equipment.

The skills provided are also very practical. Li Xia heard that the skill book for dwarven blacksmithing is almost equivalent to a green ultimate weapon in the hall.

Unfortunately, the limited number of 15 copies available for redemption has already been sold out.

In comparison, the Elf faction has a larger quantity of items, and the quality is also decent.

But apart from elven archery, Li Xia didn't really want anything else.

That's about all the information we can uncover in this trial.

The next step is to wrap things up and bring the five-army battle to a successful conclusion!

Two days passed exceptionally quickly, especially after the scouts sent by the Elven King Thranduil reported that unusual activity had indeed occurred underground.

The tense atmosphere gradually dissipated and grew stronger, and the actions of all parties accelerated considerably.

Aside from constantly sending out ravens to check on his cousin's whereabouts, Thorin spent the rest of his time running around checking on the defensive preparations.

Thranduil and Thorin had several arguments over this.

Li Xia would occasionally chat with Claude, but Chaotuo suddenly fell silent, and many things remained unanswered.

Moreover, more than two thousand years have passed, and many things are no longer the same as in this vibrant era, so it's always good to ask.

This high-ranking apostle was nowhere to be found, but he seemed quite relaxed.

Sometimes the old man would answer, and sometimes it might be due to rules that he didn't want to or couldn't say, so the two of them would tacitly skip over topics that Claude didn't want to discuss.

However, he did say something quite interesting, which was what Li Xia asked when he discovered that his gains in this world were ridiculously high.

Of course, Li Xia wouldn't be foolish enough to ask what to do if the profits were too high; instead, he asked a question that went straight to the heart of the matter.

"After the individual trial, I have become a formal apostle. Why do I still need a joint trial, especially one in the form of a war world?"

Claude's somewhat hoarse laughter came through the walkie-talkie:

"Oh? You noticed? Your total earnings for the whole event were probably several times, or even more, than others. You find that unusual, or even confusing?"

Li Xia chose to remain silent instead of answering.

"As expected of a newcomer. They're already confused after only a few times."

If in the future you discover that some powerful individuals gain dozens of times more rewards from clearing a world than other apostles, wouldn't you be unable to sleep at night?

Claude laughed again, then coughed twice, his voice becoming more serious:

"Okay. Well, I find it quite pleasant to communicate with you."

He paused for a moment, then began to explain in the simplest and most understandable way:

"The solo trial is the temple's assessment of whether you are qualified to become an apostle."

Therefore, the trial of joint war is a selection process.

The Hall of Fame is making its selections, and so are the top guilds under its banner. The secondary guilds will also be making their selections after the war ends.