Chapter 78: Goblin Town

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Edward had once teleported to the top of Mount Everest for fun, and even there the chill was nothing compared to what he was feeling right now.

He wasn't just feeling cold too, he could feel his Chi turn sluggish, while his Spirit was getting hyperactive, searching for a way to relieve him of the cold.

Thankfully, before the cold could cause any damage, Edward felt a wave of heat spread from Gandalf, instantly dispersing the cold away. He looked at the wizard, and saw a ring appear on his hand, it was a golden ring with a ruby like gem in it.

Gandalf ignored his gaze and approached the crystal. After a moment, he mumbled, "How rare, something I do not recognize. Any idea of what this is?"

Edward got a little closer, but even with his Chi Sense he couldn't determine anything about the crystal. After a moment, he tried, "The obvious answer would be that it is a material filled with the essence of ice, but it felt strange."

Gandalf nodded as he felt the same thing, "Yes, notice how the rocks do not show any sign of icing? If it was really just a very cold material, the rocks would be covered in ice."

Edward looked around and did see that the rocks looked normal, with not a bit of frost on them. After a moment, Gandalf said, "The Magworm Lord was unusually big, and we both felt our mind sharpen under it's influence, so I think this may be a material useful to the mind, if used appropriately."

"What should we do with it then?"

Gandalf remained silent for a few seconds before saying, "I think you should take it, we came here because I felt there was something here you might need, so you should take it into one of your Spatial Bracelets. You can also store the Magworm Lord inside, since it's a spirit body it shouldn't die."

Edward nodded, and immediately took out everything from his left Spatial Bracelet, putting them into his right one, before throwing the large Magworm Lord inside the left one.

The Magworm was so big it took nearly all the available space inside, but since it was a spirit body it didn't really matter. The reason he took everything out was because he was going to add the crystal inside.

Edward wasn't really too keen on touching the crystal with his own hands, Gandalf was protecting them from it's passive cold aura, but he feared touching it would make even Gandalf's protection useless.

So instead Edward opted to extend his Spiritual Energy out of his body, toward the crystal. As he approached it, his spirit started feeling cold, and the closer he got to it, the more he hesitated.

Edward released a breath he didn't even know he had been keeping, and touched the crystal with his Spiritual Energy. The moment he did, the solid crystal suddenly turned into a liquid and latched onto his Spiritual Energy.

The cyan liquid froze the Spiritual Energy it was in contact with and quickly extended toward Edward, seemingly fully intent on freezing his very spirit.

Edward felt some panic but quickly spread his Spiritual Energy toward the portal leading into the Spatial Bracelet, leading the liquid inside.

As soon as it was inside, Edward cut off the connection, trapping it inside with the remaining of his Spiritual Energy. The liquid quickly froze it all, before eventually settling down, turning back into it's previous crystal form.

The Magworm looked ecstatic to see the crystal arrive in the Spatial Bracelet, and no longer tried to leave as it coiled around the crystal, which strangely did not react.

Having spent nearly all of his Spiritual Energy, Edward was feeling quite the headache, and seeing the situation inside the bracelet only worsened the situation. He truly wondered how the Magworm was not being attacked by the crystal, but his headache was way too painful for him to think.

It took Edward a minute to shake off the headache, it wasn't a normal headache, some of that freezing Spiritual Energy had spread to his spirit, incapacitating him for a moment. Thankfully, it was Gandalf who was next to him.

As he regained his thinking capacity, Gandalf asked, "The energy you used was interesting, it felt strangely similar to the crystal."

Edward raised an eyebrow in wonder, "Similar? Where did you see that?"

"You can't feel the resemblance? The two seemed pretty familiar to each other. Nevermind, how are you feeling?"

Edward kept Gandalf's words to mind as he replied, "Fine, I just needed a little time," he pointed at the tons of Mithril and inquired, "What should we do with those?"

Gandalf looked around the room and after a moment said, "I never saw so much Mithril in one place, it can be said to be priceless…" He moved to a nearby pill of Mithril and moved it into his Spacial Ring.

He looked at the bracelet in wonder before deciding, "There's really no weight at all, even with so much of it… I don't need anymore than that, so you should take the rest of it. You should put it with the crystal and the Magworm, so much magical metal gathered in one place should allow it to grow even more."

Edward looked at Gandalf in shock as he exclaimed, "Are you sure? You said yourself it was invaluable."

Gandalf waved his hand and laughed, "I already have more than a cubic meter of Mithril, I doubt I could spend it all in several thousand years. And even if I could, I do not care for such riches. This is more than enough for my personal use, if I even ever use it."

Mithril was half the weight of steel, and since steel weighed 7,85 tons per cubic meters, Mithril weighed 3925 kg. So Gandalf had more than four tons of Mithril, more than enough for personal use indeed.

Since he had Gandalf's approval, Edward did not hesitate any longer and stored all the remaining Mithril into his left Spatial Bracelet. As expected, the Mithril simply went through the Magworm's spirit body, so he had more than enough place.

The crystal was in the middle of the space, with the Magworm Lord coiled around it, so Edward arranged the Mithril in a circle around it, going through the Magworm's body without a problem.

When Edward finished taking all the Mithril, Edward estimated he had stored close to 300 cubic meters of Mithril as slightly less than a third of the place inside the bracelet was filled. This was about a million kilograms of Mithril stored in there.

Obviously, Edward was relieved he had made those Spatial Rings, or he would have been forced to leave those behind. Leaving a million tons of Mithril in a cave wouldn't have sit well with him.

Edward was curious as to whether the camp would have any more treasures, but Gandalf warned that they needed to go if they didn't want to miss the company.

Before long, they started meeting goblins once again, and like those before they fell before Edward's blade.

As they moved through the underground tunnels, Edward also noticed that not only was the path getting wider, more and more tunnels were converging together.

And finally, after several hours of march, they arrived at Goblin-town. Edward expected a human like underground city, but as they arrived realized how wrong he was.

Goblin-town was a giant underground cave with raised wooden platforms all over the place, connected to each other by fragile looking bridges or simply ropes for some.

The thing looked exceptionally dangerous to live in, but that was with the perspective of a human. Until now, all the goblins Edward had fought were walking on the ground, but he saw with his own eyes how thousands of goblins were climbing on the walls with the ease of a lizard, or a spider.

Although goblins were disgusting creatures, it was really interesting to see such a foreign colony. Elves and dwarves were in many ways similar to humans, so until now Edward had never really felt lost, for sure Rivendell was beautiful, but humans could have built it too.

Goblin-town was much more unique. Of course, he would rather spend his days in Rivendell than in Goblin-town, but it indeed was quite the novel sight.

"Look, there's the company."

Gandalf suddenly spoke as he pointed his staff toward one of the many suspended platforms, and following his direction Edward indeed saw a bunch of small figures, surrounded by many goblins. Surprisingly though, there was a much bigger figure than the others, as tall as a Troll but much fatter.

Gandalf whispered, "This is the Great Goblin, leader of all the goblins in the Misty Mountains, and he doesn't look pleased with his guests."

Edward nodded, and the two began walking toward the company. They managed to remain undetected thanks to Gandalf's magic, as well as the fact that all the goblins' attention was on the company.

On the main platform where the Great Goblin sat, the goblins were in a jolly mood as the Great Goblin sang, and the rest were bringing torture tools to make the dwarves speak.

However, one of the goblins had a bad feeling about one of the weapons, it was making him feel repulsed. Still, curious as he was, he grabbed it, and despite the feeling intensifying, he unsheathed the blade.

A shrill spread as the blade was unsheathed, and all the goblins, including the Great Goblin, reeled back in fear as the later cried out, "That golden sword, that's the Goblin Cleaver! Kill them! Kill them!"

The goblins entered into a frenzy as they began hitting the dwarves with all their might, and as the dwarves were finding it difficult to defend themselves, an explosion of white energy blasted the goblins away.

Silence fell onto Goblin-town as a figure revealed itself, it was Gandalf. Activating Narya, the Elven Ring of Fire, ability, bravery rose into the hearts of the dwarves with Gandalf's words, "Rise up and take your arms. Fight!"

The dwarves, full of vigour, roared as they got back onto their feet and took their weapons, killing the nearby goblins. The Great Goblin grabbed his giant spear made of bones and wood, and cried, "You won't go anywhere! Kill them!"

He swiped his spear at the dwarves, forcing them to move back, but before he could continue his attacks another figure fell from the sky. The Great Goblin stabbed his spear at him, but the figure, Edward, sliced his spear easily with a move of his Ebony Blade, and cut off his arm with the other.

The Great Goblin's wails of pain only intensified the frenzy the goblins were feeling, but they were cut short as Edward stabbed his sword into the Great Goblin's forehead, killing him.

Things came to a stop for a second, and as they realized their leader had been killed, all the goblins cried in unison as thousands, if not tens of thousands of them, climbed the walls of the cave, fully intent on getting their revenge.

Gandalf raised his staff, the tip of it projecting a bright light, and ordered, "Follow me!"

The dwarves did not hesitate to follow, and Edward ran behind them, to cover their back. Right in front of him was Kili, who looked back and joked while running, "Escaping is going to be difficult isn't it?"

Edward smiled at that and released a wave of Royal Will. The torches lighting up the cave lost their colour, before losing their flames, plunging nearly the entire cave into darkness.

The cries of the goblins had completely stopped, and for a few seconds, silence reigned in Goblin-town. The dwarves, who only had Gandalf's light to illuminate their surroundings, felt scared, despite Narya's magic, as the all too silent darkness surrounded them.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Suddenly, the silence was broken as the sound of falling corpses resonated all around them, and for several seconds the dwarves stood frozen as the sound of bodies breaking against the stones achoed in the cave, like raindrops falling to the ground.