The following day, the group ate a filling meal then followed the commander to the elven city in the deeper part of the woods. The roads in the woods were complicated. They crossed both land and water and went from the morning till afternoon before a bright view appeared in front of them. Out of the densely populated trees was a large gra.s.sy field. This field was located within the woods. A single gigantic tree stood in the center of the field. It was the size of a skysc.r.a.per. Its height reached hundreds of meters.
“Cares Galadhon of the golden woods. Heart of Elvendom on earth.” The commander was carried away as he stared at the tree.
The woods were indeed golden with the setting suns.h.i.+ne s.h.i.+ning through it. It gave a kind of holy beauty to the tree in the center and painted the smaller trees as though they were crafted with gold. The group exclaimed at the sight. Though they questioned that the commander brought them here at this hour to specifically see this scene.
The group soon entered the gigantic tree. It was actually formed by numerous trees weaved together. There were stairs, bridges and man made tunnels within the tree. The water was clear. The bottom of the tree looked fresh and clean. It wasn’t piled with fallen leaves.
Suns.h.i.+ne couldn’t penetrate into the tree. However, it was lighted by the glowing marbles hanging by the structures. The movie characters weren’t stunned but it stirred up the desires within the players. Gungnir walked over casually, observed the marbles then walked back to the group. He said in a low voice. “Rank D fire attribute energy stones. There’s probably thousands of them in this place.”
Their eyes lit up. Thousands of rank D energy stones. Even though they were all fire attribute, but it might also mean the elves had similar amounts of other attributes. If they could obtain a few hundred rank D energy stones here, it would be an unbelievable amount of wealth.
“Don’t take these energy stones. If they are ours, we will eventually get them.” Zheng pondered and said. He then followed behind the movie characters.
Zheng’s reputation peaked after the battle inside Moria. So his words were like the words of the head of this alliance. Gungnir was acting quite friendly these to him these days. Neos was saved by him. So they naturally agreed to what he said. The rest of the group held their desires back and followed the movie characters.
The metals they obtained were split among the teams. Team China took half the mithril bar and an ounce of Ithildin. Team Northern Ice Land and team Africa each obtained a quarter of the profit. It was a pity they couldn’t get Balrog’s energy stone. By the looks of it, it seemed to be at least rank A or even AA.
Since the group got a taste of grabbing the items outside of the plot, they were thinking of doing the same here. They wanted to at least get some extra energy stones.
The movie characters led them to the core trunk of the tree. They walked up the stairs swirling around the trunk. The glow from the energy stones painted the place into a wonderland.
The group followed the stairs all the way up until they reached the top of the tree. They saw that there was a man made hall. There was a separate set of stairs leading up from the hall. After they all set foot in the hall, two elves walked down from the stairs, a man and a woman. The elves gave off a brighter gentle glow than normal elves. They attracted everyone’s gazes.
The male elf was handsome but he paled next to the female elf. Her beauty couldn’t be described with anything. Her long soft blonde hair lay on her back. A gentle gold glow radiated from her body. No one could get a clear look of her face for some reason. They could only felt her unparalleled beauty.
The two elves walked to the front of the group. The male elf said. “The Enemy knows you have entered here. What hope you had in secrecy is now gone. Tell me, where is Gandalf?”
The female elf observed everyone in the group while the man talked. The players lacked the respect the movie characters had. They were wondering why they couldn’t see the elf’s face clearly and so they stared straight at her. When the female elf looked at them, they felt something sounded in their minds. It was similar to connecting to Soul Link but something was different.
The psyche force users noticed the abnormality. They all put up the masking and enveloped their team members. The female elf expressed surprise then she smiled at them before turning to the movie characters.
“Gandalf the Grey did not pa.s.s the borders of this land. He has fallen into shadow.” She muttered to herself. Then she stared at the group with shock.
Legolas sighed. “He was taken by both Shadow and Flame, a Balrog of Morgoth. We slew the Balrog with great effort but Gandalf sacrificed himself to prevent the Balrog from being reborn. Moria and Khazad-dûm are now taken over by the orcs.”
Gimli also sighed. He bowed his head in sadness. The female elf said. “Do not let the great emptiness of Khazad-dûm fill your heart, Gimli, son of Glóin. For the world has grown full of peril. And in all lands, love is now mingled with grief.”
Her voice was gentle and peaceful. Gimli and the other movie characters s.p.a.ced out in her voice. Lan said to the rest of the group via Soul Link. “She’s a psyche force user, an incredibly powerful one. She just influenced the characters with her psyche force.”
The male elf said. “What now becomes of this Fellows.h.i.+p? Without Gandalf, hope is lost. I do not have faith in you reaching the depth of Mordor without the protection of a wizard. You are likely to fall into the hands of the minions of Sauron.”
Aragorn opened his lips but no word came out. The female elf said. “The quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while the company is true. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Go now and rest for you are weary with sorrow and much toil. Tonight you will sleep in peace.” She casted her eyes at Frodo. Even while she and the male elf was leaving, she still looked over Frodo. They disappeared to the top of the stairs.
The group finally found a place to rest arranged by the commander. The three teams then gathered together to discuss their next action.
“Based on the movie, we won’t stay here more than three days. This is considering the change we brought to the plot.” Xuan was sitting on a wooden chair. “I know what you are thinking. You want to obtain a large quant.i.ty of energy stones during this time. My reply is not possible.”
Xuan continued with certainty. “Despite the quant.i.ty of the energy stones here, we do not have the justification to obtain any of them. Perhaps you have forgotten that we currently don’t have the strength to guarantee our own safety. The energy stones are merely material wealth. Don’t forget the threat of the other two teams. There is a reason to G.o.d’s every action. Even though those two teams come in the world at random locations, it is still the same world we are in. Given our three teams had such a high chance of encountering each other in the beginning, do you think our alliance can post a real threat to team East America and team Celestial?”
A man from team Northern Ice Land said. “What does that have to do with the energy stones here? It can’t be that getting the stones will make the two teams attack us.”
“No. But there is something more valuable than energy stones here. It’s more useful at least until the end of this movie. Influence! We need to rely on the forces of this world. They will aid us rival the other two teams. The elves are one of such forces. We can’t ruin our influence for just energy stones. That will also ruin the effort we spent to build a relations.h.i.+p with the main characters. The influence we obtain will be over a hundred times more valuable!”