[Achievement Unlocked: The Next Generation]
After Smaug's death was confirmed, a fiery red egg suddenly fell into Levi's backpack with a satisfying weight.
[Fire Dragon Egg]
"Place near lava for incubation."
Drawing the sword embedded in the dragon's lower jaw, Levi exhaled deeply, declaring the end of this battle.
The precious sword grew ever brighter, having slain a dragon without being stained by blood.
Bard emerged from the tunnel entrance, staring dumbfounded at the dragon's corpse that dominated the entire chamber.
"The legends have been proven true. Your ancestor was indeed a remarkable human warrior. From this day forward, your family will be proud of you, Bard the Bowman."
Thorin emerged from another tunnel entrance, paying his respects to this human archer with genuine admiration.
Then, from the end of the secret passage, the dwarves came running down with thunderous cheers.
"Ahaha!"
"It's dead!"
The dwarves circled around the dragon's corpse like children around a festival bonfire, with Kili so excited that he kicked the dragon's body hard. Unfortunately, he couldn't budge the corpse at all and instead stood there grimacing for several seconds.
"What's wrong? Your leg seems to be shaking. Is your injury not healed yet?" Fili, who caught up later, asked with concern.
"Nothing, I'm just very happy."
Thorin assembled all the dwarves and proclaimed with the voice of kings: "The dragon is slain! Our long-awaited vengeance is fulfilled!"
"From this day forth, Erebor shall once more be ruled by the line of Durin!"
After celebrating to their hearts' content, the dwarves finally quieted down somewhat and discussed future matters with growing seriousness.
"Now our primary objective is to find the Arkenstone, then summon reinforcements."
"In the short term, probably only Dain can make it here."
"Levi, how many orcs did you say were coming?"
"Not counting wargs, over twenty thousand, including many trolls. And they're trolls that aren't afraid of sunlight. I suspect they might be Olog-hai bred by the Enemy."
Hearing this, the dwarves' expressions gradually grew grave, their previous joy completely swept away like smoke in the wind.
"What do you mean an army of over twenty thousand?"
"What are you talking about?"
Bard looked completely confused. What orcs? What wargs? He'd never heard of such things threatening the region.
"He's saying that an orc army numbering in the tens of thousands is approaching Erebor. They set out from Dol Guldur in Mirkwood and the mines of Moria, heading north. They might arrive in a few days."
Hearing Thorin's words, Bard quickly simulated the orcs' marching route in his mind.
"Then won't they pass through Lake-town?!"
He became somewhat panicked, his face draining of color.
An army of tens of thousands of orcs. How could they resist? Lake-town didn't even have many proper soldiers, only guards responsible for maintaining daily order who had combat capability.
Dealing with scattered small orc squads was one thing, but an army...
"I must return immediately."
Bard turned to leave with urgent determination.
Whether it was dragons, treasure, or royal promises. None of these mattered to Bard. What he cared about was in Lake-town.
"If you need it, Erebor can provide shelter."
Thorin called out from behind.
Bard stopped, looked back at him, and replied: "I understand."
Then, in the blink of an eye, he climbed over the dragon's corpse and disappeared through the passages.
"Time is of the essence. We must find the Arkenstone immediately."
Thorin continued directing the dwarves with renewed urgency.
"This dragon..."
He touched Smaug's corpse and looked at Levi with uncertainty.
Levi had been staring at the dragon's corpse since earlier, seemingly thinking about something, which made Thorin uncertain about his intentions.
"Levi, do you need it?"
"Yes, some of the materials on it are very useful to me."
"Then it's all yours. This is what you deserve."
"And this doesn't count toward that one-fifteenth share."
After saying this, Thorin nodded to Levi and went to the treasury with the other dwarves, their footsteps echoing through the halls.
Only Bilbo and Levi remained at the scene.
Bilbo knew nothing about orc armies or how much treasure he would receive. This hobbit only knew that the dragon before him was frighteningly large and awe-inspiring.
He stared at the dragon for a long time, hesitating before speaking: "Levi, may I... I mean, could I take a scale as a memento?"
"Of course, Bilbo. This dragon has plenty of scales."
"Thank you. You know, I plan to write some stories when I return. I think this could serve as a specimen, pressed in my storybook like I used to do. I like collecting leaves and flowers, sometimes even planting them in my garden..."
After obtaining the scale, Bilbo tucked it into his pocket, chatted with Levi for a while longer, and then followed Thorin to search for the gem in the vaults.
Levi began collecting materials from the dragon's body with methodical precision.
Dragon blood, dragon bones, dragon meat, fire dragon scales, fire dragon heart...
This dragon was truly massive, and the loot it dropped after death was considerable, forcing Levi to craft a chest to store it all.
After obtaining these materials, his crafting table updated, adding methods for making dragon scale armor, dragon-series tools, and the forging method for "Dragonfire Steel."
This material called Dragonfire Steel was quite powerful. Armor made from it was far stronger than netherite, and weapons would be superior to the ancient elven sword in his hand. Unfortunately, Levi didn't yet have the conditions to craft Dragonfire Steel.
Because its creation required a fire dragon's dragonfire, and Smaug, the last fire dragon in the world, had just been slain by Levi.
Fortunately, it had dropped a fire dragon egg upon death. Once the egg hatched, everything would be possible.
After collecting all the materials, Levi discovered some rather unexpected drops.
[Wing Membrane]
"'Elytra' crafting unlocked."
In vanilla Minecraft, elytra couldn't be crafted. They could only be found in ships that randomly spawned above End islands. However, the materials dropped by the dragon seemed to make up for this shortcoming.
[Achievement Unlocked: Sky's the Limit]
Take off!
Now he could truly take flight.
After organizing all the materials, Levi immediately equipped the elytra and tested it in the spacious hall. The gliding sensation was quite smooth.
As long as his reflexes were fast enough, he'd never have to fear falling to death again. As for the fireworks that could provide power for flight, with Erebor's gunpowder stores, at least Levi alone would have more than enough to fly freely.
"Time to check on Thorin."
After organizing all the drops, Levi went out through the secret passage and followed his memory to wind his way to the smelting facility.
"If I remember correctly, through this door and down should be..."
While searching for the path, suddenly, as he passed the massive steel furnace built by the dwarves, a notification appeared before his eyes.
[Added "Erebor (Lonely Mountain)" series crafting]
[Added Erebor series multi-block structures]
Massive high-temperature steel furnaces, bellows, mineral transport chains, forging tables, liquid transport pipes...
An entire dwarven industrial system was added to the crafting table, leaving Levi momentarily overwhelmed by the possibilities.