Stone Giant

"If the dwarves haven’t deviated from their route, they should have taken this path. It’s the shortest route, but also an extremely dangerous one."

As he made his way along the rugged mountain path, Legolas turned back and spoke to Josh and the others.

Legolas truly was an excellent ranger. After obtaining enough information from Elrond, he immediately set out with Josh and the others. They were roughly over half a month’s journey behind the dwarves, so they had to pick up the pace if they wanted to catch them.

"Dangerous? That’s relative, isn’t it? Aside from being more uncomfortable once we leave the mountain paths, I doubt either those Stone Giants or those filthy goblins would pose much of a challenge to you."

Josh smiled, unconcerned. The danger Legolas spoke of was not that great.

The Stone Giants’ roughhousing could certainly pose a tremendous threat, but Josh did not think such slow-moving creatures could harm a ranger, no matter how terrifying their strength was.

And those filthy goblins? Please. Thirteen dwarves, a Hobbit, and a Grey Wizard who only knew how to chop people with a sword had managed to slaughter them until they lost all sense of direction. Josh did not believe those things could threaten Legolas, especially now that Legolas had learned Battle Qi!

"I don’t know, Your Majesty Josh. I honestly don’t know how strong I’ve become after learning Battle Qi. I only think I should be able to fight them."

Legolas remained rather cautious. Though he had learned Battle Qi and his strength had increased tremendously—

Without a suitable point of reference, Legolas did not dare claim to know just how strong he was now. Besides, he had been learning Battle Qi for less than half a month. What he lacked now was an opponent—someone who could show him his true level.

Josh shrugged and said nothing. Such opponents would probably appear soon enough, and it would be a good thing for Legolas to learn where he stood. Besides, Josh remembered that the Battle of Five Armies had originally begun as a massive free-for-all, with the conflict between elves and dwarves standing out most prominently.

Honestly, the dwarves of this world—or rather, the dwarves of this era—had not left Josh with a very good impression.

The dwarves of the Muya Continent had excellent personalities and knew right from wrong. They were nothing like Thorin Oakenshield of this world, who believed that if he said you were wrong, then you were naturally wrong.

Shaking his head, Josh could not be bothered to think about such unpleasant matters anymore. Even if they were later redeemed, he still felt only so-so about those dwarves.

Of course, not every dwarf made Josh feel that way. For example, that loyal old man among the dwarves was a wise fellow.

Holding Natasha’s hand, Josh followed in Legolas’s footsteps through the mountains. The two of them looked as though they were on their honeymoon. Not only did Josh and Natasha appear completely relaxed, but even Garen was at ease, paying no attention to any dangers that might lurk nearby.

As they walked, Legolas suddenly stopped. He stared solemnly at the scattered rubble around them and the mountain rocks that had clearly been drastically altered, a trace of gravity appearing on his face.

Josh walked over and took a look as well. He immediately knew what this place was.

This damned place was probably the Stone Giants’ habitat. Looking at everything before him, Josh could not help sighing. Those unlucky dwarves had probably run into disaster again.

To be honest, those dwarves really were incredibly unlucky. Josh did not know whether it was because they had brought along a Hobbit, but in any case, they had suffered no shortage of misfortune along the way.

Of course, Josh preferred to believe that it was their self-righteous manner that had made even the heavens displeased with them.

Bilbo was truly the luckiest member of that party. Every danger along the way had basically turned into safety for him, and he had maintained good relationships with every faction except the Orcs. On top of that, he had picked up The One Ring!

How dangerous was The One Ring? Just look at its previous owners. Other than Sauron, which one of them had not died horribly?

The most typical example was Gollum. This former Hobbit had been tortured by the ring until he was neither human nor ghost, yet he had still treated it as a priceless treasure and pursued it for countless years. In the end, he fell into the lava together with the ring.

And Bilbo? Not only was he perfectly fine, he became a famous hero and lived past a hundred without a single problem. One could imagine just how absurdly good his luck was.

Combined with Bilbo’s personality and character, Josh truly liked him more than he liked Frodo later on.

"All right, Legolas. It’s just a few Stone Giants messing around. It’s no big deal. We can even ask them which way those dwarves went."

"But, Your Majesty, Stone Giants do not speak the human language."

"That’s only because you don’t know this kind of magic."

Josh did not care in the slightest. As magic surged, he quickly detected the aura of life within several enormous rocks.

Josh looked up at those boulders, curled his lip, and directly spread his Elemental Light Wings. Then he flew toward the boulder with the strongest life aura.

Josh’s Elemental Light Wings gave Legolas quite a fright. He had never expected His Majesty Josh to be able to fly!

He only knew that His Majesty had two dragons: one enormous but exceptionally simple-minded, and another much smaller but rather ill-tempered. Both dragons could fly, and he had heard that His Highness Josh did not ride that enormous dragon around everywhere.

But a person flying on his own without relying on a dragon? It completely exceeded Legolas’s imagination. At least until now, he had never seen anyone like His Majesty, who could simply use magic to create a pair of wings and then take flight.

Legolas could naturally tell that Josh’s wings were formed entirely from magic.

"His Majesty Josh… he can fly?"

"Of course. If your strength reaches the Fifth Tier—roughly your father’s level—you can also try flying. Of course, attempting to fly at the Fifth Tier is not a very good idea, because the consumption is too great."

"My father can do it too?"

"Of course. When you return, just ask him."

Garen nodded and helped Josh answer Legolas’s question. By then, Josh had already landed atop the boulder radiating the strongest life force.

After examining the boulder for a moment, Josh realized that without using magic to sense it, it really would be difficult to find them. They looked utterly ordinary, no different from normal rocks.

After some thought, Josh decided to use Mental Link directly. He did not know the language of stones, so the simplest means of communication could only be through their spiritual power.

With a casual gesture, he condensed a silver point of light. Josh had mastered this series of spells quite well. He sent the silver light into the boulder, and soon discovered that they had connected.

"Can you understand what I’m saying?"

"Huh? A human can actually speak our language? No, you aren’t human. Are you a half-elf? No, that’s not right either. A half-elf would not have such terrifying power within their body."

"So you can understand me."

"Yes. It’s very incredible. I can understand you."

Josh nodded. It seemed Mental Link truly worked remarkably well. Perhaps any living being could use it to communicate normally. But before Josh could say anything else, the giant fellow slowly stood up.

In an instant, the earth shook and the mountains trembled, as though an earthquake had struck. Josh was seeing a complete Stone Giant for the first time! This huge fellow was roughly a hundred meters tall, and Josh was standing right on its head. At that moment, Josh suddenly felt incredibly small.

"Where are you, half-elf? I can’t see you."

"Then how did you know I was a half-elf?"

"Through perception. I can tell from the aura on you, as well as the scent of your bloodline. But your bloodline seems richer and more terrifying than the elves I encountered before."

"Is that so?"

Josh stroked his chin. On the Muya Continent, the ancestors of modern elves and humans were the same. Humans had simply degenerated far more severely, while elves had inherited everything from their ancestors, though there was still a considerable gap in strength.

Thus, those Ancestor Elves were also called High Elves or Ancestor Elves. Part of Josh’s bloodline did indeed originate from them.

And Josh felt it was only natural that those High Elves were stronger than the elves of this world. Otherwise, they could not have existed in Akathosh’s era and even barely survived into the Second Age—most living beings from the First Age had essentially perished.

Perhaps because it could never find Josh’s location, or perhaps because Josh was simply too tiny, the Stone Giant could sense Josh but could not see him at all. So the large fellow gave up trying to find him.

It was rare for it to encounter a lifeform of another species that could communicate with it, and it was very happy.

"By the way, half-elf, what do you want from me?"

"I wanted to ask whether you saw some dwarves pass through here earlier. There were about thirteen of them. No, around fourteen people, perhaps. I’m not entirely sure."

"Dwarves? I didn’t notice. But when we were playing, it seems someone did pass by. I also accidentally knocked off a Stone Giant’s head with a boulder. He’s still resting and waiting to recover."

"…"

He had accidentally smashed his friend’s head off while playing? Josh’s face darkened upon hearing that. Was he sure they were playing rather than fighting for their lives?

But after sensing the Stone Giants’ life characteristics, Josh discovered that these fellows really seemed unable to die. As long as they stood upon the earth and there were enough stones, they could recover.

No wonder they fought so fiercely. Josh had originally thought they were battling to the death, but it now seemed they had merely been joking around.

Rubbing his chin, Josh found these Stone Giants truly powerful. Their vitality went without saying, and they seemed to be the sort that could not die. Still, they probably had no way of reproducing.

"Oh, right. Beneath our feet, at the very bottom, lives a group of little creatures. They’re annoying because they like hollowing out the earth. They also enjoy destroying the environment here. But I think they should know something about the people you’re looking for."

"All right, I understand."

Josh nodded. The Stone Giant was probably talking about those filthy goblins.

In any case, Josh happened to want to take a look as well—to see whether that place had already been visited by the dwarves, or whether those dwarves had lost Gandalf’s support because of Josh’s appearance and been slaughtered to the last.

I should go take a look. Consider it a road trip through Middle-earth? But… where’s my car?