Game of the World Tree

▪️ THE LOST CITY OF RIVENDELL

Boxlunch finally released his hold over the elven girl after demonstrating his strength.

Then as soon as he stood up, she instinctively crawled to the far edge of the opposite side while looking at him warily, like a frightened little squirrel.

Boxlunch: “……”

He took a deep breath and asked, “What’s your plan?”

“…H-Huh?”

She looked momentarily stunned with his casual demeanor, as if he didn’t just jostled her mere moments ago.

Seeing his all serious expression, she let out a couple of nervous laughter before sighing out loud as if to recomposed her bearings and said with a tone full of conviction,

“The plan is to sneak in and find a chance to escape along with all my siblings!”

Silence.

Boxlunch just looked at her in a utterly dumbfounded manner.

“H-Hey, what kind of idiotic look is that huh!?” The elven girl said indignantly as puffed up her cheeks and crossed her arms together.

“I don’t know the exact place where these humans have taken my brothers and sisters, so I have no other choice but to blindly sneak in! But its fine, don’t underestimate my ability to escape…there’s no lock in this world that I can’t open!”

She proudly boasted while puffing out her almost nonexistent flat chest.

Silence.

Boxlunch couldn’t help but sigh yet again and didn’t comment any further. He instead just picked up the rope that once bound him and handed it back to the elven girl.

“Tie me up.”

“…Huh? W-What?” The girl looked at him in confusion.

“Do you want them to know that we can escape?” Boxlunch asked.

After hearing his words, the girl scratched her head while chuckling sheepishly and replied, “Okay, fine… you’re right. Actually, I was planning to re-tie myself up after you escaped… hehe, my disguise skills are very sophisticated you know…anyways, wouldn’t you agree that my plan is simply perfect and fool proof?”

Boxlunch…

He felt the urge to facepalm himself before stating,

“I’ve called for some reinforcements.”

He then pointed his thumb outside and added, “We can’t handle it by ourselves since there are some silver-rank experts among the mercenaries.”

S-Silver!?

The girl’s pupils slightly contracted in shock. She instinctively covered her mouth and her voice slightly trembled as she asked, “Silver…SILVER!? Do you mean there is a silver-ranked expert in this caravan?”

He merely glanced at her with his eyes implying to say, ‘keep your voice down.’

The reason Boxlunch knew this was because he had eavesdropped on a conversation between the humans outside. He heard them talking about their leader, a mage who had reached the lower silver-rank, as well as a warrior at the middle silver-rank as well.

They were the most powerful force in the entire caravan, which apparently belongs to ‘Sauron family’ a prominent noble household within the human society.

Seeing Boxlunch’s resolute expression, the girl’s face changed and suddenly turned dejected.

“There are actually silver-ranked experts… This is bad! I can manage alone, but it’s too difficult to escape with my siblings under the noses of silver-rank experts.”

“We’re done for! we’ll be in deep trouble if we happen to come across them during our escape!”

“S-Silver… How could this caravan possibly hire a silver-ranked guard? The Sauron caravan is so well-known and well-connected, yet why are they still afraid of being attacked? Who would dare attack them anyways?”

The girl paced back and forth in an anxious manner inside the wagon as she muttered to herself rhetorically.

Boxlunchs’ eyes just silently followed her pacing around for a minute before he exhaled and said,

“Currently we appeared to be somewhere along a canyon at the Dark Mountains.”

“The canyon within the Dark Mountains…” The girl repeated it in a low voice, then slapped herself on the forehead in frustration. “I’m really stupid… How could a human caravan safely pass through the Dark Mountains, where monsters run rampant, without any silver-ranked guards?”

After speaking, she observed Boxlunch again and became a little anxious when she saw his unusual calm expression.

“Hey, dummy…aren’t you worried at all? It’s silver! silver experts you know!?”

Boxlunch glanced at her and simply repeated, “I’ve called for reinforcements.”

“You called for reinforcements, but what’s the use? Can they fight against silver-ranked experts!?” The young girl grabbed his shoulder and repeatedly shook him while comical tears ran down her cheeks.

Boxlunch “…..”

He didn’t react but instead just used his other hand to grab the girl’s arm, twisting and restraining it to control her.

“Ouch! It hurts! It hurts!” The girl exclaimed involuntarily.

He felt exhausted communicating with this NPC.

“Calm down and do as I say,” Boxlunch firmly ordered and added, “The reinforcements I called for also have silver-ranked experts.”

Silver-ranked backup?

The elven girl’s eyes widened for a moment, and she unconsciously forgot the pain from once again being captured by him.

Wait a minute…

How can he call for reinforcements in the first place?

And how did he know a powerful person with silver-ranked abilities?

Are there even silver-ranked experts among the elves?

W-Who… who exactly is he?

In her mind, Boxlunch’s image suddenly became more mysterious and unfathomable. He went from an ignorant dummy to a enigmatic and fascinating character shrouded in mist!

At Boxlunch’s reminder, the two quickly tied up themselves once more.

To his surprise, the girl had a special skill in binding, making it almost seem impossible to escape. However, Box also noticed he only appears to be fully restricted by the ropes and could actually break free anytime he wanted.

He raised his eyebrows a few times as he watched the girl tied herself up with ease.

‘Has she tied herself up like these more than once in her life?’ He idly wondered.

Of course, the hole in the bottom of the wagon was also concealed by the elf girl, and the stolen goods and treasures were taken along with them.

Not long after the two were re-tied, the entire wagon suddenly shook and gradually came to a halt. A commotion could be heard outside as several voices seemed to have lightened up and let out some cheers.

Had the human caravan finally arrived at their destination?

The two of them became alert.

They looked at each other silently, but remained highly vigilant.

With a creaking sound, the tightly locked door of the wagon was finally opened from the outside while a dim light shone in and illuminated the area.

One by one, several burly mercenaries entered the wagon and shoved Boxlunch and the elven girl off the wooden vehicle.

As Boxlunch got off the car, he finally saw where they were. His pupils shrank slightly, and a gleam of surprise suddenly burst out in his eyes…

He saw a magnificent valley!

It was a deep gorge, with cliffs and ruins of buildings of various sizes situated at the bottom of the area.

There were densely packed buildings, as well as crisscrossing mine cart tracks everywhere. He looked up and saw a towering ruined spire which was nearly a hundred meters high!

The style of all the buildings appears to be elvish, seemingly having experienced the long passage of time. They are covered in black moss and are severely damaged. The color of the entire ruins presents a deep bluish dark undertone.

The structures appeared even more sinister and terrifying when its paired alongside the black geological formations of the Dark Mountain Range…

But even if it was already in ruins, the traces of its former glory could still be perceived.

This… was the lost elven city!

Rivendell!

This must be Rivendell!

At the end of the valley, there was a deep and huge cave, with faintly sinister winds and monster roars coming out from it, seemingly connected to another unknown world…

At this moment, Boxlunch had no more doubts in his mind.

He took a deep breath and mentally accessed his game menu to take a few screenshots, before uploading them to the game’s official forums.

Nihil Note : Thanks to Oyashiro and Yong S for the tip! 🙏🏻(*°▽°*)