……

The dwarf had a dream.

The scene in the dream is a snow-covered plateau, and somewhere on the plateau is a little gray and black between the white under the bird's eye view, and that gray and black color is shown as a royal city of the plateau clan when the camera zooms in, but the outer walls of the city's fortress are full of behemoths...... Giant.

Yes, gray-blue skin, tall as a mound, and fierce and tyrannical frost giant soldiers wielding giant weapons like battering rams. The Frost Giants' armies had destroyed the city, the flames of war had rained down on the bitter cold, and images of trampling and slaughter were seared into the hearts of the dwarves like scars.

For the survival of the clan, flee from your hometown with your precious life! The king's roar still echoes in the ears of the dwarves, and the brave dwarves carry out the humiliating command of a warrior in the scene in the dream.

Dressed in sturdy Mithril full-body armor, the well-trained left and right hands carry the tower shield and the war hammer and run in the opposite direction of the battlefield. The boots left a trail of footprints in the icy snow that ran counter to glory, and the dwarves could hear the biting cold wind sweeping across the surface of their helmets, convincing themselves that they could not look back at the corpses of their people and the remnants of the city.

He grabbed the hammer in his hand and warned himself desperately: "Don't look back, don't look back!" It's all for the sake of the clan...... For the sake of the clan! ”

"As long as I'm alive, the clan hasn't perished, even if only one of her remnants remains!"

"The fire is on the fire! Uhh ”

Then, somehow, the dwarf's rude voice erupted into an angry roar to vent his inner unwillingness, but suddenly he felt his throat pull without warning, as if he was choking on a cool, moist liquid.

Fire...... Uh, ahem! Ahem!!

Suddenly, he couldn't help coughing violently, his tired eyes blinked, and he found that the scene in his field of vision turned into a sunny sky with his eyes closed and opened, and there was a circle of tree shadows that surrounded the sky in a circle, and ...... Well?

With the goddess of fire on top, I seem to be hallucinating. He said in his heart.

A pair of fluffy white wolf ears? Growing on the head of a silver-haired human maiden?

……

"Urs, he's awake!"

Thea waited beside the dwarf on her knees, holding a cowhide water bag that had just been lifted from the dwarf's mouth in her left hand, and when she saw the dwarf open her eyes, she hurriedly turned sideways in surprise to report the good news to the young man not far away.

The adventurers of the Thorn Squad had been resting on the spot for a while under the command of the Barbarian Captain.

Urs was thinking about waiting a few more minutes, if the dwarf hadn't woken up yet, he would consider adjusting his plan temporarily, either turning around and sending the other party back to Logging Village first, or just ignoring the other party for now, and then returning here to find him after his team finished their business, anyway, the Mithril full-body armor he was wearing could ensure that the teeth of the monster could not gnaw through his armor shell for at least a while.

The dwarf's awakening reached his ears with the girl's cry of joy. Urs came to his senses, sat down on the ground with the rest of the group, glanced at Thea, and quickly got up and gathered over, and the humanoid heads popped out one by one in the eyes of the dwarves to look down at him.

The dwarf who woke up from the nightmare was stunned in confusion, and was about to say something, but his stomach was the first to grunt in a feeble protest.

Hunger weighed the muscles of his body as heavy as water-filled cotton. He opened his mouth, adjusted the rate of his breathing, gasped for breath, and then saw Urs take out a small pocket from his body, and in that pocket he took out a piece of jerky half the size of a palm and handed it to Thea, who then reached out and handed it to his mouth.

"Can you eat it?" The silver-haired wolf-eared girl leaned slightly in a half-kneeling position, her amber eyes looking into his eyes with a gentle gaze.

When away from home, food and water are indispensable for adventurers. In terms of the choice of dry food, cheap bread and dough are generally more popular with adventurous teams with limited economic conditions, but more well-funded teams will not give up cured and smoked jerky because of lack of money, after all, going out on an adventure is a kind of physical work, whether it is rushing or fighting, the physical consumption will always need to be supplemented by meat.

The dwarf who was rescued by Urs and his party looked at the piece of jerky and froze for a second, his hazy eyes lit up again, "uh-huh" nodded twice, and then raised his head with force, and directly took the jerky from Xia's hand with his teeth and sucked it into his mouth and chewed it deliciously.

Maybe he was so hungry that he didn't even think about whether there was poison in this piece of meat, and he forgot to ask himself what was wrong, who were these people around him, or to thank the wolf-eared girl who had just fed him a piece of meat.

A few seconds later, Groeldon saw the dwarf swallow his throat and seemed to have finally chewed the piece of jerky into his stomach, and he tried to get something out of his mouth and asked, "Can you tell us who you are?" We've given you a portion of water and food, and we've done you a good gratitude. ”

Hearing the old thief's question, the dwarf reacted and finally realized that he seemed to have been saved.

He slowly sat up from the dirt surface of the armor under his buttocks, and his hazy eyes swept the faces of Stonefist, Raven, Grolayden, Urs, and Thea from left to right, and after about two or three seconds, he nodded seriously and replied, "...... Koto! Well, my name is Koto Hearth, a warrior who is both strong and brave! ”

He made a point of emphasizing that he was a fighter.

And when he mentioned that he was a warrior, his tone seemed to reflexively carry a sense of honor and pride, and then he buried his head in some reason, looking at the Mithril armor still on his body, as if he suddenly remembered some bad memories.

Urs and Glorydon exchanged glances, and the brown-haired old thief then led him to ask, "Well, strong and brave warrior—but Mr. Koto, why did you pass out in this forest?" And it seems that he is still hungry and faint? ”

"I'm ......" The dwarf named Koto frowned slightly, half-open his mouth and thought carefully, "Oh yes, I remember! I'm an adventurer now, the kind of adventurer with a two-star badge registered in that twilight city! ”

"But you still haven't made it clear why you're fainting from hunger, in a place like this?" Stone Fist squatted aside, looking at this confused guy, he couldn't help but feel a little worried, "Besides, since you said you are an adventurer, don't you know about the recent urgent mission?" ”

"Urgent mission? What urgent task? Koto turned his head to look at the orc monk with a puzzled expression, "I just remember that a hunter in the Logging Village lost his hounds and asked me to go to the woods to help him find them, so I came to this place...... Well, the hound didn't find it, and I seem to have lost myself. ”

"And what about your food?" Regardless of whether Koto really didn't know about the urgent mission, Glorydon continued to ask him, "You seem to be starving here, so did you eat all your food, or was someone stealing it?" Like a robber, or a beast in the woods that isn't quite right? ”

"This... Actually, neither. Koto scratched at his beard a little embarrassed, "I was in too much of a hurry to get out, so ...... I actually forgot to bring all the food and drink...... Ha ha. ”

After the words fell, he raised his hand wearing a pair of armor and scratched his hair, and an embarrassed smile appeared on his upright face, until he suddenly noticed that something was missing from his head, and then opened his eyes and looked around in panic and shouted: "...... Wait, my helmet! Who took off my helmet? Where's my helmet?! ”