Chapter 1
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Chapter 001: The Alliance Expedition
Bang bang bang! A loud knocking woke up Jesse.
"Jesse! Jesse Seso!"
"I’m coming."
Jesse put on a shirt and opened the door. Outside, many people were walking towards the city gate, where a grand gathering seemed to be taking place with lots of noise.
In front of him, a tall and muscular man grabbed his collar.
"What are you doing, huh? It’s such an important day and you are still lazing around, you’re about to miss it!"
"Tall" is definitely not an insult. The guy in front of him, with a black beard and a linen cloth eyepatch over his right eye, was a dwarf and considered quite tall among his kind.
"So, Greed, what’s going on?" Jesse asked impatiently.
"Don’t you want to see Alleria Windrunner?" said the dwarf named Greed excitedly. "She’s the ranger-general of Quel’Thalas and the beloved of General Turalyon. If we don’t see her now, when will we ever get a chance to meet such an elven beauty?"
When Jesse heard the name Alleria Windrunner, his heart pounded suddenly.
It wasn’t because he had any special feelings for this elven female general, but because this familiar name brought back memories from his past life that had been buried deep in his heart.
Yes, he was a time traveler and had been in this world for seventeen years now.
Since he was pulled out from his mother’s womb, he had felt that something was not quite right. The memories of his previous world were as clear as stone carvings, and even the rapid brain development at the age of three to five couldn’t erase those memories.
He was originally focused on raiding in World of Warcraft in front of his computer, but after a wave of drowsiness, things in front of him completely changed.
He was born in the city of Lordaeron, his father was a guard of the city walls, and his mother was the daughter of a farmer in Brill.
His childhood was relatively smooth, but at the age of ten, the Dark Portal opened, and the Orc War erupted. Fortunately, the city of Lordaeron was not severely affected by the Orc War.
The chaos and disasters described by refugees fleeing from the Kingdom of Stormwind in the distant south made Jesse realize that everything here was exactly as described in the game world.
In order to live a good life, they had to leave Lordaeron and settle in Stormwind.
According to the game story, the glorious Lordaeron would be completely destroyed by The Scourge Legion in a dozen years, with the land plagued throughout the kingdom.
The dead would not find peace in their graves, as they could be raised by necromancy to fight for the undead masters who sought to conquer the world.
Despite Stormwind being destroyed at the moment, it was relatively safe in the following decades without any catastrophic disasters.
Jesse couldn’t just sit and wait. However, his parents had lived in Lordaeron for their whole lives and were unwilling to move. Jesse couldn’t make them believe something that would only happen years later, from another world.
Luckily, they didn’t mind Jesse, still young, going out on adventures.
Stormwind was destroyed in the war, and King Terenas II of Lordaeron spent a lot of money hiring craftsmen and laborers from different kingdoms, including the dwarves, to help the Wrynn royal family rebuild their home.
At the age of fifteen, Jesse seized the opportunity and arrived in the city of hope in the game, Stormwind, with returning refugees, later becoming the capital of the Alliance.
Greed, with his strong body, pushed through the onlookers like an icebreaker, leading Jesse forward with loud laughter.
He couldn’t hide his excitement at all, after all, Alleria Windrunner, the legendary battle master, was the kind of woman he admired most – a warrior who possessed both beauty and strength. Unlike those boastful elves, she was a true hero who could single-handedly take on a hundred enemies.
Jesse was also very excited, as this was the first famous World of Warcraft celebrity he would see in person.
In the first seventeen years of his life, he only heard those familiar names from his parents or from the mouths of other villagers and townspeople, or from news brought back from the battlefield.
He had never personally met or even seen any of them before.
Jesse followed Greed out of the gate and arrived at the Valley of Heroes – although at that time it was not yet called the Valley of Heroes.
The ruined Valley of Heroes without statues was in a state of disrepair. Years of war had left it in ruins, and the flames of demon warlocks and Red Dragons had turned the once lush riverside trees into a mess.
Veterans of the Orc War marched in formation over the newly rebuilt city gates, their armor still bearing scorch marks and dents, their weapons and shields displaying the emblems of different kingdoms.
Their destination was a thousand miles away to the southeast, where the orcs had come from another world to this place – the Dark Portal.
High Marshal Turalyon was rallying troops at Nethergarde, preparing to cross the Dark Portal built by the orcs and strike at the orc homeland of Draenor, once and for all ending the threat of the orc tribe to this planet – Azeroth.
However, among the crowd watching the army set off, Jesse was the only one who knew their fate.
Years later, the leader of the Orcs, Ner’zhul, used magic to destroy Draenor, causing the whole planet to collapse. In order to prevent this catastrophe from reaching Azeroth, the expedition forces voluntarily destroyed one side of the Dark Portal on Draenor.
From then on, all members of the expedition forces were left stranded on that dying world.
To commemorate the sacrifices of the expedition forces, the king of Stormwind ordered statues to be erected on this bridge for the heroes of the expedition – the "Sons of Lothar", and named this place the Valley of Heroes.
"Where is Alleria, I want to see Alleria Windrunner!" Greed roared, completely ignoring the solemn atmosphere around him.
Whether they were citizens of Stormwind or members of the expedition forces, almost everyone knew the dangers of this mission, and they had gathered here to bid farewell to the soldiers.
However, to dwarves like Greed, fighting to the death against enemies capable of destroying the world was the ultimate romance of life.
Watching the dwarf warriors who had come from Aerie Peak to join the ranks, his eyes were full of envy rather than worry.
"If it weren’t for me being blinded in one eye by a troll bat and unable to aim my hammer properly, I would have gladly followed Kurdran Wildhammer into the Dark Portal," he said regretfully in the common language with a dwarf accent. "Then I would be General Alleria’s close comrade, and as for who gets to marry the lovely lady Turalyon, the marshal, in the end, well, who knows."
When they heard his words, the people around who were a bit annoyed, silently softened their expressions.
Before the Orc War, humans, dwarves, and elves had huge disagreements and conflicts, even leading to several clashes.
But now, all the residents of Stormwind knew that if the dwarves and elves didn’t join humans in fighting bravely against the invading forces from another world, they might never have the chance to return home.
Jesse said, "Alleria’s two sisters are equally beautiful. You still have a chance, Greed."
"Ha!" Greed awkwardly chuckled, "I’m not interested in those childish girls, I prefer mature ones."
"Lady Sylvanas Windrunner, the second of the Windrunner sisters, is said to be over six hundred years old."
"Over six hundred years old?! Then her sister must be…"
"Shh…"
Jesse saw the High Elves’ blue and gold phoenix banner approaching from afar.
"Come on, come on, help me climb up the railing…I can’t see!"
Greed muttered complaints, and Jesse used all his strength to lift the nearly 200-pound iron bucket slightly.
In the corner of his eye, a group of High Elves were marching in formation. They wore silver-white armor, wielded intricately carved spears and silver bows. Their sky-blue capes rustled in the wind blowing through the valley. Whether male or female, they were elegant and calm, standing out sharply against the dwarves and humans.
Leading the way on a white horse was probably the ranger captain of Silvermoon City, Alleria Windrunner.
She was draped in a green cloak, her light golden hair falling to her chest. Her eyes, glowing blue with Arcane power, were so vivid even in the sunlight, staring ahead with determination.
Alleria’s gaunt cheeks, not to mention her narrow pointed nose, long pointed ears that stood high, seemed somewhat odd by human standards.
Jesse still remembered the first time he saw the elves from Quel’Thalas in Lordaeron, feeling like he had encountered aliens.
Despite their resemblance to the characters in the game, only more detailed and lifelike, Jesse no longer felt the same as he did when playing the game.
After more than a decade of life in another world, he doubted he was growing further away from the office worker he used to be and becoming more like a native of Lordaeron.
If he wasn’t sure about the future danger many years later, he wouldn’t have been able to decide to travel across the sea far away from his hometown to Stormwind.
Maybe it was because he didn’t have a golden finger (cheat).
Yes, up to now, he didn’t have a grandfather in a ring, ancient blood awakened suddenly, a powerful Arcane gem, or hear any whispers from gods or demons to guide him.
He was just a bricklayer from the north, different from the locals only in his Brill accent and the common language he spoke.
Other people’s travels, and my own travel.
If Jesse had the starting point of some system upgrades or something like other main characters in time-travel novels, maybe by now he would have the ability to prevent all this and save the world in their place.
But now, he could only rely on his own hands to earn money and barely get by, at most relying on foreseeing future events to find a safe and stable place to survive.
But at least, he wanted to earn enough money to bring his elderly parents from Lordaeron to Stormwind. If he couldn’t save the world, at least he wanted to take care of the most important people to him.
Greed gazed at the departing expedition army and sighed, asking, "What are your plans for today?"
"Go check the notice board for any available jobs," Jesse replied, "I need to pay next month’s rent soon."
As they chatted, they walked towards the inner gate with the crowd.
"I need to pay too," Greed said, "Some Bronzebeards mentioned that Baron Lescovar will increase the rent next month, from 5 silver coins to 6 silver coins."
"Why don’t you move to a different house?"
"Move where? Rent prices are rising all over Stormwind. The cheaper places are all taken. Do you want me to move to Goldshire? I might get my head chopped off by Orcs on the way there."
"Has patrolling on the road to Goldshire returned to normal?"
"Yes, it has. Last month, they found a patroller’s sword and intestines by the Mirror Lake."
"Sword and… intestines?"
"Human intestines, not Orcs’."
"Could it be done by a pack of wolves?"
"Is there a difference, Jesse? Wolf attacks, Orcs, Murlocs, Elwynn Forest is scarier than the darn Hinterlands, I’m serious. At least the Amani trolls understand a little bit of Dwarven Language, if you shout ‘Spare me!’, they won’t mistake it for ‘Quick, impale my head on a spear!’."
"In the end, they’ll all be impaling your head on a spear." Jesse chuckled.
"It really doesn’t make a difference, but it feels more like fighting to the death with enemies, rather than being eaten by brainless beasts out of nowhere, you get what I mean?"
The two of them walked to the intersection of the trading district where the bulletin board was. A few months ago, the bulletin board was all about the renovation works in various districts, but now a big part of it was about wanted criminals in Elwynn Forest and the wandering Orc chieftain, as well as recruitments for workers in Redridge.
The reconstruction work in Stormwind was nearing completion, with the more detailed and professional tasks taken over by the local craftsmen guild called the "Stone Masons Brotherhood". This meant that these migrant workers had to find another way to make a living.
Jesse’s rented house was located on the back street of Stormwind’s trading district, one of the earliest buildings in the new city area. Most refugees lived in the old city area, those willing to stay in the new city were mostly migrants and workers like them.
However, as the new city area became more prosperous, Jesse now had to pay 4 silver coins as rent every month, and it was likely to increase soon, as the dwarves always had well-informed news.
For someone like him who used to play World of Warcraft, paying 4 silver coins as rent was simply a joke, considering he used to carry a few hundred thousand gold coins in his bag while playing the game without feeling it was much. Just wandering around the auction house meant transactions of tens of thousands in and out.
But in Stormwind, many people work hard for a month and only earn a few Silver coins.
Last year, Jesse remembered there was someone at the doorstep offering to clean armor and weapons for the old soldiers, charging only two or three copper coins each time. During that time, the silver mines in Westfall had not been taken back from the Blackrock Orcs yet, and one Silver coin was worth nearly two hundred Copper coins.
That guy was a local in Stormwind, who used to have some connection with a noble, but now he lives very poorly. It is said that his house was occupied by Ogres during the Orc invasion, and he is in debt from repairing it.
Jesse is not as good as that person, at least the other guy has a skill, while he only does labor work and is about to spend all the reward from Terenas II.
Originally it was agreed to give each person a Gold coin, but it turned into 40 Silver coins when they received their pay.
The noble who paid the wages claimed that the Kobolds in the gold mines around Goldshire had been driven away, so the price of gold dropped, and 40 Silver coins were enough to exchange for a Gold coin.
However, these workers have never seen a Gold coin or a Kobold since coming to the Kingdom of Stormwind. Only Jesse knows that twenty years later, there are still Kobolds not completely cleared out from the mines, and the Kobold leader even has gold teeth.
Moreover, now that the gold mines are back in production, why not pay in Gold coins or at least in chunks of gold of similar weight?
Finding a job is getting harder day by day. Last week, a job escorting wood from Eastvale Logging Camp to Stormwind, a group of gray wolves followed them for two or three hours on the way, but they only got paid 35 Copper coins each when they returned. It was like a joke.
There was a group of people from other places scrambling madly just like him.
When he was feeling worried, he suddenly saw a very special job posting on the notice board.
"Recruiting assistant, requires some history knowledge, archaeology knowledge, preferably some understanding of herbs. Must have good patience and other excellent qualities, work location in Mage Quarter – Eden Malin."
Eden Malin?
Jesse remembered there was a great mage named Malin in Stormwind’s Mage Quarter, and his daughter was also an excellent mage who participated in the Alliance’s and Horde’s Northern Expeditions war over a decade later.
If this Eden Malin is the same as the mage Malin, wouldn’t applying for this assistant position be a great opportunity to become a mage?
History knowledge, archaeology knowledge, understanding of herbs… Even though Jesse hadn’t formally studied history and archaeology, he believed that based on his understanding of the world, he should be better than most ordinary people in these areas of knowledge.
Since this mage posted such a notice on the board for foreign workers and common folk, he probably didn’t have very high expectations for applicants.
Once becoming a mage, he shouldn’t have money problems anymore, right?
