Chapter 196
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Chapter 196: Hinterlands
The forest from Durnholde to the Hinterlands seemed endless to Jesse as he walked, even starting to doubt if Greed really knew the way.
Here, the forest was buried under cloud-like treetops, making it hard to see where the sunlight was coming from. The sunlight that managed to come in only formed patches of dappled light.
The scenery seemed beautiful and wonderful at first sight, but after looking at it for a while, it just made one’s eyes hurt and head spin.
Besides that, walking through this forest felt very relaxing.
The pine forest in the north was overall very refreshing, with a slight but not overpowering dampness, making it comfortable.
If it weren’t for the risk of getting lost, it could almost be considered a nice experience of hiking through the forest.
Unlike Elwynn where wet, muddy soil and annoying weird bugs and ants were everywhere, especially in the summer which was a nightmare, not to mention the even worse Duskwood or Stranglethorn farther south.
Stranglethorn’s rainforest was a place where people could be tortured to death without needing any wild animals or enemies to appear.
The trees became sparser, and Jesse followed Greed to a high slope. In front of them lay a flat hilly area, and behind them was a large expanse of even lusher primitive forest than the one they had walked through before. Was this the Hinterlands?
Farther away, the taller trees started to look darker and more eerie, as if they could draw people’s gaze in and make it hard to look away.
The tallest trees at the edge of sight, shrouded in a hazy blue shadow, loomed large and sent shivers down the spine, even from this far away, creating a feeling of being oppressed.
Jesse almost thought he saw the legendary World Tree.
Of course, he knew that Hinterlands didn’t have a World Tree; it was likely Sera’dan, a forbidden area guarded by the Green Dragon clan.
The current brick road led northwest, all the way to a stark cliff, covered with countless stone walls, doors, and windows scattered about. At the highest point, there was a gigantic eagle statue embedded in the mountain, raising its head to gaze into the distance.
"How was this built?" Jesse couldn’t help but ask.
"Sometimes, I think it’s a bit silly too," Greed said, holding his waist and looking up, "But it is quite beautiful, isn’t it?"
"If you want to be more practical with your buildings, then you shouldn’t be dwarfs anymore," Jesse remarked.
Greed chuckled and said, "I remember whenever I marveled at the size of this eagle as a kid, my dad would smile and tell me, ‘You should go see Grim Batol.’"
"My dad wanted to name me Grimbadisifels, which means ‘Heart of Grim Batol’ in the common language. But my mom thought it was too long, and others might make fun of me for such a strange name. So it was changed to Greedifus. Later, only my dad remembered that name, everyone else called me Greed."
"Greedifus," Jesse said. "Sounds like a name of the Dark Iron Dwarves."
"Ha, Jesse," Greed pointed at him. "If there was a dwarf culture exam in the Wizard’s Sanctum, you would surely pass. This silly name sounds like something the Dark Iron Dwarves would come up with, so I don’t like it!"
"But then again, I always feel a mysterious connection to Grim Batol. What do you think? Look, my father wanted to name me after something related to Grim Batol, which is now under shadow rule. And on the contrary, I met you and became my best friend, a warlock. Is it just a coincidence?"
Jesse thought it was not right to judge another culture randomly at this moment.
After hesitating for a while, he simply said, "Who knows."
"Yeah, who can say for sure." Greed lifted his head, looking into the distance, softly crying. "Even though we’ve come this far, I’m starting to feel a bit scared to go up there. Should we just go straight to Quel’danil, save some time?"
Jesse sighed. "Regardless, you need to return that hammer to its rightful place, Greed. You can’t make me travel this far with you only to turn back. Since we’re here, let’s not worry too much about what others think."
"You’re right, this is no longer just for myself," Greed said. "Let’s go."
There was a small village with only a few houses on the way up to Aerie Peak. A red-bearded dwarf in a brown cloak was standing at the entrance, looking at two visitors.
Under his cloak, he wore a thick chainmail armor and held a long-handled warhammer in his hands, resembling a short Norse warrior.
The guard didn’t even look at Greed, but instead stared at Jesse and said, "Human, you shouldn’t be here."
Greed greeted him with a "Hey" and started speaking in a fast-paced Dwarven language that Jesse couldn’t understand a single word of.
The red-bearded guard continued speaking in Dwarven, then jumped down from the stone steps, walked up to Greed, and spoke angrily while pointing at Jesse.
Greed laughed, walked over to Jesse, grabbed his hand, raised it up, patted his own chest, said something, and the red-bearded dwarf yelled a few sentences, to which Greed nodded in satisfaction.
Jesse could guess that Greed was introducing him as his friend. Maybe, it was very unusual for a dwarf and a human to be friends at Raven’s Nest Mountain, that’s why the red-bearded dwarf was so surprised.
The red-bearded dwarf shook his head in disbelief, looked at Jesse, and said, "You can pass, human, you can pass."
"Thank you," Jesse said.
Redbeard nodded and said, "Thank you, good."
Jesse looked at the dwarf who seemed to have taken out all his knowledge to communicate with him, and felt that he might have some trouble later that night.
"Hey," he asked as he continued walking with Greed, "What did you tell him just now?"
Greed replied, "He asked me what you do, and I told him you are with me here."
"Just that?" Jesse asked, "Why did you pat your chest afterwards, what does it mean?"
The dwarf hesitated for a moment and said, "I told them that I helped the people of Lordaeron to kill a dragon with you."
Jesse asked in shock, "Why did you suddenly bring that up?"
Greed explained, "You need to let them know you’re a dragon slaying hero, not just an ordinary human boy, so they can accept you quickly! If they don’t know you’re a warlock, they would have sent you to feed gryphons in the mountains. I had to exaggerate your magic wand! Tell them you took it from Teron Gorefiend… then they’ll think you deserve to climb this mountain even more."
"Uh… um… should you speak a little quieter then?"
"Since they don’t understand the common language anyway!" Greed continued to walk forward with a look of entitlement, while Jesse held onto the Warlock Pack tightly, hoping that the dwarves here weren’t sensitive to demons and such. If there were anything anti-Demonic Rune here, it would be bad.