Chapter 293

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Chapter 293: Obvious Features

Feeling drowsy, a pleasant smell drifted over.

Jesse opened his eyes, noticing drool on the ground, quickly getting up to wipe his mouth.

Vereesa was standing on a distant rock, underneath another large rock was a wooden frame with a cooked unidentified small animal on it.

The wind blew consistently in that direction, so the smell of smoke and charred meat did not reach here. It seemed like the wind suddenly shifted, allowing Jesse to catch a whiff.

Vereesa seemed to hear a noise and turned around.

"Come and taste this, Jesse."

"What is this?"

"A small brown fox, there are not many animals on the mountain now," Vereesa came over and said.

Jesse licked her lips and cut a piece of meat with a knife, put it in her mouth and savored the freshly cooked meat. She had been eating dried mushrooms all the way and hadn’t had much meat for a few days. She hadn’t even wanted to eat the dried meat but suddenly coming across this well-cooked hot meat made her feel really happy.

She also added salt and some spices, which slightly covered up the fishy smell of the meat of this predator. But this was still part of its flavor after all. In short, Jesse enjoyed the food so much that tears almost came out of her eyes.

"Didn’t you say you don’t know how to roast meat?" Jesse couldn’t help but ask.

Vereesa said, "Other people in the Farstriders used to secretly mock me for not knowing how to cook at all, so… it’s just something I can manage to make under limited conditions. Since you’ve spent so much money on this trip, I feel like I should make something to compensate."

"You’re too kind," Jesse said, licking her lips, "This roasted fox meat is amazing, I really mean it, no flattery intended."

As he spoke, he ate a lot more, and Vereesa watched Jesse wolf down the food, feeling slightly proud.

"As long as you like it," she stood up and said.

"Aren’t you going to eat?" Jesse asked.

"I’ve already eaten," Vereesa glanced at the nearby pit.

Jesse looked over and saw a big pile of messy bone fragments.

"What’s this?"

"A rabbit," she said. "I even caught a rabbit."

"How did you manage to catch so many animals in such a short time? And they’re all fast runners like rabbits and foxes!" Jesse half-jokingly said. "You’re not using your ability to talk to animals to lure them to you, then roast them, are you?"

"What if I am?" Vereesa raised her chin slightly. "Even though I brought plenty of arrows, I can’t just shoot them carelessly, right? If I were to encounter a tough opponent, I wouldn’t want to run out of arrows in the middle of a fight."

Jesse chuckled, "You’re quite something…"

After finishing eating, the two of them shaved off the parts that couldn’t be consumed and wrapped the rest in large leaves to carry along the road. The remaining food could sustain them for a day.

As they descended the mountain, the air became progressively worse. Both of them put on masks and scarves, in addition to their hooded cloaks, leaving only their eyes exposed.

Upon reaching the bottom of the mountain, the temperature rose significantly. The clothes that felt cold on the mountaintop now felt stuffy here.

But the smell of burnt wind and sand made Jesse reluctant to change clothes easily and could only move north with determination.

This place looks like a part of the primitive forest where Gnolls live, except that the trees here have all been burned to death by the explosion of Blackrock Mountain, barely standing after being ravaged by sandstorms for hundreds of years, buried under it.

As far as the eye could see, only some extremely thick and ancient trees stood alone like dead demon corpses.

There is nothing here, no animals, no plants, no living creatures, no traces of human habitation, only those dead trees, and the occasional dust carried by the suddenly blowing wind.

The two walked on this wasteland of ashes for an unknown amount of time, Jesse didn’t even want to check his pocket watch, just watching the faint sun move from above to behind the mountain, as the sky gradually darkened. They kept going until it was dark, finally finding a slightly calmer hilly area where the sandstorm wasn’t so fierce, and they found a ditch to take shelter from the wind and dust.

There were even some stubborn plants surviving here, making Jesse feel like he was still in Azeroth, and not suddenly transported to some alien planet.

They walked in silence the whole way, as they couldn’t hear each other’s voices clearly.

When Vereesa took off her hood and face covering, her eyes were already darkened, making her look like a blue-eyed Demon Hunter.

Jesse knew he wasn’t looking much better, perhaps like a Defias Masked Bandit.

"Do Dark Iron Dwarves live in places like this?" Vereesa said, "It doesn’t feel like a place fit for humans at all."

"They live underground, have you never heard of Shadowforge City?" Jesse said as he unwrapped a pack of leaves.

"Didn’t they used to live on the surface before?" Vereesa said, "I know the history of the Three Hammers War, and I heard the Dark Iron Tribe built a city on this plain."

"That was before the explosion at Blackrock Mountain, the city was called Thaurissan, if it’s still there…" Jesse looked outside and said, "I don’t know where, but after the explosion, the city couldn’t be inhabited."

Speaking, he handed over a front leg and started gnawing on a piece of bone himself.

After eating their fill, Vereesa began applying a bottle of light purple potion to her arrows.

Jesse asked, "What’s that?"

"Arcane energy," Vereesa said, "I need to be prepared to deal with the Wyrmkin, I don’t feel safe around here."

Jesse nodded, saying, "Indeed, we should be prepared for trouble, we’re already close to Blackrock Mountain."

After a short rest, the two had to continue on their journey.

They couldn’t rest well in this rugged area, not only because the environment was harsh, but also because Orcs or Dark Iron Dwarves could appear at any moment. It was safer to head up the mountain to find a better hiding place.

They walked through the night again and as the sky began to lighten, they finally saw the gloomy Blackrock Mountain.

Although this was part of Blackrock Mountain, it wasn’t as dark as in the game. It looked more like the Redridge they had passed earlier, as they were far from the center of the disaster.

Climbing up a natural ridge, Jesse coughed twice. He glanced back with his face covered by a scarf, but the Redridge they had come from was no longer visible.

Suddenly, a hand covered Jesse’s mouth and pulled him to the side, hiding behind a black rock.

Jesse recognized it was Vereesa, so he didn’t panic.

Slipping to the ground, Jesse adjusted his hood and looked at the elf beside the rock. The elf made a shushing gesture, circled back slowly, moved aside from the rock and gestured towards a direction outside.

Following Vereesa’s lead, Jesse peeked slightly and saw some blurry figures moving in the distance below.

Those people are tall and strong, definitely not dwarves, and from the way they walk and their size, they also don’t seem to be humans.

"Four Orcs?" Jesse asked quietly.

Vereesa nodded, tightened her grip on her bow on her back, and whispered, "Should we hide here for a while until they move on, or should we kill them?"

"No need to draw attention," Jesse whispered closer, "There are too many Orcs here, killing a few won’t make a difference, let’s have them engage with the Dark Iron Dwarves instead."

The elf nodded.

Jesse tilted his head to glance again and said, "I can’t see clearly, can you see what they are wearing and their weapons, are they soldiers, scouts, hunters or something else."

"Let me see." Vereesa carefully looked over there for a while and said, "They are dressed very simply, all in cloth or leather pants, it’s hard to tell what they do."

"However, three out of the four do not have a left hand."