Chapter 359

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Chapter 359: Crossing Dun Algaz

Jesse lit a fire, and they slowly dried all their clothes after about half a day of roasting.

After the clothes were dry, there was still a strange fishy smell on them, probably from the swampy odor.

But no matter what, they could at least wear them reluctantly.

By the fourth evening, they finally saw some brick roads that had been laid down who knows how long ago on the ground.

He turned to the dwarf beside him and asked, "You mentioned earlier that there were crocodiles in this swamp, right?"

"Yes," Greed replied. "But that was when I ran out of food I brought from the harbor and wanted to catch some fish or something before being ambushed. This time we have enough food, and we are staying further away from that swamp, so it should be fine."

Jesse nodded and said, "Are there also Gnolls lurking around here?"

"There are Gnolls all over the wetlands, Jesse," Greed said with a smile. "But are you worried about the Gnolls? Don’t forget we hired mercenaries who killed the notorious Riverpaw chief in Elwynn Forest."

"Yes," Jesse agreed.

That evening, they rested by an old tree on the hillside, where it was drier than below, and their clothes could dry out a bit more.

Greed fell asleep quickly. Jesse took the first watch, lying on the slope staring at faint lights in the distant marshes in the deep night, unsure if it was some strange Natural Magic or fireflies.

After spending a few days in the marshes, he had become accustomed to the strange noises at night.

But the sound of footsteps was something new.

He faintly heard something slowly making its way up the slope behind them, the pace was slow, and the rhythm was slow, but it was getting closer.

What was it? Was it still awake?

The footsteps gradually approached the side of the tree where they had left their baggage. Jesse glanced to the side and saw a small red Raptor, about two to three meters long, sniffing around their various packages.

Jesse originally thought to ignore the guy if he didn’t take anything, but then he saw him using his teeth to grab the small package of jerky from Greed and pulling it out little by little.

He made a sound towards Raptor, who suddenly raised his head to look over, only then did he notice that Jesse had his eyes open.

"Get lost," Jesse whispered softly.

Raptor took a step back at these words, glanced at Greed beside him, then put down the package, turned around, sprinted up the hill without looking back.

Having faced creatures like the Mire Beast, even seeing wild beasts like Raptor seemed kind. By noon of the sixth day, after climbing a steep slope, they finally saw the mountain pass straight ahead.

After a dozen years, the Dragonmaw Orcs once again occupied this passage, but this time the Bronzebeard Dwarves still controlled it and were reinforcing its defenses.

Not long after continuing towards the gates of Dun Algaz, they could hear the sound of chiseling stones from the mountains and the occasional high pitches of the dwarves’ conversations.

The mountain pass of Dun Algaz was much larger than in the game, not just a passage, but also many dwarf residences, halls, almost like a small city built into the mountain, with half outside and half inside.

Inside the passage, Bronzebeard Dwarves had written signs in the common language to help travelers pass through safely without getting lost inside.

But Jesse also found some sentences carved on the walls by Orcs, most of them about victory or death, blood and thunder and such things.

It took the whole afternoon to pass through Dun Algaz, and they kept climbing uphill all the way, no wonder even though the Orcs had retreated massively to the Dark Portal, there was still a small Orc team holding their ground here.

It was truly a stronghold hard to attack, it’s hard to imagine how much Bronzebeard Dwarfs had paid to capture this place.

It’s even harder to imagine the Dragonmaw Orcs reclaiming it again in the future, how many more lives would they sacrifice climbing up the dark and narrow passages to the top, enough to make people exhausted and dizzy, every time coming out of the passage, peeking towards the direction of the marshland halfway up the mountain, the whole wetland seemed even foggier.

When Jesse emerged from the direction of Loch Modan in Dun Algaz, what he saw was a completely different view, completely different from the wetlands.

It reminded him of Hillsbrad and Hinterlands here, covered with lush pine forests everywhere.

The chilly wind was not bone-chilling, but still made him shiver involuntarily.

At this point, he had to put on another layer of clothing again.

Walking on the stone road built by the dwarfs was quite easy and reassuring, often seeing patrols of two or three Bronzebeard warriors together.

Along the way, Jesse kept looking towards the east, and Greed asked strangely, "Why do you keep looking that way? Are you looking for something?"

"Loch Lake!" Jesse said, "I want to see where Loch Lake is."

"We’re still far from Loch Lake here, Jesse," Greed said. "Keep heading south, maybe when we’re close to Thelsamar, we’ll see Loch Lake, no need to strain yourself."

Before entering Dun Algaz, Jesse was hoping to see the legendary giant rock dam, but didn’t see it.

The enormous stone dam, considered a miracle of Azeroth, stood like a tall wall on one side of the Khaz Mountain range, its presence creating the wetland climate and the vast Loch Lake.

Before the giant stone dam was built, most of the wetlands were underwater, and Loch Lake was not as large.

"Save it for next time, lad," Greed said, looking at Jesse’s eager expression. "Visiting the giant rock dam might take a whole day round trip, and there might even be Kobold villages around, quite troublesome."

"How far are we from Thelsamar?" Jesse asked.

"Not far now," Greed said. "How about we push on without resting tonight, just a night’s journey, we should reach Loch Modan by tomorrow morning, then we can have a good sleep and plan to continue heading south."

"Since you’re here, I’ll listen to you," said Jesse.

Loch Modan is a comforting place, with signs of dwarves everywhere, even on the mountains you can see scattered dwarf houses.

It’s not far from Ironforge here, actually closer than Lakeshire is to Stormwind according to the map.

Just as he was enjoying the sunset reflecting off the snowy mountains in the west of Dun Morogh, a huge catapult arm suddenly blocked his view.

This abandoned and damaged catapult belongs to the Horde, with red Orcish symbols representing the Horde engraved on it, which Jesse is very familiar with.

Jesse suddenly remembered the broken siege weapons he saw by the Loch Lake in the game, scattered wood and such, which he had completely ignored as war remnants at that time.