Chapter 37

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Chapter 037: Wizard’s Sanctum and Worgen Investigation

It was pitch black at night, Jesse walked in complete darkness, the ground beneath his feet was wet like after rain, or like muddy swamps.

He didn’t know where he was, in Stormwind’s sewers? Or…

Not knowing how long he had been walking, he vaguely felt like someone was following him, but when he turned around, it was just complete darkness, unable to see anything clearly.

Even if someone was following, they couldn’t be seen at all.

Jesse felt trapped in a mysterious maze, to get out of this maze, there was only one way, to walk along one side of the wall.

Thinking this, he reached out to touch the wall, but his palm felt something cold and soft.

Looking closely, it was actually a face!

The entire wall was stacked with human heads, countless faces squeezed together, staring in agony, Jesse felt a chilling fear, and suddenly opened his eyes.

In front of me, sunlight was shining through a small window, and there was a faint dust in the air.

Hanging the sweaty bedding outside the window, facing the sparkling morning canal, what a beautiful sight.

Oh no, it’s getting late.

Jesse quickly grabbed his shirt and pants, ran down the stairs, threw them by the riverbank and jumped into the canal without washing his head. Seeing the young people around him bathing like startled ducks, he hurriedly ran towards the wooden canal bridge, getting dressed as he ran, while the guards on the other side of the river chased after people like catching small chickens.

The guards are coming to chase everyone away.

Jesse skillfully climbed up the riverbank, grabbed his clothes and ran towards the wooden canal bridge. As he ran and dressed, he saw the guards on the other side of the river chasing people like catching chicks all around.

In reality, Stormwind doesn’t allow bathing in the newly constructed canal. The king or some nobleman thinks it affects the city’s appearance.

From Jesse’s perspective, seeing a group of naked men twisting and turning on the main street every morning is a bit indecent, and he really doesn’t want the canal in front of his rented house to end up like the Ganges River.

But bathing in this canal is much more enjoyable than carrying water from the well, so there’s no way he’s giving up this privilege.

The guards in Stormwind seemed to have let go of their worries long ago. Even if they caught someone, they would just kick them and never actually take anyone away. At first, they used to chase people every two to three days, but now it can go one to two weeks without any incidents.

Arriving at Malin’s place, the mage was not there yet. Jesse quickly cleaned the room and then took Malin’s feather pen and a scroll, ready to write down the spell from last night.

When he got home last night, his mind was foggy and he was too tired. He forgot the work he was supposed to do. Luckily, he had a nightmare after sleeping, and still remembered what Gakin said last night.

Fereckert.

Jesse planned to roughly write down the pronunciation of the spell using English letters to help him remember, as Chinese characters looked like some sort of unknown magical runes. If anyone saw them, it would raise suspicion more easily.

He muttered it to himself while writing it down.

This spell that Gakin heard from I-don’t-know-where was, according to Jesse’s guess, probably not accurate enough.

Since these warlocks had no way to learn dark spells, which were based on languages like Demonic and other void languages, the sounds they made probably couldn’t unleash the full power of the spells.

Thinking back to last night, Gakin’s spell effectiveness on him was limited, possibly due to the Shadow Protection Potion. However, he successfully counterattacked Gakin with this spell.

But how did he perform the magic without any gestures or using any magical power?

I don’t know when this magic will be able to reappear.

While pondering, Malin had already walked up behind him.

Jesse was startled and turned around to ask, "Master, when did you arrive? I didn’t hear the doorbell."

"Because you didn’t even close the door." Malin pointed to the note under Jesse’s hand and asked, "What language is this?"

"This is…" Jesse glanced at what he had written, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Um, it’s Latin."

"Latin?"

"It’s a secret code invented by a childhood friend, and he called himself Latin."

"Interesting." Malin asked again, "What does this word mean?"

"The problem is here, I don’t know," Jesse said. "I dreamed last night that my friends were shouting this word, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t remember what it was. Just now, as I rested here, it popped into my head again. I thought writing it down might help, and then you walked in."

"How do you pronounce it?" Malin asked, touching the teapot.

"Fack," Jesse said confidently.

Malin nodded and said, "I’m sorry, Mr. Seso, but I think this Latin gentleman has the potential to become a mage."

"He’s dead," Jesse sighed and said, "He went missing in Silverpine later, probably killed by Orcs, or kidnapped by Worgen. It still upsets me to think about it."

"Such a shame," Malin said. "It means we’ll never know the meaning of ‘fack’."

Jesse suppressed a laugh, touched his forehead and coughed twice to cover it up.

Speaking of Worgen, Morgan Ladimore and the residents of Raven Hill were all afraid of Worgen, but he didn’t encounter any during his adventures with Greed.

Could it be that giant silver wolf?

It’s impossible! The townspeople of Raven Hill who experienced the Orc invasion could not possibly not know what Worgen looks like.

If you go out at night, you might have a chance to see them too.

Strong curiosity nagged at Jesse, but he wasn’t foolish enough to risk his life just to satisfy his curiosity, especially with Greed definitely not agreeing.

"By the way, Master Malin, do you know about the existence of Worgen in Duskwood?"

Malin took a piece of candy and threw it into the teacup, saying, "You mean the South Elwynn area, right? I’ve heard that many people now call it Duskwood, not sure how the natives feel about this nickname. You’re talking about the Worgen legend in Raven Hill, aren’t you?"

Jesse asked in surprise, "You know about this too?"

"Of course," Malin said, "Though the Wizard’s Sanctum is separate from Dalaran and the Kirin Tor, we still carry on the ancient spirit of the Council of Tirisfal, which is to protect humans from the influence of otherworldly creatures, study any signs of foreign invaders affecting Azeroth, and so on. In recent years, we have encountered many immigrants from two towns coming here, and they have mentioned the Worgen legend in Raven Hill. Many have strongly requested that the Wizard’s Sanctum send someone to investigate."

"And what happened?"

"No results," Malin said, "We sent out three teams consisting of mages and apprentice mages, some of whom are our most talented students, their talents rivaling the new generation of young people emerging in Dalaran after the war. Even so, they found nothing in the end, only some resurrected dead. We suspect someone is using that Dark Energy to study Necromancy, secretly disturbing the graveyards of Raven Hill and Darkshire. However, in the end, we gained nothing from it."

"Did you find it at night?" Jesse asked.

Malin nodded and said, "Yes, Master Andromath even emphasized about the incidents that the refugees mentioned happening at night, but it’s strange that even at night, there were no sightings of the so-called Worgen."

Jesse found this situation a bit puzzling, "If there were no Worgen, why did the townspeople who had never seen a Worgen associate the victims’ wounds with the Worgen? Why not Orcs? If there were remnants of Shadow Power…then couldn’t an Orc Warlock also achieve this?"

The old mage tossed a few copper coins to Jesse’s side, and Jesse picked up one of them.

"What does this mean? Is someone hired to spread panic and rumors between Raven Hill and Grand Town, trying to make the people in these two areas flee earlier, in order to achieve their unspeakable secret?"

Malin said, "No, go to The Blue Recluse and buy me a small piece of crab meat cake, I will tell you our several guesses there."

Jesse, feeling helpless, gathered all the copper coins and stuffed them into his pocket as he left the house.

The Blue Recluse was quite lively in the morning, with a large group of apprentices and mages gathered here, chatting and eating like college students running to the cafeteria during break time.

Jesse spent two coppers on a cup of black coffee, cheap and energizing, as he quickly drank it in two sips to clear the mental distress caused by last night’s nightmares.

In Stormwind, tea is much more expensive than coffee, like Eden Malin’s Goldthorn tea, which is a kind of medicinal herb and very costly.

Although coffee beans can boost energy, they don’t have magical medicinal value. Many workers find drinking coffee less stimulating than drinking alcohol, so most coffee consumers are students, office workers, and ordinary people with limited money.

Dalaran is the region with the highest coffee consumption on the entire continent. The poor mages and alchemists there have developed numerous strange "magic fertilizers" to increase coffee production, which drastically lowers the coffee prices.

Most herbs have evolved over thousands of years through the natural magic energy of Azeroth, and they cannot be easily cultivated with simple magic. Since teas without special effects are not considered real teas, their prices remain high.

It’s surprising how the beverages they were once reluctant to buy in their previous lives have now become a necessity in more deprived areas.

Setting down his small cup, Jesse glanced habitually towards the corner of the tavern and was astonished to see Greed there, even thinking his eyes were playing tricks on him.

"Greed?"

"Hm?" Greed looked up and met Jesse’s gaze.

Jesse walked over and sat next to Greed, asking, "How come you’re in the Mage Quarter?"

"Of course, I was waiting for you. How did you come out so early?"

"I haven’t finished work yet, so I came here to rest for a while."

Greed glanced around and said, "Being a mage is great. The working environment is beautiful, with fresh air like a garden, not to mention the students are good-looking too."

Jesse laughed and asked, "You came to see me for something, right?"

Greed took a sip of milk from the big glass in front of him and said, "Remember the Warrior Guild?"

"I do remember," Jesse squinted at his cup and asked, "Why are you drinking milk now?"

"I don’t drink alcohol during work," Greed said seriously. "The Warrior Guild has assigned me an important task with a good reward. I don’t want to keep it all to myself, thinking of you, you know?"

Jesse asked suspiciously, "Are you saying you can’t handle it alone?"

The dwarf laughed, "If I can’t handle it alone, what difference does it make if you join?"

"Cow, Gryphon Rider," Jesse picked up a cup of milk from the dwarf and poured some into his coffee, saying, "I should go back to the boss first, he asked me to bring him some snacks."

"Wait…" the dwarf stopped Jesse and said, "Truth be told, this time we’re dealing with wolves, maybe more than one, it’s really hard without backup. Plus, in Duskwood, without you, I would have died several times already. I was just kidding, don’t take it seriously… I don’t have anyone else I can trust."

"Where are the wolves?" Jesse asked.

"There’s a farm to the southeast of Goldshire where wolves have made a den, setting traps hasn’t worked," the dwarf flattened out a crumpled paper on the table and said, "It’s a bounty notice from the Stormwind Guard, maybe the farm owner asked for help, they need more people."

Jesse glanced at the paper, it only had the address and the person seeking help, but no mention of a reward.

"Where is the reward listed?"

"5 silver coins," the dwarf said, "Not bad."

Jesse repeated, "What I mean is, where is the reward amount listed on this paper? If it’s a notice from the city, shouldn’t it be clearly stated?"

At this point, he felt there was something wrong with the paper.

Greed finally admitted, "This was written by the Warrior Guild. They took on the task and then assigned it to us members."

Jesse asked, "So you mean, they are taking a cut in the middle?"

Greed said, "By completing tasks, I can level up and then receive more challenging tasks. The guild determines each member’s level based on their rank, and assigns tasks of different difficulty levels. For example, my current rank is a recruit, so I can’t help Redridge’s guards deal with the Gnoll Tribe threat. After completing a few tasks and leveling up, then I can."

Jesse nodded slowly and asked, "So why don’t you just go to Redridge directly? I’m sure they would be willing to enlist you into the guard right away."

Greed blinked his eyes and said, "Then I won’t achieve any rank."

Jesse said, "This rank belongs to the Warrior Guild, not the kingdom’s military ranks, right? It seems not very useful."

"You make a good point," Greed rubbed his chin and said, "But, I don’t want to deal with those humans, let the Warrior Guild negotiate with them. As for the money the Warrior Guild takes, I’ll just consider it as paying them to help me make connections."

Jesse asked, "When are you planning to go then?"

"In the afternoon."

"Are you in a hurry?"

"Jesse, what if that family gets bothered by wolves again if we delay by one more day?"