On the forest road leading to Stormwind City, three people traveled together: Xiao Hen, Walsay, and the middle-aged man named Sunir.
They were not moving quickly, mainly because Walsay and Sunir were slow. Still, with the two of them leading the way, Xiao Hen was spared the trouble of taking detours.
As he stepped along the muddy forest road, Xiao Hen frowned and began to ponder.
As for the two quests, the Main Quest was to obtain the Dragon Crystal in Boulder Breach. Xiao Hen was certain that the Dragon Crystal could not possibly be sitting there waiting for him to take it. There had to be a Giant Dragon guarding it, waiting for him to kill it. If he went now, he would definitely die. Even if he still had six rocket projectiles, they would be useless. Xiao Hen did not believe those six rocket projectiles could successfully destroy that Giant Dragon.
Since he could not complete the Main Quest directly, he would first find a way to complete the Side Quest. The quest limit was one year, so he still had plenty of time.
The Side Quest: destroy the Dark Portal.
Comparatively speaking, this quest was far more urgent. With every night that passed, Gul'dan could teleport more Orc clans over. As the Orcs grew stronger, the humans and the Allied forces of other races were no match for them on the frontal battlefield. Xiao Hen had just wiped out an Orc hunting squad, so he understood better than anyone how terrifying Orc Combat Power was.
It was no exaggeration to say that an Orc could possibly fight ten human soldiers alone. Only Knight-level human powerhouses could confront Orc warriors head-on. As for Chieftain-level Orcs, only heroic figures among the humans or Allied forces could resist them. And the Orc shaman Gul'dan was a BOSS-level figure. So far, only the human Guardian Medivh could contend with him.
"What a pity." Xiao Hen shook his head and gave a bitter smile.
Because of his arrival, Medivh had ultimately failed to resist the invasion of Fel Energy. Without Medivh to close the Portal, the Orc army would invade smoothly. It seemed Xiao Hen would have even less chance of completing his quests.
"Shuttle, why did Medivh fail to resist the invasion of Fel Energy because of my arrival?" Xiao Hen asked unwillingly. In the original Plot, although Medivh had also been invaded by Fel Energy, he retained his last sliver of sanity. At the most critical moment, he cut off the Dark Portal's transmission and completely severed the Orcs' reinforcements. That had been the most important factor in the Allied human forces' victory.
"The Shuttle's repairs require the Elemental Power of this world. Medivh's greatest aid in resisting Fel Energy was also Elemental Power. Because the Shuttle absorbed an excessive amount of Elemental Power, the balance between the elements and Fel Energy tilted," the Shuttle said calmly.
Xiao Hen's eyes widened. "And you still said it was because of me? How is this because of me? You're the real culprit, all right?"
Xiao Hen raised his left hand, looked at the mechanical patterns on the back of it, and sighed.
He had no choice but to plan on completing the Side Quest first, then finding a way to complete the Main Quest. The Shuttle could not possibly assign him an impossible quest. Clearly, this Main Quest was not something he could complete alone. The only option was to gather the powerhouses of this world and slay the dragon together.
First complete the Side Quest, then use the merit of destroying the Dark Portal to gather all kinds of powerhouses and go slay the dragon. That was Xiao Hen's plan.
"My lord, don't you think we should rest for a while?" Walsay panted as he came before Xiao Hen.
Xiao Hen looked up at the two men. The forest path was extremely difficult to traverse, and they were only ordinary people. Their physiques could not compare with Xiao Hen's. After walking for so long, they were utterly exhausted. Walsay and Sunir were both drenched in sweat and breathing heavily.
"Mm. Find a place to rest," Xiao Hen said with a nod.
The group found an open area to rest, but Xiao Hen was still thinking over his affairs when he heard Walsay's and Sunir's stomachs growling.
When they saw Xiao Hen look over, both men immediately became embarrassed. Sunir stood and said, "My lord, I'll go find something to eat in the forest."
Walsay added, "I know there's a kind of wild fruit in the woods that tastes especially good."
"Forget it. There's no need to go through all that trouble." Looking for food would waste both energy and time, and Xiao Hen did not want them doing that. He had more than enough food and drink stored in his Storage Space, enough to last even a year. When he had bought those supplies, he had purchased them based on a year's worth of provisions.
"Then?" Walsay and Sunir froze, scratching their heads as they failed to understand what Xiao Hen meant.
"I brought some food with me. No need to go looking." As Xiao Hen spoke, he waved a hand and took out a table and three stools. Then he began taking out food: packaged roast duck, glossy bread, grilled sausages rich with the scent of meat, cooked beef, and braised pork knuckles.
"Th-this..." Walsay and Sunir were dumbfounded. They already knew Xiao Hen possessed the legendary magical equipment known as Storage Space. After all, the terrifying magical equipment Xiao Hen had used when killing the Orcs could not have appeared from thin air. But they had never seen any of the food Xiao Hen took out now.
"Come on, eat quickly. Once we're done, we can get back on the road early." This was only a small portion of the supplies Xiao Hen had purchased. He began opening the packages and taking out the food one item after another. Immediately, an intoxicating aroma wafted through the air, nearly driving the two men mad. Already starving, they could not stop themselves from drooling.
"Eat!" Xiao Hen was a little hungry as well. He took out a dagger and, with several swift cuts, sliced the beef into pieces. Then he took out chopsticks and thoughtfully tossed two forks to the others. Those two did not know how to use chopsticks.
As Xiao Hen ate slices of braised beef, he looked up and saw that neither man had touched his fork. They were simply grabbing the food with their hands. Walsay hugged an entire roast duck, his mouth glistening with grease, while Sunir held a grilled sausage and had grabbed two pieces of bread to sandwich around it. He certainly knew how to eat.
Tears welled in Sunir's eyes. The only bread he had ever eaten was dark bread. White bread was food that only nobles could afford. The food before him now... he truly had never eaten anything like it in his entire life.
The buttery bread wrapped around the grilled sausage filled his mouth with the fragrance of meat. It was simply blissful. After finishing the bread, Sunir saw Walsay gnawing on an entire roast duck. It looked delicious, so he hurriedly picked up a glossy braised pork knuckle from the table and bit down. The flavor was rich without being greasy, and his mouth was filled with the scent of meat. It was so delicious.
Walsay took bite after bite and finished the fragrant, delicious roast duck. His stomach was already nearly full, but when he saw so much more delicious food on the table, he could not help picking up a piece of braised beef with his fork. The flavor conquered him once again. It was truly too delicious.
The two devoured all the food Xiao Hen had taken out like starving ghosts fighting over a meal. Each rubbed his stomach, so blissful that he nearly fainted.
With a wave of his hand, Xiao Hen put away the table and the leftover trash. After resting for a while, the three set off once more toward Stormwind City.
A line from this story: Once we're done eating, we can get back on the road early.
It was originally "Once we're done eating, we can set off early"... Then I realized that sounded wrong, so I hurriedly changed it!
Before you continue