Beyond Greatness

At this moment, Medivh was not yet the bearded middle-aged man he would later become. He was younger and more handsome: a pair of deep blue eyes, brimming with wisdom and seeming able to see through the world's past and future, calm yet mysteriously charming. His shoulder-length, wavy brownish-flaxen hair gave him the air of an artist. Combined with his fit physique, he was simply a devastatingly handsome guy.

As the guardian of the Stormwind Kingdom—and indeed, the entire world of Azeroth—as the childhood best friend of Stormwind's King Llane, and as Stormwind's court archmage, Medivh held an exceptionally lofty position.

Moreover, he was not often seen in Stormwind. More often, he conducted experiments and research in the wizard's tower of Karazhan, located in Deadwind Pass far to the southeast of Stormwind.

If he stepped forward, who would dare refuse him respect?

Yet Duke had done exactly that.

If Duke's earlier favor from Medivh had drawn all manner of envy, jealousy, and resentment from the apprentices and even the mages, then at this moment, every gaze turned toward Duke held the same thing—mockery!

"Kid! Do you know who you just refused? Medivh! The world's strongest mage, Azeroth's guardian, Medivh!"

"Kid! Even if it was because of your ignorance, you've gone too far!"

Voices rose all around him, but with a single lift of Medivh's hand, every sound instantly vanished.

Medivh was not angered. Instead, he smiled and asked Duke.

"Young Duke, are you certain you know who I am? Training under the strongest mage is not an opportunity available to every talented mage apprentice. During all my years as the world's guardian, I have accepted only one disciple: Khadgar. If you do not understand me, I can explain in detail what you would gain by becoming my disciple."

"No—I know very well who you are. But please allow me to refuse all the same." Duke's answer was resolute.

Was this a joke? Becoming Medivh's disciple at a time like this?

That would be courting death on an epic scale!

That was right. To anyone at this moment, becoming the disciple of Medivh, the strongest mage in the world, was incomparably glorious—the highest honor any mortal could attain. The other 99.9999 percent of Azeroth's inhabitants would have immediately fallen to their knees and cried out three times, "Master, please accept this disciple's bow!"

However, in the world of Azeroth, only Duke, a veteran player to the bone, seriously remembered what Medivh carried within him.

In Duke's eyes, a huge word was carved into Medivh's forehead: "TRAP"!

At this point in time, Medivh was the greatest trap in the world! There was no second contender!

Why? Because Medivh was currently possessed by Sargeras, the ultimate boss of the Burning Legion—

Possessed!

Possessed!

Possessed!

It was so important that it had to be repeated three times!

Who was Sargeras?

At the dawn of this world, a race possessing divine power—the Titans—formed the Pantheon and began their journey of creation. Sargeras was the Titan champion responsible for defeating countless evil creatures during that journey.

Roughly twenty-five thousand years ago, Sargeras betrayed the Pantheon's council, became the king of demons, created the Burning Legion, and began his Burning Crusade with the goal of destroying the results of the other Titans' experiments.

Sargeras was so absurdly overpowered that he easily destroyed one world after another, until he encountered Azeroth. Here, his demonic army met resistance from an allied force of five-colored dragons. The Burning Legion was defeated.

After that, the demons made attempt after attempt to conquer Azeroth, all of them ending in failure. About three hundred years ago, Medivh's mother, Aegwynn, the previous Guardian of the world, traveled to a place called Northrend to stop a group of demons hunting dragons, where she subsequently encountered Sargeras.

Even more formidable, she defeated the demon king and sealed his body within an ancient Night Elf ruin. Yet she failed to discover that Sargeras's soul had slipped into her body.

When she gave birth to Medivh, Sargeras's soul entered Medivh's body as well. Once Medivh reached adulthood, Sargeras gained almost complete control over him. That was why Medivh occasionally acted unhinged; only rarely did his own soul control his body.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that among the tragic events yet to unfold in Azeroth, the first and greatest boss was Medivh, standing right before Duke.

Duke had never imagined that his outstanding performance would actually draw Medivh here.

If, just seconds ago, he had still hoped that the world had changed—that Medivh might happen to be among that twenty percent of differences, or that some unforeseen variable had emerged—

Detected an extremely evil and incomparably powerful demonic will observing you... Combat assessment: your chance of victory is infinitely close to zero. Please evade immediately.

That left Duke with no hesitation. He refused decisively!

The surrounding mages had nearly moved to attack Duke as one, but Medivh raised his hand again in a gesture for silence.

"Duke Marcus, correct? May I hear your reason?"

Duke's mind raced. He knew that if he did not give a suitable and reasonable explanation, things would likely turn very ugly today.

He could already smell a terrible premonition, as though he might fall from a cliff's edge into a bottomless abyss at any moment.

"Honored Guardian Medivh. You are great."

Duke's opening slightly dampened the mages' anger.

"But ever since I learned of my own talent, my dream has been to become greater than great." Duke proudly raised his head, looking every bit like a youth proclaiming his dream.

"Oh?" A faint look of surprise appeared on Medivh's face, followed by a smile. "Go on!"

Without realizing it, Duke's voice rose several octaves. His clear voice seemed to brighten the entire hall.

"So I thought, if I became the disciple of you—the greatest mage, Medivh—then no matter what great achievements I accomplished in the future, no matter how many times I saved the world, people would see it as only natural. Because I would be Guardian Medivh's disciple! The finest disciple taught by a great teacher. Then I would forever live beneath your halo. People would only remember me as Duke, Medivh's disciple, rather than Duke Marcus, the great mage."

Those resounding words carried Duke's realization.

The realization of a transmigrator!

The realization of a younger generation member with dreams and goals!

The realization of a young man yearning to carve out a place for himself in another world!

If Duke had said those words in a classroom or on any social media platform before his transmigration, even if they had not earned thunderous applause, they would at least have won knowing smiles from his elders.

But here, what Duke received was a thunderous roar.

"Insolence—"