Hogger

Duke's life... was worthless!

Duke's integrity... was still worth a few coins.

Duke's oath still carried a little weight.

Duke felt a tremor rise from the deepest part of his heart. After entering the world of Azeroth, he once again felt fate playing a joke on him. The four Windrunner sisters had already been absurd enough. Now even the magic system had a strong sense of crossing worlds.

But magic was magic.

The instant Duke opened that note, he deeply felt a mysterious resonance between himself and these spells.

It was like a sense of recognition. A broader, more wide-ranging way of thinking entered his mind. At that moment, it was as though the definition of "mage," once fixed in place by the game, underwent the most brilliant chemical reaction.

In Duke's mind, mages had once only meant high-damage ranged artillery and the strongest crowd-control class. Yet at that moment, an incomparably brilliant light illuminated his sea of consciousness, and within that light, a door opened—

It was as if he passed through that door and saw countless things beyond the limits of his thought.

Before he knew it, a spell list emerged in his mind.

All magic was reclassified:

Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, Transmutation, and Universal—nine major categories in total.

Most of those categories were still shrouded in hazy darkness.

But this represented far more possibilities.

This was not an illusion that existed for only the briefest instant before vanishing. It was a breakthrough that shattered Azeroth's rules of magic. Even this magic classification chart could be repeatedly called up within his field of vision through the system sprite.

Duke also discovered something else. Whether it was Pyroblast and Frostbolt from the beginning, or spells such as Dalson's Chilling Prison now, any spell that could be linked to spells from before his transmigration seemed to receive a massive enhancement.

For spells related to fire and ice, never mind the huge pile of thermodynamic formulas the system displayed.

Even Mage Hand, which should have been classified as a level-zero spell—mere cantrip-tier magic—had been greatly strengthened.

The reason for the enhancement left Duke speechless.

"Detected that the host possesses extensive memories of [motion capture] technology. Importing and improving relevant laws... Thought-transmission nodes have been preset within the Mage Hand spell. Mage Hand flexibility is expected to increase by 180%, and strength by 230%. Your Mage Hand spell has advanced... Rank unknown. Expected to exceed level 2..."

Before Duke's transmigration, the most widely known application of motion capture was filmmaking. By attaching dozens of trackers to key points on an actor's face, all facial muscle movements could be converted into data such as dimensional measurements that a computer could process, as well as object positioning and orientation within physical space.

Who would have thought the system sprite could apply even that in reverse?

Right in front of Macaro, Duke snapped his fingers.

With a sharp snap, a magical palm the size of a human hand, glowing faint blue, appeared out of thin air before the mercenaries.

The strange sight startled the mercenaries. Though shocked, they quickly raised their swords.

But they immediately calmed down and found the source of the tremor in their hearts—because the "ghost hand" floating in the air moved exactly like Duke's right hand.

They finally understood that Duke had summoned it.

A gentle smile bloomed on Duke's face. "Macaro, thank you for your generous gift. I owe you a favor."

Macaro quickly recovered from his shock. "No, no, no, esteemed Lord Marcus. To me, my son is priceless. Your satisfaction with my return gift is the greatest comfort I could receive."

This was often how favors worked.

After this exchange, the relationship between employer and hired men, which had originally been somewhat cold and distant, quickly warmed because of this little episode.

At Duke's insistence, Macaro agreed to drop the word "Lord" in private and call Duke Marcus.

Before they knew it, night had fallen.

Even after arriving in this world, Duke still had many things to get used to. Everything here was so primitive. Once night fell, there was almost no light at all.

There was no moonlight. Only within the reach of the firelight could they vaguely see the dull yellow earth of Westfall.

The caravan made camp on the sheltered side of a small hill. After dinner, only one or two bonfires remained in the temporary camp to drive away wild beasts, along with the night watchmen. Everyone else sank into sleep.

In the quiet darkness, Duke should have fallen asleep quickly, but the bizarre scenery around him kept him awake.

Duke began reviewing the few spells he had.

Just then, Duke suddenly heard two watchmen talking.

"Karon? Did you hear that?"

"Something seems to be approaching."

Almost at the same time, Duke heard the system sprite's warning.

"Host! Detected a large number of life signals classified as dangerous... Enemy identified as gnolls! Number... fifty, sixty... one hundred... one hundred seventy..."

In the darkness ahead, countless short shadows silently rushed toward them at high speed.

"Enemy attack—" The watchman's shrill, resounding cry woke every mercenary from their dreams.

"Oh—damn it, it's Hogger—"

"God, it really is Hogger!"

The name Hogger seemed to possess a terrifying power that made people tremble.

People who grew up in Elwynn Forest were often awakened by the howls of gnolls. No matter how strong humanity had become, no matter whether they had truly become the masters of Elwynn Forest, they could never forget the Nightmare of Elwynn Forest—Hogger.

This giant gnoll who roamed south of Westbrook Garrison had left them with dark memories. Legend had it that "Hogger" was merely a title humans gave to this particular gnoll, or perhaps to this line of gnolls. People did not know how long gnolls lived, but the people of Elwynn Forest always called the largest gnoll leader Hogger.

Legend said Hogger was twice the size of an ordinary gnoll. It was also said that his claws could easily tear an infantry shield in half, and that his powerful legs could effortlessly catch up to pitiful adventurers trying to flee.

But those were only legends, because no one who truly faced Hogger had ever returned alive.

If one were to name the most infamous and formidable villain near Stormwind, Hogger had already claimed the top spot on Stormwind's bounty boards. Nearly every adventurer tempted by the bounties offered by Stormwind had died beneath his feet.

Now, Hogger had come, bringing his army of gnolls!