Ambushed

Countless innocent young girls cast flirtatious glances at the still-dazed Duke, freely displaying their youthful beauty.

As an annual trial, it naturally involved more than just examiners. There were also many upperclassmen who had successfully entered the various academies, there to lend a hand.

First-years and second-years from the warrior academy, rogue academy... all the major academies were utterly astonished.

Outsiders watched the spectacle; insiders saw the skill behind it.

For example, Sasha, a second-year mage academy student and female mage apprentice who served as the old mage's assistant, had just arrived and was so stunned she nearly lost her wits.

"How is this possible... Its power is already comparable to Pyroblast! Junior Duke actually used the spell model of a fireball to produce the effect of Pyroblast?"

"This is a mage apprentice? I'm afraid plenty of full-fledged mages couldn't unleash this much power!"

"My heavens, if word of this got out, who knew how many people would shatter their spectacles and scare the wits out of others!"

"A genius. No wonder the teacher said he was a true once-in-ten-thousand-years genius."

"Damn it, even a mid-rank apprentice like me is starting to admire him! This is bad, this is bad. Maybe it won't be long before Junior Duke surpasses me and becomes a high-rank apprentice. No, no, no—maybe he'll soon become a full-fledged mage!"

Sasha looked enviously at Duke, who had become the center of everyone's attention.

In truth, it was not only the commoners and apprentices. After receiving magical messages, the teachers of the mage academy also erupted into excitement, running about to spread the news and vent their exhilaration.

"Hahaha! We've finally produced another genius. Dalaran has Kel'Thuzad, Rhonin, and Kael'thas, while we've only ever had Khadgar. Now we finally have another promising little fellow."

The old mages were ecstatic.

Stormwind was not a place where magic flourished. In terms of its overall standard of mages, it lagged far behind Dalaran, the holy land of human mages.

Yet the two sides had never stopped competing. Khadgar was the direct disciple of Medivh, Stormwind's court archmage, and in terms of strength, he could barely contend with the several genius disciples taught by Antonidas, leader of the Kirin Tor, Dalaran's mage organization.

Unfortunately, Khadgar alone was simply too isolated to compare with Dalaran's batches upon batches of geniuses.

Now, all of them seemed to foresee the rise of a monstrous genius.

Everyone else was wildly excited, their blood boiling.

Duke, however, felt nothing real.

A glorious future, high office, great wealth—none of it felt tangible to Duke.

He only felt as though his mind had become a tangled mess, because Duke had accidentally overheard someone say, "Praise the great King Llane Wrynn!"

And, of course, there was also the title of court archmage Medivh.

In that instant, Duke's face turned green.

Llane Wrynn—the king of Stormwind. More importantly, if Duke remembered correctly, on this timeline, a man named Gul'dan had united all the orc tribes, formed the Horde, and was preparing to incite them to cross the massive portal known as the Dark Portal and invade the planet Azeroth.

And Llane would die during the first large-scale orc invasion. Moreover, Stormwind, where Duke was, would be conquered by the Horde, and the entire city—indeed, the entire kingdom—would be destroyed.

If Alleria's earlier appearance had merely let Duke confirm that this timeline was before the Dark Portal incident, then this time, Duke was incomparably certain that this great event was almost upon them.

Once he remembered this, Duke felt utterly awful!

Becoming a mage was certainly worth celebrating. But in the face of the coming large-scale war, Duke felt for the first time just how urgent time truly was!

Running away would be completely useless!

War would sweep across the entire world. From Stormwind to Ironforge, to Stromgarde, to Alterac, to Lordaeron, there was practically nowhere in the world that would be safe.

And it would not end with this war. Besides the orc wars, there would later be the Scourge of the Lich King, the Burning Legion of Sargeras, the demon king, and a whole host of other chaotic enemies that would descend upon Azeroth. It was not something he could simply avoid by hiding.

He didn't want to die, die, and then end up as a ghoul. The only way was to become stronger!

Stronger than anyone else!

Strong enough to influence the course of the wars that were about to come, again and again!

To become a hero of the world, or even its leader!

Duke did not know exactly when the First Orc War would arrive, nor whether that damned Dark Portal had already opened. The calendar was completely different from the one in the game, leaving Duke without any basis for estimation. More importantly, the system's assessment of its current match with the world of Azeroth had been fluctuating around 80%.

In other words, there were far, far too many variables.

Duke cast aside his distracting thoughts. He knew that, as a transmigrator without any noble status, he could only walk the path of a mage all the way to the bitter end. Either he would establish himself in this world as a hero, or he would become a ghoul. There was no third path!

Night had fallen. Duke could hear voices near Northshire Abbey still mentioning his name. The commoners were excitedly discussing everything that had happened to Duke during the day.

"Hah! It feels pretty good to become the talk of the town." Duke rested both hands on the windowsill and spoke to himself.

At that moment, someone responded, "Yes! Too bad it'll only last half a day."

"Uh... cough—" Before he had any time to react, a burst of intense pain suddenly struck the back of Duke's head.

Sap!?

A rogue?

The pain was accompanied by fierce dizziness. The spinning sensation left Duke unable to tell east from west, north from south.

The next instant, his cervical vertebrae were attacked. A sharp dagger pierced the skin at the back of Duke's neck, yet he felt no pain. Instead, his brain was seized by a numbing, stabbing agony.

Mind-Numbing Poison?

Even Duke knew that he had definitely been ambushed by a rogue—and a highly skilled, experienced one at that. Duke did not know whether levels existed in this world, but through the system, he saw a large skull marked above his opponent's head. This was simply not someone he could contend against.

The other party was so cautious that they had clearly treated him as a professional mage.

He had no chance to fight back. The very next moment, Duke found himself kicked to the ground. His mouth instinctively opened wide as he tried to breathe, but at that moment, something was shoved into it.

"Mmgh..." It was Duke's muffled, agonized whimper.

Before losing consciousness, he saw an unfamiliar face, its lower half covered by a black cloth.

Who... are... you!?

Duke's lips moved as he tried to ask, but he could not force out a single word.

The face beneath the mask was probably grinning viciously. Without answering, that person hoisted Duke over their shoulder and leaped out the window like the wind.