Blood Sacrifice

After arriving at the outpost, Sylvanas had yet to return. Shane opened the passage and went inside by himself.

If Sylvanas asked, he would tell her plainly: yes, he had mastered runestone technology and could open passages himself. In other words, so what? Alleria's scheme had already failed halfway. Besides, even if he hid it, the indentations left by Taigo at the entrance would raise suspicions.

Windrunner and Dawnblade were natural enemies! After being isolated for so many days, Shane somewhat understood why his predecessors had summed up the relationship between the two clans in a single sentence. With no room for a third party to intervene, neither side could ever rest easy.

"Vereesa is an exception."

Shane missed the female elf who had snuck food from his yard. They probably would not be in contact again until he returned to Silvermoon City.

The defensive barrier opened again, and Sylvanas returned. Just as usual, they paid Shane no mind, which suited him just fine. Sylvanas did not mention the marks at the entrance, and Shane said nothing either.

"Eye of Truth, how much pure energy must you absorb to reach the advancement requirement?"

"Absorb five times the pure energy acquired today to reach the minimum requirement."

At the fifth ring, he could own a mage tower outside Silvermoon City. It would cost a great deal of money, but he would find a way when the time came. As for the location, he did not know where the Royal Mage Corps would assign him.

"User, surveillance personnel detected."

"Ignore them." Being watched had become part of daily life.

"The female elf Sylvanas, whom the user cares greatly about, is observing the user."

The Eye of Truth displayed Sylvanas's image in his mind. She was watching Shane through the window from quite a distance away, using Eagle Eye. A smile curved her lips, her eyes full of amusement, while her ears twitched slightly like Vereesa's.

"Has she become suspicious after all?" Shane did not stop what he was doing. As usual, he cooked delicious food, and he did not forget to waft its aroma toward the rangers. Yet the rangers were remarkably patient. Shane knew they were waiting for the day his ingredients ran out, but that would not stump him. He had plenty of ways to get ingredients.

"This device believes the user should have a proper conversation with the female elf Sylvanas and clear up the misunderstanding. Probability analysis indicates a high likelihood of success, because the user has successfully aroused her curiosity."

"Why?"

"She is also one of the user's masculine romances."

"Shut up."

"Understood."

At night, arcane radiance flickered throughout the outpost. The defensive barrier used ley line energy, isolating the outpost from the forest through runestones embedded underground. The environment inside was as pleasant as Quel'Thalas.

Scalding liquid glass floated before Shane. Under his control, the molten glass was shaped into a convex lens, while Frost spells continuously cooled it in his hands.

His plan to build an observatory was slowly taking shape. Every night, he melted some magical glass, then shaped it into convex lenses. He had not forgotten all the physics knowledge he had learned in his previous life, and he had once made a hundred-power astronomical telescope himself. In this life, because of magic and the nature of this world, he wanted to make a telescope with five hundred times magnification and a 500mm objective lens.

The true purpose of arcane arts is to explore the truths of the world, his mentor had once told Shane. He believed in his mentor's teachings as well.

Once it had cooled, he scanned it with the Eye of Truth. Both precision and clarity met the standards, so he stored it in his magic pouch. Today's work was done, and Shane went to sleep.

Since Sylvanas had not mentioned Shane going out, his solo hunting of trolls would not stop. At sunrise, Shane waited until Sylvanas had left the outpost, then headed out himself an hour later.

The moment he left the barrier, he detected two elves nearby.

They're watchers Sylvanas left behind, Shane thought. The Ghostlands were in their lush season. Layers upon layers of broad leaves provided the best cover for rangers. The two elves hid in the trees and watched Shane open the magical barrier and emerge from within.

"Should I shake them off, or knock them out?"

"It is recommended that the user knock them out. No matter where we go, they will follow the marks left by Taigo and find us. This may have an adverse effect on the user's hunting plan."

If Shane had studied the school of enchantment, he could have used Human Paralysis to immobilize the two rangers and deal with them at leisure. But he had not learned it, so his method would have to be more violent. Taigo charged toward the two rangers' hiding place. Before they could flee, it froze them with Frost Ring, knocked them unconscious one by one, then carried them back into the barrier and tossed them inside.

Before one of them passed out, he shouted, "This trick again!"

It was that fellow named Luo-something. Shane could remember his face, but never his name.

The soft earth of the Ghostlands not only exposed Shane's tracks; Sylvanas and the others had also left countless hawkstrider footprints behind. It was easy to determine the rangers' patrol direction from the tracks. By choosing a different path at key forks in the road, he could easily avoid their patrol routes.

Bloodstains. Large amounts of dried blood. Shane found a troll camp. Other than bloodstains, there were only ruins, broken spears, and arrowheads. There was no sign of anything made by elves. The trolls had done this themselves. Judging from the extent of the camp's destruction, the losers had left nothing behind. Shane instinctively covered his nose. The air was filled with the foul stench of hex magic left behind after battle casting.

"Eye of Truth, can you estimate the number of trolls?"

"Judging by the size of the camp, the defeated troll force numbered around three hundred. Judging by the bloodstains, approximately one hundred people died on both sides. The total number of combatants on both sides was between several hundred and one thousand."

"Track them."

The trolls had made no attempt to conceal the bloodstains. Fresh blood kept appearing along the way. The sun set and the moon rose, yet he had strangely encountered no troll sentries.

Ahead lay a valley. Dull hide drums boomed, and the heavy stench of blood made him want to vomit. Shane concealed himself with a first-ring Obscuring spell and observed the troll camp from a hilltop. The trolls were conducting a ritual. Countless trolls danced around bonfires, while dozens of large cauldrons spewed white foam. The tallest structure in the valley was a brown stone platform. Three masked priests waved their staffs, directing their subordinates to bring forth prisoners.

"Blood sacrifice!"

The prisoners were grouped in twelves. Troll warriors forced them onto the top of the altar. As if resigned to their fate, they did not struggle. The executioners used massive axes to chop off their heads one by one. Blood gushed from their severed necks without wasting a drop, all flowing into grooves carved along the edge. Following the grooves, the blood traced a maze-like pattern before finally gathering in the center of the altar to form a pool of blood.

Each time a group was killed, the trolls' cheers echoed through the valley.

More and more living sacrifices were offered, and a crimson mist rose from the altar. The mist made Shane deeply uncomfortable. If arcane energy, given animal form, was a mana wyrm, then this crimson mist was a maggot—maggots with rotting bodies.

The trolls slaughtered twelve groups of prisoners before the entire ritual reached its climax. The three priests knelt and prayed to some god. Before long, the blood mist suddenly contracted. It was as if a small hole had opened in the air and sucked the mist inside. All the trolls knelt toward the altar and chanted a name in unison: "Alaguyusa."

"Spatial interference phenomenon detected. A divine entity has responded to the trolls' summons and accepted the sacrifice."

Shane frowned. The ritual had been revolting enough just to watch. "Is their god an Immortal?"

"No. No large-scale spatial interference has been detected here."

As the ritual drew to a close, the heads were piled atop the altar while the corpses were distributed among the tribesfolk. They were going to eat them! The dozens of cauldrons were meant for cooking the bodies. They cut open the bellies, cleaned the intestines, and the higher-ranking trolls scooped blood from the pool and drank it in great gulps.

Shane did not continue watching. There were more than six hundred trolls in the valley, from commoners to priests, but only three priests, over a hundred warriors, and two troll berserkers had combat ability.

"All creatures relax their vigilance after eating their fill. If the user attacks in the latter half of the night, the probability of victory is above seventy percent."