A Day in Chromie's Life (Part 1)

One year.

Chromie had stayed in Un'Goro Crater for a year.

Over that year.

She had disguised herself as a troll girl of around ten, staying inconspicuously at the side of the Sandblood Tribe's chieftain under the alias Romi. As a child laborer, she took care of his daily needs.

They called her a servant.

In truth, all she did was wash clothes, tidy and clean his room, and occasionally prepare food.

Other than when he slept at night, that chieftain rarely returned to his own room. Most of the time, he was either in the city hall discussing government affairs, at the training grounds drilling himself and his soldiers, or leading troops out to hunt Devilsaurs and eliminate unruly elements in the surrounding area.

And over the past year, the troll settlement named Zutona had developed at a pace that left even the well-traveled big shot Chromie somewhat dumbfounded.

It was precisely Zutona's astonishing rate of development that had kept her from leaving and prevented her from making up her mind about whether to do anything.

Zutona was developing too quickly.

So quickly that, in all her life on Azeroth, Chromie had never seen any settlement or city of any race develop at such a speed.

In just one year.

This place had gone from something like a refugee camp to a clean and orderly settlement. The street addresses had been neatly arranged, and the city's overall layout was well organized. Along the roads grew miraculous plants that glowed at night to serve as streetlamps and absorbed harmful dust from the air during the day, acting as cleaners.

Today.

After cleaning the chieftain's room, Chromie had to attend class according to the rules and custom. After all, she was only "ten."

Stepping out of her room.

Chromie looked up at the statue of the Sandblood Tribe's High Chieftain in the city center. It was radiating a warm, faint glow that enveloped all of Zutona.

Zutona lay within Un'Goro Crater. Due to the abundant life energy and remnants of Titan power here, every plant grew far too large. Giant trees blocked out most of the sunlight, leaving the place gloomy even during the day. At night, without moonlight, one could practically not see one's own hand.

But Zutona never lacked light.

The chieftain's statue constantly radiated warm light, shrouding the entire town within it. Though everyone called Zutona a city, it was still young, and its scale was roughly that of a town.

As soon as Chromie stepped onto the streets, she heard the resounding voices of young trolls and children studying nearby. That was where she was headed as well.

In the area closest to the city hall, the chieftain's palace, the military camp, and the witch doctors' sacred hall. At the chieftain's command, a vast section had been converted into a school called Tonatiuh Academy.

This was Zutona's sacred ground of education. The chieftain had decreed that all trolls had to either work or study there—

Elderly trolls served as teachers there, passing on their hunting skills, knowledge, and even their experiences to younger trolls;

Young and adult trolls trained in combat techniques and learned to read and write there. Trolls gifted in spiritual matters and spellcasting were required to remain there, where witch doctors or teachers hired by the chieftain taught them spells and magical knowledge;

Underage trolls received more systematic instruction there. They tempered their bodies, honed their will, learned every kind of knowledge they could, and intensified their training;

Right now.

What Chromie heard was the Sandblood Tribe's trolls learning an entirely new language and script.

Though her outward age was only ten, Chromie had to attend class whenever she was not working. However, as the chieftain's personal attendant, she enjoyed certain privileges and was allowed to arrive late or leave early.

She skipped into the classroom.

The students in the classroom were not just children. By the chieftain's decree, all adult trolls without work also had to study there. At first, the chieftain himself had personally taught them. Later, the task was handed over to several witch doctors who had learned the sounds and writing—said to have been created by the Loa—most quickly. Since there were many students, lessons in literacy were often divided into several classes.

Like today.

Chromie had chosen old witch doctor Zangar's class. She entered the classroom, greeted Zangar, who was teaching, and then obediently took her seat.

In the classroom built from logs and stone, a blackboard hung at the very front. Written upon it were the fifty-six initials and finals established by Tonatiuh, which the troll students were reading aloud.

At that moment, Zangar raised a wooden teaching rod high and pointed at the blackboard. Whenever he pointed to a letter, Zangar would pronounce it loudly, and the adult troll students and troll children squatting neatly before the board would repeat after him in unison. There were nearly three or four hundred trolls in this huge classroom, adults and children each making up half. Their crisp voices studying together echoed throughout the town.

Not every troll took part in the lessons. In fact, many trolls lacked the intelligence needed to learn writing and language, especially the elderly trolls who were not witch doctors. Those studying in the classroom were all young adult trolls, along with most troll children.

However, the instigator of all this, Chieftain Tonatiuh, believed that in the near future, this language derived from Chinese, transformed by the system's mighty power to conform to Azeroth's primordial rules, and named by him [Sacred Language], would become a powerful foundation for the trolls under his command to evolve into a civilized empire.

Just like now.

As a well-traveled time dragon, Chromie realized that this unprecedented script and language contained tremendous power!

"Such miraculous writing. It is somewhat like those pandaren square characters, but the pronunciation is completely different..."

"And I can sense that these words and this language are very similar to the language dragons learned from the elders. There is magic contained within them..."

"Who invented this? Only beings like the elders could possibly create such writing."

"Could there truly be two Wild Gods powerful enough to create such a script and language, powerful enough to transform an entire race merely through the leakage of their aura?"

"Tona and Tiu... why can I not sense their presence at all? And why have I never seen them appear all these years?"

"How many secrets is Tonatiuh hiding? He is clearly someone I could crush with a single toe. He clearly looks so ordinary, so how can he create something so extraordinary?"

"There are too many mysteries."

"By the Titans! By Amun'thul! Lord Nozdormu, what am I supposed to do..."

While she studied diligently like an ordinary troll child, Chromie's heart was in utter turmoil.