Jaina

[Infantry Spirit; strength: Tier 3; assessment: After years of constant warfare caused heavy losses in the Alliance Army, an influx of recruits replenished its ranks in time. Trained in formal swordsmanship, infantry served as the Alliance's vanguard and defensive forces. Equipped with broadswords and heavy shields, they could effectively break enemy attacks.]

Looking at the Infantry Spirit before him, Rex gave a faint smile. In Azeroth, warriors, hunters, and mages alike ranged from Tier 1 to Tier 9, with Tier 9 the strongest and Tier 1 the weakest. Beyond Tier 9 lay the legendary Hero Rank.

Leaving aside other races in Azeroth, such as trolls, humans possessed strength at the peak of Tier 1 as soon as they reached adulthood. A little training could bring them to Tier 2, the level of the regular armies of the various kingdoms. Tier 3 soldiers were no longer ordinary regulars, but elites honed through genuine battlefield experience. Tier 4 soldiers were even rarer. As far as Rex knew, only the Royal Guard possessed Tier 4 strength in the Kingdom of Gilneas.

At Tier 5, one was no longer merely a soldier, but could command troops, and generally belonged to the officer ranks. Throughout human history, only one force had ever been composed of Tier 5 fighters: the Order of the Silver Hand. Formed during the Second War, the Silver Hand had selected the best of the best from every nation. There had been no weaklings among the order's true core members, and quite a few had even reached the Saint Tier. But those mighty figures of the past had since either fallen in battle or retired, leaving the order a shadow of its former glory.

Even the standards for its core members had fallen considerably. Once, joining the Silver Hand had required at least Tier 8 strength; now, Tier 7 was enough.

There was no denying that the Silver Hand was an extraordinarily powerful force within the human Alliance.

Naturally, Rex did not dare compare this Infantry Spirit to the Silver Hand, which had been built with the combined efforts of the entire Alliance. Still, the Infantry Spirit had not disappointed him. Tier 3 already met the standard for an elite soldier. Most importantly, this Infantry Spirit was only the lowest-level version, and it still had the potential to be upgraded. As the Barracks leveled up, infantry would be upgraded to Veteran Infantry. As for the knights above infantry, Rex was confident they could rival the Silver Hand.

Brimming with confidence, Rex checked the requirements for upgrading the Barracks. Besides an upgrade cost of 400 gold coins, it required 500 experience points, of which he currently had one. The Barracks gained experience when Rex summoned Infantry Spirits, with each one counting as a single experience point. He shook his head slightly and set the question of upgrading aside for now. The gold needed for 500 Infantry Spirits was no small sum. Each Infantry Spirit cost ten gold coins, so 500 would require 5,000 gold coins.

This was not a game where gold coins were the standard unit of currency and hundreds could be spent with a casual wave of the hand. In Azeroth, gold coins were a universal currency that could be used across racial boundaries. Any intelligent race accepted them, and their purchasing power was immense. An ordinary pound of rice cost only four copper coins, enough to feed one person for a day. A single gold coin could support a family of several people for an entire year.

Copper coins were used for everyday purchases. Even a kingdom like Gilneas collected only a little over two hundred thousand gold coins in taxes each year. It was not that Rex could not produce five thousand gold coins at once; as a prince of Gilneas, he had considerable savings. But he still had not figured out how much a real-world gold coin would be worth within the Warcraft System. A one-to-one exchange rate would be fine. What worried him was the possibility that a gold coin would become a mere silver coin once brought here. If that happened, no matter how powerful the Warcraft System was, he would not be able to afford to use it.

Glancing at the motionless Infantry Spirit before him, Rex slowly withdrew from the Warcraft System. The scenery before his eyes began to shift, and when it became clear again, he was back in his room. He looked over the furnishings and then checked his posture. Just as he had suspected, only his consciousness had entered the Warcraft System. His body had not moved at all; his hand was still resting against the blood-red birthmark.

He stood and stretched before slowly pushing open his bedroom door. Despite having gone a whole day without sleep, Rex felt no fatigue. Instead, he was full of energy. With the appearance of the Warcraft System, the unease pent up in his heart and his fear of the future had eased, and for the first time, he felt secure. When he stepped outside, the sky was already beginning to brighten. Far off on the horizon, the morning sun rose, spilling countless rays across the earth and driving back the darkness. The hazy night had faded, and a new day had arrived.

A faint smile on his lips, Rex spread his arms in front of him and relaxed, murmuring to himself, "A new day has begun. Good morning, Stormwind City!"

"And good morning to you, Prince Rex?" A woman's melodious voice reached his ears. Rex turned toward it and saw a young woman with flowing golden hair. Her luxurious mage's robe lent her figure a distinctive air of nobility.

"And you are?" Rex asked politely. Though he had already recognized her, this was their first meeting, so he pretended not to know who she was.

"Jaina Proudmoore!" the woman said with a smile as she came to stand beside Rex.

"Is this your first visit to Stormwind City, Prince?" she asked.

"Just call me Rex." Smiling as he gazed ahead, Rex continued softly, "Not only is this my first visit to Stormwind City, it's also my first time leaving Gilneas, and the first time I've seen such a beautiful city beneath the morning sun."

"If it's beauty you're after, you should visit Dalaran. Those mysterious, elegant white towers scattered throughout the city... Looking down over Dalaran from the Violet Citadel's immense, slender spire was the most beautiful sight I've ever seen." Longing shone in her lovely eyes as she brushed aside the golden hair at her forehead and spoke through rosy lips.

"I'll visit Dalaran." Many thoughts passed through Rex's mind at that moment. The most important step in changing Gilneas was restoring its contact with other nations. It could not remain sealed off from the world. The actual history of his previous life had already shown him just how disastrous isolation could be.

(End of chapter)