Was Hunter a New Class?

"Are there no pet trainers in Silvermoon City?" Yu Lin Bloodhawk asked in puzzlement.

He had even more questions on his mind. Was this different from the game? Were there no pet trainers for Hunters? He suddenly remembered the level-60 days. Pet trainers back then had seemed almost decorative, with little practical use. The ranks of pet skills a Hunter learned came from the beasts he caught in the wild. If he never caught a pet that already possessed high-rank skills, then even when his pet reached level 60, skills such as Claw and Bite might still be at the lowest rank, rank one. But did Hunter trainers even exist in Silvermoon City at this point? Tame Beast was the most crucial skill for catching a pet.

"Quite a few people train little animals for amusement and sell them. But aside from hawkstriders, I've never seen anyone train large animals." Someone else added, "I hear training a single hawkstrider takes a lot of time. Otherwise, they wouldn't be so expensive."

Yu Lin Bloodhawk nodded in agreement. Like horses, hawkstriders were docile, but training one into a proper mount was still no easy task. In the level-60 days, mounts had been expensive necessities, especially the thousand-gold mounts. Not everyone could afford one.

"Are there no Hunter trainers either?" Yu Lin Bloodhawk asked again.

"What's a Hunter trainer?" Everyone looked bewildered.

At that point, Yu Lin Bloodhawk understood. The Hunter class really did not exist. He frowned, still unwilling to give up. "I've heard that some Night Elf archers bring large beasts, such as nightsabers, into battle with them."

In truth, he only remembered a grizzly bear named Misha. He had forgotten whose pet she was.

"I know what you mean, Captain," a squad leader immediately chimed in. "Those are companions they raised from infancy, just like the lynxes the Trolls keep."

"Raised from infancy?" Yu Lin Bloodhawk asked in surprise. "How long would that take?"

"Two or three years at least!" someone said. "They'd be too small to fight in their first year. There's no telling whether they'd even obey."

Yu Lin Bloodhawk sighed inwardly. It really was so different from the game! A sense of helplessness pressed down on him until he could barely breathe. His hope of quickly building up their combat strength crumbled.

Two or three years might seem quick to other elves, but to him, it was an exceedingly long time. After thinking it over, he felt that in this magical world, even the souls of the dead could be enslaved-the Lich King Ner'zhul was one example. Surely magic could enslave beasts too! He remembered that the Orcs had even enslaved red dragons. Although that had been possible because of the artifact known as the Dragon Soul, it still demonstrated how powerful magic could be!

Could the arcane mages of Quel'Thalas create or develop an item or spell that could enslave an adult beast?

So he asked tentatively, "Isn't there any magic that can enslave an adult beast? Even a spell that lets you communicate with a beast's mind would do!"

"I'm not sure, but I don't think I've ever heard of magic like that," the deputy company commander answered.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk rubbed his temples with both hands, his head aching.

Blizzard, what kind of fucking class did you make up? No wonder there was only one Hunter shot in all those opening cinematics. You've really screwed me over.

"Forget all that for now. We'll do two things first. One, find every Beast Tamer among these Troll prisoners and interrogate them one by one. Find out how they handle their beasts, how they raise them, how they train them to help in battle, and how they control them. Get every detail. Question them separately, and don't miss a single one. Do the same with any Trolls sent here in the future. Sort and organize all the information you gather. I refuse to believe we can't find a good method. Two, send people to find some hunters in the mountains, preferably ones with pets. Bring them back, and we'll study this together to see whether there's a better, faster way to train combat pets. I want the hundred of you to fight with the strength of two hundred on the battlefield and make the other units' eyes pop out of their heads, damn it," Yu Lin Bloodhawk said.

The elves exchanged looks.

"What are you looking at?" Yu Lin Bloodhawk snapped. "Don't think I haven't seen those inferior looks in your eyes when you look at the other units. Inferior, my ass! You're my men. If other people look down on you, they're looking down on me. Do they think I'm some fucking house cat just because I haven't shown my claws? All of you, pull yourselves together and get this done properly. You can't hope to catch up to them in magical talent, so we'll surpass them somewhere else. Who's better is still anyone's guess. Who's afraid of whom? Let's show them who the real elite are!"

They had already felt they had nothing left to lose, but given even a sliver of hope, who wouldn't want a chance to shine? Especially with their commanding officer brimming with such confidence, his words set their blood boiling too. Their agreement thundered out as one!

Someone asked the captain about training. Yu Lin Bloodhawk took out the two books and plunged into another heated debate with everyone. The meeting continued until midnight, when a new book called the Bloodhawk Training Manual finally emerged.

The new manual extensively revised both the content and volume of the original Ranger training. Training was tailored to different levels of magical ability, with several main points emphasized. First, Rangers with high magical ability would focus on using magic arrows and maximizing their power, aiming for one-shot kills. Their primary targets would be high-value battlefield targets, such as commanders and mages. Much like snipers on Earth, they would receive less melee training, with greater emphasis on movement speed and shooting accuracy. Rangers with moderate magical ability had similar requirements, though not as demanding, with additional training in support skills such as Freezing Trap, Frost Trap, and Explosive Trap. Third, because Rangers with low magical ability had limited mana, they would focus mainly on melee skills while maintaining their original shooting practice.

Faced with the densely packed training skills in the two Ranger manuals, everyone argued over which skills were suitable. But Yu Lin Bloodhawk, as company commander, remained absolutely adamant about two things: Stealth and Sprint had already been set as skills everyone had to master. As for the rest, they parted on bad terms over their disagreements, while preparing alliances for the next day's war of words.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk had no need to attend the next day's meeting himself. The company commanders could preside over it, because one important decision made that day was the true cause of the dispute.

The decision stated that regardless of whether their magical aptitude was high, moderate, or low, no one could learn a second skill before mastering the first. This sparked fierce arguments over the order in which skills should be arranged and selected, and no agreement was reached. The sheer number of skills made choosing harder instead. In the end, Yu Lin Bloodhawk drew three talent trees based on his experience playing Warcraft. After filling in Stealth and Sprint in the first and second slots, he left the rest to them. Fortunately, they were all recruits, so no one could pull rank based on seniority during the discussions. Instead, they competed

fiercely with one another.

On the second day, the company commanders still refused to yield, and nothing was settled. With no other choice, Yu Lin Bloodhawk ceremoniously invited the queen and big boss, Sylvanas, to attend the meeting on the third day. Her main responsibility was to explain the relevant skills and their battlefield applications to the rookies, while offering valuable advice.

It was Sylvanas's first time attending such an unusual meeting, and she was quite enthusiastic. Thus, a fierce seven-day debate proceeded with both grandeur and simplicity. It was grand because the big boss Sylvanas participated in person, and simple because it was confined to one small company.

Yet Yu Lin Bloodhawk, the instigator of it all, was nowhere to be seen. During those seven days, he took several recruits who spoke Trollish and began subjecting the Troll Beast Tamers to brutal, relentless interrogation. The interrogation records piled high. The Trolls' screams alternated with the shouting from the military meeting, forming the strangest spectacle in the prisoner-of-war camp.

The meeting also sparked fierce arguments among the recruits, because their squad and team leaders consulted them afterward about the next steps in the skill order. But none of that was his concern anymore. All the Troll Beast Tamers had been interrogated. There were only thirty-odd of them, but the questions had been so detailed that they had produced an enormous amount of information.

Seeing that the meeting still had not ended, he knew the team leaders, squad leaders, and other minor officers would have no time to spare. He took more than ten recruits to organize the material and extract its key points. With so many people working on it, the job did not take long and was finished in a single day. When he returned with the organized information, the meeting had finally concluded. But before the participants could leave, Yu Lin Bloodhawk herded them back into the meeting room.

Sylvanas had been about to leave, but she was very pleased with the results of the past few days' heated meetings and had taken a copy of the talent-tree training plan for herself. When she saw everyone being pushed back into the meeting room, her curiosity stirred again, and she followed them inside.