The murloc village

A union could rebel for nine years without success, but what if the army chose to rebel too? The answer was obvious. A mutiny was certainly not an easy problem to resolve.

So strengthening the Brotherhood's finances and seizing Stormwind City's wealth were also important parts of the rebellion.

But that was for later. The most important thing now was to let the Brotherhood survive in Westfall without disturbing the locals.

Thus, one morning a few days later, the Brotherhood's leaders were each to lead their union brothers out hunting, testing the results of the past few days' training along the way.

Felix's group was targeting a nearby murloc village.

"Everyone's received their red face covering, right?" Felix looked at the brothers before him, all full of energy. "From now on, when we take action, try to wear it whenever possible. That way, Stormwind City's lackeys won't recognize us, and we won't end up on wanted posters and implicate our families."

The novice rogues obediently put on their face coverings.

They were called "rogues," but in reality, most of them had still been honest stonemasons or farmers just a few days ago.

The rogue class was an extremely broad classification. A beggar with no professional training holding a rusty, blunt dagger was a rogue, and VanCleef, who had come from SI:7, was also a rogue. The gap between one rogue and another was greater than the gap between a human and a dog.

Only powerful rogues could be called "assassins." VanCleef himself, for example, was said to be proficient in fifteen ways of killing with his bare hands. His prowess as an assassin was no less than his skill as an architect.

"The basic information should have reached everyone already, so I won't waste words." Felix cleared his throat, then said, "We've discovered a band of murlocs nearby. They have plenty of gold coins, and we can use those coins to trade with the people around here."

"We need to wipe out this band of murlocs, or they'll attack us. You should all know we can't reason with these beasts. Just like Stormwind City's king and those nobles, the only language they understand is the daggers and hammers in our hands."

"These murlocs are on the shallow beach to the west. To avoid alerting them, we'd best cross this hill. That way, we can catch them off guard while also avoiding detection by the Stormwind City garrison at Sentinel Hill."

"If you have no objections, let's set off now. Hopefully, we can still make it back in time for dinner."

Everyone began making their way cautiously toward the hill to the west.

Joseph repeatedly tried to activate "Stealth," but every attempt ended in failure. Felix was only a little better than him. At least his Stealth could barely last a dozen or so seconds.

In this real world of Azeroth, Stealth was essentially a shadow spell, a skill only high-ranking assassins possessed.

Not long after crossing the small hill and catching sight of the beach, Felix noticed movement ahead. He involuntarily stopped, dropped straight to the ground, and whispered, "Shh, don't make a sound."

Everyone from the Defias lay in the grass at the foot of the small hill, carefully surveying the murloc village ahead.

These creatures, with fish heads and bodies, hands and feet, and sharp fangs, could act like humans and were also skilled at making and using weapons. This was the fundamental distinction between them and non-sapient creatures.

In the strange and wondrous world of Azeroth, although individual murlocs were weak, they were very good at teamwork and always acted in groups, making them a greater threat than gnolls.

There were enormous numbers of them. If the Defias attacked rashly, they would inevitably suffer heavy casualties. Obviously, everyone hoped they would not be the one to fall.

Felix looked at Benny Blanco, who lay beside him. He gripped his hammer tightly, his body wrapped in a set of cloth armor he had acquired from who knew where. He certainly looked the part, but the sweat constantly seeping from his palms and his body, which kept undergoing simple harmonic motion, mercilessly exposed the fear within him.

"Blanco, is this your first time fighting?"

"...Yes. Last time, I only followed team leader Lightfinger and helped hold off the enemy in that building. Actually...I barely fought at all."

"It's all right. I was the same my first time, but now..." Felix displayed the sword in his left hand. "I seized this during the street fighting in Stormwind City."

Then he turned to the Defias. "Stay here and don't move around. I'll scout the area first."

According to Lightfinger's hand-drawn map, this should have been the only band of murlocs nearby. Yet after feeling his way north for a few minutes, Felix was astonished to discover two more murloc villages!

Damn it, how had Lightfinger done his scouting? Had he been a stonemason so long that he'd forgotten everything from before?

Felix hurried back, just in time to hear Dudmore saying something.

"As long as we wipe out this band of murlocs," he urged excitedly, "all their gold coins will be ours!"

His words brought excited expressions to the faces of the surrounding rogues, so Dudmore continued, "Then let's immediately-"

"Damn it, the information Lightfinger provided was incomplete." Felix hurriedly interrupted Dudmore. "There are more murlocs here than we thought."

The murlocs of Westfall and Elwynn Forest were killers of low-level characters and newcomers, second almost only to the mighty Hogger. Felix absolutely did not dare underestimate them.

In this world, their group could not run back to their corpses. If they died, they were truly dead, unless Arthas's Scourge or Sylvanas's Second Scourge was willing to raise them as undead.

Felix looked at his companions around him. "Brothers, don't let appearances fool you. Murlocs stick together. I've discovered two more of their villages nearby. Once fighting breaks out, they'll quickly come to reinforce them. We have too few people. If we can't finish the fight quickly, we'll be swallowed by the vast ocean of murloc warfare."

His words drew a chorus of boos from those nearby.

Seeing the other rogues' morale crushed, Dudmore grew a little anxious. "Then Felix, what do you think we should do? Just slink back empty-handed?"

Joseph neither agreed nor disagreed with Dudmore's challenge. He carefully surveyed every ordinary rogue nearby.

"Are we here to seize gold coins, or are we here to wipe out these murlocs?"