Then the Murloc leader Slardar let out another stream of garbled croaks, and under Slardar's command, the Murlocs regrouped into a tight formation and retreated.
By then, Felix no longer had any chance to wipe them out with his "salami-slicing" tactic. To stop them from retreating too quickly, he kept following cautiously behind the Murlocs, maintaining a safe distance of about twenty meters to ensure they continued moving at a snail's pace.
Suddenly, Felix glanced at the shield and longsword in his hands and realized that they seemed to be standard-issue Stormwind City equipment.
So, although he had no idea whether these Murlocs understood human Common, he kept following behind their leader Slardar, shouting and taunting them without restraint: "You wicked little clownfish, your doom is here! The invincible armies of the Alliance will crush you!"
"I'll be waiting for you in the barracks at Sentinel Hill! Come to Sentinel Hill, and you'll get what's coming to you!"
As though afraid the Murlocs would not understand him, Felix deliberately raised his shield high. The golden lion emblem on its face glittered in the sunlight, reflecting the glory of the Alliance and the Kingdom of Stormwind.
Slardar continued leading his followers in an orderly retreat, while the hot summer wind carried a voice to their ears: "Do you hear me? I'm at Sentinel Hill! The armies of the Alliance will crush you!"
Several hours later, the sun's lingering rays shone through the clouds like shafts of gold, scattering over the Great Sea and staining the horizon a deep red.
Felix finally returned to the Defias camp, where Dudmore and Joseph were anxiously awaiting his return.
He noticed that Dudmore's eyes were even somewhat red and swollen.
Seeing that he really had returned safely, an excited Joseph rushed over and gave him a solid hug. He patted Felix on the back and declared loudly, "I knew you wouldn't die at the hands of those Murlocs!"
Dudmore's voice, meanwhile, was somewhat hoarse.
"Felix, you were right. The nearby Murlocs really did rush over to reinforce them soon afterward. If we hadn't moved quickly enough, I'm afraid-are you all right?"
"Those Murlocs couldn't do anything to me." Felix laughed heartily. After all, back when he had played through the Westfall quest line on his Alliance character, he had reached level 60 without dying once.
He reached out and patted Dudmore on the shoulder. "The other brothers should all be all right, shouldn't they?"
"They're fine. We're all fine."
"What about the gold coins, then? You managed to grab them all, right?"
"Ah." Dudmore sighed. "What gold coins? There were just several large bags of copper coins. My guess is that the light's been too good these past few days, and Lightfinger was so desperate for money that he said those Murlocs had gold coins."
Doesn't that mean we spent the whole day working for nothing?
"Come on, let's see how things went for the guildmaster and whether he got anything."
A few minutes later, they arrived at VanCleef's tent. Even his red cloth mask could not conceal the deep melancholy in his eyes.
At the sight of Felix, his gaze finally relaxed a little. "Felix, Joseph, my dear brothers, I heard that your team not only seized some copper coins today, but also came back without a single brother being injured."
A look of joy appeared on Joseph's face as well. It seemed he really had found happiness in his life as a robber.
But Felix heard something more in VanCleef's words.
"Guildmaster, why do you say that? Could it be that the brothers on the other teams-"
"Ah, circumstances aren't in our favor." VanCleef sighed softly. "One team got caught in a fierce battle with the Murlocs. They almost succeeded, but unfortunately, Murlocs from elsewhere rushed over to reinforce them. In the end, they had to retreat, letting a sure thing slip through their fingers!"
"What's even worse," VanCleef said, his brows tightly furrowed, "one team encountered those damned elementals and was wiped out. Only one brother escaped..."
"The brothers I led today did seize some gold coins from the Gnolls, but we were attacked by an exceptionally ferocious, large Riverpaw Gnoll, and many of the brothers were injured. Ah, if only our Brotherhood had a priest..."
His words immediately turned the previously relaxed atmosphere somber.
A Riverpaw Gnoll? Could it have been the mighty Hogger? If so, they really couldn't afford to mess with him right now.
"How could a priest possibly join us?" Joseph clearly had no hope of that. "Anyone qualified to study and serve the Holy Light is either rich or noble. At the very least, they need a noble of baron rank or higher to vouch for them. How could any priest be willing to join a bunch of working-class peasants like us?"
No, we'll have priests, we'll have mages, we'll have everything! Felix considered whether, in the future, he ought to make good use of his mathematical talents and modern-day demeanor, head to Dalaran or Alonsus Chapel in Stratholme, and try to get somewhere there, stealing a few spellbooks or great holy tomes.
"Guildmaster, I've obtained the information you asked me to gather!" Just then, a rough voice came from outside as the tent flap was abruptly thrown open.
Felix looked toward the voice and saw Morgan, who had previously worked at the Goldshire branch of the Stonemasons' Guild, walk in.
"Through some friends I've made and various other channels, I finally learned that Goldshire's money wagon is sent to Stormwind City in the middle of every month. I still don't know the exact day, but I'll keep investigating. Rest assured, I won't let you down!"
"You've done very well," VanCleef said, his eyes brimming with tears. "Brother Morgan, you've followed me loyally ever since the First Orcs War. I wasn't able to fulfill my promise to you, yet you're still doing everything you can to-"
"Guildmaster, say no more. That wasn't your fault. If anyone's to blame, it's those damned lords in Stormwind City! It's an honor to serve you."
VanCleef rummaged in his pocket for quite some time before finally handing him a ring. "You've earned this."
Felix took a look. The Collector's Ring was engraved with the words "For years of service-Edwin VanCleef."
He stared unblinkingly at Morgan until the collector vanished from sight.
"Guildmaster VanCleef," Felix said quietly, "we can plan this operation now. Rest assured, these Goldshire soldiers will definitely be a hundred times easier to deal with than the Dust Devil elementals in Westfall."
"You mean we're getting ready to rob them of their tax money?" Joseph was clearly a little excited, and Felix even suspected he had become addicted to robbery.
"No, this isn't robbery. It's confiscation," he corrected solemnly.
"Confiscating the assets of reactionary nobles" doesn't count as robbery... confiscating assets! ...Can what rebels do really be called robbery?
Before you continue