Chapter Summaries

Wang Lu recalled how he discovered a hidden passage in an old book using a family heirloom and spent more than a decade practicing its mnemonic verses. By the present, he had developed heightened stamina and a faint ability to sense other people’s strong emotions.

• As a child, Wang Lu found a damaged book in his great-uncle’s shrine and secretly swapped it for a similar book from home.
• At eighteen, Wang Lu used an opaque glass marble from his family’s heirlooms to reveal hidden writing in the book.
• Wang Lu deciphered verses attributed to Li Qing, who said they could sharpen the senses and refresh the spirit, and learned that Li Qing had associated with Zuo Ci and Nanhua Immortal.
• Wang Lu began practicing the verses and continued for more than a decade, gradually finding that he needed less sleep and felt more energetic.
• Wang Lu discovered that he could faintly sense strong emotions in people nearby, including his neighbor’s dissatisfaction and his colleague’s happiness about becoming the next manager.

After dying in an earthquake near a mysterious tomb, Wang Lu was reborn as Allen, a farmer’s son in Lordaeron and the world of Warcraft. At age five, he realized war could threaten his family and began practicing his old incantation while seeking money to learn to read.

• Wang Lu recognized a symbol from his old incantation on an artifact from a newly excavated Sichuan tomb and suspected it was connected to Li Qing.
• An earthquake killed Wang Lu, and the nearby tomb drew his soul in with the souls of other victims.
• Wang Lu was reborn as Allen, the son of Jason and Eva, and spent his first years sleeping as his body and soul adjusted.
• At five, Allen learned that magic and nonhuman races existed and discovered he had been born in Lordaeron in the world of Warcraft.
• Allen learned that King Terenas Menethil had recently taken the throne and feared that future wars would endanger his family.
• Unable to afford professional education, Allen practiced his incantation and looked for ways to earn money for reading lessons.

Allen formed a plan to gain knowledge, enlist, and become a professional, but spent years unable to find a way to begin. He discovered that village chief Old Jack could read and was an adventurer, and started trying to win his favor.

• Allen planned to earn money for reading lessons, study Lordaeron through public libraries, enlist, and pursue becoming a knight.
• He spent five years without finding a way to make money or advance his plan.
• Allen learned that village chief Old Jack had adventured for decades, learned to read from his knightly master, and returned to Hill Village after his master disappeared in Tirisfal Glades.
• Allen began approaching Old Jack, using his youth to get close to him, while the other village children kept their distance out of fear.

Allen persuaded Old Jack to teach him to read and train him as an adventurer, then spent three years learning from him. When the hunters returned injured and reported that wolf packs were attacking creatures in the mountains, Old Jack warned Allen that the village would be attacked.

• Allen won Old Jack's trust, asked to learn to read, and was invited to carry on his master's adventurous spirit.
• Allen agreed to keep his apprenticeship secret from Eva and Jason, then began reading lessons and physical training with Old Jack.
• Over the next three years, Allen learned Old Jack's lessons and practiced his exercises and mnemonic formula.
• Old Jack told Allen that the hunters had returned injured, Old Hank was missing, and wolf packs were killing creatures across the mountains.
• Old Jack said the wolves would attack the village and told Allen to keep himself safe while the villagers prepared to meet.

Allen helped defend his village from a wolf pack, then found a strange blue-green stone inside the lead wolf. The next day, he discussed the village’s losses and plans for distributing the wolf pelts with Old Jack.

• Allen warned his parents that the wolves could track them anywhere, and the village decided to fight rather than flee to Shante City.
• Old Jack organized the villagers into three teams and assigned Allen to lead one of them after Allen proved his strength.
• When the wolves attacked, Allen left his post protecting the villagers inside and rescued Old Jack from several wolves.
• The villagers killed the lead wolf and drove off the pack, but three people died in the battle.
• Allen found a peculiar blue-green stone inside the lead wolf and secretly kept it.
• Allen visited Old Jack, who described plans to sell the wolf pelts and divide the money among the dead villagers’ families, the fighters, and those who stayed behind.

Allen and Old Jack investigated the wolf attack and concluded that the pack leader had been affected by a source of magic, which Allen secretly identified as a stone. A year later, Allen left Hill Village to become an adventurer, carrying the stone and Old Jack’s parting gift as he promised himself he would return.

• Allen and Old Jack examined the pack leader’s body and suspected magical corruption, while Allen concealed that he had already found the source of magic inside the wolf.
• Allen moved the stone to wasteland outside the village and decided to keep it, believing he might learn more by studying its power.
• A year later, fifteen-year-old Allen told Old Jack he planned to leave and become an adventurer, and Old Jack asked him to return safely.
• Allen left a letter for Jason and Eva, then departed three days later after Old Jack gave him a map and saw him off at the village entrance.
• On the way to Shanshi Village, Allen found five gold coins Old Jack had secretly packed for him and vowed to return and protect Old Jack and his parents if war came.

Allen reached Giles Castle on his way to Atlan, studied the magic source stone, and bought a depleted rechargeable staff to investigate. The next morning, he went to the Balnir Family library to seek knowledge.

• Allen traveled to Giles Castle, rented a room, and examined the magic source stone he had been studying for a year.
• Allen explored Giles's night market and discovered a crude staff that the vendor said was a depleted rechargeable staff.
• Allen haggled with the vendor and bought the staff for silver coins so he could study it.
• Allen found that enchanted equipment was too expensive, bought cheap leather armor, and returned to the inn.
• Allen went to the Balnir Family library early the next morning.

Allen studied the region and professions in the Balnir Family's library, then joined a Mason Caravan bound for Atlan. On the road, Joey told him about invisible Evil Spirits in Tirisfal Glades, leaving Allen wary as the caravan camped near the haunted area.

• Allen spent several days reading in the Balnir Family's library and learned basic information about the country's history and professional classes.
• Allen chose a low-ranked job to travel to Atlan with the Mason Caravan, then failed to discover how to recharge his magical staff.
• Allen joined the Mason Caravan and was assigned to travel near the middle of the group with the talkative Joey.
• Joey claimed Evil Spirits had attacked him and made several unexplained wounds while he searched Tirisfal Glades for the hidden Magic Source with the Banir mercenaries.
• Allen grew wary of Tirisfal Glades, and that evening he camped with Joey near the caravan while Joey shared gossip about the travelers.

Allen and Joey traveled with Kels’s caravan until they found poisonous spider slime blocking the road, and Kels pressured the mercenaries into scouting ahead. Joey feared they would face enormous spiders, while Allen identified his description as likely matching a Blood Spider or Broodmother Spider from Silverpine Forest.

• Kels assigned Allen and Joey the midnight watch, and the caravan traveled for several days without incident.
• The caravan stopped after Kels found poisonous slime on a branch, and Joey suspected giant spiders were nearby.
• Kels failed to find a route around the danger and used his aura, threats, and a promise of triple pay to recruit mercenaries to scout ahead.
• Allen agreed to join the group, then Joey warned him that the spiders could be enormous, venomous, and able to trap prey in webs.
• Allen recalled descriptions of Blood Spiders and Broodmother Spiders and suspected the creature ahead was a Blood Spider, though such beasts were known from Silverpine Forest rather than Tirisfal Glades.

Allen and the caravan fought a powerful juvenile Venom Spider that killed or crippled several mercenaries before a young mage destroyed it with a fireball. Allen suspected the attack was aimed at the mage, a likely core member of the Mason Family, and began looking for a chance to escape the nobles’ conspiracy.

• Joey feared the venom came from a Blood Spider, but Allen reassured him that the creature was unlikely to be in Tirisfal Glades.
• Kels arranged the caravan’s defenses, and the group encountered a juvenile Venom Spider that attacked them with corrosive venom.
• The Venom Spider killed a mercenary, and Aris put the dying man out of his misery before Kels drove the survivors back into the fight.
• Allen tried to reach the spider’s vulnerable abdomen, but its venom burned through his armor and badly injured nearby mercenaries.
• As the Venom Spider gained the upper hand against Kels, a young mage beside the carriage killed it with a fireball.
• Allen recognized the mage as the girl he had seen enter the carriage and suspected she was the real target, so he planned to escape.

After a venom spider attack, Allen witnessed the mercenaries’ deaths and received Joey’s final request to care for his young son. The caravan set out again under threat from unseen nobles, while Allen remained trapped with them and continued looking for a way to escape.

• Kels ordered the battlefield cleared, and Lady Salena killed a mercenary who challenged the Mason Family before the others submitted.
• As the poisoned mercenaries died, Joey asked Allen to take his payment note to his five-year-old son George in Poplar Village and tell him Joey had gone south.
• Allen buried Joey with most of his belongings, kept his pack and sword, and resolved to leave Joey’s adventurer badge for George.
• That night, Lady Salena told Kels that a traitor had likely revealed the family’s movements and that enemies were watching the caravan; she planned to seek safety in Brill.
• The next morning, Allen packed Joey’s belongings and followed the caravan, still searching for a chance to escape.

Allen hid in a tree to avoid the attack he expected on the caravan, while Kels and the mercenaries kept watch through the night. At dawn, mountain bandits attacked, Kels was killed, and the female mage escaped the short assassin by activating a powerful scroll.

• Allen suspected the quiet road was part of a trap and hid in a tree near the camp, planning to flee if the caravan was attacked.
• Kels noticed Allen had not returned and warned the mercenaries to stay alert.
• A mysterious figure reprimanded Sanglun for his previous failure and questioned the short man about his preparations before the three men left.
• At dawn, Sanglun led a large bandit force in an attack, and Kels was killed while fighting him.
• The short man poisoned and cornered the female mage as the bandits overwhelmed the mercenaries.
• The female mage activated a glowing scroll and vanished in a magic circle before the short man could kill her.

After the caravan was destroyed, Allen escaped the bandits, took money from the mercenaries’ bodies, and abandoned his plan to go to Atlan. He decided to travel to Dalaran to study magic, prepared in Giles Castle, and left the female mage’s fate uncertain.

• The Black-Robed Man tortured Short Man for letting the female mage escape, then used magic to track her and sent the bandits after her.
• Allen waited in a tree until the bandits left, then searched the camp and took part of the mercenaries’ money and valuables.
• Allen chose to seek magical training in Dalaran instead of going to Atlan or joining the army, and he returned to Giles Castle to prepare.
• Allen rested and studied in Giles, sold the mercenaries’ weapons and armor, and bought provisions for his journey.
• Allen planned a longer, safer route to Dalaran and learned that the Mason Family showed no reaction to the caravan’s destruction.
• Allen decided not to wait any longer and prepared to leave for Dalaran.

Allen struggled to travel through the wilderness with an inaccurate map, then made progress learning how to charge his staff with energy from a stone. He reached a village that appeared to have been raided, and hid inside while preparing to charge the staff before investigating further.

• Allen traveled on foot because horses were controlled by the state, and the inaccurate map slowed his journey.
• Allen found a cave, studied the staff and energy-filled stone, and discovered the sequence needed to charge the staff’s storage array.
• Allen reached a dilapidated village and found fresh human blood and signs of a struggle, leading him to suspect the villagers had been captured.
• Allen spotted two watchers outside the village, circled around them, and hid in a rummaged-through house.
• Allen decided to wait until midnight and charge the staff before investigating the village, so he would be ready if the invaders found him.

Allen discovered that bandits had occupied the village and were holding its people captive, so he freed the villagers and led them in a fight against their captors. He killed two bandit leaders, while the battle against the remaining bandits was still underway.

• Allen overheard the bandit leaders discussing their plan to sell the villagers and claim the women as rewards, then located the villagers imprisoned in the shrine.
• Allen killed the guards, freed the villagers, and learned from Ge Yali that the bandits had taken a young man's fiancée, Yali.
• Allen armed and rallied the villagers, who joined him in confronting the bandits and their three leaders.
• Allen fought the Warrior leader while secretly tracking the javelin thrower, then killed the javelin thrower with a wind blade and his sword.
• The enraged Warrior leader charged Allen, who dodged his attacks and killed him.

After defeating the bandits, Allen questioned their leader Fland and pretended to promise him freedom in exchange for the hidden treasure. Allen killed Fland after learning where the treasure was, then shared some of the recovered money with the villagers.

• Allen and the villagers captured nearly all the fleeing bandits, and Fland claimed he could reveal where Vincent had hidden his treasure.
• Allen overruled Will’s demand to execute Fland and persuaded the prisoner to lead him to the treasure.
• Will secretly followed Allen, who killed Fland with a wind blade after revealing that he was neither a noble nor a knight.
• Allen called Will out, and Will fetched the villagers to help uncover the treasure.
• The villagers found a jar of coins, and Allen kept the gold and most of the silver while giving the remaining coins to the villagers.

Allen left the village with ten villagers bound for Morien Castle, where he hoped to find travel papers for Kaldz War Fortress. After spending the night in Willowwood Village, he gave the village chief’s son Patch a dagger and continued on the next morning.

• Allen told the old village chief he had to leave for Dalaran, then agreed to travel with ten villagers to Morien Castle.
• The villagers brought along the bandits’ equipment for Allen to sell, and the old village chief saw them off.
• On the road, Allen learned that Alex Morien ruled Morien and might control the travel papers needed to approach Kaldz War Fortress.
• The chief of Willowwood Village welcomed Allen warmly after hearing he was a mage, while the traveling villagers exaggerated his victory over the bandits at a feast.
• Patch asked Allen to teach him magic, but Allen explained he could not and gave him a dagger to protect himself.
• Allen and the villagers said farewell to Willowwood Village and set out the next morning.

Allen arrived at Morien Castle with the villagers and learned about the town’s military strength and struggling market. After Viscount Morien heard of Allen’s rescue of the village, he invited him to meet, leaving Allen to decide whether to accept in hopes of securing a travel permit.

• Allen and the villagers reached Morien Castle, where Gorrick recognized Frank and heard how Allen had saved their village from bandits.
• Gorrick welcomed Allen and the villagers into his home and explained that his military service and merit had earned him a comfortable house and promotion.
• Allen explored Morien’s sparse market, bought camping supplies, and learned that the viscount’s high taxes had driven merchants away.
• Allen asked about obtaining a travel permit and worried that strict scrutiny could expose his undocumented status and give Viscount Morien an excuse to accuse him of being a spy.
• Gorrick told Allen that Viscount Morien admired his rescue of the village and hoped to meet him, so Allen decided to go despite suspecting the viscount wanted to recruit him.

Allen persuaded Viscount Morien to give him travel papers by pretending to have a powerful mage mentor, then traveled toward Kaldz War Fortress with hired soldiers. At Darend Farm, he listened for news of the border and noticed a dwarf adventurer in a tavern.

• Allen downplayed his role in defeating the bandits and declined Viscount Morien’s offer to serve, claiming he needed to study with his mentor, Victor Sacks, in Dalaran.
• Allen showed Viscount Morien his charged staff, persuaded him that Victor was a powerful alchemist, and received travel papers from the administrative office.
• Allen left Morien the next day, traveled toward Kaldz War Fortress, and decided to visit nearby Darend Farm after studying his map.
• Allen joined hired soldiers bound for Kaldz and learned that their employer’s affairs were confidential, leaving him worried that war might close the border.
• Allen reached Darend, listened to mercenaries in a tavern, and saw a dwarf adventurer demand genuine dwarf-brewed spirits.

Allen saw the dwarf and elf Griffins meet in a tavern and overheard them discuss the Stanenbud Ruins and tensions near Kaltz. He traveled to Kaltz, entered using Viscount Morien’s travel permit, and left the next morning after explaining his connection to the viscount.

• Allen watched the powerful elf Griffins silence the mercenaries who had been flirting with him, then saw him meet the dwarf to discuss the Stanenbud Ruins and fighting near Kaltz.
• A middle-aged tavern proprietor offered the dwarf and Griffins free liquor and led them to the back, while Allen stayed behind and heard conflicting reports about possible war between Lordaeron and Alterac.
• Allen left Darend and hurried to Kaltz, where he was awed by the fortress and gained entry after soldiers checked Viscount Morien’s travel permit.
• The next morning, soldiers stopped Allen from leaving Kaltz and questioned why his permit bore Morien’s seal despite his being from Shante.
• Allen claimed that Morien had issued the document because he was a mage apprentice, and the soldiers let him leave; afterward, he considered seeking noble status for himself.