Become a mage apprentice's follower!
The people around him still waiting in line for their trials all cast looks of envy, jealousy, and resentment his way.
A mage apprentice's follower! And Dudley's follower, at that!
"Have you heard? Baron Soroson hired a mid-level mage as Young Master Dudley's first teacher. They say Young Master Dudley is exceptionally talented. Passing the mage apprentice trial is a sure thing, and even becoming a mid-level mage later won't be difficult! A mid-level mage's follower would have much higher standing than us!"
"That's not all! Have you forgotten who Young Master Dudley is? He's the first in line to inherit the Dursley Family! Baron Soroson's eldest son! The entire Dursley Family will be his someday! Nicholas has stumbled into a pile of dumb luck. A Wetlands lizard has flown into the sky and become a dragon!"
"But why do I get the feeling Nicholas doesn't look too happy?"
Jiang Jie felt like crying!
Why didn't he look happy? Of course he didn't!
What follower? They just wanted to get him into the Dursley Family, then torment him to death however they pleased! Could he agree to that? Of course not!
"I refuse!" Jiang Jie said coldly.
He actually refused?
Not only was Baron Soroson taken aback, but the other onlookers also began talking among themselves.
"Has Nicholas gone stupid? He actually refused Baron Soroson's invitation?"
"He's asking to die! Not only did he miss his chance to rise in the world, but he also offended Baron Soroson. He'll probably be killed and dumped into Lake Lordamere tonight!"
"Surely not? Baron Soroson still has to show His Highness the prince some respect. Nicholas was brought back by His Highness, after all!"
Everyone looked at Jiang Jie as though he were already dead.
"You refuse me?" Baron Soroson sneered.
He had originally needed to show Prince Arthas some respect, so he had planned to get the boy into the Dursley Family before killing him. Now the boy actually dared refuse him? Offending a noble? That made things simple. He could kill him right now, and no one could say a thing!
Being killed for offending a noble? That was perfectly normal. No one would see anything wrong with it!
"I refuse you because I'm here to take a class trial! I'm about to become a class holder!" Jiang Jie looked at him coldly.
He had no way out anyway. If they fell out, so be it. His reputation with them had already been at hated, so it made no difference how he talked back!
The crucial thing was that he had to become a class holder today!
Because under this world's rules, class holders belonged to a stratum above commoners. Although low-level class holders did not have high standing, they were still members of a privileged class. Even a noble could not deal with him as he pleased, at least not openly.
"You? You want to become a class holder? Hmph, let's see how you die!" Baron Soroson sneered, then took his son by the hand, his face all kindly smiles. "Dudley, come. Let's take the mage trial and show that slave what a true genius is! What sort of person can become a class holder!"
What sort of person could become a class holder?
Every class had its own standards.
Baron Soroson took Dudley straight to the recruitment station, greeted the old mage in charge of recruitment, and began Dudley's class trial.
Wait in line?
Sorry, that was a rule for commoners! Nobles did not have to wait in line!
It had to be said that Dudley really was very talented. Ten minutes later, he completed his spell, and a speck of light shone brightly beneath the broad daylight sun: Light!
All right, Jiang Jie swore to Norgannon-the platinum titan who governed Arcane Magic-that this spell definitely did not exist in World of Warcraft's spell list! So the game could only serve as a reference. This world was not quite the same as the one in his memories!
That made sense. How could the vast Elwynn Forest have only one Goldshire? As the largest and most powerful kingdom in the human world,
how could Lordaeron have only those few human settlements? There was too little in the game, and far too much outside it!
Toward someone like Dudley, besides irritation, Jiang Jie also felt a little indescribable envy:
His father was a baron!
Otherwise, could he have successfully cast a spell at fifteen or sixteen? Being a mage lord was a money-burning profession. In reality, few mages came from commoner backgrounds. Only nobles had the money to buy spellcasting materials and hire full-fledged mages as private tutors, piling up basket after basket of gold coins to produce a mage lord!
Looking at Dudley's head held high like a great white goose's, and the undisguised pride on his face, then seeing Baron Suokesen look at him as though he were a dead man, Jiang Jie remained perfectly composed and paid them no mind. He turned to visit the other recruitment stations, carefully observing all the class trials.
Mage was out of the question. Priests and Paladins involved faith. To join, they first had to investigate whether eighteen generations of your ancestors had steadfastly believed in the Holy Light. In fact, Priest was also a noble's profession. Getting in required at least some connections, or a donation of a few gold coins or something.
Druid was a class prevalent in Kalimdor. It was not as though there were none in the Eastern Kingdoms, but there really were none in Lordaeron. Undead classes such as Death Knight were even more out of the question. Everyone would hound them like rats in the street!
The only classes Jiang Jie could consider were Warrior, rogue, and hunter.
Warriors had extraordinarily high strength requirements. As for hunters, you needed the ability to hit a willow leaf at a hundred paces, and their strength requirements were no lower. Again, this was not a game. In reality, you had to be able to draw powerful bows and cock heavy crossbows!
So, was rogue the only choice left?
The rogue class trial looked very simple: run across Lordaeron's inner river.
Of course, they could not run on the water itself. They were not high-level rogues. Wooden boards floated at intervals on the river, and the trial participants could use them to run across. The farther they ran, the better their results.
An otherworldly version of running on water!
The farther from the starting point, the thinner and smaller the boards became, and the greater the gaps between them... Twenty meters was a pass, fifty meters was excellent. A hundred meters... supposedly, no one had ever reached that far. It was a legend!
Twenty meters to pass!
The problem was that between the starting point and the twenty-meter mark, there were only five palm-sized boards in total. Not only did you have to jump four or five meters, but you also had to land steadily on a board without falling off!
The difficulty... was no joke!
Jiang Jie watched for quite a while. Of more than twenty trial participants, only five passed. Only one made it beyond thirty meters, and not a single one got past fifty!
Yes, this was the rogue apprentice trial.
Supposedly, the trial to become a full-fledged rogue required completing a fairly difficult mission, such as entering hostile territory to gather intelligence, stealing an important item, or assassinating an important person... That was the real test!
"Nicholas, was it? Why haven't you taken the trial yet? I'm waiting to see you turn into a drowned dog!" Dudley swaggered over, pointing his chin at Jiang Jie, with a mocking Baron Soroson standing behind him.
It would have been a lie to say he was not nervous or afraid, because Jiang Jie swore to heaven that even well-fed, well-hydrated, and full of energy, he could not jump five meters, let alone now, when he had not had enough to eat or drink and had only just recovered from a serious illness.
But he had something to rely on, too, because...
He heard a voice that only he could hear!