Just as Sergeant Chloe had said, military life really was hard! Two slices of bread and a cup of hot water made up the standard dinner for a stronghold guard... Meat was served occasionally, but at this hour, there was none left.
The beds were standard military bunks. A stronghold soldier was already sleeping soundly in the lower bunk, so the upper one had been prepared for him. There were six sets of bunk beds in the room...
It was tough, but fulfilling!
Young Master Aige had no complaints; he had never cared much about such things! After hastily gnawing down the two slices of bread with his hot water, he climbed into bed... The military blanket was clean, and it had obviously been aired outside that day. It smelled of sunshine and was very warm!
Shieldbearer was a one-star neutral white quality card, with zero-star attack and four-star health. His special skill was Taunt, which could directly taunt every monster that joined the fight, forcing enemies to attack him until he died.
Zero-star attack did not mean the guy had no attack power at all. It meant the Shieldbearer's attack was relatively weak, not even enough to earn a one-star rating, which was why it showed as zero stars. Aige would have to summon him before he could find out exactly how much attack power he had. Still, he understood that, as a minion the system considered to have less than one-star attack, the Shieldbearer's actual damage could essentially be ignored.
The guy's greatest strengths were his extremely high four-star health and his group taunt skill! Together, those two defensive traits made him a high wall in front of the hero!
Because of the system's rules, the group taunt skill was extremely useful. Even if someone attacked Aige directly, the damage would be transferred to the Shieldbearer. It truly was the sort of thing that said, "As long as I haven't fallen, no one can dream of hurting my lord..." And four-star health, at this level, made him a tank among tanks. It was as much health as a Warrior over level thirty might have, while Aige and the others were only level three...
This was a white card the system had randomly drawn for him after he completed the earlier quest to clear out the Kobold laborers. An excellent pick, a powerful minion. He would put it away for now!
As a mage from World of Warcraft, Aige was first and foremost a human, and the racial talents the system had given humans were fairly standard among the major races of the Alliance and Horde. (This referred to the level 60 era, not the current, revised versions of Every Man for Himself and Spirit.)
Sword and mace specialization: passive talent. It increased your hit chance by an additional one percent when you equipped a sword or mace! Ironically, Aige had just equipped a fine sword... a low-level standard-issue one-handed sword! So this racial talent had automatically taken effect... The miner's pick from before, however, had been classified as an axe rather than a mace, so the talent hadn't worked...
Tch! What a freaking awesome talent. What was a perfectly ordinary mage like him supposed to make of that?
The Human Spirit: passive talent. Humans were a race beset by disasters and hardships, but they had never truly been defeated. This versatile race had something no other race possessed. Effect: increased the upper limit of the spirit attribute by 10%.
Strictly speaking, this racial talent was most useful to Priests, because their class required extremely fast mana regeneration, so they generally stacked a great deal of spirit. Mages, by comparison, had a greater need for intellect and less need for spirit. Even so, the 10% increase was still quite useful.
Increased Reputation Gain: passive talent. Humans were a fairly approachable race, and when dealing with the major factions, their friendly appearance always helped them earn the other side's respect more quickly. Effect: whenever reputation with any faction increased, reputation gain was increased by an additional 10%.
This thing was extremely useful when grinding reputation with the various races! In the level 60 era, players of all the other races had been green with envy over this trait... Heh heh!
Perception: active talent, had to be activated manually! Once activated, it increased awareness of the surrounding environment for the next 20 seconds, making it easier to detect enemies approaching in Stealth.
This was an active skill specifically meant to deal with classes that could use Stealth, such as Rogues and Druids. In Rogue-versus-Rogue fights, it could also give human Rogues a greater advantage.
All in all, the major human talents were quite good, and Aige was very satisfied! But soon afterward, he became extremely dissatisfied...
At five o'clock, the stronghold's whistle sounded! Don't get the wrong idea; it wasn't something as serious as an enemy attack, but something as trivial as routine morning drills! Fine, go do your drills, but why drag me along?
I'm a mage, for crying out loud! After running around all night yesterday, how can you have the nerve to drag a frail mage out to run drills?
Someone really did have the nerve! Claude smiled as he firmly supervised little Aige getting out of bed!
He liked the young mage very much. Although he did harbor the improper idea of recruiting him, even without that goal, he still hoped the frail young man would get enough exercise to make his "delicate body" a little stronger...
It was the kind of feeling one had toward a younger brother. Corny as it was, he really did like him, even though Aige had already made it clear that his recruitment attempt had failed. But that was all right; he still needed to put the boy through some training!
Unable to resist the enthusiastic Captain Claude, the groggy Aige only realized how frail his body really was after he actually ran a lap with the strong low-level Warriors! He soon fell behind the pace. If the captain hadn't been right behind him, urging him on, and if he hadn't been competitive and determined, he believed he absolutely could have fallen behind halfway through. In the end, he was surprised to find that he had actually just managed to finish the whole course... That latent willpower came as a great surprise to the elite captain, who had already declared that Aige would definitely quit halfway through his first group drill!
This boy is no ordinary kid! His desire to win and his willpower were both much stronger than those of an ordinary person. Many of the soldiers under the captain's command had been stronger and sturdier than Aige when they first arrived, yet few had managed to get through their early training without stopping... Frail as Aige was, he had managed it on his first try. He had only just barely done it, but he had done it... If one overlooked his lungs desperately pumping out stale air like a broken bellows, his performance was perfect.
"I have a follow-up quest here that's perfect for you. Want to take it?"
Just as Young Master Aige, still panting, finally came back to life and prepared to question the strict captain about what had just happened, Claude smiled and told him the news. Aige promptly forgot what he had intended to do and eagerly nodded his agreement like a chick pecking at grain...
System notification: Accepted the quest to eliminate the Kobold threat in Northshire. Kill every Kobold you see, take down the Kobolds' leader here, and bring back his paw. Upon completion, you will receive 1 silver coin, one coarse cloth robe, and experience equal to one-third of the amount needed to advance from your current level. In addition, when turning in the quest, you can obtain one random one-star white or blue card from the Book of Hearthstone. This quest may be abandoned!
Kill every Kobold? Hmph! Just what I wanted! Having taken over Aige's body, he ought to avenge him at the very least. Once this was over, he would finish off Frank and his family, and then he would be able to say goodbye to the old Aige for good...
He could also draw another random card, either a one-star white or blue card. God willing, let me get a blue card! But that came down to luck. If he got it, he was fortunate; if not, it was fate! He just had to take it in stride. Now that he had this system, was he afraid he wouldn't get quality cards?
"I'll take this quest! Just wait for my good news!"
"The terms I mentioned last time still stand. You can choose to hire two of my soldiers for a fee of 10 copper coins per person per day. But you'll have to sign an agreement with me. I know that, given your character, you wouldn't recklessly throw lives away, but if a Warrior should unfortunately fall, you'll have to pay 1 silver coin in compensation. Those are already the most generous terms I can offer. So, will you hire them?"
To help Aige complete the quest, Claude had already used the full extent of his authority in an attempt to improve his chances of success... But Aige didn't appreciate it at all!
Aige had his own reasons. His abilities, especially those of the Book of Hearthstone, were best kept hidden unless absolutely necessary. That meant he had to travel alone, at least in the beginning... Otherwise, Claude's terms really were generous, and he would have been willing to consider them.
"Thank you, Captain! But I still don't need them this time. I have the strength and determination to complete this quest. Even if it takes longer because of that, I'm willing to keep at it as long as I can avenge my family and the people of my village!"
"Kid, I have to warn you, none of us knows how strong the Kobold leader is right now. But I'm certain it won't be an ordinary monster. It might be a silver elite, or it might be an elite. Do you know how strong they are?"
"Even if you're a little lucky and run into a silver elite captain-class monster that's only a little stronger than an ordinary one, it'll still have twice the abilities, and that's already hard to deal with. But if you run into an elite, that's another matter altogether. Its strength jumps several levels. You need to be prepared. If you confirm it's an elite, run away immediately. There's no shame in it, because you might end up losing your life..."
"Uncle! Don't worry! I promise I'll complete the quest!"
Being called uncle made Captain Chloe's eyebrows twitch. "Take a good look! I'm not even married yet. I'm just a little weathered, so why are you calling me uncle?"
Watching Aige run off at top speed, he cursed in annoyance, "That little brat..."