The shield guard's death had been all but certain. Aige had foreseen it before the battle; it was a Warrior's fate! The elite monster was simply too powerful. Downing him without any sacrifices was almost impossible... But he still had to find a way to keep his losses to a minimum!
A Frostbolt burst against the elite Kobold in a spray of ice shards. At the same time, the Draenei Warrior fell beneath a savage blow from his iron hammer and died. Having slain this troublesome opponent, the Kobold let out a furious roar, as if proclaiming his victory. He still had a little over a quarter of his health left!
A small fireball struck him with a pop. Ignoring it, he swung his hammer at a Wisp...
Wisp, fall back! Aige silently gave the order, and the Wisp that had become the Kobold's new target quickly fled into the distance.
The elite Kobold wanted to chase it, but Frostbolt's slowing effect was still active, and there were two other enemies beside him. So he abandoned his intended target and chose another...
Another Frostbolt slammed into him, reapplying the debuff just as the slowing effect was about to wear off. And the Wisp he had been about to attack slipped away too... Damn it!
They repeated the same trick, and when the last Human Recruit escaped in the same fashion, the Kobold leader flew into a rage. He frantically prepared to charge at that hateful mage in the distance... Outside his attack range, the minions exploiting their superior speed followed his every step, but not one was willing to come within reach.
Before the guard fell, Aige had already taken up the planned position: the farthest spot from which his spells could still reach the enemy. Once there, he calmly kept up a smooth rhythm of one Frostbolt, then one small fireball, maximizing his magic damage. Earlier, the shield guard had been slow, and his Taunt locked the opponent onto him, making this tactic impossible. If the mage were caught at close range, given his physique, the elite monster would surely kill him in two hits. But now the elite Kobold was low on health, giving Aige hope of saving his other minions...
Another Frostbolt struck the Kobold. He had only a sliver of health left, but the hateful mage before him was within reach. In a moment, he would flatten this grasshopper with his warhammer...
At this distance, Aige no longer had time to cast another spell. He turned and ran. At the same time, the three minions who had been following the enemy swarmed forward...
The heavy warhammer missed Aige and struck the Human Recruit instead, taking away half his health... Four members of Aige's party survived, while their opponent lay prostrate at his feet!
Counting the spoils was always a pleasure. Something good had dropped...
Ancestral Hotpants, cloth armor leggings, green quality, with a main attribute of +1 spirit. He equipped them. Better than nothing!
Unlike in the game, equipment on this continent had no such thing as binding on equip. That meant he could wear it first and sell it when he no longer wanted it. On a continent with so many combat professionals, especially one ravaged by war, there would always be a market for equipment!
Kobold's Small Cloth Pouch, a four-slot bag... To Young Master Aige, it was as good as junk. His hero space had virtually unlimited capacity, so what use were four slots?
He would find a chance to sell it. It was rare spatial equipment, after all, and many mercenary teams would surely be willing to pay generously for it... He would have to investigate to learn the price. He shouldn't rush to sell and get cheated!
The three monsters yielded six Arcane Dust, bringing the total in the Book of Hearthstone to twenty-one. That was enough to craft a common card, though he could also save it for now.
Most importantly, the elite monster had dropped a good card!
Leper Gnome, a white-quality card. It cost one, with two-star attack and one-star health. In the game, its special skill was: Deathrattle: when this minion dies, deal two damage to the enemy hero.
A lot of people liked including this card, especially in aggro decks that rushed to deal damage. The faster the deck's tempo, the better it fit. A one-cost 2/1 stat line was perfectly standard, and it could easily trade for an enemy 3/2 minion. Most importantly, it wasn't afraid of dying. He could trade it freely, since the enemy hero would suffer when it died anyway. There was no loss!
In the current Warcraft Hearthstone System, however, that special effect was clearly no longer suitable. Where would it normally find a hero to take revenge on? Its stats remained unchanged, but its Deathrattle had been adjusted: when this minion dies, it takes revenge on the one responsible for its death, exploding to deal two-star damage to a single target. If the culprit is already dead, the effect transfers to another enemy at random!
Good! A good card!
If he had possessed it when fighting the elite Kobold earlier, he could have sent it in first to tank and die. Its two-star attack would have provided some DPS, and it could have taken revenge on the enemy when it died... From birth, this creature was destined to die!
He took out some bandages and dressed the injured Human Recruit's wounds. Before long, the recruit was back to full health... OK! Time to head home!
"Tell me, how did you do it? That was an elite leader! The world must have gone mad..."
When Aige brought the elite Kobold leader's head to Claude to report the job done, Claude was astonished. He had never imagined that this young man was so capable...
"Never doubt a mage's abilities, Uncle Captain! Give me my little reward!"
Young Master Aige was very happy to have completed the task and fulfilled the dead man's wish. From now on, he no longer owed the original owner of this body anything... Of course, he had long since put that Frank on his must-kill list!
"I salute your bravery, Mage Aige! You've completely eliminated the Kobold threat in this area. I'll report your achievement to my superiors. May the Holy Light guide your path!"
Notice: You have completed the elite quest to eliminate the Kobold threat in Northshire. Quest rewards obtained: one coarse cloth robe, one silver coin, and a large amount of experience. Notice: Your level has increased to level 4. Conjure Water skill unlocked. Conjure Water: Conjures magic water for your own use only. When used outside combat, it increases mana regeneration speed by 400%. It cannot be used in combat, and the item cannot be traded! Notice: The system will randomly draw one card from the one-star white and blue cards and add it to your card pack. Notice: You have obtained the one-star blue card Angry Chicken. It has been automatically added to your card pack. Please check it yourself for details!
What the hell! Of all the blue cards it could have given me, why did it have to be Angry Chicken?
He knew this card all too well! One mana, one attack, one health-trash stats all around. As a blue card, its special ability was indeed powerful: once the chicken was injured, it would gain Enrage, directly increasing its attack by five. Added to its original one attack, that gave it six in total, a height no other one-cost creature card could reach...
But! With one health, the thing would die as soon as anything touched it, and the condition for triggering Enrage was that it had to be injured... With one health, an injury meant death... What the hell was this supposed to be?
So if this card was on its own, playing it was basically throwing it away. It was far too useless! Of course, it could actually be used in a combo. For example, with a Druid's various health buffs, he could raise its health first, then carefully control things and give it a little "tap." That would trigger Enrage and immediately make it impressive...
But again! That required far too much setup, and it couldn't change the fact that the chicken had low health to begin with. Often, after going to great lengths to finally enrage it, it would be casually cleared away at the start of the next turn before it ever got to attack... Would an opponent tolerate a fragile little chicken with six attack and almost no health remaining?
Aige practically gritted his teeth as he entered the Book of Hearthstone to examine this flashy blue card that everyone resented so much...
Whoa! I like this change! It looks pretty good!
Angry Chicken, a blue rare card. At one mana, one attack, and one health, its stats were still trash! Its special ability was that, while it was below full health, it gained an Enrage effect that doubled its attack speed and increased its attack by one star. When its health returned to full, Enrage automatically ended!
On the Azeroth Continent, one health didn't mean one health point, but one star of health. A Wisp had one star of health, for example, and it could survive being scratched by a few wild dogs. Now the trigger condition was easy: as long as it wasn't at full health, it could maintain Enrage. Not only did its attack become two-star, but its attack speed also doubled, effectively raising its DPS to four times the original. That was really something! As long as Aige controlled it well, keeping it from being killed while also keeping it below full health, this Angry Chicken would be an extremely powerful source of DPS!
Exactly! Only a role like that is worthy of a color as noble as blue, isn't it?
He had to save this card and play it as a surprise when he ran into an obstacle he truly couldn't overcome and needed powerful DPS support. Using it casually would be far too wasteful and not worth it! If possible, Aige decided, he would use as few cards as he could. If two Wisps could get the job done, he would never use any other single-use cards. They were an important means for him to grow stronger!
By now, he thought he more or less understood that his Warcraft Hearthstone System was probably quite tightly restricted. The deciding factor was inevitably his Warcraft mage level. Judging from all the cards he had obtained so far, every one was a one-star card, which matched his current level. Levels one through nine were rated tier one, corresponding to one-star cards. He could forget about getting even a single two-star card before level ten; those were the rules of the game. Presumably, two-star cards would only truly unlock when he reached level ten. By then, the strength of the two-star cards he could possess would be beyond anything one-star cards could match, and a huge increase in his power would be inevitable!
Level ten, huh?
Level ten?
Aige silently clenched his fist to encourage himself. "All right! The first goal I'll set is to reach level ten!"