"So soft. I really don't want to let go!"
Young Master Ai was lazing in bed. That was right, lazing in bed! After the intense tension of first arriving on the Azeroth Continent, followed by the strict routine at the barracks, Milly's Grape Estate was practically paradise...
Just thinking of that beauty from yesterday, like a fully ripened grape, made his heart stir. Last night, she had personally prepared his dinner, made his bed like a little wife, and even brought him a soft quilt that made him want to sleep in... What? Had she warmed his bed for him?
Keep dreaming! She was a respectable girl. Did you think she was a public bus?
After such warm hospitality, how could he, Master Ai, have the nerve not to stand up for her? Though he suspected she was using him, he could understand the dangers a helpless woman faced in this world. Thankfully, he was at least useful enough for her to use...
He got up, washed, and enjoyed the millet porridge the girl had cooked for him, along with some homemade pickles. It really had a flavor all its own...
"Milly, this porridge smells wonderful. You'll make a good wife someday!" Her cheeks immediately flushed red, and she lowered her head. A few strands of dark hair swayed gently before her, like her restless heart...
He didn't know why, but even though Milly was a few years older than him, he was unwilling to call her big sister. He could never bring himself to say it... Perhaps it was because he had been an old man in his previous life? That was how he comforted himself, but what he was thinking was something else entirely!
"I'm heading out!"
"Come back early!"
All right then, Aige, you can do it!
Although the enemy had a silver-elite bandit leader, Aige had already managed to kill an elite monster and judged that this opponent wouldn't be too powerful, definitely not as troublesome as an elite monster. So he still didn't summon any card minions, even though he had a few cards to play: Leper Gnome, Angry Chicken, and the 65 Arcane Dust in the Book of Hearthstone!
It wasn't that Master Aige was overestimating himself. He had reason to be confident. His Lesser Heal had finished cooling down and was ready to use. Given the bandits' attack power, he could easily pick the right moment to save a wisp when its health was down to a sliver, then use a bandage once the fight was over. He currently had 32 linen bandages available, and once he collected more linen, he could unlock the higher-level heavy linen bandage, which had a better healing effect... His First Aid proficiency was currently 35, and he only needed to reach 40 to unlock it. That wouldn't take long!
Bandits were humanoid monsters that dropped cloth, making them excellent targets for leveling!
Familiar with the way, he soon reached the camp he had discovered yesterday. There were quite a few Diafei bandits inside, packed more closely together than the ones wreaking havoc in the vineyard. Usually, attacking one would draw two, and sometimes even three.
But that was fine. Although level-five Aige's equipment didn't give him even the slightest intelligence bonus, the high-damage nature of magic was on full display here. Two Lesser Fireballs could take away most of a bandit's health, and the wisps could finish them off. It didn't matter if his minions lost health. As soon as one dropped to half health, Master Aige would thoughtfully apply a bandage to the meritorious minion while resting. A basic linen bandage could restore around half a star of their health over a period of time, as long as it wasn't interrupted. That was enough!
Note that there was a condition here: it couldn't be interrupted. That made using a bandage in combat a very bad idea. A single enemy attack would not only waste a precious bandage, but also put the recipient on a full one-minute bandage cooldown... In that time, the warrior might already have been finished off by the enemy!
So Aige kept his Lesser Heal ready to go, but held it back. It was his trump card for a more intense battle!
For the entire morning and half the afternoon, Aige carefully cleared out the Diafei bandits. Humanoid monsters had the advantage of carrying plenty of money and dropping cloth, but they also had the advantage of high attack power and a fondness for running away (Come on! Isn't that a weakness? Depends on who you ask!). When they found they couldn't beat someone and had been beaten half to death themselves, there was a chance they would choose to flee... If one actually got away, congratulations! He would soon bring lots of new friends back to gang up on you!
Unfortunately for them, Aige was a mage who was very fond of humanoid monsters. He had ranged attacks and wasn't afraid of monsters running away. It was even better if they ran, since at least they wouldn't be dealing damage during that time. Besides, they definitely couldn't escape. One Lesser Fireball could go pew and kill them, quick and painless!
During a break, he also had lunch: a few simple slices of bread and pieces of meat. Compared with that girl's cooking at the estate, it was heaven and earth... Wrong! It was the difference between heaven and earth!
To his excitement, after all the loving care he had put into... Oh, no! After all his hard work killing monsters and leveling up, the system had finally shown mercy and given him a gift... A card had dropped!
He felt around the ample parts of a dead female Diafei bandit and pulled out not only a thin piece of cloth, but also a thin card...
Don't get the wrong idea. It was just a piece of linen. As for what it had been doing in that spot... Come on, who asked that?
A one-cost, common gray boar card, a beast with 1 attack, 1 health, and the Charge skill!
Charge: Charges a single target from a distance at 400% of normal running speed, ramming the opponent and dealing 1 star of damage, with a chance to briefly stun the target. The exact stun duration is strongly tied to the difference in strength between the two sides. Cooldown: one hour!
In the game Hearthstone, this card wasn't particularly outstanding. Its one-cost, 1-attack, 1-health stats weren't pretty. Its strong point was Charge, which in the game effectively meant a quick attack: it could attack as soon as it was played. Whether going for the face or trading with an enemy minion low on health, it was quite good. But its glaring flaw was still its puny 1-attack, 1-health body. Unless you were playing a hunter, it wasn't recommended, since there were better options...
Hunters could use it because of one unremarkable attribute... It was a beast! A hunter was a zoo keeper, with all sorts of inexplicable, intimate bonds with various animals. Besides the three-cost Animal Companion, which could randomly summon one of three creatures-Misha, with 4 attack, 4 health, and Taunt; a boar with 4 attack, 2 health, and Charge; or a Wyvern with 2 attack, 4 health, and a +1 attack aura-all sorts of beasts could make for spectacular combos.
For example, you could summon a vulture first, then send a little boar to trade with an enemy minion on the board and draw an extra card. That was really quite good...
But that was about as far as the little boar went. Aside from hunters using it now and then, it was rarely seen... That little body-couldn't you see the boar crying?
Although the system was stingy and had only dropped a common card, Young Master Aige was still very satisfied. He was short on cards right now and desperately wanted every card he could get, not at all picky. Besides, this had dropped from an ordinary monster, so it was an extra gain. He ought to be content. As the saying went, contentment brings happiness!
Standing before the bandit leader, Aige had no intention of using the boar card. He was confident enough that there was no need!
The bandit leader was a level-five silver elite, undoubtedly a powerhouse! He also had two level-four underlings... Kill the underlings first? No! The level-four underlings' attack wasn't high, so Young Master Ai planned to tank them himself! The level-five leader, on the other hand, was too frightening for the two wisps' delicate little bodies to handle alone! A moment's carelessness and 40 Arcane Dust could vanish into thin air. Aige didn't dare take that risk, nor did he want to!
"Frostbolt!"
"Frostbolt!"
"Lesser Fireball!"
The two Frostbolts were each aimed at an underling, the first step in drawing their aggro to Aige. The Lesser Fireball and the two wisps, which charged straight out, immediately began focusing down the silver-elite leader. Now they had to race against time...
Despite the Frostbolts' slowing effect, the two underlings still approached Aige at a decent speed, while the wisps engaged the bandit leader directly. Aige paid the two underlings no more attention, instead blasting the bandit leader with Lesser Fireball after Lesser Fireball. He didn't even use Frostbolt... The opponent was already fighting the wisps, so reducing his movement speed again would serve no practical purpose. He was better off using forceful fire magic to increase the damage.
Every time he launched a Lesser Fireball, he made a big sideways leap. That seemingly comical move had a great deal of thought behind it! He was making sensible use of the rules to effectively widen the distance between himself and the underlings, increasing his chances of victory as much as possible, and it was working remarkably well. After the roughly ten-second slowing effect ended, Aige didn't hit them with Frostbolt again. They were too close now, so there was no need!
While exchanging blows with the leader, one wisp was gravely wounded and left with a sliver of health. Without hesitation, a beam of Holy Light enveloped it, saving it again... By now, the two fierce-looking bandit underlings were sprinting toward him, daggers in hand!
"Lesser Fireball!" Another Lesser Fireball slammed into the silver-elite leader with a roar, taking away his last sliver of health. The leader strained to thrust out his dagger, trying to land a final blow on the wisp before him that had tangled with him for so long yet refused to die, but he failed. As if all the strength had been drained from his body in an instant, he fell to the ground, unwilling to accept it...
"Hah!" As he successfully launched the Lesser Fireball, Aige didn't spare even another glance in that direction. He drew the standard one-handed sword from his quest reward and struck the bandit before him, leaving the man stunned just as he thought he had succeeded...
This was a real world! Who said mages couldn't wield blades and swords? Who decreed that mages could only hit people with staffs?
Young Master Ai would show you how it was done!