Aige stayed at Milly's Grape Estate for over a month!
They didn't hold a grand wedding. They simply gathered the nearby farmworkers and treated the people who had worked so hard for the estate to a modest open-house feast. Milly had already begun calling herself Mrs. Stoke, and she had even styled her hair differently, in a noticeably more mature fashion... locally, that meant she was a married woman!
Aige had also picked out a silver ring especially for her. He couldn't currently afford a more expensive one, but a gift was a matter of the giver's sincerity. His wife had some money, but what would it say about him if he casually took hers and used it to get the matter over with?
The silver ring Aige gave her wasn't as valuable as a diamond ring, but he had enchanted it himself... even if it was only the simplest enchantment, +1 stamina! Even so, wearing it made Milly feel more energetic than before!
Yes! He really had learned the enchanting profession...
This was the newlyweds' honeymoon period. Milly knew her husband would soon set out on a new journey, so she was especially clingy and cherished their time together all the more. Every day when Aige went out, she would stand at the door and watch him leave. And whenever he came back, he would always see her there immediately...
Although Aige had spent these days specifically to keep his wife company, he hadn't completely neglected the great task of leveling. Instead, he had swept through all the "monsters" in the surrounding area that might pose a danger to the estate. He had been ruthless and shown no mercy. Word had spread among most of the thieves that the area around the estate was absolutely off-limits to thieves and bandits. Supposedly, a powerful expert had it under his protection, and they must never casually tug on the tiger's whiskers...
As a result, the area later became the most peaceful and safest in the region. Aige would also return frequently to stay for a while, killing every outlaw who dared trespass in his sacred backyard!
He was level 7 by now. Over the past month, his level had basically risen only slowly. Fortunately, monsters also dropped items and dust. He had accumulated 112 points of Arcane Dust and gotten two new cards as drops... more on those later.
Most importantly, he had discovered that his new wife was quite knowledgeable. She knew a little about many things on the continent. Although her knowledge wasn't very deep, she really could give her husband some useful guidance!
Enchanting, for instance! Milly told him there were hardly any true enchanters across the entire continent... and every piece of enchanted equipment that made its way out was worth a fortune.
This was tremendous news! When Milly told him so clearly and unequivocally, Aige chose to believe her without hesitation and selected enchanting as his first profession... a decision that benefited him for the rest of his life!
Enchanters did exist! But on the Azeroth Continent, even magic weapons were rarely seen, let alone enchantments, which were on a higher level still!
It was actually easy to understand. The first step in enchanting was obtaining various enchanting materials, and there was only one source for them: disenchanting magical equipment! That prerequisite alone was enough to make heaven and earth cry out in outrage. Given how rare magical equipment was on the continent, people would pray to every god just to obtain a single piece, and would wish they could sleep with it in their arms every night...
Take it apart? Who could bear to do that?
Even if they couldn't use it themselves, they could always sell it, and for a high price at that. In wartime, that was the arms trade...
Aige had natural advantages when it came to learning enchanting. First, he had a complete collection of formulas. Apart from the extremely rare world drops and special reputation formulas, he had almost all the mainstream enchanting formulas, without having to put in any extra effort! Most importantly, monsters dropped additional magical equipment when he killed them... that was the fundamental reason he dared to learn enchanting!
Over the course of clearing monsters that month, he had gotten another drop: a pair of cloth shoes of the eagle, with +1 intellect and +1 stamina. They were excellent, practical shoes! For a mage, the saying that anything of the eagle was top quality was no empty boast!
He had also gotten drops of some of the most basic weapons, such as crude one-handed swords, one-handed axes, and hammers. He handed them all to the lady of the estate so she could choose the best of the servants to equip first. That would make them stronger and give them a greater sense of belonging to the estate.
Milly herself had been outfitted from head to toe while Aige had the chance. Although it was all the lowest-grade rough cloth gear, it suited the lady of the estate's commoner status perfectly and could provide some extra defense. With the standard-issue one-handed sword Aige had left her, she could still put up a fight against a thief or two... she knew he was making preparations to leave. Fortunately, he had promised to come back often, or she would have a long, hard time living like a widow while her husband was still alive.
Sometimes, when Aige wasn't home, she would stroke the very unremarkable silver ring he had personally slipped onto her finger at their simple wedding. She alone knew it was an enchanted ring. Perhaps +1 stamina wasn't much, but it conveyed a very important piece of information... her husband was an enchanter! She would guard that secret to the death.
Those days immersed in domestic bliss had also been the easiest and happiest of Aige's life, but a strong sense of crisis kept urging him on, calling him to set out on a new journey. At last, the day was coming...
After an intense round of **, he said in a muffled voice to the woman who had become his wife, "Captain Claude sent a warrior to deliver a letter asking how things were going here! He asked me in the letter if I was dead yet."
Milly, now Mrs. Stoke, had only recently gone from maiden to young wife. Nourished day and night lately, her fair, tender skin looked as though it could yield water at a pinch. But when Aige said that, he distinctly felt the beautiful woman in his arms tremble violently. In a quavering voice, she said, "You're leaving?"
"Don't worry, I'll come back often!"
"I believe you, Aige! Tomorrow morning I'll help you pack and make you something tasty to take on the road, so you won't go hungry..."
She held her husband tightly, just as she had that day a month ago, refusing to let go...
"Well, well, kid! I sent you to help Milly, and you ended up helping her in bed? I hear you've been living pretty well these past few days, huh? Damn, you've even filled out quite a bit!"
When Claude saw Aige report to him, he loudly teased him. If there was one thing that had changed most about the kid, it was definitely his build. When he had first met Aige, the boy had been terribly thin and weak, nothing but skin and bones. Though he had looked spirited, he had also been a pitiful sight...
Over the past month or more, it seemed his new wife had taken good care of him. He had even put on some flesh! Though he was still on the skinny side, he was no longer alarmingly thin as he had been at first. He looked much better now!
"Uncle Captain, stop making fun of me!" Aige rubbed his nose. What a situation! It really was a little embarrassing, but who could blame him when he and Milly were fated to meet?
"How am I supposed to feel better about this? I've spent half my life helping people, and I helped that girl Milly before too. How come I never saw her offer herself to me? So all the good things go to you, Aige? Poor old virgin that I am. No, I'm very unhappy right now!" But the laughter in his eyes completely gave him away!
Aige tossed a bottle straight at him. Claude scrambled to catch it, and when he saw what had come flying at him, he burst into hearty laughter. "You really know what's what, kid. Sharp as they come! You know how hard life in the military is!... Oh, oh, the finest Northshire wine. Never thought I'd get to drink it too! Thanks!"
Aige snapped back irritably, "All that yammering, and wasn't this what you were after? Look at you!"
As a man, Aige naturally couldn't bring himself to take money from his wife. He was a man destined for great things, after all; how could he do something so tasteless? Wine was different, though. That was a token of his wife's love, and Milly had prepared plenty for him, all from her finest stock. From now on, the truly good wine would be reserved for Aige alone. Anyone else, especially men, could forget about it!
Aige's Hero Space was boundlessly large, and he enjoyed a drink, so he had practically cleaned out the family's good wine... Milly had no objection, of course. Although the wine produced by her estate was famous, it passed through layer after layer of exploitation, leaving her with little actual profit. She might as well give it to her husband to drink and use the lesser wine to make up the numbers!
The bottle he gave Claude was two years old! Don't blame Aige for being stingy. He could easily pull out a ten-year vintage, but that would draw too much attention. Even a fine two-year wine was wasted on a good-for-nothing like Claude... it would be a miracle if he could taste the difference. He was the type to guzzle it down, so any bottle would do!
The beginner equipment Aige left his wife amounted to more than just one or a few sets. Most importantly, there was also a four-slot bag! It had dropped from the elite Kobold chief. Aige had originally planned to auction it in Stormwind City-the market wouldn't do, since few there could afford the price, and with all sorts mixed together, he would most likely get screwed over-but his wife liked it, so naturally he left it to her.
A four-slot bag actually didn't have all that much storage space. One slot held about one cubic meter, so four slots came to around four cubic meters. But for Milly, who aspired to be the very best farmer, it was definitely a supreme divine artifact... equipment? A one-handed sword? Compared with this bag, they were nothing but trash! With this spatial bag to help her, she could easily handle things she had never been able to do before!
For example... uh, this enormous wooden barrel in front of her! It was full of grapes and probably weighed a thousand jin, didn't it?
In the past, it would have given her a headache. She would have had to go back and call a lot of people to bring carts and help transport it. But now it was no problem at all. Her husband had left her a divine artifact...
"Store!"
She casually struck a cute pose, and the next moment, the thousand-jin barrel and all the grapes inside vanished without a trace... Milly walked with a cheerful spring in her step toward the wine cellar at home!