After a quick breakfast, Young Master Ai strolled over to the Goldshire militia headquarters, where he ran into an old acquaintance... Ryan!
"Greetings, Lord Aige! Thank you again for saving my life yesterday!" Soldier Ryan came over to greet him warmly, and Aige waved to him in return.
Paul felt a little awkward. He had not treated Aige particularly well yesterday because of various miscellaneous matters. Only after Ryan told him that the frail-looking youth before him was actually a rare mage did he realize that his subordinate Claude had not simply dragged someone in to fob him off. That left him deeply embarrassed... Worse still, he had neglected a distinguished mage!
"Lord Mage Aige, I apologize for my earlier rashness!" Paul was straightforward. Though a little embarrassed about his mistake, he was able to own up to it and apologized directly!
Master Ai waved a hand. "You're too polite, Lord Paul. I'm still an apprentice mage, so I don't deserve to be called Lord Mage. Just call me Aige!"
"All right, Aige! I assume Claude has told you about the situation?"
"Yes! Before I came, he said Goldshire was having some trouble and needed him to send over some men. But he had limited manpower himself, so he thought of me! He's helped me before, and I consider him a friend, so I came over to lend a hand and gain some life and combat experience while I'm at it!" Aige said with a nod.
"Good. Since you're Claude's friend, you're one of us, so I'll get straight to the point! Goldshire really has run into a problem. Stormwind City also transferred some of our soldiers away earlier, so we're desperately short of manpower and stretched thin everywhere. I urgently need your help, especially since you're a rare mage. I'm sure you can be a great help to me!"
Young Master Ai smiled. This guy knows how to play up connections and pile on the flattery? Forget it, I came here to pick up a quest anyway. I might as well play along! So he cooperated and listened as though eager to help a friend in need...
"South of Goldshire, there's a low-level mine where lots of miners used to work. It produces quality copper ore and other low-level rare ores, all good materials for forging weapons and equipment. As you know, Goldshire has several smithies, and the weapons and equipment they make from local materials are quite good..."
Mining? Hmm! Aige thought. It was actually a pretty good profession. It could yield plenty of good ore, and at a high enough level, he could even mine rich thorium. It was a great way to make a fortune in the game. His old rogue character had once camped out in that troubled area for a long time and become the mining tyrant of the region. He had even soloed Blackrock Spire for ore, which had been quite profitable...
But all of that depended on being in the game, where plenty of players leveling blacksmithing needed ore, allowing it to fetch high prices at the auction house. Selling it to the system at its purchase price definitely wouldn't be a good deal!
So Aige merely entertained the thought. He was determined not to take up mining. For a cloth-wearing mage like him to learn it would be a little embarrassing!
"Recently, for some reason, a large number of Kobolds suddenly appeared around the mine. There also seem to be leader-class Kobolds among them. They killed quite a few miners, and the rest fled. Some returned to town, while others ended up in other villages, and they're all out of work. Under normal circumstances, once I had the men to spare, I could of course send soldiers to retake the mine. But right now, I'm so short-handed that I can't do it anytime soon! And just at this moment, Stormwind City and the Redridge Mountains have sent in a large number of weapon orders. Now blacksmiths stage sit-ins outside my office every day..." Paul gave a helpless, bitter smile.
"So you need me to help you kill all the Kobolds in there?" Young Master Ai asked, seeking confirmation. Paul shook his head vigorously. "No, no! Of course I wouldn't send you to your death for nothing. There are simply too many Kobolds there. Even if you're a powerful mage, you're still only an apprentice and don't have the ability to clear them all out..."
This guy still hasn't learned. Whether it sounds good or not, he says whatever comes to mind, with no regard for other people's feelings...
"I'm hoping you can scout it out for me first, Aige, and find out roughly how many Kobolds are inside and whether there are any stronger ones." Paul clearly didn't trust Aige's strength. In his eyes, even if Aige was a future mage, he really was only at tier one for now.
Notice: Paul has issued you the quest to scout the mine. You must obtain information on the distribution of Kobolds inside. Upon completion, the reward is a small amount of experience and a few copper coins! (To keep this book from becoming entirely focused on stats, the numbers will be played down from here on. Otherwise, everyone gets tired reading them, and I get tired writing them. Descriptions in this area will use relatively vague terms, with specific numbers appearing only in special circumstances. Hearthstone cards are an exception...)
Though none of the rewards appealed to Aige, it was at least a quest recognized by the system. At the very least, it was sure to have a small hidden reputation gain, and as he understood it, there would definitely be follow-up quests... He accepted!
"No problem, Lord Paul! I'll set off right away!" He was a man of action too, and he turned to leave.
"Wait, Lord Aige! Captain, may I go with Lord Aige? He's a mage, so I can at least hold the front line for him. After all, he saved my life!"
Ryan volunteered at that moment! Though Aige knew he meant well, his own circumstances were unusual, and he naturally didn't want a burden tagging along. He immediately refused. "Ryan, I appreciate the thought! But I can handle this myself. Don't you believe in my strength?"
Paul chimed in from the side. "That's right, Ryan! This is only a scouting mission. I believe Mage Aige can handle it on his own. Besides, Eastvale Logging Camp has sent me a request for aid. I intend to have you and a few soldiers set off immediately to help them. Work at the smithies has already ground nearly to a halt, and I don't want work at the logging camp to stop as well. If that really happens, I'm sure I'll soon receive a letter from Stormwind City demanding an explanation!"
"Yes, sir! I'll leave immediately!" Ryan knew there was no changing things. His military discipline put him straight into a state of resolute obedience!
Aige wasn't a soldier, so he had none of that discipline. Right now, he was in Goldshire, thinking he might as well look around first. However urgent things were, a little delay wouldn't matter, right?
Goldshire wasn't a very big town... That was stating the obvious! Rather than a town, it was more of a vital crossroads! To the north was Northshire, where Lin Tian had come from; to the northwest was Stormwind City, connected to Goldshire by a main road.
Stormwind City was a human metropolis, after all, so there were certainly plenty of people traveling in that direction. This area was relatively peaceful, too, and the road was the route caravans had to take in and out of Stormwind City. As a result, a steady stream of caravans with horse-drawn wagons usually traveled along it. There were even a few itinerant merchants peddling homemade wares along the road. Aige, for instance, had run into a beautiful merchant selling Stormwind City bread rolls. The stingy young master had bought a dozen from her for ten copper coins... A dozen was twelve, after all, so even sold as a bundle, they should have cost at least twelve copper coins!
There was also a main road heading east, all the way to Eastvale Logging Camp. Aige had just watched Ryan and several Goldshire soldiers hurry out of town aboard a makeshift ox cart used for hauling goods!
A little farther in that direction was the largest horse-training ranch in Elwynn Forest, said to supply all of Stormwind City with fine warhorses. If they were well-known enough, independent mercenaries and adventurers could also buy a limited number of horses there, and the ranch offered riding lessons too... But everyone understood that the best horses would certainly go to Stormwind City first. Whether nobles or the army, they naturally had priority over adventurers!
Farther along, the eastern road led to the Redridge Mountains and Darkshire. For a tender tier-one newbie like Aige, those places were still a little too terrifying...
As for the west, it led to the famous Westbrook Garrison, with beautiful tourist spots like Mirror Lake nearby... But to travel around here, you needed considerable strength. Otherwise, even with Westbrook Garrison standing guard, the ever-present Diafei thieves infiltrating from Westfall would not pass up a chance to kidnap the rich and make a fortune!
In these troubled times, which were anything but peaceful, anyone with the time and energy to travel and sightsee was bound to be from a wealthy household with nothing better to do. They were the Diafei bandits' favorite fat sheep. Once they made a successful haul, the gold and silver coins they collected would let them live in comfort for a while... It was definitely an excellent side business!
Master Ai also paid a visit to Goldshire's major shops. Besides the inn where he was staying, there really were several large, respectable establishments. Take the owners of the major smithies who had dared stage a sit-in outside the office of Paul, the head of security. They made more than just swords and blades. In fact, the weapons and equipment produced in Goldshire were very popular. At the very least, most of the weapons and equipment used on the fierce front lines in the Redridge Mountains came from here.
Weapons and equipment included not only swords and blades, but also light weapons such as daggers and fist weapons, heavy weapons such as great hammers and heavy axes, and polearms. All fell within the weapon shops' range of production. They had Stormwind City's permission and official operating licenses... Of course, just like in the dark Celestial Empire, there was probably plenty going on behind the scenes in obtaining those official licenses, right?
At least, as Master Ai saw it, they had definitely cost a lot of gold. Otherwise, how would those officials in Stormwind City have had time to issue anyone a business license?