Given his unusual circumstances, Aige decided to decline the suggestion tactfully.
"Thank you for your kindness, Captain Claude! I can complete this quest on my own. I'm burning with rage right now, and I can handle a few Kobold laborers by myself. Besides, I can move quickly and stealthily alone. Bringing two Warriors would only make things less straightforward. The next time I'm not confident I can complete a quest, I'll ask for your help. Thank you again! May the Holy Light guide your path!"
He saluted! Captain Claude returned the salute, then watched the strange young man walk away, frail but firm of step...
Notification: Your reputation in Stormwind City has reached friendly!
It was already around four in the afternoon, and Aige needed to hurry. It wouldn't be suitable for him to act too late. Humans weren't nocturnal creatures like Night Elves and were accustomed to being active in the sunlight. Of his minions, only the Wisp could remain indefinitely. The Recruit and Northshire Priest would disappear at six the next morning, when their time limit expired and they lost the energy that kept them active. They would then wait until he obtained cards of the same kind before he could summon them again... So he didn't have much time left. Before it got completely dark, he had to at least complete his current quest to clear out the Kobold laborers, which required him to obtain at least eight Kobold candles. And knowing how World of Warcraft worked, he was sure he'd have to deal with far more than eight Kobold laborers, thanks to that elusive drop rate...
He parted the bushes concealing him, and the strange creatures that came into view ahead were the targets of this quest... Kobold laborers!
These creatures had extremely conspicuous, ferocious dog heads. They weren't as tall as ordinary humans, but their bodies were covered in thick hide, and they were a notch stronger in combat than humans, as well as more vicious and warlike...
At the thought that Aige's family had died at the hands of these monsters, the young master felt obligated to kill every Kobold that came into his sight!
He summoned all three minions from the hero minion space. These creatures had plenty of combat experience, and upon discovering that their master had summoned them on the eve of battle, they immediately went on alert...
"I'm going to kill these Kobold laborers. Stay close and protect me!"
After all the minions indicated that they understood, he selected the nearest solitary Kobold and began gathering mana (from now on, this will simply be called casting, as in filling a spell's progress bar, for convenience)...
"Lesser Fireball!"
The Lesser Fireball shot out and struck the Kobold with a boom, taking away more than half its health in one hit... Seeing the fireball knock a huge chunk off the Kobold laborer's health bar, Aige, who had been planning to use Frostbolt for his next spell, immediately abandoned that plan and began gathering mana for another Lesser Fireball. Before the creature could actually charge close enough, he used it to finish the opponent off at a distance.
At first, because he didn't know how powerful Lesser Fireball really was, he had thought that a mere two fireballs wouldn't be enough to kill his opponent. So he had planned to use his newly learned Frostbolt for support, since it could slow an enemy down for a while... That was very effective against a powerful enemy with lots of health, but there was no need to go to such trouble against Kobolds. Two Fireballs took one down.
After looting the Kobold's corpse, he got one copper coin and one point of Arcane Dust, which went straight into the Book of Hearthstone. There was nothing else! Damn, it was poor...
After that, he successfully hunted down a few more solitary Kobold laborers, obtaining a small amount of loot and two Kobold candles. But when he surveyed the area, there were no solitary Kobolds left. They were basically all clustered together, two in the smaller groups and four or five in the larger ones!
Following the principle of starting with the easy targets, he naturally went after the smaller groups first. He could kill the pairs, no problem at all! Young Master Ai blasted one to death with two fireballs, and as soon as the remaining Kobold got close, the three minions with one-star attack power ganged up on it. In fact, given the Kobolds' pitiful health, they could basically only withstand two or three one-star attacks, so the minions finished their fight not long after the young master finished his.
Because the Northshire Priest's outrageously high health had reached three stars, she naturally took on the role of meat shield. Most of the time, she would cast the first Smite before the other two, who each had one attack and one health, moved in to finish the target off. After clearing out several groups, Big Sister Northshire's health was still at a lofty three stars, with only a tiny sliver missing...
He hadn't collected enough candles, but a low-level cloak that added a small amount of armor had dropped instead. It even had a hood, much to the young master's delight. He put it on immediately and felt a little stronger, but with his lousy level-two strength and naturally low-health class, he still didn't have the courage to replace Big Sister Northshire as the meat shield...
Groups of three Kobolds were no trouble to kill either. They just changed their tactics slightly: Aige focused on firing Frostbolts to slow the three Kobolds down, while the trio of minions looked for an opportunity to gang up on one of them. Clearing them out was just a little more troublesome, and it also cost the meat shield a little health...
He had already used up his Lesser Heal for the day, so naturally he couldn't cast it again. By six in the morning, the Northshire Priest would already have gone to meet God. Would she still need him to heal her?
The good news was that three-star health really was quite a lot. So far, she had only lost about half a star. Two and a half stars of health were enough to see her through the quest.
Something dropped!
Uh! It was a miner's pick, which could slightly increase attack power and also serve as a mining tool. But he had to learn the mining skill first. Otherwise, digging haphazardly as he did, even if he dug up valuable ore, he wouldn't have the ability to identify it and would be unable to properly extract the genuinely valuable material...
The same applied to the other gathering professions. They all required one to learn the corresponding profession first; only with professional knowledge could one master the techniques. Take skinning, for example. Young Master Ai hadn't dared to try it before. A few careless slashes with a knife could ruin a perfectly good hide!
Just like in World of Warcraft, each person could practice at most two professions at a time. Most combat professionals on the Azeroth Continent chose to practice only one, since taking on too many meant they couldn't specialize. So they usually focused on just one, such as skinning or mining. Some blacksmiths might also study mining as a supplementary profession; otherwise, they would have to buy all their ore, which would leave them spending more than they earned.
As a mage recognized by the Warcraft Hearthstone System, Aige enjoyed extremely generous privileges from the system. He didn't need to buy skill books to learn any mage skills. They unlocked as soon as he reached the required level, and he learned them automatically. They were also more powerful than spells native to the Azeroth Continent. As for several professions, once he chose them, he could learn them without having to find a teacher on the continent, because the system was the best teacher...
But likewise, he could only practice two professions. Nothing could change that... Aige didn't dare choose carelessly now, because when he had prepared to casually pick mining, the system had given him a clear warning: once he chose it, he would automatically learn the abilities corresponding to his level, but the choice was permanent. He couldn't unlearn it later, and he could have at most two professions!
That had scared the young master badly. He had to investigate thoroughly before making his choice with care! According to the great rogue's experience from his later life, mining and blacksmithing or engineering, skinning and leatherworking, tailoring and enchanting, and herbalism and alchemy generally made quite good pairings. If he were still the rogue he had been, he would naturally have chosen skinning and leatherworking, which would have let him make excellent equipment for himself. Learning engineering would have worked too; the Goblin Jumper Cables were truly a divine artifact...
But he was a little mage now, a magic user who wore cloth armor. Should he choose tailoring and enchanting? Not only could he make his own cloth clothing and essentially become self-sufficient in equipment, he could also disenchant equipment he didn't need and then add some magical attributes for himself. That was a very good choice too...
It was just that he didn't know enough about the Azeroth Continent yet and needed to observe it some more. After all, if he tried to get by in this real world using everything from the game, he would definitely die a miserable death.
Of course, just like in World of Warcraft, the three secondary professions-first aid, fishing, and cooking-were completely unrestricted and easy to learn. Naturally, he didn't stand on ceremony and took all of them...
The best was cooking. He immediately learned all the basic recipes from the World of Warcraft game... Apart from rare world-drop recipes and the few that required reputation with a particular faction, he could see all the others on the list, even the ones sold in shops. He would have to slowly collect the rest himself as he traveled in the future!... That was part of the fun too, wasn't it?
First aid wasn't so troublesome. As long as he had enough linen, wool, silk, and other materials, there was no problem at all. The recipes were all basic, so as long as he had the materials, he could make whatever he liked...
This was also extremely important. If he could test it on his minion creatures to see whether it worked on them, and if it really did work, then this would be his most important profession, without exception.
As for fishing, he couldn't catch anything at all without a fishing rod... Besides, the young master was busy getting his revenge right now. How could he have spare time for this secondary profession? It could wait!
His most important task at present was to get himself above level ten at the very least, making him a second-tier mage. Otherwise, people as weak as a first-tier mage were a dime a dozen in this world, and he could easily be crushed like an ant.
Leaving everything else aside, his revenge against Frank's family would definitely fall through... That alone was something he couldn't stand!