Was This How You Felt Seven Years Ago?
The sun sank westward, its slanting rays spilling over the grass. Behind the Amani Catacombs, Liadrin lay motionless in a patch of tall grass. She covered her mouth and breathed almost inaudibly, keeping the windblown grass tips from tickling her nose.
Kael'thas lay in ambush a little farther ahead of her.
Soon, small stones rattled.
They're here!
Both of them tensed. Though neither could see anyone, they knew the Troll rogue had appeared.
The poor Troll rogue had no idea what awaited him at the cave entrance. He crept forward in Stealth, moving lightly as he prepared to begin his work for the day.
A streak of golden light pounced toward him!
Startled, the Troll raised his right arm and blocked with his green-glowing dagger.
"Scree~~~"
Before his dagger could strike anything, however, a sharp, piercing cry rang out inside the Troll's head. Caught off guard, he was badly startled. His figure appeared involuntarily, and he fell unconscious!
"Fireball!"
"Fireball!"
Kael'thas sprang up nearby. He activated the Arcane Orb above his head, which had long been burning and ready to fire, then waved his right hand and hurled the Fireball whose incantation he had completed.
Two enormous, blazing fireballs followed one after the other like twin comets, carrying the force to destroy and burn everything as they slammed into the Troll rogue.
With two booming impacts, tremendous heat erupted from the points of impact. Under the dazzling red light, the air within a five-meter radius instantly seemed baked dry, filling with the smell of burning.
The Troll at the center had it even worse. As though he had been roasted whole, his body was charred black and dull, without a patch of unburned skin!
"Akarin!"
The Troll jolted awake. He straightened up and screamed in pain and anger. His head still not entirely clear, he felt the burning pain all over his body and glared viciously at Xiao Ao, who kept spitting Fire Blasts.
"Fireball!!"
The two-second cast time passed in an instant, and Kael'thas seized the chance to launch another attack. The blazing fireball struck the Troll once more!
The new explosion brought nightmarish pain. The Troll's rapidly healing wounds were torn wide open this time, revealing smoking, vivid red gashes beneath his green skin!
"Ya si ting zha si man...!!"
Speaking in a strange language, the Troll rogue finally spotted his real enemy. His eyes blazing, he turned to look, only to find a High Elf!
Facing the archenemy that had suppressed his people for thousands of years, a trace of fear appeared in the Troll's eyes. Why is an elf here? Do they know our route?
His mind was in turmoil, but his feet were not slow in the least. He activated Sprint and charged at Kael'thas!
"..."
The Troll was quite fast, and Kael'thas's heart tightened. He continued reciting the incantation silently and glanced to the side. There was still no sign of Liadrin, which made Kael'thas uneasy. He didn't know whether she might fail.
The thought had barely crossed his mind when warm yellow light fell over him. Power Word: Shield. Through her actions, Liadrin gave Kael'thas the best assurance.
Reassured, Kael'thas raised his head and looked at the Troll rogue without fear. His green and blackened body was already right in front of him, and his dagger, dripping with foul poison, slashed toward Kael'thas.
"Fireball!"
Power Word: Shield successfully blocked the dagger. As it repelled the blade, Kael'thas looked at the Troll's astonished face and calmly reached out, pushing the Fireball into the Troll's wound!
"Boom!"
Amid the explosion, Kael'thas used Blink to appear behind the Troll.
His vivid red mage robe was without a single crease, a stark contrast to the wounded Troll.
Drip... drip...
Blood began to drip from the Troll's wounds, but the flames burning on his body had not gone out, so the blood burned and evaporated in midair.
There's a Priest!
The Troll rogue realized in despair that he was not fighting a single enemy. Enduring the immense pain, he slowly activated his Vanish skill.
His figure disappeared, and Kael'sala and Liadrin both smiled...
"Frost Nova!"
Kael'thas had no interest in waiting for the burning effect to trigger. He cast Frost Nova. Its range was about thirty meters, more than enough to knock the Troll rogue out of hiding!
The power of frost swept across the nearby ground in an instant. The Troll felt a chill at his ankles and looked down, only to find himself frozen in place.
Immediately afterward, the burning effect on the Troll triggered... flames flared, and the frost vanished without a trace.
The Troll was overjoyed, but Kael'thas was not disappointed in the least. He had already achieved his goal of forcing the Troll to reveal himself...
Kael'thas silently recited Fireball again. After he reached level 16, the skill had become unexpectedly much more powerful. Just a few simple Fireballs had already left the Troll in front of him covered in wounds!
Looks like level 16 is when you truly enter the beginner professional stage!
That was what Kael'thas thought, unaware that the little Priest on the battlefield was even more shocked and delighted than he was.
His Highness is so handsome, so amazing...
Liadrin's eyes sparkled. She had recognized Kael'thas's strength from the moment he cast his first Fireball. Liadrin had grown up on the front lines and had likewise spent several years in the Initial Stage, so she knew very well how strong a professional at the start of that stage ought to be.
When Kael'thas had first defeated a Troll, his strength had been impressive, but still within her expectations. This time was clearly different. The power of Kael'thas's Fireball had plainly reached the middle of the Initial Stage, and Kael'thas was only fifteen...
Liadrin felt as though she had wasted the last few years of her life...
What she didn't know was that, with all his bonuses stacked together, Kael'thas had a 20% bonus to his fire spells.
So, when the fiery light erupted once again, the Troll on the battlefield finally perished and slowly fell...
"Ding..."
"You completed the quest Kill the Troll and gained 3,700 experience!"
"Ding..."
"You received the quest Kill the Troll. The area restriction is the entrance to the Amani Catacombs. This quest can be repeated!"
The system notifications sounded right on time. As his level rose, the experience from the same quest seemed to have increased a little as well.
"This is bad..."
Kael'thas walked over and frowned at the scorched grass beside the corpse.
With such obvious traces, the Trolls would probably discover them soon even if they disposed of the corpse. Liadrin came over, evidently having noticed the same thing. "Your Highness, it looks like we won't be able to keep killing them after today..."
Frowning, she crouched down and began searching the charred corpse of her own accord.
"Then forget it. Once we're done here today, let's go back and report..." Kael'thas sat down nearby and gnawed on the bread he had prepared beforehand, feeling his depleted mana slowly recover.
"This is some distance from the entrance, and the wind is blowing the other way, too. If we clean up, the ones inside shouldn't notice. We'll stand guard here tonight and kill every Troll that comes out..."
But remember not to leave any scorch marks at the entrance...
There was no other choice. Besides, nearly twenty Trolls came out in a single night, about three or four an hour. If they killed them all without trouble, those quests would be enough to bring Kael'thas to level 19, or even level 20!!
Level 19! Gaining three levels in one night was already incredibly fast!!
The thought made Kael'thas somewhat excited. He had never leveled up so quickly before. Earlier, he had been a little worried that he couldn't manage it, but the ease with which he had just killed the Troll had left him without the slightest doubt in his abilities.
That confidence led Kael'thas to decide to hide downwind right beside the catacombs and use Frost Nova to knock any Troll out of hiding as soon as it appeared.
In practice, the method proved workable.
Kael'thas and Liadrin teamed up and happily farmed the quest, and the entire night went smoothly. During that time, Liadrin advanced to the Middle Stage of the Junior Professional, reaching level 20. Although she had no quest, the experience from killing monsters in a party with Kael'thas allowed the Priest, who had already been on the threshold, to advance smoothly.
Liadrin was overjoyed, and a smile remained on her face for the rest of the night. Kael'thas could understand why. Level 20 meant more skills and recognition, but it also meant she could get a ground mount of her own and would never have to walk again. It was something every low-level elf dreamed of.
Kael'thas felt the same way. He wanted a Hawkstrider too, with its long tail feathers and graceful curves, as beautiful as a peacock. The Hawkstriders in the game were pitifully ugly, and he declared that utterly unscientific!!
"Ding..."
"You completed the quest Kill the Troll and gained 3,000 experience!"
"Ding..."
"You received the quest Report the Trolls' Origin!"
Late at night, the moon hung high in the sky...
As the red light of flame tore through the darkness, the last Troll rogue fell without trouble, but Kael'thas regrettably stopped just short of level 20.
Although the experience reward for the repeated quest increased as his level rose, the growing gap between his strength and the Troll rogues' also reduced the experience somewhat. Toward the end of the fighting, the experience from the quest was even lower than when Kael'thas had killed the first one.
Otherwise... Kael'thas would have been level 20 by now too...
Still, however he looked at it, the night had brought him a great haul, and Kael'thas was quite satisfied.
"Your Highness, everything's taken care of..."
Liadrin finished dealing with the last corpse and came over to tell Kael'thas. After the fighting, her eyes had grown dull; it seemed she was tired...
"Then let's head back..."
Kael'thas nodded. He was grateful to this Priest for accompanying him all the way.
And so, the two walked together through the quiet night, slowly making their way toward Suncrown Village...
"Hey, Liadrin, was this how you felt seven years ago?"
"Hm? Your Highness, what feeling?"
"This..."
Kael'thas stopped and gestured at Liadrin, who was half a head shorter than him.
"This height..."
Liadrin fell silent. In her eyes, Kael'thas's smile rippled like the gentle moonlight...