Bang! Bang! Bang! A rough knock on the door woke Jess up.
"Jess! Jess Saiso!"
"Coming soon."
Jess put on his shirt and opened the door. Outside on the street, many people were walking towards the city gate in groups. There seemed to be some grand gathering at the city gate, very noisy.
In front of him, a tall and tough man whose height reached Jess's chest grabbed his collar.
"What are you doing, huh? On such an important day, you are still sleeping in. You are about to miss it!"
"Big and tall" is by no means a sarcasm. The guy in front of him with a black beard all over his face, full of tough flesh and a linen eye patch on his right eye is a dwarf. He is definitely one of the taller ones among his own people.
"So, Gerred, what's going on?" Jess asked impatiently.
"Don't you want to see Alleria Windrunner anymore?" The dwarf named Gerred said excitedly, "She is the ranger general of Quel'Thalas and the lover of General Turalyon... If you don't see her now, when will you have a chance to see such a beautiful elf again?"
Hearing the name Alleria Windrunner, Jess felt his heart thump twice.
It's not because he has any special feelings for this elven female general. It's because this familiar name suddenly awakens his memories of his previous life that are sealed in the bottom of his heart.
Yes, he is a time-traveler and has been in this world for seventeen years.
From the moment he was pulled out of his mother's womb, he felt something was wrong. The memories of the previous world were as clear as carvings. Even during the rapid brain development period from three to five years old, these memories couldn't be erased.
Originally, he was concentrating onClear a World of Warcraft raid instance for the first time.in front of the computer. After a wave of tiredness, everything in front of him completely changed.
He was born in the capital city of Lordaeron. His father was a guard on the city wall of Lordaeron, and his mother was the daughter of a farmer in Brill.
His childhood was relatively smooth. But when he was ten years old, the Dark Portal opened and the Orcish War broke out. Fortunately, the capital city of Lordaeron was not seriously affected by the Orcish War.
The chaos and disasters that happened in the distant south as described by the refugees who fled from the Kingdom of Stormwind made Jess understand that everything here was exactly the same as described in the game world.
In this case, to live a lifetime smoothly, he must leave Lordaeron and settle in Stormwind.
Because according to the game plot, more than ten years later, the glorious Lordaeron will be completely destroyed by the Scourge. The entire kingdom's land will be ravaged by the plague.
The victims will not only not find peace after death but will also be pulled up from their graves by necromancy magic and fight for those undead masters who want to conquer the world until they are broken and can no longer stand up.
Although Stormwind was destroyed at this time, it will be relatively smooth sailing in the next few decades without any catastrophic disasters.
Jess certainly couldn't sit still and wait for death. However, his parents had lived in Lordaeron all their lives and were unwilling to move no matter what. Jess couldn't make his parents believe what he heard from another world, something that would happen more than ten years later.
Fortunately, they didn't oppose young Jess going out for adventures.
Stormwind was destroyed in the war. King Terenas II of Lordaeron spent a huge amount of money to hire craftsmen and young laborers from various kingdoms and even dwarves to help the royal family of Stormwind, the House of Wrynn, rebuild their homeland.
At that time, Jess, who was fifteen years old, took advantage of this opportunity and came to this city of hope in the game, and later the capital of the Alliance, together with the refugees of Stormwind who were returning home.
At this moment, Gerred, relying on his strong body, pushed aside the onlookers in front of him like an icebreaker and led Jess forward all the way, unable to restrain his laughter.
He didn't hide his excitement at all. After all, Alleria Windrunner, this legendary master of battle, was exactly the kind of woman he adored - a warrior with both beauty and strength. At the same time, unlike those pompous elves who like to boast, she is a real hero who can defeat a hundred enemies alone.
Jess was naturally very excited too because this was the first famous Warcraft figure he could see with his own eyes.
In the first seventeen years of his life, those familiar names were only heard from his parents, or from other country folks and citizens, or from news from the battlefield.
He had never known or even seen any of them in person.
Jess chased after Gerred and went out of the inner gate and came to Hero's Valley - of course, it's not called Hero's Valley yet.
The hero valley without statues is in a dilapidated state. The continuous years of war have left it in ruins. The flames of warlocks and red dragons have burned the once lush riverside shade into a mess.
Veterans who have experienced the Orcish War are passing in formation on the newly rebuilt city gate bridge. Their armors still have burn marks and dents from cuts. The weapons and shields they hold also have marks from different kingdoms.
Their destination is in the southeast thousands of miles away, which is the passage through which the orcs descended from another world to here - the Dark Portal.
Grand Marshal Turalyon is gathering troops at Nethergarde Keep, preparing to cross the Dark Portal built by the orcs and directly attack the orcish homeland Draenor, once and for all ending the threat of the orcish horde to this planet - Azeroth.
However, among the crowd watching the army set off, Jess is the only one who knows their outcome.
A few years later, Ner'zhul, the leader of the orcs, triggered a magic that would destroy Draenor. The entire planet was torn apart. In order to prevent this catastrophe from affecting Azeroth, the expeditionary forces took the initiative to destroy the Dark Portal on the Draenor side.
Since then, all members of the expeditionary force have been left in that dying world.
To commemorate the sacrifice of the expeditionary forces, the king of Stormwind ordered statues to be erected on this bridge for the heroes of the expeditionary force - the Sons of Lothar and named this place Hero's Valley.
"Where is Alleria? I want to see Alleria Windrunner!" Gerred yelled, completely ignoring the solemn atmosphere around.
Almost all the citizens of Stormwind and the members of the expeditionary force knew the danger of this operation. Everyone came here to see the soldiers off.
However, in the eyes of dwarves like Gerred, fighting to the death against an enemy that could destroy the world is the highest romance in life.
Looking at the dwarf warriors from Aerie Peak who had arrived here among the formation, his eyes were full of envy rather than worry.
"If I hadn't been blinded in one eye by a troll bat and couldn't throw my hammer accurately anymore, I would also be willing to follow Kurdran Wildhammer into the Dark Portal." He said regretfully in his dwarven-accented Common language, "Then it's hard to say who between me and your Marshal Turalyon will win the beauty in the end."
Hearing his words, the originally slightly annoyed eyes of the surrounding citizens were silently withdrawn.
Before the Orcish War, humans, dwarves and elves had huge gaps and conflicts, and even had several conflicts.
But at this time, all the residents of Stormwind knew that if it weren't for the dwarves and elves standing together with humans in a critical moment and fighting desperately against the invaders from another world, they might not have a chance to return to their hometowns.
Jess said, "Alleria has two sisters with the same beauty. You still have a chance, Gerred."
"Ha!" Gerred gave an embarrassed laugh. "I don't look at those childish little girls. I like mature ones."
"Ms. Sylvanas, the second of the Windrunner sisters, is said to be more than six hundred years old."
"Six hundred years old?! Then her elder sister must be..."
"Shh..."
Jess saw the blue-feathered golden phoenix flag of the high elves approaching from afar.
"Here it comes, here it comes. Help me climb onto the railing... I can't see!"
Gerred muttered and complained. Jess used all his strength to barely lift this nearly 200-pound iron barrel.
Out of the corner of his eye, a group of high elves were advancing in formation. They were wearing silver-white armor, holding carved spears and silver bows. The sea-blue cloaks fluttered in the wind passing through the valley. Both men and women were elegant and calm, in sharp contrast to dwarves and humans.
The female elf riding a white horse at the front was probably Alleria Windrunner, the ranger captain of Silvermoon City.
She was wearing a dark green cloak. Her light golden hair hung down to her chest. Her magic eye, which glowed blue due to being filled with arcane power, was obvious enough even in the sunlight. She stared firmly ahead.
Alleria's cheeks were exaggeratedly thin, not to mention her narrow pointed nose and long, pointed ears that were slightly strange by human standards.
Jess still remembered that when he first saw elves from Quel'Thalas in Lordaeron, he felt like he had encountered aliens.
Although their appearances were generally the same as in the game, just more detailed and realistic, Jess no longer had the feeling he had when playing the game.
After more than ten years of living in another world, he suspected that he was getting farther and farther away from the office worker he used to be and more and more like a native of Lordaeron.
If it weren't for being certain of the Scourge invasion more than ten years later, he would never have made the decision to cross the ocean and leave his hometown to come to Stormwind.
Perhaps it's because he doesn't have a golden finger.
Yes, so far, there is no old grandpa in a ring, no sudden awakening of ancient bloodline, no magical arcane gemstone full of magic power, and no whispers or instructions from any gods or demon lords.
He is just a bricklayer from the north. There is no difference between him and the locals except for his Common language with a Brill accent.
Other people's time-travel, and my time-travel.
If Jess had started with something like a system for adding points like the protagonists of other time-travel novels, maybe he would already have the ability to stop all this and save the world instead of them.
But now, he can only earn money with his own hands to barely make ends meet. At most, relying on his foreknowledge of future events, he can choose a safe and stable place to survive.
But at least, he has to earn enough money to bring his elderly parents from Lordaeron to Stormwind. If he can't save the world, at least he has to take care of the people who are most important to him.
Gerred looked at the gradually departing expeditionary force and sighed and asked, "What are your plans for today?"
"Go to the bulletin board and see if there is any work." Jess replied, "The rent for next month is due soon."
The two chatted as they walked back towards the inner gate with the crowd.
"I have to pay it too." Gerred said, "Some Copperfists said that next month Baron Lescovar will raise the rent from five silver coins to six."
"Don't you want to change houses?"
"Change to where? Now rents are rising all over Stormwind. The cheap ones are all full. Do you want me to go to Goldshire? Don't get my head cut off by orcs on the way."
"Hasn't regular patrols on the road to Goldshire been restored yet?"
"It has been restored. Last month, the sword and intestines of a patrolman were found by Mirror Lake."
"Sword and... intestines?"
"They are human intestines, not orc intestines."
"Could it be done by wolves?"
"Is there a difference, Jess? Wolf disasters, orcs, murlocs. Elwynn Forest is even more terrifying than the damn Hinterlands. Seriously. At least the Amani trolls understand a little dwarven language. If you shout 'Spare me!', they won't mistake it for 'Stick my head on the tip of a spear!'"
"In the end, they will stick your head on the tip of a spear anyway." Jess laughed.
"It's true that there's no difference. But it feels more like fighting to the death against an enemy rather than being eaten inexplicably by mindless beasts. Do you understand what I mean?"
The two talked and laughed as they walked to the bulletin board at the intersection of the trade district. A few months ago, the content on the bulletin board was still all about the repair work in various urban areas. Now a considerable part of it is wanted notices for bandits and wandering orc leaders in Elwynn Forest, as well as recruitment for work in Redridge Mountains.
The reconstruction work of Stormwind is nearing its end. Most of the more detailed and professional work has also been taken over by the local professional craftsmen's guild, the "Stonemasons' Guild". This means that these migrant workers like them must find other ways to make a living.
Jess rents a house on the back street of Stormwind's trade row. It is one of the earliest buildings in the new urban area. Most refugees live in the old urban area. Those who are willing to live in the new urban area are all outsiders like them, workers.
However, as the new urban area becomes more and more prosperous, Jess now has to pay four silver coins in rent every month. It is estimated that it will soon increase. Dwarves always have the most up-to-date news.
For someone like him who was once a World of Warcraft player, the price of four silver is simply a joke. After all, when he was playing the game, he always carried hundreds of thousands of gold coins in his bag and didn't think it was much. Just a casual visit to the auction house was thousands of in and out.
However, here, many people in Stormwind can't earn a few silver coins in a month with hard work.
Jess remembered that there was a guy who polished armor and weapons for veterans at his doorstep last year. He only charged two or three coppers for polishing once. During that time, the silver mines in Westfall had not been recovered from the Blackrock orcs. One silver coin was worth nearly two hundred copper coins.
That guy was a local in Stormwind and was once related to a certain noble. But now he lives a very frugal life. It is said that his house was lived in by ogres during the period when the orcs occupied it. He owes a lot of debt after rebuilding.
Jess is not as good as that person. At least that person has a skill. And he has run out of the reward money from Terenas II.
It was supposed to be one gold coin per person. But when it was paid out, it became forty silver coins.
The noble who paid the wages claimed that the kobolds in the gold mines around Goldshire had been driven away. Now the price of gold is cheap. Forty silver coins are enough to exchange for one gold coin.
However, these workers haven't seen gold coins or kobolds since they came to the Kingdom of Stormwind. Only Jess knows that the kobolds in the mines won't be completely cleared out even twenty years later. The kobold leader even has a gold tooth.
Not to mention, since the gold mines have resumed production, why not issue gold coins or at least broken gold pieces of similar weight?
Now it's getting harder and harder to find a job. Last week, there was a job of escorting wood from Eastvale Logging Camp to Stormwind. A group of gray wolves followed them, a few hired workers, for two or three hours on the way. In the end, only thirty-five copper coins were given to each person as remuneration. It's just a joke.
And there are still a bunch of outsiders like him scrambling for it.
Just as he was worrying, he suddenly saw a rather special job on the bulletin board.
"Recruiting an assistant. Requirements: have some knowledge of history and archaeology, preferably some understanding of herbs. Possess good patience and other excellent qualities. Work location is in the Mage Quarter - Eden Marin."
Eden Marin?
Jess remembered that there is a Grand Mage Marin in the Mage Quarter of Stormwind. His daughter is also an excellent mage. She also participated in the Northrend campaign of the Alliance and Horde coalition more than ten years later.
If this Eden Marin is that Grand Mage Marin, applying for this assistant position is a great opportunity to become a mage, right?
Knowledge of history, archaeology, understanding of herbs... Although Jess hasn't systematically studied history and archaeology, he thinks that with his understanding of this world view, his knowledge in these aspects should be able to beat most ordinary people without a problem.
Since this mage posts such a notice on the bulletin board facing migrant workers and ordinary citizens, he probably doesn't have too high expectations for applicants.
Once becoming a mage, one should have no shortage of money, right?