Slaughtered Lamb. Was there a group of reclusive warlock trainers inside?
He sat under the shade of a tree and observed for a while. He found that although this tavern also had normal customers coming and going, it was obviously much less crowded than another tavern on the side of the Wizard's Sanctum.
In human society at this time, the Church and the Kirin Tor prohibited the study of knowledge related to demons.
Although some policies loosened after the Orc War, from Dalaran to the Wizard's Sanctum, the top mages and researchers began to conduct small-scale demon research in order to be prepared in case the orcs invaded again. However, ordinary people's acceptance of warlocks was far less than that in the game.
However, the secret warlock group hidden in this tavern was not exposed until more than ten years later, which was enough to show that they acted secretly and carefully.
So, if the way at the Wizard's Sanctum doesn't work, can he find a job among these warlocks?
The Slaughtered Lamb looked no different from what it would be more than a decade later. It had an unremarkable doorway and old-fashioned interior decoration.
There was a piece of torn straw paper stuck on the door. The remaining half vaguely read "Recruiting... healthy... treatment... preferably from outside..."
Isn't this talking about himself?
There was only one bartender in the deserted tavern. He was a black man with a mustache and two thick braids in the style of barbarians.
Although there was only one person, he didn't seem very busy.
In the corner, several male customers who didn't interact with each other were drinking alone. Most of them were simply dressed and had strong physiques. They looked like manual laborers similar to Jess.
As a store opened in the mage district, there was not a single mage or apprentice among the customers. Probably this place was prepared for the workers who helped repair the buildings in the mage district from the beginning.
At this time, the barbarian stopped wiping the cup and glared at Jess. Instead of looking like a service provider waiting for customers, he looked more like a butcher waiting for a pig to lie on the chopping board by itself.
Jess was a bit hesitant to back out, but the atmosphere had reached this point. Backing out directly seemed even more unnatural.
"Honey wine, malt, dwarf wine, black wine." The black man muttered in a low voice.
"I'm not here to drink." Jess stood in front of the bar and asked, "Is there a shortage of staff in the store, sir? I saw the recruitment notice outside."
The black man narrowed his eyes, bit his lower lip, and said slowly in heavily accented Common Language, "Get out."
Jess nodded, turned around and glanced at the depths of the lobby. Behind the corridor blocked by wooden boxes of wine, there was a dark doorway.
If he guessed correctly, that should be the hidden door leading to the basement. The bottom floor of the basement should be where the warlocks were hiding.
"Sorry." He looked back at the black man. "Someone told me to come here and said there was work here. I saw that there was only you here. It seems that you are really too busy. I'm sorry if I offended you somewhere."
After saying that, Jess raised his eyebrows and walked towards the door.
He suddenly made up a non-existent introducer on a whim. Even he himself didn't quite know the specific motivation. Maybe it was to shift the responsibility. Maybe he felt that a secret group like this would be more acceptable if there was an introducer.
Unexpectedly, it really worked.
The black man suddenly called out to him and asked, "Who sent you?"
"Well... many people said so." Jess was about to continue walking out, but the black man softened his tone and asked, "Are you short of money, kid?"
"I really need money."
"What's your name?"
"Jess."
"Follow me, Jess."
The black man turned and walked into the hidden door. Jess followed his footsteps and Those guys drinking in silence in the corner by the way. They all seemed to have seen and heard nothing and didn't look over here at all.
Hidden in the Slaughtered Lamb... it's really not a cellar.
Because this is simply an underground city!
Unlike the scale in the game, after passing through a narrow passage filled with wooden boxes, crossing an iron gate led to a place like a dark prison.
Even if this place is exposed one day, the patrols of Stormwind City may not be able to find their way in. It's even easier for the hidden people to escape.
The black man lit a torch and beckoned Jess to follow.
"You can't tell anyone about everything you see here, kid. Once you tell, we will know who said it... and then you will find yourself in a very, very bad situation."
The black man's pronunciation of the word "very" was extremely strange, which instead broke some of the terrifying atmosphere here.
"I just need money and don't want trouble." Jess said.
"Very good. That's very good." The black man walked to the iron gate of a cell and knocked lightly.
The sound of knuckles hitting metal echoed throughout the entire underground. Jess looked into the completely dark depths of the corridor and felt as if countless pairs of eyes were staring at him from the direction where the sound echoed.
"Erlan, are you still there?" The black man asked through the door.
"Can't you wait a while, Zarei?" The person inside replied impatiently while panting.
"Is Sullena also inside?" The black man frowned and said, "I found a helper for you. He's quite strong."
"Get out, Zarei!" There were several female curses coming from inside the door.
Before long, a sturdy man with his upper body bare opened the door a crack, still holding his waistband. A strong smell of sweat wafted out from inside.
"This is the person. What's your name?"
"Jess."
"I'm Erlan. Hello, Jess." The man named Erlan extended his hand. Jess glanced at this hand and didn't shake it. Erlan also seemed to feel that something was strange. He withdrew his hand and wiped it on his pants.
"We'll be out soon. Take our guest to the practice room." Saying that, he slammed the door shut.
"It's noon now. These bastards." The black man cursed under his breath. Looking at Jess, he said, "By the way, I'm Zarei, Zarei Moore."
Jess nodded. He had no idea what he was about to face. But so far, he should be in no danger of life.
There was no trace of the later solemn and killing atmosphere inside the Slaughtered Lamb. Perhaps at this time, the black magic practitioners hiding here were not as powerful as they would be later. They were just a group of beginners who practiced on their own by referring to the power of orc warlocks.
Zarei said, "I still have to watch the store. Jess, you can go by yourself. Walk over there until the end. The largest room with many wooden barrels is it."
"Remember to get your pay at the bar when you leave."
"How much is it paid daily? How much at a time?"
Zarei held up two fingers and waved them back and forth, saying, "Two silver coins."
Two silver coins?!
After Zarei left, Jess came to this so-called practice room as he was told. There were no practice weapons here, such as wooden swords. Except for those wooden barrels that didn't know if there was wine in them, it was completely empty.
At this time, an ominous decaying smell seeped into his nose little by little. This smell was completely different from the smell of rotting wood or fermenting fruits, but it couldn't be described as stinky. In short, it made him feel very uncomfortable.
After smelling around in the basement for a long time, he noticed that it seemed to be emanating from around the base of a wooden support pillar. But exactly what it was, he still couldn't tell.
Jess was a bit hesitant about whether to continue. But considering that he could earn two silver coins for doing this job once, it was a really rare opportunity.
Calculating roughly, coming twice a month could solve the rent problem. Coming 30 times a month, in two months he could save up one gold coin. In this way, in a whole year he could almost buy a toilet in the old city district.
So why couldn't he come once in the morning and once in the evening? That would be four silver coins a day.
Thinking of this, he suddenly had a bad premonition.
Yes, why not twice a day?
Why could he earn two silver coins at a time? What kind of job is this exactly?
Hundreds of messy possibilities flashed through Jess's mind. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that he should leave. But two silver coins... these are two silver coins!
At this moment, Erlan walked in and abruptly shut down Jess's wildly spinning mind.
Behind him was a black woman. It should be Sullena mentioned by Zarei just now. Both of them were in their twenties and not much older than Jess.
Jess still had some impression of Sullena, but he couldn't remember who this person was no matter what. In short, she wasn't a good character. Her skin was even darker than Zarei's. She was also wearing a dark gray robe. In the gloomy room, she could hardly be seen. Only her two eyes were flickering around.
On the contrary, Erlan's skin was terrifyingly white, as if he hadn't gone out for months.
Erlan seemed to have seen Jess's worry. He smiled and said, "Don't be afraid, Brother Jess. We are just conducting a simple little test. It will be conducted by Ms. Sullena. She always knows how to control the severity."
"Are you ready?" Sullena asked coldly.
"Who is ready? Mr. Erlan or me?" Jess asked. "If it's me, what preparations should I make?"
Before he finished speaking, Erlan had already come over and tied Jess up tightly to a wooden pillar.
Erlan's strength was ridiculously strong. He was definitely not a normal person.
He must be a veteran or some trained warrior. Otherwise, he could be a workaholic from the Stonecutters' Brotherhood. Jess had no room to resist and was firmly tied up.
"Wait a minute." Jess suppressed his inner panic and asked, "What are you doing?"
"Okay, we can start." Erlan stepped aside and smiled at Sullena.
Sullena slowly closed her yellowish eyes. Now she completely disappeared in the darkness.
She murmured a few words in an incomprehensible language. Suddenly, a faint purple light lit up between her slender black fingers. The entire room was bathed in an eerie purple.
Jess was instantly attracted by this strange dark light. This was... shadow magic?
In Lordaeron, although arcane magic is not everywhere, as long as you are near the Arcane Academy, you can often see it. From time to time, some male students from the academy show off their skills outside and use simple little magics such as telekinesis and light magic to attract girls' attention.
Jess had naturally seen the release of arcane magic several times and was already quite familiar with those mysterious light blue or white magical glows.
But shadow magic, this was his first time seeing it.
The novelty died quickly. A violent ringing in his ears suddenly cut off all his senses.
Jess felt a sharp pain start crawling from the ends of his limbs towards his forearms. Then it was his upper arms, thighs, all the way to his chest and abdomen. He felt as if a group of small monsters with sharp claws and fangs were frantically climbing and scratching on his body.
This pain quickly turned into intermittent dull pain that expanded continuously in those places that had been crawled over. The pain was so intense that he couldn't even speak. There was only dizziness and a sudden wave of nausea!
Erlan leaned closer and whispered, "Look at his veins... it's working, Sullena!"
Jess barely opened his eyes and glanced at his hand. He found that there were dense purple veins on it.
"Do you want to kill me?!"
"You won't die. We don't want to be murderers." Erlan blinked and said, "This is just a curse of pain... The purpose of this spell is to cause pain, not to take lives."
"Very good, Sullena. I feel that your curse power has reached a new level. Whether it's the speed of taking effect or the effect, it's better than last time... not to mention that this Brother Jess is a really strong guy. Just now I almost couldn't hold him down. He's much stronger than that beggar last time."
Erlan's voice became clearer and clearer, and the pain gradually became less and less. Jess felt his body getting colder and colder. He was sweating all over.
For some reason, a large area on his chest was wet. It turned out to be all the gastric juice he had just vomited. He hadn't eaten anything today.
His sweat and vomit were full of that disturbing decaying smell. Jess understood where the strange smell in this room came from.
He was called here to be a target for people to practice DPS, and he was obviously not the first one.
Erlan quickly untied Jess and brought him a chair for him to sit and rest for a while. Then he turned and started chatting with Sullena.
Jess had no energy to listen to what they were talking about. Now his mind was in a mess and he just wanted to lie on this chair and sleep.
It would be best to sleep forever and then forget everything he had just experienced.
However, he couldn't sleep. He had to leave this troublesome place and take the money and leave.
In a daze and staggering, he came to the grass outside the Wizard's Sanctum, clutching three silver coins in his hand. Somehow it was three.
He looked up at the sky. The sun was already directly overhead, scorching everything on the ground. There was a smell of biscuits wafting in the garden. Jess's stomach growled.
Three silver coins... He didn't have to worry too much about this month's rent.
Thinking like this, it seemed that everything he had just experienced had been rewarded.
At noon, he washed his clothes and took a bath by the canal. He regained his energy and bought some bread on the way. By the time he got home, it was already afternoon.
Nowadays, most warlocks hiding in human cities learn dark magic to fight against orcs or other evils, rather than truly wanting to worship demons or even the Burning Legion.
Their ultimate goal is still to integrate into human society. Therefore, they dare not really harm people's lives and attract stricter bans.
But what if there is an orc inside? Jess just took a gamble because he knew the later development of these people. If it was a place without any clues, he couldn't act so recklessly.
Thinking like this, he had already arrived at the trade district. In the evening, there were many more workers lying down and resting by the wall. In front of the rental building where his house was located, a familiar figure was waiting for him.
"Where have you been, Jess Setho."
Jess was nibbling on bread and narrowed his eyes. It was Greed.