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39.53% Real Waifu Catalog: Warcraft Beta Tester / Chapter 119: Campaign Promises

Chapter 119: Campaign Promises

5/17 night

Talaada was nervous to go to her uncle. Noboru was never a kindly figure in her life. Father said he was bitter because the light abandoned him, but Talaada understood now that the light must have abandoned him because he'd lost faith. The light, in its purest form, was love. To lose everything, even your own face, must have been so hard. She didn't blame him for becoming bitter, but it was holding him and his followers back.

Lady Onyxia's lair was a grand cave, with a huge vaulted ceiling. There were many small side passages, filled with eggs and small whelps wrestling and playing. They were so cute, but Talaada and Mary were here for a specific cave, guarded by an imposing dragonlike creature with a hulking humanoid torso instead of a neck. The "dragonspawn" let her through, somehow recognizing her as someone who should be here.

The men and women who had assaulted their camp had been fed a potion to calm them. After all, they had already proven dangerously unstable. Talaada brought them all fish, cooked by her mother. It was a small gesture of forgiveness, for these lost souls. Talaada wouldn't give up on them. She'd keep offering love until they accepted what was best for them.

••••••••••

"I don't know, Nozara. The master is a busy man, and a mortal. Still sleeps through the night as often as not. I can't just send you to him without confirmation first. It would be unfathomably rude to do so, you understand?" Zelena was milking her newfound equality with Nozara to the best of her ability.

Nozara had come dressed to impress a man. Instead of her normal voluminous robe she wore a small black dress that left a substantial amount of her rich scarlet skin exposed. Obviously she knew she was attractive to mortal men, and intended to leverage that. Zelena felt that the Eredar might find that a bit harder than she was expecting; Erich had multiple other beautiful women at his disposal.

https://imgur.com/a/k0tDbQS

"I've sent the message, but if you barge in on him with his mistress, he will likely be quite displeased. How about you just leave a message with me, I'll get back to you when he is ready to speak."

Nozara had no real leverage here. She could make Zelena's life hell, or kill her with minimal repercussions from the Legion, but then she wouldn't be able to contact Erich Bismark. Further, some part of her sensed that he wouldn't like his women fighting. That same inner voice dreaded the idea of displeasing him. Not because of the ensuing punishment, but because she knew she'd deserve to be punished. She tried not to think too hard about the fact that the only other being she'd ever felt this way about was the dark Titan himself. She very pointedly did not think about the fact that only rational fear of consequences bound her to the Burning Legion now.

••••••••••

Dremuus carefully pulled the stiff corpse down off of Bighorn's flank. It wasn't ideal, but he could at least leave the soldier somewhere his comrades would patrol. He'd be retrieved, and whatever rituals dwarves used to see to their dead could be observed. Closure could be found. Mourning could begin. It was all Dremuus could do.

He patted Bighorn on the flank and willed himself back to the camp; he wanted to see his wife and daughter. He would be able to summon Bighorn through their bond now, and Dremuus genuinely doubted that the squat talbuk would enjoy life in the swamp over life in his natural environment.

••••••••••

I'd been thinking I might go out again today and catch that ogre, but honestly I just didn't feel up to it. The nonstandard reward was good but it might make things a bit messy once I got myself an army. The item on offer was useful looking, but wasn't that exceptional. I could already disguise myself pretty well, just not instantly. I'm pretty sure that last bit was just rationalizing the decision to keep cuddling with a devoted dragon girl, but in the moment I really convinced myself.

Instead I got to planning. I only had ten days left to kill three big dragons. Assuming I don't get my shit kicked in again, that should be more than enough time. The Insignia of the Alliance was working on Ysondre somewhat, knocking off several hours a day from her ETE. I wasn't really sure if I could do better than Talaada at drawing her into the fold, but I did have Alluring Whisper now. Maybe I could become a bard and seduce the dragon with my enchanting voice? Personally liking or being attracted to me seems to be a weakness that the jewels can exploit. I marked it down.

Priority was absolutely getting these dragons knocked out. That meant that any time I wasn't training, I should be working towards the dragons. I would let my retinue handle anything outside of my focus; I really needed to get someone appropriate to Light's Hope Chapel and make an alliance, or maybe just start capturing their enchanters. For now I had Sadie hiding her amulet under her chainmail, but it was a bit of a time bomb if the wrong person saw it.

I started writing down my objectives and trying to sort them loosely by urgency and value. If something was both urgent and would have a high payoff, I labeled it high priority. I'd start in on those now if at all possible.

High priority

Capturing Ysondre- alluring whisper?

Taerar in Feralas - defeat with Feathermoon support

Emeriss in Hinterlands- High elf support, Wildhammer mercenaries?

Lethon in Ashenvale- amass forces for coordinated strike with 4 big dragons and remaining disposable troops (zombies, demons, and harvest golems). Go heavy on healers among dragon riders. Ground troops?

Protect Thaurrisan- dispatch a potential bodyguard to Blackrock mountain to infiltrate and offer protection. Monitor likely staging areas for assaults to disrupt or infiltrate.

Medium priority- time sensitive

Figure out where Lo'Gosh is. Capture or eliminate him.

Secure Light's Hope Chapel- capture or neutralize any/all enchanters, send Ambassador? Go myself?

Personal improvement

Train as a priest

Train as a warrior

Summon/bind more demons: voidwalker? Nozara?

Major long term goals

Take over Cenarian Circle- capture all 4 dragons; does that count for Reward for Service? Find/capture Archdruids: Naralex, Hamuul Runetotem, Malfurion Stormrage, Fandral Staghelm, others if available

Take over Scarlet Crusade- monastery first, especially Whitemane. Regional missio? Remove Dreadlord puppet master via any means necessary

Take over Scholomance: too many powerful mages; no necklaces. Jewels of Discord? Abby?

Capture Ysera: hopefully one of the big 4 knows where she is and can get close

Nefarian: manage him until he can be crushed or subverted. Jewels of Discord?

Low priority:

Securing the kingdom of Stormwind: Loose grip on most of it. Could be firmer.

Amass money: currently financially stable through Ursula and Dena, but not particularly affluent. Goblins?

Travel network: necklace in every zone allows for 24 hour or less travel anywhere in the world.

Demon Pokemon: capture a diverse collection of demons to get rebates and a growing army of respawning minions.

Mission farming: allocate extra resources towards doing missions, especially relatively easy ones. Anything big can be put off to the side for after dragons.

••••••••••

Well when you put it that way, it doesn't seem too bad. Of course, starting tomorrow I have about three days per dragon, with one or two extra days for wiggle room, depending on if I need to take them down by the start or end of the 28th. I've already decided to take on Lethon in Ashenvale last, so that means I'll be gunning for either Taerar or Emeriss on the 21st, as quickly as possible once Ysondre is in the party, depending on how receptive Shandris is. I'll either kill and resurrect them or get them into the team with the Globster, switch tracks to the other one. Once I have the Nightmare Skitterer from 3 victories, that will be my trump card for dragon number 4, which I should hopefully be able to grab very quickly.

After that, I'll be able to breathe and get back to business as usual, but with about half of the highest tier members of the green dragonflight working for me. I can probably cash in Reward for Service with the Cenarian Circle, either for the dragons or after saving Archdruid Naralex, who is currently trapped in the nightmare but relatively lightly guarded. He's just in a cave full of low level crazy druids and mutant animals; practically quaint. I'll even have a druid template I can put on myself or someone else.

First though, I have to get a whole lot of elves lined up and ready to shoot my enemies, and strengthen myself to the point where I'm relatively safe in a mass combat. I really did not want to do this whole recovery process again anytime soon, so having Varian teach me how to parry literally everything with a sword is extremely high on my to do list.


Chapter 120: Remember Kam?

5/18 morning

I woke up to a loud thump and a confused cry. I scrambled out of the bed along with Lividia and stumbled down the hall. I only vaguely noticed that I was running without pain, and the lights came on at my will. In the common room I found a rather plain looking naked girl. She was rail thin, with mousy brown hair. She seemed stunned, and the only clothing on her was a necklace: Lillibeth's.

"Master?" She croaked out.

"Who are you?" I didn't think I was in danger, probably, but someone I didn't recognize was in my space. I was a bit on edge.

"Lillibeth?" She looked up at me with confusion, a bit hurt. Yeah, she believed it. I decided to check the character page for her name. Quick and easy. That's when I saw the popup.

Penalty mission for capturing Kam Deepfury

Good for them:

Mary and Lillibeth are resurrected. They will revert to their living selves, though still captured.

Mission: Raise both to Tier 4 by the standards of The Company

Reward: Ghostcaller scroll: allows for the resurrection of a single target as a ghostly waifu of the same tier.

Well, it could be worse I suppose. Lillibeth would probably be happy once she situated herself; she was already doing a lot of touching things with a look of mild wonder. She would also be almost useless to me until I powered her up somehow. I'm pretty sure she was just a random village girl. Same story with Mary; she was just a vain, beautiful farm girl. The mission and reward were practically passive; I was going to probably try to power them up somehow either way. I just needed to give them some kind of job in the meantime, and experiment with ways of powering them up. Warlock training? Dragons? Dragonspawn, maybe? Make one of them an archdruid?

"Ah. I see now. Good news, you're alive now and that's not going to change. You'll need a new position, but that might not pan out until we've finished with the current situation. Are you ok to stay here for now?"

"Yes. Of course, master. May I… eat something?"

"Absolutely. And you still have my permission to do as you please with your appearance."

Trying to recapture my good mood, I dismissed my newly near-impossible minor mission; I should have had Talaada capture the ogres while I had the chance, just for the sake of completeness. Come on Tirisfal Glades minor mission. Be something both useful and good!

Assist Herbalist Faruza in Brill with collecting Doomweed safely

Reward: Herbalism Skill

Alright. I was pretty sure Tony was up for that; he's a big rough and tumble guy, and I'm pretty sure turning into an orc made him a bit bigger and tougher. Brill was the Forsaken equivalent to Goldshire; it wasn't too dangerous an area as long as you stayed away from the Scarlet Monastery. Assuming this was something that Faruza did sometimes anyway, it would probably be no trouble.

I took a look at the image of Faruza in the app; I wanted to see what a Forsaken woman might look like. She was pale, with a faint greenish cast to her skin except for a stark white X on her face, including pure white eyes, and plump lips the color of olives. She was beautiful despite the odd coloration, and all I could see of her outfit was a green halter top that covered her generous chest and not much else.

Well, Tony can do what he pleases with that information; he's mostly just a living teleport beacon right now. I fully support him living his best life as much as possible while he's there. If it turns out that there are many opportunities for a man with a working penis in Brill, where the women can have and enjoy sex but the men mostly can't, more power to him. I sent him an update on his mission, and orders to summon Nadira if he was going to do anything particularly dangerous. Hopefully nobody in Brill would be able to tell the difference between an Orgrimmar or Blackrock orc, should it come to that.

••••••••••

I was waiting in the Stormwind palace armory, sending Mary an update, when Varian was brought in by Lady Katrana Prestor. He seemed like he'd only recently woken up, but was in good spirits. He had on a blue doublet and white pants, his hair was hanging loose, and he had a sword strapped to his waist. I could tell that he was curious, but completely at ease.

"So, this is the guy? Head of this organization you want me to support? I can't say I approve of necromancy, but it did seem pretty effective." Oh right. I'd brought him in on the tower fight and he'd ended up just watching Stitches barrel through. Note: check the upgrades for Stitches.

"Yes. That's me. Erich Bismark. A pleasure to meet you, your majesty. I hope you're willing to assist me; I'm a quick study but I imagine your son could probably best me in a sparring match at the moment."

Varian laughed at that. "Anduin has a long way to go. He's a smart lad, but he doesn't have much passion for the blade. I'm sure you'd do fine. Maybe I could bring him along, though? If I'm going to be setting aside an hour in the morning it would be nice to spend it with him too."

I thought about it. Varian looked so damn earnest, and I didn't see any harm in it as long as I got enough training to grow. Plus almost any interaction with Anduin would probably drive down his ETE. "Sure. As long as you prioritize my training. I don't begrudge you a bit of time with your son but I desperately need to improve with the sword. Also, Katrana. I left a note for you. If you would be so kind, I'd appreciate it if you could handle something for me. Discretion is important of course; you may want to try the green dress."

She brushed a finger across her amulet and checked her notes. "Of course lord Bismark. It would be a pleasure." She had a predatory grin as she left. Those poor bastards. I wanted every advantage I could get, and Onyxia could probably take down the whole Frostmane Tribe in an hour once she gets there. Then I'll have an upgrade for my biggest weapon when we start the next dragon fight.

Varian shrugged, showing not the slightest curiosity about our exchange. "Alright. So. What styles do you know?"

What followed was a general overview of exactly how little I knew, as you should have probably expected. We worked on my extreme fundamentals like maintaining a basic stance and how to hold the weapon, and Varian explained the concept of cultivating rage. The short version is that I could use the tension and stress of battle to push my body past its normal limits. Because of course warriors in a high magic setting like this one could do that. Hopefully stress defense wouldn't interfere.

I didn't make too much progress in terms of becoming a great warrior that first day, but he did say my stance had improved tremendously. We also discussed what my options were for training, and Varian seemed to really enjoy teaching. Naturally I would be drilling the fundamentals, the core weaponry skills that basically anyone who picks up a weapon learns like edge alignment, blocking, keeping my balance, and general combat awareness, but Varian knew more advanced techniques as well. They loosely fell into three styles, and he strongly suggested I focus on only one to start with.

Protection style was intended for operating in a group environment; it was what most Stormwind soldiers, Tessa included, were trained in. It focused on keeping you in the fight for as long as possible, both by using a shield to deflect blows, and by taking advantage of any attempts to ignore you. Many warriors using this style would frequently use a bit of minor magic which worked like an inversion of Stealth, making the user seem more threatening and drawing attention. Its biggest weakness was a lack of proactive offensive power; you were usually slowly grinding away at an enemy and playing for time while your allies took advantage.

Fury was built around momentum. It was probably the best style for dueling a single person, as its unrelenting rain of attacks made it very hard for someone to retaliate. Of course, it relied on that logic quite a lot, placing very little emphasis on defense. If you got overwhelmed it would be shut down quickly, so it relied on shock tactics, having someone to watch your back, or having passive defenses like armor or magic shields strong enough to shrug off harm.

Arms was the most complex and reactive of the three styles, as well as the most balanced and suited to fighting alone. While the other two focused on honing a single strength, an arms warrior tended to use the reach from a large two handed weapon to hold their opponent at bay and think a bit more tactically, relying on big single hits aimed at weak points. They weren't as good at overwhelming an enemy as a fury warrior and they couldn't endure sustained attacks as well as a protection warrior, but they could fulfill both roles adequately and had no glaring weaknesses. It was a bit of a jack of all trades.

I didn't need to commit to any one of them just yet, and both me and the king had shit to do today. Despite the restless energy I'd built up while bedridden, I didn't have the time or inclination to do a three day long training montage with Varian. I'm too busy. I needed to get to Feathermoon Stronghold before my lessons with Sadie.

•••••••••

Onyxia, or whatever her name should be in this green persona, flew invisibly over the snowy realm of the dwarves. A simple invisibility spell wasn't too hard; she used them when she wanted to get around without causing a stir. It was far from foolproof, especially for a being of her size, but as long as she didn't get too close to one of their patrolling gyrocopters and their cursed "radar" she would have little difficulty.

The village was small and primitive. Trolls truly had fallen far. Once, Onyxia would have never been so confident bearing down on the capital of even a small troll nation. She'd have needed to be careful, to plan, to know which Loa they served and if any would be a threat to her.

None of that today; she was stronger and they were weaker. Instead the trolls, big and small, died in droves to her caustic breath, and their champion was crushed under her bulk. The whole errand took a few hours to arrive at the hold from her starting point where the Elerian Girl and her bodyguard were walking along the road to Loch Modan, followed by perhaps ten minutes of carnage. Onyxia… Emeraldia? No, that was stupid. Esmeralda! That was a green dragon name. Esmerelda abruptly stopped killing and left once she saw the popup; there was no real reason to keep going except for a rather shallow sense of fun. She was busy. 


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