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37.11% Real Waifu Catalog: Warcraft Beta Tester / Chapter 108: A Time to Consider Mistakes

Chương 108: A Time to Consider Mistakes

5/16 morning

I summoned Pryzhum; she was the only person in my retinue that I was pretty sure didn't have anything better to do. I faintly regretted that she didn't have her own amulet. Summoning her with a spell took about the same amount of time and a lot more focus in even ideal conditions; one handed, it took me five minutes to get it just right. "What do you want?" She asked plaintively; I noticed that the reddish skinned babe was still topless. She hadn't worn clothes when she was an imp and didn't seem inclined to start now. Far be it from me to deny her such choices.

I turned into my dragon form, "Carry me, carefully, into the other room." I was the size of a modestly large dog, but she was nearly nine feet tall and in peak physical shape; she could lift me easily. My wings were a whole new set of unpleasant sensations, and three of my legs hung limply, but I was mobile if undignified. I spurred my glorious steed down the hall, and found something fairly unpleasant.

The butler and Dena each had a knife, and Annetta was tied to a chair between them. My best guess, almost certainly another case of Martial Talent explaining my fuckups to me, was that they'd drugged her somehow, probably with a dose that was low enough to be "safe" and gently covered her mouth and restrained her arms, then "safely" tied her to one of the chairs and kept dosing her. She was still fighting to stay awake, so they probably wanted to have her totally out before they came into my room to start bargaining with me. I was still a caster, and they didn't know what other magic I might have here.

Everyone froze when Pryzhum stepped into the room, looking bored. I noted that Dena and the butler both seemed pretty nervous about the whole thing, but the noblewoman was far more resolved. Apparently I'd pushed her way too far with that speech; she might be willing to start a cult in my name a day or two from now but until that dam broke? She was pretty sure she needed to stop me at all costs. Monze and the two rogues quickly moved to form a wall between me and the people capable of violence.

"Alright," the rogue on the left, a black haired woman who had the scars and bent nose to show how many fights she'd gotten into, "if you don't want her dead, you're going to take these fucking collars off us and let us go." Really a very reasonable request, actually.

"That's your plan?" I asked, trying to sound bored. "You're going to threaten one of my servants? For what?"

"We won't be your slaves. We will take what leverage we can."

I waved that off with one claw. "No, I mean do you think this will work? Or are you just really enthusiastic about the opportunity to murder someone before you have to start working for me?"

Monze growled. Apparently that was a yes on the murder thing.

"Annetta is a sweet girl. You'll be killing her for nothing." I tried to point out.

"She's your puppet."

"What do you even think I do? Or what my goals are? I'm saving the world here." Wow I sounded like a narcissist, but I had A good feeling about this line of reasoning. "I didn't really intend to do anything particularly heinous with any of you, despite the fact that three of you have tried to kill me, and one of you raped one of my servants. Dena, I'm sorry about you actually. The spell I cast on Prestor, who is a black dragon by the way, had an area of effect and you got caught in it. I committed to helping Calendra for that very reason; I support my people. I intended to keep you doing what you normally do in service to the crown, once I could trust you. Which, obviously, I can't now."

Neither Dena nor the butler really wanted to hurt Annetta, but Dena was the one who would be easier to trigger. She didn't trust herself right now, so she'd decided that if she thought I was trying anything she'd swing without thinking too hard. The butler, if he'd been the only free one present, would have been really easy. Point at any other girl in the room and say he can have her to do with as he pleased, and he'd betray the lot. But that kind of bargaining would get Dena to go apeshit, and she was the better fighter of the two. All purely formal training with no combat experience, but definitely enough to be a threat to Annetta, me, and maybe even Pryzhum, skill chip or no.

"Look, if you put down the weapon, nothing bad will happen. I'm willing to negotiate, but I don't take threats well." They were unconvinced. I really didn't like the look of this, but I decided that I needed a Hail Mary. "The first one of you to put down the knife gets to decide what happens to all five of you." That made the butler falter, lowering his knife, and that's all I needed.

First of course I cast power word shield on Annetta. Then I hit Dena with Fear, while screaming for my Satyr to take her down. I was fucking terrified thanks to my spell, but luckily Dena wasn't a fighter deep down. Her panic response was to try to flee into the corner after one swing of the knife, which was absorbed by my spell. Pryzhum battered the three pacifists aside and smashed into Dena, pinning her while she cowered in the corner. The fear spell eventually wore off, and I regretted deeply that I never learned how to cast it normally, instead of as a shadow word. It was very unpleasant, but I'm pretty sure Pain or Weakness might have slowed down my recovery even more than being physically dropped on the floor.

"Alright. Now that things have calmed down a bit," I spoke from my position, awkwardly splayed out with my neck craned around to see the room, "I'm very disappointed in all of you, but I am not a particularly vengeful person." I shifted my focus to my amulet, taking full advantage of my flexible neck, to call in a vengeful person. "Irma, be a dear and teleport to Vanessa. Vanessa, when you have a moment I need you to come here." I looked over at the butler. He'd put his knife down, committing to his status as an opportunistic little shit. "Good man. I promise, you'll be very happy with your reward."

Vanessa appeared next to me and looked around with a concerned expression. Her two comrades looked at her with dispair when they saw the amulet; how dramatic. "So. These five tried to threaten me in my own home. That one," I nodded at the butler, "thought better of it, so I think he should be rewarded. Neutralize him first." His eyes widened, but Vanessa was on him before he registered what I'd said. She was *much* faster than I remembered; she almost seemed to teleport behind him. Coming into her own as a max level heroic mode only boss, it seemed.

"Like I said. He deserves a reward, so make sure he's happy at the end of the process. Figure out how to keep them all safely stored away; if you can make them get captured more quickly, do it. I trust your judgment as far as their programming."

The butler, as he started to pass out from the poison on Vanessa's blade, mumbled "but you said…"

"Yeah. I lied. I do that to people threatening friends of mine. Sucks to be you." I looked over at Dena. "Leave her. Put this on her though." I summoned the complex diamond necklace I'd discarded earlier. It plopped on the floor next to me, and Vanessa put it on Dena. She was 72 hours from capture, as was common with people I was double dipping with. That was fine. I wasn't necessarily going to be keeping it on her for long.

Lying to Erich: deep shame

Refusing to answer Erich's Questions: deep shame

Answering Erich's questions: euphoria

I interrogated her about the little insurrection while Vanessa drugged the three others to happy town. It was about what I'd expected. When the druids left, the black haired assassin went through her pockets and found a bit of sleeping powder she kept stored, then they all cooked up the plan together overnight. That's what I get for trying to be nice and giving the prisoners freedom of movement. Fuck me, right?

After I'd gotten her used to promptly and honestly answering my questions, I abruptly asked her "do you love me?"

"Yes of course I love you." The physical effects weren't as pronounced on Dena as they were on some of the girls; she'd already been in great shape. The look on her face on the other hand? Priceless.

"You tricked me!" The shock was starting to dissolve into amusement.

"Yeah, I did. Couldn't risk a repeat, after all. You could have killed me, if you'd decided to. Or if I hadn't come out to check. Thanks by the way, I learned a bit."

"Well. Like I said. I can't take much credit for the plan."

I shrugged my one draconic shoulder. "No worries. Any chance you know how to cook at all?"

Dena nodded and moved to the kitchenette to finish the potatoes that Anetta had started, somewhat surprisingly. She was a fairly rich noblewoman who knew how to cook? Times must be tough. Thankfully Anetta had been interrupted before they'd been put on any heat; I don't like wasting food. I waited, propped up on the table; it was nice to have a small change in scenery.

"Pryzhum. There's a green dragon in the closet in the hallway. Bring him here. I have something I want to test." I wasn't terribly hopeful, given that as far as I knew the only thing that ever healed nightmare corruption in canon was literal divine intervention, but I had to try. I'd recently been reminded that my control over people with a collar on was still quite limited. Given the remote chance that it would let him take off the amulet without curing him of corruption, I wanted to try this on the little one. To be extra careful, I called in a few carefully selected undead gnolls to serve as a bodyguard. I felt much better with a handful of tall grey dog girls ready to pounce.

When the perpetually paralyzed green dragon was carried out to me, I pulled out the insignia of the alliance from my inventory and slid it down to the other end of the table. "Put that in his foreclaws. Be ready for anything." He held the medallion, and to my shock it actually worked. Sort of. He only woke up for a few moments, and while he looked wary he also looked relieved. Then he dozed off again, less than 10 seconds later. The nightmare would not be denied that easily.

I checked his ETE and was pleasantly surprised; he had been scheduled to fall fully under my power at a bit before midnight on 5/17. Now? At around noon, 5/17. The medallion was depleted for the next hour or so, but apparently a dwarven apartment with a black dragon, a human, four undead and a satyr looming over him was an absolute step up from whatever he was dealing with on the other side. Poor bastard, especially since he wouldn't be getting another glimpse any time soon. Ysondre had seniority, power, and probably a much more attractive visage over him. Plus she was apparently a healer. I like healers. I'm something of a healer myself, in fact.

I checked my app; it looked like Abby was guarding the portal mostly alone, in terms of people with amulets. Probably so that she could yoink more ghosts if they appeared. I approved, as long as she stayed careful. She was smart. I trusted her sense of self preservation and ruthlessness enough to assume she had plenty of undead with her. That basin would be a good spot to store my extra undead, actually. Nobody ever went that deep into the forest on accident.

Looks like she'd bullied Auffrey into sending over her amulet, since she'd been working off of Stitches and Nadira for a while. I didn't love that she did it, but I think I need to distribute at least a few of these things back to my own retinue. Eliza didn't have one for herself either. I sent Dena's to her, through Stitches, and a few of the other new ones went to Auffrey through Prudence, and Dremuus through Talaada. Capture was great and all, but logistics is king.

We had, with some effort, managed to lift Ysondre and teleport her to the Complex that was slowly being built in the Swamp of Sorrows. It wasn't ideal, but I couldn't fit her in my apartment and the basin next to the portal was using her as a connection to the real world. Once she'd been taken away, the reinforcements had gone from roughly hourly groups to only one nightmarish creature in the last four hours. I sent Talaada to look after her, and suggested that she disguise herself as a night elf to speak to the spooked dragon when she woke.

I felt good about doing something productive even in my current state. I took my bottle of green mud without complaint and ate my slightly under seasoned potatoes in peace. I'd get restless again soon, I was sure.


Chương 109: Waiting for Sadie

5/16 lunchtime

According to Vanessa, Anetta would be fine in a couple hours with the dosage she'd gotten. I decided to let her sleep, antidotes were expensive, and had Dena tuck her into the spare bed. The one with Imriss in the closet. Maybe I should get set up in Ursula's house. It was pretty nice from what I'd seen. Actually, I'll put Vanessa in contact with Ursula. See if that basement can become a dungeon, and if anyone will be overly nosy about the butler disappearing. Hell, if her service staff is small enough I'll probably just capture all of them.

I spent my intervening time planning out some meetings. People I needed to talk to. Plans I needed to make. I decided to send out Lividia to take down Murk Eye, but she honestly wasn't powerful enough for me to be certain that she'd be ok if she did it alone. I figured it could just send her with all of my demons; Dena could serve as my nurse and steed until Annetta got better.

Plus, I wanted to start throwing demons at my problems. I'd turn another of them into a Satyr while I was at it; I really did want to know what the hell satyrs got out of the symbiotic link, and since they wouldn't really die if killed I figured throwing them haphazardly into deadly situations might do the trick. All I really needed was that they make sure Lividia didn't get overwhelmed.

To that end, I started summoning them and then frowned. How do I send them to Lividia when she needs them? I can't lift them and they don't have amulets. I eventually entrusted the amulet to Dena for a bit, and had her send each of them except for Pryzhum to Em. The satyr was too big for Dena to lift as herself, so I mildly bullied the noblewoman into taking on an ogre form to finish the job. After that I amused myself by turning her into a draenei, a night elf, and a high elf and modeling Paletress's and Vanessa's clothes from the closet. They seemed enchanted to fit anyone who tried to wear them, just like in the game. I'd need to remember that.

It was nice seeing Lividia when she came over for her briefing; I didn't actually expect her to be as concerned as she was. She created a nest for me out of the blankets and pillows on the bed, so that I wasn't just sitting on bare wood. While I explained the plan for Murk-eye and showed her where he was on the map and how to track him with the compass, she grabbed another trollsblood elixir for me and insisted that I drink it promptly. I had a timer for them that Abby had set up, and it was visible to everyone with a necklace.

She aggressively stared down Dena to assert dominance, our chatting mostly revolved around vague but plausible strategies for world domination, and when she left it was so that she could assassinate a fish man, but she was still basically just my girlfriend coming over to help nurse me back to health. It was nice.

When she left, I quickly started to get bored againI went into my notes and started writing out meetings I needed to have.

Onyxia: how best to deal with Nefarian. Both short and long term.

Argent Dawn top brass: making an alliance to deal with the Scourge

Ursula: turning her manor into a base ofoperations in Stormwind. Further training with demonology when I'm ready.

Those three slaves: see if they have any valuable skills to speak of

Vanessa: making the Defias loyal to me personally.

Vanessa and Onyxia: ending the war between the Defias and Stormwind

Talaada: her continued training and properly employing her as a proxy for capture

Yeah that should cover it for at least a bit. If Sadie was correct, she'd be here soon, and Talaada would join us as well. I had Dena transfer me back to the bed; best to at least try to get a bit more rest. Also: good news, when I took human form my dick felt basically fine. I think it's ready to go again; I might not do anything with Sadie during lesson time, but Talaada or Dena might have extracurricular activities planned.

••••••••••

Caledra Dawnbreeze was strangely calm as she left the Light's Hope Chapel, despite the danger she was walking into alone. She could respect the paladins' position, but she was still disappointed that she hadn't been given more assistance for her journey. Regardless, she was a Farstrider of Quel'Thalas and these were lands familiar to her, no matter how corrupted; she could navigate them unseen. Despite what some might claim, the Scourge were not truly everywhere in these woods, and the Lich King only rarely gazed through their eyes.

She had learned much about the nature of the necklace from the battle against the green dragon. That she could take a dragon's form was undoubtedly the most relevant piece of information. She looked up, seeing Gargoyles in the distance, patrolling the skies. Yes, relevant, but not to be relied upon. Short bursts of flight when she reached otherwise untraversable areas, but otherwise she would move on foot.

She had a ways to go, and had marked out the scourge strongholds along her path. An old Lumber mill, always kept heavily garrisoned to threaten the chapel. After that was the town of Northdale, which had once been such a charmingly rustic village. She'd gone there sometimes to purchase vegetables from the local farmers. As she walked through the woods, she sometimes happened across beautiful, young, too pale women picking berries from the rotting bushes, fishing in the fetid stream, or most heartbreakingly moaning and calling for help. All were traps, holdovers from early in the Third War when most men didn't know the signs of an undead woman. She avoided them, and used them as evidence that an ambush was nearby.

She'd also be moving within the territory of the Mossflayer tribe. Hopefully they were still around; she hated the forest trolls for their centuries of aggression towards her people, but they were another faction fighting the Scourge. She'd welcome the Amani Empire back in its entirety, if they could be bound by truce to focus on the undead threat.

She would not be sleeping until she arrived at Quel'Lithien, or was forced to turn back. She only hoped that she'd be able to make it there on her first attempt.

••••••••••

Ursula was quite open to the use of dark magic, and desensitized to demons. Demons tended to be cruel, and revel in combat. Any opportunity to cause pain was welcome. These druid spirits weren't like that. They were quiet; cold. Just as willing to kill, but they treated it like a chore. Something that just needed doing.

Collecting soul shards from these orcs was highly efficient with the druids help, so Ursula should have been more pleased, but it was all so unsettling. They would disable the orc, most often by wrapping him in vines, and one at a time wait until Ursula started draining the soul. Once the link was established, the orc would be summarily executed, most often being torn apart by a pillar of pale light, and Ursula would have a new soul shard.

Ursula reveled in her power as a warlock. But these druids killed the fun; next to them she felt like an appliance, a tool they were using to extract soul shards. She almost wanted to pick a fight with one of the spirits, just to prove to herself that they weren't really superior. That she was strong. Whenever her mind wandered in that direction, all three druids would turn to her, with their too perfect faces, and she sensed that she was tolerated, but only as long as she was useful.

They hated her the same way that they hated the orcs. Dispassionately, with no anger. She disgusted them. Ursula knew without a shadow of a doubt that they would kill her and dispose of the body if they thought that they could get away with it. The only good news was that her bags were rapidly filling with soul shards; she got a pop of dopamine every time one of them was made, but the fact that it happened so quickly made her feel unfulfilled. She could leave these psychos out in the field and go back to her own home soon, and then it would be Bismark's problem. Hopefully he'd give her something else to do, in better company.

••••••••••

Auffrey hadn't seen "defenses" from the company at work before yesterday, but they were quite remarkable. Ironforge was an oppressively hot city; apparently the dwarves didn't think anything of it, but building one's entire city around a cauldron full of molten rock seemed like a very strange choice to her. Of course Dun Morough is quite frigid, nearly perpetually buried in snow, but that would make Ironforge worse, if anything. She'd needed to strip off multiple layers of clothing when walking around the city yesterday.

They'd ended up spending several hours in a relatively seedy part of town, known as the Forlorn Cavern by locals, just because it had an underground lake. The whole cavern was shrouded in light fog, and it was pleasantly cool compared to the rest, if humid. Auffrey had no idea why this area was so dilapidated; if she had to live in Ironforge she'd purchase one of the houses here and start cleaning up the neighborhood herself! The cool darkness was very welcome.

Prudence was apparently quite confident in her ability to ward off any potential assailants, and Auffrey's own concerns primarily revolved around whether fireballs were an acceptable tool for self defense, so they'd agreed to spend the afternoon here. For the sake of their own hydration if nothing else; Auffrey was not very good at conjuring water.

They'd found a charming little dock where fishermen congregated, which the guards had told them was relatively reputable. They'd ended up chatting with a gnomish woman named Tansy Puddlefizz who helped run a fishing shop, and they'd purchased some fishing gear for a Necklace. As they'd hoped, the little pink haired woman had put it around her neck for safekeeping. To their mild shock, the easygoing gnome was very open to the necklace; it would take only a bit more than three days for her to be captured. They'd spent an hour fishing in the underground lake, figuring they could toss anything they caught in the inventory to be prepared elsewhere.

Then, all of a sudden, at around dinner time yesterday, the heat had evaporated. It had been hard to notice in the cavern, but when they'd walked back to their inn for the night, it had felt almost nice. The slight dampness of their clothes dried rapidly; it was still oppressively hot, but the heat never touched them.

Today, when they'd left by the front gate to go to Kharanos, they'd been warned to bundle up by a guard. Prudence had explained that they weren't necessarily going to be gone long, and they had amulets which protected against the cold. When they'd walked out into the sunlight, it was a bit chilly. But no worse than a late autumn day in Westfall. The wind blew, but it didn't cut through them like a knife. Their journey was really quite pleasant; neither girl had seen snow very often in Elwynn.

They had their orders; they summoned Dremuus, the foreign hunter, along the trail, and they made their way to the small town as he traveled out east. Neither girl was entirely clear about what they were doing here, especially since they didn't have a necklace to hand out. In the end, Prudence defied her name and managed to get Lady Elerian very, very drunk on Thunderbrew.

••••••••••

Tessa was not entirely sure why she'd been selected for this mission. She'd never been to Southshore before. She'd only rarely left Elwynn Forest until a few weeks ago. She had been a soldier during the third war, but she'd been garrisoned in Lakeshire then. Finding a princess in a foreign town was quite far outside of her skillset, but she'd do what she could.

She assumed that if the woman hadn't announced herself, she likely didn't want to be found. Southshore was part of Lorderon, one of the few remaining settlements that hadn't been overtaken by one form of undead or another. If Calia Menethil declared herself, she'd likely be recognized as the rightful heir to the throne, right? It was a throne which would realistically preside over Southshore and its immediate surroundings, but a throne nonetheless.

Tessa started by asking for a woman named Calia, providing a general description of her. Erich had shared a picture of the woman in the notes tab, apparently taken from the mysterious "Company" that he drew his power from. She claimed that she was sent by the woman's family, and wanted to know if she was ok. To her surprise, the copper novel tactic had worked. She'd been directed to the home of Calia Landon, who was married to one of the men in the garrison here. She had a daughter and everything. She looked about right, though the Calia in the picture was clearly undead. It had gone so well, so quickly, that Tessa wasn't really sure what to do right now. She hadn't been issued a necklace, Tony had already left, and she was supposed to serve as a relay point for quite a few elves. Tessa put in a request for an amulet and went back to the inn.

She'd come back tomorrow while the husband is away, unless Erich wanted to handle it himself. He was injured, but that didn't necessarily mean he couldn't talk. There was quite a gap between talking to a mother and fighting.


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