Make Azeroth breathtaking

"Ah, yes, after all, you paid a high price, so we should try our best to provide you with services that match the price. Business is a give-and-take transaction, and we definitely need to make a profit, but we can't let our customers suffer losses. However, be careful. Although I have a way to replenish some supplies along the way, I can't do anything about large quantities. Therefore, you need to arrange for your people to distribute food and water as well as possible. After all, this journey could take as long as 3 months, or even 4 to 5 months."

Tanis spread her hands, her tone helpless.

"Why is there such a big time difference?"

"With you by my side, I can't take the standard route. Even though the Hot Sands Consortium is a neutral force, if Kurtesla's ship discovers that I'm helping you halfway through the journey, not only will I be unable to do business in the human kingdoms in the future, but my life will also be in question."

"The tribe will remember your kindness!"

Thrall pounded his chest with his fist, and Grom returned the gesture with a fist.

"If you want to repay this favor, once the Horde has established itself in Kalimdor, just take good care of our Ratchet business. I have high hopes for your orc spending power!"

Tanis waved casually and walked out of the cabin.

18. In the Storm

————————————One month after the trip————————————————

Tanya stood at the bow of the ship, facing the rising sun, and continued to study the design with the mechanical assistant.

"Miss Tanyas."

Thrall's voice, gentler than that of a typical orc, reached Tannis's ears. Then, the young orc, clad in plate armor and carrying a warhammer, but clearly a shaman, boarded the deck.

"High Chieftain Thrall, is there something urgent?"

Tannis deactivated her mechanical assistant and greeted Sal. In the past month, she and Sal had gone from business associates to friends who could barely communicate.

“During my meditation just now, the elements told me that a storm is gathering and is very likely to blow over our fleet.”

Sal's tone was full of caution.

"A storm... I need to see if there's any anchorage nearby..."

Although the barometer showed no abnormalities in the morning, Tannis, knowing that Sal wouldn't joke about such things, unfolded the nearby nautical chart and quickly searched for a suitable safe harbor. Soon, she located a spot.

"Fleet, turn around!"

Less than ten minutes after the fleet arrived at the harbor, the sea surface began to change slightly, the clouds in the sky took on strange shapes, and the barometer readings dropped noticeably. Clearly, a storm was about to arrive.

So the whole fleet got busy—although the waves in the harbor were generally not big, when making a living at sea, you can never be too careful!

"Quickly! Secure yourselves! Don't get hurt or killed by accident! You! Follow me to make sure the supplies are secured! You! Go to the deck and help the goblins lower the anchor and sails!!"

Grom Hellscream paced back and forth between the cabins, roaring and issuing orders. The orcs on the other ships were also busy carrying out various preventative measures under the command of their goblin and orc captains.

"The wind is very strong, extremely strong."

Thrall, sitting cross-legged at the bow of the ship, spoke with a hint of worry in his voice. Through further communication with the elementals, he had learned that the storm they were about to encounter was far beyond what he had imagined.

"The Ratchet's ocean-going freighters are designed to withstand storms head-on for about an hour, so don't worry too much, Warchief Thrall."

Compared to Thrall, who had never been to sea and had only seen descriptions of storms in documents, Tannis, who had been making a living at sea for a long time, was quite calm about storms.

"Will other ships come here to take shelter from the storm?"

Seeing that Tanis didn't seem to care about the storm at all, Thrall felt a little relieved.

"I don't know, because we're taking an unconventional route, so theoretically there shouldn't be any. However, it's possible that smugglers or pirates like me are roaming around nearby. In other words, you'd better try not to expose yourselves."

"It doesn't matter if humans discover us; my battle axe will wipe them all out!"

Grom Hellscream, having settled the orcs in the cabin, went up to the deck and overheard Tanys and Thrall's conversation.

"Naval warfare and land warfare are not the same thing, Chieftain Hellscream..."

Tanis looked at Grom with a helpless expression. From the fragments of memory and her interactions with him over this period of time, she had learned that the Warsong Clan's Great Chieftain's style was to always choose the battle axe when a problem could be solved, rather than opting for a better solution.

"Orcs will have to adapt to naval warfare sooner or later, Miss Tanis. It's a good thing if some small fry come to us for training."

Grom Hellscream walked over to Thrall, and together with Tannis and his Warchief, they watched the increasingly unpredictable storm raging in the distance.

After a long while.

"Back to the cabin, Warchief Thrall, Warchief Grom Hellscream, a storm is coming."

——————————————————Night————————————————————

"Whoosh!! Whoosh!!!!"

A terrifying wind raged across the sea, its force shaking the ocean and creating towering waves that crashed against the rocks. The thunderous roar echoed, making sleep impossible, and lightning flashed intermittently across the night sky. Even with the fleet safely positioned in the harbor, the forces of nature were no match for the ships' power; they continued to rock violently. Of course, all they did was rock.

Tanis, who had used her inner energy to fix herself to the bed, put her hands behind her head, stared blankly at the ceiling, and pondered something that had absolutely nothing to do with orcs or storms.

Just now, the Ratchet personnel remaining in Lordaeron sent her a message that rekindled her memories: Stratholme, an important city in Lordaeron, had recently become a dead city due to the plague, but there were rumors that Prince Arthas was responsible for the deaths of more than half of the residents!

"The Stratholme massacre competition... Arthas, you are their target..."

After learning of the massacre at Stratholme, a series of fragmented memories were unsealed, and Arthas's life flooded into her mind like a tidal wave. At this moment, Tannis finally understood why she didn't want to have too much to do with Arthas, and why she didn't want to preserve the trade routes in Lordaeron at all.

"The Lich King's chief death knight, the Destroyer of Lordaeron... the Slayer of Quel'Thalas... the Conqueror of Dalaran..."

Muttering to herself about Arthas's impending, seamless action, Tanis, who had spent some time with Arthas, felt a sense of helplessness and sorrow. Clearly, the chain reaction of unsealing fragments of memories related to Arthas meant that Stratholme was the most important decision in Arthas's life. When he made the decision to massacre the city in Stratholme, his future was already sealed. Therefore, knowing his future was no longer of any concern.

'Your best course of action would have been to order Uther to block the gates of Stratholme with the army, while you and Jaina returned to report and obtain the king's command before dealing with the situation in Stratholme—even though that would have resulted in greater casualties. But you insisted on shouldering a responsibility far too heavy for your shoulders. Arthas, you are too young… too young to even know how to shirk responsibility…'

Tennys opened the cabinet, took out a small bottle of wine, poured it into a bowl, and gently sprinkled it on the cabin floor.

Farewell, Prince Arthas....

19. The Way of Shamanism?

Pitch black, deep.

The storm, which had almost turned the sea upside down, had been raging for three days and three nights with no sign of abating. Every day, things that were clearly shipwrecks could be seen drifting into this small harbor, and most of them were obviously very fresh victims.

Having truly witnessed the terrifying power of nature, Grom realized that if the tribe really did follow his plan and hastily set sail with a bunch of ships, not to mention the food and water along the way, such a storm would be beyond what he could handle with an axe. The entire tribe might even perish at the bottom of the sea.

So he set aside his pride and began to learn about various aspects of navigation from Tannis and the goblin sailors—the orcs would eventually build their own navy, and it would be best to learn from their experience.

With the intention of building good relationships with potential future customers, Tannis agreed to teach ship and navigation knowledge to orcs who were willing to learn at a lower price. Thus, the shaky and rudimentary merchant ships became the cradle of the first orc captains.

Thrall was happy to see this happen. He knew very well that much of the knowledge the goblins imparted was gained at the cost of their lives, and for his tribe to acquire this experience and lessons for a small fee was an incredibly worthwhile deal—money could be earned back, but a life was truly gone. In this matter, the tribe once again owed the goblins a small favor.

Thinking that it's not easy to repay too many favors, Sal subtly inquired whether Tannis needed any help, and then he received a somewhat unexpected answer from her.

"You want to learn about the ways of shamanism?"

Sal looked utterly astonished; he never dreamed that Tannis would make such a request.

"Well, besides being a repairman, I am also a monk. Monks emphasize the unity of man and nature, which coincides with some of the concepts in shamanism. I want to try to integrate some knowledge and figure out some things that I didn't understand before."

"That's no problem. Spreading the shamanic way is also my responsibility."

Thrall sat cross-legged on the ground with a hint of joy and began to introduce the orcish shamanistic way to Tanis. As Thrall vividly described the scene, fragmented images appeared before Tanis's eyes: on the vast grasslands, orcs sang and danced, expressing their respect for their ancestors, their reverence for the elements, and their gratitude for the souls in the mountains and fields in their own way.

"Do all things have spirits? Is there ancestor worship?"

Suddenly, Tennys uttered a sentence.

"A very insightful conclusion, Miss Tannis. It seems that the way of the monk and the way of the shaman do indeed have some similarities."

Thrall clapped his hands in praise, saying that Tanis's words almost summarized the core of orc shamanistic doctrine!

“Warrior monks respect their teachers and follow the way of nature. They also worship their ancestors and respect nature. However, the biggest difference between warrior monks and shamans is that warrior monks do not have elemental beliefs.”

“Elemental faith... well, unlike the holy light of humans, we orc shamans don't worship the elements, but rather ask the elements for their help. Therefore, the most important thing for a shaman is to understand the temperament of the elemental spirits you want to deal with and go along with their wishes. Only in this way can the elements feel your friendliness and thus help you.”

"Is friendship all you need?"

"Yes, most elemental spirits are very simple, but gaining their trust is very difficult. My teacher told me that many people fail to become shamans because they find it hard to gain the trust of the elements."

"Can't we use a trade-off to get the element's help? For example, you promise to help the element do something in exchange for the element's help."

This question stumped Sal. After thinking for a few seconds, he shook his head.

"I'm not entirely sure about this, but I think it's theoretically feasible. Elements have self-awareness, so they'll definitely have demands. However... the demands of elements might be very difficult to fulfill..."

“That’s no big deal. We can just find an elemental spirit that’s easy to contract with and sign a pact with it. By the way, Warchief Thrall, based on your shamanic experience, is it possible to sign a long-term pact with an elemental spirit and then draw power from that single elemental spirit?”

“Theoretically... it is feasible, but the power of the elemental spirit will be greatly weakened after it leaves its original place. It is possible that an earth spirit that can cause an earthquake in one place can only make a small stone bounce in another place.”

"Suppose there is a way to replenish the unstable elemental power of the elemental spirit, could this enhance its abilities?"

"It seems feasible... but these things are difficult to verify."

Sal was completely bewildered. Tanis's initial questions were indeed about the shamanic path, but her current questions were clearly off-topic. Putting them together, it seemed she was planning an alternative shamanic path.

"Are you planning a shamanistic path that involves making a deal with a single elemental spirit and then sharing its fate, Miss Tanis?"

"Ah, more or less. In my opinion, all races have the potential to become shamans, but most people don't have the patience to deal with the elements, nor do they possess the affinity to become friends with all elements in all places..."

Tanis readily admitted it.

“Your idea may be feasible, Miss Tanis, but... Shamans created in this way are very likely to treat the elemental spirits as tools. If this problem is not solved, they will face the wrath of the elemental spirits sooner or later, and then it will be a losing proposition.”

Sal tapped rhythmically on the ship's planks with his fingers, his right hand supporting his chin as he pondered.

"contract."

Tennys uttered a single word?

"You mean, such a shaman must form a pact with the elemental spirits?"

Sal understood what Tannis meant.

"Yes, the best way to bind a mutually beneficial relationship is through a contract. That way, whoever breaches the contract will be punished just because they deserve it."

"...Good idea. It's easy for the elemental spirits to form a contract with the souls of intelligent beings. The key is the content of the contract."

"So... Warchief Thrall, as the only shaman I've met, could you do me a favor?"

Tanis pulled out a blank sheet of paper, her face beaming with smiles.

"How about we draft the basic framework of the contract together?"

20. The Uninvited Guest Who Was Salvaged