Make Azeroth breathtaking

"Illidan lost in a one-on-one fight? Logically speaking, even Arthas at his peak shouldn't be a match for him. How did he lose?"

Tanis, who was busy in the laboratory completing the second-generation colorless small crystal production machine, turned off her glasses' working mode, took off her gloves, and looked at Talonnicus with a puzzled expression. The more she learned about the various powers of Azeroth, the less she could understand why Illidan would be defeated by the weakened Arthas.

"According to His Highness, during the battle between Illidan and Arthas, some kind of... incomprehensible external force seemed to appear, causing a fatal tilt in the balance of the battle. However, that force only flashed for a fleeting moment at the crucial moment, and our mage corps in Northrend only managed to catch a glimpse of it."

"It seems there were other forces behind the destruction of Quel'Thalas... By the way, that means your prince is going to lead the rest of the people to Outland, right?"

Tennys gulped down half a glass of water and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Well, so His Highness hopes to get the remaining colorless small crystal production equipment and spare parts as soon as possible—ideally within half a month—he'll offer extra money."

"no problem!"

38. Explorers in the Desolate Lands

Early 22nd year of the Dark Portal, Eastern Kingdoms.

"Ugh... This place is so cold."

A man, dressed in a thick jacket and jeans, wearing simple but very durable leather boots, engineering glasses, and a gray-brown cowboy hat, who looked to be about thirty years old and had a small mustache, placed his hands, which were covered in thick leather gloves, in front of him and kept breathing on them.

"How many times have I told you, Lei Luo, this kind of behavior only serves to make you feel a little warmer psychologically, it's useless!"

Beside Rello, a smartly dressed dwarf lay on a large rock, carefully examining an old map with a magnifying glass, struggling to find usable clues in the blurred markings and patterns.

"Brian, I'm not like you. I'm not used to going out in winter. Shouldn't the best thing to do in winter be to sit by the heater, make pancakes, drink hot wine, and have a good rest?"

Renault gently stamped his feet, trying to warm himself up a bit.

"Alright, Renault, stop fooling around. Didn't Brian already tell you why we chose to come in winter?"

A night elf who was setting up a camp tent spoke up in dissatisfaction. This dark purple-skinned night elf wore a pair of tortoiseshell glasses and was dressed in adventure attire similar to that of Lei Luo. He had a small backpack on his back, from which several scrolls were sticking out.

"I know, I know. It's safer to encounter wild animals in winter... But then again, we can't be treasure hunting all the time!"

Watching the flames rise from the fire, Lei Luo plopped down next to it and stretched out his hands to touch the fire.

"It's not a treasure hunt, it's an adventure! We're not here to get rich!"

Brian dismissed Raylo's statement with dissatisfaction and carefully put away the map.

"Alright, alright, but there has to be some return, right? After all, exploration can't just be about giving without taking... Oh, Sir Finley, you're back!"

"Look what I found, guys!"

In response, a small fishman appeared, wearing large glasses and a traditional Chinese jacket. Unlike the other fishmen, this one seemed playful and cheerful.

"Water source? Finley, you've found a water source?"

Brian was both surprised and delighted to see what Finn had brought back in the leather bag. Although they were well-prepared and could move forward without water, having water to replenish their food and water supply would undoubtedly make things much easier!

"There's nothing I can do, what can I do? I'm a fish-man..."

Finley clumsily handed several bags of water to the group, then took out a packet of seaweed and started eating. The other three exchanged a smile and also took out their rations to eat.

"Speaking of which, Brian, as the brother of King Magni of Ironforge, why did you come out to explore? Wouldn't it have been better to be royalty in Ironforge?"

While soaking the compressed biscuits in water, Reno pulled a small jar of jam from his pocket as a condiment, and asked Brian, who was opening a small can of beer with a bottle opener.

“Me? I’m not as brave and skilled in battle as my second brother, nor as good at forging as my eldest brother. Although I am Bronzebeard, I must find my value as Bronzebeard, otherwise I can’t hold my head high in Ironforge.”

Brian pried open the beer can and gulped it down in one go, smacked his lips in satisfaction, and wiped his mouth.

"To be honest, when I recruited you, I didn't ask you why you wanted to join my expedition team. Since we're not too busy tonight, could you tell me a little? If there's anything you're embarrassed to say, you don't have to."

"There's nothing to be ashamed of. I wanted to make a little money, but it's not easy to get rich through normal means, so I thought of tomb raiding. However, there's not much valuable stuff in ordinary tombs, so I studied archaeology. But it's too risky to do it alone, so I joined your team."

Renault, who had already soaked the compressed biscuits, stirred the porridge-like substance in the cup with a spoon and stated his reasons with righteous indignation.

"Alright, but remember not to touch anything. Many ancient artifacts may have interlocking mechanisms or contain curses."

Raynor's words made Brian's lips twitch, and he turned to look at Elise Starseeker sitting next to Finley.

“Elise, what about you? Your history as night elves is even older than that of the dwarves. Logically speaking, there shouldn’t be anything in this world worth exploring for you.”

"We night elves have lived on Mount Hyjal for ten thousand years, and we have also isolated ourselves for ten thousand years. If we want to reconnect with the world, it is important to understand the changes that Azeroth has undergone over the past ten thousand years. In addition, I would like to teach Finleyr something."

As Ellis said this, she looked at Finley, who was sitting next to her slurping up seaweed, and Finley responded with a big smile.

"Change! Yes, change! The world is not static, but constantly changing. Our goal as archaeologists is to find the threads of these changes, to search for things lost in the past, and to get to the bottom of things, to find the root of everything."

"You mean...Titan?"

Ellis opened her mouth uncertainly.

"Titans? Ah, yes! Titans! In dwarven legend, the order of this world was established by the Titans, therefore, all creatures originated from the Titans. However, to this day, no one dares to guarantee the truth of this legend. Therefore, it has become one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in dwarven archaeology—if dwarves did indeed originate from the Titans, then how did we originate? Where did our ancestors come from, stepping onto Azeroth?"

Brian became excited upon hearing Ellis's words, and he tapped the empty beer can he had just finished drinking, making a rhythmic sound.

"The only thing I can be sure of is that you dwarves officially stepped onto the stage of Azeroth after that war ten thousand years ago. The participants in that war included dragons, night elves, wild demigods, tauren, and perhaps trolls, but not dwarves. In other words, if you want to find the origin of the dwarves, you may have to look within the time frame from the Eternal War to the present."

"No, no, no, Miss Star Chaser, that's not necessarily true. Just because we dwarves didn't exist ten thousand years ago doesn't mean our ancestors didn't exist."

As he said this, Brian took out a photo and handed it to Ellis. Ellis took the photo, looked at it, and frowned.

"This is... the gate?"

"That's right! A gate to an ancient civilization, buried deep underground, belonging to an unknown race! This is the place we're exploring; perhaps we can discover something beyond our wildest imagination!"

39. Brian preparing to 'infiltrate'

"This is the gate? It certainly looks quite old."

Reno Jackson descended slowly to the bottom of the valley using the climbing ropes hanging on the rock face and the uneven rocks. He was immediately drawn to the ruins of a huge archway half-buried in the earth. This half-archway, painted with mysterious giant reliefs, was bathed in the sunlight and seemed to tell the story of events that happened in the distant past.

“The things carved on the relief are not of any race; they seem to be some kind of landscape, but I have never seen such a view.”

Elise also slid to the bottom of the valley, looking at the outline of the relief on the door with a puzzled expression. As a night elf, her knowledge was greater than that of most intelligent beings in the world, but she did not think she had ever seen the scenery depicted in the relief.

"Aha! Of course you haven't seen it, because this relief depicts the scenery underground, a landscape that only we dwarves can access!"

Copperbeard jumped down from a rock near the ground with a carefree air and patted the dust off his body with satisfaction.

"Brian, so you're saying that what's behind this door is indeed related to you dwarves?"

Ellis looked at Brian Bronzebeard, who returned her a very happy smile.

"Yes, that's why I came here—the ancient dwarven ruins are crucial, extremely crucial!"

"If this place is truly crucial, why don't you recruit a qualified engineering team from Ironforge to excavate it? With your status, recruiting such a team would be incredibly easy."

Lei Luo took out a cigar and a small knife from his waist and carefully began trimming the cigar end.

“Time, Raylo, time. It would be much safer if I recruited an engineering team, but with the recruitment and transportation, it would take me at least half a year to start. By then, it’s hard to say whether this place will have been dug up by our old enemies, the Bronzebeard Dwarves.”

"Um... are you referring to the Dark Iron dwarves as your old nemesis?"

Raylo's words made Brian stop tidying his clothes.

"What? Those guys really came?"

"If my reconnaissance robot's camera isn't malfunctioning, then there are indeed Dark Iron dwarves lurking in the cave behind that gate."

Lei Luo leisurely lit a cigar and took a leisurely puff.

"Damn goblins, they really did sell the information twice!"

After uttering those words with resentment, Brian looked at his teammates.

"Rello, Ellis, Finley, the upcoming expedition is highly likely to put your lives in danger, so if you wish to leave now, I have no objection."

“What do you take me for, Brian?”

Lei Luo exhaled a smoke ring and was the first to express his opinion.

"With something like this right in front of you, you might regret it for the rest of your life if you don't go in and take a look."

Ellis then also expressed her stance.

"Finley's decision is the same as Ellis's!"

Finley pulled out a helmet made from a soup pot, put it on his head, and clenched his fists, jumping around a couple of times to show that he was capable of fighting.

"...Thank you, thank you..."

Brian, who had never expected that his hastily recruited teammates would be willing to go through this ordeal with him, was so moved that he thanked them repeatedly, making even the thick-skinned Raylo a little embarrassed.

"Alright, Brian, if you want to thank me, just give me a bigger share after we find the treasure. Right now, our priority is to send those Dark Iron dwarves who are trying to steal our money to their doom, right?"

“Hmm, but this requires strategy, Leilo. Could your robot scout out the path behind the gate and roughly where those Black Iron bastards are?”

"We'll need a more expensive robot, Brian."

As he spoke, Lei Luo took out a robot from his backpack. It was only the size of a fist, with a dark white shell and a pair of cameras that looked like big eyes. Even though Brian didn't know much about engineering, he could tell at a glance that this robot was extraordinary.

"High score?"

As one of the nominal administrators of Ironforge, Brian also knew a little about how the Tinkerers' Guild operated.

"Yeah, I saved up points for almost half a year to get this little gadget. If it explodes, I'll lose a lot."

As Lei Luo spoke, he placed the little creature on the ground. The moment it touched the ground, its dark white shell turned into a yellowish-brown color similar to the ground, instantly blending into its surroundings.

"Beard above! This..."

Seeing Brian startled by the little robot's disguise, Lei Luo waved his hand and spoke with an extremely arrogant tone.

"Nothing surprising, I'm just following your lead and the decision that the outer shell of this robot is still manufactured in Ironforge."

"Haha...is that so?"

Brian, who hadn't really looked into his family's business, gave an awkward response. At that moment, Reilly also dropped his nonchalant expression and became serious.

"Brian, I have good news and two bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

"First, some good news."

"The good news is that the road behind the gate... is a one-way street for at least two kilometers inside, which means we won't have to spend a lot of time looking for side roads to go somewhere."

"And the bad news?"