Make Azeroth breathtaking

In the hall, which had quieted down once again, Brian and the others were having a heated discussion about how to 'arrange' their prisoner—Gagaon, who looked strong but was defeated in less than half a minute, with almost all of his power sealed off.

About two minutes later, they reached an agreement—it would be best to get the reason why Gargan had become a half-stone man out of him.

"Look, Mr. Dark Iron Dwarf, this is the situation. If you cooperate with us, Prince Brian will spare your life. But if you don't cooperate, I guarantee you will experience... what extremely slow and painful torture truly means."

Iggy pulled a vial of potion swirling with purple smoke from his waist and approached Gagaran with a forced smile.

"Pooh!"

Gargan responded by spitting, but since he was already half-rocked, what he spat out were stone fragments.

"It seems you've chosen not to cooperate, Mr. Dark Iron Dwarf."

Iggy, who had been sprayed with stone fragments, didn't say much. He directly poured all the liquid from the test tube in his hand onto Gargann. Accompanied by a piercing sizzling sound, a cloud of white mist rose from Gargann's body, along with Gargann's agonizing scream that pierced the sky.

"Hmm? Interesting. It seems your petrified bodies really did turn to stone, and it wasn't a 'magical transformation'..."

Completely ignoring Gargan's screams, Iggy carefully observed the marks on Gargan's body caused by the corrosive potion with great interest. The thirst for knowledge gleaming in his eyes sent chills down Iris's spine.

“Miss Iggy! Although he is an enemy, torturing him too much may not have a good outcome!”

"Relax, relax, night elf, I'll keep this dark iron dwarf's mouth intact."

As Iggy spoke terrifying words, he pulled out more potions from his small bag.

"Perfect timing... I still have some things I need to test the effects of..."

————————————Ten minutes later——————————————————

"Alright, Prince Brian, what do you think of what this Dark Iron dwarf told you?"

Iggy kicked the now unrecognizable Gargan aside, ignoring Reno who had taken Gargan's musket from beside him, and looked at Brian.

“Azadas, this name is not recorded in Ironforge, but my intuition tells me that he is not lying.”

Brian frowned and stroked his beard, trying to determine the truthfulness of what Gargan had told him.

"I've heard Lord Cenarius mention, in a veiled way, that the power of the five dragons all comes from the Titans, and that before those Titans left, they left behind a large number of lesser guardians so that the world could develop as they wished."

Iris spoke in a low voice.

“Elise, do you mean that Azadas is very likely a lesser guardian under a Titan?”

Brian was instantly thrown into a panic. A remnant of a Titan creation had easily destroyed Gnomeregan, and it had taken them a tremendous effort to kill the two mindless Watchers created by the Titans. The corpses at the entrance, some still warm, also hinted at the immense power the Titan creations wielded over mortals. If they were to face a Lesser Guardian...

"Brian, are you scared?"

Ellis listened to the tremor in Brian's voice.

"No! I'm excited!!! I feel like I've reached the threshold of the origin of the dwarves!!"

Brian clenched his fist, his momentum rising.

"You might lose your life. Here, this is yours."

While the others were chatting, Iggy pieced together all the fragments, made rubbings of them, and handed the original to Brian.

"Ah, thank you. Please take these to Ironforge, Iggy."

"What do you want to do, Prince Brian?"

Iggy frowned.

“I want to go and talk to that Azadas alone—judging from what happened to this Dark Iron dwarf, he might not be hostile to us dwarves.”

“Didn’t you consider what if it was merely harmless towards the Dark Iron dwarves? You would be dead, Brian!”

Ellis spoke loudly.

"If I can figure out the origin of the dwarves, then I am not afraid of death. Besides, I may not even die... Everyone, I am very grateful to you for accompanying me this far. However, the road ahead is too dangerous. I will write a letter and give it to my second brother. Please take it back with you."

"Wait! Brian! Are you abandoning us?!"

Renault also realized what was happening.

"It's not about abandoning us, but the optimal solution. If that lesser guardian is hostile to us, then we'll all die here after we meet him, and the secret of Uldaman will be silenced forever with our deaths... So, I need you to take the secret of Uldaman out—just take it out. That way, even if I really die here, the Explorers' League will know why I died—assuming I can come back alive, then we can team up again for another expedition!"

Seeing that Renault still wanted to say something, Brian patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, you'll get your money back, Miss Tannis. Here's the spoils."

Looking at Brian, who seemed to be making his final arrangements, Tennys remained silent for a few seconds before reaching out her hand.

"Give me a blank invoice with your name on it first, just in case Ironforge denies it if you really die inside."

——————————————Brian leaves————————————————

"Miss Tanya! Why don't you try to persuade Mr. Brian?"

Watching Brian's departing figure, Renault felt a tightness in his chest.

“There’s no way to persuade him. At least for now, his ultimate goal is to find the origin of the dwarves. Obviously, the answer is right in front of him now. For this answer, Brian is not afraid of death at all—as long as he hears the answer before he dies.”

After saying this, Tannis sighed and began activating the teleportation device to connect to the terminal in the Ironforge Gnome Quarter.

"Let's go, everyone."

50. The return of Brian, and the envoy from Quel'Thalas.

————————Two weeks later, Ironforge————

Unexpected, yet perfectly logical. Though somewhat weak, Brian successfully returned alive from Uldaman.

"Brian! My brother, I thought I'd never see you again!"

Magni Bronzebeard, having learned that his brother had returned to Ironforge, was already waiting at the Ironforge gates and gave the ragged Brann a big hug.

"Brother, I told you long ago, I'm tough! What I miss most right now is the warm fireplace of Ironforge, big chunks of roasted meat, and golden ale!"

Brian laughed heartily and patted McGonagall on the back, his joy beyond words.

"Of course, all of that will happen, my brother. By the way, your companions are very worried about you. Do you want to go to the Explorers' Guild to let them know you're safe?"

"Iris and the others...are they waiting for me?"

“Not just Ellis, my brother.”

————————————Explorers' Association————————————————

With a loud bang, the Explorers' Guild's doors were roughly pushed open by Brian. Behind him was a sheep that was panting heavily, having been forced to run at top speed for over half an hour.

"Excuse me, could you please take care of my sheep?"

After handing the reins of the ram to the Explorers' Guild's guard, Brian strode into the Explorers' Guild's hall and skillfully found the Explorers' Guild's reception room. The first person he saw was Reno, who was fast asleep on the sofa covered with a coat.

"Renault! I'm back!"

"Oh my god!!!"

Startled by Brian's loud voice, Reno jumped up from the sofa and opened his sleepy eyes, almost bumping into Brian.

"Brian! I knew it! You wouldn't die!!"

"Brian, you're back? Why didn't you let us know first?"

Wearing a pair of crystal glasses that gave her a more scholarly air, Ellis led Finley out of the inner room.

"I knew it, you're bound to be lucky. How can you do archaeology if you're not lucky?"

Iggy suddenly appeared from somewhere, looking Brian up and down as he chuckled foolishly while touching his tattered hat.

"It's a real shame. I've already spoken with your older brother. If you don't return in another half month, he'll hire people from Ratchet to collect your body."

Tanis spread her hands, her tone devoid of any regret.

"Hahaha!! Everyone... Anyway... Anyway... I did it! I got something very precious! Very precious! Want to see it!"

Brian burst into laughter. He suddenly felt that all the suffering he had endured during this period was nothing at all.

——————————————A few minutes later——————————————————

In the Explorers Guild's most secure confidential archive, Brian carefully took out a flawless white disc with pale gold edges from his backpack. Upon closer inspection, the pale gold edges were engraved with a ring of Titan script.

"This is?"

“This is what Azadas allowed me to take; it contains answers to some questions and more mysteries.”

Having answered Iggy's question, Brian placed his palm in the very center of the disc, and instantly, all the Titan runes on the edge of the disc lit up.

"Activation signal detected... Permission verification in progress... Verification successful... Level 1 privilege holder Brian Bronzebeard welcomes you to the Ulduar Data Center."

"Ulduar?"

"Hmm, a place that might be another Titan city... I think I'll find it sooner or later."

As he said this, Brian pulled his palm off the platinum disc, and a small humanoid figure, seemingly made of starlight, emerged from it.

Brian let out a breath as he looked at the projection.

"Alright everyone, feel free to ask it any questions you have. Within my authority, it will answer all your questions to the best of its ability."

——————————————The Tinkerman's Building————————————————————

With the buzzing sound of the teleporter activating, Tennys and Iggy walked out of the teleportation device one after the other, while Iggy was still pondering what she had asked.

"So the dwarves really were transformed from those earth spirit statues..."

Iggy sighed, but her tone didn't show much surprise.

"You guessed it all along?"

"Aren't you the same, Tanis the Great Tinker? You guessed it when you saw that Dark Iron Dwarf who could still jump around even after turning into half a stone golem, didn't you? But it's incredible that Stonejaws and Dwarves are from the same origin."

"Don't forget, in that thing's answer just now, your elves' ancestors were trolls."

Tanis's words made Iggy's face twitch—in fact, Iggy hadn't recovered from the fact that elves really evolved from trolls, but she quickly calmed down—trolls, at least, were a civilized race, while what were Stonejaw monsters?

"I'm more interested in what the Vrykul, humanity's predecessors, were, than in that, Great Tinker Tanis. Have you ever heard of the Vrykul?"

"No, what interests me is how the Titans, even after being gone from this world for tens of thousands of years, still monitor the changes in Azeroth and can even accurately understand the language of every race. How did they do that? Or rather, what kind of equipment did they use to do all this?"

"And then there's Ulduar. Where is that place? Undoubtedly, it must be much larger than Uldaman, hiding even more secrets."

As he said this, Iggy clenched his fist tightly.