Chapter 12：New plans

In reality, since the moment Jess heard the novice sorceress Sulenna casting spells in the basement of The Slaughtered Lamb, an idea began to form in his heart. That was to listen to the incantations from these warlocks, figure out how to remember their rough pronunciation, and then piece them together into complete spells upon return.

Of course, this was extremely difficult. A single line of incantation might consist of dozens of words. Fortunately, Jess had a bit of foundation in language learning from his past life, which gave him some confidence in this regard.

Moreover, after listening over and over, silently reciting along with them, similar to how he used to practice English listening, he figured he should be able to remember them after some time.

But this repetitive listening wasn't just simple auditory practice; it meant enduring the harm of dark magic over and over again, a test of his resilience.

Next comes the most difficult part, finding the actual words of these incantations.

Up to today, human encounters with demons have been almost solely limited to the Council of Tirisfal, a group of mages that has been committed since two thousand years ago to prevent demons from infiltrating Azeroth through the Twisting Nether.

With Medivh's death, his mother, the last true Guardian of Tirisfal, disappeared, and the Council of Tirisfal existed in name only, resulting in the loss of significant demon-related materials and tomes.

Not to mention the high elves who studied demons in ancient times—those collections surpass ten thousand years. Even magically protected ancient books have been hard to pass down to the present day.

At this time, the human warlocks in Stormwind have been learning their spells mainly from orcs, some directly from orc prisoners, others from partially destroyed spell books found.

These books, damaged or partly destroyed during the war, that preserved any content had become priceless treasures, secretly kept by powerful warlocks and mages for study and learning.

In short, these half-baked warlocks practicing demon magic in the basements could never possess such precious tomes; they certainly learned these incantations by word of mouth from other warlocks and then practiced on "dummies" like Jess to observe the effects.

That's the real reason for the instability of their spell effects.

The root cause lays in the fact that many of these warlocks secretly practicing dark magic didn't know the languages of their spells.

Many even thought it was some form of Orcish or Ogre runes, leading them to extensively review dictionaries of Orcish or research on Ogres compiled during the war, only to be led astray.

This situation only improved with the third Orc War, decades later, during the Scourge Invasion and the Battle of Mount Hyjal.

By then, a large number of demons had entered here through the invasion of the Burning Legion. After their defeat, those that scattered across Azeroth propagated genuine demonic magic to the locals and believers who worshipped them as gods. The frequent opening of portals also brought Azeroth closer to the Twisting Nether, making summoning demons easier.

At the same time, organized Orc and Ogre sorcerers hid in forests and abandoned towns, spreading many demon-related curses and languages, ushering a significant development for Azeroth's warlocks...

Unfortunately, this was something that would happen decades later.

Now, it's very likely that Jess is the only person in Stormwind who knows that the spells of shadow and fel magic are not in Orcish, nor Ogre language, but are mainly composed of demonic language, with a small amount of the language of Dreadlords - Nasrezim ancient language, Abyssal Lords' mother tongue - An'heghlan language, and the language of dark deities of the Shadow Void - Shas'ghar language.

He intends to find records on demonic language, or specifically, Eredun, as after all, demonic language is merely a dialect of Eredun.

Next, his goal is to correct these flawed spells using the correct methods, aiming for a shortcut to success.

After cleaning Master Marin's study, walking on the spiral path of the Mage District, Jess looked down the dreary alley leading to The Slaughtered Lamb, turned a corner, and headed to another inn in the Mage District that's more popular among mages, the famous Blue Recluse, home for casters.

Compared to The Slaughtered Lamb, this place was several times busier, the hall more spacious, and even split into two floors.

On the upper railing, a group of drunken young mage apprentices laughed about their instructors' performance in class today, and some predicted how the Alliance's expeditionary force would drive the vile beasts back through the Dark Portal in the Cursed Lands, then completely destroy that gateway.

Others mentioned, once the expeditionary force won, ensuring Azeroth's safety, the storm-rebuilt Stormwind could rise from its ashes, transforming into the new star of the Alliance, humanity's hope, with property prices possibly skyrocketing ten or twenty times.

Hearing this made Jess's scalp tingle, damned natives were truly fearless.

Most importantly, their predictions weren't without basis; if they were merely speaking nonsense, Jess wouldn't have cared so much.

The Kingdom of Stormwind remained unshakable for many years afterward, gradually becoming the most stable and powerful government among human nations, and Stormwind, as the capital of this kingdom, became the largest human settlement in Azeroth, with naturally soaring property prices.

As for how much they would rise, he couldn't say, since the game never mentioned such specifics, he just hoped he could earn faster than the pace of rising house prices.

Given the current situation, without significant changes, prospects looked grim.

Yet, he wasn't here to gauge economic trends but to plan his next steps, grab some lunch, take a break, and wait for Amy Marin to hand over the assistant badge in the afternoon.

Seeing him sit down, the innkeeper approached and asked what he wanted to eat or drink. Jess asked for the prices of a few dishes and desserts, feeling his scalp numb even more.

Especially after hearing the earlier discussion about the future economic direction of Stormwind, he felt even more that purchasing slightly more expensive items was a sin.

He ordered a piece of 6 copper coins Stormwind cheese smash, a dry slice of bread, supplementing some essential protein, salt, and carbohydrates to hold out until the afternoon to mooch some free snacks at the Wizard's Sanctum, lest he pass out from hunger in the meantime.

Thinking about it, his head already dizzy from hunger, when the "dishes" were served one by one, and after stuffing a few into his mouth rapidly, he finally felt the strength to start contemplating what to do next.

Once he acquired the assistant badge, he'd head straight to the library, zooming into the alchemy and herbalism section. His target - shadow protection and resistance potions; any potions, flasks, elixirs related to resisting shadow powers.

Preparing these shadow-related potions was for his next trip to The Slaughtered Lamb.

Running in the buff like last time was impossible; it was too painful, and in those idiot sorcerers' hands, he didn't know what kind of unforeseen magical consequences he might face; he had to protect himself as much as possible to ensure his physical health.

After all, health is the capital of revolution; lose it, and everything's gone.

Once he got the formulas for these potions, he'd set off to gather the necessary herbs.

It's absolutely impossible for him to buy those herbs; previously in Lordaeron, even the most common Peacebloom sold for a few silver a pound, with Azeroth's pound nearly equivalent to the Imperial pound, about 400 grams not quite half a kilogram, he hadn't inquired about other herbs' prices, but they certainly wouldn't be cheaper than Peacebloom, possibly even more expensive.

Of course, the most common refers to its prevalence in the game; based on Jess's previous work experience, if the collection cost of a pound of Peacebloom reached one or two silver, it might mean even picking a pound of Peacebloom requires herbology knowledge, the effort, physical exhaustion, and possibly risking life and limb to reach the gathering spot and transport it back.

Not to mention the more expensive formulas related to shadow potions, he remembered in the game, most shadow potions didn't appear until level 15 or 20, possibly involving herbs like Fadeleaf, Kingsblood, and others beyond beginner areas, by then he might have to deal with wolves or even worgen.

So he must bring Grit along, and they must gather whatever they can on the road, maximizing each expedition's profit, thereby earning more, and deviously sharing a little more with him.

Plus, they must go out during the day; he's not keen on going out at night when all kinds of demons and ghosts become several times more rampant.

Although this would delay some money-making time, but… could these odd jobs in Stormwind help him buy a house? He doubted it.

Although his recent adventures were thrilling to the point of nearly costing his life, he wasn't eager to take such risks anymore, but Jess realized those experiences slightly altered his perspective.

By afternoon, Jess returned to Marin's study, where Amy was waiting for him.

"Your badge is ready." Amy held a small, exquisite box, opened it, and took out a ring made of an unknown metal, saying, "This is your assistant's badge, unique only to you."

Jess inspected it closely, feeling it might be copper and probably wouldn't sell for much.

Moreover, the ring was inscribed with arcane magic, marked with his name and surname initials, and labeled as an assistant. If he tried to sell it, he'd likely face repercussions soon.

However, this ring was his Gateway to the world of magic; he wasn't shortsighted to that extent.

"Thank you, Miss."

"Please, call me Amy. After all, we might be working together for a long time. By the way, is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Um," Jess scanned the room and said, "I'd like to borrow a scroll."

He needed a scroll to record formulas and general locations. If he relied on memory alone and missed something, leading to a wasted trip, it would be a substantial loss.

The prices of paper, ink, and inscription-related items sold in shops were outrageously high; he hadn't even considered stepping into one.

Amy handed a scroll to Jess, who thanked her, took the badge, and headed for the Wizard's Sanctum.