Gerald Bard's family settled down in Durnholde. The family now admired the foresight of this patriarch: after large-scale construction, this place would definitely become one of the leading cities in Lordaeron. But currently, the scale of commerce here is still very small. Most of the supplies are summoned by Lord Aiden from Valoran. Most people here are working to build this city—very, very few are engaged in commercial operations.
Discovering this, Bard immediately leased a newly built five-story commercial building from the government. It was close to the city lord's mansion and relatively close to the former arena, which was being converted into a square. It was certain that this would become the most prosperous area in the future.
After the renovation, he used his previous connections to purchase a large amount of fine wine and delicacies from various traveling merchants in Southshore. He also poached the chef from the Southshore Inn and opened a tavern here—named "Angel's Kiss" Tavern.
As he expected, the tavern's business boomed after its opening. The people of Durnholde did not lack living supplies, but they severely lacked entertainment facilities. The workers here had no worries about food and drink but faced the dilemma of having a lot of wages to spend without a place to spend them. Once the tavern opened, everyone had an extra recreational activity to drink, chat, and enjoy delicious food during their rest.
Although many people followed suit and opened taverns later, Angel's Kiss seized the opportunity, and its business has always been the best among its peers.
In the past two days, a group of tauren arrived in Durnholde—the natives of Valoran all knew their origins and were no longer surprised. Gerald, after seeing the yordles who were as short as gnomes, thought he had broadened his horizons, but he did not expect that after the tauren arrived, his eyes were opened again—and he refitted the tavern's gate and most of the doors inside.
It was now morning, the time when the tavern was the quietest. Gerald Bard leaned boredly on the bar, wiping glasses.
"Another barrel!" Gerald heard the customer's order and, without raising his head, signaled his youngest son, Hal Bard, to deliver the wine. This little rascal was now the tavern's waiter.
Hal laboriously carried a whole barrel of rum to the customer.
Two customers were having a drinking contest. One was a tauren—the other tauren respected him very much, calling him Chieftain. He was a hero named Alistar. The other person was a rogue-like captain named Plank, who carried a short gun and a short knife. He was also a hero.
These two had been in the tavern since yesterday, drinking until now. They had already drunk a full eight barrels of rum—each barrel containing thirty liters of strong liquor. The terrible thing was that these two guys didn't seem drunk at all. Bard had to send someone to Southshore in advance to bring back more wine, otherwise, who knew if they would drink up his stock.
Plank joked: "Old cow, I think you should just admit defeat. Be my little brother!"
Alistar retorted: "No way, I've never lost a drinking contest—hic—you should be my little brother!"
"This wine is no different from water to me."
"Then let's start now, and no one is allowed to go to the toilet. Whoever can't hold it in loses!" Alistar glared at Plank with his bovine eyes.
Plank was a little scared. Although he could cheat by eating oranges to ensure that he wouldn't get drunk, eating oranges would cause him to pee faster. Besides, the old cow was so big, his bladder must be huge, right?
"Uh—"
"You don't dare?" The tauren snorted contemptuously.
"Only grandsons wouldn't dare! Try to drink me under the table!" Plank said angrily.
So, before noon, they determined the winner—who said that big, dumb cows look simple-minded at first glance? Plank would definitely point a gun at the head of anyone who said that!
...
Now it was February. Most of the construction work on the old site of Durnholde had been completed, and the rest would be delivered within a week. Some of the second phase had already begun. That would be an even larger project, and the city area would be quadrupled on the current basis!
Chief Designer Professor O'Connor Valis was very satisfied with the new city he and his design team had painstakingly created, but now they had to accept a new design requirement: Commander Aiden had obtained the design plan of the Flying Fortress from Dalaran, and he required that their city could also break away from the earth's gravity and become a floating city when necessary.
Professor O'Connor had obtained some powerful helpers, including the Lich Karthus, the Dalaran mage Jaina, and the great inventor Heimerdinger.
Fortunately, the city had left enough space for reconstruction. What he needed was to reasonably design the location and purpose of those floating magic arrays. The specific work would naturally be completed by a large number of magical craftsmen.
With the completion of this city, more and more people were attracted to it. Poor people with difficult lives heard that it provided sufficient food and safe accommodation, as well as work that could support their families, which was a great attraction to them; merchants heard that there was a very broad market prospect here, and they also poured in with a lot of capital; others were adventurers, those who yearned to make contributions or seek a future also hoped that their talents could be displayed in this new country.
Zod was an adventurer with such a dream.
He came from the Kingdom of Stromgarde in the Arathi Highlands, and was originally a captain in the Stromgarde army. He was over six feet tall and muscular, a powerful figure who had participated in battles against the Orcs and earned considerable merit.
Originally, his future looked bright, but for the past month or so, Stromgarde had completely ceased military actions against the Orcs and withdrawn its frontline troops. The Orcs had also stopped attacking and harassing them. Rumor had it that the Orcish chieftain had secretly made peace with the King.
Although some were unhappy with this decision, most soldiers were unwilling to fight the Orcs—those beasts were simply too powerful and savage, and Stromgarde's forces were no match for their aggression. Previous battles had resulted in heavy human casualties, while the Orcs seemed to have suffered little damage. Therefore, most people believed that peace was better than pointlessly losing their lives.
But Zod was very anxious: he was one of those who had a strong desire for battle. It wasn't so much that he hated the Orcs, but he desperately wanted to achieve great deeds.
All of this was because of his beloved woman, Yulia—a year ago, near Hillsbrad, he had rescued this beautiful noble lady from the clutches of troll bandits. Then, as described in novels, the brave young man and the beautiful and generous countess fell in love at first sight. But Zod was just a commoner, a soldier, and he would never be able to climb the ranks high enough to be worthy of the count's family, let alone marry the count's precious daughter.
Naturally, their love was opposed by the Count.
So Zod was determined to climb the social ladder, at least to become a noble—only then would he be worthy enough to propose to the Count's daughter.
As a soldier, there was only one way to realize this dream: to achieve military Merits!
Zod was exceptionally brave and fearless in battle, like a madman on the battlefield. Even when seriously injured, he fought to the death and never retreated, surviving many near-death experiences. Others called him "Zod the Undying." As a result, he was promoted to captain in just one short year, a remarkably fast rise. But this was still far from the threshold of nobility.
Seeing that Yulia was approaching the age of marriage, and that the king had stopped the war against the Orcs, Zod was almost in despair.
A few days ago, Yulia had secretly run away to meet him. After a passionate encounter, Yulia quietly told him: a powerful neighbor had come from the other side of the Thandol Span. That place now belonged to a kingdom called Valoran, ruled by a king named Aiden, and even angels served this king. They were now recruiting warriors and preparing for war, to eliminate a very great threat to the alliance. If Zod wanted to achieve great deeds, that would be a good place to go.
This news was only known to a small number of nobles in Stromgarde, and Yulia had overheard it from her father.
His beloved Yulia's words immediately cleared the fog in Zod's mind. The next day, he began preparations. After abandoning everything here, he secretly went to the Count's mansion to meet Yulia, and the two tearfully said goodbye. Then, carrying his weapons and riding the raptor mount he had tamed himself, he headed towards Durnholde.
Seeing the outline of New Durnholde in the distance, Zod was full of confidence. It seemed Yulia was right; this place had been completely reduced to ruins by the Orcs before, but now it had become an even more magnificent city!
"Hey, big guy, you're blocking my way!" Zod was imagining himself achieving great deeds here, returning to Stromgarde in the future, marrying Yulia, and reaching the pinnacle of life, when a shrill voice sounded behind him.
Zod turned around and, from among several robots, found their owner—an ugly green-skinned goblin.
"Hey, didn't you hear me talking? Dumb brute!" The goblin was a little exasperated. "Time is money, and your daze has already cost me dearly, don't you understand?"
Zod mocked, "Goblin, I could crush your body with one punch. Do you think you can charge into battle for the great lord here?" He leaned on his greatsword, looking down at the goblin.
The goblin rolled his eyes and sarcastically said, "Big guy, your muscles must have grown into your brain! Who said I'm going to fight? I was invited by the kind and wise Lord Aiden here to promote my great invention—the Goblin Start..." He looked at Zod suspiciously, "Forget it, you wouldn't understand anyway. Move aside, move aside, don't delay my making money! I'm going to buy the entire Hillsbrad Foothills!"
—This goblin was naturally Jaxil, who had promoted protective robots to Aiden when he first arrived here. He had constantly heard about the lord's legend in Southshore. In just over two months, he had heard that this great lord, who had almost arrived empty-handed, had built a more prosperous city out of the ruins of Durnholde!
Jaxil happened to have a new invention, and he felt that this great lord was an expert, unlike other humans who were so ignorant and disregarded the power of science. So he came.