Chapter 85： The Veteran's Longing

In the afternoon, Jess packed his herb-picking bag and tools, as well as the warlock bag containing the imp and a bottle of shadow protection potion, and set off with a stick.

Originally, this trip to Westfall was for picking herbs. By the way, he wanted to see if he could encounter any murlocs or something, and help Ursula find out the information she wanted to know about the shadow magic used by murlocs.

But after communicating with his teacher, especially after knowing that there will be an important orc language exam later, mana potions become less important.

After all, he will have to study orc language seriously for a month. If it weren't for having enough energy left to practice spells, he wouldn't plan to go out at all.

Accustomed to traveling with dwarves, he was traveling alone on a caravan carriage on the road in Elwynn Forest in silence. He was actually a bit unaccustomed to it.

At dusk, he rested at Westfall Station. Jess planned to find a weapon that others didn't need here. A veteran with a somewhat strange tone came up and asked him what he wanted a weapon for. Jess emphasized several times that he just wanted a self-defense weapon to scare off the occasional wild animals. Only then did this person agree to sell him one.

Following the veteran to a relatively remote tent, he saw a large pile of scrap metal in the corner after entering.

"Take it." The veteran pointed and said, "Ten copper coins each. If you find one that can still be used, consider yourself lucky."

Jess picked for a long time before finding a knife that was almost still usable.

The veteran, bare-chested, bent down and began to tidy up the old and worn-out weapons that he had messed up. Jess asked, "Where did all these weapons come from?"

"Picked up, used and old. Many of them were used by gnolls or murlocs." The soldier turned his head and smiled and asked, "Do you want orc weapons? We also have orc weapons here. They are a bit more expensive, but most of them can still be used for chopping firewood. The big ones may be too big for you to use, but small knives and swords, you can take two and use them. I think you are strong enough."

This person's expression seemed to be deliberately mocking something. Jess sensibly shook his head.

He remembered that when he saw the stick held by the orc shaman in Redridge Mountains up close, it was so thick, but from a distance, it looked so pitiful in his hand like a small twig. Just this incident was enough for him to imagine the scale of orc weapons.

"Do you encounter many murlocs?" Jess asked again.

The soldier said, "In the past two years, sometimes there are some wreckage of sunken ships drifting ashore on this side, and soaked supplies and so on. This has attracted all the murlocs from the west. So it's a bit more troublesome. In the past, you wouldn't see murlocs at all if you didn't go to the western coast."

"What sunken ship?"

"Of course it's warships. There are also those from Kul Tiras and Stormwind... There are all kinds. There are even orcs."

"Orcs?"

"Yes." The soldier said, "Because once during our patrol, we saw murlocs roasting orc meat to eat."

"How do you know it's orc meat?"

The soldier patted his head and said, "I can recognize an orc head at a glance. I'm extremely familiar with it."

"So you have seen orcs with your own eyes." Jess asked, "You are a veteran of the orc war, right?"

"What do you think?" The soldier laughed and said, "I am not only a veteran of the orc war. I was the first to enter the swamp under King Llane's order. There were not many of the first few batches who could come back. I am one of them. At that time, I was full of anger and only wanted revenge. So later I crossed the Baradin Bay and also participated in the Battle of Hillsbrad with the Silver Hand."

"Then your military rank should be very high."

As soon as Jess asked this question, he realized that he seemed to have said the wrong thing. This guy was selling used weapons here. No matter how he looked at it, he didn't seem like a high-ranking officer.

"No, because I deserted in Hillsbrad." The soldier confessed.

"But where can you escape? There are orcs, trolls, and wolves bigger than cows everywhere. So I went back. Because I had made contributions and the reconstruction of New Stormwind was short of people, I was not executed. I came back to help with the work and was later recalled to the army to serve as logistics. I have been a soldier for half my life and can't do anything else."

Jess looked at this person and it was hard to imagine what a brave warrior who survived being chased by orcs in the Black Morass had experienced in Hillsbrad.

That battle not only had death knights but also red dragons. If one didn't truly participate in that war, no one could say for sure that they could calmly hold on until the end.

And this person was talking about things that should have made people unable to get out of it for a lifetime as if it were someone else's story.

"What are you looking for murlocs for?" The veteran suddenly asked.

"Oh, I want to go to the north coast. So I want to ask where there are murlocs so I can try to avoid them as much as possible." Jess replied and then asked, "If I want to go there, where should I go first? Is there a place to stay?"

"Cross the bridge and keep going west." The veteran said, "Follow the road for about ten miles and you will see an abandoned village there. There is no one. There is a farm not far from the village. It belongs to the Fabrons. Their family grows pumpkins. A few miles further north, there is a small fishing village with only four households. There you can see the coast. You can find a place to stay in these places."

Jess thanked him and was about to leave when the other person asked again, "By the way, are you planning to go to that fishing village?"

"I want to go and have a look."

"My wife was born there." The veteran said, "Come to think of it, I haven't seen her for a long time. If you are going, please take a message for me and say that I am all right."

"Sure." Jess asked, "What's her name?"

The veteran didn't speak. He just looked at Jess for a while and then turned and left through another exit of the tent.

Jess was not at all surprised by the other person's incomprehensible reaction because he had thought this guy was mentally unstable from the very beginning.

Of course, he didn't mean that he didn't want to help this unlucky person. It's just that without the soldier's name or the wife's name, how could he deliver the message?

After walking out of the tent, he increasingly felt that there was something strange in this person's words.

Fishing village, murlocs, wife, mentally unstable veteran.

Won't it turn into something like "The Shadow over Innsmouth"?

There is no strange fishing village in the game. There is no Cthulhu-style event happening in Westfall. There are indeed some abandoned dilapidated houses on the north coast.

Since the veteran said that there are only four households in that fishing village, it should not be difficult to find a family with a daughter married to a soldier.

Jess remembered what the veteran said about revenge and anger. Considering that this wife might have been killed in the war. Maybe that's why the veteran is mentally unstable and was regarded as a deserter on the battlefield or something.

In that case, telling the wife's family about the veteran's situation can also be considered as giving them an explanation.

He rested at the post station at Westfall for one night and set off early the next morning.

He had heard of the Fabron Farm. After all, this farm existed in the game. But he had no impression at all of the uninhabited village and fishing village mentioned by the soldier.

Westfall is very large. It may be much larger than the Elwynn area. Last time when he came with Grid, it took a day and a night just to go to Sentinel Hill. Not to mention Moonbrook further south.

And looking at the map, the road for carriages from Westfall Station to Sentinel Hill only covers a short distance in a large area on the eastern half of Westfall.

Perhaps there are many unknown small settlements and so on. Maybe they were quite famous before the orc war and the opening of the Dark Portal. After the orcs swept through here, they all disappeared without a trace.

At noon, Jess was a bit hungry. Just when he was hesitating whether to eat something now, he finally saw a farm.

The farm had been harvested. Judging from some dried dead leaves beside the farm, this should be a pumpkin field. Could this be the Fabron Farm that the veteran mentioned earlier?

Come to think of it, Jess didn't see any small towns or villages either.

"Hey, you over there. Are you here to buy pumpkins? Only coming in October? The Harvest Festival has passed."

Someone shouted from the distant house. Jess looked over and saw a tall man in a brown coat.

"I'm not here to buy pumpkins, sir!" As he responded, he walked over and saw clearly that the person shouting was a young man.

"Are you Mr. Fabron?"

"Yes, Riodel Fabron! The owner of this farm!"