Chapter 48: Enchanted weapons?

In Azeroth where magical elements were abundant, and encouraged the birth of plentiful arcane mages and professions related to these elements, every living being obtained a chance on the road to climb the ladder of a powerhouse. Yet, the path to becoming the true sorcerer wasn't shown to all, as the requirements were stringent for oneself to rise to the peak. A colossal blockade stood in the way of pursuing magic, which was commonly known as innate talent. Before a candidate was eligible for magic, their innate talents were tested. This particular watershed couldn't be easily crossed over through synthetic methods. However, the bloodline or genetic system appeared to work, as provided by evidence, in the family when a mage was born, his or her descendants most likely inherited their parent's talent and passed it on generation after generation.

The second watershed was the expense to produce a qualified mage and typically big families encountered no problem as such. But for the lower class, the people must join others to support the resources they needed and soon lost their freedom. Overall, mages were symbols of nobles, and the public accepted this idea. Lireesa after being reborn seemed to possess magical talents and could now regard herself as a magister despite her level still being in the middle stage. Only after prudent studying, was Lireesa aware of her talents and found the answers to why her mana abruptly increased compared to her predecessors. When she attributed the logic to her memory fusion producing such results, it shouldn't increase too much. And now combined with the current evidence of her additional innate talent, Lireesa certainly acquired a force multiplier and cognized her body's abilities more.

Lireesa, before she planned her departure to the capital city, sat on the balcony under the picturesque night and gazed at the lively atmosphere around the manor from the heights. Compared to humans, elves spent their splendid hours even in the night sky. There were lights available due to Sunwell, and it created a busy scene in front. For such sight, how much her ancestor had paid for, Lireesa deeply understood and wondered about her previous life where the peace in her country was the result of uncountable sacrifices unknown to the public. Men and women paid the same and she still couldn't grasp why there existed a division for some unproven ideology and uncontrollable thirst for conflicts. Was her country at the edge of collapse similar to the past, like a song lyric—from the old world's demise?

Now capable to become one of the chess players for high elven civilization, she could never escape the responsibility her surname shouldered them. She brought up her notes which recorded her thoughts on improving their Windrunners' capability and found her transformation of her guards merely altered the doctrines but not the fundamentals of individual combat abilities. Of course, Lireesa distinguished wars were never meant to fight alone, and an increase in individual rangers' strength seldom affected the overall trend when contrasted with tactics and strategies. Lireesa had already revolutionized the drills from the tactical levels during the past weeks, and strategies required further introductions to impart knowledge to her fellow officers but were unable to immediately augment for the upcoming war. Hence, Lireesa didn't mention it at the moment.

Regarding Individual aspects, when Lireesa compared with others her Windrunner's guard, known as Windrunner legions among the Quel'Thalas armies because generations of ranger-general from Windrunner always brought alongside these women during any war, her own personal guards were top-notched elites among elites in the Quel'Thalas where mage output wasn't included in the equation. Which ranger units had she seen requiring the individual to be level 7-8? If she scored her legion according to the previous world ranking style, Windrunner guards were the same as the 75th Ranger. Inexplicably, even the professional name was the same, Lireesa laughed inwardly.

Since Lireesa revised the military doctrine of Windrunner, her guards were already special forces from the perspective of a modern person, especially the 1500 women chosen to go to the frontline. Speaking of her newly trained veterans, Lireesa received news from Sena, everything went well and the plan hadn't changed. The fog of war was within their grasp and no casualties at the moment. So far, many trolls were eliminated on the borderline and the trolls hadn't reacted. It was also one of the reasons which constrained Lireesa from moving away from her manor since her march—a land of marquis—was situated bordering the trolls. Should unexpected variables beyond their calculations occur, Lireesa had the confidence to react even if the opponent had legend powerhouses.

Previous Lireesa would have struggled with one legendary opponent, but the current one had confidence in her strengthened power after the fusion and realized her innate capabilities to combat 3 such enemies. Back to her initial contemplation on increasing the individual windrunner's capabilities, Lireesa had a headache and suddenly remembered her own personal bow—Thas'dorah, Valor of the forest—a hereditary weapon of Windrunner. As the semi-artifact, Lireesa deemed Thas'dorah as more than an enchanted weapon. She never held it and applied it on the battlefield, but relying on her memory, this bow could release an arcane arrow without requiring her to input her mana. Lireesa could continuously fire a volley of arrows without worrying about the depletion as the bow recovered on its own albeit if the rate of fire exceeds the regeneration, Lireesa must contribute her power.

In addition, when the wielder used the material arrows, the bow boosted the arrow's speed and enhanced its damage, after blessing the piercing ability of an arrow. For Lireesa, another capability was not useful, because arrows no longer required the user to aim and flew to hit the target the archer desired in his or her heart. Lireesa at present accomplished the heart realm and produced the same effect utilizing an ordinary bow. As stated by her ancestor, this heirloom could transform 'a mediocre archer into a master marksman'. Thas'dorah also had attributes that glistened Lireesa's interest and were the major factor to determine a new way to increase windrunner's combat.

There were two spells engraved on the bow—in fact, it was only one but based on the functions it became two—Windburst ability, which allowed the wielder to cause damage to her enemies through fierce wind whirling around the arrow as it left the bow, causing damage to the surrounding within its path. It also granted an auxiliary effect increasing the movement speed of the allies Lireesa desired. Using it on the arrow went for destruction while on the personnel meant to increase their agility. Frankly, Lireesa had one complaint related to this particular spell, because anyone who played the game DOTA would notice the similarities on a specific hero—'powershot' and 'windrun' spell despite Thas'dorah's effect being weaker than the former. Lireesa liked the passive attributes of regenerating the mana of the wielder if she utilized it, which meant Lireesa would always be or allow herself to be in a peak situation no matter what happened.

Enchanted weapons and items in the game only made a subtle change for the wielder, by merely increasing the attributes point and no large modification was observed. But the reality wasn't a game. In Lireesa's opinion, her strength without Thas'dorah allowed her to engage 3 similar opponents; after equipping, she had the capacity to kill the same 3 enemies effortlessly. The tiny stats resulted in a change in her damage output. This hadn't comprised the spells she could still utilize. In the game, players saw very rarely the effects of mana recovery attributes during the fights; nonetheless, Lireesa knew how menacing the consequences were to the enemies if their opponent possessed such capability.

Not to mention, she wouldn't fight the enemies like in the game. Advance and retreat were all on the tables. After disengaging from the enemies and recovering quicker than them, enchanted weapons already had shown their edge. While the enemies weren't ready and her mana was now full, the initiative was always in her hand. This was just one of the possible scenarios, displaying the advantages brought by the enchanted tools. There were many other cases. Her Thas'dorah was naturally more than being enchanted because it was nearing the artifact level. According to the Azeroth history, weapons were differentiated into normal, black, purple, gold, epic, semi-artifact, and artifact, from low to higher levels.

The first three initial levels depended on the type of materials and the expertise of bowmakers. As long as they were available, purple-level equipment could be produced in batches provided that the buyer had enough funds. Gold level and beyond required the help of mages to enchant the weapons increasing the cost of production and magisters were too proud to participate in forging such weapons and rarely involved. This was also the reason why the equipment above purple levels was unique on Azeroth. Thas'dorah was the semi-artifact level bow forged by numerous bowmakers and magisters to reward Lireesa's ancestor for her deeds by the king himself; the whole process was arduous and complicated, taking a very lengthy period. Lireesa understood the consumption of time, energy, and resources to manufacture merely her heirloom.

Naturally, Lireesa didn't need batches of semi-artifact bows to arm her rangers. Enchanted purple tier equipment, which also could be regarded as a quasi-gold tier, was sufficient for her demands. She drooled at the thought her entire Windrunners were armed to the teeth with a complete suite of equipment from the cloaks, armors, bracelets, guards, and even underwear to the bows. She immersed herself in a dream, creating ranger suits for her followers and how they conquered the whole world until rationality came and poured cold water on her. Lireesa patted her cheeks in annoyance when she knew this task was impossible, but she really didn't want to give up. A great man once said all inventions came from a dream. She believed there would be a time when Lireesa could realize this idea.

If she armed her guards according to her ideas, the windrunners' combat potentials were directly enhanced. Such armament would upgrade her rangers and transform them into the delta, from tier 3 to tier 1 despite her legions were already the best of the best. Her imagination went wild despite the previous cold water. Anyway, a person must have a dream to pursue and Lireesa now had an additional desire. Before her pursuit was to ensure and guard her family's safety, Lireesa now wanted to fulfill these impeccable visions. As someone who was crazy about military technologies in a previous life, Lireesa now felt she could personally participate in the process.

Lireesa took out her notes and hurriedly wrote down her thoughts underneath the two lists: pets and arcane swordmaster. Now her notes had three lists, none of which were trouble-free. Poverty really limits her visions. Initially, Lireesa thought the living standards and meal consumption of Windrunners were highest in Quel'Thalas and discovered the funds needed to realize her idea never made a fraction. Well, she comforted herself that even her monarch faced obstacles to pursuing her dream.

She tossed away the ideas at the moment and reminisced about Ella's report on the progress of the restaurant agenda. During this week, Ella had recruited chefs and interested workers who were willing to travel to the capital. She also recruited many from outside the manor, where the villages existed. From these villages, Ella picked up talents and promised them a huge sum of money for the family. For the civilians, it was an honor to be chosen by their lord. Although these villages lived inside Lireesa's fiefdom, she couldn't control them like her followers in the manor. Therefore, the relationship between the two became a transaction after Ella's operation. Lireesa complained about whether the methods Ella used to persuade these villages were too similar to trafficking organizations. Luckily, she was the lord and knew trafficking was impossible, especially in Quel'Thalas where the moral values were uptight.

In many fantasy worlds written by authors in previous life, humans usually enslaved the elves and sold them as commodities. It wasn't the elven civilization was weak but because they desired peace more. Based on the power accumulated throughout the millennium, it was impossible to not have sufficient powerhouses in the elven civilization. Lireesa never understood but fathomed the author merely wanted the main protagonist to be able to marry an elven wife. She snickered inward. Should this happen in Azeroth, what awaited the human was the wrath of Quel'Thalas. Even though the high elves practiced an isolation policy, it didn't mean they weren't involved in world affairs. For example, Dalaran council was also the commute point between humans and elves. High elves weren't afraid humans plotted against them.

Even if the whole human kingdoms united and invaded Quel'Thalas, high elves could handle it easily but the consequences afterward forced them to think twice to avoid such catastrophe. It was the high cost that needed to be paid by Quel'Thalas, which inhibited their influence. For instance, the low population was one reason, and population growth had stagnated among the high elves, compared with humans whose reproduction rate remained constant and all times high. Lireesa signed at the current elves' major unsolvable problems. Even she nearly became a zoo animal after giving birth to four children. She wasn't sure if she could still give birth. Afterward, she spat at her thoughts and swore why should she become pregnant. Then, Lireesa kicked away the ideas. It was dangerous, she patted her chest in relief.