The Great Thief

It was very eye-catching to have over 1000 Thieves clean up the area, but because there was a certain distance from Telaar to Telredor, when they were all spread out, it wasn’t as obvious. Moreover, even if it didn’t really matter how conspicuous it was, at least a few people knew about what sort of relationship Buggy and his group had with Lu Li.

“Right, the quest’s finished.”

In just a short 15 minutes or so, Lu Li again stood before the old Broken one.

Alfred only opened his mouth after a moment of silence.

“Hero, you have astonished me with your power.”

“Please believe me, respected elder, I have paid a huge price for this.”

Lu Li didn’t want him to think that this quest was too easy for him. Either he would think it a good idea to reduce the quest reward, or there would be an even harder quest waiting for him.

Seeing how stingy Alfred was, Lu Li really didn’t want to work too hard for him.

“Fine,” Alfred said, resentfully taking back his thoughts of breaking his promise. He then continued, “When the universe was born from the collision of light and darkness, there existed a world before the Burning Legion Expedition. It took shape in a chaotic, dark corner. There were no dormant spirits of the world (Titans), but this place was filled with ‘water, fire, wind, earth’ and the fifth element –’the spirit of life’. Later, the Ogres would call this place ‘D’Gor’, which means ‘the known land’, while it was called ‘Raksha’ by the intelligent Arakkoa Bird Men, meaning ‘the rock of the sun’. However, we call this world Draenor.”

“Water, fire, wind, earth?” Lu Li asked, then followed with, “What about lightning?”

He had been one-shot-killed by lightning, so he was constantly brooding on that occurrence. This lightning didn’t just come out from nowhere, but it was an attack that came from the monsters that defended lightning.

“Air, which is wind,” Alfred began, looking at Lu Li scornfully, then continued to explain, “Draenor’s 5th element, ‘the spirit of life’, cannot only mediate the natural power of the other four elements, but it can also speed up the growth of plants. Because of this, Draenor has become a place that is filled with vitality, while being the cradle of wildlife. Different lifeforms are fighting on this land, which demands the survival of the fittest. The most powerful strength here is not in pointy teeth or sharp claws, but a type of carnivorous plant – the Spore Colony. Wherever the Spore Colony goes, there, lush forests and marshy ponds will grow. Their roots will draw the spirit of life from rocks and soil. This fifth element gives brand-new intelligence. The Spore Colony is called the Everbloom by other plants. In all the greenery, there’s no other strength that can rival with them.”

“What about later? The elements at the Throne of the Elements are all berserk too. I couldn’t see the spirit of life at work there,” Lu Li said.

Later…

When the Titan Aggramar, who was pursuing demons in the universe, arrived in Draenor, even though there were no spirits of the world here, the greedy plants of the world made him extremely curious. However, after he observed the Everbloom carefully, he foresaw Draenor’s future misfortune.

“Suppose that restraints are not increased. Then, the Everbloom will swallow all, and in finality, Draenor will became a wasteland with no end.”

Aggramar wanted to personally destroy the Spore Colony, but he was also afraid of damaging the planet (when Aman’Thul was removing Y’Shaarj, he left behind some serious damage on Azeroth.) Because of this, Aggramar used ‘fire, wind, water, earth’, the four elements, to form an elemental storm, changing the tallest peak on Draenor to be his own guardian ‘D’Gor’. This walking peak carved out rivers, seas and valleys, and separated out the Everbloom.

When D’Gor headed towards the closest Spore Colony to do its thing, the roots tangled him up, preventing him from going forward. It was like when Aman’Thul pulled up Y’Shaarj from the Earth’s surface. D’Gor effortlessly pulled up that Spore Colony. When the other Spore Colonies clearly recognised that they had no way to win against D’Gor, they began to absorb all the life essence around them in a frenzy, thus being able to move around on their own.

These three ‘essence-d’ Spore Colonies differed greatly from each other. Zangar was widespread throughout the marsh and fungi, Porta’An was full of primal forests, while Nayanu was dressed in dense jungle.

The three Spore Colonies joined together to resist D’Gor. Draenor dragged out its feeble existence under the intense fighting of these giants.

In the air above Draenor, Aggramar looked over at his creations being completely dominated by the Spore Colonies, but D’Gor’s rock-solid will wouldn’t give up so easily. With his fist that was heavy as a mountain, he would smash the plant giants to pieces.

The weakest plant giant, Zangar, was broken into two halves by D’Gor. His decomposing body became the fungi sea area known as ‘Zangar Sea’.

Nayanu was smashed by D’Gor’s giant fist, and his body, which turned back into soil, became the Tanaan Jungle.

D’Gor, who had defeated two plant giants, had suffered limitless trauma. After Porta’An had absorbed the extra life essence from Nayanu and Zangar, he turned into a colossus that blocked out light from the sun.

His thorny roots dug into D’Gor’s open wounds, from which burst forth tangling vines. The elemental giant fell to the ground, shattering into shards and forming a mountain range at the border of Nagrand.

During the battle between D’Gor and the Spore Colony, after these giant body shards entered the earth, they became new species.

The three Spore Colonies bred many unique lifeforms, the most famous of which was the ‘Genesaur’. This four-legged lifeform was gigantic, while being frighteningly speedy and agile.

The rock pieces which had tumbled off from D’Gor and contained life essence turned into self-aware ‘giant spirits’. The elemental power of D’Gor’s corpse birthed out countless elemental substances, including the strongest Furies of Draenor – the Fury of Fire Incineratus, Fury of Water Aborius, Fury of Air Kalandrios and Fury of Earth Gordawg.

The Furies of the four major elements pledged to always remain at D’Gor’s side. After this, they were call the Throne of the Elements.

“This is the history of the Throne of the Elements, the remains of D’Gor,” Alfred sighed. “Do you know the origin of the power of Shamans?”

“Of course – the elements,” Lu Li answered.

“That’s right,” Alfred said, “Fire, wind, earth, water – the four major elements which everything in the universe is basically composed of. In the culture of Shamans, many of them look to peacefully coexist with the elements. Either that, or they force them to submit to them, adding to their will the strength to do what they want them to do – that is, to be spirits, or decrepit and senile. In hoping to establish a peaceful and equal relationship with the elements, they depend on the strength of the spirits to do things. This life-nurturing strength was able to establish mutual relationships with the things of this world, uniting all as one. However, the strength of those decrepit ones was used by those Shamans who wanted to force the elements into servitude, using them to fuel their own equipment.”

“It can’t just be Shamans that can enter in there right?” Lu Li asked, speechless.

After speaking for half a day, all Lu Li got in the end was a nearly nonsensical conclusion.

“The logic is this,” Alfred explained, “Those who have the approachability of the elements are able to enter the Throne of the Elements. In the beginning, Gul’dan was born in a remote village of the Shadowmoon Clan, and because of his disability, he was abandoned by all his clan. Under the guidance of the Shaman in the village, he came to the Throne of the Elements in Nagrand and prayed that the elements would guide him on his way. In the end, even the elements gave up on him, because his heart was full of darkness.”

“However, it was because of the strength of their rejection that he received the gift from Burning Legion. Relying on the evil power that Burning Legion bestowed on him, Gul’dan became the first Warlock in history. He went back to the village that abandoned him, killed all his former clan, and ‘paid back’ that Shaman who guided him with ‘thankfulness’, destroying all of Draenor while he was at it.”

The dodgy Lu Li definitely didn’t want his heart to be considered to be full of darkness. At that time, he almost wanted to use say some taunting words in return to this old dispirited guy.

“So, you’re planning to ask Burning Legion for help?”

Alfred gripped his staff in his hands tightly.

“It won’t get that far. Seriously, don’t misunderstand me. I’m planning to ask my teacher for help. Many years ago, she was an original inhabitant of this land too,” Lu Li laughed dryly before retreating, not planning to get tangled up with this old guy any further.

His Charisma was too low – there was nothing he could do!