Chapter 51: Shaman Priest (II)
Unlike simply draining a target’s life force in games, the light lock formed by magic not only sucks life but also has dual effects of weakening and reducing the target’s strength, weakening their physical condition and diminishing the effects of positive spells. It seems that warriors and mages below the Bronze rank cannot break free on their own.
“That orc shaman, though a spellcaster, has a physique as strong as those ordinary mid-tier Dark Iron human soldiers. Even with such racial talents and strength, they can’t escape it. As for those at the Bronze rank or above, the effects of life-draining are likely only to serve as a minor restraint, having little effect on Silver-ranked stronglings. However, if combined with the Demon Hunter’s spell burn, the combined effects of these two spells should be enough to shock even Silver-ranked stronglings!”
Donald analyzed while observing the orc shaman and stroking his chin.
After becoming a hero, he automatically gained access to two innate spells, and the hero skills and innate abilities of the Demon Hunter also gradually unlocked.
Compared to the rich variety of mage spells, a hero’s skills in Warcraft consist of only four, at least one of which is a passive skill. Yet these skills, derived from Warcraft’s settings and the rules of this world, are extremely powerful, possessing growth capabilities absent in ordinary spells. While those who choose Warcraft professions, including non-hero professions, may have somewhat more limited abilities compared to traditional professions in this world, the innate talents, enhanced physical strength, and powerful specialized skills they gain after leveling up are beyond comparison to ordinary professionals.
As for which is better, it depends on individual perspective.
However, if one can hold two excellent professions from different systems like Donald, their future growth potential becomes infinitely vast.
After testing the power of his innate skills, Donald didn’t waste any more of his magic. He ordered the female hunter behind him to unleash a Moonblade, dealing a painful blow to the orc shaman, whose lower body was covered in blood from thorns.
The young novice shaman, with unfulfilled ambitions, died in agony beneath the Moonblade. Then, Donald began absorbing the last victim on the battlefield using fragments of the Soul Ball.
Under the temporary divine vision granted by the Book of Truth, he discovered that the situation after the death of this shaman priest was clearly different from that of other orcs. From the head of the orc shaman’s corpse, a massive sphere of light emerged from thick black smoke. This fragment of soul was far larger and more intact than he had imagined, almost a hundred times that of an ordinary orc warrior. What surprised Donald the most was that, under the influence of some unknown force in the western direction, the soul of the orc shaman was able to resist the power of this fragment of the Soul Sphere, which was equivalent to a low-tier legendary magic item, and held out for several seconds before being absorbed into the Soul Sphere.
“Could this be what the ancient orc legends describe as the soul returning to the ancestral spirits after death?”
With the power of souls in his hands, Donald murmured to himself in confusion.
Humans understood their enemies quite well. The Mage Guild of Stone City contained detailed records about the orcic power system.
The ancestral spirits of orcs were similar in nature to the holy spirits of humans. In Donald’s opinion, they were like the earth gods, local deities, and household spirits from past legends—lowly deities of lesser status. Yet even though they were of lower rank, they were still not ordinary beings just because they carried the title of “god.”
In this world, the hierarchy was even stricter. Below the true gods, everything was considered mundane. However, there were also extraordinary beings who defied these rules—golden warriors, ancestral spirits, holy spirits, legendary beings, and even higher-tier demigods. Legends said they possessed long lifespans and great power. Even the immortal demigods in legends only achieved incomplete immortality. Without becoming a true god, one could not achieve eternity, and even true gods could fall. According to legends, the orc chief god was the most powerful ancestral spirit in orc history who was elevated to godhood—yet he still fell at the hands of the human gods.
Donald learned much about these things from the books in the Mage Guild of Stone City. However, the descriptions above level nine were mostly legends or glorified accounts without detailed classifications, so he only had a general idea.
But the Book of Truth contained information about the deities of its origin world, which was surprisingly similar to the deities of this world. It also included knowledge derived from the laws of this world. Thus, as the master of a divine artifact contract, Donald knew far more about the secrets of the true gods than most top professionals above the golden rank.
Understanding how deep the waters were here, he certainly wouldn’t dare seize souls from true human gods. But a mere orc ancestral spirit couldn’t stop him. After all, such divine spirits had extremely strict requirements regarding their territory; once they left the tribal lands that provided their protection and sustained their power, their strength would plummet to a very serious level. This was an extremely dangerous act for them. Even a semi-divine ancestral spirit, once away from its lair, could only exert power on par with that of a legendary being at best, with weaker ones not even reaching gold-tier strength. Such an ancestral spirit, once outside its domain, would be like Tang Sanzang without Sun Wukong’s protection—easy prey at the very least, and the godly churches in human territories, with their gold-tier and above warriors, would surely not miss such a gift. Whether capturing and absorbing the rules and power within the ancestral spirit or locking it up to offer to the true gods for rewards, it was an enormous advantage. Obtaining even a trace of a rule seed from within such an ancestral spirit was enough to elevate a gold-tier warrior to legendary status in a short time. If one could refine an entire semi-divine ancestral spirit, a legendary warrior could easily become a semi-divine being. Thus, the orc ancestral spirits posed no great threat—they had little to worry about. Donald also thought he wasn’t foolish enough to recklessly invade the orc stronghold, so he had no qualms about plundering and seizing orc souls in human territories. “Hehe! Even if the orc leaders discover us, it’s no big deal—just stay in human territory for life! As for orc warriors attacking us?” Donald didn’t think he had that much charm. After all, besides the protection of the gods, almost every human kingdom had divine spirits. Although Donald didn’t know much about it in detail, based on the information he obtained from the library at the Stone City Club, the hidden power in human society was absolutely formidable. This was why, even living in the remote northern lands, Donald remained cautious and didn’t dare reveal too much. If orc warriors dared cross the human borders, what awaited them was undoubtedly an attack by human warriors. In fact, what Donald was doing was similar to what some other race warriors did.
Since the orcs were defeated a thousand years ago, some mages or other powerful beings in need of research materials have captured orcs who left their tribes, using their bodies or souls as experimental materials. The orc tribes’ leaders are aware of this, but they are originally a defeated race, one without the protection of true gods. If it weren’t for some powerful ancestral spirits serving as their last hope, and if the human true gods were unwilling to pay a heavy price to descend to the main world and destroy them, the orc race would have long been wiped out by other hostile races. Thus, they cannot risk extinction by deploying their strongest forces to stop those who prey on orcs, especially human mages. It’s not that they don’t want to stop them, but they simply lack the strength to do so. On a more positive note, this situation also has some advantages for the orcs’ current situation. Orcs driven to the northwestern wastelands face difficult survival conditions with scarce food, yet they have a high reproductive rate, producing many new orcs each year. Abandoning some of them helps alleviate population pressure!