Shadow Cup was a serious competition. Ruling Sword rose through the Shadow Cup, so Lu Li attached great importance to it.
Ruling Sword didn’t support Judgement Spear. Lu Li, Moonlight, March Rain, Fat Monkey, Innocent Child, Carnivorous Cat, Mu Qiu, and Sakura Memories all came together and created the strongest line-up in the club. Their goal was to win the championship!
The club’s early development made it easy for them to achieve amazing results.
The players in this stage weren’t afraid to fight; they had nothing to lose. Plus, it seemed as if the Gods of Luck were shining on these newbies. It was normal for people like Lu Li and the others to win a few championships. Of course, this was not guaranteed.
There were some clubs who grew at a crazy pace that would then dramatically fall in relevance soon after.
No matter how much interest was entangled, it wouldn’t stop everyone fighting to death.
Ruling Sword was currently at this stage of rapid development. No one would think they wouldn’t win. Clubs that had the potentially to grow all prayed that they wouldn’t encounter Ruling Sword before the Top 100.
Probably because their prayers were answered, Ruling Sword’s process of going up the Shadow Cup went smoothly. They hadn’t met any famous clubs.
The Top 100 list came out quickly. Ruling Sword and Judgement Spear were all included.
To be able to enter into the Top 100 in Shadow Cup after being shortly established meant that the momentum of Judgement Spear was a force to be reckoned with. Some people even thought that they would be a repeat of Ruling Sword’s old days. Lu Li didn’t make any comments on that. The chapters were all under him, so any development of the clubs were a good thing.
Majority of Shadow Cup’s top 100 were familiar faces. There were very little chances for a high-level club to meet each other so the majority could survive to the end. Of course, there were still clubs with extreme luck that made it to the top. Otherwise, Ruling Sword wouldn’t be what it was today.
Stronghold Battles required a lot of money which affected the Arena inevitably. Many players with some sort of ability were all headhunted. Some had even retired for many years but came back from the temptation of money and reputation.
Dawn as a game was not only well done in terms of content, image, and virtual experience, but also in aspects of human body adaption, the game had achieved the best current technology had to offer.
Before, people would fight at 20, then peak at 25 and go downhill basically at 27/28. If you hadn’t retired at 30, then you’d be seen as taking up space. However, Dawn changed this where at 30 you may not be able to keep your peak energy, but at least you could make use of experience to make up for the loss in energy. At the current rate, it would be normal to retire at 35.
Dawn was a national game, and electric competition was an important component of it. Nearly all of the time was spent on competitions. Donghua Cup was actually a top tier competition, there were plenty worse than them. Many clubs could all whip out a trophy.
The start of a new year meant that the second cohort of professional league were starting to enrol. At this time, the Shadow Cup had just released its top 100. So, all the competitions had conflicting schedules which meant everyone had no other choice but to participate in both at the same time.
To panic everyone even further, there were the new Instance Dungeons that came out as well.
Naxxramas! Also known as NAXX!
Lu Li didn’t have much confidence in this Instance Dungeon’s First Clear. He knew nothing about it. He hadn’t even touched the slightest of this Instance Dungeon in his past life.
He had read a lot of strategies, but there were limits to it in practice. Once it got to this stage, the gaming company could no longer design the types of Instance Dungeons that could be solved by strategies alone.
Many years ago, Kel’Thuzad was still a baby. But he was still a mage who loved his apprentices to bits but was obsessed with dark magic. When he was still a member of the Kirin and was working under the guidance of the great mage leader of Kirin, Antonidas.
Kirin controlled a large quantity of knowledge and secrets relating to magic. Yet, Kel’Thuzad spared no effort to absorb any knowledge that he could touch – even to the extent of the darkest and most taboo areas of arcane magic.
He became known in the city of Dalaran not due to his identity as a great mage, but rather his obsession with necromancy. Necromancy was considered dark magic where you dealt with dead people.
After the war with the Orcs, all the collected information on Orc Warrior Death Magic and Orcs Death Knights were taken to Dalaran and locked into the Violet Library. And Kel’Thuzad who was immersed in necromancy used his title as a great mage to obtain this information and started some dangerous experiments. Even though the experiment’s subjects were just small white mice, these zombie animals still caused unrest among the surrounding farmers and had a bad effect on Kel’Thuzad’s reputation.
The great mage Antonidas warned Kel’Thuzad because of this incident. Even though Kel’Thuzad agreed with Antonidas on the surface, in fact he was still doing his necromantic experiments behind his back. It was due to this that Kel’Thuzad’s relationship with the other Kirin mages got worse and worse.
In reality, during these few years while Kel’Thuzad had been doing these necromantic experiments, he had a ghost-like voice by his ear that guided and helped him this whole time.
When Kel’Thuzad was in Kirin and fell into trouble, it called out to him, telling him to go to the distant Northrend.
After he realised that staying at Kirin would only hinder his dark experiments, Kel’Thuzad sold everything he had and casted away his position at the Kirin and went to Northrend alone.
Once Kel’Thuzad arrived in Northrend, he went through the destroyed ruins of the Neburian Kingdom’s Azjol-Nerub, and the Undead Nerubian guards left him with a deep impression. Once he got to Icecrown and witnessed the enormous mass of Undead organisms, he felt that this was the place he wanted to be.
But once the silent Undead guard made way, and he directly faced the soul that had been calling to him, the spirit used its terrible powers to force him to submit and pledge allegiance.
This soul in which Kel’Thuzad referred to as the Lich King was rather satisfied with his new recruit. He promised Kel’Thuzad eternal life and powerful magic in exchange for his loyalty.
He gave Kel’Thuzad his first order, to go to the human world and establish a religion where the Lich King was worshipped as God.
To ensure this quest’s implementation, the Lich King kept Kel’Thuzad’s human form.
After accepting this quest, Kel’Thuzad returned to Lordaeron. The prosperous Lordaeron had conquered countless injustice and evils. Relying on his own wealth and necromancy as an Undead mage, Kel’Thuzad successfully established a religion called the Cult of the Damned in the shadows of human kingdoms. Kel’Thuzad promised the monks of equal status in society and eternal life so that would pledge their loyalty to Ner’zhul.
Kel’Thuzad found many socially inferior workers as members of the cult.
What made him more shocked was how easily he had persuaded citizens to not believe in the holy light but in the dark powers of Ner’zhul.
As the cult became stronger and bigger, the Lich King felt that the time was ripe, and transported a mass amount of polluted grains into Lordaeron. After these grains had been consumed, the people would turn into Undead creatures. And the plague began to spread on the land of Lordaeron – Kel’Thuzad’s Undead had since been named the Scourge.
It could be said that Kel’Thuzad was the accomplice in the Undead Scourge.
In view of the spread of plague, King Terenas II sent crown prince Arthes Menethil to investigate the status of the plague. Arthes with the combined support from Jain, found Kel’Thuzad near Brill who was commanding the Scourge. Arthes chased him and killed Kel’Thuzad near Andorhal. Hence, Kel’Thuzad’s spirit had been resting near the remains there. He knew that the Lich King’s plan had been successful.
Like the plan of the Lich King and Kel’Thuzad, Arthes picked up the magic sword Frostmourne. Although he had killed the terrifying Mal’Ganis, who was the overseer of the Burning Legion in the Scourge, Arthes’ soul had been absorbed by the magic sword. He then killed his father, King Terenas, and turned into a Death Knight.
Under Dreadlord Tichondrius’s command, Arthes started out on Kel’Thuzad’s corpse near Andorhal, and killed his mentor Uther, and obtained the cinerary urn of King Terenas that Uther kept safe in order to pour over Kel’Thuzad’s ashes.
Kel’Thuzad’s soul appeared next to Arthes and told him the Lich King’s whole plan – which was different to the plan known by the Burning Legion.
Then Arthes led the Undead Legion into a high-level Elf kingdom, Quel’Thalas. He used all sorts of Elite Elf sacred objects and energy originated from the Sunwell to revive Kel’Thuzad. Whilst reviving Kel’Thuzad, the water in the Sunwell became contaminated.
The revived Kel’Thuzad and Arthes broke Dalaran together and obtained the magic book of Medivh. Then they were attacked by the remaining troops of the evil Orcs. Through obtaining the ways of the Orc’s warlocks, they had gotten into contact with the Burning Legion. Outside the city of Dalaran, Kel’Thuzad summoned one of the leaders of the Burning Legion— Archimonde the Defiler was summoned to this world.
When Arthes led the Scourge to follow the Burning Legion through the Great Sea to attack Kalimdor, he had appointed Kel’Thuzad as the administrator of the Scourge. The Burning Legion had also sent three Dreadlords: Balnazzar, Varimathras, and Detheroc to monitor the movements of the Scourge. However, they died due to the natural aggro of Mount Hyjal and were not heard of until weeks later.
Once Arthes returned to the kingdom of Lordaeron, the self-acknowledged Undead King of the Scourge expelled the three fearful demons out of Lordaeron.
However, the Evil Hunter, Illidan Stormrage used the Eye of Sargeras to rip apart the land of Northrend but was stopped in time by his friend Malfurion Stormrage. However, the Frozen Throne in which the Lich King was sealed in now had a crack. The Lich King’s powers faded because of the crack, and Arthes’s connection to the Lich King’s power gradually grew weaker. This meant that he began to gradually lose control over the Scourge Undead.
The Dreadlords took advantage of this opportunity and took the majority of the Scourge Undead command to revolt against Arthes. Arthes fought difficultly through the ruins of the Lordaeron kingdom and left it under the protection of Sylvanas the Banshee.
But Sylvanas who was killed then revived as a dark knight had also been restored back to her own self due to the weakening control of the Lich King.
If it weren’t for Kel’Thuzad and his Scourge getting there on time, Sylvanas’s death would have made Arthes life living hell.
After orders from the Lich King, Arthes settled in Northrend. Kel’Thuzad remained in Lordaeron to manage the remaining troops of the Scourge.
Arthes and the Lich King combined as one and fell into a deep slumber on the Frozen Throne. The remaining citizens of Lordaeron formed a Scarlet Crusade and started to protect themselves. The Alliance and other two factions of the tribe were created during this time. Kel’Thuzad commanded the Scourge to launch a number of counter attacks against the survivors. The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse of the Undead city, especially one of which was the fallen Ashbringer Alexandros Mograine was one of his masterpieces.
Naxxramas and the other Undead elite forces were always the enemy of all living beings.
Naxxramas was the residence of Kel’Thuzad’s evil. He controlled the operations of the Scourges and could also receive orders from the master at the same time.
The evil Lich King was going to launch a long-planned raid on Azeroth. The Scourge was going to wage another war very quickly. This time there were no warnings from prophets, there were no knights who will fight the oncoming battle of darkness, and there were no legendary heroes to stop the army of deformed monsters from the Frozen Throne.
There were only countless adventurers, who truly devoted their passion and lives to Azeroth without any fears.
