"Gabryell, you're so bad it's embarrassing."
Igor had woken up at some point and was now standing behind Gabryell. Watching him run back to his corpse, he picked his nose in a thoroughly unrefined manner and said,
"Looks like you need Grada's Holy Light saving your ass."
Ghosts could walk on water. Gabryell guided his spirit to the center of Lake Everstill. Since his corpse lay at the bottom of the lake, he needed to swim down a bit before resurrecting.
"Remember the Nessie we saw on the Deeprun Tram?"
Gabryell didn't rush to revive. He recalled a post he'd read in the future analyzing the Deeprun Tram aquarium's Nessie.
"The Deeprun Tram from Ironforge to Stormwind passes through Redridge Mountains. There's an elite plesiosaur at the bottom of Lake Everstill. I'm wondering if the Nessie we saw might actually be down there."
Igor instantly perked up, all traces of sleep gone.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's kill it and get some god-tier loot."
His eyes lit up as he slapped Hugo's bunk above him.
"Hugo, get up! We're killing a boss for epic gear."
"Where's the boss?"
Igor glanced over at Carlos's bed. It was empty.
Gabryell clicked "Resurrect" and surfaced immediately.
"He's in the bathroom."
Igor sat down at the desk.
"Lazy people always take forever. Forget waiting for him. Let's kill it first. If anything drops, we'll toss him a gold or two."
Hugo, still half-asleep, instantly woke up at the mention of a boss. His irritation vanished as he climbed down, sat beside Gabryell, and turned on his computer.
"There's really a boss?"
Gabryell said,
"Log in and level up. Once we hit 25, I'll take you guys to The Stockade."
Carlos returned to the dorm just in time to hear "The Stockade."
"Damn it, Gabryell, don't go down the wrong path. Going to prison isn't a joke, it'll ruin your life."
Gabryell clarified,
"I mean Stormwind The Stockade, the level 25 dungeon."
You could enter at level 15, but clearing it without being around level 25 was difficult. The mobs ranged from level 24 to 27, and anyone below 25 would be suppressed by level difference.
Carlos walked over to the desk.
"I need to work on the website today. I want to get the Azeroth National Geographic forum up as soon as possible, so I probably won't have time to level."
Compared to gaming, starting a business mattered more to Carlos. His family background couldn't compare to Gabryell and the others, he came from a rural area. He had worked hard to get into university, hoping to change his future.
Gabryell's vision for 301 gave him hope, and he was even more invested in it than Gabryell himself.
"Alright. I'll also edit yesterday's full clear of The Deadmines into a video later. The guild should have plenty of teams ready to run it today."
Gabryell planned to spend time editing, so he likely wouldn't level until noon. He aimed to reach level 22 in the afternoon, then work on his addon in the evening.
He had already decided that starting at level 22, he would leave the main group and begin AoE grinding to power-level, overtaking others while still making time for addon development, aiming to hit level 45 as quickly as possible.
Igor suddenly remembered something.
"Damn, I forgot about the WoW club! Carlos, hurry up and get on, we'll kill the boss, then I'll head to the Student Government. If we get their support, getting school approval will be easy."
"Boss?"
Carlos had just returned and missed everything.
"Where is it? Taking a little time to kill a boss won't delay things."
Gabryell said,
"It's not a boss. Just an elite plesiosaur."
There was only one Elite Plesiosaur in Lake Everstill, an Easter egg Blizzard designed based on the Loch Ness Monster. Its chance to drop blue gear was noticeably higher than other elites in Redridge Mountains.
A level 25 elite with just over 2,000 HP. With four of them, even being five levels lower, they could handle it.
"Is Lunatori not on?"
Hugo checked his friends list. Lunatori was offline.
Gabryell said,
"You can't expect a girl to play as recklessly as the four of us."
Snowlily, the Dwarf Priest he had met the night before, was also offline.
Igor glanced at Gabryell's screen.
"How do we get to you?"
Gabryell gave directions.
"From the mount vendor at Eastvale Logging Camp, follow the main road east to Redridge Mountains. Keep going along the road to Lakeshire. There are signposts along the way."
"What are we waiting for?"
Igor waved dramatically.
"Carlos, Hugo, follow me. Let's go to Redridge and kill the boss."
Gabryell swam ashore and waited on the bridge in Lakeshire. About ten minutes later, the three finally reached the Redridge flight point.
They grabbed the flight path, and before Gabryell could tell them to pick up quests, Igor impatiently asked,
"Is the boss still there?"
He was so into it he genuinely thought the elite was Nessie.
"It's at the bottom of the lake," Gabryell replied.
Without another word, Igor jumped off the bridge.
"I'll scout ahead."
Before Gabryell could warn him, Igor was already diving down.
"Gabryell, let's go too," Carlos said eagerly.
Gabryell shook his head.
"No rush. Let's wait for Igor to run back."
Carlos looked confused.
Gabryell grinned.
"There are tons of Murlocs down there. Charging in like that, he's definitely going to pull aggro."
"Poor Igor."
Carlos silently mourned him for three seconds.
Suddenly, Igor yelled, followed by a loud "What the hell!" He turned and glared at Gabryell.
"Gabryell, you set me up! Why didn't you tell me there were Murlocs down there?"
They looked at his screen, it had turned black and white.
The three exchanged glances, then burst out laughing.
Igor begrudgingly ran back to his corpse, muttering,
"I hate Murlocs. One day, I'm going to kill every single Murloc in Azeroth."
After resurrecting, he stared at Lake Everstill, teeth clenched.
"Before we kill the boss, we clear these Murlocs first."
Gabryell said,
"If you're going to wipe them out anyway, let's pick up the Murloc quests in Lakeshire first."
He had no intention of coming back later just to kill them again.
He led the group to grab every available level 20 quest in Lakeshire, then returned to the bridge. The four entered the water together, staying near the surface as they cleared every visible Murloc to make space for fighting the plesiosaur.
With Lunatori absent, they had no healer, so Igor had to keep healing, much to his frustration, since he wanted revenge.
Once most of the Murlocs near the center were cleared, Gabryell said,
"Carlos, get ready to pull."
Not far away, the level 25 elite Lake Everstill plesiosaur swam lazily toward them.
Level 25 had a massive advantage over level 20. If it weren't for its low 2,082 HP, Gabryell wouldn't have risked bringing them here.
"Pfft, only 2,000 HP. Trash."
Igor was disappointed. Compared to the Nessie in the Deeprun Tram aquarium, this one looked like a baby.
"Don't get careless. Watch Carlos's HP, don't let him get one-shot," Gabryell warned. A level 25 elite could land crushing blows on level 20 players.
In reality, Gabryell had overestimated the danger. Fully geared from The Deadmines, the four of them handled it easily. 2,082 HP was nothing.
"I'll loot it."
With Lunatori absent, Igor finally got his chance.
He swam up, crouched, and looted the corpse.
No blue gear. It dropped two green items.
"Damn it."
Igor was clearly unhappy.
"Your luck sucks," Carlos laughed, clicking Pass. Both items were cloth.
Hugo also passed.
"Lunatori's still better. If she were here, we'd definitely get a blue."
Gabryell's eyes lit up when he saw the items, one chest piece, one pair of pants.
He clicked Need and immediately equipped both.
"Bro, why did you swap out the blue chest from VanCleef?"
Hugo asked, confused as he watched Gabryell replace the Blackened Defias Armor.
Gabryell explained,
"The Blackened Defias Armor is blue, but it has no Intellect. This Eagle-prefix piece has both Intellect and Stamina. It's better."
To Igor and the others, these green items were inferior. To Gabryell, they were top-tier.
Both pieces had the Eagle prefix, making them part of the Eagle gear, the most valuable type of green gear for Mages. In WoW Classic, Eagle gear cloth gear was always in high demand and sold for high prices.
For AoE grinding Mages, Eagle gear was the easiest low-cost setup. Its main stats, Intellect and Stamina, were exactly what AoE farming required. With a full set at the same level, a Mage could farm across all of Azeroth.
Getting two Eagle pieces at once filled Gabryell with confidence for heading to the Redridge Gnoll camps at level 22.