Gabryell did not waste any time. He returned to the Zul'Farrak graveyard and continued leveling. He only had one hour left until level 45. Once he hit the open beta level cap, he would have more time for other things.
"Wipe!"
If you played with fire often enough, eventually you got burned. Even a veteran could crash if he got too cocky.
Gabryell wanted to get fancy and turn three pulls into two. The open beta mobs immediately taught him a lesson.
Ice Block ended. Both shields shattered instantly. He barely survived with a sliver of health and hurriedly cast Frost Nova.
Damn it. Four mobs resisted.
He immediately used Cold Snap and cast Frost Nova again.
Good grief. His luck had been too good when Gut Ripper dropped, and now it had swung all the way to the other extreme. Three more resisted.
He did manage to Blink away, but two mobs still clipped him, and he instantly died halfway through the pull.
"Cough, cough. Honestly, it would be weird if I didn't wipe. When everything goes too smoothly, bad luck catches up. A few wipes might help me loot a second BoE epic."
Gabryell took a sip of water and forced himself to comfort himself.
He still refused to accept it. The system loved teaching players lessons. In World of Warcraft, too much good luck always turned into bad luck. Once you wiped, a second wipe was never far behind.
Corpse run, enter the instance, rez, eat and drink, mount up.
Smooth as ever.
Then, when he reached the scarab area, he got knocked off his mount. Before he could make it to the reset spot near the scarabs, he was Polymorphed by a Sandfury Shadowhunter and ended up dying miserably to a Sandfury Blood Drinker.
Two wipes in a row.
The top mage had officially gotten humbled.
"Alright, lesson learned. No more getting greedy."
After wiping twice, Gabryell adjusted his approach. Two consecutive wipes were already his limit
Release, corpse run, enter the instance, eat and drink, mount up.
Still smooth as ever.
Lightning never strikes the same place twice—or so Gabryell hoped. This time, he wasn't Polymorphed by the Sandfury Shadowhunter, nor was he knocked off his mount, and he reached the graveyard area safely.
The two wipes had cost him quite a bit of time, delaying his planned level 45 by fifteen minutes.
"Leader, I got scammed!"
"Leader, are you there? I got scammed!"
"Aaaah, Leader, I got scammed! Are you there?"
In guild chat, a Mage named Windrush suddenly started spamming.
Gabryell immediately asked, "Were you scammed buying gold, selling gold, or selling items?"
Getting scammed while buying or selling gold was common, especially when trading privately instead of through a platform. RedAce and Ghoststep had been scammed buying gold too. They were just whales, so they didn't care.
In 2004, it wasn't that people didn't want to use trading platforms. Many simply didn't have online banking. Smartphones had not arrived yet, and mobile payments were not a thing. Without online banking, players could only trade privately through bank transfers.
Windrush said, "I was selling four 10-slot bags. During the trade, the other guy clearly put in enough gold for all four bags, but after the trade went through, it turned into 1 copper."
Sure enough, it was an item-trade scam.
The method was simple but effective. Countless players had fallen for it, and even in later WoW Classic, plenty of players still got caught by it.
"This is a trade-window scam. The scammer changes the gold amount or item quantity at the last second with extremely fast hands. A lot of careless players don't notice and just click confirm. After the trade goes through, they stare at the result in confusion, realizing the amount or quantity is wrong but having no idea what happened."
Gabryell warned him, "Don't get greedy. Use the Auction House when you buy and sell items."
At that point, he remembered another Auction House trap.
"Some people deliberately list high-value items on the Auction House with a very low starting bid and a very high buyout. Plenty of careless players don't notice and fall for that too."
Before Auction House addons appeared, low starting bids with high buyouts would not become too common. As long as players paid attention, they could avoid it. But after auction addons appeared, the number of players getting caught rose sharply. It was one of the drawbacks of addon auction features, exploited by scammers.
Gabryell asked Windrush, "Were you trying to save the Auction House cut?"
Windrush had calmed down and replied awkwardly, "It's my own fault for being greedy. I wanted to save the cut, and that's why I got scammed. Next time, I won't be greedy. I'll sell through the Auction House."
Gabryell said, "Everyone, don't get greedy. Greed makes people easy to scam. Especially with cheap items, always go through the Auction House. There's no free money falling from the sky. Direct trades with strangers are scams waiting to happen."
Gabryell had to establish a rule.
"Everyone in the guild, listen up. Guild members are forbidden from scamming gold or items. If I catch anyone doing it, they're kicked. No exceptions."
Gabryell thought for a moment and added, "Ninja looting in dungeons is also forbidden. Same punishment."
"I think I got scammed, but I don't have proof."
At that moment, a Dwarf Priest named HealsForAll spoke up in guild chat. "I don't think it was exactly a scam. Maybe I was just unlucky. I don't know how to explain it, but I lost over a hundred gold this afternoon."
Over a hundred gold!
That was far more interesting than four 10-slot bags. A crowd of people in the guild immediately started asking questions.
"Over a hundred gold? Sure, and I'm secretly level 45."
"Yeah, no shot. I've been saving for days and barely have ten gold. If you've got over a hundred, I'll delete my character."
"Exactly. Getting scammed out of over a hundred gold is a huge amount of money. How are you this calm?"
HealsForAll said, "Is over a hundred gold really that much? I bought gold yesterday. It was only four hundred dollars, not even enough for one breakfast."
"Holy crap, four hundred dollars for breakfast? Whale, please."
"Please adopt me."
"Are you actually rich, or are you just talking?"
HealsForAll directly linked the gear he was wearing in guild chat. It was all blue BoE gear, worth roughly a hundred gold.
"I also have a weapon, but unfortunately my level isn't high enough to equip it yet."
As he spoke, he linked a staff.
It was purple.
Staff of Jordan (Epic)
Binds when equipped
+11 Intellect
+11 Spirit
Requires Level 35
Equip: Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to 26.
The moment Staff of Jordan was linked, guild chat fell silent. The shock value of this staff was simply too great. It was even more stunning than the Gut Ripper Gabryell had sold earlier.
"Holy crap. A level 40 purple staff with +26 spell damage? Am I seeing things?"
"Insane. Jordan is my idol. Didn't expect Staff of Jordan to live up to the name."
"Where did you get that staff?"
Gabryell was also stunned by the Staff of Jordan that HealsForAll linked. In terms of value alone, Staff of Jordan crushed Gut Ripper. Once everyone reached level 60, one Staff of Jordan being worth ten Gut Rippers would not be a problem at all. It was one of the best value-retaining BoE epics around level 40.
To be honest, Gabryell was tempted the moment he saw Staff of Jordan. He wanted one too. Looking at Staff of Jordan, then looking at Zum'rah's Vexing Cane in his own hands, he suddenly felt the urge to snap the cane in half.
HealsForAll said, "I bought this staff with real money from a player in Hallelujah. He said it dropped in Scarlet Monastery."
So it was from Scarlet Monastery after all. In Gabryell's previous life, when he solo-farmed Scarlet Monastery, he had gotten quite a few Staff of Jordan drops.
"How much did it cost?" Windrush, who had been scammed earlier, had already forgotten his own bad experience. As a Mage, he wanted Staff of Jordan just as badly.
Windrush asked the question everyone wanted answered, and HealsForAll did not keep them waiting.
He replied directly, "Not much. Just a thousand dollars."
A thousand dollars, and he called that "just."
Fearless guild chat went silent again.
Comparing yourself to whales was enough to make anyone lose their mind. They simply could not understand the world of people who spent money like that.