Reason triumphed over greed, and Gabryell clicked return.
HealsForAll's gesture moved him, so he wrote him a letter through the mailbox. The contents were roughly as follows.
First, he thanked him and acknowledged the goodwill. Then he explained, both logically and sincerely, that Staff of Jordan was extremely good for a Shadow Priest leveling build and could be used all the way to level 60 without needing to replace the weapon.
Finally, he included the Shadow Priest leveling talents to use after level 40, along with the proper way to kill mobs while leveling.
Of course, he did not forget to remind him that there was no need to spend huge amounts of money on blue gear from the Auction House right now. Intellect did not increase spell damage, and one or two extra points of Intellect would not noticeably improve leveling efficiency. The cost simply was not worth the return.
In World of Warcraft, mail with gold or items took one hour to arrive. Returned mail and plain text letters without attachments arrived instantly.
Before long, Gabryell received a private message from HealsForAll.
"Leader, you're a good person. Thank you. As long as the guild doesn't kick me, I'll stay in the guild forever."
Hearing a man call him "a good person" somehow felt a little strange.
Gabryell smiled and replied, "The guild is everyone's home. Every member is family."
Returning one Staff of Jordan in exchange for someone's loyalty was not a loss.
After settling things with HealsForAll, Gabryell first went to the Ironforge Armory to vendor junk and repair his gear. Then he went to the Auction House and listed all the valuable green gear he had, while also scanning for bargains.
"I'm level 30."
Snowlily sent him a private message at that moment. With the wand Gabryell had given her, her leveling speed had improved a lot.
"Snowy, I mailed you some Mageweave Cloth. Use it to level your Tailoring." Gabryell had not forgotten to send her the cloth earlier.
When solo farming the Zul'Farrak graveyard, there was one thing he never lacked: cloth. Mages would never be short on it. Some lazier Mages, later on, would only keep Runecloth and couldn't even be bothered to turn Mageweave Cloth into bandages for a small profit. They would just vendor it outright.
"I have something to do later, so I need to log off first."
Snowlily said, "See you tonight."
Gabryell did not think much of it and replied, "Real life comes first. Log off for now and come back tonight."
Snowlily replied with a giggle, then logged off directly. She did not use NumLock to run into a wall.
Now that he was level 45, Gabryell did not forget to remind someone. He opened his friends list.
Dreamshade was only level 42. That was the result of staying online 24/7, which could only mean one thing: the power leveler he had hired was seriously bad.
"Dream, I hit 45. Got my 100 gold ready?"
Gabryell went straight to the point and reminded him that it was time to honor the bet.
Dreamshade was probably smiling bitterly right now. "I've already gathered the 100 gold. Once I return to town, I'll mail it to you directly."
Having someone reimburse his mount money felt damn good.
"Want to make another bet? After launch, whoever hits level 60 slower has to buy the other person an epic mount."
When it came to leveling efficiency, Dreamshade admitted defeat. He was not some walking ATM. He had just lost 100 gold, and now Gabryell wanted him to gamble away an epic mount.
"No bet."
Gabryell was disappointed. It seemed he would have to buy the epic mount himself.
Having just lost 100 gold, Dreamshade was holding in a breath of frustration and preparing to win back face in Maraudon. Personal wins and losses were not as important as guild honor. As long as Madhouse cleared Maraudon before Fearless, they could demand that Fearless do one thing within their power.
Gabryell did not fly to Southshore. Running to Scarlet Monastery alone was not safe, so he planned to wait in town for a summon.
As players' levels rose, more and more Alliance players were heading to Scarlet Monastery. At first, the Horde fought the Alliance there, but after a full day of fighting, they realized that fighting could not stop Alliance players from entering the dungeon. Instead, their own leveling fell behind, so they gave up.
Now Scarlet Monastery had settled into a strange peace. The Horde did not flag for PvP and only ran dungeons, while the Alliance could not attack first and could only run dungeons as well. Both sides tacitly kept their heads down and leveled inside Scarlet Monastery.
Only Gabryell understood that this was because the Honor System had not been enabled yet. In World of Warcraft, killing players did not make them drop gear, and without Honor, there was no reward. Once Honor opened, this false peace would collapse immediately, and the dungeon entrance would become the bloodiest battlefield.
Fearless had over a dozen groups at Scarlet Monastery. Gabryell whispered DesertWanderer.
"Desert, are you guys almost done?"
DesertWanderer was currently grouped with Nightlord. Carlos, David, Susie, and Nightlord were the four highest-level Warriors in Fearless, as well as the four best-geared main tanks.
In terms of skill, Gabryell trusted Carlos the most, followed by Susie, because everyone who had run with him said his threat was steady. After them came David and Nightlord, whose skill levels should be about equal.
Progressing Molten Core required at least four main tanks. Gabryell hoped they could keep up their pace and serve as the guild's main tanks when the time came.
Of course, if other Warriors suddenly rose up, Gabryell would prioritize the most suitable players for the raid. As the guild leader, he wanted the guild to produce more skilled main tanks more than anyone else.
"We just finished. Are you coming to Scarlet Monastery, Leader?" DesertWanderer asked.
Gabryell said, "Summon me over."
DesertWanderer happened to be the party leader, so he directly converted to a raid and invited Gabryell. After Gabryell joined, he immediately began the summon.
The moment Gabryell entered the raid, he checked the members' levels. DesertWanderer was level 38, Nightlord was level 38, OldSeven was level 37, Old was level 38, and TwinBleeds was level 38.
Levels 37 and 38. Aside from Gabryell, Dreamshade, and a few other players above level 40, they were absolutely in the game's first tier. With some effort, they could reach level 45 by tomorrow or the day after.
"You guys continue."
After being summoned to Scarlet Monastery, Gabryell did not want to delay their leveling and left the raid on his own.
"Leader, we'll keep farming Armory," Nightlord said in guild chat.
Gabryell said, "I'm counting on you. Keep it up. Once you hit level 39, you can try Cathedral. Farm to 40, then go to Stranglethorn Vale and quest until 45. Don't do the Tanaris quests yet. Save them for when the level cap opens to 60."
If they cleared Tanaris quests now, they would cry after launch.
"Gabryell, we're level 39," Igor said from beside him.
Gabryell looked at his screen. Sure enough, they had reached level 39.
"Invite me."
Carlos was the party leader, so he sent Gabryell a party invite.
Gabryell joined the party. Or rather, the raid, because Carlos's group already had five people.
Carlos, Igor, Hugo, Lunatori, and Smooch.
Six people. That was troublesome. Gabryell did not need experience himself and only wanted High Inquisitor Whitemane's hat and necklace, but the others still needed XP.
Just as Gabryell was thinking, Smooch said, "Leader, you can take my spot. I have something to do and need to log off."
Gabryell remembered that she and Snowlily were close friends. Since Snowlily had something to do and logged off, it was not strange for Smooch to leave too.
"Alright. If you're logging off, remember to return to town first so you get rested XP."
"By the way, do you want to go back to Ironforge or Stormwind?" Gabryell stopped Smooch from using her Hearthstone.
Smooch said, "Ironforge."
Because it was close to Southshore, Ironforge had gradually become the main gathering place for Alliance players.
Gabryell opened an Ironforge portal on the spot.
None of them had ever seen a portal before, and they were all amazed.
Gabryell explained, "This is a Mage spell after level 40: Portal. It lets you open a portal so party members can teleport to the corresponding capital city: Ironforge, Stormwind, or Darnassus."
"Amazing. I'm so jealous of Mages. They can make food and water, teleport, and open portals." Smooch voiced what everyone was thinking. The reason Mages became everyone's favorite class was exactly because of these two abilities.
Smooch clicked the portal and experienced the power of a Mage portal.
"Wow, that's so fast and convenient. I'm back!"
Smooch returned to the Mystic Ward in Ironforge, expressed her envy once more, then left the raid and logged off.
"Blizzard is way too unfair. They gave Mages powerful AoE, then gave them food and water to save money, and now they even gave them convenient portals."
Igor strongly condemned Blizzard.
Gabryell just smiled. Mages had always felt like Blizzard's favorite child. There was an old joke in World of Warcraft: every patch gets a new overpowered class, but Mages are always good. No matter how the game changed, Mages never really fell off. Not sure what to play? Roll a Mage. You'll be fine.
"Cathedral. Time to kill those two lovebirds."
Gabryell led the way to the locked door on the left. He did not have the Scarlet Key, so he had to wait for the other three to open it.