To make sure High Inquisitor Whitemane's hat and necklace dropped, Gabryell had Lunatori enter the dungeon first.
In Scarlet Monastery Cathedral, there was a trash mob right at the entrance. It was no big deal for a high-level character, but a low-level player entering for the first time would get spotted because of the level difference and die miserably to that elite mob. It was practically there to punish newbies.
Gabryell walked in and pulled a Scarlet Defender with a single Frostbolt, then killed it. As a level 45 Mage in Cathedral, he couldn't exactly steamroll the place, but soloing one level 38 elite was no problem.
"How do we handle this?" Carlos asked. Whenever Gabryell was around, he naturally followed his lead.
Gabryell could run laps through Cathedral with his eyes closed. He had solo farmed the place at least a thousand times.
"Use the oldest and most reliable tactic."
Carlos grinned. "Got it. I tank, Luna heals, and the rest of you blast."
Carlos charged straight at the two mobs ahead.
"Kill the Scarlet Defender first, then the Scarlet Myrmidon."
They still needed proper calls. Otherwise, they might wipe.
"The Defender doesn't hit me that hard. Why not kill the Myrmidon first?"
Carlos felt the Defender was like a main tank, with low damage and high defense. By normal logic, shouldn't the Myrmidon die first?
Gabryell explained, "Scarlet Myrmidons go berserk at 20% health, and their damage and attack speed shoot up. Before that, they have no other abilities, so they're not much of a threat."
"Gabryell, check out this awesome toy."
As soon as Igor finished speaking, he summoned a Tracking Hound beside him. The hound lunged at the Scarlet Defender.
Igor showed off smugly. "Pretty cool, right? I can summon pets to fight too."
Gabryell pretended to be shocked. "Amazing. Truly amazing."
Igor said happily, "Want me to tell you how to summon a pet to fight for you?"
Gabryell stopped playing along and asked with a smile, "Look at you showing off. That Dog Whistle only has one charge left, doesn't it?"
"Hahaha—"
Carlos burst out laughing. "Igor, you're trying to teach the expert here. With how well Gabryell knows the game, how could he not know about Dog Whistle?"
Hugo roasted him. "Igor has already burned through two Dog Whistles. The rest of us can't even bring ourselves to use ours, and he burns his the second he gets them. I vote we rename him Dog Boy from now on."
Gabryell said, "Use your Dog Whistles. Let's speed this up."
Everyone having a Dog Whistle was a good thing. Tracking Hounds lasted 10 minutes, and the cooldown was also 10 minutes. One round of summons meant four extra helpers.
At Gabryell's word, Carlos, Hugo, and Lunatori all used theirs. Lupos followed Hugo. A wolf counted as a dog too.
Five players and five dogs rampaged through Scarlet Monastery Cathedral.
With four Tracking Hounds joining the fight, their clear speed shot up. They made smooth progress all the way to the fountain area.
"The caster mobs in Cathedral have low armor and low health. A Rogue can stealth in and pick off isolated ones. The leveling speed isn't any worse than farming Cathedral with a party."
Back when Gabryell had played his Rogue alt, he had solo farmed Scarlet Magicians and Scarlet Wizards. Sneaking in and killing caster mobs one by one gave excellent XP, and the efficiency was astonishing.
Goldthorn and Liferoot could spawn inside Cathedral, and Gabryell gathered them all without hesitation.
"There's no need to clear every mob here. Don't kill anything we won't aggro."
They were not here to farm XP this time. They were here for that couple, so there was no need to wipe out every mob in the outer courtyard.
Gabryell led the way, hugging the wall up to the garden's second floor, then moving past the pool toward the chapel's main door.
"The Staff of Jordan HealsForAll bought was looted by an elite team from Hallelujah. I heard that after they sold the staff, each person got 200 dollars."
Igor said, "Why don't we ever have that kind of luck? We've been farming Scarlet Monastery to level too, but we haven't seen a single BoE epic."
Gabryell was used to the low drop rate of BoE epics. Later on, hundreds of Mages would be boosting people through Scarlet Monastery every day, each running it dozens or even over a hundred times, and only a handful of BoE epics would ever drop.
"You guys have been farming Scarlet for a while. Have you seen any pieces of the Scarlet set drop?" Gabryell asked.
Carlos said, "Look at the pants, boots, and belt I'm wearing. They're all from the Scarlet set."
Gabryell checked Carlos's gear. Sure enough, he was wearing three pieces of the set, activating the two-piece and three-piece bonuses: +10 Armor and +1 Defense.
"Any extras?"
Gabryell checked Hugo's gear and found that he actually had four pieces. He was only missing the chestpiece and gloves.
"Yeah," Carlos said. "The set bonuses are pretty good, and they're really suitable for Warriors and Hunters. The problem is the chestpiece and gloves just won't drop."
Gabryell said, "The chestpiece and gloves have to be farmed in Cathedral. Completing the set early on is extremely strong. Don't put the extras on the Auction House. Sell them to people in the guild later and gear everyone up."
Although Warriors could wear plate at level 40, how much plate gear was actually available at level 40? Most Warriors were still mixing leather and mail, and only a small number of dedicated main tanks wore a full set of mail.
"Carlos, Hugo, your weapons are pretty nice."
Lunatori's luck really was something. She had actually gotten both Carlos and Hugo equipped with The Butcher.
The Butcher (Rare)
Binds when equipped
Main Hand Sword
38–72 Damage, Speed 2.80
(19.6 damage per second)
+5 Agility
+4 Stamina
Durability 90 / 90
Requires Level 26
This weapon's strength was that it could be used at level 26, dealt solid damage, and added Agility and Stamina. Because its model looked like a butcher's cleaver, it was affectionately called "Little Cleaver" in level 39 battlegrounds.
Gabryell inspected all four of their gear sets and discovered that they were mostly wearing blue gear above level 30. After farming Scarlet Monastery for so long, at least 70% of the blue BoE gear dropped by trash mobs had ended up on them.
"It's all thanks to Luna's lucky hands. She basically pulls a blue BoE from every run."
Carlos praised Lunatori. The greatest treasure in their party was her. This girl's luck was absurdly good.
Gabryell was already looking forward to it. "Luna, make sure you loot Whitemane's Chapeau for me later."
Lunatori replied shyly, "Okay."
Lunatori went up and looted the Centurion's body.
"Oh, a blue item dropped!" she said in surprise.
The others were already used to it. Since it was not a BoE epic, they could barely get excited.
Gabryell's eyes, however, lit up. What Lunatori had looted was not gear, but an Engineering schematic.
Schematic: Sniper Scope (Rare)
Item Level 48
Requires Engineering (240)
Recipe: Engineering
Use: Teaches you how to make a Sniper Scope.
"An Engineering schematic. Carlos, you take it. Once you level Engineering, you can make scopes for the guild's core Hunters."
This schematic was far more valuable than the blue BoE gear dropped by Scarlet Monastery trash mobs. It taught the player how to craft Sniper Scope.
Sniper Scope (Common)
Item Enhancement
Requires Level 40
Use: Attaches a permanent scope to a bow or gun that increases its damage by 7.
It could be listed on the Auction House or used to attach scopes for other players. Before Biznicks 247x128 Accurascope, it was the best ranged weapon enhancement available.
The Biznicks scope schematic only dropped from Molten Core bosses. Right now, any player who could craft Sniper Scopes could make a fortune just by crafting them and listing them on the Auction House.
Gabryell said, "Carlos, once you hit level 45, level Engineering. When you have nothing else to do, just sell Sniper Scopes. I guarantee you'll make over a hundred gold a day without breaking a sweat."
Lunatori's lucky hands had helped Carlos's Warrior find a way to make money.
Carlos was overjoyed. His long-suffering Warrior had finally made it through the hard times and found a source of income. "Luna, you really are our lucky charm."
Life was genuinely rough for struggling Warriors. Some Warriors were so poor they resorted to solo farming the inner door of Scarlet Monastery Cathedral, making around 30 gold an hour while paying 10 gold in repair costs. Every coin came the hard way.
Gabryell walked up to the chapel's main door. "Open it. Let's go meet that couple inside."
Now that his hard times were finally ending, Carlos immediately stepped forward and opened the door. As the chapel doors swung open, Scarlet Commander Mograine stood at the very back of the chapel, receiving the kneeling homage of the followers below.