Headache.
When he woke up the next morning, Gabryell felt dizzy and groggy. He had enjoyed himself too much last night, got carried away, and drank far too much.
He checked the time. It was already nine in the morning. The queue for Tichondrius would start at ten, and time waited for no one. He immediately rolled over and turned on his computer.
"Gabryell, last night, when you were alone with our campus queen, did anything happen between you two?"
He had just sat down when Carlos, Igor, and Hugo returned from outside, bringing breakfast for him. Those three animals had actually gotten up earlier than him. The world must be ending.
Gabryell frowned and tried to recall what had happened last night. After the meetup ended, he seemed to have walked Danielly back to her dorm himself, but nothing had happened between them. After all, Bianca had been with them too.
"The campus queen turned into your student. Looks like we're about to get a coach-student romance."
Igor sat down in front of his computer, batted his eyelashes at Gabryell, and said in a fake sweet voice, "Coach, is your student pretty? Tell me, Coach… am I pretty?"
Gabryell took the bun Carlos handed him and bit off a third of it. "Log in already. We'll run Scarlet Monastery Cathedral two more times, then I'll take you all to the Badlands."
Igor scoffed. "Wow. Dodging hard. Real subtle."
Gabryell swallowed the bun. "Smooch might be waiting for you in-game to farm Scarlet Monastery."
At the mention of Smooch, Igor immediately went quiet. Smooch was Bianca, and she was right there at school. From now on, his suffering would only get worse.
After they logged in, Carlos asked, "Don't you have class this morning?"
Gabryell shook his head. "Do I? Forget it. I'm not going."
How could he think about studying while playing games? Splitting his attention was unacceptable. He had to devote all his energy to the game and stay focused.
Just kidding. In truth, after his rebirth, he no longer cared much about a diploma. If he started his own business and became the boss, he would be reviewing other people's résumés, not relying on one himself to make money.
"The Badlands," Hugo said. "Is that the zone you mentioned last time, the one where you can tame Broken Tooth?"
Although Hugo already had Lupos, he was not satisfied. He had been constantly thinking about taming an even stronger pet: Broken Tooth.
After entering the game, Gabryell's character was in front of the Ironforge Bank. Before logging off yesterday, he had collected a batch of mail.
The 100 gold from Dreamshade had indeed arrived by mail. Along with farming the Zul'Farrak graveyard and flipping items, Gabryell's gold had not decreased since yesterday. Instead, it had increased by another 100, reaching over 300 gold.
Mages were never short on money. A reborn Mage was practically a money-printing machine.
He first controlled his character to browse the Auction House for his daily bargain hunting.
"That's right. Broken Tooth is in the Badlands. Your level is high enough to tame it now. Also, Igor's Artisan Enchanting trainer is inside Uldaman, so we have to run it."
Gabryell himself wanted to go to the Badlands for the Nifty Stopwatch. As the only vanilla trinket with an on-use movement speed boost, Nifty Stopwatch was worth getting. Whether in PvP or solo farming PvE, it had incredible utility.
There were also many clueless players who, after completing the quest and getting Nifty Stopwatch, saw that it was a green item and immediately disenchanted it or vendored it. Barov Peasant Caller suffered the same fate. At first glance, it looked like a statless toy, so people sold it because it took up bag space. Later, when they started solo farming Princess, plenty of Mages regretted it bitterly.
"Gabryell, get Enchanting up to 225 in town before we go to Uldaman." Going to Uldaman without reaching 225 Enchanting would be a waste of time.
Igor's Enchanting was not low. They had thrown every Enchanting formula they found along the way to him, and with all the green gear they had disenchanted, his skill was close to 200.
The formulas they had now admittedly were not great, but they were better than nothing. When they went to Maraudon, Gabryell hoped everyone could have enchants to improve efficiency.
Igor said, "No problem. It's just 225. I'll get it done in minutes."
Having the Auction House made it simple. The only cost was a sizable amount of gold. Fortunately, Gabryell and the others were not short on money, so they could simply buy the materials to level it up.
"Carlos, level your Engineering when you have time. Selling Sniper Scopes is pure profit."
Before the 3% hit scope from Molten Core became available, Sniper Scopes were basically free money.
Carlos said, "I'll level it as soon as I have time."
Seeing Gabryell make 800 dollars from selling gold made him extremely envious. He also wanted to become self-sufficient through the game and stop needing living expenses from his family.
"Hugo, come with me to the Badlands first."
Gabryell planned to take Hugo to tame Broken Tooth first, then do the Nifty Stopwatch quest. After last night, Igor's Enchanting should be able to reach 225, and then they could make a trip to Uldaman.
The Nifty Stopwatch quest chain required Frost Oil and a Gyrochronatom. The recipe for Frost Oil was sold in the Alterac Mountains. Gabryell searched the Auction House, and sure enough, some Frost Oil was listed.
There were quite a few beta players. They knew what Frost Oil was used for and had long since bought the recipe and crafted it.
Five gold per bottle.
Highway robbery.
For the sake of Nifty Stopwatch, Gabryell had no choice but to let himself get fleeced once.
The Gyrochronatom was much simpler. An Engineering vendor in Ironforge sold it, so he just went and bought one.
With the materials ready, Gabryell took Hugo to the Badlands.
To reach the Badlands, they had to go through Loch Modan, take a gryphon to Thelsamar, and then head south all the way into the Badlands.
"Let's unlock the flight point."
Looking out at the endless yellow sand, Hugo asked, "Where's the Alliance camp?"
Right. Where was the Alliance camp?
No need to look. The Badlands did not have one at all.
The zone was clearly close to an Alliance capital and a world away from Undercity, yet there was no Alliance camp there. There was only one Horde camp: Kargath.
Gabryell smiled bitterly. "The Alliance has no camp in the Badlands. The nearest one is Thelsamar."
"That bad?" Hugo was speechless.
Gabryell nodded. "Worse than that. There's a Horde camp here: Kargath."
The Swamp of Sorrows was just as frustrating as the Badlands. It was clearly within the Alliance's sphere of influence, but there was no Alliance camp there either, only the Horde camp Stonard. The nearest Alliance camp was Nethergarde Keep in the Blasted Lands.
That was why Uldaman and Sunken Temple had never been popular dungeons. If Uldaman did not have the Artisan Enchanting trainer, and if Sunken Temple did not later have the level 50 class quests, Gabryell really would not bother running them.
Broken Tooth mainly spawned in three areas: on the road outside Uldaman, outside Angor Fortress, and along the small road to the right between those two spots. The approximate coordinates were (43,37), (44,37), (47,39), (54,17), and (45,37).
At the moment, most players were concentrated in Hillsbrad Foothills, Alterac Mountains, and Stranglethorn Vale. The Badlands were truly badlands, with pitifully few players.
Having few players was a good thing. Broken Tooth was less likely to have been killed. Gabryell took Hugo to search outside Uldaman first. They found nothing, so they went outside Angor Fortress and finally spotted Broken Tooth.
Broken Tooth, a Ridge Stalker whose fur was not especially eye-catching, wandered alone through the dusty Badlands. When the two of them found it, yellow sand swirled around it, making it seem especially lonely, as if it had been waiting for a master's call.
"I'll tame it."
With his experience taming Lupos, Hugo went up excitedly to tame Broken Tooth.
This time, it went very smoothly. He got it on the first try.
Broken Tooth
Level: 37 (Rare)
Type: Beast
Health: 1073
Damage: 32–36
Armor: 1593
Attack Speed: 1.0
A 1.0 attack speed was what made Broken Tooth a top-tier pet. Although the Zul'Gurub Bat later also had a 1.0 attack speed, that still could not erase Broken Tooth's legendary status in the hearts of countless Hunters.
By the time Hunters discovered how powerful Broken Tooth was, taming it would no longer be so simple. Farming crews would camp it. Either you paid them to let you tame it, or, if you refused, they would kill Broken Tooth right in front of you just to make you mad.
It was not until The Burning Crusade launched that Blizzard changed all Hunter pets' base attack speeds to 2.0. As a result, the legendary Broken Tooth declined and became an ordinary pet, no longer favored.
Now that Hugo had Broken Tooth, he was a caster killer. Any caster who ran into him would get a massive headache.
"Let's go do the Nifty Stopwatch quest together."
After taming Broken Tooth, Gabryell took Hugo to do the Nifty Stopwatch quest chain. The quest was picked up in the middle of the Badlands, where the earth elementals spawned.
Hugo's Hunter did not really need Nifty Stopwatch that much. He could farm earth elementals there for gold and stockpile Elemental Earth to cash in after everyone reached level 60.