By dinnertime, Carlos, Igor, Hugo, and Lunatori had all reached level 30, meeting the minimum requirement for Scarlet Monastery.
Gabryell had leveled even faster than expected. He was already level 34 and had long since left the Wetlands raptor cave for the farms on the western side of Arathi Highlands, where he was AoE grinding.
You could enter Scarlet Monastery at level 20, but if you wanted to actually clear the lowest wing, Graveyard, you needed to be at least level 30. Library was around 33, Armory 36, and Cathedral 39. Any lower than that, and the run would be rough.
The four Scarlet Monastery wings covered a huge level range. Horde players could grind there from 30 to 40, then resupply in Brill outside Undercity. For Alliance players on any normal server, they were on their own. Without solid transportation, grinding Scarlet Monastery was worse than leveling through quests.
"In vanilla, Alliance travel really is awful. No matter where the Horde goes, they always have the easier route."
Gabryell opened the world map and thought about the dungeons ahead. For almost every one of them, the Horde had a closer outpost than the Alliance did. He suddenly felt like starting a flight service in this era.
"Guys, are we heading into Horde territory later?" Lunatori sounded excited and nervous at the same time. Horde lands were dangerous and unknown.
Gabryell said, "We'll head back to Ironforge to restock, then go to Scarlet Monastery after dinner."
He opened the guild roster. Quite a few hardcore grinders had already reached level 30, which made them eligible for Scarlet Monastery.
Gabryell: Need level 30+ for SM. If you're in, speak up.
DesertWanderer: "I'm in. And I want Horde kills."
OneShotCrit: "What's SM?"
Gabryell: "Scarlet Monastery. Level 30 dungeon in Tirisfal. Taking 2-3 groups."
FirstDate: "I'm in. Dungeon run and PvP? Easy yes."
OliveDrab: "Count me in. Got snacks ready."
DeathScum: "I'm in. Daggers are ready."
TwinBleeds: "Put me in. Need Horde blood."
Intriguing: "Inv, go go"
Coldhands: "I'm in. Just bought a full AH set. I'm geared now."
After making 50 gold from selling the Tiny Crimson Whelpling, this guy had gone on a shopping spree. His gear was now top-tier. Other than Gabryell, he was the best-geared Mage in Fearless.
StyleOverStats: "Can a level 29 Priest come?"
Gabryell already had his own group of five, plus David's group of five in Southshore, making two groups. At that point, he might as well bring the level 29s too and make it four groups.
"29s can come too."
Gabryell lowered the requirement. At worst, two groups could run six-man. They weren't planning to do quests anyway.
Once level 29 was allowed, a few more people spoke up.
Smooch: "I'm 29. I wanna go, I wanna go."
Gabryell hadn't expected Snowlily's best friend to level this fast. Did she skip class too? Was she another serial class-cutter?
Snowlily: "I'm only 20, so I can't go. Good luck, everyone."
Smooch: "Snowlily, wait for me to get back. I'll catch an Orc, a Troll, a Tauren, and an Undead and bring them back as gifts."
Snowlily replied with an ellipsis.
Nightlord: "I'm barely short of 30. Can I tank Scarlet Monastery?"
Gabryell said, "No problem. We'll do a few quests in Southshore on the way and get you there."
Nightlord: "I'm in."
Oldguard: "Can tank, can heal, can DPS. Pick me."
A total of 22 people. Very good. Better than Gabryell's original plan. That meant two five-man groups and two six-man groups. With six people, even if one or two were only 29, clearing Graveyard would still be easy.
Gabryell said, "Everyone go restock. Train skills if you need to, buy supplies if you need to. Meet at Menethil Harbor in thirty minutes."
Gabryell planned to have Lunatori finish her Bear Form quest so she could shift into bear in emergencies when healing pressure was low. Besides healing gear, she had also picked up plenty of Feral gear. Since Gabryell's group had no Rogue, all the leather physical DPS gear Hugo didn't want had gone to her.
"Lunatori, head back to Moonglade. Finish the Bear Form quest and the Cure Poison quest you left unfinished, then hearth back."
Lunatori's Hearthstone was set to Menethil Harbor.
Lunatori said, "Got it. Doing it now."
As soon as she finished speaking, she used Teleport: Moonglade and returned to the Druid homeland to finish her class quests.
The dungeons ahead were different from the ones before. For a Druid who wanted to keep getting invited, Cure Poison was actually even more important than Bear Form.
People need food. Skip a meal and you feel it. Gabryell and his three roommates headed to the cafeteria for dinner, then stopped by the campus convenience store for snacks before returning to the dorm to prepare for a long night.
"Snowlily, what are you staring at?"
In a corner of the cafeteria, Danielly's best friend Bianca noticed her looking toward the exit and asked curiously, "Checking out some cute guy? What guy at our school could possibly catch your eye? Let me see."
She looked toward the cafeteria exit too, but all she saw were the backs of four ordinary-looking guys. Disappointing.
Danielly pulled her gaze back. "Bianca, the school just started a World of Warcraft club. You joining?"
Bianca's eyes lit up. "Of course I am. I'm a WoW pro—top three Hunter in the guild."
She glanced at the cafeteria clock.
"Crap, time's almost up. I need to eat fast or I'll miss this guild event."
Danielly watched her friend wolf down food and shook her head. Bianca was no less pretty than she was, with a delicate figure, but her personality was far too lively. She acted like one of the guys—bold, carefree, and completely lacking any sense of ladylike restraint.
Gabryell and the other three returned to the dorm. The moment he sat down, he saw his whispers being spammed.
The messages weren't from David. They were from MushroomHunter, the girl David had described as very cute.
"Leader, we got into a fight with the Horde."
"We won at first, but they called a bunch of people over and killed us."
"We got killed again. David and Susie won't let me say anything in guild chat, so I had to secretly message you."
"Leader, are you there? More than ten of them are corpse-camping us right now and won't let us rez. David and Susie refuse to take the graveyard rez sickness. They want to fight to the end."
"Ahhhh, dead again. I've died more than ten times. Leader, come save us. I'm losing it."
It was easy to imagine how miserable it was for a young girl to be endlessly corpse-camped by the Horde, dying the moment she stood up. Leave anyone in that long enough and they'd crack.
Gabryell frowned. David and Susie were stubborn, but they couldn't drag a girl into suffering with them.
"David, are you getting corpse-camped by the Horde?"
Gabryell asked directly in guild chat.
David said, "Leader, how did you know?"
Susie: "Did MushroomHunter tell you? I told her not to. We'll handle it ourselves. Worst case, we drag this out and see who gives up first."
Gabryell used the authority of the guild leader.
"Don't worry about who told me. Just answer the question. Is it true or not?"
Afraid of making him angry, David answered honestly.
"We were out questing when a Horde group came over to contest mobs. At first nobody attacked, but there weren't enough mobs, so the Horde started it."
"They couldn't beat us, so we killed them. Then they called in seven or eight more people, all from the same guild. We couldn't handle that many, and they killed us more than ten times."
David added unwillingly, "If numbers were even, we'd crush them. Even outnumbered, we still dropped plenty of them."
Gabryell said sternly, "Didn't I tell you to call me if the Horde swarmed you? The guild isn't going to ignore this. If their guild is corpse-camping you, then we'll corpse-camp them right back. Stay there. I'm bringing people now. Send me your location."
David said, "Inside the yeti cave north of Southshore."
Gabryell said, "Find a way to stall them. We're on our way."
David said, "Got it. Worst case, I die a few more times. If we don't get revenge today, then my name isn't David—it's Feedvid."
Gabryell said in guild chat, "Everyone who was coming to Scarlet Monastery, get to Menethil Harbor right now. We're heading to Hillsbrad as a raid to rescue our people and kill Horde."
The moment they heard there was a fight, everyone got fired up.
"Kill the Horde. They dared corpse-camp our people? Let them know Alliance aren't easy targets."
"Wipe them out."
"Kill Horde, steal Sylvanas. Long live the Alliance."
"Invi. I'm in."
"If we're killing Horde, you better bring me. I'm a beast Hunter. One arrow, one kill. I'll capture the whole Horde and bring them back as slaves."
Gabryell said to the lower-level guild members, "Everyone else keep leveling for now. I'm only taking level 29 and up. If the Horde calls in more people, then you can come too."
For now, Gabryell didn't plan to bring too many. With their 17 plus David's 5, turning around and corpse-camping a Horde group of around a dozen would be easy.
Of course, if the Horde kept calling reinforcements and wanted to escalate things, Gabryell wasn't afraid either. At worst, it would turn into a full-scale faction war. He wouldn't mind using the chance to flatten Tarren Mill and leave the Horde homeless in Hillsbrad Foothills.