The first time Alliance players came to Theramore Isle and saw Jaina Proudmoore, they were not stunned by her beauty.
They were stunned by her height.
A normal human standing beside her would not even reach her shoulders. If she stood face-to-face with someone and pressed down with both hands, she could probably smother them to death.
That woman had to be at least two meters tall. No wonder she could handle an orc's powerful build, and in the end, even a blue dragon fell at her feet.
Wow. A goddess.
But once you dug into the so-called goddess's history, you would instantly fall from heaven to hell. The untouchable goddess would suddenly become a walking controversy.
Azeroth's most devoted daughter. Jaina the sellout.
Gabryell truly could not understand why so many isekai-into-Azeroth novels made Jaina Proudmoore the female lead. Weren't those protagonists afraid that one day they'd get cucked by an orc, a pandaren, or even a dragon? After all, in Jaina Proudmoore's heart, there was no true love—only power.
Gabryell unlocked the Theramore Isle flight point, opened the world map, pointed at Wyrmbog, and said to Hugo, "Hugo, once you reach level 45, you can come here to skin for gold. This place is full of dragonkin, and there's about a fifty percent chance of getting two pieces of leather from a single skin."
Dragonkin in Azeroth had an extremely high chance of giving two pieces of leather per skin. If you wanted to make money with Skinning, hunting dragonkin was always a safe bet.
The area around Wyrmbog was full of level 44 to 46 dragonkin. If you worked hard skinning here, making dozens of gold a day would not be a problem. At the current stage, when gold was worth real money, dozens of gold was a huge sum.
As for making dozens of gold per hour at level 45, Gabryell was probably the only player in the game so far who could do it, and that was only possible in the Zul'Farrak graveyard.
Dozens of gold a day made Hugo's eyes light up. He was indeed a rich kid, but that did not mean he had to spend real money buying gold to play the game. Gold he farmed himself felt far more satisfying than gold he bought.
"What about us?"
Carlos and Igor asked.
Gabryell poured cold water on them. "Carlos can tank low-level dungeons and pick up unwanted loot as extra income. Igor, you can stand around in a capital city and see if any newbies are willing to pay for Enchanting at this level.Go sweet-talk some newbies into believing enchants will make them hit harder and level faster."
Gabryell needed Enchant Boots - Minor Speed. It was an essential enchant for Mages solo farming dungeons. When he had time, he would take Igor through Uldaman once and help him raise his Enchanting to Artisan Enchanting.
As the first person to reach Artisan Enchanting, Igor could make plenty of gold just by standing around in a capital city and advertising enchants.
Gabryell left Theramore Isle and followed Dreadmurk Shore, completely ignoring the Mudrock Spikeshells along the way, until he reached the murloc island to the northeast.
He planned to AoE grind all the way to level 40, then head back to buy his mount and learn his portal spells, officially becoming the kind of Mage everyone worshipped.
"Great Mage, please, port me."
Mudfin Murlocs and Shore Striders were Gabryell's targets. The island and the coastline ahead only had these two types of melee murlocs, which was more than enough for solo AoE grinding. Going from level 38 to 40 here would not be a problem.
"Holy crap, Gabryell, you're getting more ridiculous by the day."
Igor deliberately glanced at Gabryell's screen and was shocked to see him AoEing six or seven murlocs at once. "You can even AoE terrifying creatures like murlocs now. Give you a little more time, and you'll probably be AoEing entire dungeons by yourself."
His Paladin could solo one murloc without a problem. Two would be rough. Three meant he might as well get ready to release spirit.
Gabryell said, "Mages really can AoE dungeons."
Igor muttered, "If I'd known, I would've played a Mage too. Then I could carry girls while leveling. Why would I ever have to worry about girls not throwing themselves at me?"
Hugo immediately mocked him. "Forget it. Without Gabryell's mechanics, you wouldn't be AoEing mobs. The mobs would be taking turns beating you down."
Every Mage thought they could AoE grind. Unfortunately, plenty had terrible hands, so there were actually quite a few poor Mages too. They could only sell food and water in capital cities, open portals for a little pocket money, and save up for expensive Mage gear.
With no one competing for mobs, life was good. Gabryell AoE grinded on the murloc island for three or four hours straight, pushing his level from 38 to 40.
"Damn, Gabs, you're level 40?"
After grinding Scarlet Monastery all day and only reaching level 37 at 79%, Dreamshade felt like he was going insane.
Gabryell teleported straight back to Stormwind. "Get that 100 gold ready. I'll collect it from you when I hit level 45."
Barring any surprises, he would reach level 45 tomorrow and win his bet with Dreamshade.
Dreamshade was miserable. "I only have a little over thirty gold right now. One hundred gold? Where am I supposed to get that much for you?"
Gabryell said, "I have over two hundred gold here. I can sell you one hundred at the current gold price. One gold is four bucks, so give me four hundred dollars and we'll call the hundred gold even."
Dreamshade replied with an ellipsis, clearly speechless.
"You're not level 45 yet. By the time you hit 45, I'll have scraped together 100 gold."
Dreamshade made one final struggle.
Gabryell gave him the chance to lose completely. "You'd better start scraping it together now. I'll be level 45 before tomorrow night."
After ending his private chat with Dreamshade, Gabryell went to the Mage Tower in Stormwind to learn one of the most important tools of a true Mage: portal spells.
They were also one of the main reasons people treated Mages with reverence.
He learned Portal: Stormwind first, then teleported to Ironforge to learn Portal: Ironforge, before teleporting back to Stormwind.
Coming and going as he pleased.
This was how carefree a true Mage was.
Level 40 was a transformation point for Mages. Not only could they learn capital city portals, they could also pick up one of the most important level 40 Frost Mage talents: Ice Barrier.
In fact, Frost Mages had three key milestones.
The first was getting the slowing effect on Blizzard.
The second was getting Ice Block.
The third was undoubtedly getting Ice Barrier.
With Ice Barrier, a Mage's survivability increased dramatically. Combined with Ice Block, it enabled slick plays like pulling mobs with Ice Block without dying the instant it ended. It also improved solo AoE efficiency.
Following his habits from his previous life, Gabryell bound Ice Barrier to the R key. In his view, Ice Barrier, which could only be obtained at level 40, was practically a Mage's ultimate skill, allowing a true Mage to perform many moves that had previously been impossible.
Of course, some people believed Ice Block was the real ultimate skill for a Frost Mage. Everyone had their own opinion. In any case, Gabryell believed a Mage without Ice Barrier had no business pulling mobs in dungeons. If you could not survive the pull, then there was no point talking about grouping the mobs up.
Level 40 was an important milestone. It meant players could learn riding and buy a basic mount with 60% movement speed.
Gabryell left Stormwind and headed to Eastvale Logging Camp. For Humans, Horse Riding could only be learned from the riding trainer Randal Hunter at Eastvale Logging Camp. As for mounts, human horses could be bought in four places: Eastvale Logging Camp, Menethil Harbor, Theramore Isle, and Southshore.
In vanilla, only Humans had four places to buy mounts. Other races only had one. The horses sold in each Human location came in different colors, giving players more options and making them perfect for mount collectors.
For mount collectors, donating cloth to raise reputation with other races in the same faction to Exalted allowed them to learn those races' riding skills and buy their racial mounts.
Gabryell could not be bothered to go anywhere else, so he went straight to Eastvale Logging Camp to buy his mount.
Mounts in vanilla had another special trait: riding training was cheap, while the mounts themselves were expensive. It was not until The Burning Crusade that this changed, making riding expensive and mounts cheap.
After arriving at the Eastvale Logging Camp stables, Gabryell learned Horse Riding and bought a white basic mount, becoming the first person on Tichondrius to own a horse.
Not everyone riding a white horse was a prince.
Sometimes, it was Gabryell.
Gabryell summoned his white basic horse and decided to show off for once. He rode straight back to Stormwind, letting the players along the road witness his style and giving Fearless a loud advertisement.