"What's a fair price for Shining Silver Breastplate?"
Skybro's leveling speed was not slow. He had reached level 30 in three days, living up to his self-proclaimed reputation as an elite hardcore player.
After two days of farming the Zul'Farrak graveyard, Gabryell finally handed out the 1,000 gold reward to the first ten players who reached level 40.
The only flaw was that no purple BoE had dropped in those two days. There were only a dozen or so blue BoEs and countless green items.
He had just returned to Stormwind and was about to fly to Stranglethorn Vale when he heard Skybro's question.
"How much are they asking?"
"Five gold. Is that expensive?"
"Shining Silver Breastplate, blue quality, five gold each. Buy fast while supplies last. First come, first served. Ten times compensation if fake."
Skybro was delighted. "Then I'll go buy it."
Gabryell quickly stopped him. "I'm kidding. Buying a fake one would be bad enough, but forget the real thing too. Level to 45 first, then run a dungeon and farm any chest piece above level 40. It'll be stronger than this."
If Shining Silver Breastplate were really that good, that scammer Druid would not have had to sell it all the way to level 60 before finally finding a buyer.
"Hurry up and level. We're still waiting for you, our elite pro PvPer, to lead us against the Horde."
Gabryell rode the gryphon to Booty Bay. Over the past two days, every time he returned to town to clear the blue and green gear from his bags, Carlos and the others dragged him to Stranglethorn Vale for a fight, helping them contest the Gurubashi Arena chest.
Carlos only needed one more Arena Master trinket to complete his 'Arena Grand Master'. No sooner had Gabryell returned than the group dragged him back to Stranglethorn, because the Gurubashi chest was about to respawn.
Skybro declared with great confidence, "Once I hit level 40, I'll turn Stranglethorn Vale upside down hunting Horde and wipe out Grom'gol Base Camp."
"Support. Skybro is cracked."
"I'm fighting Horde in Stranglethorn right now. They have more people, and I'm corpse-running. Come save me after you hit 40, Skybro."
"Damn Blizzard. Why doesn't Stranglethorn have an Alliance camp? When the Horde can't win, they hide in Grom'gol. When there are too many of them, we don't even have anywhere to fall back to."
Skybro posted "pro player" takes in guild chat every day and had already become a guild celebrity. Whenever he spoke, he was guaranteed to draw out a crowd.
Now that the main wave of players had reached level 40, Stranglethorn Vale had become the new battlefield for Alliance and Horde. The two sides often fought to the death over a single mob, and sometimes, after calling friends over, small skirmishes turned into large-scale clashes.
And this was before the Honor System had even opened. Once it did, both sides would attack on sight, trying to turn each other into honor points. The situation would be ten times more chaotic than it was now.
Gabryell flew to Booty Bay. By now, players all knew they could not start fights on goblin turf, making Booty Bay one of the few peaceful areas in Stranglethorn.
"Gabryell, are you here yet? Hall of Fame's guild leader is here. We're about to lose it."
Carlos called for help over voice chat. His HP was dropping rapidly, then instantly being filled back up, either from Lay on Hands or a Greater Healing Potion.
"Hold on. I'm almost there. How many do they have?"
Gabryell left Booty Bay, mounted up, and headed straight for the arena.
"Eighteen," Carlos said.
He checked his own raid. They had sixteen people in the arena. Once he arrived, they should be able to take the chest.
Over the past two days, Fearless had fought Hall of Fame the most. Their guild leader, Windwalker, was a Warrior and also wanted Arena Grand Master. Both sides had wins and losses, but overall, Fearless held a slight edge.
Gabryell reached the arena entrance. Before he could enter, a Frostbolt flew at him.
A familiar feeling.
Sure enough, it was NoTrace. He was camping the entrance, waiting to ambush reinforcements. The guy was level 45 now and had gotten extremely cocky, spending every day in Duskwood and Stranglethorn killing lone Alliance players. He had already become public enemy number one for the Alliance.
NoTrace had basically become Tichondrius's most infamous Horde PvPer. Inside Hall of Fame, everyone called him their God of War. Even among the Horde, he was famous. Almost every Horde PvP maniac who liked dueling had lost to him.
Almost, however, was never perfect. He had dueled Gabryell several times and had never won once. Gabryell was now his number one enemy. If NoTrace did not kill him at least once, the resentment in his heart would never fade.
"What an annoying fly."
Gabryell did not mind killing him again. Being harassed over and over was just irritating.
He put up Ice Barrier and Blinked straight forward. The reckless play startled NoTrace.
In a Mage mirror, NoTrace did not dare stand face-to-face and hard-cast first, afraid of being Counterspelled. So he Blinked away to create distance and escape Tidal Charm range.
Gabryell did not let him back off. He immediately activated Nifty Stopwatch and chased him down.
He did not need much technique to kill NoTrace. His HP alone, nearly 30% higher than NoTrace's, was enough to grind him down.
With Nifty Stopwatch, he caught up and used Tidal Charm, stunning him for three seconds.
The stun forced NoTrace to use Ice Block.
Baa!
Gabryell clearly had not cast Polymorph, but NoTrace, who had just come out of Ice Block, turned into a little sheep.
"I'll play with him. Go help the others."
A voice came over TeamSpeak, and Coldhands appeared in Gabryell's field of view. The Polymorph had been his.
"This guy ambushed me several times recently. I finally get to pay him back."
Coldhands had been questing in Stranglethorn and had been ambushed by NoTrace more than once. Now that he had a chance for revenge, there was no way he would miss it.
Gabryell gladly handed NoTrace over for him to deal with. "He already used one Ice Block. Cast Fireball at him, then sheep him while the Fireball is still in the air. Force out Cold Snap and make him use his second Ice Block."
"Got it."
Gabryell was still afraid Coldhands could not beat him, so he continued coaching. "Find a way to bait out his Counterspell. If you accidentally get locked out, immediately switch to another school."
"Understood."
Gabryell glanced at his gear. Coldhands was actually wearing a full set of level 35-plus Eagle gear, giving him more HP and mana than NoTrace. No wonder he had asked last time what gear was best for Mage PvP.
During this stage, when spell-damage gear was scarce, mindlessly stacking core stats was the strongest option for fighting. Early PvP was mostly a stat check. Whoever traded better won.
Seeing that Gabryell still seemed worried, Coldhands said, "Don't worry. This time, I brought a pile of Alchemy elixirs, switched my professions to Engineering, and have a bunch of Engineering gadgets too."
Elixirs plus Engineering gadgets. Coldhands was brute-forcing PvP with consumables and Engineering.
As Gabryell entered the arena, Coldhands spoke again. "Oh, right, Leader. I was killing pirates below Booty Bay today and got another pet."
A pet from the pirates below Booty Bay.
Gabryell froze on the spot.
No way.
The guild already had Luna, their lucky mascot, and now there was another rare-drop magnet?
"What pet?" His throat felt dry.
Coldhands said, "Hyacinth Macaw. Do you want it? I don't know the price either. How about I sell it to you for fifty gold?"