They weren't the first players to reach Goldshire. The town was already full of low-level newbies wandering around—most of them not questing, just exploring the place. Many were only level one or two.
"Let's stop by the inn first and set our hearthstones."
Gabryell led the other two into the Lion's Pride Inn. After speaking with the innkeeper, they set their hearthstones.
"Everyone gets a hearthstone. If you lose it, you can grab another from any innkeeper. You can set it to any inn, but only one at a time," Gabryell explained. "While leveling, just bind it wherever's convenient. Once you hit max level, Ironforge is a good spot—transport there is easy, and it's close to most raid zones."
For Mages, hearthstone placement was even more flexible. Since they could teleport to major cities anyway, they could bind it almost anywhere they wanted.
"Holy crap, this lowbie is asking me for gold!" Igor suddenly shouted.
Gabryell glanced at the chat window. A line of white text read: "Anyone kind enough to help? I'm new—could someone give me some gold so I can buy gear?"
"Gold? I could use some too," Gabryell said with a laugh.
Every game had beggars. WoW had been live for barely an hour—unless players pooled their money together, there probably wasn't a single person in the entire game who even had one gold yet.
"Ignore him. Let's go quest," Carlos said, ushering them out of the inn. People looking for handouts were the most annoying—especially when the game had just launched and everyone was starting from scratch.
The three stepped outside. Almost immediately, a string of white messages popped up in the chat.
"Level 6, big deal. What are you showing off for? Won't even spare 1 gold. Just wait—once I level up, I'll kill you guys."
The rest of the message was nothing but censored stars, clearly angry insults after his begging failed.
"Final Warrior? What a disgrace to Warriors."
Carlos quietly memorized the player's name and mentally added him to his blacklist.
They left the inn and put the unpleasant encounter behind them. After picking up a few quests in Goldshire, the trio headed toward Fargodeep Mine to stir up more trouble for the Kobolds.
"What level are you guys now?"
Hugo, who had been leveling on his own, walked over to take a look.
"You're already level 7. I'm only level 5."
He had just watched them kill a Kobold, followed by the familiar flash of golden light as all three leveled up.
"Level 5 in just over an hour solo is already pretty good," Gabryell said, genuinely impressed by Hugo's gaming skills.
Hugo scratched his head awkwardly. "Actually… I'm grouped with someone."
Gabryell glanced at his screen. The Night Elf Hunter was in a party with a Druid named Lunatori.
"A girl?"
Names like that were usually picked by female players.
"Hugo, add her to your friends list. Try to recruit her to our guild later."
Gabryell had already decided he would start his own guild. Druids were relatively rare in Vanilla, and they were valuable support in raids.
Hugo grinned proudly. "Already did. I added her earlier. I'll bring her to Stormwind to meet you guys later."
Igor, who had been listening the whole time, suddenly asked, "So you're planning to start your own guild?"
Gabryell nodded. "Yeah. I want us to push for raid first kills."
Igor's eyes lit up.
"Starting a guild sounds awesome! Recruit a bunch of girls so I can bless them with Holy Light."
Carlos asked, "How do you even make a guild?"
"When we reach Stormwind, we can talk to the guild registrar and buy a charter. Once we collect ten signatures, the guild can be formed," he explained. "No rush, though—we'll deal with it after level ten."
"I'm in," Carlos said.
The other two quickly agreed.
"With you."
"Same here."
Their support didn't need many words.
Gabryell felt a surge of determination. With his brothers behind him, this time they would push for first kills in the major raids and stand at the very top of Azeroth together.
But the servers had been live for less than two hours. Guild business could wait—for now, leveling was the only priority.
After finishing the mine quests, the trio didn't head back to Goldshire to turn them in. Instead, they moved on to Stonefield Farm, on the far side of the mine, to grab more quests.
They also stopped by Maclure Vineyards, clearing every quest along the way. With almost no one around to compete for mobs, the pace felt incredibly smooth. Working together, the three leveled with surprising efficiency.
"'Princess Must Die'? Where's the princess?" Igor asked.
In his mind, Igor was already picturing a princess kidnapped by a fire-breathing dragon.
"The princess must be in grave danger. As a heroic young adventurer, I'll defeat the evil dragon and rescue her."
Gabryell barely managed to keep a straight face.
"The princess is at Brackwell Pumpkin Patch. We're not going there yet," he said. "Let's head back to Goldshire to turn in our quests and learn our professions first."
He was already looking forward to Igor's reaction when he finally met the "princess."
Fifteen years of playing World of Warcraft had taught Gabryell one important lesson: never trust anything called a "princess" in WoW. Especially the infamous Princess Theradras from the Classic—she had shattered the illusions of countless players.
After returning to Goldshire and turning in their quests, the trio reached level 8.
At higher levels, quests alone wouldn't always grant enough experience for a full level. Blizzard had balanced it so that completing all the quests in Elwynn Forest would leave players a little over level 10.
At level 8 they could train new skills again. Using the silver they'd earned from selling trash drops, the three of them learned every ability available to their classes.
"I'm even stronger now," Igor bragged.
Not only was he ahead of most players in level, he also had two 6-slot bags, a level 7 green, and several white items above level 5.
In the rush to level earlier, Gabryell had completely forgotten about professions.
"Head up to the second floor of the inn and learn First Aid."
First Aid was considered essential for non-healing classes in WoW. Whether healers should take it was more debated. Some players argued that a healer who didn't learn First Aid wasn't doing their job properly.
Others believed the opposite. If a healer ever needed to use bandages, it meant they were already OOM, and a healer without mana was basically useless. In PvP, once you were out of mana, you might as well take your hands off the keyboard and wait to die.
Gabryell still recommended that healers pick up First Aid. It could save lives in emergencies, and in some boss fights it helped conserve valuable mana.
Once they had all learned First Aid, he immediately started making bandages, using up every piece of Linen Cloth in his bags.
"Carlos, pick up Blacksmithing later. When we reach Stormwind, you can learn Engineering too."
He didn't plan to rely on Carlos's Warrior for making gold. Since Warriors were already a gear-hungry class, he might as well give him the two most expensive professions.
"Igor, you'll take Enchanting and Alchemy once we get to Stormwind."
The four of them needed to split their professions carefully if they wanted to maximize profits. Paladins weren't ideal for double gathering, so Igor would handle Enchanting and Alchemy.
"What about me?" Hugo asked.
"Skinning and Leatherworking," Gabryell replied. "We'll rely on you to make money early on."
At the start of the game, Skinning was one of the most profitable professions. Skinning from level 1 to 40 and selling the leather to vendors could easily earn enough for one or even two mounts.
As for why only one person learned Skinning instead of everyone, the reason was simple. Since the four of them would be leveling together, as long as one person could skin beasts, that was enough.
"Then what are you learning?" Igor asked.
"Double gathering," Gabryell replied. "It'll be useful later."
Once more players reached max level, double gathering would become one of the most profitable setups. His plan was to maximize profits later while solo farming dungeons like Dire Maul, Zul'Gurub, and Maraudon.
"Right now is the best time," he added. "Herbs and ore are everywhere, and nobody's picking them up yet."
He guided his character toward the small house on the hillside to the left of Northshire Abbey to learn Herbalism. As for Mining, he decided to wait until they reached Stormwind.
After spending a few minutes learning their professions, the group resumed their leveling grind.
"Pick up the 'Collecting Kelp' quest," he said. "I'll show you one of the biggest nightmares for new players in World of Warcraft."
Just thinking about it, the familiar sound already echoed in his mind.
"Mrrglrlrlrl!"
The noise alone was enough to make him shiver.