In about an hour, Gabryell pushed all four alts to level 10. After that, Ironforge Airport no longer gave meaningful experience, so the next step was simple: park them in dungeons and carry them.
Once an alt reached level 10, it could enter The Deadmines.
That was the first stop on the Alliance alt-carry route, and also the one Mages hated carrying the most.
Compared to the Horde's Ragefire Chasm, Deadmines was miserable for alts and especially annoying for a Mage doing the carry. After each gate, if the Mage did not turn back and wait, the patrols that respawned behind them would often catch the lowbies and kill them.
Dying in Deadmines meant running back from the Sentinel Hill graveyard.
A complete pain in the ass.
If these had not been his own alts, Gabryell would never bother carrying it. Most Mages probably felt the same way. They would rather run Stockades ten times than carry Deadmines five times.
He opened a portal and brought the alts to Stormwind.
Since this was their first trip to Westfall, none of them had the flight path. They had no choice but to run.
This time, he did not bother DesertWanderer or Danielly. He simply had the four alts follow him and led them all the way to Sentinel Hill.
After unlocking the flight path there, he headed straight for Deadmines.
With a huge wave of new players pouring in, Westfall had become lively again. The mobs along the road had been cleared out almost completely, which saved him a lot of trouble.
"A level 60 Mage? Is he going to Deadmines?"
When nearby players saw him enter the building leading to the dungeon, they immediately got restless and followed him in.
"Hey, can you run me too?"
"I can pay. Just need a carry."
"Invite? I can heal."
Whispers kept flooding in, but Gabryell ignored all of them and continued leading the four alts toward the instance. Any mob that appeared on the way died immediately so the lowbies would not get caught and killed.
A crowd of new players followed him all the way to the entrance. When they saw him zone in with four alts, disappointment spread through the group.
"One Mage carrying four lowbies? Yeah, that's totally normal. Reported."
"Idiot, do you even know who that is? First 60 on the server, GM of Fearless. It's Deadmines. Of course he can carry his own alts."
"Guess gods don't pug with mortals. Whatever. LFM Deadmines, real run. Need tank, heals, DPS. PST."
"Warrior here."
"I can heal."
"Rogue LFG."
"Mage here, invite."
Outside Deadmines, several normal groups formed on the spot and went in to clear the dungeon themselves.
Gabryell had no idea that, because of him, the area outside the instance had suddenly turned lively. Some players had even started pushing the idea of doing actual dungeon runs instead of begging for carries.
As the first wave of players gradually reached 60, newer players who had only started after official launch would slowly spread that style of grouping. For a while, World of Warcraft still had a small pocket of old-school dungeon culture: people forming actual parties, walking in, and clearing the place properly.
Only later, once Mages who could solo-farm and sell dungeon runs started appearing, would those normal groups begin to decline. Eventually, more and more players would rather pay gold, lie at the entrance, and let a Mage do everything.
Deadmines was awful. Unless he had no other choice, Gabryell really did not want to carry it.
It could not be done in one clean pull. He had to clear it gate by gate, and the alts had to follow after each section or they would not get experience.
The worst part was that after every gate, he had to turn back and clean up the newly respawned patrols. Otherwise, the alts would die behind him.
Annoying or not, he still had to do it. Deadmines was the only dungeon Alliance alts could enter at level 10, and it was still far more efficient than making them quest outside.
Fortunately, Gabryell was no beginner. He had farmed enough dungeons in his previous life to know exactly how to handle this. Deadmines was annoying, but it was not difficult.
"They're already 14?"
Around lunchtime, Carlos, Igor, and Hugo put down their games and were about to call him out to eat. Then they glanced at the alt levels and froze.
Level 1 to level 14 in a single morning.
That speed was ridiculous. It was faster than strapping the characters to a rocket.
"Dude, you're insane." Carlos gave him a thumbs-up. "At this rate, these alts are going to catch our mains."
Igor sighed. "Mages are so broken. Paladins can't do this crap."
Without taking his eyes off the screen, Gabryell corrected him. "Paladins can solo Deadmines too. Any level 60 class can. The difference is speed."
In truth, it was not just Deadmines. Stockades was the same. As long as a character was level 60, they could solo low-level dungeons easily. The only real question was how fast.
Igor was not convinced. "Still nowhere near Mage speed."
He had no intention of solo farming Deadmines on a Paladin. A plate-wearer would probably lose more in repair bills than he earned.
"They're almost 15, right?" Carlos asked after glancing at the experience bars.
"Two more runs," Gabryell said. "Once they hit 15, I'm moving them to Stockades."
At level 15, he could finally leave miserable Deadmines behind and move to The Stockade in Stormwind. There, the alts did not need to follow him through the whole dungeon. They could just sit safely near the entrance and soak experience.
Starting from Stockades, things would get much easier. He could park the alts at the entrance and ignore them. Once that happened, leveling efficiency would climb even higher. If everything went well, they could probably reach level 30 before 11:30 that night.
Getting them to 30 on the first day would already be good enough.
After level 30, there were two choices: Scarlet Monastery or Maraudon.
For alts between 30 and 40, Scarlet Monastery and Maraudon were roughly similar in efficiency. Scarlet Monastery was annoying because Cathedral and Armory required running back and forth. Maraudon was simpler. The alts could just park at the purple entrance.
Before the Maraudon purple entrance plus Waterfall route was developed, Scarlet Monastery was the mainstream carry spot. After that route became known, a lot of business was stolen from SM Mages. Once those Mages lost their customers, they also moved to Maraudon, which eventually led to more Mages than buyers there.
That shift—Maraudon replacing Scarlet Monastery as the main carry spot—belonged to the later Classic era.
In World of Warcraft in 2004, only Gabryell knew how to solo-farm the purple entrance plus Waterfall route. For everyone else, Scarlet Monastery would remain the mainstream choice for now.
"Since neither Scarlet Monastery nor Maraudon is convenient for low-level travel, I might as well go straight to Maraudon. Saves the alts from wasting time running back and forth."
This was where his future knowledge showed.
Once the alts reached level 30, he would take them straight to Maraudon, farm the purple entrance plus Waterfall route until level 50, and then move on to Stratholme.
"Let's go eat," Carlos said after checking the time. It was already noon.
Gabryell was in the middle of leveling and did not want to waste time. "Bring me something back. Two more runs and they're ready for Stockades."
Carlos shook his head. There was that workaholic side again.
"Fine. I'll bring you something."
The other three left to eat while Gabryell stayed behind and finished the last two Deadmines runs.
Two runs took about half an hour. By the time all four alts reached level 15, Carlos and the others had returned.
"They're already 15?" Hugo leaned over, saw the levels, and immediately brightened. "Okay, that's actually awesome."
Gabryell opened a portal to Stormwind on the spot and brought the alts back to the city. After eating, he would head to Stockades and keep going.
Carlos placed the takeout box on his desk.
"Chicken parmesan over rice. Your usual, plus an extra fried egg, a drumstick, and kelp pork-rib soup."
After carrying alts all morning, Gabryell really was hungry. He opened the box and picked up his chopsticks.
Carlos lowered his voice. "Danielly got it for you."
His hand paused.
"She did?"
"Yeah. We ran into her and Bianca when we went to eat. She heard you were still carrying alts and hadn't eaten, so she bought this and asked us to bring it back."
Hugo sounded genuinely jealous. "Man, some people really do play life on easy mode."
Igor shook his head, unable to accept reality. "I don't get it. How is she into you? I'm clearly better-looking."
Gabryell smiled. "What's there to envy? I'm her mentor. Students taking care of their teacher is normal."
Carlos, Igor, and Hugo looked at one another.
Then they all smiled.
Yeah. No one was buying that.
A girl taking care of her in-game mentor all the way into real life—and even remembering his usual order? If he wanted to pretend nothing was going on, that was his problem.
Gabryell could tell exactly what they were thinking from their faces, but he was too lazy to answer.
The more you explained this kind of thing, the worse it got.