"Hahaha!"
A smug, sleazy cackle came from Dorm Room 301. Igor held up a stack of signup forms and showed them off. "See this? I hit up a few departments and got a bunch of people to join our club. Know what that means? Your boy Igor's got game."
Hugo immediately shot him down. "Are you sure it wasn't because you told everyone Danielly joined our club, and that's why you got so many signups at once?"
Igor pinched his fingers together. "Sure, Danielly may have had this tiny little bit to do with it, but most of them were won over by your boy Igor's charisma. Once they heard we're Fearless from Tichondrius, and that your boy Igor is Tichondrius's number one Paladin…"
He waved his hand dramatically. "They came running over, begging to join our club, hoping to join our guild and ride your boy Igor's coattails."
Last night's thousand-player Battle of Hillsbrad Foothills on Tichondrius had caused a huge stir across the realm. Almost every player on the server had been stunned by that battle, getting their first real taste of how intense World of Warcraft PvP could be.
On the Azeroth National Geographic Forum, the hottest topic today was naturally the thousand-player battle in Hillsbrad Foothills. Neither Alliance nor Horde players were willing to back down, and some other realms were already preparing to imitate Tichondrius and launch their own Hillsbrad battles today.
As the guild that started the thousand-player battle, Fearless had become famous overnight. It was now widely recognized by Alliance players across the game and was faintly showing signs of becoming the number one Alliance guild on the server.
As for Freedom, even though they had produced screenshots of their so-called "capture" of Undercity, no one bought it. Countless Horde players exposed the truth behind their fake occupation, while Alliance players condemned them for not daring to face the Horde head-on. Their behavior was looked down on by both sides, leaving Freedom hated inside and out. They had completely outsmarted themselves.
Igor announced, "To celebrate our victory in yesterday's battle, and to celebrate the founding of our club, we'll hold our first club meetup tomorrow night. Everyone can use the event to get to know each other."
Igor deliberately cleared his throat and said, "We can also bring in classmates who are interested in transferring to Tichondrius and get them into our guild. And our campus goddess can join too."
Hugo snorted when he heard that. "So after all that, you still don't even know the goddess's in-game name or server."
Igor only knew Danielly was Alliance. Otherwise, with his show-off personality, he would have bragged about it last time. "Danielly will also attend the meetup tomorrow night. If you've got the guts, go ask her yourself."
That move worked perfectly. Hugo immediately shut up.
Gabryell shook his head and interrupted their usual bickering. "Igor, hurry up and get online. We're only waiting for you before heading to Scarlet Monastery."
Today was Saturday, with no classes, so they could play all day. It was perfect for farming Scarlet Monastery.
"Everyone's here?" Igor finally pulled his attention back to the game.
Gabryell nodded. "You're the only one missing. If you don't hurry, everyone's going to ditch you and head to Scarlet Monastery without you."
Igor quickly sat down. He did not need to log in, since Gabryell had kept his account online the whole time. Seeing that he was already in the raid, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"It feels a lot smoother today than yesterday. Looks like Blizzard's overnight server maintenance wasn't completely useless." Igor walked around a few steps without any stuttering.
Gabryell said, "Same crap, different day. If they don't add more server hardware, it'll still lag once more people come online tonight."
Blizzard's server rooms needed serious cooling to stay stable. If the other realms imitated Tichondrius tonight and started thousand-player battles of their own, Blizzard's servers would probably get pushed to the limit again. If they overloaded, the servers would crash all over again.
Gabryell's group was in Southshore. Ever since last night's battle, more and more Alliance players had gathered there, while the Horde had not given up on Hillsbrad Foothills either. Although no large-scale battle had broken out again, small skirmishes had never stopped.
As someone who had lived through the game once before, Gabryell knew very well that only after most players reached level 40 would Stranglethorn Vale and Tanaris become the next PvP hotspots for Alliance and Horde players. By then, Hillsbrad Foothills would slowly return to peace, at least until the Alterac Valley battleground opened.
Scarlet Monastery was located in the northeast corner of Tirisfal Glades, deep in Horde territory. It was where the Scarlet Crusade trained new recruits and consisted of four separate wings. The unlocked wings on the left and right were Graveyard on the left and Library on the right. Behind the locked doors, Cathedral was on the left, while Armory was on the right.
Cathedral had the highest level requirement, followed by Armory, then Library, and finally Graveyard.
"We'll do Graveyard first. Once we hit 33, we'll move on to Library."
With voice chat, there was no need to type. Gabryell had everyone join Vent and set the channel to open mode so everyone could speak.
"If we're going to Scarlet Monastery, does that mean we'll be fighting Horde?" an excited female voice asked.
"Which girl is this?"
"I'm Smooch. But you can call me your queen. And who are you supposed to be?" Smooch's voice was soft and sweet, completely at odds with her loud, carefree personality. Judging by her voice alone, she sounded like a cute girl-next-door type.
"I'm DesertWanderer." Judging from his voice, Desert sounded about the same age as Gabryell and the others.
Smooch said, "So it's the little tagalong. Desert, why don't you go to Scarlet Monastery first, then summon me?"
DesertWanderer was speechless.
"Luna, Mushy, say something."
Smooch talked a lot. Now Gabryell believed she really did have a lively personality.
"Hi, everyone. I'm Lunatori." Lunatori's voice was extremely gentle. Just from hearing her, she sounded like a sweet, soft-spoken girl.
"Hi, everyone. I'm MushroomHunter." MushroomHunter's voice was also pleasantly soft.
"I'm StyleOverStats." The Priest StyleOverStats was also a girl, though her voice leaned more neutral.
Gabryell simply said, "Everyone introduce yourselves. It'll be easier to recognize people by voice."
"I'm David." David's voice was calm and steady.
"I'm Susie, and I'm more charming than David." Susie's voice had a magnetic quality.
After that, everyone introduced themselves one by one over voice chat. In the whole raid, only Coldhands did not use a microphone and could only type.
"Coldhands, I'm starting to think you're just some little kid," Smooch said.
Coldhands typed, "I'm very manly."
No one believed him. Everyone unanimously decided he must be a little kid, which was why he did not dare turn on his mic.
There were twenty-two people going to Scarlet Monastery this time.
The Mages were Gabryell, Intriguing, Coldhands, and OliveDrab. The Priests were StyleOverStats and DontPanicHealz. The Warriors were Carlos, Susie, David, and Nightlord. Nightlord had gotten up very early today and was already level 30. Four level-30 Warriors were just right to serve as main tanks for four groups.
The Paladins were Igor, SevenDays, and OldSeven. The Druids were Lunatori and MushroomHunter. The Hunters were Hugo, Smooch, and OneShotCrit. The Rogues were DeathScum and TwinBleeds. The Warlocks were DesertWanderer and FirstDate.
Among the twenty-two players, five were girls. Surprisingly, DontPanicHealz was also a girl. David had it pretty good, leading a team with two girls.
After taking attendance, Gabryell assigned the groups. "There are twenty-two of us, so we'll split into four groups. To make sure every group can clear Graveyard, we need to distribute the classes properly."
They could not just group up based on who they liked. Gabryell wanted all four teams to be able to clear Scarlet Monastery Graveyard.
"We'll follow the guild leader's call," David said, and everyone else agreed.
Gabryell thought it over. Among the twenty-two players, there were four main tanks, seven healers, nine ranged DPS, and two melee DPS.
The four main tanks would each lead a team. Carlos would be in Gabryell's group, along with Igor. Since Smooch, OldSeven, and StyleOverStats were only level 29, they needed special arrangements.
"Group one: Me, Egides, Grada, Smooch, and Lunatori."
After thinking about it, Gabryell decided he would take one of the level 29 players. Igor would continue to fill in as melee DPS. After all, his DPS gear was excellent.
"Group two: Susie, DontPanicHealz, DesertWanderer, BentArrow, and Intriguing."
"Group three: David, MushroomHunter, OldSeven, FirstDate, OliveDrab, and DeathScum."
"Group four: Nightlord, StyleOverStats, SevenDays, Coldhands, OneShotCrit, and TwinBleeds."
David and Nightlord's groups each took one level-29 healer and formed six-person parties for Scarlet Monastery Graveyard. For the first run, they were not expecting to complete quests or earn much experience anyway. As long as they could full clear it, that was enough.
Gabryell said, "After we clear Graveyard, I'll leave. By then, other guild members should have reached level 30. I'll call them over to Scarlet Monastery and form another five-man group. That way, everyone can keep farming Graveyard until level 33, then move on to Library."
A few guild members were close to level 29. Gabryell believed they could reach level 30 this morning and come farm Graveyard together. With Warlocks around, they would not need to run over. They could be summoned directly.
When the time came, he would rearrange the groups and try to make each team five people, letting everyone farm Graveyard straight to level 33 before doing Library and getting the Scarlet Monastery key.
Of course, if Gabryell only cared about himself, he could have all the Mages follow him, then have Hugo's Hunter pull mobs and run a Scarlet AoE group. That leveling efficiency would definitely be extremely fast.
But he would not do that. It would hurt the team's interests. After clearing Graveyard, he would continue to Arathi Highlands and AoE farm at Go'Shek Farm until level 38. At level 38, he would move northeast of Theramore to farm Murlocs until level 41.
If nothing went wrong and Scarlet Monastery Graveyard went smoothly, he could return early to AoE grinding. Today, he could at least reach level 40, and he might even have a chance to reach level 41 or 42, the level needed to solo farm the Zul'Farrak graveyard.
"Everyone follow me. We'll go through Silverpine Forest into Tirisfal Glades."
Gabryell led the group out of Southshore. "Don't get separated. Stick together. If any Horde players come looking to die and attack us on the road, we'll kill them."
Silverpine Forest and Tirisfal Glades were Horde territory. If the Horde did not actively flag for PvP, Gabryell's group had no way to attack them. As long as the Horde did not provoke them first, they were too lazy to start a fight.