After entering the game, Gabryell, Igor, and Carlos all spawned at Northshire Abbey in Elwynn Forest. Hugo's Night Elf Hunter, however, appeared in Shadowglen on Teldrassil.
"Why aren't I with you guys?"
Hugo glanced over at the other three monitors and quickly realized his character was in a completely different place.
Gabryell explained, "Humans start in Northshire Abbey in Elwynn Forest, in the Eastern Kingdoms. Night Elves begin in Shadowglen on Teldrassil, which is over in Kalimdor."
Hugo frowned. "So I can't level with you guys?"
Gabryell reassured him, "Don't worry. Once you hit level 10, take the boat from Darkshore to the Wetlands. Then swim up near Ironforge, die there, resurrect at the spirit healer, and take the Deeprun Tram to Stormwind. After that we can level together in Westfall."
Just hearing that made Hugo's head spin.
"That sounds like a pain. I should've rolled Human like you guys."
"Relax," Gabryell said. "When the time comes, I'll walk you through it."
Only then did Hugo give up the idea of rerolling his Night Elf.
"Gabryell, why do you know so much about the game?" Carlos asked.
Igor added, "Yeah. This 3D game is already making me dizzy. It's even worse than CS."
Gabryell laughed. "I've been digging through a lot of beta info lately. I know the content up to around level 45 pretty well."
Carlos had been reading up on the beta as well. Even though Gabryell's knowledge seemed a little suspicious, he still trusted him.
"So what do we do now?"
Gabryell started moving his character. "Quest. Let's push to level 10 first. Carlos, Igor—group up with me and we'll run the quests together. Hugo, just explore for now. If you get stuck, ask me."
For veteran gamers like them, questing itself wasn't difficult. But in early World of Warcraft had no addons—players had to rely entirely on the quest text to figure out where to go and which mobs to kill or items to collect.
"Why doesn't this quest show any markers? Where are the Kobold bandits and wolves?"
Igor was completely lost. In the games he used to play, quests were dead simple. But WoW had a huge world, and the only guidance came from the quest text itself. For new players, it was confusing.
Fortunately, he wasn't alone.
"Stick with me while the zone's still quiet," Gabryell said. "We'll clear the quests fast and move out of Northshire."
More and more players were spawning into the starter area. Since everyone was new, many just wandered around in circles, unsure what to do. Quite a few hadn't even picked up their first quests yet.
He wanted to clear out Northshire before the real crowd arrived and secure an early lead. As long as they stayed ahead of the pack, they wouldn't have to fight over mobs and could level much faster on the road to 60.
With him leading the way, the trio quickly wrapped up the first few quests. While the confused mass of newcomers was still searching for quest NPCs, they had already reached level 3.
Skills only became available at level 4. Without slowing down, he pushed them through another quest, bringing the group up to level 4.
"From here on out, you learn new skills every two levels," he said while training his own abilities. "And every skill costs money. So remember to visit your class trainer every couple of levels—it'll make the game a lot smoother."
Before long, the others were naturally following his lead without even realizing it.
"At level 4 I only get Conjure Water, not Conjure Food. Carlos, wait until level 6 and I'll make you some bread."
After training his spells, he immediately conjured water—two stacks for himself and two for Igor's Paladin.
Igor looked at the item in the trade window with surprise. "Wait—how can a Mage make mana potions?"
"Those aren't potions," Gabryell said. "It's conjured food and water. In WoW, you can only eat or drink out of combat. A Mage can make both, which saves a lot of gold on supplies."
"That's pretty nice," Igor said. "So Mages are the cheapest class to play?"
"You could say that. Later on, Mages can also open portals to the major cities—it's incredibly convenient."
Igor let out a regretful sigh. "If I'd known that earlier, I would've rolled a Mage."
But his Paladin was already level 4. There was no way he was rerolling now—he was just complaining.
Gabryell only smiled.
In reality, Mage gear was often some of the most expensive in the game. The reason people said Mages saved money was because they were the best class at making gold later on.
In World of Warcraft, there are no poor Mages—only lazy ones. Even with mediocre skill, you could still make gold by carrying dungeon runs through places like the Stockade or Ragefire Chasm.
"Some people are already hitting level 3," Gabryell said, noticing a nearby player turn in a quest. A flash of golden light burst out as the player leveled up. "Let's keep moving."
The three left the class trainer and went back to questing.
"I'm suffering over here…"
Hugo was the only one complaining. Alone in Shadowglen, even with guidance from Gabryell, he had only just reached level 3.
The early quests in Northshire were easy enough. But once they reached the Defias Brotherhood quests, things stepped up a notch. The enemies were now red-named mobs that would attack on sight as soon as a player entered their aggro range.
Because they were in a party of three, dealing with the Defias mobs was easy. Solo players had it much rougher. Plenty of new players would accidentally pull extra enemies and end up dying.
"Let's move," Gabryell said. "This place is going to be covered in graves soon."
Seeing the confused looks on their faces, he explained, "In WoW, when you die and release your spirit, a grave appears where you died. You respawn as a ghost and can run back to your corpse to revive. You can also resurrect at a graveyard, but that comes with a penalty—so you should only do it if you really have to."
Carlos and the others immediately got it. It was their first time seeing a death system like this, and they found it pretty interesting.
After finishing Milly's Harvest, the trio picked up the bounty quest for Garrick Padfoot. For Human players, this was the first quest involving a named NPC target.
Garrick wasn't an elite, so he wasn't difficult to kill. The only issue was the Defias mob standing beside him, which made doing the quest in a group much safer.
"It dropped something!"
They brought Garrick down without much trouble. The moment he fell, Igor's Paladin crouched to loot the body.
Hearing the shout, Gabryell glanced over at his screen. In Igor's bag were two items: a level 5 green mail glove and a 6-slot bag.
"Nice," he said. "Give the gloves to Carlos."
To keep things simple, the party was set to Free For All loot, so there was no need to roll.
Warriors couldn't wear plate until level 40, so mail gloves with Strength and Stamina were perfect for Carlos.
Igor wasn't greedy and immediately traded them over.
After equipping the gloves, Carlos said in surprise, "All the gear we got before was white. Why is this one green?"
"In World of Warcraft, gear has five quality tiers: common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary," Gabryell explained. "That's white, green, blue, purple, and orange. Anything above white comes with extra stats. For example, this level-5 green mail glove gives two extra Strength and one extra Stamina compared to white gear."
The others nodded, finally getting it.
"What about the 6-slot bag?" Igor immediately equipped it. A new bag slot appeared in his inventory, and opening it revealed six extra spaces.
Gabryell explained, "Bags come in different sizes—6, 8, 10, 12, 16, and 18 slots. They can drop from mobs or be crafted by Tailors. You'll see plenty of them later."
Then he smirked slightly.
"There's a superstition about 6-slot bags. People say if you get one in the starter zone, your RNG is good and you'll get better drops later. When we run dungeons, maybe Igor should be the one looting."
Igor burst out laughing.
"See? I'm obviously the lucky one here. Stick with me and you might get some good drops too."
His smug grin immediately earned him three unimpressed looks.
"I'm deleting my character," Hugo complained from the side. "I'm rerolling one that can get a 6-slot bag in the starter zone."
Hugo had always believed he was the luckiest guy in their dorm, so Igor's bragging was hard to tolerate.
Gabryell didn't bother stopping him. Hugo wasn't stupid. The starter area was already packed, and quest mobs were dying the moment they respawned. There was no way he'd actually throw away their progress just to start over.
"Let's turn in the quest," Gabryell said. "Soon people will be lining up here."
The thought almost made him laugh.
Garrick Padfoot only respawned every few minutes, and with so many players trying to finish the quest, only one group could tag him each time. In later years—like during WoW Classic—Alliance players would even form polite lines and take turns killing him.
But back in 2004, there were no layers and no organized queues. Everyone would simply rush in and fight to tag the mob.
On day one alone, Garrick Padfoot's bounty quest would bottleneck at least ninety percent of players, giving Gabryell the perfect chance to pull ahead in levels.
"Let's leave Northshire and head to Goldshire."
They had already finished the Kobold quests, and turning in Garrick Padfoot's bounty pushed them to level 6.
After training his new spells, Gabryell conjured two stacks of bread for Carlos.
Then the three of them left Northshire Abbey and headed toward Goldshire, just outside Stormwind, beginning the next stage of their adventure.