Talk about the ultimate grind: a World of Warcraft player managed to reached the highest level in the game, 90, without ever leaving the starting zone.

Normally, a pandaren (a race in World of Warcraft) stays neutral (not belonging to either Horde or Alliance factions) until level 10. The standard course of action after that would be to choose a faction and continue your adventures in other zones, more suited for higher levels.

However, a player called Doubleagent decided he wanted to stay neutral — forever. So, he never left his starting zone, leveling in the slowest possible way: by mining and picking herbs.

Since that's the one of the hardest ways to gain experience (and thus, levels) in WoW, it took a very long time for Doubleagent to reach level 90. He started leveling his pandaren in September 2012, and it took 173.5 game days (full amount of time spent in-game) to get there.

Was it boring? According to Doubleagent's post on the Battle.net forums, not so much. "At times I can find it relaxing, a change from the normal," he writes.

Doubleagent's odd accomplishment is accompanied by a number of anomalies, since the game was not really designed for pandaren players to stay neutral after level 10. He had to die a lot in order to reach the western part of the Wandering Isle (pandaren starting zone), and he cannot leave the Isle at all.

You can check out the details in his extensive FAQ and see the moment when he reaches level 90 in the video below.