how did luke and cory miss all those "gracefully"s? makes it kinda obvious who it is...

It lies in your question.

More like an all you can KILL buffet.

Why do a bunch of random NPCs know his name? They've barely started playing, I wouldn't expect them to have that kind of notoriety.

Zoro was meant to be an npc that cory hijacked, so hes already famed