Afterlife Dream

Every day I discovered that my choice in becoming a Healer was the right decision. How many players could boast about receiving raid invitations right after becoming a Healer? Hahaha

"Hmmm," I said, pretending to think about it.

Why not, right? I could use some experience before Monday. I did not want Twelve guild people to see my beginner moves when I ran with them.

"When is the run?" I asked. Livina breathed out of relief. She was more than happy to answer.

"Tomorrow morning at 10 AM."

"Is this a guild run?" I asked. If it were, I might have to consult BlackPuma first.

"No, not at all. We cannot afford to run as a guild yet. We are just a bunch of friends who are looking to get our helmets as soon as possible."

"Sure, I am game."

"Yay!" Livina shrieked happily.

She promptly sent me a friend invitation. I accepted.

She invited me to a party to meet with her guildmates. They were all level 70 - 75 and still helmless. All of them happened to be there to do the Fire Orb questline.

"Guys, Antares is a Healer. He has agreed to run with us tomorrow!"

"Cool! A Healer!!!"

"Thank you, Antares!"

"We could use more healers for tomorrow!"

"No prob," I responded coolly.

By the time I was done with the questline and got the Fire Orb in my hand, it was already 5 PM. I wanted to run the whole questline one more time to get another Fire Orb for Twelve raid, but the quest was limited to one time every week. Dejected, I hung my head.

"Guys," I wrote in the party chat. "Sorry, I don't think I can join. I am running with Twelve on Monday, and I only have one Fire Orb..."

"Don't sweat that! Come, I will sell you one Fire Orb for 1 gold. Take it."

...

How generous.

"Do you usually give away Fire Orbs like this to everyone?" I asked after I got the second Fire Orb from Livina.

"Of course not, but we make an exception for Healers. Healers are very, very rare."

"Oh. Well alright. See you tomorrow at the Fire Golem Lair?"

"Yes! See you!"

I left Lava County and headed toward Oakstone Tavern at Paradise Island. It was not yet 8 PM, but the place was bustling with players from Twelve.

"Antares, over here!" HellWitch waved me over to her table.

Lazarus and DragonTalon were already sitting there. I came over and smiled at them.

"Hey guys, how is it going?"

DragonTalon shot me a miserable look. I did not need to ask why. I merely put my arm around his shoulder and comforted him.

"Five more days, right? It will pass before you know it."

DragonTalon pulled his lips into a thin, long line.

"Mehh."

Lazarus had passed the Second Job Advancement without any problem. Most quests and even raids were risky for the mage class because we had low HP bars and had to rely on Mana Guard to survive. Of all boss skills that I knew of, buff nullification skills were the nastiest. I hated them with passion. By the look of it, DragonTalon hated them even more.

The stars of the dinner party arrived a little later. Ingenious and ArrowRain arrived together, glowing in their fourth job attire.

Everyone wanted to know how their Fourth Job Advancement Tests were. Although they were happy to have passed their tests, their faces darkened almost immediately and the first words they uttered were "Freaking tough".

The other two stars were Agathea and Timothy, who were chatting with BlackPuma and Aurendiria at another table. I approached their table and introduced myself.

Agathea was a High Priest of level 87 while Timothy was a Spear Master of level 88. I was surprised. I had expected them to be at least 110+, maybe even close to 120. Why would they exit the game so early?

Agathea and Timothy both broke into a grin when they saw the expression on my face.

"Are you wondering why we are exiting the game so early?"

"Well... yeah!" I answered promptly.

Agathea and Timothy exchanged sweet glances.

"Truthfully, we started this game a long time ago. When we started, BlackPuma was only level 30 and Twelve was not even there yet."

My jaw dropped open.

"What? That long time ago???"

"Yeah! Can you believe it???"

I ended up sitting at their table and listening to their story for the whole night.

The first generation of Afterlife Dream, so they called themselves, consisted of only twenty-something children. BlackPuma, Agathea, and Timothy were three of them. Although they all started at the same time, BlackPuma was the one who leveled the fastest and thus gained a lot of benefits from the game. The benefits referred to the weekly gifts for those who ranked highest in each category.

"Those gifts were godly. They contained gachapon coupons. Antares, have you tried pulling anything from the gachapon machine?"

"No," I admitted.

The three gachapon tickets were still safely tucked inside my inventory. Although I kept wanting to use it, I kept forgetting.

"What can we get from the coupons?" I asked curiously.

"Everything," Timothy answered while waving his arm dramatically. "Everything but Life Points."

"Really?" I asked. "Everything?"

Agathea was more realistic.

"Honestly, we also don't know that much. For the full list of items, you should ask those who often rank big three in any category."

"Like BP, or Auren even."

I turned to look at Aurendiria.

"Huh, are you one of those people??"

Aurendiria turned slightly pink. She puffed her cheeks in a pouty gesture. The table broke into roaring laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHA!!! AUREN, FINALLY SOMEONE WHO DOES NOT KNOW YOUR CHARM!!! HAHAHA!!!"

Aurendiria looked pissed. I was flustered.

"Did I say something wrong?"

The beautiful High Priest Aurendiria turned to look at me with some indignation flashing across her eyes.

"I thought you noticed when you raised my fame level...?"

"Oh. OH."

I checked the fame ranking right away. Aurendiria, 2347 fames. First Rank.

Oh, damn.

I swallowed hard and nervously glanced at Aurendiria, then at BlackPuma.

I should have known.