Afterlife Dream

The last stage of Love Dungeon, also referred to as the "Loot Stage", was filled with tiny treasure boxes that were spread randomly all over a giant labyrinth. In this map, job advantages such as teleport and flying skills were nullified. Players had to squeeze through the entrance and blindly went in the direction that they felt right about. As soon as a treasure box was visible, a player could poke it open. Five minutes was all that the players had to open as many treasure boxes as they could. When they were really unlucky, they might run into a dead-end and have to go back and pick another path.

The highly coveted Skill Reset Scrolls were the only things that were worth doing Love Dungeon for. They only dropped with the probability of once every maybe ten runs of Love Dungeons. Every day a couple was only given one chance to run the Love Dungeon. When the scroll dropped, only one of six players who ran the dungeon could get it. The fastest and luckiest got it. There had never been an instance where two scrolls were found within the same run.

To make matters worse, every player needed it at least once in their lives. The stat freaks would require one for every job advancement to get rid of all the beginner skills and dump all the precious points on the highest-tier skills. That meant, simply put, three skill reset scrolls per player were generally necessary to get an excellent build.

I knew about these facts without needing BlackPuma and Aurendiria to go into details. Yes, now that I had reached level 55, I had to get married and started to do Love Dungeons. I had four close friends and only one of them was female. I decided to gather all my courage to ask Kitty to marry me. Again, I was not a marriage person. I was doing it for the sake of the skill reset scroll.

My fingers hovered in hesitation over Kitty's name. I wanted to message Kitty to ask whether she would consider accepting my marriage proposal. While I was pondering about the best way to convey my honorable intention of asking for her hand without giving an impression that I was creepy, a wedding invitation popped up in front of my face. It was all pink and flowery and lovey-dovey.

...

Uh oh. It did not look good.

After I clicked it open, a pair of butterflies with glitter flew out. They scattered pink shiny glitters all over me before they flew away.

"Greetings, friends and families!

KittyGirlXOXO and Wolfhound are tying the knot! The wedding ceremony was taking place tomorrow at 9 AM in the Cupid Chapel. We would like to share this bliss with you, and therefore humbly request your presence.

Couple in love,

KittyXOXO and Wolfhound."

Sigh.

Wolfhound was one step quicker than me, that damn wolfhound. While I was mourning for my failed wedding plan, another message popped up. This time it was from DragonTalon.

"Yo! Man! Oh My God, did you just gain 25 levels???"

I giggled like a little girl to my user interface screen, making the high-level players around me wrinkle their faces in disturbance.

"Yeah, dude. BlackPuma let me leech off him at Frozen Tundra Land."

BlackPuma, got it?
A smug grin spread on my face. It was childish of me, but I had to brag to someone. The highest-level player helped me out! And I gained 25 levels! DragonTalon was only 32! My only woe was marriage. Sigh.

DragonTalon completely dismissed my bragging. Maybe I went too far. He moved on to the main topic immediately.

"Did you receive Kitty's and Wolfhound's wedding invitation?"

"Yup."

"Great. So, do you want to marry me?"

"..."

That was one romantic proposal, done over the friend chat. And it came from a boy. A boy!

I was not a romantic person but I was very serious about my sexual tendency.

"Dude, I am straight."

"I am too. This is just for the skill reset scroll. You want it, don't you?"

"Erm... I do. So... same-sex marriage is possible here?"

"Yeah!"

I didn't know... I meant... I still kinda wanted a girl. If not Aurendiria then another beautiful girl. I did not want to marry a boy! I couldn't imagine walking down the aisle with a boy! Nevertheless, reason won over heart. I reluctantly checked the prerequisites to get married and saw that the one who proposed must pay 1,000,000 gold. Whoa. My man. My potion freakiness had robbed me of a lot of money. I picked Alchemy as my specialization but I had not had time to sit on my butt and make some potions, let alone sell them!

"I can pay," DragonTalon offered generously.

"Really??"

It turned out that I was marrying a rich player. "Dude, how come you are that rich? What is your moneymaking strategy? Spill."

DragonTalon laughed.

"I sold experience to newbies and also carried them through dungeons. They paid me well."

...

Scamming newbies wasn't my thing, but I never knew that we could sell leveling and party quest services to them!

Damn me and my lack of business instinct!

So it looked like I was getting married after all. Our wedding was to take place after Kitty's and Wolfhound's. They were surprised, but they were happy for us. I wished they were not. Sigh.

I made sure to send invitations to everyone. I shamelessly invited every single player in Twelve guild to come to my wedding just because, hey, I was getting married and soon going to join their awesome guild. BlackPuma and Aurendiria confirmed their attendance. HellWitch who had completed her third job advancement also agreed to come.

"So how come you are not married?" I asked HellWitch when I met her again on my way back from Frozen Tundra Land.

"I am."

"Huh? To whom?"

"To Laz."

"Your brother?"

"Yep."

"..."

"..."

"It's not like that. This was simply for the sake of the game. We are not having sex or anything."

"No no no I completely understand. I am also not gay or anything."

"Really? I thought you were."

"..."

"But wait a minute. Why was I not invited to the wedding?"


HellWitch cringed.

"I married my brother. I did not and do not feel the need to broadcast it."

Well, that was also true.

"Where are you heading now?"

"Back to Marsh City to complete my quests, and then I will move to Fairy Forest for my second job advancement."

"Do that. Good luck!"