Afterlife Dream

A huge relief flooded my heart as I stepped out of the hut. I felt like a real hero. No, a real Healer. And then the real Healer discovered a real problem at hand. I was standing outside of a hut that was suspended in the air at maybe fifty meters in height. Did the game expect me to jump down and break my legs? Was it some kind of a sick method to celebrate my second job advancement? I did not exactly like it.

As I stood outside of the hut and contemplated the best way to go down without breaking my legs, a huge banner accompanied by fireworks exploded in the sky.

[Antares has successfully completed the Second Job Advancement. Please send him your congratulations!!!]

What followed was a lot of spam messages which I had to shut one by one.

"Congratulations Bro!!!"

"OMG, I failed two days ago. You are so good!!!"

"Can you help me level?"

"Money, plz."

I rubbed my forehead and sighed. Money? I want money myself!!! I had wasted three very precious potions inside the test dungeon! I was, literally, broke!

Some friend chat windows also popped up. DragonTalon, Kitty, and Wolfhound congratulated me heartily. After a while, messages from HellWitch, Lazarus, Aurendiria, and BlackPuma also arrived with congratulatory remarks.

I thanked all of them, and then searched for a way to go down.

I could not find it. I could not find it wherever I searched. What would I have done if this were the original Afterlife Dream game?

Oh.
The solution was so easy that it completely escaped my mind. The solution was within me.

Teleport.

The travel range for teleport was limited for horizontal movement and upward movement, but not for downward movement. At least that was my experience with Teleport.

I peeked from the edge of the hut and gulped when I saw the trees and plants beneath me. I focused on a spot on the ground fifty meters beneath me and shouted, "Teleport!"

As expected, I appeared magically on the ground. Pfft. I needed to remember that I was playing inside Afterlife Dream as a proficient Healer. Hahahaha.

After spending the whole afternoon doing the second job advancement test, the proficient Healer that I was became very tired. I thus decided to go take a nap. The nap turned into a whole night's sleep. I woke up at 8 AM, just in time to rush to attend Kitty's and Wolfhound's wedding.

The wedding map was called Cupid Kingdom. It was supposedly a place that was ruled by Cupid, and its residents were engaged in wedding-related businesses. The Cupid Kingdom offered various wedding packages, starting from the cheap one that took place in Cupid Chapel and the freaking expensive one that took place in Cupid Church. Naturally, all four of us opted for the cheapest method.

The wedding ceremony was as sickeningly sweet as I remembered. The wedding venue was colored with a hundred shades of pink. If flamingos were wandering around the wedding hall, no one would have noticed them.

It felt pretty weird to attend someone else's wedding before getting married myself right after.

I didn't know when it started, but Kitty and Wolfhound had married out of shared affection. I cringed when I saw them kissing each other during the ceremony under loud cheering from the audience. Funnily I spotted the party quest bullies who wanted to lynch Wolfhound alive back then. They apparently changed their mind about Wolfhound, and I was happy for him. All of them were surprised to see me in my flashy new appearance after becoming a full-fledged Healer. We started almost around the same time but there I was, 25ish levels above them. I was beyond proud of myself. Or of my connections.

After the wedding, guests were transported to another map to take wedding pictures. And then we were sent out with a gift package each. I did not have time to dally because my wedding was right after.

The wedding NPC kindly lent us a pair of tuxedos so that we looked less like beggars on our special day. There I was, standing awkwardly next to DragonTalon. We walked toward the Priest and faced each other with deadpanned expressions.

"Antares, do you take DragonTalon to be your husband? Do you promise to be faithful to him in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love him and to honor him all the days of your life?" the Pope NPC asked.

I clicked on the "Yes, I do" button.

"DragonTalon, do you take Antares to be your husband? Do you promise to be faithful to him in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love him and to honor him all the days of your life?"

DragonTalon did the same.

"By the grace of God, I herewith declare you husband and husband. You may kiss your groom now."

Both DragonTalon and I pulled a grimace and cringed at that thought. Our dear friends did not seem to care. They even hooted from the pews, asking us to smack lips finally. Of course we did not do that. We liked girls. Both of us.

I was only aware of DragonTalon's real purpose of marrying me after the marriage concluded. He approached BlackPuma confidently and introduced himself. He asked whether he would be allowed to join Twelve as my spouse. Spouses got extra buff if they fought together. His presence would definitely be a plus for both him and me, should we both join the same raid. BlackPuma nodded in acknowledgment.

"Of course. But here's the thing. Our guild is full at the moment. I expect two or more guildmates to exit the game next week, so please wait."

"Oh, alright."

I was curious about these two players who planned to exit the game. It must be exciting to finally get all the life points that they needed? I would love to talk to them before they left.

There was a feature called "Guild Waiting List" that was managed by the Guild Leader and Guild Vice Leaders. Prospective guild members were admitted to the waiting list and would join as soon as the guild spots were available. The guild chat was also open for the prospective guild members to allow them to get acquainted with the existing guild members.

"Hello," I nervously typed as soon as I was on the waiting list.

"Hi everyone," DragonTalon typed.

Aurendiria was the first one to welcome us.

"Hi, guys! Everyone, please meet our two prospective members, Antares and DragonTalon."


The second highest-level player, Ingenious, typed in, "Welcome. Enjoy."

"Wonderful, another healer!" an Aladdin-level rogue piped in. Aladdin was one of the third job designations for rogues.

"Get to level 90 soon, please!" the others chimed in.

Hohoho.

Look at how popular healers were! DragonTalon got some warm welcome greetings as well, but not much.