Afterlife Dream

Kitty and I managed to cross successfully. I was happy that my idea worked out. None of us had to go through the terror of falling down the edge of the map into a dark, unknown depth.

"Oh my God!" Kitty exclaimed in surprise when she saw the many floating portals within the space. She dragged me with her as she flew here and there, marveling about the amazing sight.

"Soo many portals. And soo many bridges. All bricks. Antares, look. Jesus, how do we know which one is which?"

"We don't," I said. "They are not labeled."

Kitty stared at me.

"Wait, then how do we know which one is which?"

That was the problem. We did not know.

"ANTARES! KITTY! YOOHOO!"

Kitty and I turned our heads and saw Cecilia standing in front of a portal on a bridge. "Can you guys mark the portals that you came from? Best to know where to go back to."

...

That was a tad too late.

Cecilia grinned at us. "Never mind. It was just something that occurred to me when I crossed the barrier."

Cecilia showed us the mark that she placed in front of the portal that led to Paradise Island. It was a white stone that was commonly found on one of Paradise Island's beach maps.

"Smart," I praised.

"Haha, thanks. Let's find the others?"

"Okay."

We all spread our wings and flew up in a search of the other four players who crossed the barrier. It did not take too long to locate everyone. Among us, I was the only one who had been focusing on leveling up, while the others were merchants. Merchants focused more on building their characters than leveling up, which explained their formidable character strength despite their relatively lower level. Cecilia was the highest level of us all, having completed her third job advancement some time ago. I had gone through the second job advancement. The other five including Kitty were still in their first jobs. Although they were strong, they were unable to wield skills that came with higher job levels.
It was not that important because our main objective in this mission was not to complete a raid. We just needed more people to scan through the vast space and try to find out what was happening.

"Obviously, we cannot communicate with each other in this space," Cecilia said. "We have no other choice but to spread. The goal is to find both the Spring Blossom Bridge and the Enchanted Beauty Bridge. Let's try to keep an eye on each other and not go off too far?"

Everyone nodded.

Other than Cecilia, no one else had marked the portals they came from. I was a person from the advanced maps, so it was not a huge problem for me. Those who came from beginner maps were not too happy, but better go out somewhere than not at all.

The seven of us spread around but maintained a safe distance from each other before we slowly moved together farther away. After scanning through maybe thirty to forty bridges, we found what we were looking for. There were two half-built bridges that connected two pairs of portals. The bridges were attached successfully at one end but were hanging in the air at the other end.

"I guess the attached ends directly led to the Fairy Forest port and the last map before Fairy Forest," I mused. Then the unattached ends must lead to Fairy Forest itself."

"That means if we cross these portals, we will land in Fairy Forest," Kitty concluded.

"Yup. Well then. We are seven people. Let's split. Two people come with me to this portal. The other three please go with Antares to the other one."

We quickly split ourselves into two groups and went into our assigned portals. Before I tell you what happened next, I want to mention that there was a catch with the barrier travel between the universe and specific maps. That was, it was possible to breach the barrier anywhere from within the map. You could fall down, you could fly up. The same could not be said when you enter the light portal. You would emerge on solid ground on your destination map.

When the four of us entered the Fairy Forest map, we felt a violent pull that ripped our feet off the ground. In the next second, I was smashed against a tree and my three companions lay dead on the ground.

I ripped my eyes open in shock. The thing that attacked me was an Undead Tree Stump, albeit a giant one. It was at least a hundred times bigger than the regular one, and a hundred times stronger as well.

"Cecilia!!" I shouted as I dodged its punch. I got to my feet, spread my wings, and flew up.

Cecilia was being cornered by another giant Undead Tree Stump. I did not see her two companions with her. I assumed they also died upon entering.

"Holy Arrow!"

I kept shooting Holy Arrow at the Undead Tree Stump that was keeping Cecilia busy in an attempt to distract it.

My attack was not a strong one, but it was enough to distract the Undead Tree Stump. It quickly left Cecilia alone and chased after me. I had to fly a bit higher while still taunting it to prevent it from grabbing my foot and pulling me to the ground.

Cecilia took the chance to spread her wings and fly up to where I was

"Thanks," she said, panting from terror, "What the hell is that???

"It is Undead Tree Stump, the mini-boss of Fairy Forest area," I answered automatically.

Cecilia rubbed at her sore arm. "I know, but either my memory deceives me or it used to be quite small."

"Well, you are not wrong. It did use to be quite small. And not this powerful."

Cecilia laughed. We remained hanging in the air with our wings suspending our bodies as we took a look at what Fairy Forest had become. There were not two but four giant Undead Tree Stumps that were patrolling the map like street gangsters.

I did not remember the entire layout of the Fairy Forest map, but I could see a few broken trees that were not part of the original map design.


"The others were dead," Cecilia quipped. "Let's party up and kill these monsters one by one?"

I nodded and invited Cecilia to a party.

I had to say that fighting the gigantic Undead Tree Stumps did not pose much of a challenge. For one, Cecilia was a level 120 Bow Lord and I was a level 92 High Priest. No matter how strong the Undead Tree Stumps were, their level was still beneath us. To make things even more convenient, the Angel Wings allowed us to attack from above the mini-bosses' tops. They were unable to touch us and thus also unable to hurt us physically.

I ended up soloing one Undead Tree Stump and Cecilia three. After all of the Undead Tree Stumps died, our five companions were able to resurrect safely.

"It's Fairy Forest," Kitty blinked as she walked around and inspected the map. "I never thought I would be able to step another foot inside this place."

We all shared the same sentiment. I looked up and saw the hut that housed the second job advancement NPCs. It was really the Fairy Forest. Who would know that one could access the cut-off maps just by having a pair of Angel Wings? Then again the real problem was most likely the four gigantic Undead Tree Stumps that ran amok within the map. They might be the reason why the bridges failed to connect from both sides.

Cecilia clapped her hands three times and pulled us back from our daydreams. "Ok guys now that we have defeated the four mini-bosses, I expect the bug to have been fixed. Does anyone see the Dimensional Fairy NPC somewhere here?"

"Um," a level 55 mage that came with us mumbled. "I saw it. Over there."

We all turned to look in the direction that the mage showed us. The Dimensional Fairy NPC and the Brick Donation Box stood at the edge of the topmost level. We flew toward the NPC. Kitty stepped closer to the NPC and said, "Let me try. I will donate for the Spring Blossom Bridge."

The donation screen emerged in front of us. The numbers were still the same as before.

Spring Blossom Bridge : 1317000 Bricks.

Enchanted Beauty Bridge : 1437800 Bricks.

"Wait, Kitty," Cecilia called, putting a hand on Kitty's shoulder. "Don't use more than 10 Dimensional Points. This is just a test."

Kitty flashed her a smile and nodded. "Agree. Thanks."

Kitty went to stand before the Dimensional Fairy NPC to trade 10 Dimensional Points for one Brick. Then she stepped aside and stood before the Brick Donation Box. We all held our breath in expectation when she made the click to donate the single Brick to the box.