Afterlife Dream

I was completely immersed in the fight that took place under the safe platform. Other than receiving Divine Guard one time from Aurendiria at the start, BlackPuma fought on his own and did not even look back to ask for heal or any other support from his High Priest spouse. For the fight, he was not using the Dark Moon Spear that he used when I met him for the first time. The spear that he used was named Longinus Holy Spear. It was a top-tier legendary weapon that one did not get to see very often even in the original Afterlife Dream. Why? Because it was one of the War Lord Weapons that only dropped from the highest level raid, the Supremacy of the War Lord. All these weapons were unique and were customized specifically for each class, thus they bore different names.

The Longinus Holy Spear was huge, but at the same time very light and easy to wield. Warriors relied mainly on their normal physical attacks rather than using magical attacks to defeat the enemies. I saw BlackPuma deftly switch between dodging and stabbing, his moves elegant but forceful. He was not the number one player because of his level only. This guy truly had skills. Although DragonTalon said that he was the last man standing in raids because he could afford to buy a lot of Chocolate Cakes, I did not think that that was the only reason.

When the sharp feathers shot at him, BlackPuma confidently held his left hand in front of him, and a shield materialized. All the players, especially the low-level ones, held their breaths. Black Chimera Shield!!!

The shield had an intricate design with ancient rune carvings at the edge, written using golden ink. The body of the shield itself was as dark as the night itself.

The feathers flew toward BlackPuma who only held the less than half-meter shield in front of him lazily. I tightened my grip around my wand. Oh, God. How could he hope to survive so many feathers with just a small shield? I knew that it was the Black Chimera Shield, but even if BlackPuma moved it around at light speed, he could not hope to be able to catch every single feather without fail. Even worse, he did not even look like he planned to do that!

And then something completely unexpected happened. The sharp feathers changed their flight direction and flew toward the center of the shield at the same time. It would not be wrong to say that we were all waiting for the feathers to stick to the shield. We were wrong. All the feathers without exception hit the center of the shield and disappeared without any trace.

Everyone broke into applause, including me. I could barely believe my eyes. What? What just happened???

BlackPuma grinned and dashed toward the Dark Pegasus. In one hand he had the Longinus Holy Spear while in the other hand he had the Black Chimera Shield. He gave the shield a flick and all of a sudden, tens of sharp feathers shot out and flew toward the Dark Pegasus! All of us were so shocked that not a clap was heard. The Black Chimera Shield absorbed the feathers only to subsequently return the attack to the Dark Pegasus!

The Dark Pegasus roared angrily when it was hit with its own skill. Its fiery eyes glowed even more dangerously, almost as if it was trying to burn the player in front of him and turn him into a heap of ash. What followed was the Dark Pegasus' AoE skill. It flapped its broad wings forcefully. Every single feather contributed to producing strong gusts of wind that took the form of twin columns of air that rotated menacingly as they advanced toward BlackPuma with high speed.

Even the spectators were affected by the tornadoes. We held on to anything that we could grab in order to not get sucked in by the columns of air. Trees, players, rocks, anything was fine.

Below the safe platform, BlackPuma skillfully rotated the long spear in his hand and then literally cut the tornadoes into four pieces each. The attack dispersed into thin air without even touching BlackPuma. He then jumped to the air as if he had a pair of springs under his warrior boots.

"Queen Spider Boots," I heard some players mutter under their breath.

Queen Spider Boots, the loot from the level 70 raid. I swallowed my saliva and squinted at the boots on BlackPuma's feet. Indeed, I could see some spider webs manifesting themselves as BlackPuma moved. The boots granted light footwork to the wearer. Amazing.

My heart was burning with envy. For the first time since I started playing Afterlife Dream, I wanted to get these items with every strand of my existence. I could already imagine myself with full end-game equipment, looking as majestic as a king. I would own the game so bad as soon as I hit the Bishop level...

BlackPuma stabbed at the Dark Pegasus while he was mid-air. The Dark Pegasus angrily bit into the end of the Longinus Holy Spear. All of us flinched at the sight. The Longinus Holy Spear would not break, would it?

Of course it did not break.

The weapon truly deserved to be called a War Lord Weapon. It was unstoppable. The Longinus Holy Spear cut through the Dark Pegasus smoothly as if the mini-boss was nothing but a stuffed toy full of cotton. Before the Dark Pegasus died, it let out a sorrowful scream. Right afterward, it burst into a cloud of glittering black dust and dispersed into thin air. After all traces of the Dark Pegasus completely disappeared, a lot of potions and scrolls lay on the ground in its wake. BlackPuma performed a somersault before landing on the ground firmly with both feet, the Longinus Holy Spear tightly gripped within his palm.

As soon as he landed, a column of multicolor light enveloped BlackPuma's whole body and a level-up sound effect was heard.

BlackPuma had reached level 150.

"AHHHHHHHH!!!"

"FIRST LEVEL 150 IN AFTERLIFE DREAM!!!"

"BLACKPUMA, CONGRATULATIONS ON THE ACHIEVEMENT!!!"

All of us screamed out of excitement and joy. BlackPuma became the first player to reach 150 in Afterlife Dream!!! The heightened enthusiasm caused us to forget that we were cramped on the safe platform with little space for individual movement. In the end, we all started to slide down to the ground but we could not care less.

One by one, megaphones appeared across the sky with congratulatory remarks for BlackPuma. They came from Aurendiria, HinoKun, Ingenious, ArrowRain, and a few other players that I was not familiar with.

After the hype was over, players left the map one by one.

"Hm? Who took the drops?" Ingenious remarked when only a few people were left.

HinoKun burst into laughter.

"What did you expect? Of course taken by the spectators!"

All of us burst into laughter.

"Oh, only some potions and scrolls," BlackPuma said with a smile. "No need to make a fuss over it."

HinoKun slapped at BlackPuma's back.

"Well? What is the next plan, Strongest Hero of Afterlife Dream?"

BlackPuma merely smiled.

"Not sure yet."

"I never asked, but should your Life Points not be enough to buy out the whole store?"

Aurendiria pursed her lips and shoved at HinoKun's shoulder playfully.

"He just leveled up to 150 and you are already telling him to exit the game??? Hino, you are too much!"

HinoKun giggled at Aurendiria's pouting face.

"Are you waiting to leave together with Auren? My oh my. Auren, you should really level up as quickly as possible. How could you let your husband wait for a long time?"

Aurendiria stuck her tongue out at HinoKun.

"It concerns no one else but me and BP!"

We all happily traveled together to Paradise Island to celebrate in Cecilia's Oakstone Tavern. DragonTalon and I ate and drank with everyone for about an hour before we excused ourselves to go and visit our friends in their farmhouse at Marsh City. We could find neither BlackPuma nor Aurendiria, so I just told Ingenious that we were going.

On our way out, we passed by a creek and found BlackPuma and Aurendiria having their private date outside of Oakstone Tavern. They sat together on a bench while looking at the sunset.

DragonTalon whistled when he caught sight of the couple.

"A lot of couples leave the game together," he remarked. "I wonder if their romance will continue in the next life."

"I don't think so. Even if they get reincarnated at the same day and same time, they might not land close to each other to be able to meet."

DragonTalon glanced at me.

"Antares, did you have a girlfriend when you were alive?"

I let out a dry laugh. Girlfriend? Where, at the hospital?

"Nope, you?"

DragonTalon snorted.

"A nerd like me? Nahhh. But honestly I was also not that interested in girls. Plus, guys like me would not have a chance to get girls like Auren anyway."