Afterlife Dream

Before a raid started, no matter how low or high the chance of success was, a loot order was established in order to prevent players from climbing over each other to get the loots. Loot order was made specifically for end-game equipment that dropped after the boss was defeated. The amount varied from 1 to 3, and the ones on top of the list got to loot first. Scrolls and potions on the other side were usually sold by the raid organizer and the sale profit was then split evenly among players.

Raid participants tended to stick to the loot order and politely stepped away from the loots as soon as the raid concluded. This was done out of fear of exclusion from future raids after they were branded as thieves. This was especially the case when players got the chance to run with elite groups. News spread quickly, and a bad reputation lived for as long as the player played the game. In this case, for a whole life spent within Afterlife Dream.

Ninja, as it turned out, used to run both with the elite squad and amateur squad. He did not get his helmet from the elite run, so he got it from an amateur run, but the players from the amateur run once mentioned that Ninja stole said helmet. It was not his turn to loot but he took it anyway.

"I knew it!" DragonTalon hissed full of resentment. "Those people are thieves by nature!"

"Did Ninja get punished?" I asked HellWitch.

"Supposedly he dismantled his stolen helmet in front of HinoKun, and then he earned another helmet in a Dominion run."

I remembered that HinoKun also defended Ninja and PrecisionShot when PrecisionShot took DragonTalon's Skill Reset Scroll. HinoKun seemed to be willing to defend his guildmates even though they were guilty.

"What was your grudge against them?" Lazarus asked DragonTalon.

"PrecisionShot stole my Skill Reset Scroll. It dropped from my box but she picked it up and refused to give it back. When I confronted her about it, her guildmates Ninja and HinoKun came to her defense."

Lazarus pulled a grimace. The words "Ouch a Skill Reset Scroll," were practically written all over his face.

HellWitch frowned.

"A Skill Reset Scroll? Damn, that was a huge steal. Didn't you buy from Lolita for 100,000,000 gold?"

"110,000,000 gold," DragonTalon corrected her. "I had a bidding war with ArrowRain over that one scroll."

HellWitch laughed.

"Oh right. I stopped looking when it reached 100,000,000 gold. Both of you were crazy."

"It is worth almost four times a level 50 raid run," I mused. HinoKun paid us 30,000,000 for each run.

"That's four to twelve helmets right there," Lazarus added after making a quick calculation.

"I am never going to run with him, ever again," DragonTalon said with a darkened face.

"Don't talk too soon. In this circumstance, we have to run with whoever can make it fastest to 150."

DragonTalon sighed and shook his head.

"Then I hope to loot after him. I don't want him to steal from me again."

"You will loot after him," I said. "Besides, he already got three. The Fire Golem Helmet, the Queen Spider Boots, and the Dark Fairy Gloves. Next is Ice Dragon Cloak."

"Hmph."

DragonTalon sneered.

"Only BlackPuma, HinoKun, Ingenious, and ArrowRain have the Ice Dragon Cloak so far. Do you think he dares to steal from others?"

"Not under BlackPuma's nose, no. He is running with a new Twelve guild now. He better behave."

"If he doesn't, he risks getting isolated from the whole Afterlife Dream realm."

Not to mention that we still had no idea whether the united front of top-level players would be able to win against the Dimensional Master. If yes then when?

The Giant Macaw arrived with a thud in front of us, and we all went to board the giant basket. During the trip, our conversation took a new direction. We started to talk about the level 60 and 70 raids in general. HellWitch said that the precursor raid would provide a little insight into what's to come. She herself had only participated a few times so she was not able to give us the full picture. If we survived to the end, we would know what the biggest problems during the run were.

The Summer Rainforest area consisted of one vast area, at the end of which stood the entrance cave to Queen Spider Lair. The level 60 raid was directly connected to the level 70 raid, where the level 60 raid took place on the first map after we clicked in through the entrance NPC. The second map was only accessible through a second NPC, which only granted access once the first map was cleared.

Precursor raids were more laid back than loot raids. In simple terms, they were very similar to a party quest dungeon with only one stage. Since we entered as a party that was led by HellWitch, only she was required to click us into the level 60 raid. The entrance cave disappeared as soon as she clicked on the NPC. When we opened our eyes again, we were standing on a huge stone platform overlooking a flight of stone stairs. Behind us, a magnificent but ancient stone palace towered high.

As if on cue, a solemn and sad voice rang out inside the darkness and recited a poem.

"My land has been plundered,

my water has been poisoned.

I sit in my palace and weep,

turmoil and fear plaguing my sleep."

"I am Helene, the Crown Princess of Paradise Island. Some time ago, the Queen Spider came to invade the island.

Its soldiers roamed around and terrorize the inhabitants day by day. Dear Adventurers, please help us to attack their camps and weaken their power."

A huge map appeared in the sky to help us during our mission. Four red flags pinpointed the location of the camps, and four green dots with each of our names showed where we were on the map.

The four camps had to be destroyed within an hour. The ant camp, the caterpillar camp, the scorpion camp, and the spider camp. Like I said before, this was doable alone when the player was strong enough to plow through camp after camp. Then again I always thought of the precursor raids as boring and tiring. If we could shorten the process by going with more people, I would be more than happy to do so.

Instead of splitting the camps among us, we decided to go together to destroy one camp after another. Each camp had a totem pole that was protected by a bunch of monsters. It was important to get the totem pole down as soon as possible because the totem pole generated the mobs. On the other side, who could safely attack the totem pole if the mobs around were hounding them incessantly? And so while I was spamming attacks at the totem pole, my dear party mates encircled me with their backs facing me and kept the mobs away from me.

The only infuriating thing about the totem pole was that any attack only yielded 1 HP reduction to the totem pole. It meant that I had to spam 1000 attacks just for it to go down. Thankfully I did have weak but fast skills like Magical Ball, so the job was perfect for me.

"This reminds me a lot of our Paradise Island Party Quest," I remarked with a smile.

"Haha, yup. Even the monsters are the same for the first three camps."

"Is the fourth camp difficult?"

HellWitch gave me a "Meh".

"Not really, but it will give you an insight into how the Queen Spider would act during the raid."

"Oh?"

Interesting.

We reached the fourth camp in no time. Different from the other camps, the spider camp was literally above our head. Imagine having huge spider webs above your head, and around fifty spiders swinging down to attack you. I had no arachnophobia, but I still had to cringe at the sight of furry, eight-legged animals coming at me. The camp totem was also upside down. Good that I could use Holy Arrow to destroy the camp totem. DragonTalon and Lazarus were able to attack from a distance while HellWitch had to wait until the spiders came close before she could attack with her sword.

The spiders attacked by spitting venom at their enemies. The green liquid with a foul odor was a very potent poison. I cast Purification as soon as it became available, and it was never enough.

"I guess the Queen Spider will be swinging from corner to corner and attacking players with venom?" I asked. For some reason, the image of venom-spitting spiderman came to my mind.

"Well, no. It will be moving on a ground full of spider webs," HellWitch answered me. "The part with the venom is not wrong."

I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Full of spider webs?"

She pointed at the spider webs above our head.

"Exactly like that, only bigger and stickier."

"I have a good solution for that," DragonTalon quipped. He shot a fireball at the spider nest. The white silky threads started to burn.

"Hmmm... yes, that is technically doable, but not if your teammates are covered in the white webs. You will end up burning your teammates along with the spider webs."