Afterlife Dream

I had to say that even I thought that my idea was wacky and not well-thought. On the other side, we did not have another choice. Only the six of us wanted to go, and the others did not want to help.

Upon realizing the gravity of the situation, I could not blame anyone when their facial expressions and with that possibly their hearts also changed.

"I need some time to think," Livina said openly.

I nodded. "I understand."

ZhaoYun sighed and rubbed at his face. "Me too, I need to think about this. Don't be angry at us, Antares..."

"I won't," I ensured them. "Whatever you guys decide, I won't be angry. I promise."

How could I? After experiencing the horror over at the Summer Rainforest, I realized that we all were just trying to survive and live a good life. There was no point in forcing anyone to do what they did not want to do.

"Well, I am in," Cecilia said happily. "The thing with running a tavern is that it is only fun when you have friends to eat and drink together with. Otherwise, it is so dull. I am up for some adventure!"

The girl extended her hand in my direction and I shook her hand. "Thanks, Cecil."

She shrugged and gave me a bright smile. "Eh, anytime."

"I will go too," HellWitch said. "It is time for us to find out what happened and put an end to this. Waiting around is not my style."

"If Lara goes then I also go!" Lazarus declared.

"Well, there are already the four of us then," Cecilia grinned.

Livina and ZhaoYun looked rather uncomfortable at how fast we were agreeing.

"Guys, don't worry," I tried to placate them. "We are by no means forcing you to come with us. Please take your time to think. It will be a while before any of us reaches 150 anyway."

"Mm."

"Okay. See you, everyone."

"Bye, Livina. Bye, ZhaoYun..."

They nodded and took their leave. Cecilia waited until they disappeared through the Global Market portal before she stopped waving.

"Well, well," she turned to us with expectant looks. "What are we waiting for? Let's get going!"

"Huh? With what?" I asked dumbly.

The girl put both hands on her hips and stared at me in disbelief. "Leveling up, Antares! Leveling up! Else how do you think we are going to reach level 150???"

Oh.

Yes, she was right.

Without further ado, we went to one of Frozen Tundra Land's training grounds and trained like insane. Now that I had Apocalypse, I was no longer a mere support class. I could take up my own training platform and kill as many monsters as possible. I only took my rounds regularly around the map every time Heavenly Blessing and other buffs disappeared.

That day, I gained two whole levels. When we started, I was only level 125 while the others were way more advanced than me. But when we stopped close to dinner time that late afternoon, I had gained two whole levels and reached level 127 while the others did not level even once.

HellWitch was still level 138.

Lazarus was still level 136.

Cecilia was still level 140.

"Antares is exploiting all the Apocalypse he can summon," Cecilia teased me.

"Hey, it cost a lot of mana and I paid for all those mana potions!"

We all laughed while we ate dinner together. Cecilia got us the western menu for the night. No specific reason, she said. She just thought that we needed some pampering after training so hard that day. We each had one big plate of beef steak complete with mashed potato, steamed vegetables, and mushroom sauce. And then there was a big pitcher of ginger ale and a box of ice cream for all of us.

After dinner, Cecilia held us back to help her with cleaning up. The most boorish task was washing dishes. No one wanted to do it, so we had to draw lots.

Cecilia had two dice in her hand.

"Each of us will throw only once. Two people with the lowest number will wash the dishes. The second highest one gets to dispose of the trash. The highest one..."

Cecilia leaned forward, prompting us all to do the same.

"...will not do anything and just go to sleep."

I eyed the pile of pans and pots and plates that needed to be washed. I would never be that unlucky, I thought.

"Bring it on," HellWitch said confidently.

"Yup. Let's go," I agreed.

The ladies went first. HellWitch got herself two twos, making it a total of four. It was immediately apparent that she was going to be one of the two unlucky devils who had to wash all those dirty dishes at the back of the tavern.

Cecilia the lucky one got 10. Lazarus and I both groaned when we saw Cecilia's dice result. It was apparent that she was going to win the first place. Disposing of trash was not too difficult. Lazarus and I exchanged challenging looks.

"Who first?" I asked Lazarus.

"Me," he quickly said and threw the dice. He got 6 in total and barely prevented himself from cursing out loud. I laughed. I knew that he was hoping to get higher. Well, I didn't know much about my luck but it could not be that rotten. I was pretty sure that I was going to score higher than 6.

I confidently threw the dice. They rolled a couple of times on the table and then stopped with number 1 facing up. Both of them.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"HAHAHAHAHAHA ANTARES GOT THE LOWEST NUMBER!!!"

I gaped at the twin huge dots. Was I so unlucky?

HellWitch gave me a commiserating look and then a sponge.

"..."

"Let's get going," she said. "The faster we finish, the earlier we can go to sleep."

And there we were, the two unlucky devils. Cecilia went to her home to sleep right away. Lazarus took out the trash and disappeared as quickly as possible. HellWitch and I split the task. She scrubbed the dishes with liquid soap. I rinsed the dishes and stacked them onto the rack for drying purposes.

"I can't believe it," I grumbled. "Two ones. I can't be unluckier in life."

HellWitch chuckled. "Have you never heard the saying, Antares? Unlucky in cards, lucky in life."

"Hey, does that mean that I am pretty lucky in life?" I asked full of hope.

"Aren't you already? It feels to me that you are faring pretty well in Afterlife Dream."

I hummed.

One could say that.

Ever since I started playing the game, I had been quite lucky. I was one of the few people who managed to get a pair of Angel Wings. I managed to escape the Dimensional Master's clutch twice. Once at Lava County and the other one at the Summer Rainforest.

"I guess so," I replied with a grin. "I guess the same can be said about you. You are here washing the dishes with me after all."

HellWitch stilled when she heard what I said. "Um," she agreed after a while. "I guess so, yes."

I stole glances at HellWitch while rinsing the pots and pans. Now that I thought about it, HellWitch never openly admitted that she liked me. Today in Marsh City, she had practically switched the topic before I even realized it.

Then again, oh, that was such a silly thing to hang on to. We were about to face the Dimensional Master anyway. Why would it be important whether or not HellWitch liked me?

"Antares, you asked me today whether I liked you or not."

My throat went dry. Oh. Either HellWitch just mastered the skill of mind reading or she had been thinking about the same thing I had.

"Um. Yes."

"I just want to say that I see you as one of my closest friends in here, and I guess I was a little jealous of your closeness to Aurendiria. Other than that, I had nothing to confess about."

She turned to look at me.

"I don't think that I can say that I like you. We have never seen each other in that way, have we?"

I shook my head. HellWitch was right. It was not about attraction. We had been good friends for so long that we automatically fell into each other's friend zones.

"No, but you are important to me. I just want you to know that," I said.

HellWitch nodded and smiled.

"I know. You are also important to me. That is why I was so hurt when you accused me of wanting to escape on my own."

Ah.

Shame crept up my cheeks. I couldn't believe that I said that to her.

"Sorry, HellWitch. I was... I was just mad. Please don't take it seriously."

HellWitch held her hand up to silence me. "I didn't like your tone, but I understood where you were coming from. It is why I decide to stay and fight with you. I don't want to leave you behind."