Afterlife Dream

The supposedly dead mage, DragonTalon, did not die for real after all. He spawned at the center of Dai City in a daze. When he came back to the Dai City Party Quest area, he caused an uproar. Unfortunately, his coming back alive did not improve other players' opinions about Wolfhound. No one wanted to party with him out of fear that he would go berserk and stab someone again.

Kitty was infuriated at the merciless attitude of others. Putting her hands at her hips, she heavily criticized them.

"It turns out that you just want to bully others. DragonTalon did not die, but you cannot find it in your steel heart to forgive Wolfhound!"

Some of the more vocal players started to get irritated by Kitty's admonishment.

"Whether we forgive anyone or not, it is our personal business. Who the hell do you think you are, that you feel entitled to tell us what to do?" 733TRogue said crankily.

I put a hand on Kitty's shoulder. When she turned to look at me, I shook my head. There was no use arguing.

"Wolfhound, join our party. Let's get to level 15 together, okay?"

Wolfhound was close to crying again. He nodded gratefully and joined our party.

In party quests, players could register individually or as a party. Those who registered individually would be randomly put into parties by the NPC. Those in the party would automatically go together with one or two additional, random players to make a party of four. Kitty, Wolfhound, and I were already three people. We needed one more player to join. No one wanted to join us. Everyone was afraid of Wolfhound. They treated him like a criminal. A sick person with a contagious disease.

While Kitty and Wolfhound sat together at the party quest area, I approached the low-level players to join our party. This was a risky move because low-level players who did not listen to instructions were going to make us fail. To be honest, although I did not know the full story, I was pretty sure that DragonTalon had a good reason for raging at Wolfhound. Wolfhound might have done something wrong. Welp, we wouldn't know unless we tried.

I did not know how information was transmitted in this game. For some reason, even the low-level players refused to join us. We, the higher levels, offered to carry them through the dungeon and they still refused. I was bewildered. How the hell were we going to proceed like this??? Optimistic that we would reach level 15 by the end of the day and could finally sleep in our own homes, Kitty and I did not bother with renting NPC houses! The grim outlook of having to spend the night under the stars turned into dark clouds that hung over my head.

"Yo."

I turned my head and saw DragonTalon in front of me.

"Hey."

"Have you guys managed to find a fourth person?"

"Nope. Still looking."

"I am interested to join."

"..."

I gaped at Dragon Talon. His face turned sour when he did not hear my answer.

"What? Do you not want to?"

"Wait. Of course. It's just that... we have Wolfhound in the party."

"I know."

DragonTalon sighed. He leaned against the wall next to me.

"I went overboard, okay? I failed so many party quests because of noobs. I thought I was going to succeed finally. Then he did that one last mistake and killed us all during the boss stage. I lost my temper. I have been raging a lot during the party quests. People don't want to party with me anymore."

I could not say that I did not sympathize. I knew how he felt. Things went smoothly for me and Kitty the first day because we had HellWitch and Lazarus. Today had been awful.

"Look, I just want to level up, okay? You two seem to make good team members. I will apologize to Wolfhound."

I patted DragonTalon on the back and took him to see Kitty and Wolfhound.

Needless to say, the two people were shocked that DragonTalon was willing to join our party. They were not the only ones. Everyone at the party quest area was shocked. Slowly everyone warmed up to Wolfhound again. They still did not want to be at the same party with him, but they at least did not treat him like the biggest scum on earth. If DragonTalon, the stab victim could forgive Wolfhound, then what were they holding a grudge for?

After the bad start of the day, the four of us had an agreement. DragonTalon and I would be the brain of the party. Kitty and Wolfhound just needed to follow instructions and not do anything unnecessary. We finished the first party quest with only 50 seconds left. Then 1 minute 10 seconds. Our fastest record was 1 minute 45 seconds.

By the end of the day, all four of us had reached level 15. We were so happy that we jumped around at the party quest area and punched into the air ecstatically.

It was the second night in Dai City. I managed to reach level 15 in time and the home feature was unlocked for me. I entered my home with a click for the first time and found that my home was empty.

"..."

Baffling. How were the homes in the original version of Afterdream Life, again? Did they not come in the furnished state? Well, I did not exactly care so I was not sure.

Some more reading on my 2D screen gave me more information about homes.

Home furniture must be crafted individually, and the materials had to be bought from the home store. I only had enough gold to buy materials to make a bed. I spent two hours sawing and nailing the wooden boards together before putting a fluffy mattress on top of it. I was so tired that I fell asleep immediately without any pillow or blanket. I had to earn money to buy those the next day...

After reaching level 15, that was what I needed to do next. Make money. Pronto.