Chapter 9 Grinding

From level 15 to 30, all we could do was grind for experience and complete quests, including daily quests. I was starved for money, and could not afford to be lazy. I dutifully went to NPC Sena every day for the meager pay just so I could afford to buy a pillow and blanket for the night.

After finishing our quests in the morning, the four of us picked a map and killed monsters for experience and gold coins. Both being mages, DragonTalon and I talked a lot about our future skill build and choice of weapons. Wands were faster for casting spells, but staffs were more durable and also stronger. In the original Afterlife Dream, I picked Healer as my second job. Healers had to be quick in healing, so I had always been using wands. DragonTalon wanted to be an Elemental Mage that focused on offense skills. He needed strong staffs that could help him deal a high damage.

Not many people liked to play Healers because there was a tendency for Healers to get abused as heal slaves. Healers also picked very useful skills that benefited the whole party members such as Divine Guard which increased the magical defense by a certain percentage and the highly coveted Heavenly Blessing which increased experience gain for a certain period of time. It was especially important at higher levels where leveling became a pain in the ass.

So why did I want to be a Healer? You see, Healers sucked as a first job but they gradually became stronger as they leveled. Offense skills came late in the game, but when they came, they were amazing. So amazing that Healers could go solo at the third and lastly fourth job. Other jobs had to fall on their knees to beg Healers to party up with them so they could get Divine Guard and Heavenly Blessing. Heheh.

Back in the original Afterlife Dream, I was pretty popular. Everyone knew me and wanted to party up with me. Naturally, I gave preference to my guildmates.

Speaking about guildmates...

We were all level 15. We have long passed the requirement to join guilds. But none of us had guilds. Hmm.

"Have you thought about which guild to join?" I asked DragonTalon.

"Guilds? Nowadays guilds started recruiting at 30. We can start picking guilds when we arrive in the next city."

"Oh?"

I raised my eyebrow.

"Have you gone to the next city already?"

"Of course, bro. Marsh City was marvelous. I just haven't taken the ship to the capital, hahaha."

"..."

​ It seemed that I was being too lax. Look at DragonTalon, a fellow experienced player. He was aiming for greatness, while I was aiming to get a pillow and a blanket for the night. I was truly, truly ashamed of myself.

"So… did you find anything interesting in Marsh City?"

"Meh. It's the same questing and grinding routine, only that we would be able to join guilds and be taken to Guild Party Quests. Oh… marriage system is unlocked at level 30. Then you can join the Love Dungeons too, reserved for married people."

I perked up at the mention of new party quests. I remembered that Guild Party Quests gave a lot of guild rewards upon completion, and the rewards were more precious if the guild managed to complete higher-level dungeons. There was only one problem with this arrangement. Guilds became some sort of elite clubs where players were heavily scrutinized for their levels and attributes. Unless said players were healers, of course. Healers were necessary anytime, and they did not need to be strong. They just needed to know how to click. Well in this sense know how to heal.

Love Dungeons were party quests that were reserved for married couples. Three married couples must enter at once and complete the stages before they entered an all-you-can-grab feast. The drops were random. Scrolls, stones, even gear materials when you were lucky. The thing was that all of these also dropped from many other bosses outside of the Love Dungeon. So what did I care about Love Dungeons? Pahh. These were dungeons reserved for those sissy guys who hung with their love-obsessed online girlfriends the whole time. Not for me, no.

As we killed and killed monsters in the hunting grounds, we got to know our peers quite well and vice versa. I found that everyone was quite young when they died, no more than seventeen years old. We did not like to talk about the cause of our deaths. I noticed that all players' faces visibly darkened as soon as I breached the taboo subject. I guess my death could be described as relatively peaceful. I did not want to think about those who died in a horrible way like Kitty.

After level 15, level 30 was the next important milestone. It was the level by which we were considered more or less able to survive. And then, of course, it was level 50. The second job advancement. I planned to do exactly what I did in my last life. I would take all the defense and support skills that I needed to be a good healer. DragonTalon wanted to go for all the cool offense skills, going both for ice elemental attacks and fire elemental attacks.

"Bad move," I criticized. "You will not have all the points to maximize all the skills. Pick one and stick with it."

"Oh geez," DragonTalon clicked with his tongue. "I will just do a skill reset later on. You are such a nag, Antares. You sound like my grandmother."

I perked up when hearing about skill reset. That one was important! In the original version, players had to pay with real world cash!

"Wait, how do we reset our skills here?"

"You didn't know? Loot stage of Love Dungeon."

"..."

What was it that I say about Love Dungeons? I obviously adored a dungeon instance that was designed specifically to honor the love and relationship between two people who were joined in holy matrimony. I should start getting an online girlfriend now and drag her to the altar as soon as I hit 30.