Afterlife Dream

"Let's do Love Dungeon?" DragonTalon invited me as soon as we were done with our wedding.

Couples had to enter the dungeon together.

"Ok," I said and we headed toward the dungeon area.

Other than the coveted Skill Reset Scroll, the Love Dungeon also had a few other valuable and unique materials such as Mount Summon Stone Pieces or Pet Purchase Receipt Pieces, or Loveseat Materials. Mounts helped to travel across the map. Pets helped pick up loots. Loveseats... were generally useless unless you were in love and would like to waste your time sitting with your beloved while chatting about love.

The Love Dungeon itself was quite dumb. You killed some weakling flying monster and you would finish before you even realized it.

Or at least that was what I thought because I had never personally run the dungeon before.

When we arrived at the Love Dungeon area, there were only high-level players in it. Note that DragonTalon was 45 and I was 58. Everyone who had passed their third job advancement was considered a high-level player. There were around 7 couples who stood around waiting to enter.

"Such high level..."

"Should we wait for lower-level players?" I suggested to DragonTalon.

"I don't know... I don't want to waste the whole day waiting," DragonTalon whispered to me in irritation.

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Well, he was not wrong. I would love to go earn some money.

"What about we ask Kitty and Wolfhound?"

"Great idea. Let me ask them now."

DragonTalon had not even opened the friend list window when a voice broke the silence around us.

"Hey."

DragonTalon and I turned around and saw four players at 90+ levels approach us.

"Should we run together?"

"..."

DragonTalon narrowed his eyes at the four players in suspicion. They were all attackers, and judging from their equipment they must be quite strong.

"... Sure!"

I should have known that something wasn't right, but I was so eager to do the dungeon that I agreed quickly. After all, what could go wrong? These 90+ players looked, um, pro. They all belonged to the second strongest guild, Domination. Nothing could go wrong, right? Right? As soon as we entered, we were greeted with an episode from Afterlife Dream's marriage drama. I swore that the story was plagiarized from a Christmas fairytale. I heard two of the 90+ players who ran with us curse under their breaths when the drama started. I just did not know why.

It took place at the village at the foot of a snowy mountain. A young couple lived there, apparently they just got married. The man was a hunter and he went to the forest every day to hunt for food and bring back firewoods to burn in the furnace. On one fateful day, the hunter left as usual but he never returned. The wife was frantic. She thought that something had happened to him. Her siblings told her that the hunter might have been spirited away by the witch who lived on top of the mountain.

"Does that mean that m-my husband is going to die???" The woman started to sob. Her siblings pulled their thin lips into long lines.

"Sister, there is nothing you can do."

"Sister, the witch is too powerful..."

Unexpectedly, the husband did come back. When he came back though, he was devoid of love. He not only completely stopped loving his wife, but he was also downright mean to her.

When she asked him if he was cold, he snapped at her and asked for warm soup.

When she gave him soup, he threw a tantrum and said that it was too hot.

And so on and so on.

After a few more scenes of emotional abuse like that, the stage mission was finally announced.

"Dear adventurers, the young husband had had his heart stolen by the Witch on top of the mountain. Please get his heart back to restore the love and affection between the young married couple again."

...

So we now had to act as Cupid's soldiers of love, always on the look for love crimes and ready to vanquish those who did not support love.

Yuck.

Anyway, that was our mission.

The Witch lived in an ice palace on top of the mountain. The ice had been enchanted so that it could never melt.

In the first stage, we were required to find the Witch's long-lost heart. Ah. It suddenly started to make sense. Because the Witch lost her heart, she was apathetic to love. Or she was using other people's hearts to substitute for her own?

The Witch's heart was not only lost but also broken. All six of us worked together to poke at every item within the ice palace's great hall and managed to find all seven heart pieces.

After we combined them, the heart merged together seamlessly and glowed brightly.

The mechanical voice spoke again.

"Congratulations on having found the Witch's heart. The heart is calling for the Witch, but the Witch refused to respond to it. Your mission is to return the heart to the Witch and make her release all the hearts that she had stolen back to her victims."

I scratched at my head. So what was that about a supposed winged monster that was to be defeated in the original version of the game?

I did not have much time to dawdle. The other players quickly rushed us to the next stage, and then I saw it. The winged monster. I shook my head in regret while furrowing my brows. So apparently the beautiful Witch transformed into a monster after losing her heart. I would say less monster more beast from "Beauty and the Beast".

The beast looked a lot like Fiona from Shrek, if you understand what I mean. Only that this Fiona had not taken care of her skin and it caused her whole body to be covered in tree bark-like skin. Her face was that of a demon, with shining eyes and two front fangs. Other than those grotesque parts, her blond hair was bright and glossy, cascading down her back elegantly. Her wings were angel wings that were covered by a thick layer of ice, but it did not impede their movement.

As soon as we came close, the beast let out an earsplitting shriek and spread her wings in a threatening way.