Afterlife Dream

When my dear teammate spoke from a so-called Coconut Cutting Competition, I imagined all of us standing side-by-side and splitting open coconuts, for whatever reason. The one who split open the most coconuts was the winner. It turned out that "cutting" meant "cutting down from the tree". The trees naturally referred to coconut trees.

You might now be imagining loads of coconut trees on the map, and we six players would attack these trees with our magnificent skills to try and get the coconuts down.

No, it was not like that.

First of all, we were magically transformed into monkeys.

You did not read wrong. I said, monkeys. We became monkeys. The monkeys that we were were clothed in green vests and green floppy hats to ward off the sun rays. We were each equipped with a sickle. And then, we had to climb the coconut trees and literally cut down the coconuts using said sickles.

I could not laugh at all. It was ridiculous. None of my teammates was willing to explain to me what we were doing there. As soon as they landed on the map, my monkey friends started harvesting coconuts diligently. Not that monkeys could talk.

I only found out what it was about later after the timer ran out and we were teleported safely out of the party quest dungeon.

"What the hell?" I asked. "What was that for???"

"Antares, check your inventory and shut up," DragonTalon said to me with a grin while fanning himself. After getting beaten up by the aardvark, harvesting coconuts had been a strenuous cooldown exercise.

Irritated, I opened my user interface screen and checked my inventory. What I saw completely blew my fuse.

8 coconuts.

I was stunned.

"Wait a moment. Those coconuts that we cut..."

"They go directly into our inventories, yes. Do you still want to complain?"

I blinked. Complain? Complain what?? Kindly transform me back into a monkey so I could continue harvesting the precious coconuts!

"Wait, so we can get more than 1 coconut per run?" I asked ecstatically. "This is great! That means that we can get our Native Islander set soon!"

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"Oh the coconuts can be more than that," DragonTalon explained. "You can also sell them to food artisans to turn into coconut-based food."

I perked up when hearing about the moneymaking possibility.

"Really. How much does one sell for?"

"Oh, around 10,000 gold."

My jaw dropped open.

"So this is how you got so much money to buy the Skill Reset Scroll???"

DragonTalon grinned at me.

"Yup! I sold all!"

"You mad man, don't you care about getting the Native Islander set??"

"I will start saving the coconuts from today, hehe."

Two days passed by quickly. We spammed the Paradise Island Party Quests for two whole days and each of us gained six levels. Both DragonTalon and I reached 70 on the same day.

"Should we go for the Third Job Advancement Test now??" DragonTalon asked me excitedly.

I had my reservations. Of the six pieces of equipment that I wanted to get to complete the Native Islander Set, I was still lacking the wand. To get the wand, I needed 50 more coconuts. That was take or give six to seven more runs. DragonTalon had been luckier than me, but he too lacked around 40 coconuts.

"The Fire Golem raid is tomorrow," he pleaded with me. "We will have more chance of succeeding with me being the Fire Elemental Mage and you being a High Priest! Come on, Antares. Say yes."

I scoffed.

"And what if we fail and have to wait seven more days? I can't afford to wait that long."

I would rather spend one more day spamming the Paradise Island Party Quest, get my wand, get the complete set buff, then march toward the third job advancement NPC.

As soon as I completed my third job advancement, so Aurendiria had promised me, she would take me to the next level 70 raid. There were still a few guildmates who had yet to loot their Queen Spider Boots, but I did not mind! I simply needed the experience.

And so, DragonTalon stubbornly went to take his Third Job Advancement Test while I stubbornly stuck to the Paradise Island Party Quest. I was quite lucky with the coconuts. After only half a day of spamming the party quest, I reached level 71 and also completed the Native Islander set. I looked ridiculous with the flower crown, the dark green shirt and pants made from palm leaves, the woven slingback sandals, the fingerless gloves, and a wand that looked like something an evil island witch would use. But I could not care less. It was the set completion buff that I cared about.

Check it out, these were the buffs that I got from the Native Islander set.

2-equipment set buff : Weapon attack +100

4-equipment set buff : Magical attack + 100

6-equipment set buff : Physical defense +10%, magical defense +10%

It did not give the best buffs of all equipment sets out there, but it was my first complete set of equipment, so I was quite happy. Having achieved my goal, I thus made my way to the third job advancement area confidently.

The Third Job Advancement NPCs were situated on a remote island that was only accessible with a small boat. This island was located at the center of a lake, which again was located at the center of Paradise Island.

There was an old fisherman NPC at the shore that rented boats to players to go to the Third Job Advancement area.

I stepped into a boat I just rented and let it drift by itself toward the island. I peeked over the edge of the boat and saw that the water was crystal clear. I could see the rocks at the bottom of the lake, as well as the various sea creatures that languidly moved about inside the water body.

The boat gently bumped against the shore at the other side, pulling me out of my trance. I had arrived. In front of me was a thick forest with a myriad of densely arranged trees. They towered high above me, their broad leaves were stacked together and prevented most of the sunlight from hitting the ground. I stepped into the forest gingerly, resisting the urge to touch the trees. I instead made sure that I stepped on a solid, flat area.

Although there was no path inside the forest, it was clear that there was only one direction to go. After tumbling my way across the many trees and protruding roots, I eventually reached a small hut. It looked very similar to the one in Fairy Forest, only that it was not suspended in the air. There was a charming garden in front of the hut. Colorful butterflies hovered on the flowers enchantingly.

Just as I walked toward the hut, the door swung open and a pale DragonTalon with a messy appearance showed up. He was covered in dust and sand from top to bottom. Before any of us said anything, the congratulation banner appeared in the sky to announce DragonTalon's successful advancement to Fire Elemental Mage.

I turned to DragonTalon and whistled.

"Woo, congratulations man! Good job!"

DragonTalon pulled me aside and looked me up and down.

"Have you completed the Native Islander set?"

"Yup!"

I waved my wand in front of his eyes.

"What's wrong? You don't look too happy."

DragonTalon grabbed my hand.

"Antares, do you have any Chocolate Cake with you?"

"No, I don't."

Chocolate Cake is a food that when eaten could grant the player immunity for five whole seconds. It required a high level of cooking to make, and was worth a lot of money too. If I was not mistaken, it was about 200,000 gold each.

DragonTalon sent me a trade invitation.

I was confused, but I accepted nonetheless.

He passed me five Chocolate Cakes. I widened my eyes in surprise.

"DragonTalon, what are you giving me these for?"

They were worth a lot of money!

"Take them for now and repay me later. Make sure to use them during the boss' AoE attacks."

"Have you been using this food to get by??" I asked, shocked at the amount of money that DragonTalon paid for.

"I had to!" DragonTalon insisted. "Most people do. How do you think BlackPuma managed to get all those end-game gears from the raids?"

I stared at him in disbelief.

"He had been using the Chocolate Cakes?"

"To be precise, he used the Chocolate Cakes after all his squadmates died and he was the only one left to fight. Of course, BlackPuma is strong, no doubt about that, but do you think he is strong enough to finish a raid alone? He paid an immense amount of gold to get those equipment."

"..."

I was speechless. I was not sure what shocked me more. The fact that BlackPuma soloed the raid bosses after all the other players died or the fact that he had been eating one Chocolate Cake after another to stay alive.

"And by the way, do you know why HinoKun got the cloak? It's because he also used Chocolate Cakes to stay alive along with BlackPuma during that one last 110 run. Everyone else already died or gave up in the middle. The cost was too high."