Afterlife Dream

It was my first time joining the Paradise Island Party Quest, while DragonTalon and the 4 other players had done a few runs already. I checked their character information and gears quickly as we were walking toward the entry portal. They were decent enough as attackers. One Axe Master, one Aladdin, one Assassin, and one Crossbow Master.

While we stood in front of the entry portal and waited to enter the party quest, they all sneaked furtive glances at me.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"Oh, no. It's just..."

The Aladdin smiled at me.

"You have your Fire Golem Helmet already. How lucky."

"Oh. Yes."

The Axe Master snorted.

"Healers have it good. They do not contribute much, but they earn their helmets early in the game and they can join the best guilds too."

I wanted to say something in retaliation, but I pressed my lips together and held back from answering. It was not good to engage in conflicts before entering the dungeon. It was better to not party up with the Axe Master in the future if this was how he regarded healers. While I remained silent, I DragonTalon unexpectedly spoke up for me.

"Healers don't have it easy," he countered. "Healers don't get much action until they became Holy Priests. Even then, they will still be seen mostly as Heal slaves. The only reason why Healers are even given Helmets is to keep them alive so they can help the others save potions. Personally, I consider Healers to be selfless players."

We were all stunned to hear the words from DragonTalon's mouth. I was also surprised.

The Axe Master flushed.

"Whatever," he said.

DragonTalon squinted at him in displeasure.

"Thanks," I whispered to DragonTalon.

DragonTalon smiled at me.

"We are friends. We have to support each other."

Since the party quest took place on Paradise Island with its Hawaiian ambiance, I expected the party quest to be a relaxed one. DragonTalon ensured me that it was even easier than Dai City Party Quest. No need to solve riddles, just kill and kill the monsters. It sounded harmless enough.

Well, it was not.

As soon as we entered, a crab pinched my toe.

"AHHHHHHH!!!!"

To be fair, I accidentally stepped on said crab when I entered through the portal, so I guessed it was well-deserved. While I was jumping around in pain and rubbing at my bleeding toe, the mechanical voice spoke to us.

"Dear Adventurers, welcome to the Paradise Island Party Quest. Recently, a gigantic Queen Spider had seized the power over Paradise Island and injected her venom into the land and water. All creatures on Paradise Island had been poisoned. Please take care to protect yourself against their poisonous attacks."

... Seriously?

I turned to DragonTalon with a frown between my brows.

"Why didn't you tell me about this scenario before?"

DragonTalon was momentarily speechless.

"I thought it was not important! I ran ten times already and no one in my party had ever been attacked by any island creatures!"

"Great," I gnashed with my teeth. "Just great!"

I looked around and noticed that there were only the two of us on the crab-infested beach.

"Where the heck are the others?"

"Oh, they spawn at other areas along the beach. The goal is to meet up at the center of the island."

I clicked with my tongue.

The poison already spread through my body. My HP started to decrease by 200 every second.

"Antares, I am so sorry. Can you walk?"

I glared at my friend.

"If you are really sorry, tell me properly what is going to happen next."

"Okay, okay," he hastily agreed.

As we walked among the palm trees and headed to the center of the island, DragonTalon gave me a quick rundown of what was going to happen next.

"As soon as we arrive at the center of the island, the Queen Spider will be alerted by our presence and she will send three waves of monsters to kill us.

The first wave is a bunch of red ants.

The second wave is a bunch of caterpillars.

The third wave is a bunch of scorpions."

"And then?"

"After we kill all of them, the Queen Spider will dispatch one of her generals to take care of us. That will be the boss stage. After we defeat the boss, it is over."

I grunted.

Indeed, other than the very unfortunate encounter with a poisonous crab at the very beginning, the party quest was all about killing monsters and surviving waves of attacks.

DragonTalon and I moved to the center of the map as soon as possible. Our four teammates arrived at approximately the same time. The center of the map, a huge empty space that looked almost like a battle arena, was surrounded by hundreds of palm trees. As soon as we put the first foot inside the clearing, a robotic voice resonated in the air.

"Intruder detected. Intruder detected. System, please dispatch guards to get rid of the intruders."

"System shall obey. Sending out the first wave of guards~"

The Axe Master said, "Healer in the middle. The rest, form a circle."

My teammates knew what to do right away. The poisoned me stood in the middle of the circle, healing continuously. The Crossbow Master could not help but smile when he saw the green smoke rising from the top of my head.

"Hahaha, you got poisoned."

I pursed my lips and shot DragonTalon a sharp glare. The latter mouthed a "Sorry! I didn't know it was even possible!"

I rolled with my eyes and wrote it off as bad luck on my side.

The first wave started.

Before the ants made their appearance, we already heard the tapping sounds of many small feet approaching from a distance. I frowned. Were we not talking about ants? The biggest ants I knew about were the African ants. They were about five-centimeter long, and I was pretty sure that they did not make tapping sounds when they moved.

When the red ants finally appeared before us, they were not crawling like real-life ants. They were standing, and they were as tall as normal players. They were dressed in shining metallic armors, complete with helmets and boots. Each of them was holding a pointy spear with two arms and a shield with the other two arms.

There was an ant that was exceptionally taller than the others. It was also dressed in better armors. It clicked with its mandibles a few times and raised its spear above its head. The other ants clicked once in unison and rushed toward us.

My teammates moved to attack.

The Axe Master advanced with a roar and started to hack at the ant soldiers.

DragonTalon shouted, "Fire Dragon!"

A fiery dragon emerged from the tip of his staff and hissed as it launched toward the ant soldiers and burned them.

The Aladdin stabbed around with his dagger in a swift movement that was too fast to follow with my eyes.

The Assassin went invisible. I could only see his throwing stars hitting the ant soldiers at their necks and bringing them down with one hit.

The Crossbow Master whacked at the approaching ant soldiers violently to generate some distance between him and the ant soldiers before he shot arrows at them and killed them with one shot each.

I whistled. My job, as always, was to heal everyone around me. By keeping me in the middle of the circle, they ensured that no monsters got to me and they got continuous heal from me at the same time. I remained poisoned throughout the first wave but sustained no further damage otherwise.

The second wave arrived in a similar way, but the caterpillars were not standing. They were still crawling on the ground and they did not approach us at all. They shot white, gooey, sticky substances at us. I wrinkled my face in disgust and quickly whispered to DragonTalon, "What the hell is this?"

"It will only immobilize us to the ground. No worries. Keep healing."

Just as DragonTalon said, the sticky stuff soon hardened and glued the lower half of our body to the ground. Attacking was not a problem, but defending was. The caterpillars sank their sharp fangs into our legs and I had to cry out from the pain.

"This is torture," I hissed at DragonTalon.

He grinned at me while shooting small fiery balls at the caterpillars around us.

I raised my wand and shouted, "Spiritual Meteor!"

My teammates widened their eyes in shock when the sky opened above them and a bunch of meteors rain down on them.

"AAAAHHHHHH!!!" I heard the Aladdin shriek.

"Relax," I said, "we are teammates. You will not get hurt."

Indeed, the meteors only hit the caterpillars around us.

The Axe Master laughed at me.

"Interesting. Most Healers tend to stick with healing. I see that you also like to attack."

"Well, I try my best to contribute, so I will attack whenever I can."

The smile on the Axe Master's face faded slightly. He seemed to remember what he said about Healers' lack of contribution before we entered.

"That's good," he said with a grin. "Just don't forget to heal us."

"Oh, right."

After the caterpillars were defeated, the hardened glue disappeared and we could move again.

"Third wave," the Assassin said with a smile.