Afterlife Dream

I discovered that although past crimes seemed to have been forgiven, people still remembered.

Ninja's bad reputation followed him wherever he went. Although he only stole once in an amateur run to boot from the many raids he partook in, he was still a thief in the eyes of many players. Not only for those who ran with him that one time but also for many other players who heard about his notorious behavior.

DragonTalon's remark about HinoKun's tendency to protect his guildmates no matter what bad things they did was on point. He protected PrecisionShot when she stole the Skill Reset Scroll from DragonTalon. Now he protected Ninja for stealing the Ice Dragon Cloak from Aurendiria.

It did not matter how hard HinoKun tried to water the crime down. Stealing was stealing. In light of the raid expiration time, it was even a bigger crime than it was.

The argument lasted for another hour with no conclusion. The impact showed not long after they dispersed.

HinoKun was the first to leave Twelve. Then SakuraChan, then KikiSan, then many others one by one. Those in the Twelve guild who did not know what was going on were naturally puzzled.

"What happened?" they all asked repeatedly but no one gave an answer.

Eventually, after all those who originally came from Dominion left, Ingenious wrote in the guild chat.

"Everyone, I know you are confused. Something has happened this evening and I am not really ready to talk about it today. There will be another round of raids tomorrow for both the Fire Golem raid and Queen Spider raid. At 7 AM, everyone please come to Oakstone Tavern again. We must talk about the recent issues."

I bade my friends good night, then I crawled into my home. Before I slept, I once again went through the guild list and clicked on BlackPuma's ID.

"BlackPuma, are you still missing?" I typed into the message box. Another error message appeared. I sighed at my user interface screen, turned it off, and closed my eyes to a night of restless sleep.

At 7 AM the next day, those who remained at Twelve showed up for the meeting at Oakstone Tavern. There were only thirty players left. Twenty of the original Twelve members, and the ten from other guilds such as Livina and ZhaoYun. Especially these ten players were waiting for an explanation about the unexpected breakup so soon after the guild merged.

"Hi everyone. There is no good way to say it, so I will just say it outright. Ninja from Dominion stole from Aurendiria by looting an illegal Ice Dragon Cloak during the Ice Dragon raid yesterday. Since its creation, Twelve has been a clean guild that does not condone this kind of behavior. Every player here is family. HinoKun, the leader of Dominion, refused to punish Ninja properly and would rather have Aurendiria be the bigger woman and forgive him.

Well even if Auren is willing to forgive him, I am not. Ninja had stolen before, and he stole again yesterday. He would keep stealing because he knew that he could get away with it. Who of us here does not dream about collecting end-game equipment as soon as possible? We all do. It does not mean that it is allowed to simply loot and run. This is what a Loot Order is established for. Else it is just a Looting Feast at the end of every raid.

Too bad that Dominion and Twelve did not share the same values regarding gaming ethics. HinoKun and everyone else from Dominion decided to leave, and I am not going to ask them to come back."

A murmur went through the crowd, and then an Axe Master slowly raised his hand. He came from Adventurers.

"But what about the Dimensional Master? We are already short-staffed as it is. If we part ways with Dominion, is the whole grand plan to defeat Dimensional Master canceled?"

"Yeah what about the Dimensional Master?"

Ingenious held both his palms up to calm the crowd.

"I am going to talk to HinoKun privately about this. Please just keep doing what you are all doing right now."

Another hand shot up.

"What about the raids? We don't have enough experienced players to run the raid."

"And there are only three days left before the level 50 raid is locked!"

"We can manage," Ingenious said through gritted teeth, but I knew that he himself was not too sure.

"We can," ZhaoYun said hastily. "We will make it happen. We will keep running until we get everyone in the guild the well-deserved helmets."

"Just please don't steal from guildmates, I beg you," ArrowRain said.

"Ahem," a voice rang out from behind the rows of chairs.

Cecilia, the owner of Oakstone Tavern stood tall with a smile on her face.

"I am only a resident, but I do want to contribute to the raid's success. Can I still help you guys? I can help at both the Dark Fairy and Ice Dragon raid."

One by one, our ex-guildmates from Twelve showed up at Oakstone Tavern.

"I can help with both the level 50 and 70 raids," one of them said.

"I can do 70 and 90."

"Me, I can do 90 and 110..."

Ingenious buried his face in his palms. Only his hoarse voice was heard coming from the gaps between his fingers. He almost sounded as if he was crying.

"You guys..."

Cecilia put both hands at her waist and complained, "You are lacking players. We are offering our services and it is still not enough for you??"

Ingenious laughed.

"How can it be not enough," he said. "Thanks, guys. Really, thanks. I don't know what else to say."

The Vice Leaders quickly invited the ex-members back into the guild.

"It's so good to have the word 'Twelve' under my name again," Cecilia said with a smile.

Aurendiria put her arms around Cecilia and said with a muffled voice, "Cecil, I missed you so."

Cecilia patted Aurendiria on the back fondly.

"Baby, I am always here for you. We heard about BlackPuma. It must have been tough on you."

Aurendiria loosened her arms around Cecilia and wiped at her eyes.

"A lot of things happened at once," she admitted.

"And that asshole Ninja. I am going to KS his ass whenever I see him around."

Aurendiria smiled sadly.

"No need, Cecil. What's the point? We still have to run with Dominion for the level 150 raid so..."

"Guys, I hate to intrude. It is almost 9 AM. Should we not head to Lava County?" Livina asked.

"Oh yes, let's go!!" DragonTalon exclaimed. He was very excited because it was finally his turn to loot a helmet.

We headed to Lava County in a rush and went inside the entrance cave. Standing before the NPC were the players from the Dominion guild.

"What are you guys doing here?" ZhaoYun asked with a frown.

Suzuran, the level 85 Shinobi from Dominion muttered, "We are going to run the raid. By the look of it, so are you."

DragonTalon stepped forward in irritation.

"10.00 has always been Twelve's time slot. Come back at 16.00."

Suzuran shook her head.

"This raid is going to be locked soon. Naturally, we must make use of every available time slot."

"..."

"What the hell...?" some of the Twelve players started to mutter under their breaths.

I quickly wrote a message in the guild chat to alert everyone.

"Guys, Suzuran and the others are here to run the Fire Golem raid. I fear that we are going to have a problem here."

As if already anticipating the confrontation, Ingenious quickly wrote a reply.

"Set up the squad and parties NOW. Prepare to fight them. We will come to help as soon as possible!"

Livina quickly set the squad up, making sure that every party was properly balanced with melees, healers, mages, and ranged attackers ready in their positions while ZhaoYun and DragonTalon continued to exchange insults with those from Dominion.

"You guys should go," Suzuran pointed out. "Else do not blame us for being cruel."

"YOU guys are the ones who should go," DragonTalon exclaimed. "First you stole a cloak and now you are stealing a time slot???"

The exchange continued for a while. I could see that save for the two people who were yelling at each other, everyone else had the same idea in their mind. Only one squad could enter the raid at one time. This basically meant that the first player to enter would pave the way for the squad to enter. We had to click ourselves in first before the other squad did it. But that was not all. Ten minutes before 10.00, Dominion players suddenly launched a coordinated attack on the Twelve players. Suzuran threw a few shooting stars that immediately caused some players to lose half their HP.

"What the...!"

"HEALERS HELP!!!"

I quickly cast Mana Guard and Divine Guard on me and my party members in the shortest time possible. The next ten minutes were spent between healing my team members and clicking on the NPC like a mad person.