Afterlife Dream

I jumped off the rope and cast Mana Guard. Mana Guard was a very important skill, a must-cast protective skill for bossing purposes. The skill allowed the MP bar to be drained upon receiving the attack instead of the HP bar. Of course the MP bar must be constantly full then, else the HP bar would take a cut. Being a mage, my MP bar was higher than my HP bar. I also peeked into my inventory and saw that I still had three Advanced MP Potions. One Advanced MP Potion could replenish my MP by 7000. This was the strongest MP Potion that I had in my inventory, and I could not buy more because I did not have enough money. Sigh.

When Red Asura noticed me, he turned around and approached me with slow but menacing steps.

I cast Spiritual Meteor as soon as Red Asura came close. He did not look all too happy about having baseball-sized meteors raining on him. He lifted his arms and blood drained from my face. Divine Guard and Mana Guard had been canceled! I quickly cast both skills, just in time before Red Asura stabbed me with his lance. That one attack cost me 7000 MP.

I cursed inside my heart. Three Advanced MP Potions were not going to be enough! I had to defeat this monster as soon as possible if I still wanted to pass the test! Before that happened, I had to play it smart. Magical skills had cooldown time. It applied to players as well as monsters. I had to time my Divine Guard and Mana Guard in accordance with his buff canceling skill. Before that, I must not waste my other attacks. I thus started to hit at Red Asura with my puny Magical Ball.

"Magical Ball!"

"Magical Ball!"

After spamming ten more Magical Balls, I saw Red Asura do the arm lifting move again.

Another buff cancellation move, finally! I cast Divine Guard and Mana Guard fast as lightning before I summoned Spiritual Meteor. Suddenly, Red Asura lifted his lance over his head and twirled it like an expert lance master. I widened my eyes. Strong gusts of wind suddenly blew at me.

The mechanical voice piped up to enlighten me.

"Red Asura's Area Of Effect attack, Thunder Hurricane."

I was just in time to cast Prayer. The skill Prayer made me sit in a lotus position and chant a bunch of prayers. The words materialized and hit Red Asura like bullets. The monster let out an angry howl and started to attack me in frenzy. After the first one minute, I was able to move and cast other skills. Despite the boost in magical and physical defense, I still took a brutal hit. This time my entire bar of 14000 MP was gone, and my HP even got reduced by 500. I was speechless. I used up my second potion and healed up. So it was necessary to time both the buff canceling skill and the AoE skill.

I continued pounding on Red Asura using Magical Ball and Spiritual Meteor. Nervously, I glanced at the digital clock that hovered above us. Only three minutes left, one more potion and Red Asura still had more than 50% HP.

When the next buff cancellation move took place, I went into full offense mode. I recast Divine Guard and Mana Guard, then I bombed the boss with a combination of physical attacks, Magical Balls, and Spiritual Meteor. I concluded with Prayer by the time Red Asura's cooldown for Thunder Hurricane finished.

I prayed with every strand of my body. Red Asura's HP had been reduced to 25% by then, but I only had less than two more minutes and I had used all of my MP potions!

I repeated the routine and then I had a bright idea. After watching Red Asura's moves, I saw that Thunder Hurricane had one safe spot, and it was right at Red Asura's feet. I had no other choice. When Red Asura cast his AoE skill again, I lunged forward and hugged his leg. Just like I predicted, I did not lose even a single MP from that move.

I did not allow myself to rest. Every second counted. After working hard to beat Red Asura up, his HP finally went to zero. It let out one last howl of pain before it toppled forward. Above me, the digital clock showed 00:03.

00.02.

00.01.

The ground under me trembled, and I was pushed upward by an unseen force. When I thought I was about to fall down, I already arrived at the little hut at Fairy Forest again.

"Congratulations, Adventurer. You have successfully passed the test. You are herewith granted one level as a reward. All the second job skills as [Healer] have been unlocked for your usage."

Under my feet, a magical circle appeared. Purple smoke rose from the floor and engulfed me. By the time the smoke cleared up, my skills had been upgraded. I had become a Healer!

"Yeahhh...!!!" I shouted in joy.

First jobs were useless in raids. As soon as I got to the [Healer] level, I could contribute to the runs. Also, I had been quite wary about skill reset scrolls early on, so I had been saving a lot of skill points during my first job just in case I could not get the skill reset scroll quickly enough. That, and the 25 levels that BlackPuma helped me with had been such a well-laid plan.

I was level 58, with 58 skill points.

One skill point was put on Magical Ball.

One skill point on teleport.

I put 20 points into Heal to maximize it. 10 points of Heal were enough for my own use, but it was definitely not going to be enough for the other classes especially warriors with mad HP bar.

One point into Prayer.

One point into Spiritual Meteor.

10 points into Heavenly Blessing.

10 points into Divine Guard.

10 points into Mana Guard.

Whether or not I needed to maximize the last two skills would depend on the severity of the raids.