Anton’s father left after a while bringing the cart with animal skins with him to the village. Anna was still busy cooking, so he went back in front of the fireplace to continue leveling up. This time though, instead of doing it virtually, he did the on-screen option since doing it that way was way faster than doing it virtually.

The main advantages of doing a virtual experience for his Diablo II game were, aside from enjoying the game fully since he was there personally, he would learn how to wield the spells with precision and would learn how to manipulate the mana that was being wielded until he would be able to use the spells in different ways that intended. Case in point where he could summon mana-infused water using the Ice Bolt spell.

Since it was important for him to level up fast and he only had the Charged Bolt spell, it would be better to do the game on-screen instead of virtual. He continued clearing out Black Marsh by clearing out the rest of the zone which brought him to level thirteen, and he immediately added the skill point to Charged Bolt, five of his stat points to vitality and five to energy. Now, without counting the equipment, he had twenty-five points to strength, twenty to dexterity, thirty to vitality, and forty-seven to energy. He had ninety-one life and eighty-two mana. His Charged Bolt was level fifteen with an additional three levels from staff already included and one level to Warmth.

He was about to begin entering the Forgotten Tower to begin his rune and level grind, but his attention was called out by Anna.

“Father is back!”

“So soon? I thought it would take longer than an hour.” Anton said.

Anton and Anna went outside to meet their father and they saw that the animal skins were still in the cart so were extra barrels and boxes.

“There’s no buyer for the skins, Father?” Anna asked.

“No. I just bought bread, salt, and spices and left immediately. I heard that Vondi was already conquered, and that the undead coalition was already on their way to Mendi. We will complete our preparation and leave early tomorrow morning. Anton, please concentrate on getting more powerful. Leave the packaging to us and we will leave the boxes here beside you so you can store them in your magic space immediately.’

Anton obediently followed his father’s instructions and went back to the game. He continued playing without entering the game virtually and used the on-screen option. The first time he killed the countess he was able to get the runes Tal and Eth, but he was hoping to get the runewords for the Leaf runeword item. He was worried for a second that he would not be able to farm monsters but when he saved the game and re-logged in, the monsters respawned.

Before he entered the Forgotten Tower to kill the countess again to look for runes his father interrupted him and asked him to store the barrels and boxes which he did. At first, Anton’s private stash had chipped gems and small rejuvenation potions in them but he needed to sell all of those to empty his private stash so he would have room for real-world things. He did earn a lot of gold and it still made him a little sad that he couldn’t bring the gold back from the game to the real world.

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“Father, do you need help? I can stop for a moment and help you and Anna in sorting our things.”

“No son. Concentrate on your wizardry. Your power will help us most when we need it.”

Anton acquiesced and went back to the game. He should have been helping his family but the feeling of rushing to level up to acquire more power brought a sense of restlessness that could only be alleviated by him playing the game and seeing his level rising. He finally managed to collect the runes to make the runeword armor Stealth and runeword staff Leaf but unfortunately, the armor’s requirement was level seventeen and the staff’s requirement was level 19 and he was only level fourteen.

Ander’s tapped him on the shoulder pointing at the barrels and boxes at his feet. Anton immediately put them in his inventory.

“What time is it?” He asked his father.

“It’s about six in the evening. Time for us to eat.”

Anton saved his game, opened it again, and minimized it making sure that it was always opened in the background for him to be able to access the inventory anytime he wanted. He then joined his family on the table.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to assist you in sorting out our things,” He apologized to his family again while they were eating.

“You don’t have to keep apologizing. I decided to let you meditate. We will need your power in the long run. Did you learn any new spells?”

“Yes, Father. I learned Fire Ball, Lightning, Lightning Nova, and Frozen Armor.”

Anton avoided mentioning Static Field and Shiver Armor since Static Field was hard to explain and Shiver Armor was mostly the same as Frozen Armor. He also didn’t mention that all of his skill points were in Charged Bolt for now since when midnight arrived, he would reset his skill points, spread it out to different skills, and use the remaining time between then and morning to practice some of the spells outside the Rogue Encampment.

“As you know Fire Ball will allow me to summon a ball of fire that will explode in the location I cast it to. Lightning will allow me to summon lightning from my hands to hurl at my enemies. Lightning Nova is dangerous since it will allow me to disperse lightning energy to my surroundings and Frozen Armor will allow me to summon a magical armor to surround me wherein if an enemy hits me, there is a chance that they will be frozen aside from the increased defense the spell will provide. I can only show you to them after midnight though.”

Anders and Anna gaped at him when they heard the spells that he learned when he was meditating instead of helping the family in sorting out the things they would bring to their travels.

“I see it was the correct decision to allow you to meditate instead of helping us.” His father said.

“I wish you could teach me how to do magic too,” Anna said sadly.

“We will need to keep my magic a secret because I know for a fact that it’s different from the magic that wizards in this world wielded. Once we arrive in the city where there are wizards, I will apply to be an apprentice, showing a mage the least of my spells for them to accept me, and when I learn how the magic of the world works, I promise to teach you, Anna,” Anton promised his sister.

After dinner, Anton’s father and sister went back to sorting and arranging their things and he went back to playing the game.