Anton asked his father a lot of questions regarding the lives of the common people in the places where he’d been. He learned that the lives of the people were hard. Because of monsters, bandits, and the undead, a common village had the chance of suddenly disappearing from the face of the earth.

Anders told him that they were lucky that their country was safe and that they were able to farm without any sense of fear that suddenly monsters would appear and wipe them out. Yes, there were still monsters but there were only the weak ones that could be vanquished by a common person. Unfortunately, that safety ended with the rise of the Undead Coalition.

Anton’s father told him that the Undead Coalition started as a wizard country in the North before that was ruled by a powerful mage emperor and his council of mages, but something happened that turned the emperor into a lich, and most of the council to either liches or necromancers. Then they summoned an undead army and conquered the two countries surrounding them. That started the rise of the undead coalition.

For several years, the Undead Coalition was inside their territory seemingly satisfied with the area they ruled according to Anton’s father. Suddenly they attacked their neighboring country which was Vondi and now here they were running for their lives.

“Why are the other countries not joining together to destroy the Undead Coalition?” Anton asked his father.

“I don’t know. I’m but a small mercenary turned farmer.” Anders answered.

Anton then told his father and sister that he would need to continue meditating so he went inside the cart to enter the game virtually so he could practice his new spells. He told Anders and Anna that this meditation would be deep so if they wanted his attention, they would need to wake him up as if he was asleep. He then entered the game virtually and went outside the Rogue Encampment.

The first spell that Anton wanted to practice was Fire Ball since this spell was going to be the primary spell that he was going to use for leveling up. The first practice that he did was to make sure that he would be able to cast the spell at a moment’s notice, without delay or hesitation. It took him about thirty minutes and several mana potions before he was satisfied. The next thing that he practiced was to manipulate the mana density of the Fire Ball spell. After about an hour, he learned how to manipulate the mana of the spell to decrease the size, intensity, area of effect and damage of his Fire Ball spell.

During the intense practice session, he was able to slightly determine the spell construct of the Fire Ball spell. It was basically different from Fire Bolt since Fire Ball, even if he decreased the mana to the least amount that he could, would still explode when released and touched the intended landing location or thing. That meant that for fire purposes like lighting a candle or campfire, even summoning a ball of fire for lighting purposes, he would better stick to using Fire Bolt since if something happened to Fire Bolt, it would just stick like a bolt, burn the landing area, and not explode. With that hour of practice, aside from learning how to manipulate the Fire Ball’s mana, he also learned how to guide the Fire Ball so in a way, he was able to learn how to have the spell have a slight homing feature.

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Anton remembered that these types of manipulation would serve him better in the real world but in the game, it would still be better if he hurled that spell using its intended maximum level and mana to do the utmost damage to the game monsters. Also, more time practicing the spell Fire Ball would increase his mastery over the spell but after an hour, he switched to a different spell.

Anton's next spell that he would like to study was Frozen Armor. With an hour of practice using the spell, he was able to manipulate the mana consistency of the said spell making him able to increase and decrease the area encompassed by the spell from close to his skin up to the next person close to him which would become a real help in defending his father and sister. He thought that once he increased the spell’s level through items, he would be able to increase its protective range.

He didn’t forget to review what he learned about the first few spells that he had like Fire Bolt, Ice Bolt, Ice Blast, Frost Nova, and Telekinesis. This was to make sure that all the learning that he did wasn’t affected by him resetting his skill points which to his happiness, it really didn’t. He was able to manipulate the mana of the first spells that he had even though technically, those spells disappeared for a while.

Anton then noticed that somebody was trying to get his attention from the real world, so he exited outside of the game and minimized it. He saw that his father stopped the cart at the side of the road and was tapping his shoulders.

“It's noon. It’s time for us to eat.”

Anton’s family decided on a simple fare. Just bread, cheese, milk, and water. After lunch, they went back to traveling the roads. His father told him that they should reach the next village by nightfall, and he just nodded.

When the cart began to move, Anton went back to the game virtually. The next spell that he wanted to practice was Lightning and after an hour, he also began to master the intricacies of manipulating the mana of the said spell of course, he knew that his understanding of the spell was shallow at best, but it was a beginning. He was determined to master all of his spells someday because he knew it would help him a lot in understanding magic.

The next spells that he practiced were Static Field, Nova, Blaze, and then Inferno. It took him about an hour per spell, so he spent a total of four hours. He was happy with his mastery of the spells so far and was confident that he could use the spells in the real world well when the situation calls for it.

Anton went outside the game and minimized the game while his character remained beside his private stash so he could access it whenever he wanted. He also made sure that he had a lot of healing potions and mana potions in his inventory since those potions would also reflect in the real world once he consumed them. He just wished that he could the healing potions out of the game to the real world so he could heal his family if they needed it.