Anton played a couple more classical pieces then he switched to old seventies and eighties rock music. He didn’t sing since they were still on the road but kept it instrumental. He was surprised and impressed at himself for not making too many mistakes since he hadn’t played for years. More than likely, his increased stats in the game helped with that. After an hour he stopped playing and told his father and sister that his fingers needed some rest.

“I liked your songs brother but why didn’t you sing?” Anna asked.

“I actually don’t know. We’re still on the road and possibly since I don’t know my singing voice if it’s passable or bad, I want to try it by myself first at a later time.”

“Okay once you confirm, please sing us a song next time.”

“Thank you for the music son. It was very good.” Anders told Anton.

“Can I meditate for a bit Father? Just an hour would do.”

When Anders allowed him to meditate, Anton maximized the game. He planned to play using the on-screen option so he would still be somewhat aware of the surroundings.

An hour of playing resulted in Anton completing Atma’s quest making him earn a skill point which he put in Enchant. He remained level nineteen though but since he learned a new spell, he could tell his father about the results of just an hour of meditation. Since he’s wearing the runeword staff Leaf, his Enchant skill would be particularly powerful. He also managed to gain the ability to hire a desert mercenary which was good since they have an aura but he didn’t know if the mercenary aura would affect him in the real world.

Anton hired a combat mercenary. That meant that the aura that the desert mercenary would use was Prayer which was a healing aura. When he hired the mercenary a pop-up window appeared.

It said “Notice: Since this is the first time you hired a mercenary; you will be informed about the change that was done. The mercenary will use the main character’s mana but you have two options to use the mercenary skills. First, you will have the option to activate and deactivate the mercenary’s use of skills meaning once you activate it, it will be at the mercenary's discretion when they will use their skills but please be careful since as mentioned, the mercenary will use your mana. Second, you can cast the mercenary skill yourself and the spell would still come from the mercenary in the game but would come from you outside of the game.”

When Anton read the notice, it was a game changer. When he completed the Sister’s Burial Grounds quest, Kashiya didn’t automatically give him a rogue mercenary. He checked why was that and it showed that he would need to hire one and since he didn’t favor rogue mercenaries, he never bothered hiring one. If he did, he would have long been given notice of the change in how the mercenary skill would work.

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The important part was, since he hired a combat desert mercenary with the Prayer Aura, Anton could activate it and it would heal his party members. He wondered how it would work in the real world.

When he checked, he saw another option in his game interface. It was the option of activating the Prayer Aura and that relieved him since he would be able to heal his family. He was really worried since he couldn’t take out the healing potions from the game but allowing him to use the Prayer Aura changed that.

“Father can we stop a bit, there is an important change that happened in my spells,” Anton asked his father.

Anders stopped the cart beside the road. Anton then tried to check how the Prayer Aura would work and when he tried to activate it, there was an instinctive option in his mind on whom he would let the Prayer Aura affect and he could choose both his Father and his sister. He imagined that since the Diablo II party size was eight people, the aura would allow him to heal up to six people at the same time since the party included himself and the mercenary.

“What is the change that happened Anton?” His father worriedly asked.

“I learned two very important spells that I need to test. It’s a healing spell and a way to enchant my ally’s weapon.” Anton told his father.

Anders and Anna were delighted to hear that Anton learned a healing spell.

“Can you give yourself a small cut Father?”

Without hesitation, Anders made a small cut in his finger using his dagger. Anton then activated his mercenary’s Prayer Aura and allowed his Father and Anna to be affected. The wound in his Father’s finger immediately disappeared and he could see his mana decreased.

“Brother I can feel it! I can feel all my aches disappearing!” Anna exclaimed.

“The wound in my finger is gone and Anna is correct. All my body’s aches and pain disappeared as well.”

“I wonder If I can heal animals as well.”

Anton checked if he could add the two horses to the ones who could be affected by the Prayer Aura and surprisingly it allowed him to. The horses reacted from all their aches and wounds, even the tiniest ones, disappearing by becoming frisky and Anders needed to calm them down. He then deactivated the aura.

Anton was so happy. Now he could heal his family and it would increase their survival greatly. That was one of the main reasons why he wanted to become a true wizard of this world by apprenticing himself to an actual wizard. He wanted to learn spells with utility not just spells that could kill and now one of his wishes came true.

That meant that the best mercenary that he could have was the one that he just hired, the one with the Prayer Aura and he would never change to others.

“You mentioned two spells. What is the second spell again?” Anders asked.

“I’m able to enchant your sword with fire damage and increased accuracy. It will last for three minutes. Let's try it out. Please take out your sword, Father.”

Anders took his sword out from its sheathe then Anton cast Enchant on his Father. His father’s sword glowed red and it was bright enough that they could use it as a source of light during nighttime. Anders went to a tree and hacked it. Everyone could see the bite of the sword was deep and the tree began to burn.

“That’s a powerful spell! Can you take out the fire please son?”

Anton cast Ice Bolt and manipulated the spell until it turned into water then cast the spell towards the tree until the fire went out.

“I’m so happy you can heal now. This greatly relieved me since that meant that if we encounter any accidents or enemies that caused us to get hurt, you can heal us immediately and we don’t need to find a healer,” Anton’s father said.

Anton and his family happily went back to driving the cart to continue their journey and he felt that the horses were happy as well but it could just be his imagination.