Anthony continued with his adventures in the Blood Moor map and fully exploring the zone without entering the Den of Evil leveled him up to level three. He managed to get several loots so now he was wearing a low-quality cap, low-quality sash, and low-quality boots. He also managed to get low-quality quilted armor, but it had a strength requirement of twelve.

He did have seven free stat points for leveling up to level three so he put five to energy and two to strength so he could wear the armor.

He now had twelve stats to strength, ten to dexterity, still ten to vitality, and forty to energy. His life was now at forty-six and his mana at forty-eight.

For the skill points, Anthony was conscious of the fact that the spells would be reflected in real life so he would need to carefully select the spells he would like to have in real life as well, so he decided to put one point to Fire Bolt located at the Fire Spells tree so he could have fire magic. So now he had one point to Ice Bolt and one point to Fire Bolt. If he were concentrating on gameplay, his spell selections were a mistake since normally to be able to rapidly kill monsters, he would need to specialize but for real-life purposes, it would be better to have more variety for now.

Anthony knew that being in the game virtually let him experience casting the spell in person. The feeling of having his energy gather at the palm of his hand and form elemental powers was life-changing for him. He felt like shouting that he had all the power of the universe in his hands. He could feel the rush of mana gathering and the moment he released the spell was almost orgasmic.

He walked to the entrance of the Den of Evil when he was sure that there were no more enemies in the Blood Moor zone. He then cast the town portal spell using the spell scroll that he looted from a monster since he needed to empty his inventory first.

When he arrived at the Rogue Encampment, he sold off everything that he wouldn’t need and then stored his gold in his private stash to avoid losing it if he ever got killed.

Anthony then went to an empty field just outside the Rogue Encampment and practiced casting Ice Bolt and Fire Bolt. He wanted to check if he could control the amount of power he could release. For example, for Fire Bolt, could he lessen the mana consumption until he would be able to summon a very small fire on his fingertips or maybe control the Ice Bolt energy to turn it into water? Through practice, he did just that.

He couldn’t increase the mana consumption because it was set on how large mana it would consume based on the spell level, but he could decrease it to lessen the power and could change some of the characteristics of the spell as long as the change wasn’t in contrast to its original makeup.

By lessening the mana consumption, he could turn Ice Bolt into a trickle of water and turn Fire Bolt into a small flame that he could use to light a candle.

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Anthony practiced some more and after about an hour of intense spell practice, he was so tired that he went back to the Rogue Encampment, saved the game, and closed the interface.

He spent about three hours playing the game, so he decided to actually sleep and woke up at around eleven in the morning. When he stood up, he felt his strength increased to what a normal man should have and remembered the fact that his stats in the game were now equal to an average man.

He wondered about the increased stats. The FAQ mentioned that an average man would have around ten stats across the board so what would happen if he reached twenty stats in strength? Would he be twice as strong as a regular man? Unfortunately, the FAQ didn’t have that information so he would have to just check once he reached that point.

Anthony went outside the room and saw that his father and Anna were already inside preparing lunch.

“I’m sorry that I wasn’t much help this morning, but I do feel fully healthy now,” Anthony apologized to his father and sister.

Anders and Anna were delighted to hear that he was fully healed.

“After lunch, I suggest that you still rest and we will begin teaching you farm work tomorrow,” His father told him decisively and Anthony just acquiesced.

The lunch they had was just a simple fare. Just bread and cheese and water and after that his father and Anna went back outside to do some more chores. Anthony remembered reading somewhere that farm chores were never-ending, and he was glad of his increased stats.

When his father and sister were outside, Anthony summoned an Ice Bold but decreased the mana until only a ball of water was floating on top of his hands. He wondered if it was clean enough to drink. He then put the ball of water in a mug and some water splashed on the table. He checked the water and it looked and smelled clean. He tasted it and it tasted like the purest spring water and remembered that it was made from mana. He wondered if it had health benefits compared to regular water.

Anthony drank the whole mug of water made from Ice Bolt and he felt refreshed. Like drinking Gatorade on a hot summer day without the chemical disadvantages, just a pure unadulterated refreshment.

He then went and took one candle from one of the shelves and set it up on the table. Anthony then cast Fire Bolt and decreased the mana until a small flame was floating on top of his finger. He then lit up the candle using the flame and it lit up without any problem. He canceled the spell, but the excitement of wielding magic powers was still with him.

Anthony then thought of using his inventory in real life, so he summoned his Diablo II interface, muted the sound, and opened his character. He opened his inventory and kept it open. He then minimized the game to see if the minimized icon would interfere with his vision and since the icon was very small and located at the bottom right corner of his vision, it was no interference at all. He opened and maximized it, showing him his opened inventory. He then tried to put the mug on the table in his inventory, but nothing happened. He picked up the mug and that was when he was able to put it in his inventory.

Anthony would need to be touching the things he wanted in his inventory. He took it from his inventory and suddenly he was holding the mug. He then picked up the chair and did the same thing and was able to put it in his inventory. It only took one grid even though the chair was much larger than the mug and when he took it out, he was suddenly holding the chair.

He knew then that his inventory would help him a lot with his chores like carrying buckets of water from the well to the barrel in the outhouse.