Anton returned to the camp and Anders was surprised to see his son freshly washed.
“Did you take a bath somewhere in the forest? Did you find a river or something?”
“No, Father. We have a bucket and a dipper in my magical space and I filled it with water from a spell and then used it to wash myself.”
Anders just nodded when he heard that. His father woke up Anna and asked her to prepare herself so they could leave the camp to continue their journey. Anna woke up and she told everyone that she had a lovely sleep. She then went to the forest to take care of her business then ate breakfast together with her brother.
“I caught that rabbit near here so I decided to cook it,” Anders told his children.
“It’s delicious father,” Anna said.
“It should be. I used enough spices. We should arrive at the next village later before dusk.”
“Yes. I want to take a bath. Hey, wait! Did you take a bath somewhere brother? Your hair is wet.”
“I did in the forest. I filled a bucket with water and together with the soap that Father bought me, I washed myself,” Anton calmly said while eating.
“I want to have a bath too!” Anna said.
“We don’t have the time. If you had woken up earlier, you could have asked your brother for some water and soap and washed yourself but we need to leave now to get to the next village before dark. You can take a bath once we get there,” Anders told his daughter.
They started their journey with complaints from Anna that it was not fair that Anton got to take a bath and she couldn’t which was ignored by both her Father and her brother.
While they were moving, Anton asked his Father if it was all right for him to meditate.
“I guess it’s safer now and the spells that you’re learning are truly powerful. So go ahead and meditate. Anna and I will be vigilant.”
“Thank you, Father,” Anton said, and then he maximized the game to continue leveling up his character using the on-screen option. He still would not dare to enter the game virtually while they were on the move but if he learned a new spell he didn’t have a choice but to enter virtually to practice it.
The next set of spells that he would receive would be when he reached level twenty-four and it would probably take several hours before he reached that.
Anton remembered when he was in his old world, it shouldn’t have taken long to level up his character but due to the circumstances that had been happening like his need to hold off on leveling to make sure they were not ambushed or the need to practice his spells virtually for several hours so he could use them well in the real world, all of those added together to make his leveling progress slow. It didn’t matter so much since he did earn the power to protect himself and his family and rushing towards things without thinking was a good recipe for a disaster.
After about an hour of playing Anton leveled up to twenty and he put his newly earned stat points to strength so he could increase his strength and lift more stuff in the real world to store more real-world items in his private stash. He put the skill point in Fire Wall and was surprised by the amount of damage the skill had but the mana cost was equal to its damage. He spent an hour outside the Rogue Encampment virtually to practice Fire Wall and practicing the spell was costly since he needed to consume a huge number of mana potions.
Learning how to manipulate the mana of Fire Wall was worth all the gold that he spent. He felt like a fire bender wielding a huge amount of fire. Using the spell, he could even dampen already existing fire. He felt that the best use of the spell right now in the real world was to control existing fire but then again, the corresponding mana usage was really too huge but so what. He earned a lot of gold using the town portal to travel back and forth to sell items to NPCS so he would use those to purchase mana potions. After an hour of practice, Anton went beside his private stash and minimized the game.
“Father I learned a new spell called Fire Wall. It would allow me to summon a wall of fire to hinder and damage my enemies. It also would allow me to control existing fire.”
“You learned a new spell just after a couple of hours of meditating?” Anna asked surprised.
“It’s not really learning something new. It’s like the one responsible for what happened to me already put in the spells there and I just have to relearn them through meditation.” Anton explained.
“Thank you for sharing the details of your new spell son. I’m sure you would be able to find a use for it and it’s good for us to learn the details of your spells so we wouldn’t be surprised in case you need to use them.”
Anton noticed that it was already late in the afternoon and a couple more hours dusk would arrive. His father mentioned that they would arrive at the next village before dusk so they should be arriving soon.
After a few more minutes of traveling, they all saw the next village. Ander guided the cart directly to the only inn in the village which was located in the center much like other villages all over the world.
“Father, there is something weird in this village. There are no people that I can see,” Anton whispered to his father.
“I noticed, but there are some inside the inn. Let’s keep the cart here and let’s all go inside. If we notice something dangerous we will leave immediately.”
Anton and his family went inside the inn and they saw the innkeeper behind the bar.
“Welcome travelers. Are you going to stay for the night?” The innkeeper asked.
Anton found the innkeeper different from the usual. He was expecting innkeepers to either be fat or soft but this one was muscular like a blacksmith or a warrior.
“Yes, we are. Let us get our things from our cart and we will get back to rent a couple of rooms,” Anders said to the fat innkeeper then he directed his children to get outside the inn.
When they went outside, they saw that their cart was gone and Maide and Bailey were nowhere to be seen. A group of men and women were waiting for them when Anton counted, there were five men and three women.
There was something off about the people. They didn’t look normal. It was as if there was something savage or feral about them. Anton was certain that they had encountered trouble.