“Father, how tall are you?” Anton asked his father through the small front window in the carriage.
“I’m about five foot ten inches why do you ask?”
“I’m just curious. So do you think I’m about six feet?”
“Yes, about that. Last year we measured both of your heights, you, and Anna. You were about an inch shorter then but you should have gained an inch now and all that mana water and healing made us healthy so I think all of us increased our height.”
Anton was proud of that. The first time he saw his Father and Anna, they looked a bit too thin and your typical medieval farmer’s family that he’d seen on a television show but now due to the benefits of receiving the said mana water and healing from him, and the brand new clothes, they looked healthy and wealthy and it had not been that long.
He went back to playing his lute and after a couple of hours, Anton told his father that he would go back to meditating until lunch. Between then and lunch, he managed to complete the quest Siege on Harrogath but decided to hold off on using the quest reward since he was planning to use it on a crystal sword that would drop from the Cow Level so he could create the runeword Spirit weapon.
He also explored the Frigid Highlands zone fully and completed the quest Rescue on Mount Arreat but did not change to barbarian mercenary since the Prayer Aura was really useful in the real world. That brought his level up to level thirty-two. He immediately put skill points to his spells Frozen Orb and Cold Mastery leaving him with only two skill points remaining.
It was lunchtime when he completed putting his skill points to the spell so he minimized the game and joined his family in taking their lunch. Anton took care of the horses first by providing them with mana water and healing them through the Prayer Aura. He had to remove everyone in the party system first so he could add the horses.
Anton’s Diablo II party system was weird. In the real world, the other persons or animals didn’t need to give their consent if he added them to his party and there was no party interface anyway. He just felt it. He felt that a person or an animal was in his party and he felt it if his party system were full and to add or remove someone, he would just mentally intend to do it and it was done.
He was guessing that the reason that consent was not needed was its impact was very minimal and mostly was done for healing or buffing. All of the horses were very affectionate towards him as if all of them instinctively knew that he was the source of the great comfort that they had been feeling lately and they did start to look very healthy and beautiful, especially Maide and Bailey. After providing water and healing the horses, he went back to eating lunch with his family.
“Sir Anton, your voice is beautiful like a bard for royalty,” Lunelle said to Anton while all of them were eating.
“Thank you but please don’t call me sir. I’m not a noble.”
“Actually, in some countries being a wizard entitles you to a rank of a noble,” Lucas mentioned.
“Thank you for that information but we’re not in those countries and being treated as a noble makes me a bit uncomfortable.”
“You’re too polite you’re weirding me out!” Anna said.
“Well, you’re too loud, nobody will like you!” Anton retorted.
“I’m very pretty! A lot of men will court me once I’m of age and we’re in the city!”
“Nobody will court you since I will threaten all of them by turning them into frogs even though I don’t know how to do that and you’ll grow up an old hag and alone!” Anton joked.
“Father! Brother is bullying me,” Anna said to their father and Anders just laughed and everybody joined him.
“I don’t recognize the songs that you’ve been singing. Are they from somewhere in particular?” Devon asked.
“I wrote them,” Anton replied simply which prompted a gasp from Lucas’s family.
“How talented you are Anton. You’re a wizard and also have the talent of a bard!” Nermina said.
“He can also write the most beautiful stories that will make you cry!” Anna boasted and showed everyone her notebook.
“Can I read it?” Lunelle asked.
“Wait, it’s not finished yet. I’m going to ask him to write more stories in my notebook and sell them, I will earn a lot of coins and become a rich woman living in the city going to cafes eating cakes, and drinking tea with my friends while handsome nobles court us,” Anna said while her eyes were closed already imagining herself like a rich little noble in a city.
“I thought you wanted to be a wizard?” Anton snorted.
“Well, who said that I can’t be both!” She retorted.
“Stop that. We’re leaving. Anton, can you tell us a story tonight? I miss hearing your voice telling a beautiful story,” Anders requested.
“Of course, Father,” Anton replied and then they all went back to traveling the roads.
Surprisingly, Anna joined him in the carriage.
“Why are you here? I thought you find my meditations boring?”
“I’m going to take a nap. Lunelle said that sleeping for an hour or two in the afternoon was what noble ladies did in the city and it made them beautiful. It’s called beauty rest.”
“You really wanted to turn yourself into a slothful little noble aren’t you?”
Anna ignored him and then closed her eyes.
Anton laughed when he saw his sister’s reaction. After that, he ignored her sister and entered the game virtually. He intended to practice his spells outside the Rogue Encampment since he felt that he needed more practice to be able to effectively use them in the real world. He planned to practice his fire spell starting with Hydra. He did the spell Hydra for about an hour and the rest of the fire spell for two more hours. He learned how to manipulate the mana of the Hydra spell to be able to summon a smaller hydra but for some reason, he couldn’t decrease the number of heads. It was always three.
He wondered if the Hydra spell was aware of who the enemy was since as usual, it didn’t react when seeing his mercenary. Anton thought of summoning it in the real world to test but it was too dangerous. He would rather test it out in the forest with an animal with nobody else present. Anton checked the time and saw it was early so he decided to rest by surfing the internet. Every time he opened his browser, he gave thanks to the powers that be that it allowed him to connect to the internet.