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Chapter 33
🕑 Added 2024-04-04 08:25:47 +0000 UTCAnton was elated with the Prayer Aura. Not only will it help with their survival, but it could also even help them earn coins from sick rich people. One fantastic advantage that the aura had given him was the ability to add people to a party system. Since he already added his Father, sister, and the two horses, they would always be a part of the party and he would need to consciously remove them. That meant that every time he activated the Prayer Aura, every one of them would receive its benefit immediately.
As a test, he activated it while they were on the move and everyone felt it. Anna looked at his brother and Anders glanced at his son. Even the horses became more lively.
“What did you do son?” Anders asked.
“I’m testing my healing spell while we’re on the move and guessing from your expressions you felt it.”
“Yes, it felt wonderful. It’s as if a warm healing light from the sun suddenly shined down on me.”
Anton didn’t broach the idea of earning coins from the healing spell since he knew very well that rich people had other sources of healing and it could be very dangerous for them to admit to the ability. He turned off the aura after a while. When he checked the time, it was already five in the afternoon so he didn’t continue playing the game since soon, they will stop for the night. He did enter the game briefly to check his desert mercenary and based on his investigations, the mercenary’s behavior was still that of an NPC. Clearly, he would not be mistaking the people inside the game, even if he could enter there personally, as real people. Their behavior and responses were exactly the same as in the original game. He also noticed another difference with the mercenary. Its level was the same as his which was nineteen but from what he remembered; mercenaries were usually lower level than the characters when they were first hired.
Anders found a good camp so they stopped even if the sun hadn’t set yet. The siblings set up the tents while their father set up their fire. Anton then asked Anna to teach him to take care of the horses and his sister showed him how.
Anna laughed when he heard Anton complimenting Maide and Bailey while he was brushing their coat.
“I read that they like it when you talk to them while brushing their coat,” Anton commented.
Anna continued laughing and Anders just smiled but he didn’t stop. He really felt that the horses appreciated his conversation with them. He briefly activated the Prayer Aura and he could definitely tell that the horses felt it and became closer to him.
Anton and his family sat beside the fire eating the food that came from the inn. Anders clearly appreciated the cold mug of ale that Anton gave him and how hot the food was since it still looked and tasted freshly made. Anders was drinking a huge mug of ale filled with ice cubes that Anton conjured and according to his father, it made the ale especially delicious.
“I want to taste it!” Anna said which earned her a reprimand from their father.
Anton told his sister that he had something better. He took an empty mug with cork put some milk, sugar, and a bit of cinnamon shook it thoroughly, and then poured it in a mug filled with ice cubes made from Ice Bolt then gave it to her sister.
“This is really delicious Mark!” Anna said while drinking the almost latte.
Anton then asked if coffee was available and he was delightfully surprised when he was informed by Anders that it was but its cost was very high.
“Can you sing us a song brother?”
Anton acquiesced to his sister’s request. He took the lute from his private stash.
“This is a song about a man longing for his home country which is called West Virginia.”
Anton then began playing the lute and singing the song Take Me Home, Country Roads. He had a tenor voice and whenever he sang, everyone who heard him praised his voice that was why he had a dream of posting his covers on a famous site once.
“I was right brother. You could be a bard! If the wizard thing didn’t work out, we could still be rich. You can sing your songs and a rich widow from the city will marry you and we can all live in her mansion and go to cafes every day,” Anna dreamt which made Anders laugh.
After the country song, Anton played and sang Ed Sheeran’s song Thinking Out Loud and it was also well received by his family. He carefully chose songs with lyrics that didn’t mention any sort of technology to avoid confusion. He thought that people here could accept songs with names of places or people but technology would certainly bring out questions that he wasn’t prepared to answer.
Anton sang a couple more songs and then their father asked them to rest. Anders told Anna that she would take the first shift for guard duty then Anton’s next then their father would take the last one. He was a bit nervous sleeping inside the tent since there was a chance that something would happen again that would interrupt their sleep.
“I think I’m developing PTSD,” Anton thought but contrary to his belief, the moment he lay down, he fell asleep immediately.
After a couple of hours which felt like a few minutes, Anna woke him up for his guard duty. He activated the Prayer Aura thinking it would help with his sleepiness but it only made it worse because all of his aches and pains disappeared. He kept the aura going for a few more minutes because he thought that it was helpful to everyone since based on the snores that he heard from his father, the aura resulted in Anders having a good sleep.
Anton focused on looking at the surroundings since it was for the safety of his family. The forest at night was creepy though but he made sure that the fire was strong by adding wood to it. After three hours, he woke up his father. He gave an extra hour to his father so Anders could rest well. Then he took the tent that his father was using. He briefly activated the Prayer Aura and it really did make him sleepy so he slept immediately.
The next time he woke up, it was already bright outside. When he went out, he saw his father roasting some sort of rabbit in the fire. It was a good thing that even if they had a magical space, Anders still kept a lot of things in the cart like spices, grains, and clothing.
“Can you give me some of your magic water son?” Anders asked.
Anton gave his father a pitcher of water that he made from Ice Bolt right then. He looked around and saw that Anna was still asleep inside the tent.
“That healing spell of yours was really good Anton. That was the best sleep I’ve had in years. We will leave in an hour so I let Anna sleep. She is still a child so she needs her sleep.”
Anton just nodded and prepared himself some breakfast then he went to the forest to take care of his business. After he was done, he thought of taking a shower. Since no one was in the forest, he could take off his clothes and wash himself with the water created from the Ice Bolt spell and soap from his private stash and that was what he did.
