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Chapter 24
🕑 Added 2024-04-04 08:09:09 +0000 UTCAnton, his father Anders, and his sister Anna settled down surrounding the campfire. They sat on the tree trunks near the fire after they set up their tents while the meat was roasting in the fire tended by Anders. He pulled up the page so he could read the exact story from a site.
“My story is about someone who was born different from its family and received hate because of it. This is the story of The Ugly Duckling. It was lovely summer weather in the country, and the golden corn, the green oats, and the haystacks piled up in the meadows looked beautiful…”
Anton told the story beautifully describing how the ugly duckling was criticized by everyone in the pond and the farm. He could see his sister getting angry at the animals who kept mocking the ugly duckling. He almost laughed at the veritable emotions that flickered through his sister’s face at the different parts of the story. She even became teary-eyed during the sad part when it was winter and the ugly duckling was trying to survive.
During the last part of the story when the ugly duckling realized that it was the most beautiful bird in the land, a swan with elegant white feathers, and that all the creatures bowed down on its beauty, the last sentence by the swan “I never dreamed of such happiness as this, while I was an ugly duckling” made Anna cried again.
“Hey, you’re crying again. This was supposed to be a happy story!” Anton told Anna.
“I know. It’s just that the ugly duckling learning that it wasn’t ugly at all but the most beautiful bird in all the land was bittersweet. Now it would live the rest of its life happy.” Anna sobbed again.
Anton’s sister crying for some reason made him laugh this time so he did and surprisingly their Father joined in.
“Hey stop laughing!” Anna scolded them which made Anton laugh harder.
“Now I want to eat a roast goose. Tomorrow we will roast one of the chickens stored in your magical space,” Anders told his son.
“That was a beautiful story brother. Please don’t forget to write it in my notebook as well. Oh, don’t forget to write The Little Match Girl too,” Anna said.
“This is also a good location so I think it would be better for us to stay here for a day and hunt some animals in the forest to supplement our meat,” Anders added.
“Who will stay in the cart tomorrow? Anna?” Anton asked his Father.
“No. All of us will hunt for safety’s sake. The cart and the horses will be safe here.” Anton and Anna just nodded.
After their storytelling, Anders declared that the meat was ready so they began eating. It was one of the most delicious dinners Anton had had for quite some time which was ironic. He came from an advanced world but he was too poor to eat good food. Maybe a big part of the reason why the food was delicious was because he was with his new family.
Anders told everyone that the first shift for night guard duty would be handled by Anna and he told his daughter to wake up Anton after a couple of hours. Anton didn’t actually plan to sleep at first. He would try to level up his character so he could wear the Leaf runeword staff. It would greatly increase his power.
He lay down inside the tent and maximized the game. He then fought all the enemies he found in the Inner Cloister. He went through the Jail zone level one to three and the Catacombs level one to three. Finally, he defeated the boss Andriel leveling him up to level nineteen although he needed to kill the countess several times for more experience. This took him about an hour.
Now Anton had three runeword items. The armor Stealth, his helmet Nadir, and his staff Leaf. His Fire Ball level was eight which was enough for leveling purposes. He added his skill point to Chain Lightning. He added the stats he earned from leveling up to strength. Normally he would have added the stat to vitality but he needed the strength in the real world so he could store more items in his private stash.
Anton also wanted to put a point to all spells so he could use them in the real world. For the last hour, he went outside the Rogue Encampment and practiced the spell Chain Lightning. Practicing the said spell let him learn how to manipulate its mana with precision but of course, he would still need more time to master the details of the spells but he did learn enough for the spell to be useful outside the game.
Anton heard Anna calling him so he went inside the Rogue Encampment beside the private stash and minimized the game.
“It’s your time on guard duty brother,” Anna whispered to avoid waking up their Father.
Anton just nodded and Anna replaced him inside the tent. As taught by Anders, he pointed his back at the fire to avoid the light in his eyes and stared at the surroundings. He didn’t attempt to enter the game or surf the internet. He abided by his father’s rule when taking shifts. He didn’t want any accident to happen.
After a couple of hours, Anton woke his Father and went to sleep inside the tent. This time he went to sleep directly so he would be well rested the next day during their hunt.
Anton woke up from the sound of the birds singing in the forest. They were not particularly loud, it's just that it was different from the sounds he was used to. In the city, he would hear the honking of vehicles, a screech of either an ambulance or a police car siren, or shouting from his neighbors. It was the first time he was conscious of this fact since during the first days of his transmigration, he was focused on something else.
He remembered reading one of the books of one of his favorite fantasy authors David Eddings that he illegally downloaded on his laptop that the singing of the birds was just them shouting at the others “My tree! My tree!”
Anton went outside and he saw his father warming up the meat in the fire. He gave everyone bread from one of the boxes in his private stash and cast the Ice Bolt spell with decreased mana so it turned into water and put it into a pitcher.
Everyone ate their breakfast and Anna turned to his brother.
“I really like this magic water, it’s so delicious!”
Anton’s father told him that it was around seven in the morning and in a few minutes they would start hunting animals in the forest for their meat and skin.
