Anton was sitting in front of the fireplace thinking of the situation they were in. He vowed that whatever this new world threw at him, he would strive his best to come up on top. He would not be passive like he was in his previous world, just waiting to die. He would become powerful and successful and live his life to the fullest.
He entered the game virtually but before his father left he told Anders and Anna that if they needed him for something they would just need to tap on him softly and his consciousness would be back from meditation.
In the Rogue Encampment, instead of rushing to kill Blood Raven, he went outside to practice Ice Blast for an hour. He needed to make sure that he could utilize the spell in-game and outside in real life impeccably and learning how to control the spell’s mana consumption was a great way to do that. With an hour's practice, he was able to control Ice Blast with lesser mana to summon a larger volume of water that he could use.
Practicing his spells made him realize something about the real world. In the game, he could see the monster’s life or what the game called Hit Points or HP and spells had a specific amount of damage depending on the level of the spells and synergies, the level of the monsters and their resistances, and his equipment and then use it that damage to exhaust the Hit Points or HP until the monsters were destroyed.
Real-life people or monsters didn’t have a Hit Points indicator. When he cast the spell Fire Bolt, Ice Bolt, and Ice Blast to the tree earlier, the tree was finally destroyed, and it snapped in half but there was no HP indicator. That meant that if he cast Ice Bolt, the bolt would behave like an actual bolt that was shot from a crossbow. If it hit a man in his vital area, the man could die immediately but if it hit the man somewhere like an arm, the man would be hurt but not die. There was no indication that an HP decreased.
With powerful spells like Ice Blast, it would be easier to kill a man since the spell was a big ball of solid ice that would freeze an enemy that it hit but if a creature was particularly large like for example, an elephant, Anton imagined that it would take several Ice Blast before the elephant would die so basically the vitality would be exhausted by the cold and its organ and skin would be damage that would cause it to die so in a way there was still an HP that needed to be depleted.
He also thought that more powerful spells like Glacial Spike, Blizzard, and Frozen Orb would be particularly deadly but for now, he didn’t know how the spells would behave. Frozen Orb in particular would be particularly tricky since its animation indicated that it would spew countless Ice Bolt everywhere possibly hitting the caster and his friends and allies. That was also the main reason why he needed to practice the spells virtually since they would almost behave the same way outside in real life.
After practicing Ice Blast for an hour, he learned the intricacies of controlling the spell just like in Ice Bolt. He wondered if once he learned all the spells in the Cold Spells tree and learned to manipulate their mana, could he emulate the waterbenders of a famous cartoon show that he loved. Imagining himself wielding water and ice powers like a waterbender excited him a bit.
Anton then went to the Burial Ground to kill Blood Raven, doing so netted him a unique cap and unique ring but he didn’t bother learning the details of the items extensively since low-level items didn’t really give much power.
Clearing the burial grounds plus killing Blood Raven leveled hip up to eight. He put his stat points to vitality to even his stats out. Now he had twenty to strength, fifteen to dexterity, fifteen to vitality, and forty-five to energy.
Anton felt stronger but not twice as strong as an ordinary man. He didn’t know how to measure his physical strength, but any increase was a good thing because it would allow him to store more real-world items in his inventory. He figured that his inventory and private stash would be fully utilized by his family.
It was a bit sad that he couldn’t take out Diablo II items to the real world since gold coins would help his family in these times of crisis, but they would make do. Having the inventory was a great enough gift as it was and looking for more was just asking for trouble.
Anna tapped Anton’s shoulder calling him out and when he returned from the game, he was told that Anders came back with a cart filled with empty barrels, boxes, and sacks. They began the process of putting things in the storage items. The first thing they wanted handled was their grains.
At first, Anders insisted that Anton continue with his meditation so he could increase his powers, but he told his father that he would assist them since he recently learned a new spell called Inferno.
Anna wanted to see what it looked and by the looks of him, his father wanted to check it out as well so they all went outside the woods so they could see how the spell would look. When Anton cast the spell Inferno, fire spewed out from his hands like a flame thrower and his father and Anna were amazed.
They went back inside to continue handling the wheat grains. When all of the wheat grains were stored in the barrels, they had a total of five barrels of wheat grains and Anton was thankful that his increased stat allowed him to lift the barrel full of wheat so that he could store it in his private stash, so he did just that.
The next thing they stored inside the sacks were their clothes and they only left some that they could wear for the next three days.
Anton advised his father that they should allow Anna to cook as much food as she could since it would not spoil inside his inventory, so Anders asked his daughter to do just that.
His father then told everyone that he would go to the woods to hunt animals and Anton asked his father if he could come since his spells might be useful in hunting the animals. They could even hunt larger ones like bears.
“Please remember Father that I don’t know anything so you would need to teach me woodcraft. I know we’re pressed for time but learning this would help me a lot,” Anton told his father and Anders agreed with him and allowed him to follow him into the woods to hunt game.