Chapter 67
Anton was woken up by his father in the middle of the night.
“Anton wake up we need to leave right now!” Anders shouted urgently.
When he went outside his tent he saw an orange light in the distance where the village they had just come from was located.
“That’s the village and it’s burning. That meant that the undead arrived already,” Lucas said grimly.
Anton gasped when he heard that and he helped everyone in cleaning up the camp.
Everyone was moving with an urgency brought by fear and Anton saw that Anna and Lunelle were almost crying. Anders hitched the horses to their carriage without any wasted movement and Devon helped his mother with their cart but Anders stopped them.
“We should leave your cart Nermina. Go ahead and put your things in the storage area under the carriage and I will join your horse to our horses and you ride the carriage. It would be faster that way and Anton would not mind both of you riding with him.”
“He doesn’t do anything while riding the carriage anyway, just meditate all day long,” Anna said trying to calm herself.
Devon, Nermina, and Lunelle put their things in the storage area under the carriage which was mostly empty since their family’s things were in Anton’s private stash in the game. The only things that were in the carriage were the two storage chests located above the carriage with some of the things that he repaired and some personal things of theirs for appearance’s sake.
There was also some luggage under the seat inside the carriage for easy access like some of their clothing, things for hygiene, and also some food, again for someone to see in case there was a need for the carriage to be inspected.
Anton joined his father in the driver’s seat while Anna, Nermina, and Lunelle went inside the carriage. Lucas and Devon were riding their horses and they were very vigilant in looking at their surroundings.
When everything was ready, Anders asked Anton to conjure light for the horses to avoid accidents so he cast his Fire Ball spell but controlled the flow of mana so the spell would hover on his hands then guided the spell to hover above and in front of the horses to light the road. It was obvious that Anders was not worried about the light of the spell since the village burning was getting brighter and all attention should be focused there.
” Father, go ahead and urge the horses to run faster. I cast my healing spell on them so they should be alright.”
Anders nodded and urged the horses faster and Lucas and Devon followed suit knowing that it meant that Anton cast healing spells on the horses just like before.
Anton did not maximize the game or surf the internet. He also focused on the surroundings since he did not want to be taken by surprise by any attack. He checked the time briefly and it was only three in the morning.
“Father the undead are so fast. I thought we would have more time.”
“Me too. I know that they would be fast since they don’t need to rest but to be this fast! They are serious about waging war against the city of Tiande then. I think it would be best if we bypass the city as well to avoid any sort of conscription against the Undead Coalition.”
“What about our supplies?”
“If we hurry enough we should pass villages and larger towns where we can buy supplies. We can’t stop even after we pass Tiande. The next city that we are going to would be the city of Leminthor after Tiande and then the city after that is the merchant city or Ruandelle. This will be a long and exhausting journey so prepare yourself.”
“I understand, Father.”
Anton was grateful that when he transmigrated to this world he had a powerful gift that would assist him and his family in surviving but the timing was a bit suspicious. The Undead Coalition just happened to attack after he just transmigrated and they were relentless. Even though he knew that it had nothing to do with him, it almost felt like they were being chased but then he realized that all of those who were running should be feeling the same way.
He was thankful that Anders was experienced enough to know to run immediately bringing his children with him and this brought Anton time to grow more powerful.
Soon the sun came out from hiding and this brought relief to everyone. Since the monsters that were chasing them were the scary undead, the sun should chase them away was a passing childish thought that came to everyone but they knew for a fact that the undead couldn’t be stopped by the sun.
Anders didn’t stop the horses. They kept on traveling when Anton’s father saw that the horses were all fine. Anton knew that his Prayer and Meditation Aura helped a lot in making sure that the horses were not injured but the spells would not help with the animals’ stamina so they would need to rest them soon.
Anton searched the internet for a bit for any skill in Diablo II that would help with stamina and fatigue and saw that the Paladin defensive aura Vigor was an aura that boosts speed, stamina, and stamina regeneration and runeword weapon Harmony had the Vigor Aura. He checked his collection of runes and saw that he had all the runes required for the runeword weapon. He checked all the socketed weapons that he collected since when he received the inventory and private stash increase, he collected socketed weapons and armor that dropped from Baal's unique monsters and their minions but unfortunately, he didn’t find any four socketed bows.
According to the internet, he should receive one once he reached the Hell Difficulty if he searched for a long time but he needed one right now. He did keep a collection of white weapons and armor that he could put a socket using the Horadric Cube so he immediately cubed a Hunter’s Bow together with the runes Amn and Ral and a perfect Amethyst gem and prayed that it would result in a four-socket weapon and the Diablo II RNG deities must have heard his prayers since it did gave him a four-socket bow.
Anton was so glad that he was so relentless in grinding the Countess that he managed to collect a huge amount of runes and he was able to form the rune Ko which was the most difficult rune that he would need to form the runeword bow Harmony.
When he formed the runeword bow Harmony, he was so glad that he used a Hunter’s bow since the required dexterity was only twenty-eight and he was able to equip the Harmony bow without any problem.
“Father, I received a boon, a spell that will give the horses unlimited stamina and a boost in their speed. Together with my healing spell, the horses should be able to run without any problems and only hunger will stop them.” Anton then activated the level ten Vigor Aura from the runeword bow Harmony.
The horses suddenly became energetic as if they were injected stamina stamina-boosting drugs and he knew how they felt since Anton was also affected by the aura. When Anders saw the horses' situation, he increased their speed and all the horses complied without any resistance. Their travel speed increased so much that Anton could hear the women’s questions asking if everything was all right.
Anton assured the women that the increased speed was brought on by his spell so they did not need to worry and that calmed everyone.