Chapter 71
After identifying all the items that they received from the vampires, Anders told everyone to get ready to pack everything since they were leaving.
“Before Anton removed the location magic from the cursed purse, the bag of holding was with me and I’m not sure if whoever cast that spell detected us already so to be safe, it would be better if we were far away from here, the last location where the magic was dispelled,” Anders said.
“I was about to suggest the same thing, Father since it would be better to be safe than sorry. We can’t know for sure if I could defeat the wizard who cast that tracing magic. It could be an Elder Lich,” Anton added.
Anton summoned a Fire Ball and let it hover above everyone to light up the place then they all hastily packed up their tents and buried their campfire. Anders did allow everyone to use the makeshift toilet to do their business and clean themselves before Anton stored them in his private stash.
Lucas and Devon assisted Anders in hitching the horses to the carriage and Anton could see that the animals were not protesting, behaving as if they were fully rested. He kept repeating it to himself but he was thankful for the auras that made traveling convenient and easier for everyone including the horses.
Once everything was ready they began their journey again. Anton joined his father in the driver’s seat while the women were inside the carriage and Lucas and Devon were following them. The Fire Ball that Anton conjured and let hover above was lighting the road. He kept the Vigor, Meditation, and Prayer aura active for the horses to make sure that they would be able to continue traveling without any issues.
“Do you want to go inside the carriage to rest?” Anders asked his son.
“I don’t need rest, Father. The spell that I use to make sure the horses don’t get tired affects me too. The spell is called an aura meaning that it’s a continuous spell that pulses around me and will affect the creatures that I added to what I call my “party system.” Unfortunately, the party system that I have can only include up to eight members including myself and since the five horses were included in the party system already I can only add two more so I decided to just create two groups in my system, the horses, and the people.”
“I see. Even with your spell’s limitation, it’s truly powerful and I’m thankful that you’ve learned it in time for this part of our journey.”
After their talk, Anders and Anton concentrated on their journey since they wanted to make sure that they weren’t ambushed by any enemies. About an hour into the journey, he switched the party system from the horses to everyone else to make sure that everyone was refreshed. He did have to enter the carriage since one peculiar thing about his party system was he would need to see the person to be able to add them to the system.
**********
“Grand Lich, we received a message that three of our low-ranking vampires were killed and we believe it was done by a wizard since we can’t find any trace. One of the vampires even had an item with tracing magic that was cast by one of the council members but she said that the magic suddenly disappeared.” The middle-ranking vampire said to an elder lich who was also a member of the council of the Undead Coalition.
“Where were they when they got destroyed?”
“They were somewhere near Mendi. They were the ones leading the parties of ghouls and zombies that we sent there to sow fear and confusion.”
“Send vampires to track that wizard and to know for sure what happened. High-ranking ones and choose those who are discreet. We need more information. We can’t let our plans be interrupted at this time,” The elder lich commanded.
**********
Four hours of traveling should have exhausted everyone but due to Anton’s aura, everyone still felt full of energy. They stopped for a while to have something to eat and Anton noticed that one of the side effects of the auras was the need to consume a lot of food.
It was not too exaggerated, just double the amount of what they usually needed. Anton distributed food to everyone from his private stash and took out some grains for the horses. He reminded his father that they would need to purchase a lot more food to make sure they would not run out.
They did have plenty of cooked and uncooked food which by Anton’s calculation should last them a couple of months but he was not worried since his father told him that they should be able to buy food from the villages that they would pass through on the way to the city.
When everyone was satiated they continued their journey. Anders only stopped again when morning arrived but they only stopped for food and bathroom breaks. Anders told everyone that they would rest for a couple of hours and would continue on their journey so Anton decided to take a bath.
When he got out of their makeshift bathroom and Anna saw that he had taken a bath, she clamored that she wanted to have a bath as well so they decided to do so one by one and Anton kept the water supply going.
Anton was feeling good because of the bath and because of his auras and he was sure that everyone felt the same way. They continued their journey since Anders was still not sure that they were far enough away from their recent collusion with the undead.
This time, Mark entered the carriage and told everyone that he would need to meditate. He felt that he needed to grind some levels. He went and killed Baal and his unique monsters and minions countless times using the on-screen option in Normal Difficulty and it allowed him to gain four levels so now he was level fifty-four. He then decided to start the Nightmare difficulty.
In one of his Countess runs Anton received the Gull Dagger which increased his magic find by one hundred percent so he was using it for him to get some good items on his Nightmare Difficulty run.
All his grinding took him about three hours and Anton wanted to start the Nightmare Difficulty but he wanted to play it virtually which was a bit awkward since he was inside the carriage. He decided to stop playing to assess the situation first.
They were still not fully cleared of the danger brought by the loot that they had received from the vampire specifically the cursed purse so Anton decided to not enter the game virtually. When he checked the time, it was already around eleven in the morning so he decided to stop playing since soon his father would probably stop the carriage for their lunch.
Anton decided to surf the internet to prevent himself from burning out and watching animes entertained him for a couple of hours before he felt the carriage stopping.