Chapter 822
The journey had been unnervingly quiet.
For miles, there were no signs of ordinary life. No animals, no travelers—nothing but silence and the occasional presence of monsters. Even that was surprising. Anton found it difficult to believe that any of them had survived.
Omatee offered a likely explanation: those that remained had endured by hiding—hibernating in places where the undead could not easily reach them.
The monotony of travel soon took its toll. Out of sheer boredom, Anders asked Anton to restrain his summons and allow him to deal with any monsters that appeared. He wanted to fight them himself.
The request proved futile. The creatures they encountered were too weak to present any real challenge. Anders quickly lost interest, and the task fell once more to Anton’s Valkyrie.
At the very least, they found a way to pass the evenings. Using Anton’s Globe of Browser Sharing spell, they watched movies and television shows during their nightly camps. Anton deliberately chose titles he had not yet seen, allowing all of them—his father, his sister, and Omatee—to share in the experience. It was a small comfort amid the desolation.
After a week of travel, they finally reached the site where the Kingdom of Ogrumar had once stood.
It no longer existed.
In its place lay only ruins.
Anton, Anders, Anna, and Omatee spent hours combing through the remains. They found no intact structures, no survivors—only fragnts of what had once been a thriving city. A few weakened undead wandered the area, easily dispatched and offering no resistance.
It was Anna who broke first. Tears stread down her face as she took in the devastation. Anders, too, struggled to maintain his composure.
Anton understood. They were not rely mourning Ogrumar. They were imagining ndi… and Oakswood Village near their farm. If Ogrumar had fallen so completely, then it was likely those places had t the sa fate.
By nightfall, Anders made a decision. Instead of camping near the ruins, he asked Anton to open a portal back to Rose Manor.
They arrived without incident.
The guard stationed in the main hall—where Anton had established a new save point—imdiately rushed off to announce their return. Within monts, Raymond appeared. Anders instructed him to prepare food.
Omatee visibly relaxed upon realizing where they were. Rose Manor, located in Ormunda and belonging to the Sunder Family, was a place of safety.
“I must report what we have witnessed along the roads of Rendindura,” Omatee said. “The Ormundan authorities need to know.”
“Return here in a day,” Anders replied. “We will resu our journey then.”
Anton needed no explanation. His father intended to remain at the manor for a day—to rest, and perhaps to recover from what they had seen.
Dinner that evening was unexpectedly lively. Their return beca an occasion for modest celebration.
Before the al began, Anton handed Romina ten miniature globes.
“What are these?” she asked.
“Movies,” Anton replied. “Prepare more magic item recorders. I’ll bring additional titles each ti I return. It’s ti we expand the family’s collection—for the cinema.”
Romina regarded him with quiet confusion. The business did not yet require such a large archive; they screened only a few films each month.
Anton understood her hesitation, but his reasoning was simple. He did not intend to remain with the family indefinitely. Once their exploration of ndi was complete, he planned to leave. By building a substantial library now, he could ensure the longevity of the cinema—and with it, a stable source of inco.
The cinema had already proven profitable. With proper managent, it could sustain the family for years. Alfred and Luna would eventually start families of their own, and Anton wanted them to do so without financial uncertainty.
In ti, he hoped the family would rely more on the cinema than on the manor’s agricultural output. Without him, the enhanced productivity of the flower gardens, orchards, and grain fields—sustained by his Mana Rain—would fade. They would return to ordinary farmland.
During dinner, Raymond, Romina, Bruce, and Susan provided Anders with updates on the manor and its businesses. Anton noticed the absence of requests from Alfred and Luna for additional shows—a stark contrast to before.
The reason soon beca clear.
Both were occupied. Luna assisted Romina in managing the fashion magazine and the cinema, while Alfred focused on his studies.
However, Alfred had also caused a complication.
At so point, he had entered the training room where Kirk, Abdul, sono, and Omar practiced. Believing him to be inford, Kirk allowed Alfred to join their party system and instructed him in morizing a cantrip. With the assistance of the ditation Aura from the Runeword Spear Insight, Alfred succeeded—and beca a novice mage.
Encouraged by this success, he now insisted on pursuing the path of a wizard.
Anders intended to speak with Alfred, Luna, and Normandy after dinner to address the matter.
Anton, for his part, felt only mild relief. It would not be his concern. He had little interest in dictating their futures; their happiness was enough.
Later that night, Anton withdrew to his room.
He had more pressing matters to consider—naly, the state of his Diablo System.
Since the end of the ladder season, his progress had stagnated. He continued completing daily missions for his Diablo Immortal character, but the routine had grown dull. Despite being part of the Diablo franchise, the ga no longer held his attention.
He suspected the reason was simple: its world felt too small.
He would have preferred access to Diablo III or Diablo IV, but his system provided no such option. For now, he could only continue grinding in Diablo Immortal—rarely more than one or two hours a day.
He found himself waiting impatiently for the next ladder season. It was the only reliable ans of increasing his strength through the system.
That realization led him to a conclusion.
It was ti to begin studying the conventional magic of this world.
There was a strong possibility that true magical knowledge—beyond the abilities granted by his system—would allow him to beco sothing greater: a traveler of worlds.
The Diablo System had given him power—enough to survive the Undead Coalition. But it had shaped him into sothing crude: a wielder of destructive magic, not a scholar. Not a sage.
If he wished to beco what he envisioned—a “multiverse adventurer”—he would need more than power. He would need understanding.
He would need to start from the beginning.
Anton resolved to travel to another continent, one known for its centers of magical study. There, he would enter a reputable organization and train as any novice would.
He was only twenty years old. His reserves of magical energy alone would make him a valuable candidate.
For the first ti in a long while, his path forward felt clear.
The following day, Anton learned that his father had spent the morning eting with his adventurer teams. Anders received reports on their recent activities—dungeon expeditions, completed missions, and other assignnts carried out under the family’s banner.
Anton was not familiar with the finer details of his father’s operation, but he understood its foundation. Anders took only a small percentage of the teams’ total earnings. That alone explained the loyalty he inspired. Beyond offering fair terms, he provided his n with significant advantages—training, healing, and quality equipnt—while avoiding the greed that often defined others in similar positions.
Anna, anwhile, chose a different way to cope. She spent the day outside with her friends, imrsing herself in the distractions of the city. Both she and Anders, in their own ways, were trying to distance themselves from what they had witnessed in Rendindura—if only for a short ti.
Anton decided not to remain idle.
He made his way to one of the largest libraries in Ormunda and began researching a question that had been occupying his thoughts: which continent stood at the forefront of magical advancent.
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