A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

The war situation in Tauris was improving drastically as the weeks flew by.

Cities were retaken and reinforced, frontlines were reformed, walls were built, trenches were dug, and air patrols were kept tight. Reinforcements arrived, and several roads to the through and past Phallos were built and secured. 

Things seemed optimistic. Players were enjoying the plethora of quests to scout out the next military target. Slowly, they were growing stronger. Even more accustomed to war. About a third of the (old) player base had now reached Tier 5 and Eldrian had been joined by four other Tier 6 users. 

The next, new, tournament was around the corner. Due to the numbers in the third tournament's preliminaries, Miracle had declared a new system.

Four seasonal tourneys and one World Cup around the end of the year.

To enter the World Cup, a team needed to claim one promotion (reaching the top 16 in a tourney) and participate in at least three of the four tourneys. Entrance to the tourneys would be limited by rank. Taking only the top 128 ranked teams.

This limitation drastically increased the competition. Especially since the rewards were massive. Equal to an Epic-Dungeon clear. Something which only Phoenix had achieved and could boast of. 

The hype was in the air. Everyone was wondering if Phoenix would claim this tourney, or if one of the others would catch them off guard. Especially now that many more national teams have been formed. 

As for the guild in question, their attention was elsewhere. In the past three weeks, four of their members had managed to use magic, on Earth, under Eldrian's guidance.

An achievement in control of mana which had also allowed them to breach through to Tier 6. 

Normally, this would have been cause for a massive celebration. And, in fact, Ilmadia's success had been. Erik's too. But when Nikki joined the fold, and then Judith of all people, concerns grew. 

Sure, Eldrian had helped their situation by increasing the ambient mana density. But he had only doubled it. Given a few more months, the natural density on the planet would have reached the same level. 

Regardless, the experience allowed them to narrow their focus and methods. And, with Eldrian's advice (and some from Ziraili through Eldrian), they had succeeded. 

Eldrian had also started sensing the so-called 'elementals'. Their presence was still scarce, but they were spreading throughout the world. Whatever containment Miracle was using, it wasn't working. 

Heck, he couldn't even assume that they were attempting to contain the 'elementals'. It was possible they wanted them to permeate the world. 

Luckily, he had confirmed that any mana-related threats were still a way off. One would think magically evolved bacteria would be a massive threat. It could certainly be. However, mana yielded to the strongest will—normally. 

The elementals were a special case, but Eldrian had already confirmed they were no threat. Simply using magic in their vicinity resulted in their deaths. Or stasis. Eldrian wasn't sure. He hadn't searched for the bacteria with a microscope. Only noticed that the strange movement of mana had stopped. 

As for other cases. Bacteria had the absolute minimum level of will. Heck, it was debatable if they had any—despite being classified as being alive. A person's will to live would vastly outclass the bacteria's. And thus the mana supporting an infection would change into the very mana curing it. 

This could even be a solution to all diseases. Well, it would be—healing magic is that amazing. 

However, a normal person—one who couldn't use magic—could only control so much mana subconsciously. In most cases, their will to survive won't use mana to suppress disease, but only stop a type of evolved bacteria from using mana too. Bringing things back to square one. 

A conscious effort on the patient's side, with some guidance, could still see an increase in recoveries. But it wouldn't even be to the level of Tier 1 spells. 

Erik was fascinated by this topic—so much so he had begged Eldrian to organize a meeting with Ziraili. And the discussion had completely flown over Eldrian's head. 

His focus was on physics. To master his auras and bloodline. He had no knowledge of the complexity of the micro verse (other than some curiosity research). 

What Eldrian had managed to learn from that discussion was that there was still a threat. Bacteria couldn't use mana to be stronger than their base form, but they could be altered beyond normal limits. The same was even true for viruses. 

The chances of this happening in nature were low. Ziraili had confirmed that monsters would appear before it happened. Which seemed counter to how things normally worked. 

Bacteria and viruses evolved faster than larger organisms. At least, that was the standard Eldrian knew to be true. But when the complexity of life enforced the evolution, the standard really couldn't be used. 

Animals and humans would experience evolution closer to biological engineering than actual evolution when mana was involved. 

Talks with Ziraili weren't simply mind-opening and thought-inducing, they also helped Eldrian formulate a timeline for when, and what, was likely to happen. 

Earth would reach ANW's mana density in a few years. That wasn't the immediate problem. Nor were sicknesses or magic. Magic would remain more difficult and limited on Earth than ANW. Which Eldrian believed was a good thing. 

However, within the year, animals would start to change. And some humans possibly too. And once it started, the 'elementals' might also evolve. Which was the true danger. 

For now, they were still simple bacteria. Heck, due to their reliance on mana, they were easy to kill. Eldrian had done so by accident plenty of time already. 

If he gathered mana from his surroundings, he inevitably tore them apart (or so he speculated). In this case, they were special. Thanks to Miracle's tinkering, they were one with mana. 

And that was also how a very dangerous weapon could be created. One that would easily kill magicless people, but be useless against those who can wield magic. 

'But I doubt that is likely.' Were Eldrian's honest thoughts. And not because he trusted Miracle. 

Their release of ANW to the public increased the number of possible magic users. Meaning such a weapon would be less effective. Unless they planned to cull the world after a certain level of magic users was reached. 

'But again, doubtful.' And again not because he thought they were morally right in the head. He thought this because some within their own families might not be magical users. Which meant infighting would prevent this. 

'Well, unless one family wants to kill the others...'

Shaking the thought from his mind, Eldrian gathered everything at hand and exited his laboratory. Finding an excited Virsky at the door. 

"Whoof! Whoof!" He barked, too excited to talk via telepathy. 

Seeing the little pup (now almost twice the size it had been when they first met), Eldrian asked, "Looking for this?"

"Woofs! Woofs!" The barking came out wrong, but it was rather adorable. Smiling, Eldrian nodded and brought the Magic Crystal in his hand down to Vrisky. He thought for a moment to tease the pup but decided against it. Instead of giving a simple warning. 

"Remember, you can't consume it right now. You first need to head inside." Waiting for a reply, Eldrian received a nod and some more rushed woofs. Accepting that, he handed the crystal to the pup and watched as Vrisky raced into the laboratory. Closing the doors with wind magic right in front of Eldrian's face. 

"Excited, aren't we?" Eldrian asked with a laugh. Wondering what the results of Vrisky's evolution would look like. 

'Am I terrible for considering this good research for what will happen on Earth?' He asked himself. Deciding he was not, seeing as the subject was so excited.