A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

The group continued to converse. Trying to understand what Julius had 'felt'. It took a tremendous amount of time, but in the end, they had a better grasp of the situation. 

His statement had been an exaggeration. But things certainly weren't looking good. 

In summary:

Magic had existed on Earth long ago. In the age of the mythos. Gods were loosely connected to those who had been the strongest casters. Many of Miracle's top families could claim, with some certainty, to be descended from those aged gods. 

And thanks to this, within select families, there were stories still being carried over. Of a time when magic was everywhere. 

Naturally, most thought it was just that. A story. 

The fact that they themselves have magical powers certainly made it more difficult to dismiss. But the utter lack of mana had convinced most. Especially with none managing to sense, not to mention control, it.

Everyone was stuck with their 'one' power. And nothing else. 

This fact cemented in their minds that magic, though actually real, wasn't the kind found in games and movies. But, wanting for 'that' type of magic, the magic of dreams and fantasies, they had come together to make Miracle. And, ultimately, ANW. After dozens of failures, and many sacrifices. 

Now they have proven that mana exists, that magic of any variety was possible. That it didn't need to be a case of 'the luck of the draw'. That they could choose, that they could overcome their own weakness. And, perhaps, even escape death. 

The myriad of opportunities had blinded many. Made them forget, or even hide, the other parts of the mythos passed down in their families. 

"Are you serious?" Joren asked, unable to accept what he had just heard. It was just stupid. It felt like a joke. And it made him question what all the cloak and daggers had been for. 

Why had they tried to hide things for so long? And why had they decided to show the world that magic existed, now? What changed?

"Well, we can't be sure," Zaphreal explained, or more so admitted. "But there was always speculation that magic had existed. And then, at some point, it had disappeared from the planet." 

"You have to see the paradox in that, right? I mean, this just feels like a joke to all of us." Qiren said. 

"Oh, yes. I know how stupid it sounds. Our powers are certainly magic, but it isn't the same as what we normally consider magic."

"I don't know about that. There are plenty of stories with magic being determined by lineage and nothing else."

Having no counter for that, Zaphreal got them back on topic. Magic had been removed from the planet. As crazy as that sounded, it had happened. The question was how. 

"Well, 'that' is what we are dealing with now." Julius offered. To remove magic from the world, the mana had to go somewhere. 

Sure, most mana in space simply didn't interact with the planet. Phasing right through it as Earth followed the Sun.

But some mana must have interacted with the planet. Even if it was negligible. Over time, mana should have increased in density all over the planet. Yet, it didn't.

More so, the more sentient lifeforms there were—heck any life would do. The more living things there were, the more mana was destined to be caught up and interact with the world—instead of simply phasing right through it. 

Yet, somehow, while humans exploded from a measly few hundred million to billions, the density of mana hadn't increased. That was baffling. 

"No, what's most baffling is that you knew mana was always in space," Qiren grumbled.

It had taken her and the team she had worked with for years. Years! Just to confirm mana existed. Not to mention talk of it being in space. Although that proof hadn't taken all that long after figuring out how to detect mana. 

After all, science had developed well to survey the universe. They simply needed to apply their 'mana-detection' technology on top of the already existing tech. Almost like adding a filter to the telescope lenses. 

"It doesn't originate from space." Julius clarified. "It simply is in space. Like there is dust, asteroids, planets, suns, and galaxies. There is also mana. We think. I emphasis. We 'think' it is correlated to dark matter and dark energy, somehow... But we haven't figured that part out yet." 

"Honest!" The glare he was receiving made him offer a quick explanation. To ensure everyone was now all caught up. "Mana has to be part of it... no, then again mana is massless..."

They had yet to confirm if mana interacted with stars and planets devoid of life. Or, for that matter, empty space and actual dark matter. It could be that mana made up some of the everything, or nothing at all. 

Rambling on, the others tried to wrap their heads around all the new information they had been given. After some time, Constantin asked, "If mana increases with life, where does it end?"

"Well, ANW is certainly an extreme. Gaia is a very, tremendously, extremely... severely—."

"We aren't sure." Zaphreal said, deciding to interrupt before Julius could go into why Gaia was so 'extreme'. They would be here all day, night, and next week if they went into that. The man had no end of curses to hurl at the insanity that was Gaia. 

Still, that a man, who happily experimented with his own life on the line, granted it was his 'unique ability'. Nevertheless, that he would want to exclaim Gaia's absurdity so much made the others nervous.

As if a madman grew—no, a madman had just grown common sense. 

"Our belief, however, is still that mana should have increased. We aren't sure by how much." Zaphreal paused. "In essence, every living thing should be like the 'elementals'. Gathering mana as they encounter it throughout their lives."

"Of course, we don't take in endless amounts of mana. Just like in ANW, each person can only hold so much. And would cause an increase in ambient density by a percentage or multiplier of that amount. But the growth can't be endless."

"Put like that, it makes sense. " Constantin conceded.

Thinking of an example, this train of thought would have each 'normal' person 'collecting' 100 MP through life. And, if they release only 1%, then 8 billion people would cause the world to gain 8 billion MP. 

"That isn't a lot of mana."

It was actually a crazy amount. However, on the scale of an entire planet, it didn't feel like that much. Eight thousand large Mov crystals. While that wasn't something a single kingdom like Taurus could flaunt, an empire certainly could. As could some higher-ranking kingdoms. 

Still, it was enough that one would expect a disparity (something different from normal) to appear on the planet. Yet nothing like that was recorded. At least not clearly enough for them to find and actually realize what they had found. 

Sadly, they didn't know what Earth's mana density was. So they couldn't calculate what 8 billion MP would do to the planet. 

Realizing that they couldn't measure the increase that the Elementals were bringing. Several of them became even more concerned. 

"We don't know if it is a percent of, or a multiplier of." Zaphreal clarified, again. It could be as little as 0.001%, or even 2x, or 10x. After all, Elementals certainly couldn't store 100MP. Yet they had already caused a significant increase. 

But that was because of their design... They multiplied once they reached a certain threshold of mana. Releasing about 90% of the mana they had collected into their surroundings during the process. 

And ANW was similar but different. 

Gaia was a world with near-infinite mana. Mana that wasn't because of life. But due to design...

"The question then is would 8 billion mana points be noticeable?" MP was an arbitrary weighting convention. They had some science behind it's value. But it was difficult to actually quantify. 

And the reason for that was simple. One person with talent could do more with the same amount of MP as someone without. 

Though only if they cast without formulae. 

As a result, it was more a measure of average conversion. Mana to energy or mass.

The conversion rate wasn't E= Mc^2, since mana could take on mass if it changes phase. Thus the mass didn't need to be created. The phase of the mana simply had to be supported.