A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

Knowing that ice was a hybrid element helped Eldrian a great deal. He no longer had to rely solely on following along as the mana changed little by little with each cast. He could skip most of this by forcefully mixing darkness mana into the spell.

Eldrian naturally failed often with this attempt. He was trying to take a short cut. Getting the mana signature feelings from casting Tier 0 spells and then trying to 'tell' the spell to mix them. He could not control mana in any raw form yet and to use this roundabout way.

It took a few hours before Eldrian actually managed to accomplish the shortcut. Most often nothing happened. With his first success, it sent a backlash against him. This was the first time Eldrian actually received backlash from failing to cast a spell. Luckily it was not severe, having simply caused him to shiver as an extreme cold had spread through him.

This did not last nearly as long as when Eldrian had trained through the Magic Crystal, allowing him to easily move past it. Not even worth mentioning. For other players this might have been quite discouraging.

Too much darkness. Eldrian reasoned as he trembled. The mana had felt far too cold, not at all like what he had aimed for. While shivering a smile grew as Eldrian realized that this method could really work.

He continued on this path for the rest of the day, asking Old Sword to cast Frost Needle for him every other hour. Eldrian would touch the spell after Old Sword cast it, trying to find the right temperature through such a crude method.

Somehow Eldrian actually managed to cut some corners thanks to Old Swords's help.

'My last cast was close, but a bit too warm. More darkness!' Eldrian talked to himself as he felt the piece of ice up and down.

Old Sword gave him a weird look. He had never heard of someone learning a spell by touching someone else's spell. The look on Eldrian's face also did not make it seem normal at all. 'Is he alright?' Old Sword wondered as he saw Eldrian's strange grin growing larger.

Finally, Eldrian managed to cast the spell correctly, almost killing his horse in the process. Frost Needle had an ingrained velocity which was why the spell would launch the ice forward when cast. Eldrian had not even suspected that something like that would happen. All spells he had cast before did not have inherent movement.

It had gone in the direction of Eldrian's eyes, which was naturally in front of him. His horse's head often bobbing up into few. Luckily the horse's head had moved back down in time, but its ear had paid the price for having an idiot on its back.

"You do learn really fast." Old Sword commented as he looked at Eldrian and his horse -whose ear now had a hole in it and was bleeding. Old Sword was shocked when he had seen the piece of ice move past his vision.

"Soothe your horse!" Old Sword shouted when he saw Eldrian was lost in thought. The horse was on edge and looking to bolt.

Coming back to reality Eldrian quickly rubbed the horse's neck and cast Anthizo on it. The spell immediately calming the animal. Eldrian having no idea just how close he was to getting thrown to the ground.

After making sure that the horse would not throw him off Eldrian returned to his thoughts. So spells have inherent speed in it. Is that how players control it, they aim and then let loose. That makes sense, but dang is that inefficient. Eldrian worked through his thoughts, finding that he had to master this basic aiming before he could even move on to true control.

Other than this minor incident, the rest of the day went by in relative normalcy. Eldrian casting spells to practice and analyzing what he could improve.

His first few following successful casts of Frost Needle shot in more or less a random direction. Eldrian only able to determine this direction by the way he was facing. With each cast he got more used to how the spell was cast and could concentrate more on controlling the spell instead.

It was the most he struggled in this, having to fight the spell's inherit want to move. He also had to ensure he would not hurt someone while at it too.

By night, after having set up camp and eaten, Eldrian sat outside the tent. Thinking about why he was struggling so much in keeping the spell still. Is it due to the flow of mana in the spell module? Eldrian wondered, trying to link it with when he experimented on the effect of this mana flow.

With Nidia he could let the water rotate by letting the mana flow a certain way. Then logically this meant this spell's module would send out the spell at maximum speed. Since all the mana was directed towards the point of the module.

Eldrian had also gotten recognition from the system for learning Frost Needle.

[Frost Needle, Tier 1, rank 0]

[Frost needle is an ice-based spell. Forming a small needle-like piece of ice, which will be rapidly shot forward as soon as casting is done.]

[Spell Damage: 9 <Ice>] [Raw spell damage]

[Magic Damage: 13.9 <Ice>] [Damage which will be dealt to 0 magic armor apponent]

[Cost 20 mana]

[No cast cooldown]<Due to having learned the spell without system>

[0.5 Cast time] <Reduced by rank>

Eldrian found that the spell did little damage, but this was only when he compared it to Grace. His double-headed spear. When compared to nonmagical weapons the spell did really good damage. Then there was also the fact that Eldrian could improve the damage even more when using a staff or wand.

Eldrian also remembered this, taking out the staff he had looted long ago during the first mission. How good are you? He asked himself, quickly finding that it was not good.

Is it because it is not a magic grade staff? Eldrian wondered, looking at the pitiful 5% damage increase it would give him. It would also require him to cast through the staff which made this even worse for Eldrian. He wanted to use his spells while in combat, he might consider using a staff if he was far or had protection between him and the target. He did not want to fight with a staff.

Staffs are useless. Eldrian determined as he stored it back into his inventory, planning to sell it to players when he had time.

Eldrian continued to travel in this manner, during which he would practice magic while traveling, conversing with Old Sword when he found a good topic to talk about. During the breaks in travel, like at night, Eldrian would instead practice fighting.

Old Sword would spar with him every other day, while teaching Eldrian on the days they did not spar. Due to this Eldrian quickly felt himself growing stronger.

What Old Sword would teach Eldrian skills and how to use them most effectively. Eldrian missed most of the later since it was hard enough for him to just use skills. With time he got more used to it, which was when Old Sword hammered on the time delay skills would cause him to have.

This was due to the effort it took him to actually use a skill, needing to call its skill module and control his mana. It felt more difficult than spells, mostly because he would stop when casting spells. With skills he had to continue moving.

This training continued for almost a week, Eldrian having learned six skills in total under Old Sword. Having also spent the time to learn the healing spell, Thera, which he had bought at the academy.

[Thera (Spell)]

[Tier 1, rank 0]

[A simple healing spell, feeding the patient with energy to heal a specific wound.]

[Can bring a severe wound under control, stopping bleeding. Will completely heal mild wounds.]

[Spell Heal: 12HP <Limit to 4 casts, 1 hour cd>] [Base Healing]

[Heal: 21.1HP] [With bonuses]

[Cost 16 mana]

[No cast cooldown]<Due to having learned the spell from root>

[0.2 Cast time] <Reduced by rank>

Eldrian felt much better having a true healing spell under his belt, surprised by the amount of healing it actually would do. While it was not near enough for Eldrian to be able to fight continuously, it would allow him to heal almost to full.

Eldrian was more curious about how much this heal would do to a broken arm or leg. Wondering if he would be able to keep himself physically able. This was what he hoped for most, HP was far less important to him.

The skills Eldrian had learned were mostly general use type skills. Like a small constant increase in speed or strength. Or the inverse and an explosive amount of increase for one or two attacks.

Eldrian had only learned one weapon-related skill called Double Strike. He had truly struggled to learn this skill. It did not have a word of power. Instead it was triggered by intent and mana, he had to trigger its activation by actually attacking in a set way.

When used correctly, the spell would give Eldrian a large increase in speed. Unfortunately he was currently unable to really control this and would just let the skill finish the process for him. It would deliver two quick strikes in under a second.

[Double Strike, (Skill)]

[Tier 1, rank 0]

[Two quick strikes (Thrusts with a spear) delivered with almost no pause.]

[Weapon Damage Boost: 2]

[Increases damage dealt by 10% on seconds strike, 30% if this strike lands on the same place as the first strike.]

[Cost 8MP & 16SP] *1)

[No cooldown]<Due to having learned the spell without system>

[0.2 Cast time] <Reduced by rank>

Reading through the skill's details Eldrian had realized why players would prefer weapon-related skills to general skills. The explosive increase in agility or strength could certainly be useful in certain locations. But it was still a far cry from this skill's raw potential.

Eldrian even doubted if he would use the constant boost skills, the loss of regen was simply too much of a cost for such a slight increase.

*1) MP is mana points. SP stamina points.