A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

Waking up, in the game, Eldrian looked at the dark leaves covering his view of the sky. The sun had yet to rise and without even the moon or stars, it was truly dark. Their fire long having burnt itself out.

Eldrian took a few minutes to adjust to the light, managing to see the silhouettes of the trees fine. But not much more.

Alright, let's get to work. He told himself as he stood up, trying to make as little noise as possible. The others needed a full rest, Eldrian felt that he did not require that. Only needing the amount the system forced onto him.

After walking for a while he found a place relatively clear with enough space for him to practice. It was also far enough to not wake the others.

As he took out his spear Eldrian thought again of the update, remembering that he still needed to meet a representative for his data collection. He had no idea what that would all be about, but he should be able to figure it out soon. Since the meeting was on Tuesday.

Finishing his thoughts Eldrian moved on to his spear drills. Due to how used to them he had become, he used his spare mental power to try and meditate. Quickly finding this to be far more taxing than simply practicing.

Meditating while moving was far harder than it was normally. Adding a routine onto it multiplied this difficulty. Eldrian felt like giving up after only a few seconds. Don't wimp out! He told himself every time he felt his mind slipping or his muscles aching.

After close to an hour he started getting used to it and actually managed to keep his meditation for his entire set of drills.

Resting against a tree he thought about how different it felt. How it felt, right.

Through doing this he had found that he managed to adjust to the flow of mana faster. To learn more, quickly surpassing his normal limit with his meditation. At the same time, he felt like it was also giving him more stamina.

Not much more. But during this last set, Eldrian felt certain he had managed to do three more attacks than normal. It was not much, so little that he might have missed it if not for every second feeling stretched due to how much he needed to concentrate.

He kept at it until the sun started rising, slowly finding himself doing more and more extra attacks. From three to ten by the end.

At that point, he was so tired he could not even bring himself to move towards a tree. Trowing his spear to the side he simply fell onto his back and enjoyed the view.

As the sun slowly rose, the leaves lit up. Becoming lighter in color, from a dark green to a light lime color when the sun was hitting them directly.

I should head back. Eldrian told himself as he felt the sun had risen completely. Standing up, with some effort, he started heading back to the camp. Soon hearing the others also standing up and getting ready for the day.

The loudest sound of all being Terlas complaining that he was hungry. Chuckling to himself Eldrian took out the meat they had grilled before. Having told everyone to make more than one meal, so as to allow them to work throughout the day without needing to stop to make a fire.

After sharing the meat and enjoying it, even cold it still tasted great. They all set out to the platform where everyone took their positions. As they were about to set off Eldrian paused and looked at Cephaphyr.

'Hey, Ceph.' Eldrian spoke, wondering if Cephaphyr had created the connection for him or not. A reply came quickly, informing that Cephaphyr had indeed done this.

'Yes!' An excited voice echoed in Eldrian's head, causing the latter to smile simply due to this excitement.

'Your mother told me to let you do more yesterday.' Before Eldrian could continue, Cephaphyr replied in a panic. Having misunderstood.

'I am sure I can make more arrows if I push myself!'

'No, nono. Not that, she meant I should let you do something more. Like help us fight, do you think you can do that?' Eldrian asked, not knowing how Cephaphyr would be able to help against a horde of monsters.

Even if Cephaphyr was strong, he was not a beast of prey. He was a beast of peace, one whose body was not made to kill. Eldrian would feel more comfortable asking a Direwolf this question than an Alicorn. Even knowing that an Alicorn was far stronger, he felt this was mostly due to their magic. Something Cephaphyr was really limited in.

'Sure!' Cephaphyr shouted in happiness, running to the edge and waiting for Eldrian to say go. His wings ready to take off.

Eldrian had never really taken account of this, but when Cephaphyr spanned his wings. They covered a really large area, almost twice his own length. Eldrian enjoyed the sight of Cephaphyr's feathers, which he was seeing for the first time spread.

'Wait, we need to figure out how. You don't have claws, you don't know offensive magic. How are you going to fight.'

Hearing this Cephaphyr folded his wings and hid his head in embarrassment between them. Covering most of his body with his brilliant green feathers, which were catching the light of dawn just right. Causing them to seemingly shine.

Eldrian enjoyed the bright green color, again feeling that it was an amazing contrast to Cephaphyr's pure black coat.

'I don't know... How do I fight?' Came Cephaphyr's embarrassed voice, ashamed that he did not know how to fight.

Eldrian almost laughed as he heard this question. How to fight seemingly having completely flown past Cephaphyr's considerations.

"What are you waiting for?" Sabrea shouted to the top as she had been waiting for Eldrian to come down for a few seconds now. There was no reason she knew of which would stop him from directly coming off.

"Sorry, I am trying to figure out if Cephaphyr could be of more help," Eldrian shouted back as he thought a bit more.

The only thing he could think of was if he rode Cephaphyr. Yet the latter was only as high as his waist. He would not even be able to stretch his legs if he were to climb on him. This also caused him to believe that Cephaphyr would be too weak to carry him, but thinking about how he was magical-... No, a Mythical Beast. Eldrian told himself that this last thought must be wrong.

'Hey, Ceph... Would you mind if I tried to ride you?' Eldrian asked, getting a puzzled look in reply. As such he quickly explained what he meant, to which Cephaphyr had no problem.

'Sure, but let's go down first. I don't want you to get hurt.'

Eldrian almost cracked upon hearing this, feeling that that was what he should have said.

Eldrian quickly explained to Sabrea his plans and climbed onto Cephaphyr's back. Finding it surprisingly comfortable. If he bent his knees, he could easily hold himself in place by gripping with them Cephaphyr's wings.

At the same time it allowed him to fully move his body, he could also communicate with Cephaphyr almost instantly. After a few practice runs, they managed to actually go where Eldrian wished. Though they had only been going slowly due to all the trees and Cephaphyr following his orders took time. Eldrian felt it was good enough against normal goblins.

"Let's go." Eldrian said both aloud and mentally, quickly finding himself ahead of Sabrea and soon in front of the goblins.

'Oh god! Back! Back! Back!' Eldrian shouted to Cephaphyr as he saw the goblins all rising in surprise and charging at them. It had happened so quickly that while he was still enjoying the soft sensation of Cephaphyr's back, he found himself in front of a horde.

Cephaphyr did not respond immediately, not understanding why Eldrian was so scared. Luckily he did not ignore Eldrian, as the goblins were about to surround them he turned and quickly ran from them all.

Back in the forest, a frightened Eldrian said, 'Do not do that again. We can not be surrounded!'

Seeing that Cephaphyr seemed to not understand Eldrian felt like shouting. Sabrea asking what had happened helped him keep his cool.

"Lack of communication. We will try it again." Eldrian said, making sure to explain to Cephaphyr that he wanted to be only just outrun the goblins. More importantly, that he did not want to leave Sabrea in the dust.

'Sorry...' Cephaphyr apologized, still not understanding quite what was wrong. It was not like those goblins could even harm his feathers, no matter how hard they tried. He failed to realize that Eldrian was not as strong as him.

"Okay..." Taking a large breath, Eldrian readied himself for some more mishaps. But the speed Cephaphyr had displayed made him want to continue riding him. He felt like this would be simply insane against the weak goblins.