A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

Thrilled Eldrian did not manage to stay awake for much longer. Upon his success, as his adrenaline rush faded and his will to power through with it, he finally felt how tired he truly was. With no direct goal to aim for he quickly started falling asleep.

Struggling just to stay awake Eldrian quickly confirmed how he had managed to enter the magic abyss. Quickly let the spell die out, and then logged out with due haste. Fearing that delaying would result in another mental assault on him.

Upon waking he still got a headache, not too bad a one though. Still it was there nonetheless, IRL, informing him that when his mind was dead tired that it did not matter if this mind was in the game or in the real world. He also felt really lethargic and his vision was slightly blurry, not wishing to move Eldrian simply took off his headset. Falling asleep before even managing to put it on his bedstand.

Eldrian only woke after four hours of decent sleep with the helmet still in his hand. Welp, I guess I am no longer going to be able to just go on and on. Eldrian lamented as he thought this, somewhat irritated that he was going to need to actually fit sleep into his schedule again. He had enjoyed being able to do something every minute of the day.

Let's hope it's just when I try so hard. He quickly thought as he finally climbed out of his bed, got into actual clothes, and headed down for a very late breakfast after washing his face to wake up and clear his eyes.

After this he headed to the gym room where he and Constantin always met and his training took place. "Why are you so late?" Constantin asked as soon as Eldrian entered the room. More than once he had thought of leaving, but his curiosity of if Eldrian learned anything new kept him here.

"Ah, sorry. It seems that I might be reaching the point where I can't skip sleep anymore." Eldrian quickly apologized, feeling that he should have powered through a few more seconds to send a message to Constantin. Knowing that this wasn't really an option as he didn't even manage to place the headset somewhere other than his bed.

"What? Already?" Constantin asked jolted by Eldrian's speed.

"Well it might be because I trained so hard..." Eldrian responded trying to determine how to convey everything clearly, something he was becoming much better at.

"What do you mean?"

Eldrian quickly went over what had happened and what he had managed. Upon hearing that Eldrian had managed to get to a Magic Crystal before him, Constantin was truly bummed. While he had managed to get permission himself, Angelica, the lady who would take him to the Magic Crystal, had gone out on a mission and the Emperor wouldn't give someone else the job. It was a loophole to the oath that the Emperor made full use of to waste Constantin's time.

The oath, in simple terms, simply stated that for all the help Constantin had given the empire, they would always help him when doing so does not hurt the empire itself, or the royal family's health. As such agreeing to give him access was enough, the oath did not require it to be within a set timeframe.

As such Constantin couldn't do much, suppressing his want to not be left behind, he kept his calm and asked Eldrian all that he could think of. He loved the idea of giving magic, the general mystical application of mana, and magic the control over mana different names.

He hadn't really thought of it himself since he hadn't managed to ever manage to access mageia. The system had always done this for him. The same went for those he would normally talk to, and as such, they never really felt bothered about the naming scheme since they only talked theoretically.

At the end, Constantin added, "You should inform Gengxin of your lethargy. The discussion on magic and combat is certainly best done with us game testers, but that is something you should talk with him of. He is responsible for trying to find a way to minimize or even totally remove it. Explain to him in detail how you felt in the simulation and in the real world."

"Also, if you feel something needs to be added to the system you should tell Joren that. That is more his field."

"Thanks, I will. But how should I explain it to him?" Eldrian asked, knowing full well that explaining these things were never easy.

"Try and focus on what you felt, not on what you thought. Focus on how your body reacted after, and if you can how it reacted during." Constantin offered, having found that this often helped.

With this settled Constantin then started Eldrian's training, which was not much. Most of the day already gone, mostly due to Eldrian's tardiness but also significantly due to their conversation.

As such Eldrian only did a couple of sets of basic routine before leaving for his room. On his way he informed Gengxin that he wanted to talk. This conversation robbed another hour of Eldrian's day, as such he had to rush to a normal timed supper; which was actually late for his normal routine.

Finally logging a few hours after his normal time, around seven in the morning in the game. He found both Pelaros and Myropsis in the room with him, both facing away from him and conversing.

"Morning!" Eldrian shouted as soon as he saw them, causing them both to jump.

"Wha-! How did you?" Pelaros's words faltered him as he stared at Eldrian who had just appeared behind them.

"So it's true, your body can disappear and reappear." Myropsis instead said upon confirming that it was Eldrian. "Did you manage to figure out what you were trying so hard to?"

"I did actually, can you take me out of the room? I want to see if it works in a normal area." Both Pelaros and Myropsis quickly agreed, Eldrian finding himself in the hidden basement room just seconds later.

"So how did you figure it out?" Myropsis quickly pressed.

"Wait, let me see if I still can do it. I was at my limit when I finally succeeded." Eldrian replied, focusing again on Floga. Repeating the steps he had used before.

Nice, it is the same! Eldrian quickly rejoiced upon finding himself again in the magic abyss. He quickly shifted his consciousness closer to the flaming triangle. Let's see if I can change it.

Eldrian simply wanted to add another node in the middle and connect a path from each point. Focusing on mageia he willed it to create a converging point for mana in the middle, trying to copy the concept he had learned from observing spell modules during all his training and experiments.

He messed up the type of convergent point he wanted and the random addition, without due caution, caused the spell to become unstable. Kicked out of the magic abyss Eldrian witnessed the flaming ball as big as his fist, suddenly imploding; sending a shockwave of heat out soon after.

"What just happened? I never saw a spell fail in that way." Myropsis was startled to see what had just happened. This simple Tier 0 spell just gave her the feeling of a Tier 2 spell, though using it was clearly not possible as it was a casting failure that caused it. Strangely Eldrian didn't seem to be suffering a backlash even though this was the case.

"Uggh, I failed." Eldrian grunted as he shook his head to clear the fragmented images clouding his thoughts. That isn't what I wanted, though that was quite cool.

"What did you do?" Myropsis questioned, not letting Eldrian just ignore her question.

Eldrian sighed before answering, his mind still quite cloudy, "I tried to add a node in the center of the module. Seems like I can't just add things as I want though."

"Naturally not! It takes a great deal of practice and calculations to determine where to add nodes and how the pathways must flow." Myropsis quickly replied, having heard that true masters in the field of magic can sometimes enter the magic abyss too. She had yet to succeed herself, other than glimpsing at the space for a few brief seconds.

If one could truly enter it then they could try and make their own spells. Those who could actually do this were normally limited to Magi, or on the rare occasion an Archmage. Still they would spend weeks preparing for their attempt, Myropsis found it insane that Eldrian just did it without a second thought.

"Good point, lets see if something simpler would work." Eldrian quickly entered the magic abyss again through the use of Floga.  Alright, this time let's just add three nodes. And I want them to push mana into the spell, not suck mana in. Now, how the hell do I do this? Strangely this was easier since it didn't also require new pathways to be created to maintain the spell's balance.

Eldrian faltered here as he didn't know how to actually make the nodes function in a certain way. To try and find a solution he observed the current nodes in the module. As he did he picked up on the fact that the module itself was constructed of mageia, not mana. Though mana was flowing through and around it in the form of flames currently.

Realizing this point though, Eldrian tried to focus on the feeling each node gave him. Each actually gave a slightly different feeling, but they all had a similar manner of existing.  This is similar to my mana pathways... Eldrian thought and focused more on the node itself, These two at the bottom of the triangle are the same, but opposite. The top instead seems to be a collection point for all the mana...

After a few minutes of observing Eldrian felt he figured out how it worked, at least he knew the general abstract feeling he needed to focus on for the node.

In the end he only managed to add one before being kicked out. His spell darted to the side and scorched the stone walls as it burst apart from the impact.

"Oops sorry, this is going to take some time." Eldrian wanted to go right back at it, but he quickly stopped as he felt that his mind was tiring. Just two attempts... Really? He wanted to complain, instead, he just sat down and rested.

Well, I did do it back to back. Eldrian sighed as he realized he couldn't just go crazy, at least not if he wanted to actually learn anything from doing this without being assaulted by headaches.