A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

Eldrian started looking at it in more detail, not knowing how he was looking at it nor how it existed here in front of him. Eldrian even heard it beating, this synchronizing with when he should expect a tearing pain in his own heart. This pain wasn't located in his chest, but rather in front of him.

It gave him a really weird feeling, seeing hearing and now feeling outside of his body. He had grown used to the first with his time in the magic abyss, but the latter two were new and took some time to grow used to.

This won't do, it looks like this heart will soon just tear into pieces! My heart... Eldrian thought as he looked at the bleeding that was growing more and more. As the bleeding grew he started to again feel the two emotions coming out and trying to pry into his mind.

Eldrian had no wish to experience the effect of these emotions again, so he quickly tried to find a way he might be able to stop that from happening. While he now knew most of what he had seen was fake, mental pain didn't just disappear from knowing something. It still ate at him and Eldrian knew that it would for days, maybe even weeks to come.

He moved his consciousness closer to the heart, in a hope of finding a way to stitch it up. As he did he found that his heart was actually stitched by a weak barely holding Tier 0 node. Simple cross stitches were holding the tears from tearing more, but they were clearly not able to actually do this as the tears grew with each second.

That won't do... Eldrian quickly said no to the first idea popping into his mind. To strengthen these nodes by changing them to Tier 1 nodes, or Tier 2 or Tier 3. The last being the limit Eldrian felt he would be able to do. Eldrian denied this approach since it would do nothing about the tears. It would simply stop them from worsening.

No, I need to heal it, and strengthen it. Eldrian quickly realized, thinking of the last chapter he had read in the rejuvenation book. This might be my soul, and it clearly isn't much. I have no idea why it seems to be in such bad condition, but I have to fix it.

Naturally Eldrian wouldn't know this, but this was actually the effect of his soul trying to stay near his body after his last death. An hour wasn't kind to a soul without a body; especially one so weak. This was a large reason behind why resurrection had such cruel time limits. Most of his soul been torn away, and all that remained was the sole focus he had had at that moment. Luckily just an ideal is enough to keep a soul from dissipating, as long as it burned strong enough.

His soul had been fine just idling in his body, but now he had pulled it into this separate space where it was no longer being actively protected and slowly healed. Hence why the damage was growing. If Eldrian simply left then nothing much would happen, in fact it might be for the better. Not knowing this he refused and tried to heal what he saw.

Eldrian quickly decided to try and carve the rejuvenation spell onto his heart, not sure how he was supposed to do that. If he were to do this he also naturally didn't want to just cheap out with Anthizo, he would try and use at least Anthisma, or even Anthise if he could manage.

First, he knew that he had to strengthen the stitches or the tears would continue to grow, maybe even past what can be healed. So Eldrian focused on the first cross-stitch, not knowing how he was supposed to replace it. He started by first sending out his thoughts to observe this stitch. Finding that it was indeed created out of mageia as he had hoped it would be.

With this settled Eldrian quickly envisioned the Tier 3 spell nodes he had already learned. It was far more complex than Tier 0 nodes that were simple crosses, this instead was in the form of a five-pointed star. Focusing on this and trying to use mageia to construct it, Eldrian hoped for the best as he sent it out to the tear.

He had no idea if this was going to work, as the only place he had managed to actually use mageia without mana was actually the magic abyss. Luckily the place he was in now seemed to work similar to the magic abyss. His five-star node quickly absorbed the cross after which it shaped itself to the size of the tear and pulled the edges closer. Stopping it from tearing any further and slightly shrinking it too.

As it did Eldrian felt a new wave of pain, though only while it merged. Nothing much, though he could tell it had eaten at his focus and kept doing so as he stayed in this space. He ignored it and moved to the next tear, repeating this until he had covered them all. At which point he felt like he was drunk, the constant mental assaults having robed most of his concentration.

Dammit, no way I will be able to create Anthisma now. Eldrian mentally sighed as he realized this, he could barely look without seeing double at this stage. Naturally, Eldrian had no idea how that was even possible, but at this stage he couldn't care less. He just knew that there was no way he would manage to create a spell module he wasn't used to. One that was also far more complex than anything he had ever tried envisioning before.

With reluctance, Eldrian decided to simply use Anthizo. A large part of him wanted to fall asleep, trying to drag him to sleep. He fought this pull as he focused on Anthizo and tried to figure out how he was going to add it to his heart.

While the new stitches, Tier 3 nodes, would certainly hold. Eldrian didn't know if the damage would continue or not. He would rather try and heal them than just keep them from worsening. Worst case they might totally destroy this heart, and Eldrian had no idea what would happen if that were to happen.

Gathering all his focus Eldrian envisioned Anthizo and tried to send this spell module to his heart. As he felt the mageia gather and form the spell module, and finally slowly drift to his heart, he fell asleep. Unable to stay awake even a second longer.

...

"Dammit, he is still inside. What the hell is going on, we know that he was concentrating extremely hard on something, and now it is as if he is asleep. Yet we can't take him out! Gengxin, do you know why?" Joren asked in exasperation.

After Constantin had informed him that Eldrian was going to try and meditate again, Joren had assumed something might happen again. It was strange and even slightly funny considering how ridiculous it all was. At this point, some of the other game testers had managed to gain access to a Magic Crystal. Unlike Constantin the Emporers they were working with honored their ancient oath far more.

Yet none of these people have managed to figure anything out. Constantin had relayed to them how Eldrian had explained things. How he had started learning, yet none of it helped them. They were all a bit more than just irritated. As such Eldrian was still seemingly the only person to be able to use magic without any support from the system.

"No idea, from his readings it simply seems like he needs rest. But why he still hasn't awakened is concerning. What is going on in the game?" Gengxin replied in slight concern. He had hoped Eldrian would take it slow for a while longer, at least until the cabin had entered the prototype phase. Currently still being only a design concept.

"His group had decided to carry him as they continued their mission. Luckily he doesn't weigh much to a centaur, especially that large one he is with. They are clearly worried, the cleric has been trying to help Eldrian wake but to no avail." Joren answered, shocked that even with help from both inside and out Eldrian showed no signs of waking.

The cleric was Tier 6, hence her magic was most certainly not something to scoff at. After the first few spells though, she had discovered that Eldrian simply needed rest. Her following spells had all been energy sharing, to hopefully quicken Eldrian's recovery.

"What on earth did this kid do this time. I keep feeling dumber and slower, as I keep being outshone by someone so much younger and with less experience." Constantin mumbled as he looked at Eldrian's pale complexion.

"Maybe that is what is limiting us. Maybe to actually manage in feeling mageia, you must have no experience. Such as the reason behind not allowing anyone to choose High Elf after having played with another race. It has simply been something the system had declared, but this might be why." Joren said in a flash of sudden inspiration.

"We should go look at the discussion Eldrian had created long ago. He hasn't shared much recently and as such we have forgotten about it. But maybe other players have been starting to actually connect to magic without the system. Their progress might just be slower." Joren added after a bit of thought.

Constantin quickly perked up upon hearing this, quickly rushing Joren to lead the way so they could check it together. They knew that they could do nothing for Eldrian and as such spending more time here would just be a waste. Finding more people who could also help in the discovery would help far more.