A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

Standing up, Eldrian pondered for a second if he was going to actually participate in the loser bracket for the spear matches. After a few seconds, he shook his head, 'Not worth the time.'

While he would like to get the rewards, they were not nearly good enough, he would rather have more time for the quest he was trying to finally finish. The rewards from the quest were far better than the individual matches.

However, it was still far too early to log back in. Instead, Eldrian browsed the forums looking for inspiration about magic or the undead. Unfortunately, nothing there piqued his interest in those areas even after hours of browsing. There were a few off-topic things that were interesting, but Eldrian was determined to stay focused.

Logging in, he waited for a few minutes until his trusty (and unwilling) companion joined him. However, instead of setting out again, Eldrian took a seat and asked Bringïrr to keep an eye out for any dangers while he read through a pile of notes.

"Why don't we go back to the camp first then?" Bringïrr asked, hoping to get Eldrian out of the corrupted area. He had no idea how Eldrian could even stand it as a person below Tier 5. Yet, it seemed to not even phase the elf.

"No, if I feel I realized something, I want to be here so I can test it." Eldrian replied and then started from the start. The first thing he did was take out the notes of Ilpas Elpine.

When he had read it the first time he hadn't really understood what the magus was getting at. Rereading it Eldrian still didn't quite get it. However, he now at least knew what was being spoken about.

'This one...' Rereading the one he had first read not so long ago, yet it felt like ages, just after the night raid at the fort. Eldrian paused on nearly every sentence as he tried to figure out what the magus was getting at.

'Elemental is that which passively exists, while non-elemental is driven by emotions, generally. But... Death is natural.' Eldrian paused as he reread the first paragraph again.

[Much like divine magic, this aura filling the lands seems to be non-elemental. This fits with it being an undead creation, as that magic is also not of the aspect of elements. What is strange is that this seems to be a passive existence. This does not fit with non-elemental aspect magic. These aspects of magic always need a force, a will to drive them. Such as divine magic, without the faith of the caster, it is impossible to use.]

'Why does he say it needs a force?' Eldrian pondered this for quite a while. 'Life and death... What if this is the inverse of the elemental aspect of magic. Instead of being non-elemental, it is the reverse... Like anti-matter. It would explain why it hungers after the elements in the air.'

'Wait! Does that mean there are different types of death-mana?' Eldrian paused as this question sent a deep shock through his body. 'Have I been blinding myself? What if it only appears gray because I am blind to the mana? Colorblindness, is that really possible?'

Eldrian pondered this for quite a while and looking around with mana sense, looking at the gray smoke filling the entire world before him but for a few strings of green and gray. 'Then, what if.'

Extending his hand to one of these strings, Eldrian paused and focused into himself. 'Mana, stop flowing.'

What he meant was not for his mana pathways to stop flowing, but rather the mana he had been pushing out of them to the rest of his body. Once he thought of it to stop, it did and quickly returned to his mana pathways.

'This might hurt,' Eldrian thought as he could immediately feel something draining his energy. His stamina and HP dropping by a single point every five seconds. This drain was so strong only due to how deep they were in the forest. They were actually further in than anyone else from Taurus had managed to enter.

Naturally, this was because Eldrian made sure to always avoid the strings of mana between the Spirited Akleys, as them being just two made them hard to spot. But a larger part of it was the other dwarves were killing the Drekavacs as they were just an annoyance that would make this entire escapade take twice or trice as long if they lived to make noise.

Eldrian knew that what he was doing was likely going to send alarms to the undead, yet he had to test it to see if his assumptions were correct.

'Why else would the nature element and death mana be able to co-exist here?' Was his thoughts on the strings, one of which his hand was moving towards. He actually did not agree with the second paragraph.

There Ilpas had proposed that it might the opposite of the nature element. Yet, why would it then hunger after all elements? 'It must be the opposite of all.' Was Eldrian's conclusion.

Upon touching the mana string, Eldrain could feel the drain immediately increasing. Yet, instead of pulling away, he focused on the nature element in the string. An element he was very comfortable with.

Recalling the feeling of mediation and how he could, albeit slowly, pull in the mana of his surroundings. Eldrian tried just that with this string of mana.

He focused on it as his eyes started to change. The string being torn apart, whereas before the gray part of it had enlargened. Suddenly, Eldrian fell to the ground as he felt both out of breath and envigorated.

He felt completely drained of all energy, yet he could feel his body brimming with it.

He felt the aura of death stronger than ever before. Reminding him of fighting off the waves of darkness when he had tried absorbing that which was in the revenant's heart.

Falling unconscious, yet staying standing, Eldrian found himself in the Mageia Avyssos. Before him, a massive sprawling network of green and gray lines. Sometimes a mix of the two and sometimes just one or the other.

This network filled his vision and encompassed his soul heart that was beating peacefully in a 'net'. His ice and fire auroras far too small to even come close to reaching the 'net'.