A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

The next day, Eldrian logged in as soon as he could and waited for sunrise with Ember. "Are you ready?" He asked while stroking the agima's mane, receiving a horse nod in reply.

"Good, today we go all out." He said, jumping onto Ember with practiced ease and setting of even with the sun not fully risen. Not wishing to waste a precious second.

Eldrian didn't have the chaos lands completely explored on his map, and he wasn't going by the path he knew. Thus, he could only pray that he didn't meet any natural or other obstructions. He could only hope that the shortest distance path he had chosen was a clear one.

The wind sailed past his ears, the beasts and monsters of these lands all glaring at him as he rode past. Most simply ignored what was happening, but some did not take kindly to someone trespassing in their home turf.

Ember jumped over the crazed Tari (A monster of lion origin), its huge mane was aflame and the heat caused Ember's coat to be burned.. The smell of burnt hair filling the hair as the agima kept running, ignoring its own pain. Eldrian turned in his saddle and sent a small sharpened pebble flying at the Tari via Vrachos.

It glanced off the Tari's fur, not even managing to leave a scratch, which was to be expected given its AR (armor) and MR (magic armor). While at it, Eldrian also cast Nidia and covered Ember's stomach to ease the burn and also cast Anthise to help the agima keep at speed. Though the effects of the spell were almost nothing at this point.

The Tari roared in anger and started to pursue its prey, a pride soon appearing from one of the many caves in the rocky area they were currently in. The female Tari didn't have manes, instead the tips of their tales were aflame.

Eldrian could feel Ember panicking when the pride started chasing them. He took the time to lie down low and rub the agima's sides. "I got this, just keep running."

Turning around, he cast Velona Pagetou. The spell with the highest base damage he had mastered thus far. Three icicles forming before him before he took careful aim and let the spell fly, changing its direction as the closest Tari tried to dodge.

The spell pierced into its side but failed to kill it. However, the wound was enough to stop it from chasing them further.

'One down, tirteen more to go.' Eldrian smiled as he kept at it. Luckily, his large mana pool and Aoidos's ability to help him regain mana allowed him to cast the spell more than enough.

Though, in the end he was low on mana as some of his attempted had failed to do enough damage. He also naturally hadn't been able to fully recover his mana as he was constantly fighting off beasts and monsters that tried to stop them.

"Please, nothing more." He mumbled as he slumped down on Ember to try and get some rest.

...

Finally, as the sun neared the horizon, the mountains of Avgi came into sight. Filled with excitement Eldrian pushed Ember forward, arriving in the forest just minutes later. Falling off his steed and incapable of standing. His legs, butt, and lower back were killing him. Not to mention the constant need for casting in emergency situations had drained him mentally.

Ember also did not move much more, the eight-legged horse took a few steps forward before lying down itself.

'He must be dying of thirst,' Eldrian thought, forcing himself to cast one more time. A ball of water appearing before him which slowly floated to Ember. Without reservations, the agima attempted to drink from it. Failing a few times and wetting its muzzle.

When it seemed like the agima had enough to drink, Eldrian sighed and logged out. Nearly just as tired as he lay on his immersion chair.

...

He took his time before attempting to stand up. Knowing that he needed to rest, he didn't fight it. Instead, he just moved to his bed and fell asleep. Missing the closing ceremony of the tournament. Along with being personally rewarded a runner-up medal along with the rest of his team.

He was the only one absent.

In the end, it had taken him nearly 4 full days of travel. Often having pushed on even during the night (day IRL), Ember was certainly beyond tired. A normal horse would never have been able to last as long, nor keep its speed.

'Poor thing needs some proper rest after this.' Eldrian thought after waking up, just a short sleep of 4 hours was enough. Standing up, he was just in time to see the others off. Saying goodbye as they headed to the airport to return to their respective homes.

"Hey, tell me something," The girl who claimed second place in the individual matches asked. Her avatar was named Lizzy and Eldrian had no idea what her real name was. She had short black hair and crystal-like brown eyes. Just slightly shorter than Eldrian and dressed in a yellow summer dress.

"Why didn't you participate in the individual matches?"

"It clashes with the team matches," Eldrian replied, and this wasn't really true. It might, but there was no guarantee that it would. But it was indeed part of the reason why none of the individual finalists were part of a team. That, and they were more skilled than most who were in a team.

The girl stared at him for a moment before sighing, "You know you would have won first place if you decided to."

"Maybe next time," Eldrian replied offhandedly, but the girl seemed to consider this a bit more.

"You are also the one who made the post about magic, what was it again... Right, The unknown touched upon. Why did you name it like that?"

"I assumed it was something unknown to most if not all players. What about it?" Eldrian replied, by now the post had gotten him nearly 200 dollars from tip donations. Quite generous, but not an insane amount by any means.

"How did you manage to... Manage to sense anything? Every time I cast magic, I can feel this prickle near my chest, but... No matter how much I try, it just stays a prickle."

[AN: It is really nice seeing the novel back in the top 100, a big thanks to everyone who is voting for it.]