A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

Maia smiled and simply said that she felt it wrong to not help out when she was able. Of course, after hearing all the gossip recently, they all wanted to make sure they stayed of use to Eldrian.

They didn't want to be abandoned, again.

"Thank you, and please, pour yourself a cup," Eldrian said while accepting the now neatly assembled pile that used to be a mess of scattered pages on his right.

"I can't." Maia shook her head and quickly moved back into a position more suitable for a maid. Seeing her actions, Eldrian sighed but didn't push the matter.

"Can you take those on the left to Darren, tell him they didn't make it."

Maia nodded and got to work, though her heart was in disbelief. Of course, she had heard the news about Eldrian, about how he was a hero and all that. It sounded unbelievable, the more unbelievable part was that thousand people had come to try and follow him.

Yet, this pile she was now cleaning felt like it was a thousand pages. 'Does that mean, only around a hundred people were accepted?' Maia questioned, shocked at how strict Eldrian's requirement must be if that was the case.

This indicated to a person who was completely different from the one she knew. The Eldrian they had first met was a carefree person who seemed to love just practicing magic and wasting the day away.

"Right, now these guys. I think they can skip the test, maybe just do the first part so I know a bit about them beforehand." Eldrian mumble as he picked up the six exceptional again.

Four of them were centaurs; Sofime, Demilea, Dyneira, Argius. Then there were also two demi-humans, one indicated that he was a wolfkin, and the other was a lizardkin; Aspen and Brazan respectively.

'They really had interesting takes, especially Brazan.' Rereading it, Eldrian had to appreciate how much a bloodline might change things.

Brazan seemed to be distantly related to a Drake, how, Eldrian had no idea. However, thanks to that he was capable of taking control of flames around him.

Normally, this was limited to natural flames, and also just a few centimeters from his hands. He was also not resistant to these flames, having resulted in him burning his hands multiple times.

However, it had certainly given him a unique insight. His reply was the closest to the truth, besides that, Eldrian truly wanted to learn how he controlled the flames. Because, somehow, someway, Eldrian knew abilities didn't use mana in the conventional sense.

Mana sense was a perfect example, using it didn't drain Eldrian. Unfortunately, it wasn't really an ability Eldrian could experiment with, nor could he really analyze it.

'It might have something to do with auras, or it might be another unknown field of magic. There is so much I still do not know.' Eldrian thought, playing with a piece of ice between his fingers as he did.

Doing so was great practice and also was entertaining. Constantly changing its form as it moved between his fingers, Eldrian could now keep this up almost absentmindedly. Having picked up this habit during the past week.

...

Expectedly, upon logging out Joren and the others had questions that Eldrian had to answer. Luckily, he had expected that and the last hour or so while playing with the simplified Frost Needle spell, Eldrian had thought on how he wanted to answer them.

He wasn't going to recount his talking with his own subconscious, but he also couldn't give them nothing. As such, Eldrian formed an explanation between the two.

"Somehow, I had this feeling when I was on the right track, and similarly, I knew when I was doing something pointless." Eldrian made it clear that it wasn't that he knew whether these feelings were right.

Because, truthfully, he didn't know how his subconsciouses had been able to answer him. He knew that there must be something more to it than them knowing more than them.

His explanation also allowed him to get an idea of what this was. His soul had just taken on a much more real form of these feelings he described. However, the key was that what they said was still based on what he himself knew, or at least could know and was just unaware of.

'They are just more aware. And, interestingly, the first one seemed much more human. If that is even how I should put it. Regardless, he could hold a conversation. The other one, the one containing the aura of tranquility. He was more like a robot.'

'Interestingly, he was also far more perceptive. I hadn't even finished my thoughts and he had already gone through what I believe on those thoughts. And reflecting, he was right each time.'

'Regardless, blindly following either of them isn't going to be smart. They aren't omniscient.'

Luckily, Eldrian's explanation was satisfactory to the department heads. It explained why his brain was more active, in part at least. How he had managed to figure out how to control an aura, and how come he had lost control.

"What do you think an aura is, given all this?" Joren asked into the air, leaving it to anyone to answer.

"It kind of sounds like it is emotions given form." Constantin offered.

"But this one, the ice, it is the lack of emotions." Joren countered.

"No, Eldrian told us clearly that it could be. But it doesn't need to be so. Like he said, it can also be accepting the emotions and not letting them influence you."

"Which we all saw how it turned out." Joren sighed, the more they managed to dig into ANW and its wondrous world filled with magic, the more questions they had.

"Am I the only one not quite understanding why he lost control?" Gengxin asked, having tried time and time again to figure it out.

"He said that he failed to accept his failure."

"But why would that cause the aura to do anything. If controlling it means either abandoning emotions or not letting them influence you, why did having the emotions influence him cause it to burst out so violently?" Gengxin countered.

"Who knows? It might be how if you try to control an uncontrollable crowd, the more you try, the more they refuse to behave. Maybe his trying to suppress his emotions, instead of accepting them and moving past that, was what caused it."

Gengxin nodded, this was as plausible as any other explanation. One more thing was of interest. "Still, how is he supposed to ever gain control?"

"What do you mean?" Constantin asked, not following.

"I mean, it is clear if it is just anger. Being angry is fine, one can learn how to control it. In fact, it is a vital skill in life."

Continuing on, Gengxin asked, "But, how are you supposed to control happiness, joy, laughter? How are you supposed to stop it from bringing a smile to you?"

Upon hearing this, the two immediately understood and sighed. Indeed, it was quite possible to control emotions with a more physical reaction. It was possible to consciously push them down, which wasn't even the correct way of approaching it in this case.

However, how are you supposed to do the same with something that simply makes you feel better? Happiness, joy, fulfillment.

Or maybe, maybe they had it all wrong.

AN: A big thanks to everyone who continually supports this novel on WN.