A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

"Do you have a plan?" Eldrian would not say no to help, even if most of her memories were broken and convoluted. Even if she was insane, he would not discard what she could offer him. After all, his family's lives would depend on his success.

Only, he had to make sure that she could be trusted.

"A plan..." Ashliel paused, seemingly struggling to formulate her thoughts. "I've had many and I've forgotten thousands. I can't really recall much... I can tell you that there are more that can use magic than you might think. Miracle isn't a company with many secrets, it is a secret company."

"Them coming into the light was strange... They must be agitated. Someone must be nearing the end of their life or they must have found something..."

"A plan... There are a few, there are some."

'Why is she going around in circles?' Eldrian wondered, giving her some time to sort out her thoughts. While she had admitted to having an unstable mentality. Before she had talked without error.

"I did not think you would agree so quickly. Have you talked with the gods of this world?"

"I have." Eldrian paused, considering how much he should share. "My interface is currently supported by GAIA and separate from Miracle's system. Or at least hidden from them."

"Yes, GAIA did say that. It was why I reached out..." Ashliel paused, seemingly finally managing to sort out her thoughts. "There are a few ways to influence Miracle and their backers. What were your plans?"

Eldrian paused, her story had been moving. Nevertheless, he had no proof that what she was saying was true. "I'm sorry, while your story is sad, I can't trust you just because of it. If you were to actually be on their side and I shared my plans... That would be quite terrible for me, don't you think?"

"Good, very smart. Better to be safe, indeed..." She paused, this time she took more time to order her thoughts. Drinking some tea and seemingly fighting to not lose her focus.

Eldrian could only imagine what she had experienced and lived through. Most likely recent events had forced her to recall her past lives and especially her first life.

He felt certain he shouldn't rush her, thus he enjoyed the tea and the surrounding garden while wondering how elves managed to live through the ages without going insane.

His thoughts did not stay on this for long, the beauty of the garden pulled him out of his thoughts. A rare occasion, it was simply too astonishing.

Many of the plants were certainly right out of a fantasy, of course, this was a world of magic so that wasn't strange. However, Eldrian was shocked seeing multiple ranked 3 magic flowers being grown here as if they were mere roses.

After two cups of tea, Ashliel seemed to have finally regained control over her thoughts. "Sorry. This is still a lot for me and anything unexpected causes my thoughts to slip and, well... You saw."

"It's okay, I can only imagine."

"You asked if I had a plan. Sadly I do not. I can't remember much of my time on Earth, none of us can. What I told you before was mostly what GAIA helped me recall. Even if I remembered more, I don't know the current situation so I wouldn't be able to help much."

"However, I can still help you." She spoke up quickly before Eldrian could question her. "I've heard from the duke that you are looking for a Lightstone and a Magic Crystal."

Ashliel paused, watching Eldrian carefully to see his reaction. However, he wasn't too excited about the prospect of diving deeper into his bloodline. It was too dangerous. It had caused a number of things to go far beyond his control whenever it was involved.

He dreaded when he had everything had to try and further the hidden quest. He was sure that if he made it through it would greatly increase his strength. But if it would help him, that was a different topic completely.

"What do you need them for?" Ashliel asked.

Eldrian thought on this for a moment. If he told her about his bloodline and Miracle somehow managed to learn about it... He wasn't sure how much Miracle knew of bloodlines, but after what Ashliel had shared he suspected they knew more than him.

"I can't tell you until I know I can trust you."

"I see..." She paused for a second, playing with a ring. "Then I will extend an olive branch. I assume you know how to access dimensional storages?"

"Of course," Eldrian replied.

"Here you go then." She offered Eldrian the ring.

However, he was still wary. Staring at the ring he pondered if this was a trap. Like with her, the interface gave Eldrian no information on the ring. Mana sense showed him that the mana density of the ring was insane, as was common for dimensional storages.

However, this density could easily hide other runes.  Sighing, she felt like laughing and crying at the same time. "You can take it and connect with it when you feel safe."

Eldrian nodded and took the ring, however, he placed it next to his cup just to be extra safe. Seeing this she felt even more vexed.

"What can I do to help you believe me?"

"Do you have a way to contact the AI?"

"Which ones?"

"GAIA, or... The system?" Eldrian nearly let slip the name he had given System, luckily he had remembered at the last second that most wouldn't know of this name.

"The system was before my time... GAIA is normally quite busy, what about some of the other AI? They are far easier to contact and talk with." From her tone, Eldrian could tell that she seemed to have talked with them a lot.

"I only trust these two."

"Oh?!" Ashliel was surprised by his answer. She had thought he and the AI would be on much better terms. "If what you said before was true, you can reach out to GAIA by making a unique function with your system. I can't do it, but if you can really use magic you should be able."

Of course, she could contact GAIA through such a function she had. But she was sure Eldrian would want a way to do it himself.

"What do you mean?"

"I assume when you were given your interface it was different than before, correct?" She asked and Eldrian nodded. "Of course, nothing can come from nothing, I assume GAIA also made it so it would cost XP for you to add functionality." Again, Eldrian nodded.

"I have a similar interface, only since I can't use magic GAIA had to design everything for me. Each time I died. Chose to die... I would meet with them and discuss what I want anew. They would then use all the XP I had accumulated in that life to update my interface."

"However, if you can use magic you can do this yourself."

"How? I can't connect with XP, it is a form of mana that is foreign to me. I do not even know what it is, I have no idea what to search for when trying to sense it."

"What? That's it?"

"What do you mean 'that's it'?! How am I supposed to find something without knowing what it is?"

"Are you dumb or slow... Wait, you've only been in contact with magic for a little over a year... No wonder."

"What is it?" Having her dangle this before him and not immediately tell him was cruel torment, it was one of Eldrian's first questions since learning magic. Yet, even now he had little to no knowledge of this topic.

"Are you able to enter your soul?"

"What does that have to do with XP?"

"I'll take that as a yes. That world, your soul. How large is it?"

"Endless."

"No, that is impossible, however... Considering your level it should be on the high end of soul sizes. Probably a few million kilometers in size."

"I don't follow."

"XP is directly linked to the size of your soul. Or rather, this is the case if you leave it in its natural state. XP is your lifeforce."

'That word again...' Eldrian's tried to recall the size of his mental room on Earth. While it was missing the planets, it had felt just as expansive. Had felt endless.

Yet, way back. When he first joined the game and learned of magic.  His soul had been condensed as a heart, and the mental room hadn't felt endless. It had felt distinctly smaller than the magic abyss. In fact, he called it a mental room because at the start it had truly felt like a small little room.

He understood that it was far smaller than the magic abyss. After all, how could it be larger than that realm? Yet, he could no longer comprehend the size of either.

"Lifeforce is as the name implies is a force behind life. It was named rather misappropriately. It is funny that this happened twice in two different worlds." Ashliel became lost in her memories for a time.

"It was named back when magic was still in its infancy. Even before our deaths. Perhaps that is why? We influenced the first generation..." She paused again, "It's quite funny how we came to the name, we called it lifeforce simply because we realized that our thoughts could influence reality. That it was an invisible fifth force."

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