A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

"Ummm..." Eldrian couldn't get out any words. Despite Ceph's speed, the shockwave had reached them and sent them tumbling. Eldrian was sure Ceph was alright, but at the moment his attention was robbed by the destruction he had wrought.

Where the blood monster once had stood, was now a crater of lava. The surrounding was scorched and flames were spreading through the fields. Thanks to the light of these spreading fires, the carnage was visible for all to see. Gloomily lit under the night sky by the flickering flames.

"Luckily, the devils were far enough from the walls..." Eldrian mumbled, looking at said walls. The sight wasn't pretty. All the attacking enemies were now just guts and broken bodies splattered against the walls.

Despite having experienced plenty of carnage, the sight was enough to have Eldrian waver and his stomach quiver. "I hope they listened to my warning, but... three may have been too many."

Needless to say, the XP Eldrian had gotten from that attack was far and above anything he had spent scoping out the enemy. In fact, it wasn't even in the same order of digits.

In all, he had gained 1.4 billion XP. That, sadly, was still not enough to push him to the next level. It placed him midway there. With 2.7B XP stored, and 4.4B needed for Level 42. He was just a bit under two billion XP short.

'I get how the natives are all so low level now,' Eldrian thought as he looked at the string of notifications.

With sadness, he noticed that there were a number of soldiers and civilians also on the list of killed. He hadn't gotten a stain of mass murderer. But it still wasn't nice knowing for a fact that his attack had killed allies, even if it was from the aftermath of his attack and not the attack itself.

Eldrian really didn't know how to feel about the XP that had given him. 'Better not to think of it,' He grumbled, haltingly moving towards the pit of hell. As he neared, his biggest fear was realized. "Three was infinitely too much..."

He sighed. Crystoi was nowhere to be seen in the molten earth. While he still felt connected to it, it was clearly gone. He even tried to recall it, but to no avail.

'Then, why are my stat boosts still there?' asking Two for his thought, his companion quickly came with a probable answer.

'Maybe it has something to do with the unknown abilities of the spear? Solvi had mentioned that the voidstone gave it abilities even she could not decipher.'

Nodding, Eldrian felt that was likely the case. Something to do with the voidstone they had added. He had never figured out what hidden properties it gave the weapon. And now he doubted he ever would.

"Thought you'd be here." Ceph commented, moving to stand next to Eldrian. He didn't seem hurt, though he was covered in dust and his clothes were a bit of a mess. Of course, Eldrian's new clothes were in a similar state. Not tattered, but certainly torn and dirty.

"Seems I overdid it." Eldrian mumbled. "Crystoi is gone."

"That is indeed disappointing." Ceph felt for Eldrian.

Unlike him, Eldrian didn't have parents who would gift him new weapons and armor upon reaching a higher Tier. Of course, for magical creatures, items functioned differently since they can't bond with the same way as humans and the like. But it was still handy when in a humanoid form.

A moment of silence passed as the two mourned the loss of a splendid weapon. "Do you want to ask my parents for something to replace it?" Ceph doubted Eldrian would take him up on the offer, but he had to throw it out there.

"That wouldn't feel quite right." Eldrian understood the logic, and it was perhaps the best option. But he didn't want to appear a beggar.

Besides, he wasn't short on weapons. Ceph had made him a veritable armament when each time they visited Avgi. Though most didn't last long, they were only made of wood. Magical wood, sure. But it simply couldn't compare to the strength of Mithril and the like.

They would do him just fine in most situations. He simply wouldn't be able to take on foes that were two Tiers or more above him.

And, of course, none of the weapons and armor of the devils remained. As they were all within the blood monster, their remains now mixed with the molten earth.

"She said you were going all out, but..." Evale joined the two, starting at the fiery pit in a cold sweat. She knew Eldrian was strong, but this was just wrong.

"I used all three." Eldrian said, and that was enough for Evale to understand.

"I-I see... We certainly couldn't allow that thing to grow and the magic towers are still contested..." Her voice turned to a whisper as she spoke. Clearly, she was measuring this attack to an attack of magic towers.

"Can they do something like this?" Eldrian asked. Thus far, magic towers seemed lackluster to him. The only truly power attack he had seen from them was from the trailer of ANW. Otherwise, it simply functioned as a mage capable of firing Tier 7 spells without cooldown.

"They are, but it isn't that simple. You need to ensure the backlash won't damage the city..." Evale stopped there, and Eldrian couldn't help but rub his head in embarrassment.

But what she said earlier was true. They couldn't allow it to grow. For they knew not how strong it would become.

While Eldrian wanted to wait for the earth to cool down to search for Crystoi one last time, he knew the city was still under attack. While the west was now quiet, the other three sides were still fighting.

"Not much for it but to go help the other gates. Evale--" Noticing a large figure approaching, Eldrian scrapped what he was about to say. "Captain, we leave the cleanup to you." With that, Ceph transformed back into his natural form and the two took off.

Looking at their departing figure, the massive centaur sighed. "I knew something was wrong with how fast you were running, but..."

"Thirty thousand mana." Was Evale's counter, and that made the centaur grimace and nod in understanding.

Such an amount put it at the height of Tier 9, or mid of Tier 10, in terms of mana. The precision was certainly lacking, but the quantity left nothing to be desired. Or, in other words, it was the equivalent of using all the natural stockpiled mana in a magic tower. Which would leave it in a drained mode for anywhere between 10 minutes and an hour.

"How did he accomplish that?" Vasiss asked, half terrified of the answer and the other half endlessly curious.

"He has this method of using mana crystals as disposable bombs. I've tried to emulate it, but it isn't easy. You need to surround the crystal with you spell without causing it to overload or leak. Then, at the right time, you crush the crystal's resistance and have the mana convert to the same element as your spell."

"He calls it Nova. I heard another of the Chosen is also capable of doing this type of attack, but..." Evale paused, "I never thought he could do it in such a type of attack."

Considering the difficulties she just mentioned, it was extremely impressive that Eldrian had kept the crystals next to the spear and only have them explode when needed.

However, considering his prowess with magic, Evale did not think much more of it. Vasiss, on the other hand, now realized that the one he should be most afraid of wasn't the alicorn or Evale. It was Eldrian.

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:)