A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

Convincing Vivian that he was fine took a great deal of effort on Eldrian's side. She had firmly refused to let him travel outside the city, so Eldrian used that time to strengthen the connections he had in the city.

Today, he was visiting Solvi's smithy along with Vivian. "You're really beaten up, hey?" Solvi said upon seeing Eldrian. The reports certainly didn't do his condition justice.

"I'm fine." Eldrian creaked out with a faltering smile. He was anything but. However, sharing that knowledge with others wouldn't help.

"I won't pry." Solvi said, sighing at how easy Eldrian was to read. She decided not to push. It was clear Eldrian didn't want to discuss it.

"So you want to use  that? Do you really think it will work?"

"We've already confirmed we can control it with mana. It won't be perfect, but it will be better than waling around like this." Eldrian replied. He was already tired of the stares of sympathy he got when walking anywhere.

"Right..." Solvi mumbled, looking at Eldrian's right arm. The cut was clean, too clean. It was clear he hadn't lost the arm to a blade. "I finished the base. It wasn't what we originally planned, but it should do for now."

Taking the offered prosthetic, Eldrian smiled. After some tinkering, it was affixed at his elbow. Luckily, movement was possible thanks to Eldrian's elbow having survived. Eldrian could already move the prosthetic to a degree.

Without mana, however, the fingers of the prosthetic would be simple ornaments. This was also Solvi's first attempt at making something like this. Runes didn't exist for such a thing. But they had the material left behind by the killed Night Terrors.

"Let's see if it worked. I tried my best to mimic how our hands worked..." Recalling the lessons she had received from the other Chosen, from Eldrian's friends, Solvi smiled. "You guys really know some interesting things."

"What method did you take?" Eldrian asked, the mechanics were hidden for obvious reasons. While the slime like material making up Night Terrors were resilient, it wasn't as strong as Mithril. Not when separated from the Night Terror, who could make it far stronger even.

"We chose the simpler path. We also need a name for the material, it's getting problematic."

"What about dark slime?"

"Not really appealing, but sure." Solvi nodded, not bothered to come up with a better name. "I concentrated the dark slime at the wrist and attached it to the ligaments as strings. There are a few different ones, so you'll have to play around to get a feel for it."

Saying this, Solvi showed Eldrian one of the failed prototypes. "These are meant to facilitate curling motions, while these should enable the fingers to move apart or closer together. And these act to allow more free movement for the thumb."

Nodding, Eldrian quickly grasped what was going on. Simply put, there were several strings he needed to pull—contract with magic. The thumb 'muscle' could do a few more things, but the others were more or less all focused around the constricting and loosening of a 'string'.

"Thanks... I guess I need to practice then. How about the enhancements for the prosthetic?"

"For now, I didn't add any runes. I wanted to keep it simple to focus on functionality..." Solvi paused, her gaze flickering between Eldrian and Vivian. "How long do you think this situation will remain?"

"No idea. I've plans to meet with a goddess soon—"

"And I'll be coming with!" Vivian interrupted. Eldrian could only nod in agreement.

"If I have to fix things on my own, I feel it will take me a couple of months to see any progress. So let's shift our focus to the prothetic."

"Alright. Then it is time for you to practice."

—

The next week was mostly focused on getting used to his prosthetic, and getting a better understanding of the damage he had sustained.

While Solvi hadn't engraved any runes into the prosthetic, she had enhanced the flow of mana through the arm to the wrist. There was also a slot for a small mana crystal on the underside.

Eldrian was currently flexing his hand while confirming the movements of the survivors. They were now close enough for Kynigo to send assistance for the last trek of the journey. Of the hundred groups, seventy had survived. A good number, in Eldrian's opinion.

"What news is there from Levana?" Eldrian asked.

She was their only source of information on their enemy. While all her information had to be taken with a grain of salt, Eldrian could verify it at the cost of XP. Luckily, he had come out positively on this end, even considering everything else.

The damage from the soul attack had certainly wreaked havoc on Eldrian. It and wrath had cost him around 3 billion XP. However, it had been offset, and some, by those he had killed with the Mov Crystal.

Wiping out a quarter of a city, including an entire army, certainly awarded Eldrian a great deal of XP. Even if the lich had escaped, the Tier 8 scarlet vampire, Draugr, and Ghoul hadn't. Not to mention the countless others.

Eldrian had killed a over two hundred thousand undead, and that should have awarded him 10 million XP. However, because of the state of his soul, and the fact that he died before everyone else, the rate of XP gain had been reduced to 60%.

Still, he walked away with over 5 billion XP from the kills. Pushing him over to Level 42. With how Eldrian was using XP freely to investigate the surrounding kingdoms and get a feel for when the revenge army would come from the encroaching. He didn't expect the 600M XP he had in excess to keep in him at Level 42 for long.

More than anything, he was using the excess XP to fill the gaps in his soul. While Eldrian had more excess space in the end, that excess was a useless void.

Everything past the devastated world was meaningless. It was excess lifeforce Eldrian had absorbed, but was unable to take as his own. Put simpler, it was lifeforce he had access to only within ANW.

As long as he had it, he had a cushion. He could lose it without taking damage to his 'true' soul. However, the last attack had damaged his true soul, regardless. Had damaged the core where he had created an entire world and annihilated it.

Eldrian was using the excess to slowly repair the devastated world. He had to move slowly. He had discovered that rushing caused his link to ANW to weaken.

Of course, Eldrian could prioritize repairing things. But he couldn't afford to lose his link to ANW. The fact that he could weaken it was a useful discovery in itself.

There was some damage in his soul that linked to two worlds. Which was the other reason he was taking his time. He was trying to find the link.

Should he find it, he would have the upper hand when negotiating with the AI.

"Because you destroyed the city," Myropsis said, replying to Eldrian's question on Levana's information. "they're moving faster than normal. If the lich had died, they wouldn't have known the cause, but sadly..."

Nodding, Eldrian also felt it was a pity. Due to the lich surviving, their enemy knew it was them and was coming for vengeance. He had already spotted their armies gathering. To date, they numbered over a million in lower undead, and the undead above Tier 5 were now reaching ten thousand.