A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

Three hours later, Eldrian could merge the fire and water without using all his focus. In this effort, he had truly missed Two's help.

Handing some of the processing to another was such a wonderful cheat that Eldrian hadn't realized how much he always relied on it. Sure, he had learned of his reliance during all the fights since. But this really hammered home how reliant he had been on Two in other regards.

Eldrian also realized that it was impossible to split his focus as he was trying currently. His attention would always be pulled towards where he was failing, and in so doing, whatever lost some focus would fail too. Leading to a loop of things becoming worse and worse until the elements canceled one another. The more tired he was, the faster this happened.

Sure, it was possible for him to multitask once things became easy as walking or breathing. But to get to that point required a great deal of training and time. Time Eldrian did not feel he had.

While he was training here, and while he needed the training to grow used to his upgrade, the kingdom was still fighting a desperate war on all fronts.

Thus, he thought of a new idea. Reflecting on his talks with the gods and what he knew of technology, he considered splitting his mind like a CPU splits it processing power.

When considering everything, Eldrian felt that Two had been like a second processing core. For now, he did not want to go down that route. It still felt too early. However, splitting his mind into different threads, each to handle a certain issue (but all connected). He felt that might work.

'Still, this means I can't focus on things too radically differently. But spells should fall into the same category. It should work.'

The question then became how he would create threads for different spells, and how many could he manage?

Eldrian spent the rest of the day trying to figure this out. And when night arrived, he finally logged out. Exhausted. Three days without sleep would certainly do that, even to him. Especially since he had been focusing so much.

Waking in the old warehouse, Eldrian smiled at how much it had changed. The guild was serious about making it a type of office. With how profitable ANW could be, it was natural that they wanted to maximize it.

Naturally, a physical location wasn't needed for this. Heck, they could even use the virtual homes instead. But knowing Miracle, and simply wishing to meet in person, they had gone for the physical route instead. After all, most core members were nearby. Close enough to commute at least a few days a week.

The first cabin would be installed within the week. Eldrian wasn't sure whether he would use it or not, despite Ziraili's assurance. His poor state, reminded him of the need, and again of the absence of Two. Three days without food or drink left him close to being an actual corpse.

"I might actually have died if not for my body being stronger than normal." Eldrian grumbled, summoning some water for himself to quench his thirst.

A mix of dark and water magic did the trick, not just water. Water from mana alone vanished when no longer supported, and the poor mana density of Earth meant it happened sooner than later.

This was something Eldrian had confirmed when attempting to guide Brazen. Spells weren't the actual thing. Sure, it would quench his thirst for a while, but it would not be the real deal. And considering his situation, he needed something that would persist even without mana.

Thus, he added dark to condense actual water by cooling the air, and gathered it with the water element. Him drinking from a floating ball of water would have certainly caused most people to falter in shock. Probably doing double and triple takes, doubting their eyes.

After dealing with the biggest issue, Eldrian's stomach growled. Luckily, he kept a few snacks at hand for times like this. Right now, however, Eldrian felt a soup would be for the best.

Using magic to prepare it, Eldrian confirmed the changes in his body. 'Seems nothing much changed,' He noted. For the most part, he was the same as before he reached Tier 6. This was a relief, but also a small letdown. It confirmed that what happened before wasn't the norm. Which, granted, was mostly good. It meant the chances of others experiencing what he had would be low.

"I wonder... no, better not to." Throwing the idea away as quickly as it came to him, Eldrian enjoyed his meager breakfast. Not much longer, Nikki arrived.

Naturally, not everyone in the guild lived in the same place. But due to how initial players had been scattered, most were physically close to each other on earth—if they had spawned in Phallos.

"I see you are finally up." She commented, her demeanor clearly betraying her friendly tone. She was scowling.

'Oh, she's pissed. But what for?' Eldrian wondered as he continued enjoying his soup. Heated to perfection and kept at that level as he enjoyed it.

"Do you know how worried we were?"

"Huh?" Eldrian mumbled, before suddenly realizing what was going on. 'Oh, right! I look like a corpse while in ANW. Sure, I've been using the headset recently since Ziraili assured me it was safe. But I guess me just lying here for three days had them worried.'

'Luckily, they didn't do something crazy like take me to a hospital... wait, isn't that what should be normal?

Now that Eldrian thought about it, it was certainly something to worry about. Sure, he had a mattress now... 'No, that isn't it... Yeez, I really have become a savage,' Eldrian was so used to living in the wilds that common sense no longer seemed to apply to his train of thought.

'But I did... no, that just makes me more abnormal.' Before falling asleep, Eldrian had set up barrier and warning system. With Two gone, he had to be capable of sensing when he was in danger.

Luckily, he had experimented with this before, and finalizing the product wasn't hard when Ziraili offered to help with getting the message through. It was also the main reason he was using the headset. It allowed for easier integration of a sensitivity barrier and kept him connected to Earth.

"Eldrian." Nikki's tone was angry. Demanding an answer. To what, Eldrian had no idea.

"What's up?"

And so, he got an earful.

—

As promised, Eldrian waited an entire day before jumping back into things. He felt it was a waste, but seeing how worried everyone was, he agreed.

"Time to add the other elements. Let's see, I can split my focus two ways, according to yesterday. One magical, one not. I'm going to go with magical, naturally." Eldrian mumbled. The normal way was naturally what he had been doing. But it was like trying to write with both hands.

Or when things got even more, like trying to write with his hands, feet, mouth, and some invisible appendages. Yeah, most normal people couldn't even manage the first step. With more and more players reaching Tier 5, the number was growing. But it certainly couldn't be considered normal. It was still a talent.