A New World, an immersive game experience

Chapter 522 - The Missing Piece (Part 2 - States)

"Then what do you want to be thought of as?" Eldrian asked and the half-elf thought for a good while.

"I don't know, I'm your subconscious or a part of it. Maybe call me Two?"

"That simple?" Eldrian asked but already agreed, trying to come up with a proper name would be too much effort for what it is worth.

"So, what did I miss?" Eldrian asked after just a second of reflection.

"Right, to business. You forgot to consider how the other aspects of magic work. Divine magic we know has mana, but it is completely different from normal mana. We can't form it, but we can connect with it-"

"Which means it is still just mana. Just in a very specific state. But why would I be able to control it and not ether?"

"Not sure, most likely because divine casters don't control it either. Not even a little-"

"Ah, yes. They pray or believe in the spell more than actually understanding and casting it. And since I just wanted to change the target of the spell; I simply needed to overwhelm Ayden's will."

Two nodded, indeed all that he needed to do was bring up what Eldrian had missed and Eldrian would quickly connect the dots himself. They were after all the same person or parts of the same person at the very least.

"The other aspects, I was tunnel visioning on auras and these emotional spells I discovered. I assume what you meant was instead demons and devils... Interesting, yes, as I understand their source of power comes from emotions."

"But that source has to be different from ours-" Two added.

"And this means ours is unique. If it wasn't then anyone would be able to cast devastatingly powerful spells simply by becoming lost in their emotions. We know this isn't the case, wars would be far more flashy if it were."

Two nodded again, indeed, emotions might be part of magic, but it wasn't mana itself.

"So, emotions can at most be a catalyst, a driving force behind mana but not mana itself. And we know mana has at least four, no, five forms. Divine and death, raw, elemental, and ether. Then there is also the invisible, which is the case with auras and abilities. And what about stamina?"

"Another form of mana?" Two proposed and questioned at the same time.

"It's possible, and..." The memory was still not a good one, "I did manage to use it as a replacement for mana, along with my HP. I even used XP. Is that another three types then, or are all the invisible manas a single type? Is divine and death one or two?"

Two shrugged, he wasn't able to know anything Eldrain didn't. He could only pick up and combine things Eldrian had missed. And this particular question they had never encountered any data on, just that one case.

Of course, Ziraili had evened Eldrian and Ceph's levels but that wasn't really what they were considering now. Of course, the entire leveling system was also there but they knew nothing about it outside of kills gave XP and quests gave XP or levels.

"Mmm... What do you think is the difference between the forms of mana?" Eldrian asked.

"That's the question I was waiting for!" Two replied with a wide smile. "What does all this have in common with what we knew of subatomic particles?"

"Sub-" Eldrian's eyes flew wide open as realization dawned. "I get it, that- That's what those parts of the spell module do and what the calculation is focused on! That's why nodes are so important!"

Eldrian smiled and quickly envisioned a spell module as hard as he could, realizing what he was trying to do, Two quickly helped Eldrian. For the first time, they made a spell module while in the magic abyss, instead of casting first and then entering the magic abyss.

However, whether they were in the magic abyss was debatable.

Currently, it was more like they were within a bubble in the Mageia Avyssos. This bubble kept them from the surroundings and hid Eldrian's new soul from everyone who might try and visit.

Naturally, this also meant that if Eldrian wanted to meet with Ziraili he would have to break or exit the bubble. He was not ready to answer the questions she might have, and he feared the reaction this might cause with the other AI.

Luckily, Gaia was massive and even if Eldrian was a mystery and a possible danger, they couldn't focus on him. Not when they needed to also maintain their 'jobs'.

Instead, some gods who wanted to cull the danger had instead emphasized the need to kill him to their followers.

This entire reason was why Eldrian had needed to enter the game normally again, and couldn't directly connect with the Magaia Avyssos as he had accomplished once. Such an entrance would certainly be seen and reacted to. He knew he was already in danger, there was no reason to increase it.

"The nodes?" Two asked and Eldrian nodded, Two confused why he didn't get it immediately. However, when he looked at the nodes again his eyes flew open in realization.

"Brilliant, they are like little particles. Spinning and either drawing in or sending out mana. It's so clear now, and this spin-"

"Yup, that is the one for ether," Eldrian said with a wide smile. It was near impossible to notice this normally, these spins were normally something you could ignore and were indeed normally ignored.

The nodes were spinning so fast that it looked like it wasn't even spinning.? The only reason they saw it now was because they were looking for it. Thanks to that they could see how the connection with the pathways was disrupted and connected for a fraction of a fraction of a second.

Due to the nature of how spell modules were designed, even when the person who envisioned them didn't consider the spins, the spins would form naturally. If they didn't then the module would collapse and the cast would fail. Resulting in mana loss or worse.

This was why so many trail and errors were normally required to modify a spell. Not even to mention making one. This was also why the math behind spell modules was so complex, even when only approximations were used.

This might not make much sense, but one had to remember that Tier 4 spells had close to fifty nodes and fifty-plus pathways. All of which had to be in harmony.

"And these are elemental spins, while this one is-" Eldrain paused.

"Yeah, calling it 'raw' spins seems dumb. Neutral?" Two proposed and Eldrian nodded, again, thinking longer on a name was just a waste of time.

"What do you think the spins do?" Eldrian asked, it was indeed neat to discover them. Clearly, their first use was to determine in what form the mana would present itself. Or rather, in what state of mana.

Naturally, with all this one shouldn't forget that nodes also had either an input or output condition.

These were indeed clarified, and they determined how the mana would flow through the spell module. Eldrian had even experimented with them and been able to give a spell (Nidia) intrinsic inertia through doing so. This was also the principle behind the control of Tier 5 spells.

Altering these input and output conditions, and as a result how the mana in the pathways flowed. Along with adding and subtracting a few pathways gave the mage a semblance of control over the spell.

These spins were not connected in any way to these conditions, all that they did was alter the mana input into a specific state according to some conditions.

"Mmm, let's check another module first before speculating." Two proposed and Eldrian nodded, this time he summoned Volida as an example.

The spins were similar, showing that elemental spin did not differ between the elements. This made sense to Eldrian as he always pushed elemental mana into his spell modules when first learning a spell. Needing to find the right ratio.

"So, it then altered what I threw in. Of course it did, I always knew that. Else there wouldn't be a margin of error and finding the correct combination would be impossible.

AN: Just one chapter again, been really brainstorming about the conclusion of all this theory crafting and don't want to rush through it.. Doing my best to make it easy to follow, hopefully, I am managing that.