A New World, an immersive game experience

"I think this will do quite perfectly," Eldrian said while looking at the memorial flower, installed near the Northern gate which led to Trowcrawling and towards the rest of the kingdom.

Having used its function [Take root] the artifact almost appeared like a normal plant.  Though its location was weird, it was installed in the open square behind the gatehouse. Standing proud in what was otherwise an empty area, welcoming people to the city.

"Are you sure it's okay to put it here?" Maia asked, "Won't it get damaged in-"

"It's okay." Eldrian didn't know if he could repair it or make another, regardless he felt it was only right to have it stand here. Especially with the people of Diades going to enter from here. "Let's go see Pelaros."

For the rest of the day, Eldrian caught up on all that had been happening while he was focusing on the memorial. The city had quickly started making more vertical farms, the first one had already proven that it worked as intended.

These farms were placed in the east and west of the city inside the inner walls but not far into the city itself. Placed on the east and west as attacks were expected to come from the north and south if there were to be attacked.

Luckily, the city had plenty of open ground and wasn't filled with buildings, thus there was more than enough ground to expand on for the moment.

Sadly, this also meant that there weren't enough homes to welcome the refugees. However, it quickly became clear that that had never been the plan. For the time being, they would be kept in between the outer and inner walls while more permanent arrangements were developed.

From what Eldrian heard Evale had returned to Trowcrawling along with a number of expert builders to repair the town and expand on it to be a safe haven for the refugees. Of course, he had also informed Pelaros of the memorial flower and its special abilities.

For the moment Pelaros had decided to keep the hidden functions a secret, he would announce its other abilities when receiving the refugees. Welcoming them to try it and the same for the citizens of Kynigo.

"It seems I'm not really needed," Eldrian mumbled with a smile, hearing this Vivian wanted to counter but seeing his smile she nodded instead. "How are you doing?"

"As I told you, I'm fine." Vivian countered, yet seeing her appearance it didn't sound confining. She looked just as one would expect from someone who had gone without food or water for nearly a full week.

Her youthful figure was gone, her appearance almost that of a skeleton. Just looking at her saddened Eldrian.

"What kind of breakthrough did you have?"

"Not sure myself, it seems that I gained a hidden class..." Vivian wasn't sure of the details, it just felt like that was the only thing that could explain it. Sadly, while Eldrian could see that her mana was now active, he could not see the name of her class.

He was unsure why but assumed it must mean theirs are of equivalent rank. However, her Tier in it should still be low. 'Maybe it is due to the soul fatigue?' He wondered.

"Do you have any idea what it is relating to?" Eldrian asked after trying to call up her stats again.

"Nope," Shaking her head she smiled. She actually did know but she didn't want to explain, not yet. "But that isn't important. What about the rest of the kingdom?"

"Right, if what my map shows is true it seems things have stalled but that the orcs are attacking Vlisia in mass."

"Didn't Pelaros tell you what was going on?"

"I didn't ask."

"Wha-what?! Why?"

"If I was really curious I could ask Elizabeth, she and the others did go there after sorting things out here." Eldrian explained, it would do him far better than getting second and third-hand information.

"Why didn't you?"

"Because I need to recover and ensure I won't lose myself again." Eldrian replied, "Speaking of which, I should get started on that."

"What's your plan?" Vivian asked as Eldrian stood up and got ready to leave.

"I'm not sure, but I should certainly make some better weapons for myself."

"With what materials?" Naturally, Vivian had heard of the situation in the city and Eldrian's memorial had taken nearly half of the materials in Pelaros's personal vault. But since this was a personal task Eldrian wasn't going to use them in any case.

"I thought the best course might be if I checked on of the mines and got the materials myself." While he wouldn't mind using Celestial ores, he didn't feel that they would hold up in a fight between Tier 5's. As such, he would rather not rely on them. But he would experiment with them to save money.

The next most common magic metal was Mithril, and that was truly expensive. One kilogram of Mithril had a cost around a thousand gold. Of course, Mithril was lighter than iron. Almost like Aluminum and steel, but it was still costly regardless. Especially compared to Celestial ores which were their weight equivalent to gold.

Due to this insane cost, Eldrian couldn't even rely on his personal funds via the player's trade as it wasn't enough. He would be able to make one or two swords, but not much more. And he did not want to leave anything up to luck.

"Are the mines safe?" Vivian asked.

"Not exactly, but I won't be going alone. We need to recapture the mines so I'll be joining a small party for this."

Vivian nodded, understanding that her condition did not allow her to join. "But, are you able to fight?"

"Ah, I'm still weakened, true. But my magic should do fine." Eldrian replied, at this point, his stats were still reduced by 50%. But even with such a reduction he would still be able to deal decent damage. As long as he didn't need to fight against a Tier 5 he should be fine. And he was constantly going to be scouting for them.

"Is Ceph going with you?"

"No, he is also still recovering." Actually, Eldrian hadn't gone to visit Ceph yet, so he wasn't sure if that was true. For the moment he still felt too bad about what had happened and wanted to give Ceph space.

Vivian did not press, "I heard you and Myropsis worked together on the memorial-"

"That-"

"Don't interrupt me." Vivian quickly stopped Eldrian who looked quite flustered, "Is she going?"

Eldrian sighed and nodded, "Yes, she's the only person above Tier 5 who isn't busy. And considering the unknowns, we need someone capable of handling Unwilling undead or stall Higher undead."

"Good." Vivian nodded causing Eldrian to smile and blush a little. He wasn't sure what these strange feelings were, rushing out of the room he headed to the mage's association where they were gathering.

"How did the meeting go?" Eldrian asked as soon as he joined the group of eight. Everyone was Tier 4, sadly there was almost no Tier 5's left in the city.

Jannet was leading a relatively large company to push back the monsters and undead that had slowly started appearing more and more to the south. It appeared that the monsters were aware of their situation and were trying to capitalize.

AN: A big thanks to everyone who continues to support the story by simply reading on Web, voting for the story, or sharing comments. It is all greatly appreciated.