A New World, an immersive game experience

'But not right now,' Eldrian concluded. While he had reached Tier 6 with little fuss, his avatar would still take some time to get used to the increased density of mana now flowing through it.

'I wonder if this will bring any changes IRL?' Eldrian pondered while confirming his current state.

The high density mana flowing through his body was still finding its place, and his body was adapting to it. It shouldn't take long for it all to stabilize, since the framework had been there from his last attempt. But Eldrian didn't want to rush things.

"The question now is, what are we going to do with all of these?" Pelaros mumbled, turning his attention to the monster corpses. "We can't just leave them lying here. Evale, can you go fetch some people, preferably some Chosen, to help carry them back?"

"Sure." Evale replied, hurrying along.

They needed to avoid letting the bodies rot. But more importantly, they couldn't let them stay as is. With how close they were to the Encroaching, it was entirely possible for the monsters to resurrect as undead. There was still a lingering scent of death around the area due to the past presences of the undead.

Pelaros had ordered the soldiers to collect all the undead and burn them, and also sent quest to the adventurers and Chosen to do the same. Yet, the stench still prevailed. It would take a long time for it to truly disappear. Especially since Pyknos and the Lost Grove are both heavily contaminated.

"Eldrian, do you want any of the materials?" Pelaros asked.

"No, you can use them as you see fit. I'll help carry them once my mana stabilizes. Also want to test exactly how much stronger I am."

—

Three hours later, Eldrian returned to the abandoned village, now clear of monsters. Pelaros had actually taken the child wyvern to the city.

Naturally, most of the houses were now completely in ruins. But that didn't bother Eldrian, he simply came here to train. And he had come here with one, and only one, though. He wanted to cast Creation.

It had been ages since he had stumbled upon the spell. Way back when he had still been using Aoidos. It was even before everything fell apart with Miracle. Even before he and Ceph had become Zoe Partners.

In all this time, now almost two whole years ago, Eldrian had never come close to the mana requirements. He could have attempted it via mana crystals, and he would still need their aid. The difference; Eldrian felt the gap was no longer too large.

With his physically flowing mana now reaching 10k, and another 30k (usable) being in reserve within his soul. He felt he should have enough mana naturally to keep things stable. He could even overdraw mana to fill in for emergencies.

And, while he did not have a large mana crystal at hand, he had seven medium crystals amounting to 70k mana. As well as a few dozen smaller ones. The leftover riches from the lich.

'I've also confirmed with Ziraili what should happen,' Eldrian thought, taking a deep calming breath. Sure, he had used mana on this scale before, but he had only ever made things explode.

It was intimidating thinking just how much mana he was going to use. Recalling the effects when he used a large mana crystal for Nova, how it had torn down even a magic tower. Eldrian knew that failure meant dying. Now, he didn't quite care about dying. He had the levels to spare. Should it come to that. If he was even going to lose any.

He wasn't quite sure how thing worked for him anymore. After all, he couldn't gain XP from quests, and by keeping his soul intact (by staying conscious and preventing the Realm of Souls from stealing any) the cost should be lower for him to resurrect. There would still be some to recreate his avatar...

'I wonder how much that actually amounts to? I also didn't lose levels... Then again, I am still missing my right arm...' Eldrian wondered what was going on.

He should remember to ask Ziraili when they met up again. Since Two's parting, they had made it a point to meet at least once a week. Well, once a week after Eldrian had calmed down and reached out to her. Which amounted to only this and last week.

Putting these thoughts aside, Eldrian started the process. Summoning the natural elements, he kept each as a ball and had them rotate around him.

This took him thirteen tries, since he didn't want to use lower grade spells, but rather Tier 6 ones. Even if the spells he created were simple, he wanted the mana composing them to be as dense and detailed as possible.

'Right, I almost forgot. I modelled my mana soul after this. Seven planets, one for each element in nature. I went ahead and added a moon to each without really thinking what they should represent. Maybe that should be my approach for Tier 7. Hybrid elements? Other aspects?'

The sun was supposed to represent mana in its raw state, but instead, it was now a blazing ball of wrath. While a halo of ice surrounded the entire system, like a meteor belt.

'That was clever of me. I should remember this. Perhaps if I pull mana from the respective planets, I can enhance the quality? Perhaps add a touch of lifeforce? Just enough to enhance the spell above normal?' Shelving this idea for later, Eldrian focused.

The basis concept of creation was that all mana was fundamentally the same thing. Free energy. Each element was simply attuned to something in nature. While other aspects covered concepts outside of natural phenomena.

Necromancy, for example, covered the concept of life after death. It was the only other aspect Eldrian was knowledgeable about.

He severely lacked research into different aspects of magic. 'Right, divine magic is technically the concept of miracles. Is that why it works so differently? Yeah. But that makes less sense.. Then again, bloodlines throw normal concepts of magical limitations out the window and right into orbit. As do Auras.'

"We start with opposing elements." Eldrian mumbled, returning to the task at hand. These distracting thoughts, while fascinating, would not accomplish anything. He had to focus on one thing at a time.

Bringing the ball of water and fire together. While he had kept the spells simple, their composition was far more realistic. As close to the real thing as Eldrian could muster.

As such, the opposition as Eldrian attempted to merge them was far greater. The spells hissed as they came into contact. Fire evaporated water, and water doused fire. Yet, Eldrian stopped the spells themselves from disappearing. Feeding them more and more mana until he got used to merging the spells.

'This will be far easier if I simply wanted to cast a hybrid spell. I see now why Zamia was surprised by my actions. Tier 0 spells really offered little resistance compared to this.'

After four failures and thirty minutes of struggling, Eldrian finally succeeded in this first step. Having water and flame exist in harmony. Rotating around each other without interfering with one another. Like Yin and Yang, just like last time.

The fire now appeared plasma like, while the water appeared denser than normal. Like it was stuck between a frozen state and liquid, but had no crystals. Only its viscosity having increased, giving it a smooth sheen-like appearance. Almost like it was some type of new form of matter.

"I need a break." Eldrian grumbled. Yet he did not want to drop things here. However, managing just these two seemed to be his limit for now.

He kept them going for as long as he could. And once he lost focus, and the spells canceled each other out, he recast them, re-merged them, and repeat.