A New World, an immersive game experience

Chapter 163: Joren the rep

With this done, Zamia felt that Eldrian should now know the basics of magic. So she started explaining more about how the different dynamic users used magic. How it differed even in a race, and why it was hard to find a proper teacher even when living with masters.

Eldrian had first stopped her when he saw the woman all still unclothed. Feeling really weird to be seeing so many naked women, who by now looked much better. He felt they would start looking beautiful, or at the least good, again in a day or more, so he really needed to get them dressed.

This might sound weird, but he felt he knew how much he could gain from Zamia. He did not want to waste both their time horny. He used the time where he asked for a break to head over to Cephaphyr and asked him to help Sabrea and Margit make clothes for the women. Cephaphyr's plant 'transforming' skill certain to be a big help.

After some middle man acting, where he explained to Cephaphyr what they wanted to accomplish and showed him a few finished products -real clothes, he headed back to Zamia to continue his lessons.

Zamia started by saying that there were some general guidelines available inside each community for the community, but this was generally only the basics. Zamia admitted that she did not know the basics for High Elves, but she had seen some both during training and in battle.

She explained to Eldrian what she had witnessed and how he might be able to take from it. To add to the path he already had for himself. She also explained how each race had different ways of growth.

Alicorns generally grew with age until Tier 3, where they would stop naturally knowing how to use certain types of magic. From there they had to start learning other magics and how to advance. This was where Cephaphyr currently was, though his growth had been quick and really limited in magic types.

This did not mean they stopped growing. Rather their growth became slower, their mana would always continue to increase. But when they did not know the corresponding knowledge, it would slow down their growth tens or even hundreds of times from the normal rate.

'From what I know, High Elves have no natural growth. At least not until they reached their next level through practice. Once this is done, their mana would start to increase up to the limit of their current level.'

'Compared to humans, their mana growth is easily ten times as much. But the rest is more or less the same, they do not gain more strength or any other attributes. Rather, just their mana increases more. Similar to how most beasts have more health and stamina than humans, even when their constitution is the same.'

Eldrian listened to the best of his abilities. Taking most note of things he had experienced himself, trying to use them as a guide for his training.

Once Zamia finished explaining how High Elves generally seemed to be using mana, she moved on to explain other races. First, she started with humans again, explaining how they would grow with each Tier and how this differed from High Elves. She moved on to dwarves next, then demi-humans, and so forth.

Quickly Tuesday came where Eldrian had to meet the representative. He could not help but think about everything he wanted to ask the representative during their meeting. Somehow he had managed to at least half-listen in class, managing to make decent notes on their current work. Which was making a modular coding unit.

Once his classes for the morning were done, he excitedly rode his bike to the mall they had agreed to meet at. He had two hours before needing to be back for class, not much. But it was the most time he had free today. Latter than his final class and it would eat into either his homework time or his gaming time.

At the mall, he quickly headed to entrance 1 where they had agreed to meet.

"You must be Eldrian." A man in a formal suit said as soon as Eldrian approached the entrance.

Confused, not knowing how the man knew it was him, Eldrian replied, "Yes that's me, how did you know?"

"Social media, of course. Did you think we would not investigate you?" The main laughed a little as he rubbed his stubble.

This reply caused Eldrian to become nervous, wondering why they needed to investigate him. He tried his best to hide his nervousness, but the representative easily read it.

"Don't worry, we just wanted to make sure about a few things. I am Joren, nice to meet you." Saying this Joren extended his hand, which Eldrian promptly shook.

"Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, let's go and find somewhere to talk. You said you have two hours free, how long is your drive?"

"Oh, I cycled. Around 15 minutes," Eldrian replied as they found themselves in a coffee shop to talk at. Eldrian ordered himself a cappuccino and some chicken and mayo toasts, having not had the time to eat before.

"That should give us enough time. Now, where should we start?" Joren asked after also making his order.

"I don't know. Maybe explain to me what exactly it is that you want me to do." Eldrian said, having no idea how to conduct such a meeting. He had never been in anything similar, something common for freshmen who just started studying. They had never needed to be in a business meeting before.

"Right, that would be a good place to start." Joren replied as he looked at Eldrian seriously, "As many people have realized, our technology is far ahead of everything else on the market. This led to some unexpected roadblocks, one of which was someone who was able to actually do what you have managed so far."

"Of the three thousand game testers, none had managed to cast a spell as a high elf. This is still holding true for all the players who had chosen that race, except for you."

"This, even though we gave them access to all the information which was used to make the magic system. As such one of our fears is that no player would be able to reach Tier 5, unless we can figure out why you managed to learn how to use magic."

"Why?" Eldrian asked, confused about how this could be. From what he now knew this should not be as big a problem as he thought at the start. Not with the system helping the normal players.

"Oh yes, we never explain how players are even able to use magic. For normal beings of Gaia, they need to have a small degree of mana aptitude. This control is so little that most of them can use magic, only around 5% unable to ever use magic."

"We had removed this slight requirement from players. Letting the game system do all the heavy lifting for them at the low levels." Seeing the unbelieving look on Eldrian's face Joren continued to explain.

"This was done since from the 3000 game testers, only 50 had managed to use magic when this requirement was kept. We had thought that players would be able to learn with time. But even now, none of the game testers had managed to overcome this."

"When we simulate the beginning environment again, they are still unable to cast magic. The 50 who had managed first, still the only ones able to use magic without the system's help."

"We feel that this might be because they have too low an aptitude to magic. But we can't confirm this with such a little sample." Eldrian felt this sentence meant more than just what Joren said, but he did not interrupt the explanation and continued to listen.

"As to why this is a problem, we can't just let the system do everything for the players. The computational power it requires might not be that large, but if we needed to do this for each player. Taking control of their mana, helping their mental creations, and simulating their wants when controlling the spell, it becomes too much."

"It would also invalidate our reason for making the game public, but that is a more confidential topic." Joren teased, saying only enough to cause Eldrian to wonder what more was going on behind the scenes. He felt this linked to the sample part Joren mentioned before. Eldrian slowly remembered that the game was actually an experiment.

"So the main reason you want my help is to figure this out?" Eldrian asked, still unsure how he could even help.

"Yes, but the other thing you mentioned also piqued our interest. Where you had that.. Unconventional death."

"So there was something strange about that!" Eldrian said this so loudly and with great worry that the waiter almost dropped their orders. After apologizing a few times, Eldrian calmed himself down as he took a sip of his half spilled cappuccino.

"Yes, it is something which also never happened before."

"What! Did I really almost die then?" Eldrian asked loudly, but not so loud that he disturbed the others in the shop.

"No, I assure you that you are safe."

Seeing the poker mask of the representative failing to hold up Eldrian felt really worried, so he pressed more. "What aren't you saying?"

"You were not in danger of dying. But... Your character in the game might have died for real." Joren said, feeling it was best to put everything not secret on the table. At least until he had Eldrian reeled in.

"What!?"

"Relax, we aren't sure ourselves. But we speculate that this is what would likely have happened if you were not revived in time."

This news really shocked and worried Eldrian. He had just decided that both worlds were important to him, and now he learned he might die in one.

"Can we prevent it?"