A New World, an immersive game experience

The start was shockingly difficult, almost like his mind was filled with quicksand. No matter how he tried to clear his mind, it just kept being filled endlessly.

After what felt like an hour or more, he finally succeeded to calm his mind and settle in his own mind space in what felt like an unstable little cave. About to collapse at any second.

'If just clearing my head is so hard, what is it going to be like trying to enter my soul?' Eldrian wondered, suspecting that for the moment he would not be able to return to Earth. While this was certainly a problem, Eldrian decided to trust that Two would be able to keep his body alive and safe.

Eldrian had no wish to wake up in an experimentation room and he had no idea what would happen if he lost his body. The more he thought on this, the more his little cave started shaking. 'No, I can't be distracted.'

'First I need to check my condition properly.' With that thought Eldrian inspected his body in full, he was quite shocked by the damage. This checkup was done mentally, strangely, this showed him his condition in a far better light than his eyes would ever be able to see. And what he saw was saddening.

Only after understanding his condition did he call up the interface to get some details. Sadly, calling it up did nothing.

He had to actually focus its attention on the anomalies he had discovered himself, a curious situation and one that was most certainly not optimal. However, he was happy that it seemed to work. While it did not tell him much, it at least gave him a name to what these foreign anomalies were.

[Soul Fatigue]

[Curse of ruin]

'I guess Athtar and the others weren't kind enough to lift the curse, or could even they do nothing about it?' Eldrian questioned, he assumed this was part of why his body felt so heavy. But more so he felt this was likely why his emotions had been far more volatile of late.

'But I can't just blame the curse, I've always been reckless and volatile in action. I thought I was being more careful, but I wanted to take a risk to test my limits. Why? There is no need to know my limits. Sure, it might be handy in a tough fight to know one's limits, but the risk of finding them is completely unnecessary. I should have never seemed to determine them when it wasn't forced onto me.'

'I should have paused and destroyed the entire building from afar, giving myself distance and time to react if the orc was stronger than suspect. If I used one of the cannons-- that would have been ideal. All I needed to do was pause a little and think.'

Focusing on these two statuses, unfortunately, it seemed that he wasn't going to get more details for now. Sighing, Eldrian moved back to his mana network. It felt similar to when he had first started learning magic with the magic crystal alongside Dave.

His mana network was seemingly being pulled to all sides, just barely managing to stay as a single whole. Spending some time, Eldrian tried to figure out why this was. As he was busy with this, he also noted that currently his stats were heavily reduced. Almost an 80% reduction.

'I'd suspect that is due to the soul fatigue.' Eldrian mumbled, naturally it sucked and made it all the clearer that currently he would not be able to fight. Luckily, he had no wish to dive headfirst into danger again.

'I'll wait on trying to enter my soul, might be dangerous.' Eldrian decided, and after spending a few more minutes getting a grasp on his condition, he exited his meditative state and looked at Vivian who was still completely still. If one didn't watch closely it would almost seem like she wasn't even breathing.

'Wait...' Reaching out, Eldrian took her hand in his. He got chills as he touched her hand. A hand colder than ice.

'Fuck!' Using mana sense again Eldrian called up Vivian's stats. However, he saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Her health was full, as was her stamina and mana, and she had no debuffs or anything that he could see that indicated that she was under some adverse effect. Sure her mana flow was strange, but that made sense if she was making a breakaway.

'Wait! Her mana is flowing!' Eldrian froze as this fact finally made it into his mind, he was so used to his own that he had almost forgotten that for normal people this wasn't a thing.

Theirs would always be a static pool near their diaphragm. Realizing this, Eldrian nodded with a smile. If Vivian was truly making a breakthrough into a hidden class, then it would be wonderful news. He only hoped that it would not end disastrously as some of his attempts.

While Eldrian wanted to do something, to try and help her in her attempt. He wasn't sure if doing so would be right or not. He was now almost certain that she was busy with some sort of breakthrough and he understood well the consequences that random meddling could have.

'But surely a blanket wouldn't interfere.' Eldrian thought, looking around sadly there was no longer such a thing in the room. Stepping out for a moment, he quickly took one from the spare rooms and after covering Vivian he decided he should leave.

"Is she fine?" Maia asked as soon as Eldrian returned to the first floor.

"I'm not sure. I think she is busy with a breakthrough. Can I ask you to stay here until she finishes?"

Nodding Maia quickly agreed.

After leaving his old house, Eldrian wandered the streets for a bit. Marveling at the state of the city, the repairs were mostly done throughout. Soon he found himself at the vertical farms.

Looking at the lines of lettuce already sprouting out of the soil-filled trays, Eldrian smiled. Getting this feeling that this is what science and magic should be about. That it should bring life, not take it away.

The vertical farm was quite basic in design, so basic it should be considered redundant. Only around two meters high in total. It had a couple of layered trays where the lettuce had been planted. In total there were only four layers. The single line of the farm stretched for about a hundred meters and it was clear that plenty more could be added on top.

Yet despite how basic it was, Eldrian loved it. He could see the future of the city in it, and that was something irreplaceable.

"It is a wonderful sight."

Turning to the voice, Eldrian didn't understand what Myropsis was doing here but he couldn't agree more.

"I've been trying to wrap my head around everything, but this is such a wonderful sight, isn't it?" She repeated.

"Indeed, I was just thinking that this is what we should aspire for magic to be."

"I couldn't agree more." Myropsis replied with a gentle smile, "But, does it not bother you that this does not appear magical?"

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.