A New World, an immersive game experience

From his recent experience, Eldrian understood that crystalline rocks were his best bet to find something that could hold mana. They did not need to evolve like celestial ores and higher-ranked metals to be capable of this. They just need to have existed in a mana-rich area for long enough.

'Mana rich area-' Eldrian laughed but did not give up. Continuing his search, especially since he had found that the area had amethysts crystals in abundance.

He knew that this was the crystal that given enough time evolved into Mov Crystals, and possibly even Magic Crystals. And while most of the crystals in the stream seemed to not be of great quality, that did not disparage Eldrian.

No, armed with this knowledge that this was the crystal that gave birth to Magic Crystals, he could not give up unless he truly found none. He would at the very least search the entire stream, though he was aware of his time restriction and thus would not venture far from the stream in his search.

His perseverance paid off, after almost half the day, Eldrian had found a large piece with a tiny amount of mana. The amount was almost laughable, not even a tenth of what the quartz crystals Eldrian had experimented with had. And quartz was less mana conductive than amethyst.

Yet, this did not phase him. He was ecstatic beyond belief.

The crystal was larger than his hand but it should only have around a hundred MP. A quartz crystal of this size would have well over a thousand. But that was not what was important, what was important is that it proved that mana was not just in the air.

It gave Eldrian a possible stable source of mana on Earth.

It would give him a way to use magic without risking an imbalance. And more importantly, this crystal held an amount of mana equivalent to a fifth of his personal mana in this body. His real body lacked a mana network, did not even have mana pathways. He had not dared attempt making one, fearing the backlash.

Thus, this body of his was equivalent to someone at Tier 4 without a hidden class. Superhuman for someone of Earth, but lacking compared to his ANW avatar.

Sadly, Eldrian doubted he would find any more crystals with mana. After all, he had searched nearly 90% of the stream to find this one, having gone down the mountain to the woods below even.

He was also aware that he should try to return to ANW as soon as he could, but just as aware that he could not neglect this.

'This... Should I share this knowledge? I can try to use it in negotiations when it comes to it.' Eldrian pondered, after making the memorial artifact he was far more aware of the difference between experimentation on items and with spells randomly.

Both were still dangerous, but with the items -generally- only it would explode and be destroyed. At least, that was his experience thus far. The item itself acted as containment and catalyst, allowing mana to be more effectively used while limiting the possible backlash.

Of course, he would still need to confirm if it worked the same on Earth. He also knew that this would not hold at higher levels, remembering the chaos when Solvi had made Crystoi. Earth was likely to start reacting at lower levels, but it was still a possibility.

'It might be more restrictive, but it is a true path forward...' His eyes shone as he wondered if it would be possible to have mana collect in similar type crystals artificially.

With this in mind, he collected as many as he could carry and hurried to his cave. Where he added some simple mana storage runes, plus what he understood as recovery runes. Normally used to gather mana in an area. Used in both magic towers and the farming arrays.

Spending a few hours doing this with as many as he could and a couple of other unique-looking stones, Eldrian finally turned to the crystal that had mana. The only one he had found in all this time as night came around the corner. The setting sun was a beautiful sight in the mountains, but one he did not take a moment to enjoy.

He was hesitant to use the crystal for this, but he didn't have a better choice. His knowledge was still too limited to attempt a warning system capable of reaching him while in ANW.

He was still uncertain how exactly he entered the game world. It was partly focusing on the frequency that the headsets were on. Like he was piggybacking on their connection. The rest of it was envisioning the result, much like his recent usage of magic.

'I should experiment in ANW to make one capable of notifying myself on Earth. That way around should be safer. It might also start to answer the question of what exactly ANW is and what the connection is between them. The AI said that it is indeed virtual, not existing in our universe outside of the servers.'

'I can understand how I might be using magic to jump onto the internet and connect to the devices and steal myself into the servers. But I can't believe that that is all that it is, nor that I did that so easily...' He paused and considered for a moment, "Is it perhaps something like a dream world, where it would only exist in your mind."

"Only, this exists saved in the servers and thousands- no, millions of minds..." Eldrian was not sure if something like that could constitute existence, but he had never doubted that those in ANW were real. The science behind their existence was just confusing. However, it would not change his belief.

Picking up the mana-filled amethyst, he thought on how to use it best. To simply rely on its mana would destroy it without great success and had never been his plan.

Instead, he made a rune circuit with the aim to lower the mana cost, to make his spells more effective. Imagining it as when using magic of a magic item, the item's material affinity lessing the cost of spells. Only, he did not add the runes for the spells.

He hoped to channel that through himself, knowing this was possible from previous experiences.

Testing it, Eldrian found that it worked as intended. Lessing the burden of controlling his mana.

Nodding with a smile, he returned to the mound. Repeating his efforts, it took him nearly three hours to close most of the cave entrance. The last part he left as is, moving out he gathered some wood and branches. Covering the entrance and using them to make the artificial closure look more natural.

He spent some time on this, also taking some plants and planting them nearby and on the artificial cave wall after adding a layer of dirt. Hoping that it would make it appear that there had never been a cave to begin with.

'That should do, let's go back.' Eldrian smiled, taking a seat against the cave walls, focusing on his elven form and the frequency required to connect with it.

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.