A New World, an immersive game experience

Myropsis looked at Eldrian with worry, her dad and Tovack stood to the side sharing a knowing look. Their expressions were ones of curiosity and wonder, and a bit of amusement seeing the young centaurette's panic.

Eldrian's condition seemed to be far better but neither of them could imagine what was going to happen next.  When Eldrian started absorbing mana at an insane rate again Myropsis became flustered and the two laughed at her cute actions.

"Myropsis, it's okay. He seems to be in control this time." Her dad said, she nodded but her worries did not disappear. After spending so long together, exploring the wonders of magic and learning so much. She was shocked at how close she felt to Eldrian, at how worried she was at this moment.

Each time his face distorted in pain, her heart would ache just a little more. And as his face returned to normal the vice squeezing her heart slowly loosened its death grip.

'My mana is now all becoming part of my body for real.' Eldrian remarked, 'This means I will no longer have any free-standing mana to manipulate.'

'While I suspect casting will be easier and I can use the mana around me, I still need some sort of storage of personal mana. If I have to draw in mana each time, and especially if the environment lacks a certain element or even the entire elemental aspect, it might be more difficult.'

Of course, Eldrian could always convert the mana to the correct aspect or element. Doing so however is an extra step that would slow his casting. And in battle, even less than a second could cost him and others their lives.

After a moment of deliberation, Eldrian turned to the magic abyss, or more specifically, to his consciousness. To his soul. It was part of him, a different world that was separate but connected.

In fact, the magic abyss was not a far-off place. It was like another layer just beyond the consciousness, or perhaps just beyond the subconscious. It was something that was within everyone, some just couldn't open the door to gain access to the magic abyss.

The mana Eldrian was absorbing he sent to his special little large mental room. There he planned to form the seven elements again. But this time he would also form a core of raw mana. Only here could it be stable in its raw form. Untouched by nature.

He hoped it would work as he envisioned. While this room of his was not the magic abyss, it was similar. In fact, it could be whatever he wanted. It was his soul, his consciousness. He simply needed to envision something and it would be it.

But he did not, he kept it as an expanse of endless space. For that was what he truly considered the human consciousness to be. Thoughts only momentarily filled it. The soul, he was not sure what it was. He felt it was only a part of consciousness, yet it contained consciousness itself.

Nevertheless, he was not bothered by not having the answer and his answers even being paradoxical. His own understanding was unclear but clear enough for him to move on.

'Like ANW, this is a different realm of the same world. And only mana can move between the realms it seems. No, that is incorrect. Mana and information, or perhaps only information, and it is relayed into mana?'

'Regardless, souls as I understand it is a collection of a certain aspect of mana called lifeforce. I don't get it, but souls can retain our memories and thoughts. Yet, our bodies are just flesh and neurons and it retains our thoughts and memories. Perhaps it is not always best to wonder why and just accept for a while.'

Eldrian smiled as he thought of this, the concept of a soul was a complicated one. And for once he was not in a hurry to find the answer. He felt enlightened, seemingly coming to realize what this world truly was.

ANW was a realm within the universe. A realm separate, not part of the physical. But existing nonetheless.

It might sound like nonsense. But he was now capable of understanding this. ANW was similar to dimensional storages in a way, though he did not feel it had any physical parts. Or perhaps that was just what the servers were. Like a dimensional storage, ANW was a space that existed outside of space but inside space?

In a similar manner, the realm of the Mageia Avyssos -the magic abyss- was a space outside of space in ANW inside each person but linked to all people. A multi-personal realm of an AI (Skepsi) that was closer to magic.

Most importantly, he knew that mana could move to it and back. Else it would not be possible to use it to experiment on spell modules. The same could be said for his special little large mental room.

He was unsure if the other realms also allowed this rule, and if they did was it possible to send mana to Earth?

He did not know, and for now, he did not want to test. He kept his focus on his enlightenment and moving forward.

The other realms, for example, the realm of souls was the same or similar to the magic abyss. All the realms of all the religions and gods were again similar. All the realms of the AI, of the gods, existed but did not at the same time. Only if your soul was entuned to them would they exist for you.

And if you were not entuned, did they not exist?

Eldrian had no certainty. He did not have the answer to what separated the realms, nor how multiple realms could exist in a singular world. Nor how all this could be part of a simulation of a game hosted on a few severs.

But he was not bothered by not knowing. Currently, he was extremely clear-headed, able to accept that he could not know, at least not yet. He did not become bogged down in the unknowns.

He did not have an answer for how the soul was capable of transferring between the realms. For this again he thought of the dimensional storages. He even thought of magic items.

He thought of the memorial flower and the space inside that he had created. That one would visit if one tried to connect with the artifact and activated [Memory Relive]. He felt that this one might be the aptest parallel.

The memorial artifact's [Memory Relive] was a space of a collection of memories. Supported by a Mov crystal. It existed only in the artifact, but maybe Eldrian could connect to it without the artifact if he found the right frequency as he had done with ANW.

If he modified that space, he might be able to form a physical form within. This physical form would still be ethereal or 'fake' for outsiders, but inside the realm it would be one hundred percent real. He found this thought shocking but also logical. It was after all how he thought of ANW.

Those in ANW aren't part of Earth, they aren't real in that world- on Earth. Yet there was no question that they were real, they were just limited to their own world. And perhaps they need not be, perhaps their souls could come over similarly as players had gone over to ANW.

They would need bodies to be able to survive. Avatars to survive, to host their souls.

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.