A New World, an immersive game experience

Eldrian decided that it wasn't the time to dwell on this, while it was an important question it was not now the time to delve deeper into this. He needed to return to Earth to confirm his situation and to ensure that nothing unexpected was going to happen.

Upon returning, he could feel the lack of mana. Nothing appeared too different, but he could feel that his body felt slightly lighter, slightly stronger. Taking a deep breath, Eldrian calmed himself.

After making sure that he was truly alright, he first tried to confirm if he could use the mana in his body. He was pleasantly surprised to find that it was possible, though it was no longer as easy or as plentiful as before. If before could even have been called plentiful.

It felt almost like he was back to Tier 1, only his body was far stronger.

Sadly, Eldrian wasn't able to find the mana soul system either. When he entered his mental room from Earth he could now distinctly feel that it is not the same. That it is lacking.

'It's the magic abyss. It seems Earth does not have something like that.' While this was a bummer, it was not too great a worry for Eldrian at this moment. He had a few plans already, but he couldn't stay here for too long. He was sure that Myropsis must be worried.

Checking the surrounding area, Eldrian confirmed that there didn't appear to be any trespassers. With that, he returned to his cave home and made some extra renovations. Specifically, he found a large rock, large enough to cover the entrance completely. It had just the right shape that if twisted it could just barely be rolled inside.

Normally you would need three to five men to lift it but Eldrian had managed with some struggle. Now, even if someone tried to look behind the plant they would just find more stone. Plus, if they suspected something strange and wanted to move it, it wouldn't be that easy.

'You do realize just how heavy that rock was, right?' Two commented as Eldrian took a seat against the cold walls of the cave.

"Probably somewhere between two and three hundred?" Eldrian mumbled, it had been hard to carry it, but not insanely so.

'And you are just accepting it in stride?'

"Of course, if I have stats close to that of my avatar then it isn't strange. Plus, after this debacle, it might even be much higher."

Eldrian did not return immediately, while he knew he was pressed for time he still took the time to take stock of things. The most important thing upon returning to Kynigo is that he needed to make something capable of warning him while he was inside ANW.

This however would require a lot of experimentation and might take a long time to develop. Until he found the solution he would never be able to relax.

'Sadly, Kynigo does not have the resources I am going to need. I hope I can get something from the mine, I am sure Pelaros wouldn't mind me mining ore for myself.'

Starting to make plans for how he would get all the materials he was soon going to need, Eldrian jumped back into ANW. Where he again took a moment to confirm his situation.

[Tier 5 reached]

[Mana system destroyed]

[Body enhancement started]

[Mana soul developed]

[Legacy 'Pursuit of Magic' updated]

'That seems about right,' Eldrian smirked he already had a general understanding of the changes but looking at the system and its numbers still helped him to form the complete picture.

To start he first looked at the legacy information.

[Legacy: Pursuit of Magic]

[Mana network has been destroyed, in the process, your body has been enhanced by the scattered framework and high-density mana vortexes. This enhancement is similar to what happens with magic metals, crystals, and even monsters.]

[Enhancement growth - Attributes - Constitution: 45% | Strength: 25% | Agility: 25% | Spirit: 35% | Intelligence: 15%]

(AN: Mana system was respectively - 30%, 10%, 10%, 15%, 10%)

Looking at how lacking the intelligence growth was compared to the others, Eldrian chuckled. He suspected it was because he had not dared to lead one of the vortexes to his brain. He had learned his lesson, he would not risk it without having some security that it would not damage him later.

[Enhancement growth - Stats - Health: 1549 (200T + 40% base health) | Mana: 349 (25T + 10% base mana) | Stamina: 3080 (400T + 75% base stamina)] *1)

Eldrian could not suppress his smile seeing the growth in health, now he would no longer be in so much danger of being killed. He would still be wary, but this should give him some more leeway.

He also realized that this mana value was separate from the mana soul. Which meant that it was mana he could access from his body. Previously when examining himself he had indeed found that there was mana scattered throughout his body. He no longer had a mana pool nor a network, but he could still use some of the mana that was in his body.

And while he felt that the amount here was very little, it was equivalent to the total mana most Tier 4 mages would have.

Looking at the next part of the legacy Eldrian was truly impressed by how much he had gained this time around.

[Mana soul: The mana soul is in its infancy, it is the development of a mana system outside of the physical body. Mana as an ethereal substance does not need to be focused in the body. And by separating it, it allows one to further enhance the body without risking a clash between the mana mixing with the physical and that which should remain immaterial.]

[Mana soul form - Solar system with seven elemental planets orbiting a star. The star is made up of a total of 20k mana while each planet has 3k mana. Of this, half the mana can be used without risking a collapse of the system.]

Reading this, Eldrian was a little stunned. 'Doesn't that mean I can use over twenty thousand mana? Isn't that a little too much?'

He also clearly realized that unlike before this was not going to be monitored as cleanly by the interface. Obviously, the interface had trouble examining what is going on inside his soul, its values were only rough estimations.

"You're awake? What are you grinning at?"

Eldrian lifted his head and stared for a moment at the worried face. His grin grew a little, "I gained a lot this time."

"Did you finally reach Tier 5?" Myropsis asked, she had tried and failed to find gather information. Neither spell nor skill allowed her to confirm his condition, having left her with concern that something was wrong. Even Eldrian's mana was no longer visible to spells like Mana Inspection, not even physical contact changed that.

"I did," Eldrian replied, finally looking at his stats. A bit too astounded by the growth, he was now very confident that most Tier 5 entities would not be his match. Likely only Ancient or stronger monsters would be able to match up to his raw stats.

[Eldrian Avgi (Count)]

[Level: 41]

[Hidden Class: Protector (Tier 5)]

[Normal Class: Magic (Tier 5) | Melee (Tier 4)]

[Avatar Affinity: 100%]

[Attributes - Constitution: 549 <Was 311> | Strength: 466 <Was 267> | Agility: 626 <Was 398> | Spirit: 596  <Was 311> | Intelligence: 531 <Was 327>]

[45 free attributes]

[Stats - HP: 3125 <was 816> | Mana: 2699 <was 3722> | Stamina: 4664 <was 1657>]

'Hah, my health is now more than my mana... Wait, does this mean I still have nearly three thousand mana available to me?' Eldrian questioned, it hadn't felt like that when he had looked for usable mana in his body before.

What he had found with a quick search had felt closer to only 500MP.

"Sorry, but I still need to confirm what happened," Eldrian said before entering meditations. Obviously, these changes had made it harder for him to confirm things in a short amount of time.

First, he confirmed how it felt pulling mana from his soul. Indeed, it felt like first needing to open a dimensional storage. Currently, he needed a second or two to accomplish this.

While not long, it was far too much of an inconvenience for a heated fight. However, if he had time to prepare then this massive amount he had access to could truly make him a menace in a battle. He suspected he would be capable of releasing higher Tier spells too, if he was capable of learning them.

He also suspected that they would no longer be his hallmark for reaching higher Tiers. He would likely have to further develop his body enhancement and mana soul for those.

As for the near 2.7k mana that Eldrian supposedly had, he found that the interface was wrong and right at the same time. It had taken him nearly an hour to confirm things.

The mana spread throughout his body was both part and not a part of it. It appeared that depending on his will he could extract it or leave it part of the material. If he wished to use it, it would quickly become immaterial and he would have complete control. However, he realized that when doing so it also consumed some of his stamina.

'This is really strange... But at least this means I can still use magic without needing to use my mana soul. Which gives me some more time to get used to connecting with it.'

'My body is indeed very similar to a weapon now. Mana flows through it like it is a magic material, while mana is even stored in it as if it was a mana crystal. Both physical and ethereal at the same time. I guess this is how most things actually are in nature.'

*1) The T means that it is a multiplicable growth with Tier.

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.