A New World, an immersive game experience

Even knowing that he should not become blinded by this increase, Eldrian couldn't help but want to find someone or something to spar against. Of course, he would first need to get used to his new strength and speed so as to not accidentally hurt his pairing partner.

'But it really is an insane jump this time around.'

[Attributes - Constitution: 604 <Was 549 - 311> | Strength: 539 <Was 466 - 267> | Agility: 700 <Was 626 - 398> | Spirit: 661 <Was 596 - 311> | Intelligence: 600 <Was 531 - 327>]

(AN: First indicated to value after Tier 5 was reached in chapter 665, second value to the last fully shown stats display.)

[31 free attributes]

[Stats - HP: 3341 <was 3125 - 816> | Mana: 2940 <was 2699 - 3722> | Stamina: 4933 <was 4664 - 1657>]

'I really need to be careful when moving,' Eldrian chuckled at the thought. Again imagining what those from Miracle must be going through.

Standing up carefully, Eldrian used Crystoi as a crutch and upon placing some weight into the spear, it smoothly pierced through the floor.

Staring at this, Eldrian was a little dumbfounded. 'Umm... Guess this is going to be harder than I thought.'

As he continued to try to move slowly and carefully, Crystoi continued to poke holes into the floor. Not long after Myropsis arrived and laughed seeing Eldrian so afraid to even more. The floor was now covered in holes, it looked like a piece of swiss cheese.

"Hey! This is really hard you know!" Eldrian countered, in his defense, he had just stomped his foot and was now hanging on for dear life. The stomp plus all the holes caused the entire floor around him to collapse.

Seeing this Myropsis burst out laughing. Eldrian joined in despite hanging onto Crystoi and hoping that the rest of the floor wouldn't collapse. Looking down he felt a little silly. The drop wasn't that far.

...

"My dad's forcing me to go back with him," Myropsis said after having poked some more fun at Eldrian. After realizing that he could just fall to the floor below, Myropsis had laughed even more at how flustered he had been when falling.

"I see..." Eldrian forced a smile, "I'm sure your parents miss you a lot."

"But I don't want to go. I know they are going to force me to stay put... Why don't you come with me?"

"I can't... There is still too much I need to do. Learning how to control my speed and strength is certainly now the foremost."

Myropsis nodded, she understood that this complicated things a bit. Her dad wasn't willing to wait, he wanted to take her back right this moment. She had fought hard to stay until she and Eldrian could talk.

"Then, you should make sure to come and visit once you have some control. I've already talked with my dad and he said we can use all the materials we want. We can even take over the family forge."

She laughed seeing the temptation flash across Eldrian's face. He couldn't deny that such an offer was most appealing. What he needed most was time and materials, receiving the materials would save him a lot of time and money, it would allow him to focus on his experiments. He had so many theories and crazy ideas he wanted to test.

Still, he did not want to leave just like that. He felt that he had been abandoning his friends. Most of the time he was busy either training or doing missions, he hadn't really talked much with them. Neither had he simply hung out with them, talking about random crap, just having fun.

He felt this especially since he had lost three months, he could feel that he wasn't as close to them as he had been before. The only exception was Myropsis, who he had spent so much time with while working on the artifact.

'Uggh! I need to grow stronger, it is a must if I want to help the kingdom and save myself. Yet, if I lose my friends in the process, is it worth it?'

Myropsis inched closer, whispering in Eldrian's ear, "Plus, you can go through our family library... It's only second to the royal library."

This offer truly tore at Eldrian's heart, it was more seductive than sweet nothings. It caused him some inner torment. On one hand, spending time with his friends. On another, having access to materials and all the knowledge he might need to find the answers he desperately yearned for.

'Is there a need to be so torn?' Two asked, 'Just go and set a teleportation point. You can spend a few days here and a few days there without any problems. There is no need to make this so difficult.'

Hearing the logic, Eldrian felt like a fool and wanted to kiss Two. Of course, he did not, instead, he thanked Myropsis and asked, "Can I bring Vivian and the others along?"

Not exactly what she wanted to hear, Myropsis paused and considered. "Yes, it shouldn't be a problem."

Not knowing how to handle the awkwardness that was settling in, Eldrian sighed. Luckily Myropsis quickly perked back up.

"When you come give this to the captain at the gate."

Taking the emblem Eldrian wanted to ask which captain, which gate. But Myropsis had already retreated. He could only sigh again.

'Why are things always so complicated?' Eldrian mumbled, storing the emblem and continuing to move around with caution. Myropsis and the duke left immediately after she handed him the emblem, by the time Eldrian managed to make it downstairs safely, they were already halfway to Kynigo.

The inn was now completely empty, looking around Eldrian sighed again. Taking a seat and recalling the boisterous atmosphere when they first arrived he smiled. 'Guess I should give Elizabeth and Erik a report on things. Hope the kingdom didn't act rashly when my communication stopped.'

...

For the next few hours, Eldrian did some standard spear routines to gain a better understanding of his own strength and speed. As night arrived he felt that he should now be able to move around without accidentally hurting someone.

As such, he decided to rush to Kynigo. His speed having truly increased massively, he arrived just as the sun fully set. The guards at the gate quickly recognized him, one had actually seen him in action.

Upon entering the city Eldrian pondered what to do and what to say. The first thing he did was go to Vivian's to talk with her. He did not push her to explain what she had undergone, instead, he tried to share his own experiences and listened to what she had to say in return.

After a few hours of chatting, he left and went to his mansion where he explained the situation to Aspen and Maia. He also found Brazen who had made some significant progress. Watching the lizardkin control the flames surrounding him, Eldrian smiled and took a seat. It looked quite magical, especially in the dark of night.

Eldrian watched and thought of how Brazen might be able to make a living from doing this, making a show of it. If only the world was peaceful...

As Eldrian watched he wondered if this was what his training looked like to others. He laughed, finding it strangely ironic that he had always failed to understand why people stared. It was now quite clear why, it was indeed amazing to watch.

'It seems he has truly come to understand something. I wonder if my little speech helped or if he realized something from it?'

The next day Eldrian met with Erik. The two talked a bit while working on the verticle farms. Eldrian first mostly listened as Erik explained what they did and how everything worked.

What Erik was busy with now was not a magically enhanced vertical farm, but rather one made of wood. The hope was to spread this through the entire kingdom, allowing even a common farmer without any access to magic to make use of this technique to increase the farming area for certain plants.

The design was extremely simple, basically just scaffolding onto which trays could be placed. It used standard dirt and would require someone to water it. Its basic design did limit what could be planted, regardless it should help many people.

It was so basic that anyone could come up with the idea, but few people would.  After all, it was easier to cultivate more land than to build something to increase the amount of farming area in a set amount of land. However, by building something like this it would be easier to protect. And in times of strife, this was far more important.

After getting a grasp of Erik's thoughts and how they used magic to enhance the magical vertical farms, Eldrian started joining the conversation. They started discussing things, with Eldrian bringing his viewpoint of what he had learned into the discussion.

Soon the two started experimenting with some of the spare materials on site. Just some celestial ore and quartz crystals. They then returned to the wooden scaffolding and started to think about how they could make it modular. How they could apply magic, but also give the choice of applying it or not over to the farmer.

Most people had no problem connecting with magic and thus magic items. They might not be able to control mana like the High Elves, Alicorns, or Eldrian, but they could feel their mana and make use of it after some training.

Due to this Eldrian found that there was a massive oversight in all magical items. They all required a person to connect with them, to take control. And this meant they had to understand, at least minimally, what the item/magic was supposed to do.

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.