A New World, an immersive game experience

Looking at the soldiers and their raised weapons, ready to charge but fearfully holding off, Eldrian let out a long frustrated sigh. "I mean no harm, feel free to verify my identity."

Hearing Eldrian speaks the soldier felt a bit more at ease, while they couldn't just trust his words, the captains of the nearby squads quickly tried to identify Eldrian's identity. Shockingly to Eldrian, none of them were able. Though to most this was an expected outcome, after all, Eldrian was Tier 5 the same as the strongest centaur present. And he had a powerful hidden class acting as a natural type of camouflage.

"I'll stay here until you've confirmed things," Eldrian said, not wishing to make a bigger mess of this than it already was.

While waiting he decided it was a good time to actually take a look around. Before he had focused on not seeing, not taking everything in his surroundings. And while the sights were still very unpleasant, he tried to figure out where he actually was standing within the city.

As it turned out, the location he had chosen for the memorial flower did not even have ruins nearby, but by referencing his map Eldrian figured out that he was just outside the southern inner gate of Vlisia. Right where the fighting had been most intense.

It took some time for someone to be brought over and while he waited Eldrian continued to experiment with his mana. He had naturally gained many insights from both Two's summaries of books and Ashliel's guidance. And while many of the topics he was interested in were beyond him, his mana was already integrated with his body, which would make enhancements easier.

He was also used to using [Augment] to increase certain aspects of his attributes during fights, he was practicing a similar skill. But one he was designing for himself from scratch.

Naturally, over the past month and a half Eldrian had also learned the vast difference between normal and advanced Tier 5 spells. Normal ones were complex for sure, but the advanced ones were something else. Seeing this Eldrian had realized why learning higher Tier spells would no longer bring him to the next Tier.

Teleportations, a spell he had to master if he truly wanted to protect his family and surprise Miracle, was so complex that it had more similarities with Tier 8 spells than Tier 5. While it could be accomplished at Tier 5, the mana cost was normally equivalent to a person's entire mana pool and thus the distance was also heavily limited.

Due to this, almost no one would attempt to learn it so early, flight magic had similar reasoning. It was slightly easier than teleportation, having the complexity of either Tier 6 or 7 spells depending on the type of flight one aimed for. The type naturally also determined the mana cost, similarly to teleportation, to most it was simply not usable right when reaching Tier 5.

The more Eldrian dived into master teleportation, aiming for point-to-point teleportation which was the simplest form, the more he came to understand how much he could still learn of magic. He also quickly realized that no shortcuts would be available to him. Or at least not any that would help him master these spells like other Tier 5 spells or skills.

"Eldrian?" A familiar voice rang out in disbelief, hearing it Eldrian smiled and turned to his friend.

"It's been some time since we last met Elizabeth. Why did they bring you?" Eldrian replied as Elizabeth quickly recovered from the shock, recalling that Eldrian had mentioned he was busy with some type of memorial artifact.

"They had only been able to discern your name and race, and as I'm the guild master of all the Chosen in the kingdom they turned to me." She explained before informing the guards that I would do no harm to them nor to the city.

"But please explained what that massive flower behind you is."

"Right, this is similar to the previous memorial flower that I made for Kynigo. I added a few upgrades..." And so Eldrian started to explain the flower's purpose, most doubting his words and none brave enough to step forward to prove them.

Eldrian shrugged and sighed seeing this, and while he could use it himself, he didn't have any particular loss he needed help dealing with at the moment. Thus he doubted much would happen if he entered the artifact's internal realm.

While the captains tried to figure out what to do, Eldrian immediately got lost in thought again. 'I really need to get the duke to introduce me to a smith capable of making a dimensional storage. I know it takes basically all the smithing professions, but it is closer to an artifact than a normal magic item.'

Eldrian was truly curious to feel the difference in the formation of a limitless ethereal realm like those of his memorial artifacts and the physical extremely limited space of a dimensional storage.

As he was pondering he never forgot to keep his mana flowing and exchanging with the surrounding mana. Allowing him to notice how it was continuing to slowly become denser. Eldrian assumed that after some time the mana would resemble the outer forest of Avgi in density.

'If this is permanent, it will indeed be a big deal. I will have to return periodically to note the changes to the surroundings. If there are any negative drawbacks, I have to be very careful not to miss them.'

***

A few days had passed since Eldrian had installed the second memorial flower. Farest, the king of Taurus, had been stopped from visiting the strange artifact due to the fact that the surrounding area was still filled with the rotting dead.

While it was a pain, appearance had to be maintained. The king had asked the soldiers to clear the area but as a result rumors had also started to spread. Every day people would observe the strange flower, some with fear and others with great interest. But no one dared be the first to approach.

While a few truly wanted to see what made it so special, no one wanted to be the first to move near to it. Eldrian had explained to them how it worked and the fact that it would display their memories and even influence the emotions of everyone in the area made everyone reluctant.

They could not fathom why the creator of the artifact would make it so embarrassing to use. To use the artifact was to bear one's soul to all those around. This stopped even the most curious from actually attempting to use it.

And as everyone kept giving the artifact a wide berth, a group of centaurs headed straight towards it. The foremost individual's elect guards were all extremely anxious by their liege's actions. Unfortunately, with the recent passing of Sodren and the old king required elsewhere, no one could reign in the king's wish to see this artifact himself.

Approaching the flower with much interest, Farest was astounded by how lifelike it appeared. The only fact belaying its artificial creation was that the dew droplets did not flow from the leaves and fall to the ground. Instead, they stayed on the tips of the leaves, as if frozen in time.

"I ask you to reconsider." One of Farest's entourage pleaded as the king reached for the flower.

"You have all heard of the memorial flower in Kynigo have you not? Are you not as curious as I why nothing but praise has been spoken of it?" And as his attendants tried to find a counter, Farest placed his hand on the flower and recalled the method of connecting with it.

Realizing that the king did not even intend to first confirm things by using the memory beads, all those behind him turned pale but no longer dared interrupt. Unsure what would happen if the connection between their lord and the flower was broken abruptly.

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.