A New World, an immersive game experience



But before all that, the first thing had to be first. Eldrian had to log off...

Per his agreement with his friends, he had to take good care of his actual body. And, of course, to make sure he listened, they had even got his sister involved. 

Eldrian did not want another scolding from her. 

Sure, he understood where they were coming from. However, he had been living as he was for quite some time. Sure, Two's death had thrown a wrench in its operation. But no physical problems had shown themselves thus far, even with all the neglect Eldrian gave his actual human body. 

Magic was surely to thank that it hadn't become atrophied and all that. But the fact was that he was in top shape thanks to said magical phenomena. And he now had the Cabin to supplement his body in long sessions, but... they still said he had to log out at least once every day unless something serious was going on. 

Such a cruel fate. 

"But, before that..." Eldrian looked into his inventory, finding the treasure chests. Just like everyone else, he wanted to see what they would drop/give him. 

Unlike everyone else, he didn't have high hopes. Attribute-increasing potions were good at lower Tiers. But Eldrian was at Tier 6, preparing to go for Tier 7. The increase of 3, or even 6 points (if he got two such potions), wouldn't make a difference when all his stats were over a thousand. 

On top of that, Willow, the only item in his possession whose requirement he didn't meet, didn't have an attribute requirement like all other items. No, its requirement was to reach Tier 10. 

That wasn't in the cards for Eldrian any time soon. Luckily, due to its design, that didn't prevent Eldrian from using it. In fact, each Tier from 5 upward opened one ability of the weapon. Tier 5 was the morphing ability, and Tier 6 was Cage. 

While curious, Eldrian had refrained from asking Boran for all the details. His Tiers would come when the time was right. Waiting in anticipation for what the next ability would be far more fun than knowing it all beforehand. 

After all, the unknown had a certain appeal. It was the entire appeal of treasure chests and gacha games.

"So, what do I want?" Eldrian asked himself, the little chests (presents around the size of a six-pack of milk). "Resurrection potions are always appreciated. But Erik is capable of making them, so that isn't really a problem. Oh! I need to learn a resurrection spell."

Tier 5 was the lowest Tier at which this was possible. But only for priests and clerics. For normal mages, the option became open at Tier 6, but had several severe limitations. The true form of resurrection magic only opens at Tier 7 and above. But even then it had several limitations. 

Still, Eldrian had to learn the Tier 6 one first to get a feel for how the spell works. Sadly, it wasn't a spell you could train like all the others. To truly master it, you had to use it as it was intended to be used. Which meant someone had to have died, and extremely recently.

The time since death requirement was extended for players, who Eldrian would practice on. Which made things a little easier. But he had never set aside the time to do just that. 

"I'll just stick with the others when they go on a quest." If Eldrian stayed rearward, they wouldn't mind.

Eldrian doing the quest for them, however, would be problematic. Some people would love to have it easy, while others were playing ANW to push themselves. If he was just their safety net, no one would complain. In fact, everyone would appreciate it greatly.

No one wanted to die and lose a bunch of levels (and possibly some unbound magical items, and all non-magical items equipped). And no one wanted to fail a quest. 

The time Eldrian had till the tournament was only about a week. He had intended to attempt reaching Tier 7 before them. Alas, despite all the progress he had made, things weren't quite there yet. 

If it was only a case of casting the spells and doing some slight modifications on his mana network, Eldrian could do it.  Ziraili, however, had told Eldrian to take some more time. 

According to her, she hoped he could give her blueprints of his plans before attempting the Tier up. A request which had sent Eldrian stumbling into the dark. 

He normally worked on feeling and some vague plans. This time he had considered preparing things more thoroughly, but not enough to make an entire blueprint (several, in fact) of the process.

However, Ziraili had explained that this was why his Tier 6 (and Tier 5 especially) breakthroughs, while successful, had been chaotic. According to Zirali, if he had prepared properly beforehand, then no monsters would have been attracted by his attempts. 

It was thus his fault all those monsters had been killed. Though, Eldrian couldn't really find it in himself to feel bad about that. At least, not back then. With what he knew, now... it was complicated. 

All the monsters had been affected by the effects of his breakthrough. He had originally thought they wanted to attack and devour him out of greed, wishing to evolve. However, Ziraili had explained that that was not so simple. 

She explained that when something, and especially living beings, releases a lot of mana in an unstable way (which Eldrian's breakthroughs certainly were), it causes monsters' instincts to go wild. This included some of the magical creatures who were normally not aggressive. 

If one were to equate it to something, the monsters would be overcome with a feeling similar to when a vampire has been without blood for weeks, or possibly months. Or the blinding hunger pangs of a ghoul. 

His actions had thus made them go berserk. Only the more evolved ones had been able to withstand this. Or those far enough for the effect to have weakened. 

They had not attacked because they wanted, but because their instincts had forced them to. Evolution, it seems, was something deeply embedded into the subconscious of all magical creatures. Monster or not. 

This was also why Vriski had tried so hard to eat the Magic Crystal, despite all Eldrian's efforts to stop the pup. 

Eldrian had naturally asked why only unstable mana discharges cause this phenomenon. After all, if it was all mana-dense things that naturally release mana into the environment, then cities would be a super monster magnet. And mines with mana crystals would be overrun far more regularly. 

Her explanation was that evolution through a stable source was more difficult. While such things, like a fully formed mana crystal, Mov Crystal, or even a Magic Crystal, held far more mana. That mana was stable. 

This meant that the monsters can't consume and make it their own fully. Apparently, the monsters weren't after the mana alone, but rather the energy making up the mana itself. In other words, the lifeforce behind it. Or the UE (universal energy) which mana and lifeforce are birthed from. 

"Chaotic mana has yet to take shape. In other words, it is in its raw energetic form. The closest form mana can take to lifeforce." 

That sentence had allowed everything to finally click for Eldrian. They sought chaotic energies to evolve not their bodies, but their body and souls.

Monsters can accomplish the same thing by killing others. But the chances of evolution through killing are extremely rare, since other living things are naturally in a stable state called 'life', or in the case of the undead, their state would be the stable form of 'undeath'.