A New World, an immersive game experience

Chapter 26: Magic crystal and Eldrian

"Ah, you are finally awake," Dave said as Eldrian slowly opened his eyes. The first thing that had clued him into Eldrian waking up was not him opening his eyes, but rather the fact that his mana had changed back to normal.

Eldrian was very confused with what had happened. Due to this, the first thing he did after waking was starting to look around the room again. Just as Eldrian started asking what had happened, he fainted again. Dave had wanted to tell him not to look around, as he had suspected Eldrian would feint again. Unfortunately, Dave had been a step too late.

'Dammit, he shouldn't look at the magic crystal.' Dave mumbled to himself as he decided to cast an ice spell to hide the mana crystal from Eldrian until he was better prepared. Luckily Eldrian had only been out for around 10 minutes, so Dave decided to wait again.

As he waited he cast Magic-Inspection again to see if the same thing was happening with Eldrian's mana. He was glad that there weren't any new surprises but still irritated that Eldrian was sleeping again, as it meant he had to wait for a while again.

As Dave waited and looked at Eldrian with Magic-Inspection he couldn't help but wonder what on earth was going on. It seems to him that Eldrian had a very strong and strange connection to the magic crystal. Dave was unaware if this was a racial aspect or an individual one. He was unsure because he had never heard rumors related to this matter or anything similar to this.

Eldrian's mana was circulating inside his body. Which was starkly different from before as it had been static, but this wasn't the main difference. His mana formed a completely different pattern inside him as it was circulating than the form his mana had taken when it was static.

On top of this Eldrian's mana kept changing color, which normally indicated, to the caster of Magic-Inspection, the magic element the mana was communing with and that the mana was in an active state. Normally this would only happen when someone had already created their spell module and was getting ready to cast their spell.

But even then the mana would only change color as it flowed into the spell module, right before forming the spell.

All the mana left inside someone's body would stay a soft white color, very similar to a mist. Naturally, this only appeared in this color under the effect Magic-Inspections. Since mana was known to be colorless.

But Eldrian's mana was freely changing between a few common elements as it flowed through him.

The colors most prevalent were; Light green relating to nature's magic, which is the magic of communing, manipulating, or stimulating natural things. Then it was light blue relating to ice magic followed by white-green relating to wind magic and then earthen-brown relating to earth magic.

Other colors also came into being, but much less frequent than these ones mentioned.

The mana then flowed through Eldrian just like blood would through people, following his veins and arteries, being propelled by pulses. The pulses also seemed to form at Eldrian's heart, but Dave felt this was wrong.

Some monster or magical creature has this feature, but he had never heard of any humanoid with this feature. Dave felt certain that there would at least be rumors of this if it was common for High Elves, which made him think that it was a singular or rare case.

With each pulse, some of the Eldrian's mana would change color, while others would stay the color they had been or revert to the normal appearance of mana. While some of Eldrian's mana would undergo no change, staying the soft white color it had been.

'What on earth can this mean. I think the colors would show his magic inclinations, but I have never seen mana move through someone like this. How I wish I had another High Elf to compare this with.' Dave thought to himself as he turned his gaze to look at himself.

The mana in his body created a pool where his diaphragm was situated, between his heart and stomach. This pool was more like a circulating river than a real pool. When he cast a spell, then a stream would form to the location where he was going to cast it. Often this stream would follow a main vein or arteries, but not always.

When he instead used a skill, which was internal magic, the stream would go to where it needed to be. So if he was using a skill to increase his vitality and giving him a natural regeneration effect, a normal mana stream would form, to the part he wanted it to focus on.

If he wanted to focus his entire body then it would go to his heart, where the mana would then enter the skill module. The mana would change to green as it enters the skill module and stayed around his heart. The mana would stay inside the skill module, flowing inside it. The module itself would be superimposed over his heart, or any relating organ, muscle, skin ext.

The key difference is that in all cases the mana had to use a module to change color, while Eldrian's seemed to be doing it randomly, without any influence.

'The form his mana takes, following his veins and arteries might be a reason why High Elves are said to be able to instant cast spells. It makes sense if their entire body is always connected to their mana.' Dave thought as he tried to think of the impacts this would have, while also trying to connect it to what he knew.

He also reasoned that it might be a reason why High Elves take so long to control their own mana. If their true mana form was so complex, then they would take much longer than others to gain control of it. Unlike others who just have a pool, they can pull mana from.

'Why did I miss all these veins in the beginning then?' Dave asked himself as he thought to here. He hadn't seen any such veins when Eldrian had tried casting a spell. Instead, his mana had looked just like his own.

'Maybe they have to actively form it into such, or it might just be the influence of the magic crystal. Or it might be a hidden state.' Dave thought to himself when he realized that Eldrian's mana had looked normal previously.

Eldrian woke up while Dave was still trying to figure out why Eldrian's mana appeared normal, relative to humans, when he was conscious and spread over his body when he was unconscious.

Eldrian was very confused, luckily Dave started talking soon. "Seems that you have a weird connection to the magic crystal. This is going to be a problem. Not a big one at least."

Hearing this Eldrian grew even more confused as he couldn't remember a crystal. As he started looking around he saw an ice wall in front of him, blocking his view.

"It would be better if you don't faint for the third time," Dave said when he saw Eldrian looking at the ice wall.

"What is going on?" Eldrian asked, he remembered the first time he fainted after he had looked at the walls. But not the second time.

"Well, to start I brought you here to try and help you master your control over your mana. But while looking around you saw the magic crystal and then fainted." Dave said, to which Eldrian nodded in response indicating that he remembered why they were here.

"The reason we came down here is to make use of the magic crystal. What I didn't expect was that you would be unable to look at it. Thus I had to construct a wall to prevent you from seeing the crystal."

"Sorry for the trouble," Eldrian said as he grew curious about the reason for his loss of consciousness.

"So let me start where I had wanted to start in the beginning before you had fainted," Dave said after it had seemed like Eldrian was back to himself.

"We are now in the true heart of the magic tower. We call this room the tower dungeon. This is where the mana is transported to and then stored." Dave said as he pointed to the arrays on the walls.

"We use the arrays to gather the mana and if needed, to cast spells. Each one is focused on one type of magical element, thus this tower collects mana from six different mana elements."

"For the training, I had planned, you will have to try and cast a spell in one of these six elements," Dave said, as he expanded the ice wall to surround the magic crystal, while also ensuring that the ice wall does not block the lines on the floor.

"Since you are familiar with the Tier 0 fire spell you can use it. Or if you want I can teach you some others."

Hearing this Eldrian shook his head and said, "I'm fine with trying fire spell."

"Good. Now here is the plan. Due to this room's function and the magic crystals properties, I expect you to be able to fail in casting a Tier 0 spell." Hearing this Eldrian was naturally very confused, as he had already failed in casting the spell.

Luckily Dave quickly followed up. "This failure won't be like your previous failure, where you didn't even succeed in invoking it. Rather I expect this room to help you invoke a spell, but you will have no control over it. Thus all your mana will be pulled to feed the spell, like water flowing out of a cup which had been turned upside down."

"This is why I think it will be painful. I have never heard of someone losing their mana so forcibly. The aim is going to be for you to fight back this pull and keep your mana inside of you. You will first have to figure out how your mana feels, before being able to do this." Dave said as he looked at Eldrian.

"Now if you are ready, you can try and cast the spell. We have no idea on what to expect until you try it for the first time."