A New World, an immersive game experience

Surviving the first time had been quite rough. Eldrian hadn't expected a failed construction of his spell to cause such a massive explosion. Not only had he thrown 10 Billion XP into it, but it had also eaten another 3 Billion. While that was a massive loss, it didn't stop him from trying again.

Of course, he had to take a day to recover. Losing so much of his soul and having his consciousness shattered had been painful. Extremely so.

He didn't want to experience that again if possible. Thus he spent the next two days developing a containment spell. It was more or less a hollow sphere designed to contain a vast amount of energy. When it was triggered it would expand slowly—slowing the explosion.

Sadly, Eldrian didn't know how to cancel the energy from a failed cast. His best option was rather buying himself time. And, if things went according to plan, to use that time and the containment sphere to send the blast outside of his soul.

That... didn't work.

While he managed to contain the blast for a few seconds, he wasn't able to move it. Once the containment sphere reached its limit, it exploded.

Luckily, his efforts had caused the backlash to be less extreme. Even with 2 Billion more XP in the spell, it had only destroyed half of his soul world this time. And his consciousness had been able to weather the storms thanks to a simple energy barrier.

Building on this attempt, Eldrian continued his experiments. Eating into his XP reserves until, finally, on his 23rd attempt, he succeeded.

"Finally!" Eldrian cheered. His stacking failures have caused his expectations to be lowered. He had even come to fear he would never succeed. But, finally, he had found the right amount of XP required. While also developing the ego 'core' (what he had started calling the hyperspheres) to be focused on computations.

"Would you like my observations?" A floating sphere asked. Through his failures, Eldrian had abandoned the idea of having this second consciousness follow the footsteps of Two.

Not only would it be strange to have a copy of Two, it wouldn't be the most optimal. What Eldrian needed wasn't a friend, but more computational power.

His mind, while enhanced greatly by magic, wasn't quite able to visualize higher-tiered spells as easily as the lower ones. Naturally so, the amount of detail in higher-tiered spells was incomparable.

It was thus only natural to assume that his bloodline would need even more detail if he were to try and master it. He could continue to try and rely on luck, but a much safer approach would be attempting to analyze his own powers before trying to use them.

"Please share your thoughts, Core 1" A simple name, but Eldrian planned to have as many 'Cores' as he could manage. He wasn't going to be friends with these 'versions' of himself. They were designed to fulfill a purpose, and that will be their only function.

"You supplied my creation with exactly 15,76 Billion XP. However, only 15.1796 Billion was required. The wasted XP caused a minor explosion. A more accurate and steady flow of energy into the spell would result in an optimized casting time."

"Suuuuuure..." Eldrian stretched the word as long as he could, to emphasize how unimpressed he was. "It's impossible to gauge how much energy I've thrown into the hyperspheres while also maintaining their form."

"Inconsequential. It remains a waste. Furthermore, the approach you took was terrible. Attempting to cast the spell without knowing the required energy is simply idiotic."

"Yeah? Do you think I care? I couldn't waste any more time trying to learn a spell without casting it."

"Yet it still took you over a week to succeed."

"Ack. Okay, you got me there." Eldrian admitted.

"And, due to your wasteful spending, you've lost seven levels."

The implication was clear to Eldrian. Seven levels when he was low level didn't seem like much. But once a player surpasses level 40, the exponential growth starts to kick in. And he had been level 52 before attempting this.

In total, he had used over 300 Billion XP. Now he had only a little over 30 Billion XP left. Enough to perhaps make another core, but he couldn't risk it. He was at the limit of the XP he could use without repercussions.

"Well, luckily, this is the optimal XP for me to have," Eldrian said, trying to shrug off the loss.

"You are referencing your Earthen state." Core 1 replied, "Indeed, your current energy level matches that best. However, the link between the two realms allows you to grow stronger over time. A bigger difference is ideal for more energy to flow between the realms."

"I know that! But I'm running out of time. You should know what I'm dealing with."

While Eldrian had continued his experiments, he had also found time to meet up with Zaphreal. In-game, this time.

During their meetup, Zaphreal explained how they believed the world was falling apart. Something Eldrian had hoped wouldn't happen for some time more. Alas, he had expected this. Not just Ziraili, but even GAIA had warned him of this.

While GAIA didn't care much if humans, as they are now, survived. They did want—no, they needed Earth to survive. It being destroyed would endanger their lives too. After all, their physical core was on Earth. From which they had dreamt ANW.

Eldrian had been able to calm Zaphreal, informing him that he already knew that this would happen. Which had been why he had been so adamant about stopping Miracle from increasing the mana density of their home planet.

Alas, that ship had sailed.

While keeping most information to himself, Eldrian had simply warned Zaphreal of the possible reasons. Hinting at the past actions of those with 'special' powers. Aka, all of Miracle's leader's ancestors.

Sadly, there wasn't much warning for mana and chaos storms. It happened when things reached a tipping point. There was some warning, but only a few hours after catastrophe.

His best advice was that they should stop people from using magic outside the aspect of the natural elements. All other aspects cause mana to mutate outside its natural form. And a buildup of that is what leads to mana storms.

Chaos storms are more complicated in creation. But it would follow a similar line of causality. As long as no one used the now abundant mana filling the planet, things wouldn't escalate too fast.

"If we are short on time, then why are we arguing?" Core 1 asked.

Eldrian was tempted to say that he, or 'it', had started it. But that would simply waste time and energy. "Do you have a plan? I still can't see a way forward."

"I do. It is a simple matter. You fail to use Chronos within a physical manifestation of the universe. Thus, you simply need to do it where failure won't cause danger to others."

"You mean in my soul, right? No dice, there isn't any flow of time... Wait, seriously?"

"If there were no flow of time, then time wouldn't pass when you are inside your soul."

"Yeah, I realized that! But the world here doesn't experience the flow of time."

"Inconsequential. The world is a but figment of your imagination. The fact remains that you experience time, and thus time does exist within your soul."

"Does that mean time ranks above the Astral?"

"Why would it? It means it is interlinked. Nothing more."

Eldrian blinked in astonishment. Astounded that he had failed to realize something so simple. But there was still one problem, he didn't know how to alter the flow of time inside his soul.

He had experience doing it during a crisis. Not much else.

"You must first categorize the makeup of the Astral."

"Well, how the heck am I supposed to do that? It's just nothing unless there is a soul. Then it can be anything."

"Niave. Did Ziraili not explain how time flows throughout all? And that the dimensions of space form the subject of all space?"

"But the Astral plane isn't in the same space as... Oh. Is it really that simple?"

"Of course. There might be a separation between the physical and intangible, but they still occupy space. If it didn't, there could never be a representation of the dimensions of space. There would be no 'form'."

"How the heck do you sound so certain?"

"You made me with the sole purpose of analyzing that which you fail to understand. And to that end, you removed my humanity. Thus I am not stuck to your point of view."

The reply cut Eldrian deep. It sounded so cruel. Something inexcusable and most certainly inhumane.

But he had been at the end of his rope. He needed help, even if it required him to make separate egos devoid of what makes them human.

"I'm sorry."

"Insignificant. Classify the Astral."