A New World, an immersive game experience

Taking a few moments to collect her own thoughts, Elizabeth finally decided to speak again. "How did you learn mana control?"

"Mmm," Eldrian thought about it a bit, finding it hard to explain simply. "A great deal of training and the stars aligning." He answered truthfully, feeling that he would never have been able to do any of this without luck.

Elizabeth stopped herself from asking more, not wanting to pry into Eldrian's business. What she had seen Eldrian do was amazing and she wanted to learn how to do it. Not only for herself, but also for her guild. 

"What are you doing here though?" Eldrian asked, changing the subject. He had no problem with sharing how he had learned to control mana. He did not want to since he felt other players would not be able to copy him.

He did not think that many other players will be invited to a magic tower's dungeon. Dave had only done it for his experiment, he doubted if he would have been allowed in a magic tower's dungeon otherwise.

Also according to Dave it had only worked as it did for him due to him being completely unable to use magic. Other players can use magic without even needing to know what mana is. They simply needed to keep the image of the spell or skill module in their minds and say the spell or skill's name.

They did not even need to say the words of power, allowing them to call out more game-like names. For example, the spell Frost Needle had the words of power, Velona Pa. The name being far easier to say than the words of power. Eldrain had to ensure that he spoke the words of power correctly, especially when learning.

As he mastered a spell, like with Floga and Nidia, he had found that he could skip the word of power. He himself knowing how the mana had to flow and move. When learning, he instead had to rely on the spell module and words of power.

Even with both the spell module and words of power Eldrian still failed in casting a spell often. Due to him not knowing how his mana should flow and form to cast the spell.

This was what was stopping him from learning the Frost Needle spell currently. He could perfectly make the spell module in his head and pronounce the words of power. But in the end his mana would only move a little before giving up.

Normal players had an entirely different approach and as such they also have a limit. They need to cast Tier 1 spells for a set amount of time before being able to learn Tier 2 spells. Eldrian felt he would not have this limit, but his might actually be harder than simply casting the same spell a few thousand times.

He had learned about this limitation while browsing the forum, some players had pooled their money to buy a Tier 2 spell, which had cost them 50 silver. After buying the spell module they were informed, by the system, that they first needed to cast Tier 1 spells 20 thousand times before they would be allowed to learn Tier 2 spells.

Back to the conversation, Elizabeth thought about how she was going to answer Eldrian, wondering how much she should tell him. In the end she decided to be vague, to test how interested Eldrian was.

"I just handed in a quest for my guild. Why are you here? Last time we talked you said you became a blacksmith apprentice. How is it that you can simply leave that?"

"Oh," Eldrian thought a bit about it. Feeling that it might have been rash of him to setout so soon after having become an apprentice. He had not even made anything good yet. "My mentor is cool with it, I am actually also doing a delivery quest for him."

"Is that why you are here?"

"Partly, I also wanted to join the Taurus Relief Mission. I already signed up, but I have no idea what is going on."

"Then let me help you catch up." Elizabeth offered as the two left the Adventurers Guild.

With this Eldrian joined Elizabeth's group, moving with them while he waited for Old Sword to contact him. Traveling along with Flaming Heart, Eldrian learned more about what normal players had been up to and how the guild system in the game worked.

Guilds worked as a system to organize nonmilitary combatants under the kingdom of Phallos through the Adventurers Guild. This was a measure to ensure that there were no random militias or small military groups inside a city. A heavy fine and even imprisonment being the punishment for not forming or joining a guild.

Players had been given more breathing room in the need of forming and joining guilds. 

To make a guild required a bit of work, it was not as simple as simply signing up and creating one. Elizabeth, as the branch leader in Phallos, had to complete a registration quest to form her guild.

Signing up for this registration quest cost 10 silver and it was generally a bounty quest of C rank. Requiring the guild leader to complete it within a week, else the quest would be considered failed.

For Elizabeth it had worked out nicely. She had to kill 10 Direwolves, luckily for her these kills did not need to be solo kills. As such she had been able to finish this quest alongside the First Expedition quest. Making her the first person in her guild to have managed to establish a guild.

Funny enough this had actually been a problem due to her rank in the guild not being all that high. They had never had branch leaders before since most other games had had no need for it. She had only been given this rank since she was the highest-ranking person in Phallos.

The guild leader and vice-guild leaders had not wanted her to take the real guild's name. Ordering her to name her's a division of the guild.

This entire situation was due to how people were scattered randomly at the start of the game. The entire guild of Flaming Heart was luckily not too scattered, but they were spread over 5 empires. This was actually one of the least spread out guilds.

Players had been spread according to their time zones, which caused some guilds to have been spread to such a degree that they had to find new members or disband. The record spreading was a guild having members in over four hundred empires. This guild had quickly lost most of its members since in some cases only one or two players had been in an entire empire.

In the end Elizabeth had named her guild Flaming Heart's Phoenix Division. Not having been bothered too much by the guild leaders demand, she had never wanted to be in a leadership position. Having always enjoyed being a captain far more.

After establishing a guild it would be level 1. At this level they would need to pay an upkeep fee of 50 silver every month to stay recognized as a guild. Which had pressure Elizabeth to try and improve the guild and actually make enough money for this.

The task itself not being too difficult with her guild having a hundred members, which was also the size limit of a level 1 guild. What made this upkeep hard was the fact that weapon and armor upkeep was also large. 

Eldrian learning here that the loss of his kite shield not being something strange. Items could easily break in this game and even if one regularly did maintenance on it, it still did not mean it would not break.

"So, then what benefits are there in establishing a guild?" Eldrian asked, feeling that the upkeep to keep a guild registered was far too steep without major benefits coming with it.

"After actually making a guild we will be given access to missions before they are posted on the mission boards. Though we are currently last in the line of all the guilds under the Adventurers Guild." Elizabeth replied, happy to share this with someone who was not worried about her guilds situation. Eldrian was asking simply out of curiosity, which was a nice change of pace for her.

Many others in her guild had been thinking of rather disbanding the guild until later. Feeling that the upkeep was too much, but she felt it would be far better if they could hold on.

"We can also claim skills or spells for our guild instead of cash rewards. This takes multiple quests to redeem but is far cheaper in the long run. We will also be able to get a base for ourselves someday. The person I had talked to had said that we can claim a guild base when our guild reaches level 3."

"That still seems like too little reward for a 50 silver upkeep." Eldrian said, feeling that they were being ripped off.

Sighing, Elizabeth could not help but agree. "What else are we supposed to do. Many have thought of disbanding the guild to lose the upkeep, but I feel the quests and spells we can gain would be worth it."

"But how much can you really claim from it?" Eldrian asked, comparing it to simply buying a spell module. Technically one was not allowed to share them after buying, but players have been sneaking it past and sharing with each other. As such a guild could do the same as what the Adventurers Guild offered without any upkeep.

The only question was what would happen if it was found that one shared these spell modules. From how careful NPCs acted it meant that the punishment was high or that there was some other reason behind it.