A New World, an immersive game experience

Hearing the commotion, Eldrian stopped his meditation and turned to look at what was going on. Seeing the women caused him to almost throw up, their condition was beyond terrible. He could not stand looking at them and immediately looked away, feeling nauseous for a long time after having turned his gaze away. 

He could not get the image out of his head, seeing a naked woman was supposed to be a great milestone for him. Sure he had watched porn like any other young man, but he had never seen a naked woman in person. 

One could argue this did not count, but it certainly felt like he was here in person. And he had just seen thirty women, naked. But it was not a good sight, recalling how bad they looked caused Eldrian to feel nauseous again. Making him wonder if he might have just been turned gay.

Unlike Eldrian, the rest of the group had expected this, and as soon as the women came they reacted properly. Floyd went over to start healing them, trying to be as gentle as possible. He knew that many women could not withstand what they lived through in those caves, having their minds broken.

This was not something magic could heal, at least not without a great deal of effort and time. Most of the time such women were simply deemed lost and killed to stop their suffering. Floyd did not like that belief and would try his best to save them all. 

Margit and Sabrea were busy trying to make clothing out of leaves for them, while Terlas was grilling meat. The first proper meal they would have in months. He knew this meant they would be unable to stomach it whole, as such he planned to make a stew with it. But they did not have the means to make a stew, so he had asked Margit to shape some stones into bowls for him. Planning to shred the meat and let it dissolve in water after having grilled it. 

Once Zamia made sure that the humans had it all sorted, she headed over to Eldrian. 'This is also something good which came from you coming here.'

Eldrian nodded absentmindedly, trying to not think about how bad they looked. Standing up slowly he asked, 'Can we start, I need to be distracted.'

Zamia nodded, knowing what Eldrian was going through. This was different than a simple war where bodies got mangled through combat. They were tortured through unspeakable means, things people should not live through. She knew it was certainly a shock when someone first saw people in such conditions.

As Eldrian followed Zamia to a spot near the pond, he finally understood why Vivian had such hatred for goblins. Seeing what happened to the women, he felt the same. He also felt that any person would grow such hatred for things that could do that to people. 

His thoughts reaching this point Eldrian realized that most players were still unaware of why they fought. Believing it was a matter of life or death, but this was far worse than death. As such he gathered his resolve and started recording.

He made sure to get a good view of all the women, including those being helped by Floyd. He was slightly bothered that the women were all naked, but even so, he planned to post it once he went offline. Players had to know what they fought for, they had to know that this was not just a game. 

He knew this would not change their mindset, but he felt it would start lighting a flame. Players who had made friends with NPCs would definitely be outraged by this.

After getting what he felt was enough footage, Eldrian apologized to Zamia and told her that he was ready to start learning. She did not mind, having quickly become used to the fact that Eldrian often drifted in thought. 

To begin she told Eldrian how she planned to help him. She did not know what was right for him, having only seen High Elves use magic. They had never shared their secrets with her, and she would not ask. This was a common courtesy between respected races, the only magic which all races knew was magic as humans used it. 

This magic did not belong to humans, nor were they the ones who made it. This was magic in the form of spells modules. One could say it was the most basic magic.

A magic where the magic was not really yours. Where you used it through certain set means and not through active thought and actions. Eldrian having tried to breach this barrier through his incorrect training. 

To try and explain how this worked she started at the basics, at Tier 0. Informing Eldrian that he was actually still at this level if compared to other High Elves. He was only Tier 1 when looking at the spell module type magic. At static magic.

Humans used this magic due to their short life spans, they did not have the time other races had. Naturally, this meant that most short-lived races used this type of magic. Including dwarves, dryads, lower-ranking elves, and many other races. 

Short-lived here meant living for less than ten thousand years, which was the upper limit for all elves other than High Elves. Dwarves could live a couple of thousand years and dryads normally could only live to a thousand or two. They were the humanoid races closest to being called long-lived, but when compared to Ancient and Mythical beasts, their age limit was simply short. 

As such these races also commonly used static magic, but some also dabbled in dynamic magic which High Elves and beasts used. This came out as abilities, an instinctual type of magic.

Lower ranked beasts also used this type of magic and only this type. Hence them being limited in what they were able to use.

'Now as to why this was important; because this is why High Elves, devils, demons, and other long-lived races learn dynamic magic. It is not just because we have more time, but due to why we have more time. We are more intuned to magic, it being a part of us.' Zamia said as Eldrian listened in rapt attention. 

'This also causes us trouble when starting to learn magic, hence why it generally takes hundreds of years for High Elves to reach Tier 1. Beasts skip this due to our instincts, but this only allows us to skip a part of it. After which we need a large amount of time to learn how to not rely on our instincts. Which is our limitation'

'Devils and other races part of the Kako races can skip the initial steps through more nefarious means. Like feeding on others, this can be through feeding on their emotions or actually eating them. If they do not do this, then their growth is also as slow, if not slower, than that of High Elves. If they ever relied on feeding, then they would always rely on it.'

Here she explained why most long-lived races would avoid using static magic. The reason was simple, it would cause you to become used to that type of magic. This was not just mentally, but your mana would actually start becoming static to accommodate the magic. Which was the real reason they avoided it. Turning it back took far longer than simply learning from scratch and might even be impossible. 

Next, she went on to what magic was, or rather how it was classified. This was mostly similar to how Dave had explained it to Eldrian. There were six true elements; Water, earth, fire, wind, and then Light and darkness. 

Tier 0 was actually formless magic where the caster called mana to form in a certain element. The form it took was said to be formless since this was the case when using dynamic magic, the spell would take the form the caster wished. Through static magic, it would instead form into a certain predetermined form. 

'Nidia for example is a water spell that would use mana to pull the water in the surrounding to form a ball of water. This is the natural form of water if it collects in mid-air, and why the spell module also does not try to change it.' Zamia explained, causing Eldrian to think of many things.

First was planets and gravity, how this also caused things to form into spheres. Next, he thought of the meniscus of water, which allowed it to keep its form even if it was outside of a container. He wondered if these things were important in any way. He felt this was most likely true.

Zamia re-explanation of the basics allowed Eldrian to get a better grasp over things. Eldrian learned that the reason Zamia classified light and darkness apart from the other four was that it was not a stable element. Rather she called it a sub-element. 

Her explanation of it caused Eldrian to think of light. More specifically of the photon and the science lessons he had forgotten which were now nagging at him.

Light magic seemed to be the creation of photons, forming light if it was the only element cast. If darkness was cast instead, then it would cause all the photons in an area to be absorbed. Causing total darkness. 

When mixed with other spells it came to the same conclusion Eldrian had had when learning Frost Needle. 

Darkness removed energy from the spell, when it was a water-based spell, it would cause it to become ice. Light would instead add energy. This was different from adding more mana to the spell. Both added energy, but in different ways. 

Adding more mana would cause the spell to swell, but it would stay the same spell. Light and darkness, instead, could change their form without changing the element the spell was made out of. 

If it was a water spell, then after it would still be a water spell. This was different from adding other elements like fire and earth, which would form a type of lava. A mix of the two elements, not just one.

This all being explained to him again caused Eldrian to finally have a eureka moment. 

This still holds for light, if... He thought, realizing he needed to research once he was offline.