A New World, an immersive game experience

Eldrian did not quite understand what Constantin meant. It made perfect sense, if only for the fact that he could control mana and use magic did not exist. It caused him to doubt the words Constantin had just said, leading him to ask for confirmation, "What do you mean?"

"Like I said, no one has been able to actually control their avatar's mana in any way. The only way anyone has managed to actually use magic is through the system." 

Silence ruled for a while as Eldrian wondered if he should say that he is able to do this. Just as Constantin was about to continue Eldrian decided to mention it, "But that isn't true. I have..."

"Wh-what!?" Constantin shouted in disbelief. 

"Didn't you wonder who I am and why I am here?"

"No, there are thousands of employees. Naturally I do not know all of them. What do you mean you have?"

"As you think, I can control mana." Eldrian's reply caused Constantin to be lost for words. Excitements soon bubbling over him. 

"Really!? That is amazing! How! How do you do it? How did you learn? Can you explain what I am missing!?"

It took some effort to actually calm Constantin down. Then Eldrian had to explain again how he had learned to use magic, though he still thought of mana as part of it and not separate. Naturally Constantin interrupted constantly when he found something interesting, strange, or simply unbelievable. Which happened often, right from the start when Eldrian said he was playing as a High Elf. The fact that Eldrian had started with almost no support similar to them made him feel ashamed of being unable to have yet even come close to willing mana. Not to mention controlling it.

"Why didn't they keep me in the loop?" Constantin mumbled as Eldrian finished his story, "So you can't explain to me how to do it?"

"Nope, I can tell you how I managed to do it, what steps I did, and what I feel is most important when trying to learn. But without experiencing it yourself and figuring it out for your avatar, you won't be able to."

"And those times you died, and when you felt pain in its fullest. Have you been given an explanation?" To which Eldrian replied with a firm no.

"Uggh," Constantin grunted, "Seems like they are playing some sort of game again. I don't like it, it always just leads to things taking longer than they need to... Have they explained what affinity is?" 

"It is how well we connect with our avatar, right?"

"That is only for below and up to a hundred percent. When I had brought up the option of it being able to go over a hundred, everyone had thought I was crazy. They just couldn't see how it makes total sense."

"What do you mean?" Eldrian asked, himself believing that a hundred percent would be the max.

"Well it was designed to determine how immersed you are in your avatar's body and Gaia's environment. To determine this we had to use a baseline, so there is some variance. Such as your fitness, body type, talent and so forth influencing it, but is quite accurate. The influence is only to the second decimal as the system is constantly improving on it."

"Now a bunch of things can influence this immersion to one's avatar, the strongest of which are emotions, time, and training. But what if souls truly exist?" Eldrian only arched an eyebrow as he did not quite get what Constantin was aiming for. 

"It's simple, isn't it. If you also add the soul to the equation, not only considering it as thought, but rather as an ethereal thing that truly exists. Then you can go over a hundred."

"I still don't get where this is going."

"Oh right, sorry. It is about the phenomena some of the older game testers have been experiencing. Specifically, the explorers, which I am part of." Constantin quickly added the last part before continuing, "Due to us having spent years in the simulation, our affinity has slowly grown extremely close to a 100%."

"Unlike players, we did not alter our avatars, and due to our special training before entering we had around 97% on average. Around thirteen of us are now over 99%, and we have found more and more side effects."

"Like what?" Eldrian asked concerned. 

"Fatigue when returning to reality, pain slipping past the system, and some other harder to notice things such as phantom feelings. At first it was small and we hardly noticed it, but with time it became more and more apparent. Your death experiences sound similar to this, I have no idea how the Magic Crystal works though." Mumbling Constantin added under his breath; I should as an emperor about them.

"But my affinity is only 97%."

"Only! Do you know how high that is for a new avatar? Ours was only so high since we had special training to ready us for the world and our avatars perfectly mirror our real bodies." Emotion must be far stronger a contributor than we had thought.

"Okay, but why does this even matter?" Eldrian asked trying to understand what Constantin seemed to be mumbling about. 

"Because as our affinity increased the system started failing. It is just an explanation of what you experienced. I don't really know what it means, but I believe it might have contributed to your ability to learn magic so quickly."

"But other players also have nearly the same affinity levels." Eldrian countered, considering anything in the nineties close to his.

"I don't mean your affinity itself. If that was the case we would have long ago managed to learn magic. What I mean is how you increased yours, your experiences and love."

"Wait, what!?"

"Did I say something wrong?" Constantin looked at Eldrian, surprised by his sudden shock. Holding it in Eldrian shook his head and tried to push down his thoughts which were quickly running wild. To stop them Eldrian decided to change the subject and ask his first question again. 

"This still does not explain why the company cares so little for the simulation. Why don't they market it better and truly expand it into the world? Instead of still limiting it to Beta players only"

"Isn't it obvious? We have not expanded precisely due to the side effects. While a cruel world is acceptable since pain is limited to a mild feeling, if that is removed then it would no longer be a game. The fatigue and loss of the ability to play 24 hours, heance needing sleep again, is also a major problem."

"The fatigue is the first thing we are tackling as it started at the high 98's for most of us. The pain only slipped through at around 99.5. It is far harder to increase one's affinity the closer to a hundred it gets, hence why we are focusing on the fatigue first."

Oh, yikes. Yeah that would really become a problem when more than just I show these symptoms. Eldrian realized quickly why he had felt so tired after his life and death battles. He also realized that if such posts started filling the forum then the company would quickly lose the most attractive thing its game had. It was indeed the thing that pulled most people to it as people believed they would soon even be able to allow 48 hours of play in one day. Or some variant of this speed dilation. 

The ability to play while sleeping is the one thing no other company has managed to copy. Even though three other full-immersion games had arrived in the market. They all required one to still live a balanced life. Eldrian realized that if this bonus was lost, then ANW would quickly lose many players simply due to how realistic and difficult it was.

He did not know how reliant keeping it active was on other players, Eldrian feared that if interest was lost then they would simply shut it down. Causing chills to run through him as he hurriedly mentioned his worries to Constantin. 

"I think this isn't too much of a worry at this stage. You are actually in the prime seat to influence the company in this manner. They are only so cavalier due to mistakes we had made which can be improved for the next simulation, and no real progress having been made in the last few years. If you can somehow help us also learn magic, you can quickly cause it all to become worth it again." 

Eldrian took these words to heart and quickly added this to the list of things he had to focus on. Finding that this actually worked out well as it was very similar to how he had to help Myropsis. Eldrian quickly placed more importance on it, as he now realized it was not just important in-game/simulation. Yeah, simulation describes it better than a game. 

While by now close to an hour had passed, Eldrian had no wish to leave yet. "While you have not managed to learn magic, can you explain to me what you had learned? The more the better."

Constantin was more than happy to help, believing that the more Eldrian managed to learn the quicker he himself will be helped in return. He longed to actually feel the mana moving through him. It having quickly become his life's goal after he first cast magic with the help of the system.

Already having decided that once he entered the game again, under medical supervision, he would directly go to the emperor and ask to use a Magic Crystal. Even thinking of making a High Elf avatar for himself if needed, though this would take far more coordination to get access to the resources he had in-game.