A New World, an immersive game experience

The time in-game was a few hours before morning, the dark and cold air causing Eldrian to feel the reality of this world all the more. 

He took his time to calm down, unable to accept that Constantin of all people could say that this world was not real. That something feeling real did not make it so. If that was not a good enough method to determine what was real, then what could ever be?

Eldrian needed to get his mind off this topic, finding that he became angrier and all the more frustrated the longer he stayed on it. 'It is time to try and learn some new spells.' Eldrian thought, having not learned many Tier 2 spells, having not truly mastered any. 

That did not matter as much, pulling out one of the books he had been given, Eldrian looked at the spell tree he was most comfortable with. The spell tree of Anthos, the rejuvenation spell. 

The Tier 3 version, Anthise, was the same as the others before. At least according to the information the notes on the spell gave him. It still delivered energy to the target, slightly healing them as a side effect of the transfer. 

The spell module was far more complicated, the nodes and pathways more than doubling. It took Eldrain some time to confirm all the locations of the nodes, the module resembling a leaf with not just the major veins but also a few smaller ones added. 

It took even more time to properly envision this all in one go. Hours passing and Eldrian forgetting about his argument with Constantin. When he felt confident he had the module perfect, Eldrian attempted casting the spell. The sun starting to rise by this point.

Naturally, he failed as he had no idea how much mana he should send. He also did not know if he had the right composition of raw and nature mana. He started off by using the same mana composition he used for Anthisma.

This unfortunately did not seem to help and Eldrian struggled to find the composition and amount for a long time. 

After a few failures too many, Eldrian wondered what he was doing wrong. Why he was not getting feedback as normal. Usually, when learning a spell he could tell what was wrong with the mana he sent into it. Generally, it would cause the spell to fail in some specific manner. 

Receiving no feedback meant that he was not even close. Something that made no sense. 

Taking a moment Eldrian wondered what was going on. Recalling the ability he had gained and mastered over the past few days. It was of little use for a spell like Anthise that formed inside of him, but it might help if he cast the spell on others. 

Choosing a particularly struggling patch of grass, Eldrian focused on it as his target. Repeating the steps he had been doing before. 

The first attempt ended in complete failure, Eldrian receiving no information since he had used mana sense whilst ignoring the mana in his surrounding. The next he failed to follow what happened with his mana as that of the surroundings overwhelmed his sights. 

Turning back to Tier 0 spells Eldrian practiced a bit until he could get it so that mana sense only showed him the mana of his spell. Eldrian repeating this with Tier 1 and Tier 2 spells, needing a bit of fine-tuning with each increment. 

Feeling confident he did the same for Anthise, finally being able to see his mana and only his mana flowing out of him and creating the spell. 

However, unlike Anthos, Anthizo, and Anthisma, his mana failed to enter the plants. They moved to the locations and then drifted into the surroundings. Eldrian failing to understand what was wrong, it all seemed fine until it arrived at his target. 

Eldrian continued to try for another hour, switching small things in the mana composition without success. He knew he was close to the right degree of nature mana simply because if he changed too much then his mana would not even travel to the grass. It would leave him and disappear immediately. 

'What can it be?' Eldrian wondered as he cast Antisma again, the light green mana traveling quickly to the grass and entering it without any trouble. Moving closer Eldrian repeated this a couple of times.

He repeated this so many times that he got used to the mana flow, shocked when he gave up on the grass and cast it on himself again. The spell working as intended. Informing him that there was some problem with his target, or the way he cast it on the grass. 

Eldrian however did not feel the need to investigate right away. Instead, he felt like trying to take the shortcut had caused him to waste time. However, he did not yet know if that was the case.

He repeated casting the spell on himself a bunch of times to get used to it. Getting the notification that he had learned Anthise once he could cast it with little thought. Once he did not take 5 seconds to cast it, but rather just 1. 

By now the sun was long since on its way back down, Eldrian having lost track of time in his effort to learn a Tier 3 spell. Reading the system information on Anthise he felt it was worth it, taking out something to eat to soothe his grumbling stomach. 

[Anthise, Tier 3, Rank 0]

[A rejuvenation spell with the focus on giving the target energy, either to survive a crucial healing spell or a boost in a fight. Heals shallow cuts as a side effect of energy transfer.]

[Heal: 13HP <Limit: 6 casts, 2- hour cd>]

[Rejuvenation: 24SP & 24MP <Limit: 6 casts, 1-hour cd>] <No MP recovery for the caster>

[Energy Regen: 2SP & 2MP (Per second) for 3 minutes <Limit: 2 casts, 1-hour cd>]

[Cost: 48 MP]

[Cooldown: None] <Due to having learned the spell from root>

[Cast time: 1.25 s]

'Not bad,' Eldrian thought, the cost of casting it was on the high side, but the increase was definitely worth it. Especially since you could not stack the effect of rejuvenation spells. In fact, like other buffs recasting it actually fights the original. Resulting in a net loss. 

Eldrian was happy with this, the bonus from actually reaching Tier 3 in magic was another bonus and another small strength bonus for him. It was not nearly as big an increase as his hidden class reaching Tier 3, but the addition was certainly most welcome. 

Eldrian took some time to enjoy the success and his food, standing up and practicing some more spear moves aFTER. Halfway through his routine, he stopped as he saw Pelaros approaching him. His lost leg was reattached, most other scars also healed.

"Pelaros," Eldrian nodded in greeting as he stored Aoidos, using its ability just before that to recover some stamina. 

"Haru, sorry for ignoring you the past few days." 

"It's fine, I got some nice training in," Eldrian replied, Pelaros looking at Eldrian again.

His eyes flying open in surprise, "Congratulations. I didn't know you were close to reaching the next Tier."

Pelaros was more than just a little shocked. He knew how hard it normally was for High Elves to reach higher Tiers. He also knew how long Eldrian had been on Gaia, how long all the Chosen had been here. His speed of growth was amazing, surpassing all geniuses he knew. 

"I wasn't. I got a sudden flash of inspiration," Eldrain replied, having no idea how secret a legacy should be. Hence he decided to be vague, "What happened after... You know." 

Eldrian had visited Kydone often over the past few days. She had mostly recovered, at least physically. She was still weaker than before and especially tired all the time. Currently, she was sitting out all missions and she did not like staying in the camp. 

She had gone out at some point and not come back since. However, before going she had taken an emergency contact crystal. It still being fine meant she had not run into any trouble, hence no one was worried about her. 

"I am sure Katania informed you of most of it," Pelaros said and Eldrian quickly replied that he knew of the surprise attack and that he had been injured, though there was no indication of his injuries any longer. 

"I am still weakened. I can likely only perform at around 70% of my strength. Our reinforcements should arrive soon. We will set out for the last camp when they do."

Eldrian nodded, asking what Pelaros had come for. 

"Your rewards, naturally. The danger had been far more than we had expected, I am certain it is thanks to you that Kydone survived. That you both survived."

"The original agreement was a steel emblem, and here it is. I, however, feel that this is not enough. Your suggestion to go alone was likely for the best, there was no way anyone would have survived. How you managed to hold out till Kydone arrived is still a mystery."

Eldrian was embarrassed hearing this, he had no good answer for how he survived. The awful smell was mostly to thank. "What are you saying?"

"What do you want?" Pelaros asked, willing to go quite the length to ensure Eldrian got what he wanted. 

He had no idea what the special flaming reanimate had been after, but they had confirmed that it had left the forest. This increased everyone's morale a great deal, and Pelaros had felt it must be connected to the ghoul. He had no idea how, but it was too much of a coincidence that it came searching for them where Eldrian and Kydone had fought the ghoul. 

*AN: If you are not reading on NovelFull, then you are reading a stolen work.*