A New World, an immersive game experience

After a few minutes, Eldrian regained his composure. Thanking her for that, he stood up to get to work. 

"Shouldn't you take a break? This is all so much, and how are you even in the game?"

'Right, I didn't explain that yet...'

Eldrian didn't want to explain it either, instead, he decided that indeed it was time to call it a day. Entrusting the organizing of the cannons to Elizabeth, he went to his bedroom and climbed into the bed. A bed he that had always just been for show.

'I guess my avatar will no longer disappear on logging out...' He mumbled as he started focusing on forming his mana as his human self. It took him a few minutes to get it right, but he succeeded and soon he found himself back in his body. 

"Two?" Eldrian asked.

'What took you so long?' Came Two's reply. 

"The city was attacked, just look at our memories. Right, what happened here?" Doing the same, Eldrian quickly caught up to what Two had been doing. Or rather, how little he had done. 

"It still feels weird to you?"

'Yeah, I can't get used to the feel of a body.' Two admitted, he had hated the past few hours. The strange feeling of being inside a body, instead of just inside a mental room. It was not something he was comfortable with. 

The latter should feel more claustrophobic, but it was actually the other way around. Two felt trapped when inside the body, whereas in the mental room he felt like he could fly-- which he actually could if he wanted.

Yet, he had to be ready to act if something happened. He couldn't disconnect himself from their body just because it was uncomfortable. He had to be ready to act.

"We can try to find a safer place so you can also go into ANW." Eldrian offered. 

'Thanks, but I won't be able to relax in that case.'

"What about Tranquility?" Eldrian asked, in the past months he had left that part of his soul alone. In fact, he had left his auras alone unless when he absolutely had to rely on them. 

'Do you think that's smart?'

"Of course it isn't. But instead of wasting your days just scanning for intruders, you would be able to actually do something."

'Then let's see what Tranquility has to say.'

...

'Interesting, you've finally come.' The half-elf that was Tranquility said as soon as Eldrian focused on entering his soul, and his auras in particular. He looked different from Eldrian and Two, where Two seemed like a younger half-elf Eldrian, Tranquility almost appeared like a ghost. 

"I assume you already know why," Eldrian said, recalling his past experience with Tranquility. However, back then Two had also been robotic. He was uncertain if Tranquility was still the same. 

"Of course, you wish to know if I can care for the body while the soul ventures realms."

"Interesting word choice, but yes. Can you?"

"Yes, observation and warning of the soul is possible. Conditions, only observation and warning is possible."

'What's the- Ah, I see.', "That's fine."

...

Eldrian decided to call the rest of the day, a day. Getting in some proper rest, understanding that his situation was now very different from before. Eldrian also went out to get something to eat. 

Basic magic made it easy to get the things he needed without people realizing anything. Especially with his enhanced speed added to it. A gust of wind here, a little flame there. Easy peasy.

When night fell, he was ready to enter the game again. This time with Two. 

...

'This feels so~o much better.' Two commented as he stretched his metaphorical limbs in Eldrian's mind space. 

'Two, can you see if you can interact with the interface?'

After a bit of fiddling, Two nodded. 'No problem, why?'

'I asked Aspen to get me books on runes and arrays. But I need to try and organize-'

'Gotcha, let's see if this works... Yeah, put them in our inventory and I will be able to read them from there.'

Smiling, Eldrian nodded. Having his second half back was a great relief. Things had felt empty when Two was absent. 

Climbing out of bed, Eldrian smiled as he saw that Maia had even organized a change of clothes for him. He was sure if he had woken at a normal time, instead of before sunrise, then there would also be a warm bath or something. 

'Actually a good point, I've never bathed. Though, then again this avatar is only a day old.' Eldrian chuckled at the thought that this body was so young, wondering what the laws would say about that. Not that the laws were in his favor currently.

With a cheerful subject in mind, he returned to his office where he found a stack of books waiting on his desk. Flipping through them, Eldrian confirmed which were which and stored them neatly in his inventory. 

After which he headed to Pelaros's mansion, by now everyone knew of the returned elven hero. The guards bowed in respect and no one dared question or stop him. Everyone hoped that he had something more to pull out of his sleeve.

Eldrian found Pelaros asleep in a chair in his office. Clearly having fallen asleep mid-conversation or something. 'Must have been tough...' Eldrian decided to give him time to rest.

Instead, he explored the city a bit. The damage from the constant night assaults were clearly visible all over the city. The atmosphere of which felt like a graveyard. 

'That's not good. Pretty sure this could lead to undead spawning...' Eldrian mumbled, heading to the graveyard he disconfirmed his needless worry. 

'This is interesting.' Two said. 

'What now?' Eldrian asked. 

'It seems that runes actually don't rely on either elemental, ether, or spirit magic. Instead, it takes control of raw mana. And through the runes, it is directly applied as an ability.'

'What do you mean?'

'Your assumption that abilities are the skills of spirit magic is incorrect. Or rather, defining spirit magic that broadly will lead to such an incorrect assumption.' Two replied. 

'Okay, then what are you saying, Two?'

'I'm trying to say that it feels more like it doesn't actually touch on the concept of imbuing emotions. It can, but it seems rather that runes themselves are concepts that can make use of raw mana as is. And I would hazard a guess it can also touch upon all types of mana if applied correctly.'

'Wait, if that's true...' Eldrian realized that this might be the key to being able to use magic more stably on Earth. 

...

With the rise of the sun, the city awoke. For the first time in weeks they had a chance to sleep, and no one wanted to lose out on it. Those stuck with guard duty cursed their luck, dragging their tired bodies to their beds as the morning sun sapped the last of their strength. 

"Elizabeth?" Eldrian greeted. 

"Morning!" She greeted back before getting to work, "Cadhan was quite eager for the trade."

"Did it all go well?" Eldrian asked. 

"Indeed, the cannons are received. We were just about to go and install them."

Nodding, Eldrian asked that they leave one to be studied. This was always the plan, so there was no problem. 

"Solvi." Eldrian nodded in greeting as he observed the cannon with her. To him most of the cannon seemed ordinary, he knew too little of runes to make out anything of it. It simply seemed like it was overly decorated to him.

"Eldrian, it is good to see you," Thesolis greeted as she joined the two. The dark bags under her eyes relayed her tiredness, yet she was still hard at work. 

Eldrian smiled in greeting, mana sense showed him nothing more than his eyes did. He assumed this was because it wasn't active. 

After a few minutes, Solvi nodded as Thesolis declared that the design was crude at best. 

AN: A big thank you to everyone who continues to read and support the story on WN.