A New World, an immersive game experience

All in all, Eldrian spent a thousand gold on the cloak, ring, and circlet. After which he went to the other shops to custom order what he needed.

As Solvi was busy repairing Crystoi, he couldn't ask her to make everything else. Though he still planned to join her in experimenting with the substance that was left after killing the Night Terrors.

Once his orders were in, and the deposits paid—coming out to another five hundred gold in all. Eldrian left for Kynigo. Using the magic towers for teleportation despite the hefty fee of several golds that came with it.  Ceph separated from Eldrian here and headed to visit Erik.

Upon his return, Eldrian made sure things were still fine at the estate. Talked a bit with Aspen and Brazen—who happened to be there. Since their last talk, Brazen had gotten far better at controlling fires.

"It was just as you said. Flames made from magic aren't the same as natural flames. It's like the magical flames lack substance to them. I realized after spending days experimenting. It kept slipping through my control. Like I was trying to grasp water or air in my hand."

Nodding, Eldrian realized why this was. His talks with Ziraili had highlighted it, but his day of training in the voidstone had truly helped him realize what was going on.

Magic was all about visualization. Even static casting required one to envision and recreate the spell module for specific spells. What Eldrian and Two concluded was that the spell module was a formula.

Higher Tiers had more complicated formulae, and from Tier 5 onward, each spell had multiple. This allowed the caster to control their spells by alternating between the formulae. Naturally, doing so was extremely mentally draining.

Eldrian had never got deep into the mathematical and sciences of spell modules. When he had tried, he had found himself immediately stumped. But thinking back, he understood it a bit better.

Each module represented a certain state of matter mirroring. Or so he thought of it. Of mana taking on the shape of matter to bring forth physical manifestations called spells.

He found it funny how he could use something without understanding it. But, then again, most people could use electronically devices, cars, and so forth without understanding how they work. You only needed to understand their operation and function, not the science behind it.

Eldrian thought that magic was the same. As long as you could memorize the formulae, envision your magic taking shape, and also supply the formulae with mana. You can produce spells despite not understanding what the formulae represented.

The formulae were like a key for a car. The visualization was seeing the road—or creating the road. And guiding mana was the turning of the wheel and stepping on the gas pedal.

'Which means you can't cast a spell simply by learning the spell module. You need to know what it will do, be able to picture it to some degree. After all, you can't drive without a road. Well, you can. But it is going to be bumpy and possibly hazardous...'

This gave Eldrian another understanding of why altering spell modules was so dangerous, and why the magic abyss was so critical for it. But that was an entirely different topic and for now he shelved it for later reviewing.

Dynamic magic, conversely, was all about picturing an effect and letting your mana flow. Completely skipping the part about formulae. Or rather, here your mana acted as the formula—or key.

It was an equivalent requirement. Up till now, Eldrian had been satisfying it passively, subconsciously. But going forward it will be a lot more difficult.

Generally, Eldrian relied on the feeling he got when practicing with the spell modules to generate similar spells. But in the voidstone, he had considered the makeup of the magic he was casting.

Naturally, he had often pondered this, but for once, he had attempted to put it into practice. And he had succeeded. He had once again relied on the static method to gain a feel for the mana flow before turning to dynamic casting. A useful crutch, Eldrian realized.

But a crutch it remains. Overly relying on it, as he had up till now, will make Eldrian ever reliant on it. However, he wasn't too bothered by this. After all, he didn't have the time to take it slow. He would rather run with his crutches than crawl without them.

Back to Brazen and his talk. Eldrian found himself stumped that people did not know about atoms and such. However, he felt confident that the mages had something similar in conjecture.

If his assumption that from here on the structure of the magic he was using was going to be imperative, then they had to have something.

It needn't be the same, but it must be similar. They might not have found the correct answer, or they might have an even more concrete understanding than scientists on Earth. 'It might just be a guarded secret to protect against enemies...'

Explaining, as best he could, to Brazen. The lizardkin's eyes sparkled as Eldrian also showed him four different types of magical flames. Of course, Eldrian had brought Brazen to his normal training spot. Killing the undead that stumbled in their path as they walked and talked.

"This is a standard flame produced by any of the spells below Tier 5." Eldrian said, a flame hovering above his hand as he talked. It flickered, expanded, and shrunk as he talked.

"Can you tell the difference between its states?" The different states were Tier 0 to 4. To achieve this, Eldrian simply altered the flow of his mana to reflect the relevant Tiers. Going from 0 to 4 and back again.

Brazan shook his head in denial. "No, it all feels the same to me. Like it doesn't even exist." This was the thing Brazan had struggled the most with to accept. After all, his eyes told him the flame was there. If he brought his hands to it, he could feel the heat. Yet, when he tried to connect with it like he did natural flames, he found nothing.

Nodding, Eldrian took time to visualize the chemical reactions that must be there to create a flame. The difficult part came in when realizing that the nature of fire can differ from one another, and that certain things—despite appearing like fire, wasn't fire.

In this last aspect, substandard spells—or alternatively put, lower Tiered spells—fell into the latter. It looked and felt like fire, but wasn't. Considering it a mirage might be apt, though it still produced heat, so it was more than just an optical illusion.

What Eldrian was visualizing now was mana combusting into flames. His knowledge was too low to understand truly what needed to happen for mana to become the flames of fire he knew.

But he could feel the cost of forming a spell increasing by simply imposing the combustion step to the spell.

The difference wasn't massive. About 60% more mana consumption. If Eldrian had to judge the heat he was feeling, a 30% increase in heat. His visualization was certainly lacking, but it was still a success.

"This!" Brazen's eyes sparkled as he suddenly felt the flame becoming real.

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