"As I said, it wasn't on purpose..." Eldrian said the first and second parts both slurred as two separate 'words'. Making it quite hard to understand him, but easier than before.

"Are you sure he is alright?" Joren asked after hearing Eldrian's speech impairment.

"Yes, you can look at his brainwaves yourself if you want. They were fine the entire time, so his mind isn't damaged. His body, and the connection to it, seems to have weakened though. I fear that if this happens a few more times the damage can become permanent."

"Then we have to rush the cabin design even more. There is no way Eldrian is going to stop playing and trying to improve, we've seen it. The company will also not be happy if we withdraw the results we have made so far." Joren said softly so Eldrian couldn't hear, with clear worry, his voice just barely soft enough.

"That isn't so easy. You know that!" Gengxin countered in a similar loud whisper.

"Then make a damn middle ground. Something more than just a headset and tubes, for christ's sake!" Joren replied, quickly realizing that he was starting to sound like those they all avoided. Those sitting above them, distant from the struggles. "Sorry, I am just..." Joren started to apologize, Gengxin interrupting him.

"I understand. But what is the thing we should prioritize when doing something halfway?"

"Affinity," Eldrian said, catching everyone by surprise. Mostly because they had thought he couldn't hear them. "It is all about affinity, isn't it?" By now his words were starting to separate, though they were certainly still slurred. Everyone clearly understood him instantly, all having had experienced with drunk people at some time in their lives.

"Isn't there this effect that we might gain things when playing. I mean other than just knowledge into new fields... What did you call it again?" Eldrian mumbled, yet it quickly allowed everyone to understand.

Naturally what he was mentioning wasn't something they hadn't even confirmed yet. They speculated it from the effects the game testers' had shown. Added reflexes and dexterity in movement in areas they had never trained. As such, they had added it to protect their basis.

"How would we do that?" Gengxin asked to his colleagues, the field still very new and unexplored.

"How do we immerse them into the world? Let's try lessening the immersion, Constantin will you test it?" Joren replied, Constantin quickly agreeing. They certainly didn't want Eldrian to be the subject, he already had his plate full with his own experiments. Heck they wanted him to stop for a while so they could catch up, or at least create a plan for the worst case.

"We should be able to set it up right away. If we limit the paralysis effect to allow muscle action... But we can't allow him to actually move..." Gengxin quickly started to speculate, the others adding where they could.

With this they left Eldrian and headed to Constantin's room, wishing to test things as soon as they possibly could. Delaying certainly wasn't an option with Eldrian being constantly reckless. While they could force him to stop playing for a while, this would most certainly cause problems. Unless they also stopped the flow of time in the game.

This thought actually popped up in one of their heads. Constantin quickly mentioned this to the others, "Joren, we should rush the tournament."

"What why?" Joren asked, while Gengxin asked what was going on.

"If we do it, we can also pause the time in the game. Telling all players that there will be a week or a few weeks where we will hold rounds to see who is the strongest. A sort of elimination to limit the number of finalists. We can also create separate spaces, like dreams, for those who don't wish to participate. Giving them the opportunity to still have the extra time from the headset, but without needing to play the game."

"In doing so we can stop Eldrian from entering the game for a good while... Giving his body and mind time to get used to each other again, while also giving us time to get ahead of it all. Brilliant!" Joren shouted in glee, as this truly was a nice option.

Certainly, many players would complain, but if they made the dreamlike place a permanent feature, then most would actually be in favor of this change. Especially those who don't actually want to fight in ANW. This would solve so many of their problems, while also publicizing the game even more.

"That would be good. Now inform me of what you are talking about and why it suddenly came to you." Gengxin said, not liking being in the dark. The others quickly informed him and Gengxin heartily pressed that they should push for this as soon as possible. He feared that with where Eldrian was in the game, he would quickly again experience something traumatic and stimulating. Eldrian needed time IRL, and this would be ideal.

The other both agreed to try and rush it, though a minimum amount of time was certainly going to be needed to get the news out and the public excited.

"We can teach him during the night, he certainly would want to use them instead of sleeping," Gengxin added after a bit of random discussion on how they would execute their plan.

"What do you mean?" Joren and Constantin asked at the same time.

"He lacks general knowledge in most fields. He stopped going to Uni, and now he is basically making the game his life. So we need to pull him back to earth for his own sanity." Gengxin started to explain, afraid for Eldrian's mental health should the game ever end.

"So we will each take a day, using this dream space we are going to create. That part shouldn't be too hard, the system should be able to handle it without any other AI. In that space, I can teach him about advanced biology, Joren about IT, and Constantin about other things... What do you actually specialize in?"

"You know I don't specialize, I just pick things up as I go. In any case that is a good idea. We can also market this part of the headsets if we want, adding even more cover to our actual aims." Constantin replied.

...

Eldrian slowly sat up on his bed, taking things slow as he tried to reach his PC. He did not plan on doing anything draining, as such he quickly opened the forums and started looking around again. Finding his old post about learning magic and High Elves, Eldrian contemplated if he should post a new, more up-to-date one.

He hadn't really posted much after those first few, and Eldrian even felt quite bad about what his first posts said. While they were honest and true to what he had known at that stage, they weren't by any means correct. However, he didn't know if there was in fact a correct with magic. that the exact reason why he wouldn't easily find a mentor.

He felt he needed to correct this, and now with all the things he had learned he started writing. This task allowing him to also get used to his hands, quickening his recovery.

Unlike before Eldrian didn't try and give this post a fancy name to pull attention or anything like that. He simply called it: What I have learned as a High Elf, having reached Tier 1.

He started off with a disclaimer that what he was writing was subjective to his experience, and then continued to explain how he felt magic existed. From which he moved on and wrote what he had learned from others, Itireae and Zamia. All in a summary and staying away from trying to explain to others his steps. He had come to realize, as he wrote this, that this was likely why he had gained a hidden class and why he couldn't get a mentor.

At this stage he didn't wish to lock others out from mentors, he would gladly try and give them access to hidden classes though. But if they were stuck as him in needing to figure things out on their own, many more might decide to give up when things started becoming too hard. Eldrian hoped not to force people into that.

{The post, to those who wish to read (Sort of an exploration of Eldrian's feelings toward the game)}

Magic is something quite complex to learn. It is much like science, though I am no expert in that field either. I have come to learn that magic actually exists out of two parts, a force I have come to name mageia. Something most humans, and indeed other races, have. Some do lack it; at least according to the natives of ANW.

This force allows one to connect to mana, the other part of magic. Without mageia there would be no magic, mana would be like air. Something we know is there, we can even prove. Yet we can't do anything with it, at least not without equipment. Mageia in this case can be considered as mental equipment, using our thoughts to act out our will.

Magic is quite amazing, though I still lack in many areas. I have come to fall in love with this field. It is like nothing else, and I wish to master it! Something I had never felt in reality. It had always strayed far from me. Leaving me with little passion for life and without any motivation to do anything to better myself. I had lived, simply to live... This is not all that ANW has given me, but it is one of the most important gifts to me.

Magic is also not so simple as simply being made of two parts, while it does exist out of two forces. It isn't a single entity. It is like how science is split into physics, biology, chemistry, and so forth. All parts of science, but using different knowledge and aspects of reality to accomplish different things. Yet no matter what all these aspects fall under science.

I do not know all the ways magic can split, generally, it is split into elements. Yet there is also divine magic and I have no idea how it works. There is also mental magic, dream magic, and more nefarious magics used by devils and demons. I have not come into contact with any of the latter, so I can say with certainty that I am no master in the field that is magic.

However, I feel certain I know things many do not. One such thing is that while magic can be split according to its type, it can also be split according to the method of controlling it. In this case, I would describe it in a manner everyone can understand.

The type of magic most common, the type most players learn; Static magic. It is hard to explain and I only recently managed to figure it out myself. Imagine you are playing a game, an old one on your PC or through a console. Or even the older types of VR, before total immersion. That is what I would call static magic, you can play. You can do amazing things, but you use a controller, a keyboard and a mouse, to access magic. It limits you to what your controller allows.

The other type of magic, much rarer but also far strong; Dynamic magic. This is what High Elves use, and why it is so hard to play as one. I have only started to learn about it, only started to improve. In this case, I would say Dynamic magic is like ANW. Where instead of playing/controlling it through a controller, you fully enter the game world. Experiencing everything and truly having full control. Yet now you can't rely on a button to do something for you, you have to learn it all for yourself.

This path is far harder, naturally, it would be. As I said you can no longer use a simple mouse click to attack, you have to learn from nothing. It is rare even in the game, in ANW among the natives. Normally it is limited to legacies, and hence I would like to advise people who wish for grandeur but do not want to struggle blindly as I do. Go find a mentor before you start your journey. I have already chosen my own path, and now no one will likely be able to truly teach me what to do. They can give me advice, but not actually tell me what I need to do. I have to struggle to figure it out, and it is most certainly not always nice.

I do not wish to explain my methods due to this, as I fear doing so will stop others from following their own path. I will just say that magic is as much thought, as it is science. It is about willpower, about pushing through and wishing to learn something new. Give it your all, or turn to a more normal race where you do not need to.

Eldrian kept away from mentioning how he broke through to Tier 1, how he managed to actually cast magic. At least for now, while he was willing to share this with the game testers and people like Myropsis. Until he figured out if they could make use of his information, if it wouldn't hurt them. He wouldn't share.

He did not want to place others in danger, certain that part of his path of learning was the cause for his unexpected accidents. At least in part.