Eldrian woke a few hours later, finding a peaceful glade welcoming him. The soft sound of flowing water and rustling leaves seemed to belie that things were perfectly fine.
The absence of anyone nearby, however, told another story. Leaving someone in his condition unattended clearly told how serious things were.
Of course, Eldrian was a player. Even if he died, things would be fine. Still, the lack of care couldn't be as simple as that. Those of the forest must be at their limits.
'Didn't expect such severe backlash,' Eldrian commented after clearing his head of other thoughts. He gazed at his own body, finding the situation somewhat ironic.
Ziraili had just healed the scars left by Wrath. And now he had new ones to replace them. Almost just like Wrath's. Only, instead of his skin and flesh having been burnt, necrotic flesh spread across his body from frostbite.
'Guess they didn't want to tamper too much. I can respect that.' Eldrian thought, recalling what had happened.
Given his condition, foreign mana might have caused more problems than it could heal. After all, the damage extended further than skin, flesh, or even bone depth. It continued to his soul.
Besides, the course of the injury was different from Wrath, though the outcome was similar.
Tranquility hadn't directly frozen his flesh—such as Wrath directly eats at his body. It had simply caused a drop in the surrounding temperature far past the point where humans would freeze.
The damage was most likely from flash freezing. It might have been fine if it was in controlled conditions, but in all likelihood, his cells had died because of the rapid cooling. As it froze, the forming icicles likely destroyed his cells.
'Yeah, I really need to up my scientific knowledge.' Eldrian thought. He understood the principles, but only to a shallow extent.
Regardless, had he been in control of the flow of these frigid temperatures, then his body might not have been damaged at all. Alas, Eldrian had been too occupied with his breakthrough regarding his lessons to bother about what was happening to his body.
'Being able to recall that is a blessing, I suppose?' Eldrian murmured. It was just as much a punishment. Recalling just how little he had thought of dying, how it hadn't even been in the top ten of his list of important things.
It was a terrifying thought.
So much so that it spurred Eldrian on to start healing himself. Luckily, his mana had mostly been stabilized. It would take some time to sort everything out and return to normal. But, for now, Eldrian could control some mana (around 20% of his corporeal total) in his current state.
Starting the process of healing the necrotic flesh covering his body was slow going. Eldrian first needing to confirm the extent of the damage and the location. Whether it was only skin deep, flesh, nerves, muscle. He had to figure it all out through the flow of mana and Mageia alone.
Actually, that was for the best. Eldrian wouldn't know how to analyze himself in any way other than scanning himself with Mageia. After all, it allowed him to 'feel' everything within himself.
And, while Eldrian was no doctor, he knew how things ought to feel within himself. Noting where things felt wrong, he could figure out the extent of the damage.
Now, he could just throw heals at himself and pray for the best. That, however, would only leave him with a batch of new scars.
Eldrian did not want to return to Kynigo with new scars.
He just knew he would get another earful. And not just from Vivian, from Elizabeth and the others, too. 'Yeah, no thanks.' Before coming to Ceph's aid, Eldrian was busy getting just such a lecture from Nikki and Zyviss.
While he had warned them that he sometimes go days without leaving the game to care for his body, seeing it had still been a shock. Even if it wasn't the first time. Their lecture had been just as severe as the last one.
There was simply no way they would accept it as something normal. As a compromise, they had asked Eldrian to use a cabin. One they had already ordered and was due to arrive within the week.
While he wasn't too happy with the demand, he was already using the headset from Miracle to ease the burden on his body. Maintaining a connection with ANW through magic alone might not be extremely costly for him, but without Two to ensure it at least remained fed, things could end terribly.
While Eldrian felt reluctant to move on, he realized it was time. Even in his own life, he simply didn't have enough hands (or minds) to do everything he needed. After all, he basically had two lives.
Still, Eldrian did not wish to fall into the same over-reliant trap he had fallen into with Two. Nor did he need a friend who was but a fragmented part of himself. He had plenty of other friends.
Besides, Two had just happened to become a friend over the time they shared. Two's existence had been an accident. One Eldrian was dearly thankful for, but not one he felt he needed to repeat.
'Let's run some tests first, and confirm my actual condition.' Ultimately, Eldrian had a few ideas he wanted to try today. Methods of allowing him greater control over a greater number of spells.
It had been his plan; before he had entered a lecture from his friends. And before Ceph had called for help.
pαndα`noν?1--сoМ Eldrian believed that attempting to create alternative magical minds in their entirety was where he had gone wrong. He simply needed to manage a way to allow himself to focus on multiple things. And he could segment each type of action into a different spell which he wanted to develop.
'Yeah, I should consider the entire process a piece of code. And each part doing its function just that, a function.'
Parallel processing for dealing with fast changing events, parallel thoughts for brainstorming and keeping up multiple spells, parallel calculating for doing the more tedious parts—and, hopefully, allow Eldrian to actually do some math. Parallel envision for envisioning spells and their outcomes, and ensuring they work well together, parallel... something for everything he might need.
This was what Eldrian felt he needed most for the magic side of things. For caring for his origin body, however, he had to make a new identity.
A simple parallel thread of thoughts sustained via magic wouldn't do the trick. It had to be formed from his soul. Else, it would not be capable of jumping between the two realms.
'Besides, I doubt I can offer much help as I am now.' Eldrian grumbled. Not only was his body battered, he had some severe debuffs. While he could control about 20% of his mana, that was also about the limit of his stats overall.
'I need to confirm my condition, seriously.' Closing his eyes and slowing his breathing, Eldrian started meditating.
"Yeah, this is more or less what I expect." Eldrian grumbled. His mind space was a wreck. The world within was covered in snow and frost. And, past it, space expended endlessly. With the XP (lifeforce) he had absorbed from the Devil King going wild.
It would likely settle down in some time, but to ensure nothing goes awry, Eldrian started collecting and condensing the chaotic space. While at it, he also rechecked his soul to confirm that nothing was out of the ordinary (past, that everything was frozen).
"Mmm, no idea where that went." Eldrian commented while looking around.
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