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nEldrian failed to concentrate in any of his classes, constantly thinking of how he could possibly change the spell module for Frost Needle. Realizing that he could not truly change it unless he was able to enter the magical abyss. But he could change the way his mana worked inside of the spell module.

nKnowing this he came up with as many theories as he could, even going so far as to sketch them during class. When the day finally reached its end Eldrian had a stack of papers, the ideas sorter from easiest to most difficult to apply.

nUsing the magical abyss was dead last in the pile. Eldrian had no idea how to enter it without the Magic Crystal.

nRushing home with his stack of ideas, Eldrian found himself stopped from logging in. His play cooldown yet to reach its end.

nWith nothing better to do Eldrian turned to the forums, looking for others who might be using magic. He quickly gave up as all the other players simply relied on the system to give them skills and spells. None of them even understood how the spell modules worked.

nTo keep himself busy he turned to the general threads, looking at what the rest of the gaming world was up to. He had long been kicked off of the level ranking, his recent leveling up placed him into the top 100 of Phallos again. But compared to the true leaders in the game, Eldrian was far behind.

nThe highest level player was currently level 8, nearing 9. More than 200 players were over level 8.

nSeeing their levels Eldrian felt certain that these people were all good at fighting. From the fight yesterday he had learned just how much XP one could gain from combat. This only worked if you managed to not die, which meant if you were a soldier or martial artist you would be able to fly through levels.

nWhat's this? Eldrian asked as he found an interesting post, this player claimed that he had maxed out the required Tier 1 spell usage. Yet he was unable to learn Tier 2 spells.

nThe player also made no mention of needing to cast Tier 2 spells, rather it gave the player an entirely different way of reaching Tier 2. Through a challenge.

nEldrian had to learn and successfully use Tier 2 spells to reach Tier 2, reading this post allowed him to realize that his information was actually spot on. Though he might be able to skip the Tier 1 part, Eldrian felt he would likely reach that just by training his control. Making it obsolete if he could skip it or not.

nThe challenge this player had was to solo kill a Tier 2 monster. Absolutely no assistance was allowed, this certainly made it really hard for normal players. Especially when this monster had to be the same or a higher level than the player.

nI totally understand why he felt cheated. Eldrian felt the player was justified, he had spent a week to grind out the spell usage, only to be stopped by something he could not rush. This made sense but was certainly a large bummer for the player.

nAre better players already going to start standing out? Eldrian wondered as he finished his browsing. Having ended his browsing by looking at the company thread where they posted any updates and news regarding the game.

nThey had seemingly been placing far more time into the game than when they had just release it. This was the impression all the players had as they found that there would not be an update every other day.

nThese updates were not major, simple interface tunning or patching any errors they found. Tunning how logging in and out worked, informing the NPCs about how players existed, or sending new rules on how players may and may not be treated.

nThings like that.

nFor most players it felt weird, the company was deadset on not changing their game to make it a long-lasting game with millions and even billions could enjoy. Rather they had shut down sales while suddenly tuning it as if they expect it to become the best game in the world.

nEldrian felt conflicted when reading through the update. Not because of the update, rather because of all the updates. Like other players, he did not understand the Miracle Corporation. The company had made it clear that they would not change their game, rather their world.

nYet here they were trying their best to improve it. The former irked Eldrian, often leading him to curse the company. Yet the latter made him happy and left him questioning their reasoning. Ultimately leaving a weird taste in his mouth.

nOh, I have a message. Eldrian stopped logging out once he saw this notification.

nOpening it and reading through it he found that it was from one of the game developers. Asking him if he had thought about sharing his data with the company.

nThe developer went into detail about why they were following up on this, something which Eldrian had thought was more meant in passing. Having completely forgotten about it.

nHere the sender of the message made it clear that they valued Eldrian's cooperation and wished to affirm it. They mentioned that more than Eldrian previously experience, he was also the only High Elf who had managed to use magic.

nThis made them want his data even more, and while they could technically simply take it. They wanted to have Eldrian's help.

nNone of their game testers had ever come close to doing what Eldrian had. Which told them that Eldrian had some kind of talent that most lacked. That or he had extreme luck, in both cases, they wanted to use his data to make sure that the uniqueness of High Elves would not cause any problems.

nNaturally, they did not come out so straightforwardly to Eldrian, rather speaking around the real subject.

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"We are working on developing the next stage of our project, and while ANW might not be kept up forever. We believe the technology we develop will. It will be universal, the start of something great. Allowing us as humans to reach a new plane of living.

"

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"We are currently working on developing a better way of entering the gaming world. If you agree to share your data then we would like to also offer you access to the prototypes, and naturally the final product.

"

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"This new way of entering the game will enable you to the game for an entire day, to never miss anything in the game. We would naturally also want to use your data from using the prototype, allowing us to better improve the final product.

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"If you agree we will send a representative to discuss with you how much we can pull and what you want in return.

"

nEldrian was speechless, staring quietly at the screen after having finished his read. His first thoughts were on what he should ask for, but quickly turned to being able to game for an entire day. No longer having to log out.

nKnowing that he could not take too long to think this over, Eldrian replied that he would like to discuss this more. Neither agreeing nor disagreeing. The company's aim seemed all well and good, but Eldrian wanted to make sure there would not be traps. The contract everyone first signed had had a trap.

nAs soon as he sent his reply, Eldrian switched of his pc and logged into the game, finding action right off the bat.

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"He's back!

" Floyd shouted even before Eldrian could shake off the groggy feeling which came with logging in.

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"Thank Dioktis. Haru, get ready!

" Terlas shouted as the flight of an arrow followed his words.

nConfused Eldrian looked around trying to make sense of what was happening. The darkness of night foiling his plan and instead only causing him to become even more confused.

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"Make sure not to leave the array!

" Andreas shouted as he disappeared past it. Eldrian wanted to question just how he could shout that and do the opposite. But he could feel that it was not the time for jokes.

nShaking his head to force himself awake quicker, Eldrian pulled out Grace and headed to the front where Sabrea was standing. Her sword ready and her breathing steady, total focus all over her face.

nAs he took his place, with enough distance to use his spear, Eldrian was glad that the circle Floyd had made was over 20 meters wide. It gave them enough space to actually fight, it was even bigger than most sparring fields.

nDid they expect this, or did they simply air on caution? Eldrian wondered as his eyes finally settled to the darkness, allowing him to see the faint glowing eyes of something.

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"Can someone tell me what is coming?

" Eldrian asked in frustration, he could not even tell if the mass moving towards them was humanoid or beastlike.

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"Yania.

" Cadriel shouted from the back during a short pause of shooting.

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"The hell is a Yania?

" Eldrian asked just as one of the beasts jumped into the light and lunged for him. Only to be stopped by an arrow which quickly ended its life.

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"That is!

" Sabrea shouted as she slashed at another,

"Don't let your guard down, they are fast bastards.

"

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