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nAs Eldrian said the word of power he patiently waited for the tug of war to start. As soon as it did, he fought against it. Eldrian fully focused on keeping the module intact and soon found everything around him disappear. Yet he missed this as his focus was on the leaf-like module for the spell. After a few minutes of this the spell module disappeared and Eldrian found himself back in the room.

nSuddenly finding himself here, Eldrian looked around and saw that everything was as it had been before casting the spell. Yet suddenly being thrown from the state he had been in, into his normal viewpoint confused him. As he looked around he saw Dave waiting for him patiently, showing no indication that something special happened.

n'What just happened?' Eldrian asked himself in confusion. Like always he had focused on the spell module, concentrating to keep it intact. Yet as soon as he fight for control started it was like his mind was teleported to a different area, separate from his body.

nCurious and not feeling tired, Eldrian wanted to cast the spell immediately again, yet he remembered that he should be out of mana. Stopping his actions he glanced at his stats and found that it was indeed true. He also realized that he hadn't managed to feel mana yet, seeing as he still needed to look at his stats to see what was going on.

nWhen training he could feel his stamina being drained, Eldrian felt certain casting spells should have a similar effect. He just had no idea how this tiredness and draining felt.

nNot wanting to make the same mistake as he had made before, Eldrian decided to wait until his mana regened. Luckily this only took three minutes, allowing Eldrian just enough time to consider how he should approach this attempt. He decided to keep the module intact as was always his plan, but if he had energy to spare, then he would try and look around.

nReadying himself Eldrian created the spell module again.

"Anthos,

" He said after making sure the module was correct.

nAs he focused on keeping the module intact he felt the pulling force approach, soon after finding himself in a separate space again.

nHaving expected something like this he managed to realize the change in his surroundings this time, careful not to lose his grip on the module, he started looking around. Only to quickly find that there was nothing he could look at. It seemed like he was in the middle of space, except that even stars were absent.

nConfused by this Eldrian let his focus slip, causing part of the module to break apart. As soon as this happened he felt a sharp piercing pain throughout his body.

nCursing himself for losing focus he hurriedly called to the piece of the module, broken and floating away from the rest. As he did he felt a connection to this piece, but only barely. He tried desperatly to grasp onto this connection, certain that this would stop the piercing pain.

nUnconsciously he was gritting his teeth as sweat flowed down his face. Dave saw this and looked at Eldrian curiously, finding the reaction to be strange. Dave focused his Magic Inspection, trying to find the cause of Eldrian's apparent pain.

nAfter a few tries of connecting to the floating piece Eldrian finally succeeded. This time was different from the day before, where he had also willed the pieces to come together. At that time he had still been conscious of his surroundings and only the module had been surrounded in darkness. It had been more as if he had been looking at it through a screen. This time instead he was with the module, or rather he was the module and the surrounding space.

nSuccessfully connecting to the piece felt strange. It felt like holding water, yet knowing that it was staying in your hand. Eldrian could feel the 'connection' flowing, yet staying inside his grasp. He had no idea what his grasp even was, yet he knew that he was connected to the piece via it.

nNext, he tried to use this connection, slowly the piece floated back. Finally, after what felt like hours, it joined with the module. As it did Eldrian felt a shooting feeling spread through him as he was brought back to reality.

n'What is that?' Eldrian wondered, feeling that the space was similar to the mental spaces he often read about in novels. Yet why was it so empty? Confused Eldrian couldn't wait to try again. Unfortunately he knew he would be limited by fatigue. Hoping to circumvent it he planned to rest longer this time.

nKeeping the module intact was becoming easier for him with each attempt, and he felt confident he would soon succeed in actually using mana.

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"What did you do this time?

" Dave asked Eldrian, having waited for him to come out of his thoughts. Dave didn't want to interrupt Eldrian while he was working through what had just happened.

nTaking a few seconds to sort his thoughts, Eldrian asked,

"What do you mean?

"

nHe didn't ask this to dodge the question, but rather he wasn't sure what part Dave was asking about.

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"I also don't really know, you succeeded in doing something. Your mana had moved differently for a split second. Do you know what caused it to change its movement?

"

n'My mana moved differently?' Eldrian was confused, as far as he knew the Magic Crystal was forcing his mana to move. How could it move differently? Taking a moment for himself Eldrian went through what he had experienced, believing that it might be when he reconnected the piece which had broken off.

nNot sure how to explain this to Dave, Eldrian decided to explain what he just experienced.

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"From your description it sounds like you entered the Mageia Avyssos... Interesting.

"

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"What does that mean?

" Eldrian asked after a few seconds of waiting, yet not receiving more information.

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"Ah, in simpler terms, you managed to enter the magical abyss. Normally only Tier 5 or above would enter this realm.

" Dave continued, mostly talking to himself.

nEldrian for his part didn't think that he had made such great progress, yet from Dave's reply it seemed that he had managed to crack one of the bigger problems. Yet soon after his thoughts were jumbled again.

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"I didn't think you would enter the magical abyss. Nor that it would be necessary. I wonder if it is normal for High Elves, or are you a special case.

" Dave then added softly, murmuring, 'I so wish there was another High Elf I could ask or inspect.'

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"Can you explain?

" Eldrian asked in confusion. He had no idea what Dave was talking about.

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"Let's me see, at the start I believed that you only needed to learn how to feel mana. Then from there you would be able to slowly learn how to move it. Yet, instead, you skipped the feel part and directly went to the control. Though I guess you don't really do it consciously yet.

"

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"I wonder if this is due to the Magic Crystal. It might be. Then it would work even better than I had thought.

" Dave again went into his own thoughts, murmuring at the end.

n

"Hammh, Dave! Can you please finish explaining it to me?

"

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"The magical abyss is where more advanced magic is casted through. It is unheard of normal magic going through it, at least for humans.

" Dave then again went on a tangent,

"That can explain a lot.

"

nLuckily he didn't go far on this tangent before coming back.

"The magic abyss, well we don't really know what it is. But it does allow you to directly manipulate magic, instead of having to use spell modules.

"

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"This does not mean that spell modules fall away, they just become the finished version of magic.

"

nEldrian continued to ask Dave more questions until he felt he had a certain grasp on what he had accomplished. By the end he learned that he had actually managed to do little, other than entering the space and slightly using mana, he had failed to really control anything.

nYet this was already a great achievement for him.

nNaturally this made Eldrian very happy, as he finally had a reason for having gone through the painful training.

nBy the end of Dave's explanation he still had no idea what the magical abyss actually was. It felt like someone trying to explain triple integrals to a high school student. Things just didn't make sense.

nEldrian failed to visualize what Dave had tried to explain to him. But he had learned a few things, the foremost being that he should try playing with the spell module. From what Dave had said, he should be able to change the spell and while this wasn't his plan at first, it could allow Eldrian to feel mana.

nDave had never expected it to go this way, yet the results were good. Thus he was also in a good mood, feeling certain that Eldrian would soon be able to use magic. While the method was unconventional since normally one needed great control over your own mana to enter the magical abyss. Dave was curious why Eldrian had entered it without any control over his mana, he was hoping he could learn more while Eldrian experimented.

nHis greatest hope being to learn something he could apply himself.

nNaturally Eldrian had no idea about Dave's thoughts, nor did he know what would happen if he changed the spell module. From the sharp pain he had felt before, he felt certain that it wasn't a safe thing to do. Due to this Eldrian certainly wasn't planning on being reckless, as he was fearful due to his past experiences.

nHe planned to try and extend the stem only. Hopefully, this would do something and help him learn more.

nGetting comfortable against the wall, Eldrian prepared himself. Soon after saying Anthos he again found himself in the magical abyss.

n'First thing accomplished.' Eldrian noted as he again managed to enter this space. Feeling quite confident that entering it wasn't a fluke.

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