n

n

n

"Start Link!

"

nClarice said following Wallace's instructions. After feeling a warm embrace to her whole body, she opened her eyes again and was brought to a familiar white room to fix her avatar.

nThis is somehow the same in the first version. As she was only making a test, she didn't bother making some complicated changes and left it as it is. As she admired her appearance, there were four options that have appeared in front of her. She could select any of the four to proceed.

n Battle Arena - Survival

n Adventure Mode

n Practice Mode

n Tutorial

nClarice wasn't really in a mood to do battle and was only here to try one of her brother's work to offer some suggestions and help him. She planned to select the Linked Park which was previously in the previous simulator. It was a place where all users of the first version of the simulator pods could gather. That place wasn't crowded as only 200 copies of those pods were sold by Wallace as a trial. She wanted to suggest something in that Mode but unfortunately, this Park has disappeared and was replaced by Adventure Mode .

nShe selected this mode to check it out and was thoroughly surprised at what happened next. She even questioned how his brother could do something this amazing.

nAfter getting surprised and taking a few breaths to calm down, Clarice had a sense of her surroundings as her face turned very serious. She walked for a couple of minutes and felt a familiar connection to the world.

nShe took a deep breath and tested to execute some magic spells.

n

"T-this...

"

nShe could connect to the mana! She can feel the mana within her body without any issues or discomfort!

n

"H-how? Did I get transported to a different place instead? Was that the true capability of the pod?

"

nTransporting a person to an isolated island that Wallace had reserved for Adventure Mode beforehand? She was trying to come up with what kind of trick Wallace did to accomplish this but she could only give up. She's not an engineer but a battle mage. This is too complicated for her so she didn't bother thinking too deeply about how this works.

n

"Is this a Lost Technology perhaps? Yes, this is definitely one. How did he learn this?

"

nHer breathing got heavy upon experiencing all this. She just tried using the magic she was familiar with even without Mana Artifact and she perfectly executed them.

nNot only that, she felt the texture of the grass, the trees, and even bit into some leaves. Sure enough, she could taste them. It felt so real!

nShe also noticed a city far away after looking around, but its structures and vehicles weren't so familiar.

n

"This technology... this is too valuable. I need to fully discuss this with him. He's probably not even aware of what kind of complications this device would make once it is released.

" Clarice said in a grave tone. The first combat simulator pod that Wallace made was in the standard that other engineers in the country could somehow make with great efforts. It was only improved by a bit due to having several options for the battlefield, avatar options, and a good practice environment due to multiple options. You can almost design your own place during the tutorial phase.

nBut this simulation that she was looking at wasn't so simple. It was like a new world. It even felt like she had entered an advanced civilization after looking at the far city. Also, she felt the freedom that she could do in this place after trying her magic several times.

nShe didn't have enough in this world yet as she decided to visit the near city.

nBut as she was about to step on the city land, she felt everything darken and was woken up in the simulator pod. The gels around her have already shrunken.

n

"What happened?

" Clarice was of course disappointed about the sudden cutting off of her fun.

n

"Err.. not sure. It's not yet complete... perhaps. Anyway, let's check this thing instead.

" Wallace reasoned out. Actually, Wallace was also surprised about the city in the Adventure Mode. That city was almost an exact copy of an advanced civilization's metropolis. Showing that to her sister was asking for trouble.

nSo after learning it, he immediately asked Avalon to safely disconnect her from the virtual world. It wasn't his intention to put that city there but as he let the Avalon design the place after he perfected the program in simulating mana, he forgot these structural details. He forgot to tell the artificial intelligence to only put a simple city or better yet, an old fashioned one.

n

"Eh? You haven't finished that yet?

" Clarice furrowed her brows as she questioned Wallace. She was feeling a bit doubtful and unable to get over that feeling of realism within that virtual world.

n

"That's right, I haven't perfected it yet but you can retest it... perhaps after a month.

" Wallace smiled after leading her to his other creations.

nUnfortunately, Clarice wanted to talk about the virtual world and her interest in the other Mana Artifacts had greatly lessened.

n

"Hmm... I was capable to use magic in there. That is too real. Is this a Lost Technology? Wait.. thinking about it now, the level of realism was very similar to a Sealed Mana Artifact I heard about.

"

n

"Sealed Mana Artifact?

" This time, it was Wallace who raised his brows upon hearing it. It was amazing that a simulation program similar to his work was already existing here.

n

"Mhm. Actually, it only possesses an ability that has similarities to your virtual world. The artifact will make the target fall asleep and drag them together within the user's dream world.

"

n

"Oh.. so that how it is but it's the first time I heard about this.

"

n

"That's natural, I only heard it accidentally but I believe that it truly exists. Although I haven't seen it personally, I know where the artifact was hidden. Unfortunately, the problem with that artifact was obviously falling asleep together with the target. That's inconvenient, right? You have to make sure that someone was protecting you or ensure the safety around you before you use it. Oh, and it was called Dream Weaver's Circlet if I'm not wrong.

"

n

"I see... are you sure it's ok to tell me that?

"

nClarice paused for a bit after hearing Wallace's question.

n

"Well, it should be fine. Anyway, I shouldn't have learned about it too.

"

n

"These sealed artifacts were too mysterious. I don't think that they were dangerous since it could only do that much.

"

n

"Heh.. You're still ignorant about them. Sealed Mana Artifacts didn't come from this southern continent.

" Clarice continued.

n

"Aren't you surprised that it could drag people into dreams? Those are no longer conversion of Mana to Elements. Those are real and mysterious magic.

"

nThis time it was Wallace's turn to get a serious expression.

n'So that was it. It's the missing information I couldn't find elsewhere.' Wallace thought after hearing his sister.

nThere are several mysterious magic that he had read about through the help of his Avalon's ability to gather information. He couldn't properly explain some of them, like those that affect human souls, dreams, spatial, temporal magic, and others.

nHe could somehow explain the life and death magic as most living things requires Mana and messing with it would truly affect anyone's life.

nBut the magic that was first mentioned couldn't be properly explained. Even Aeolia hadn't finished investigating the magic of souls before he 'died'.

n'But what if he went to the northern continent just to learn the truth in this? Err... that's not the point.' Wallace thought as he cleared his mind.

n'It means that either the people within the northern continent found a way to use the Mana's full potential unleashing other possibilities or it was also a natural phenomenon.'

nHe had read some theory before that some outstanding Mana Artifacts, those that don't have a copy of its Magic Structure, were naturally made by this magical world.

nYes, a Natural Artifact. It wasn't proven as no evidence can be found about this. But it was also said that this theory was only made just to hide the fact that some engineers out there could actually make these mysterious magic spells with their ability.

n'Wait... were those Natural Artifacts were also the Sealed Mana Artifacts?'

nNow, with his sister's words, Wallace somehow felt that this northern continent must be explored at some point in time as there were a lot of riddles in this place. But it's surely not very soon as he had a lot to do first in this country.

n

"What made you silent?

" Clarice asked seeing Wallace had frowning look on his face.

n

"Ah... I'm just thinking why are they called 'sealed'? I mean, do they have to be sealed?

"

n

"Oh that... Maybe you haven't learned yet. I'm not sure if I learned this in my third year but anyway, they are called 'sealed' because there's a problem happening whenever it gets unsealed for a long time. Have you heard of Mana Calamity that was rumored to only happen with the northern people?

"

n

"Yes, the famous example was the 'Illusion of the Venarian Town', it was one of the worst Mana Calamity having made the entire island float.

" Wallace answered after having a thought and he suddenly stopped upon realizing what Clarice meant.

n