New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

After his shower, Alex looked at the time and sighed.

It was around three in the morning, and he wasn't tired in the slightest. His mind was still reeling from getting locked out of the game for a week.

But he didn't know what to do until Kary popped out of her gaming pod. And he hoped that wouldn't be for a few hours still.

He didn't want her to fall behind because of him. That would make him feel terrible.

"I could snoop around on the forums… Or maybe I can meditate?" he mumbled.

Activating his mana vision, Alex could see clearly as day the mana breach over his pod. And just over Kary's, there was another, this one a smidge smaller.

Focusing his mind on the mana particles floating around his room, he made them swirl around for a while, causing a breeze to form.

But he couldn't control all of it, and that made him realize his mana control on this side of the veil was weak. "Well, if I can't get stronger in New Eden, then I guess I'll power up on this side," he said, clenching his fist.

Sitting on the bed, Alex closed his eyes and visualized himself quickly expanding his scope to the room. He could see every mana particle floating around and the ones leaking out of the breaches.

Focusing his mind, he started making them move again, spiralling them around the room a few times before they would funnel toward him. He didn't want to consume them yet, so he only made them swirl fast around himself.

He did this until he could control every particle. It took him an hour before he was confident that every bit of mana in the room, including the one appearing from the breaches, obeyed his will.

And once he was sure of it, he started funnelling the mana inside him.

His hands lay on his knees, palm open and facing upward, and he made sure to pass the mana coming into his body through his hands before it circulated inside him once and then rose to his brain.

He knew where the mana lobe was in New Eden and also knew there was no such thing in the human body on Earth. Up to now, all the mana he and Kary had used had been stored inside their cells.

Strangely, the human cells could store an insane amount of energy, even one that was foreign to their world.

But he wanted to find out if that was the only way to store mana. Because forming a mana lobe, or its equivalent, on this side of the veil would be a terrifying but rewarding thing.

Having access to mana more efficiently, and being able to store more within their bodies, would be a great boon for when shit hit the metaphorical fan.

This went on for ten minutes, the mana accumulating in one spot in his head as Alexander forced it to stay there, and still, nothing had happened.

Alex kept pushing everything there; the mana in his room was now down to what was leaking through, and nothing had changed.

Aside from a minor headache, Alex couldn't feel the formation of a mana lobe inside him.

'What else can I try?' he wondered.

Then he realized. Even though all that mana was inside his head, it was just a loose cluster. His brain cells had absorbed most of it, making him feel energized and a clarity he never experienced before.

But it wasn't forming a lobe, a place where it would stay. He knew if he let go of his concentration, most of what his body hadn't absorbed would go back to the room, floating aimlessly.

It was thanks to his newfound clarity that a thought entered his mind.

In New Eden, he had noticed that his mana lobe had started growing a thick shell on its exterior as if the mana were crystallizing.

His theory was that the mana lobe was the people's equivalent of a monster orb. This made him think.

'What if the mana lobe is already a basic form of crystallization of mana, but inside our head? Like the brain forming a mana crystal for us to draw from,' he mused.

'Would this mean I can't get a mana lobe here, since Earth doesn't have mana?'

A frown formed on his face.

'No, that can't be right. David once told me that newborns will be able to form a mana lobe in the future. The mana, by then, would have imbued the world in its entirety. I just need to find a way to convince the world that I already am at that stage…'

He surmised the world was probably judging he didn't have enough mana inside him to require a mana lobe. But he could change this.

He could focus on something else since his body had absorbed a large part of the mana floating in his room.

Alex honed his mind on the two breaches and the mana leaking from them. They resembled two slow streams.

'Guess I'll have to pull more mana in,' he mused, a grin rising on his lips.

Alex started pulling on the mana from the breaches firmly, forcing it directly toward him instead of around the room, and suddenly, the two small streams turned into rivulets.

The suction he applied was strong, and he only made it more potent with time, using the mana inside himself to coax the one outside to obey him.

The rivulets turned jets, and the surrounding breaches started cracking wider as the mana leaking from them grew. Soon enough, the thin streams turned to gouts, and Alex was filling with mana at an alarming rate.

He knew he had to stop soon, or something terrible would happen.

He could feel the cells in his body vibrating with power, and his mind was pulsing in pain. But gritting his teeth through the pain, he suddenly stopped pulling at the breaches and focused internally.

A raging torrent was spinning inside him, no longer contained in his mind, since he didn't have enough room for it there. But that was where he would begin.

Focusing on his brain, he started compressing all the mana inside it, slowly pushing it toward where the mana lobe should be. As his brain emptied, he pulled up the mana raging in his body, as well, and kept compressing it until nothing was left aside from what his cells contained.

But he could feel he wasn't there yet. He was on the cusp of forming it, but missing something.

Then his mind clicked.

The energy of the world. Aether.

Aether was probably the last ingredient for the formation of a mana lobe. And since mana wasn't from this world, Aether was also absent.

How would he complete that last step? He refused to give up now.

Alex could feel the mana in his mind shaking against his control. He wouldn't be able to hold it for much longer.

'Did I do all this for nothing? I can't give up now!'

His body was already slipping out of consciousness, given he had drained all his mana into his mind for this endeavour.

'I can't fail. I refuse to fail…'

Then a crystalline giggle echoed in his ear.