2 02 - Mortal Core
After breathing for a few minutes, Tony finally recovered from the shock of the promotional video for that game and started reading the game page looking for a buy button.
But unfortunately for him, there was no button for that!
[Elder Worlds will make 99 slots available for a Closed Beta. Interested players can fill in the form below, and a Divine VR will be sent to the player's home for free. If the player wants to continue playing after the end of the Beta version, the Divine VR price will be charged.]
Tony was frustrated, the Closed Beta would only have 99 slots, which for an indie game could be a lot, but seeing that the promo video already had 100,000 views and was released less than 24 hours ago, he knew those 99 slots wouldn't be not nearly enough for so many people.
But it didn't hurt to try, and after filling out the form, Tony started reading the promotional video comments.
[Damn, is this a game? I thought it was a movie!]
[On the page it says a Divine VR will be sent, so this will be a VR game... I'm less interested now.]
[VR games are bad, the graphics are bad, the gameplay is bad, I don't want to play a VR game, release a PC version!]
[If the VR version is as beautiful as the promo video, the game will definitely be a hit.]
[My RTX couldn't handle graphics like this, thank goodness they'll ship their own hardware for that.]
The comments ranged from people who disbelieved this game to people who were excited to play it. The only way to get these people to believe that the game really delivers what it showed in this promo video would be to see other people actually playing it.
But despite so many doubts, Tony still had hope. Even if the game only delivered half of what it promised, it would still be something amazing for today's MMORPG gaming industry.
"I hope I get a spot so I can play this." Tony told himself as he started watching the promo video again.
---
"Peww..." Arthur was panting.
He had used all available mana to make that water dragon and maintain a serious appearance.
At his level, it was impossible to make a solid water dragon that would work in an offensive way, so he just used magic to make a beautiful but useless water dragon, which was enough to consume all his mana.
But despite being so tiring, Arthur was satisfied. He could follow audience feedback to the promotional video and he knew it had been a success.
[Ding, recruiting disciples has started. The system will select the ideal people to join the sect.]
[Ding, as a reward for the user's dedication to making a good promotional video, the system will unlock the 'Sign-in' function.]
[Every day users can subscribe to get a random prize. The number of Signs can be accumulated for 7 days.]
Arthur was shocked by this. Without thinking twice he said out loud. "Sign!"
[Ding, user received 1x (Condensed Mana Potion). ]
"That...dammit!" Arthur was even more excited.
In this world, both fighters and mages have a Mana Core, but the amount of mana a person can use depends on how much mana they have in that person's Mana Core. Most people have a very low talent because of their Mana Core which supports a minimal amount of mana.
One of the ways to train the Mana Core is by using a magical meditation technique, which will make the user's Mana resonate with the mana in the environment and slowly absorb that mana into the Mana Core.
When a person has just awakened their Mana, their Mana Core is called a Low Mortal Core, so that person must absorb a lot of mana to reach Mid Mortal Core, then High Mortal Core, Peak Mortal Core, and finally after a few years ascend to the Elementary Core.
If a person on Low Mortal Core has 1 Mana, a person on Peak Mortal Core has 10 Mana, and a person on Low Elementary Core has 20 Mana. Power more than doubles just by crossing a step! But not necessarily the amount of Mana in a person doubles, but the density of the mana, which means that 1 point of Elementary Core mana is worth 2 points of Mortal Core mana.
Don't think that 1 more mana is too little. As far as mana points are concerned, 1+1 is not 2, but 3, 4, or even 5!
People with many mana points let mana circulate through the body almost 24 hours a day, as mana is extremely beneficial to the body, increasing both a person's endurance, strength and longevity. The more mana, the more this action is effective.
People without mana have a life expectancy of 100 years, but when someone reaches the Elementary Core, that person's life expectancy increases to 150 years! Of course, there are people focused only on magic who instead of nourishing their bodies to amplify their muscles, just focus on their own longevity and increasing the amount of mana in their Mana Core, which makes these true Mages.
Most Mages only focus on magic and longevity, so they are left with old and weak bodies. But if someone underestimates a mage because of their appearance, that person won't even know how they died, as by sacrificing bodily strength, these mages' magic is several times more powerful than a normal person.
Arthur did not choose to focus solely on magic and longevity. Since he awakened his mana, Arthur always tries to keep the mana in his body circulating to nourish the body completely.
Arthur is considered a genius for having 3 Mana points as soon as he awakened the Low Mortal Core, but that didn't mean he had 3 Mana points, it meant that his Mana Core had 3x more mana space than the average person. But no one but him knows that, as the county didn't have a sect. There weren't many wizards there, which stopped anyone from noticing it.
So for Arthur to reach the Mid Mortal Core, unlike a normal person who would need 4 points of mana, he will need 12 points of mana, 24 points for the High Mortal Core and 30 points of Mana for the Peak Mortal Core.
While for people with powerful backgrounds, this can be a very good thing, as reaching the Peak Mortal Core with a lot of resources is not difficult, but for someone like Arthur who had no one to trust, it would be much more difficult than for someone with talent and resources, since he would need to exert 3x more effort to reach Elementary Core. However, once he reached Elementary Core, Arthur would have 60 mana, which would make him strong enough to handle three to four ordinary Elementary Core people.
But with the Condensed Mana Potion, that wouldn't be a problem anymore.
A Condensed Mana Potion is a potion made using mana from a person with an Elemental Mana Core, using the mana itself to create a potion and sell or give to another person.
The mana of an Elemental Mana Core is much denser than a person's Mana in Mortal Mana Core, which means that 1 Mana from an Elemental Mana Core can equal at least 5 Mana from a Mortal Mana Core. Added to the superior amount of mana an Elemental Core supports, this makes Mortal Cores not even dream of fighting an Elemental Core head-to-head.
But, on the other hand, for people in Elementary Core to get 1 Mana Point is at least 5 times more difficult than a person in Mortal Core, that is, this potion was very valuable, since hardly anyone would use their own mana to give to other people!
Without thinking twice Arthur drank the Condensed Mana Potion and sat down in the center of the abandoned sect to start meditating.
3 Sister...
4 Sister...
6 Sister...
8 Sister...
12 Sister...
*boom*
As Arthur's Mana Core reached 12 mana he felt an explosion sound inside him, as if some handcuffs had been broken and his perception of his world had been expanding.
But he couldn't pay attention to this feeling anymore, as his Mana Core was still absorbing a large amount of Mana from this potion.
15 Sister...
18 Sister...
22 Sister...
"Damn... 22 Mana! If you were a normal person, that would be enough for you to reach Elementary Mana Core! But the difference in mana density for Mortal Core to Elementary Core is too big..." Arthur started to think about it.
For a Peak Mortal Core to reach the Elementary Core, it would no longer need to absorb mana, but rather refine the mana they already have, so for Arthur, understanding how dense an Elementary Core's mana is can give a lot of insights for when it moves forward.
After two hours Arthur finally opened his eyes. At that point he had fully assimilated the new strength he acquired.
After reaching the Mid Mortal Core, Arthur could feel the mana density in the air much better, by letting the mana flow through his body, the muscle improvement was several times faster than before, even his vision was becoming noticeably more sharpened after feeling the mana flow through the eyes.
But in that a doubt he has had since awakening the mana arose, and Arthur thought of asking the system about it.
"System, why does my Mana Core support more mana than normal people?"
[This comes from an unknown lineage in the user's body. The system level is not yet high enough to identify this.]
Arthur was surprised by this answer, but another question came to his mind. "Maybe this comes from my mother?"
Nobody knew who Arthur's mother was, people just knew that his mother wasn't the Countess, maybe the only person who knew that was the Count himself, but whenever someone asked him that, he always said he didn't remember who the woman was.
Leaving this subject aside, Arthur saw that there were 12 hours for the disciples to arrive, or rather 12 hours for the players to be able to play. So Arthur decided to try to fight some monster to know his own strength in battle.
Picking up a small dagger he had brought, Arthur started walking towards the forest.
To shoot the promotional video Arthur had only filmed in the safest outdoor areas he could go. To film the mine scene he even used the camera's Zoom function at maximum so that he didn't need to enter that place.
But now he was confident that he could at least kill some weaker monsters, after all, he had hit the Mid Mortal Core.
---
Arthur was watching his first prey, a Low Mortal Core goblin. Actually, a group of three Low Mortal Core goblins.
For the Arthur of a few hours ago, fighting these goblins could be much more complicated, as he only had 3 Mana Points, but now with over 20 Mana Points, Arthur was confident he could kill these little imps.
'Ignis.' Arthur said mentally as he opened his palm and made a fireball appear. 'Go!' He ordered.
The fireball in Arthur's hand attracted the attention of these goblins, but the speed at which the ball was flying was much faster than they could react. Mainly because Arthur had injected a lot of mana into it, so the speed became even higher.
*boom*
The fireball hit the middle goblin and completely blew out that little monster.
The other two goblins were injured but still ran towards Arthur.
But at that point, Arthur took the dagger and used mana both to strengthen his own muscles and to make the dagger even sharper.
Running forward, the only thing Arthur noticed was that the speed was much higher than what he was used to before. In an instant the dagger penetrated the head of the first goblin, and in another instant Arthur punched the other goblin hard in the head.
With the amount of mana Arthur had used on his own body, the goblin's head cracked and he went flying, but he was still alive.
"Did he survive?" Arthur was surprised, but he still ran to the downed goblin and punched once more to finish the job.
"It was easier than I supposed, but not as easy as I thought it might be." Arthur told himself as he analyzed the battle.
He felt that his choice of skills wasn't bad, but as he didn't have much knowledge of martial arts, maybe the way he attacked wasn't ideal.
"Maybe if I attack in a more vital and fragile place like the neck it might be easier..." Arthur began to analyze and went deeper into the forest to hunt more monsters and improve himself.
Goblins were very weak monsters. To really train, Arthur felt he needed a monster that would demonstrate at least some danger to him.
