New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 1001: Defying Nature

Alex decided to start with Kary, whom he had promised to help for a little while already.

"You up for this?" he asked her, his face showing a bit of worry.

Kary nodded in response, knowing there was no point in hesitating now.

"Alright. Then, let's get started. It's no different from inside New Eden. The only difference is the density of the surrounding mana. Since it's so much weaker here, I'll have to use Aether to kick-start the process.

"Be warned, the Aether will hurt like hell since your mana capacity isn't the same from inside the game. But I'll need you to push through the pain and keep your mind on task. I doubt we have time to try more than once for each person.

"If anyone fails, we'll have to make do with the ones who succeeded. Are you ready?" he asked once more after giving his explanation.

"I'm ready."

Alex used his mana vision and waited to see the mana around Kary move toward her before he started pushing mana her way.

David and Violette contributed a bit, trying to smooth out the process, and he smiled at them gratefully.

Once Kary had saturated her body with mana, and her brow started furrowing, sweat pearling from her forehead, Alex understood it was time for him to act.

"Alright, here comes the Aether."

Alex silently hoped for this to work, forming a single mote of pure Aether above his hand. They really didn't have time to retry if she failed to produce the mana lobe.

Plus, who knew what kind of repercussions it would have on her if she failed?

Kary was one of their strongest casters, even without a mana lobe. This was all thanks to their constant mana training before the mana channels to this world abruptly closed themselves.

Her mana capacity was impressive, considering she had no mana lobe yet. With the addition of a mana lobe, Alex already knew she would be the strongest caster amongst them again.

He slowly guided the mote of mana into her chest, letting her guide it all the way to her mind to ensure she could handle it.

With a painful grunt, Kary started moving the Aether on her own inside her body; her focus pitted against the intense pain the pure Aether was putting her body through.

But, as she had proven many times before, Kary was a fighter.

She grit her teeth through the pain, even though her body was screaming at her to stop this torture, and she forced her mind to stay razor sharp.

Alex watched her closely with his mana vision and stayed ready to act quickly if something were to happen.

The seconds turned to minutes before the mote reached her mind, and Alex held his breath. The moment Kary managed to tame the Aether, everyone around Kary immediately felt it. The surrounding air shivered as a powerful suction force drained all the mana in Kary's immediate vicinity, even pulling on David's and Violette's mana.

Kary's control wasn't strong enough to rest Alexander's mana from him, but he still felt a powerful tug, making him grin.

The mana all rushed to her brain, a bright white light forming in Alex's vision as the mana condensed into a lobe, Kary grunting in pain as it did.

The mana kept getting drawn in, and at a point, Alex started worrying that it was too much mana. It wasn't before he heard a crack that he understood what was happening.

Kary had managed something he couldn't have fathomed before seeing it with his own eyes.

As the mana lobe solidified in her head, it instantly cracked and shattered, compressing again in her head, forming a second layer over itself.

She had not only formed a lobe but condensed it once simultaneously, making her the first human to reach the second level of mana lobe on Earth.

The pull on the ambient mana suddenly stopped before Kary bent over, her stomach suddenly constricting. She immediately vomited, and the horrible stench of the familiar impurities filled the air, making a few of them gag in disgust.

Kary threw up for almost a minute straight in waves, the puddle of gunk growing until it nearly reached her feet before she finally stopped to catch her breath.

"I'm sorry," she said between two large gulps of tainted air.

Alex used mana to form a bubble around the gunk, which he used to pick up and chuck down the hall behind them, setting it ablaze far away from them.

"Hey, don't apologize. I'm pretty sure you broke a natural law by condensing your mana lobe to the first stage as it formed. I would say congratulations are in order, at the very least," Alex joked, grabbing her in his arms and helping her up.

Even David looked at her with an impressed gaze, something he didn't do often.

Alex took a minute to make sure she was perfectly fine, looking at her with his mana senses and mana vision one after another. But after a thorough check, she seemed perfectly fine, if significantly mana-deprived.

But that was something that would fix itself pretty fast, given her newly formed mana lobe and the density of mana in the cave.

He was ready to start on the next person.

Turning to the rest of the group, they all suddenly had a look of uncertainty on their faces.

"Alright. Who's next?"

No one raised their hand, feeling like what Kary had just gone through seemed too easy to be

true.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Killian asked.

He, for one, knew that humans already had a natural capacity for mana, as he came from a line of mages. But they usually spent decades building it, with arduous training and years of training on controlling it.

Seeing Kary form a mana lobe, something that wasn't natural to their world, right in front of him, was raising all kinds of red flags with his training.

"I never said it was safe," Alex replied, looking at Killian with a severe expression.

"But if we want to ensure our survival, it's necessary. A few of us already went through this

when we were in the Tournament of Champions inside New Eden. We know the risks. Be my guest if you would rather wait for them to go."

"

Killian sucked on his teeth in displeasure. He was already going to go in the last three,

anyway.

What wrong was there to feel cautious about something hazardous?

"I'll go next," Jonathan's voice echoed in the cavern.

Looking at him, Alex grinned.

The look of resolve in his eyes was unwavering.

"Good. Sit down and get ready."

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