Liam shook himself from his train of thoughts and composed his mind and heart. He then once again closed his eyes and took deep steady breaths.
"No. Not possible."
He did it again and then again and then again. However, the results were the same. There was mana in the air.
It was somewhat feeble, stronger than the density present in the nether realm but weaker than the one present in the Xion realm. And it was definitely not as strong as the mana that would be present later on.
"If this is happening…" Liam shuddered as if lightning struck his body. He then jumped out of the bed and ran to his window. He haphazardly flung open the screen and looked outside.
"No. Nothing." He did not stop there and immediately ran to their patio, looking out through each and every window of their apartment.
Only then he let out a sigh of relief and flopped to the ground. "So mana is here but the invasion hasn't started yet? What situation is this?"
He still couldn't believe what he was seeing so he tried to move the mana around his body to conjure a small wisp of fire.
Almost immediately he winced in pain. Clearly, his actual body needed some time to get used to the mana. For now, perhaps all he could do was some breathing exercises to get accustomed faster.
Liam closed his eyes and silently took a few deep breaths. This was a unique situation that he hadn't expected.
He had always assumed that the close of the tutorial and the influx of mana went hand in hand, but now things did not seem so simple.
"Hmmm…" He silently contemplated. If mana was already there, the invasions hadn't yet started, then what about the dungeons? What about the artifacts?
There were too many things that could be happening at the moment. Among these, there were also certain things that he could take advantage of. This changed everything.
While Liam was pondering this, suddenly his eyes widened. His soul minions! He was able to use mana, so he should be able to summon them too?
He took another deep breath and called out. Almost instantly, an army of chickens, rabbits, wolves, bears, and human figures popped out.
Liam was almost stunned silly by his own minions. He opened and closed his mouth speechlessly. To see them in real life was a tad too overwhelming, but there they were… they were actually right in front of him! Everything was real now!
And as for their levels…
Liam looked at the strongest of his minions… Crawford.
"Break that chair there." He said. The undead nodded blankly and walked over to the chair. He then moved his hands at a pace that wasn't visible to Liam.
Immediately the chair was broken into two. It was a swift smooth hit. The metal and the wood were crushed as if they were just clay.
There was no system interface at the moment but most probably the levels of his soul minions were still the same.
Liam gaped at this sight. He silently stared at the small army while they stared back at him. A few seconds of silence later, Liam fell back and laughed like a lunatic.
"This is good. This is too good. I am going to start this time with a group of overpowered minions. This is just sweet!"
Seeing him cackle, Gorak and Gu Donghai exchanged glances. The two of them were confused at first and now they understood where they were standing. They were ghosts in real life! What was happening? Where was this world heading to?
Meanwhile, Liam was busy making his plans. Now that this new game changing event had occurred he needed to erase all of his old plans and make new ones.
Right now in the whole world probably no one realized that something like this had happened. He was the one and only one with this knowledge. So he had to make proper use of it.
And Liam knew exactly what he had to do. First, he needed to make some arrangements as he did not know how much time they had left.
Mana was here so the other events might ensue very soon. If he moved alone, he wouldn't be able to cover the bases properly.
"Go and get her." He commanded One. The forged minion directly went over to Shen Yue's apartment and knocked, followed by a loud shriek the next instant.
"Liam!" Shen Yue rushed to him in a panic. "What is… what is all of this?" When she arrived, she saw all of his minions and was even more shocked. "What… I…"
She was just as dumbfounded as Liam as she stared at the impossible.
"Hmmm. I am also not sure why this is happening." Liam explained to her, "but it is happening. So we need to do some preparations. Can you log in and bring everyone out?"
"Ok." Shen Yue nodded.
"I am going out now. I will be back soon." Liam tidied himself up and dismissed his soul minions. He then walked out of the apartment. There was something he needed to check.
Mana was there on earth now. So what about…
He took a cab and went directly to the graveyard on the outskirts of the city. It was a two hour drive but Liam did not waste the time.
He mediated the whole time, slowly getting his body used to mana. He controlled a small stream of mana steadily and circulated it throughout his body.
By the time he finished three to five rounds, they had already arrived at the destination. Liam paid the guy and stepped down. Almost immediately a thick waft of a familiar scent assaulted him.
"I was correct." Liam grinned. There was mana, and there was also nether!
Clinging to all the rotten corpses lying down in the graves and resting peacefully along with them were small amounts of nether.
"It is not much, but it is enough." Liam waved his hand and all the bits and pieces of nether loitering around the graveyard instantly shot towards him.
They clumped together and formed three black spheres that revolved around him. The thick wisps of nether swirled as if they were alive.
When Liam touched one of the spheres, the energy instantly thrummed, waiting for him to give the command. Liam instantly knew it. He could feel it. This was the same feeling he had inside the game as well.
Such control and obedience were only possible if he had an absolute affinity to the nether. In the beginning, he was not one hundred percent sure that this would work, but now it seemed like he had already achieved one of his big goals.
His nether affinity was off the charts, so the same should apply to all the other affinities. This meant that his body composition from inside the game was already transferred outside.
Liam silently pondered as a frightening possibility cropped up in his mind. What if the composition never had anything to do with the body?
Only soul related things transferred to the real world as far as he knew. So one's composition relied on one's soul?
Liam became quiet. The spheres buzzed around him without stopping. Several confounding thoughts clashed in his mind, each more bizarre than the previous one.
However, Liam immediately snapped out of it. This was not the time for that. He needed to take some actions soon and verify some things.
He waved his hand again and the three spheres became dispersed and invisible, filling the air around him. In the nighttime, no one was able to notice anything weird.
Liam hurried and called another cab, immediately returning back to the apartment. By now everyone had logged out and the living room was full of people.
"Brother! What happened? Is everything okay?" Mei Mei was the first one to ask. Shen Yue hadn't broken the news yet as she did not know how to.
"I… didn't say anything yet." She began to explain when Liam interrupted her. "That's okay." The next second he abruptly pulled all the particles of nether together.
The three black spheres once again thrummed alive, revolving around him. They seemed to be floating mid-air just like in the game. Magically.
Everyone looked shocked. They were all staring at Liam dumbly, even Mia. What the hell was going on now? The hellish tournament had just now gotten over and now there was this? No one understood what was happening.
And Liam did not stop there. He went ahead and summoned his soul followers as well just a couple of them. With this, everything was laid out in front of the group.
All of them looked mortified. There were a couple of shrieks from Mei Mei and Rey. Alex's face was serious. Mia also looked like there was something horrible about to happen.
However, Liam shook his head and smiled. "Cheer up guys. This is not bad news. This is good news. Come on. We have some work to do."
Everyone gulped.
