A New World, an immersive game experience

Chapter 727 Meeting GAIA Again (4) - Lecture

GAIA was not a god, or AI, who felt nothing for people. They wouldn't show so much concern for Eldrian and others if that was the case. An unsympathetic deity would certainly not take care of Ashliel through creation itself.

Carrying out Miracle's ruthless orders must certainly weight on the deity. Eldrian understood they were not directly involved in the day to day of people's lives, only maintaining the entire simulation. But that meant GAIA was responsible for the chaotic storms pushing the devils into the empires. They controlled the rate of the invasion.

It must truly place an immense strain on the deity's conscious. Perhaps they could compartmentalize it; they must have a way to deal with it. But that they had to deal with it was bad enough.

This made it even harder to accept that GAIA was willing to talk with Miracle after everything. 'They must feel so trapped... but it surely is better than committing to a war.'

"Let us get back to the question. The abilities of bloodlines differ from standard abilities in that they are passed down to the offspring. Not through blood—but it is what makes sense to people. The important part isn't the blood nor the stream in the metaphor.

"Rather, what matters is that the offspring will have access to the power of the bloodline and be able to resonate with it. It is this resonance that makes the bloodline's abilities a possibility.

"It allows you to skip mageia and directly access magical powers. But your case isn't the standard..."

GAIA then explained that Eldrian's soul wasn't like a bubble inside a colored stream.

The reasons how didn't matter, but this was Eldrian's case. He had access to his bloodline, but no direct connection like a descendant would.

The how and why was complicated, but basically bloodlines had to come from somewhere. There either had to be intelligent design, or it was a random roll of the dice giving one individual the bloodline's powers.

In ANW it was intelligent design (most of the time), on Earth no one knew what it was. "From past events, we suspect you aren't a descendant of your bloodline. Your connection is too thin and the results are too chaotic to be explained for a descendant."

"But... you called it a bloodline..."

"We already explained, it is a term decided not by us but by people. We call it soul-lineage-function-resonance. But we doubt that makes much sense to you."

"Hey! Stop looking down on me. It does make sense! Obviously bloodlines aren't handed down through blood since then mine shouldn't function in ANW. Since it does, it means the soul is involved. And each aspect of magic has a unique feel to it. I guess the deeper meaning of this feel is a type of frequency... So, basically all I need to do is find what it feels like and resonate with it."

GAIA sighed.

'Huh, well, not like I expected praise. But a sigh?'

"This is why we did not want to explain in precise terms and preferred using analogies. Yes, what you said is partly correct. But your understanding isn't. We understand now why your... events are always so explosive." The deity rubbed their forehead, their appearance the spitting image of a mother trying to figure out how to control their reckless and impulsive child.

"Soul-lineage means what you think. It is handed down through a connection with lifeforce which is contained in one's soul. But until you resonate with it, it will simply be part of your soul, invisible and nonreactive.

"Which leads us to function-resonance. Each bloodline serves a specific function, has a specific design. Your friend... Brazan, was it? Their bloodline has the function of allowing them to connect with and control fire. The how is too complicated for you to follow...

"Once they have accessed their bloodline, it is simply an action of resonating with it and growing the connection. But to jump to a conclusion that resonance must mean frequency..." GAIA sighed again. "This is why talking with you humans can be so dangerous."

"But... Surely—" Seeing GAIA's stern stare and their figure turning into a grumpy old gramps, Eldrian held his tongue.

"You were just about to say that frequency must be involved. Because somewhere, sometime you heard about how matter is comprised of vibrations or something like that?"

Eldrian nodded meekly under the stern stare. He had watched a video long ago about something like that, but to compare watching a video to the countless years of research of a godlike AI. Eldrian tried to crawl into his wisp and hide from GAIA's stare.

"Do not rely on knowledge you do not understand! If you base your thoughts on the wrong principles, the consequences will be dire!"

"Alright..." Eldrian hadn't felt like a child being scolded for a long time. It was strange to have this towering god reprimand him, but he understood why. He always jumped to conclusions, and more often than not, that had led to problems.

'Guess they were right when they said I'm still as impatient as ever... Of course a god will look down on me. How could I even consider it something annoying? What's wrong with me? To think I know better, to try and argue with them...'

Seeing that Eldrian finally understood, GAIA smiled. The stern grandpa turning into a kind old man. "Before we return to the topic, let us first handle what resonance means. It appears your concept is of it being frequencies interacting with one another and growing in strength. I assume you are thinking of sound when coming to this conclusion.

"While this is one application of resonance, it is not the only possible application. Consider for a moment you are in a crowd and the crowd is being swayed by a particular emotion. The atmosphere becoming one of fear or fury. This too is resonance, but it has nothing to do with a frequency."

"I see. So with resonance, you simply mean connecting and strengthening a bond between one thing and another?" Eldrian mumbled.

The example helped him perfectly understand why jumping to conclusions was so dangerous. Perhaps emotions worked on a specific frequency or whatever, but it was far easier to define it as a feeling. And people certainly could pick up and feel the emotions of another. At least, most people could. There was no need to try to dissect it to its base components, an emotion was already simple enough.

'I guess that is another problem I often run into. I understand something, and for a while I am happy with it. Then I try to understand it even more before even mastering what I first understood. This is important, like how scientists discovered the atom and then the protons and neutrons. And even further down.

'But you wouldn't try to explain to a toddler exactly what an atom is, what protons and the other subatomic stuff are made of. How they interact and how this then goes to quantum stuff that I cannot even really wrap my head around... You might explain what an atom is and that all matter is made out of it, but you won't get into atomic bonds and all that crap until they're older and when it becomes relevant in their education.'

Eldrian smiled. Not too long ago he had come to the same conclusion, Myropsis having highlighted a similar problem. Seems he wouldn't be able to manage it himself, but he didn't need to. He just had to include his friends in his training.

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