Chapter 87: Living Dark

The Blood's will inside Evin begged him to cancel the spell and put it back in his shadows.

"I give up!" Evin shouted to Rith, eyes clenched tightly.

Rith, who calmed down after getting her vision back, canceled her spell and the Shadow Zone around Evin disappeared as well.

Rith stopped floating and landed beside Evin. She noticed that she was out of breath somehow, but then she noticed that something was wrong with the air around her. She couldn't notice it when her mind was preoccupied with the dangers that lurked inside Evin's shadow, but since everything was over, she could sense that something was amiss.

Evin, obviously, used his newly create World of Storms spell on the Cosmic as well.

"I'm sorry about that. Something got the better of me, and I got a bit too serious at some point," Rith apologized.

"It's okay. I didn't think that something like that was going to happen as well," Evin said.

"What was that?" Rith asked with curiosity.

"Apparently, the Beast Lord's blood can give my shadows physical attributes," Evin began and explained the whole thing to Rith.

Evin did not know what the Blood's will had in mind, but after a while, shadowy figures started emerging from the ground all around Evin. Rith couldn't see them, but since Evin had perfect vision in the dark, he could definitely make them out. The biggest one was the maw that attacked Rith at first, and that one was the Blood's will. The other claws, eyes and tentacles were the World Sprites that resided inside Evin's shadow.

They also pulled out some of the jagged sorbothium metals from inside Evin's shadow and used them as makeshift fangs and claws. They probably could've attacked without them, but obviously, being armed was much better than being unarmed.

"So you were thinking of creating an offensive attack with the Dark World and the Blood's will offered this solution for you?" Rith asked.

"Something like that, I suppose"

Rith pondered about Evin's answer for a while and then asked.

"Evin, what does darkness mean to you?"

"I've thought about this for long time, but all I can say is that I'm not sure. I understand that you're asking about what kind of special attributes my Dark spells have, but I'm very sure that my latest spell is mostly thanks to the World Sprites and the Blood's will"

"Well, I'd agree with you, usually… but you must understand that a mage will never be able to recreate a special attribute that doesn't suit them. But this shows us that you're very compatible with the Vulpine Mother. Perhaps her special attributes work similarly to what your last spell did," Rith explained.

'Does that mean that I think of darkness like my home? Or do I think of darkness like a living being? But I really don't remember having thoughts like that…' Evin pondered.

"Well, all in all, it's a great addition to your powers… But I suggest you refrain from using that spell with the Beast Lord Blood's will anymore," Rith reminded.

"Why?"

"Let me ask you a question. What do you think the World of Space represents to me?"

Evin thought about Rith's specialties, but couldn't quite think of any. She did everything a normal mage of the World of Space did, and she seemed quite well-rounded as well. She could easily blink, she could use her portals as an offensive method and a defensive method, with that portal armor of hers.

"I'm not sure"

"That's because I never tried to apply what I think my specialty is to my spells. If I thought of the World of Space like my home, like most other Cosmics, perhaps my spells would start leaning on the controlling, or defensive side. Or if I thought that the World of Space was a great utility World like most humans do, my spells would start leaning towards transport or storage," Rith said.

Evin nodded in response, waiting for Rith to continue.

"But I never bother thinking about those things, since I need to be perfect at the basics before I start thinking about those kinds of things. If a mage starts leaning heavily to one thing from the beginning, like offense, all of their spells of that World start to become more and more one dimensional. After some point, the rest of their Worlds will also start leaning towards attacking. The mage would soon become unable to cast any spell that doesn't have an offensive capability," Rith said.

Evin never heard that one would become outright unable to cast their non-specialty abilities.

"So I suppose it's better to be more well-rounded than specializing in one thing?"

"Generally, yes. Specialization is good if you're part of a dedicated team… If you're confident in your teammate's ability to protect you, you can lean towards offense as much as you wish. But that only works for mages who are trained from birth alongside a team. Most mages will need to depend on themselves at some point," Rith explained.

"Well, when can I start specializing?"

"Perhaps when you become a Lesser-imposer. Before that, just focus on your basics, yeah?" Rith finished.

Evin was left wondering, but didn't linger on it much longer. It was already three or four hours past midnight, as far as Evin could tell. It was still bright as day outside, because of the Sorbothium veins infused with the Luminous World energy.

…

The next morning, or noon, should we say, Ssatsko took Evin and Arza, to bring them to the Artificer he was talking about.

Going through the city, Evin could see many different people curiously eyeing the red-haired Arza as they walked past. Evin was more inconspicuous, since black hair wasn't as rare in the North as red.

It was a calming experience, compared to walking through the City of Smog. No one trying to rob you, no one eyeing your possessions greedily, and no one looking at you with jealousy.

'But what's with the big contrast between the two cities?' Evin couldn't help but ponder.

With Kena's authority and powers, surely he could've created a better environment on the City of Smog.

As Evin was thinking about these things, the group reached their destination. Ssatsko opened the door to the place and Evin saw a luxurious interior with a variety of items line up in display. There were another group of people inside that Evin recognized.

"Oh, hello master Hector," Evin said to the familiar one horned man among them.

"Greetings, Evin," the man had seen the newcomers in the shop so there was no delay in his response.

"Buying a new channeling artifact?" Evin asked. Parvan's old one was with Arza, after all.

"Something like that… Hmm, seems you've gotten stronger?" Hector asked after glancing at Evin for a bit.

"A bigshot took a fancy in me and helped me reach the peak quarter-core stage," Evin explained.

Parvan, who was listening from behind his brother's back, felt his hopes of revenge shattering before his eyes. If he couldn't beat Evin when the latter was at the beginner stage, then he definitely wouldn't be able to do it when commoner mage reached the peak quarter-core stage.

'How do you jump from peak beginner to peak quarter in a three weeks anyway? What kind of person has so much resources?' Parvan thought.

For Parvan himself, he had to bathe in a World of Earth infused water for a week straight to become a 3 cm (1.2 inch) quarter-core mage. Which meant his maximum capacity was 5 kg (11 lbs) of mana.

The price of a Core shard and the process of liquidizing it for the bath was so much that even Parvan noticed the decrease of riches in the house.

Evin, who noticed the young noble in thought, called out to him.

"Hello, young master Parvan, how were your travels?" Evin's way of speaking turned extremely polite, compared to how he was speaking with Hector.

"It's been well, but I'm sorry, I must choose the specs of my new channeling artifact," Parvan said and steered his face to the items that were displayed in front of him..