Chapter 199: Productive boredom

…

Evin sat in the lobby of the Mage Association, waiting for a mage to come and explain some of the necessary information to him, his mind wandering off and about thinking of different topics.

The receptionist told him to wait for someone available, as there was a supposed shortage of mages lately. Evin could see that it was so, judging from the relatively empty halls of the Mage Association, compared to the first time he visited the place.

Evin didn't know if it was due to the war with the South or something else, but he had a feeling that he would soon take part in it when Nasst decided to make him work. And from what Twelve could tell him, Evin could guess that it had something to do with some invaders from other worlds, with the spaceships and everything.

'Perhaps they've come to take over… I can tell that they've been studying the weaknesses of the Easterners from what they've done to Karan. Who could tell that they didn't study the weaknesses of the other countries?' Evin thought idly.

Evin felt like he should be more concerned about this, but he really didn't want to bother with any of it. Alvox had the Empress and the Authorities to deal with these extraterrestrial threats.

He himself would rather stick to his own stuff, since worrying about the world's problems really wasn't his forte. 

Evin knew that some people out there really couldn't stand the fact that there were people out there suffering and in pain, and felt obliged and responsible to do something for them as fellow members of the same race, unable to stop themselves. Thinking that there might some little girl out there in the streets, cold and shivering, wondering how the hell was she going to find food to survive tomorrow… Thinking of such things, these kind-hearted people would actually lose sleep and spirit, becoming depressed and unproductive. To solve this need of theirs to help society, they would volunteer for mostly undesirable jobs, try their best to help others and just be a better person in general.

Naturally, Evin didn't look down on these people. He felt that thanks to them, society became a slightly better place to live. Thanks to the kindness of these people, individuals didn't automatically assume that everyone was out to harm them in some way. After all, in a 100% dog-eat-dog society, a functioning civilization just wasn't possible. 

But if these kind-hearted ever want to pull Evin into their social activities, Evin would likely refuse or ghost them. After all, Evin himself didn't care about the state of strangers and society in general.

It was a selfish stance, sure, but Evin wasn't dumb to think that just because he wasn't the same as others, there was something wrong with him.

'Ugh, let's forget about morals for a bit,' Evin thought, shaking his head.

Since Runa was still asleep in his new Dimension, this gave him a rare chance to be alone and just idly think about stuff.

'Speaking of the dimension… I really should give it a proper name soon, huh? Shadow dimension sounds a bit generic, but it's so fitting I just wanna name it that and be done with it. Ah, whatever I'll just keep calling it my shadow, since at the end of the day, it's just that,' Evin decided.

'As for my other magic, I'll delve into it when Enri and the others wake up. Ugh, shit, I've been slacking on creating new spells for a long time, since I have so many options…' Evin thought with dread. 

If Evin was a fucking cultivation maniac, he should've developed at least 50 spells at this point, due to how much freedom the World offered, but Evin just wasn't in the mood to experiment through all of them. As he mentioned before, the biggest problem was that he had too many options. His newly acquired Soul Magic, the Dark World, The Storms, the Heavy World, the Authority Style and the Illusions. Even after lining up everything he thought he knew, Evin was sure that he was still missing something.

'Ah, of course, the newly learned Portals and the passive defense, as well… That should be about it, right? That's almost 10 different things! I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of jealous of those pursuers of the True Path who only have to doggedly walk upon a single road…'

This was the biggest reason why he was procrastinating on practicing, even though Rith was always there to encourage him to train harder. There was also his monkey brain refusing to practice out of sheer laziness and stubbornness.

But since he was bored now, and didn't have anything else to do, he was finally facing the problem head on.

'Alright, let's make a detailed plan, or something along those lines,' he suddenly decided.

Evin thought about what he could do to solve the issue at hand and landed on the most optimal solution which was obviously: to just tackle each of these problems one at a time. Since he felt pressured because he had so many things to do, it was best to forget about them all for now, and focus on one thing and one thing only.

'Since the World Sprites are still unresponsive, I'll start with something other than the Dark World. Currently, my passive defense should be top priority, since after that, I'll have finished Nasst's training. After all, I'll be relatively free to do whatever I want afterwards. And besides, if I learn how to keep myself safe at all times, then that would be a great weight off my shoulders…'

'But it's a bit of a pain to keep it working literally at all times, considering the amount of lodestones that I would need,' Evin realized. If he could create curving Time beams, he could definitely find a way to attach the thing to his body at all times. Since one beam needed to occupy 0.2 kgs of his 28 kg capacity, and if he had five rings of Time beams around him, he would need a system to permanently sustain a consumption of 1 kg per hour, if he was a bit frugal. 

'So, if I think that a 1 kg lodestones will recharge itself over 2 weeks, then I'll need a total of 370 kgs of lodestones to keep all this working indefinitely...' Evin thought unsurely.

'Maybe I can ask Rith if I can get another Mana Complex, one which is made specifically so that a mage has a permanently working source of mana…' 

But when Evin remembered its price tag, he couldn't help but frown. But to be fair, although 70 thousand was expensive, it wasn't impossible for Evin. 

'Now that I think about it, why is it 70 thousand in the first place? It's only half a ton of mana, and although it can work indefinitely, it shouldn't be that expensive right?' Evin wondered. He soon concluded that it probably had something to do with the Mana Complex fueling an entire Dimension.

So technically, it should be much more manageable if Evin just wanted a simple Mana Complex to sate his needs for spells.

'Shit, I'm overcomplicating these things. I'll just ask Rith about the Mana Complex, but for the time being, I should just focus on turning these Time Beams into some kind of proper defense mechanism. 

'I'll do it when I get home tonight... but I'm feeling much better now that I finally decided on it.'

'Damn, having nothing to do is so productive,' Evin smiled happily, feeling like he finally got out of the maze he was stuck in.

As Evin was lost in his head, finally, the receptionist called his name.

"Mage candidate Eviendra, please follow me," the woman's voice sounded in the lobby.

Evin got up and followed behind. Soon after he was brought in front of a rather imposing wooden door. 

"The test will be taken inside," the receptionist said.

Evin felt a bit suspicious and wanted to ask something but the woman beat him to the punch.

"Whatever questions you may have, you can pose them to the Elder inside," she said and urged Evin to walk inside.

Evin was worried that something similar to what happened with the Western mage was happening here. But compared to that time, he now had the ability to protect himself so he wasn't that afraid.

Reluctantly, he opened the door and walked inside. Weirdly, the room inside was just a corridor with another door at the end of it.

'What the fuck?' Evin thought and looked back at the receptionist.

"There will be a seat inside and the Elder will soon attend to you. If for whatever reason, you wish to leave, the door will always be open for you," she replied simply and closed the door behind Evin.

'Pretentious motherfuckers,' Evin thought with disdain, as he debated whether he should make a run for it or not. 

He then tried opening the door by himself to see whether the woman was lying or not. Thankfully, the door was still functional. But that wasn't enough. After waiting for half a minute, he tried to open the door again. 

"Fuck it," he muttered and walked towards the next door.

Warily opening the door, he found that the inside was an almost empty large room, with a single table with two seats on the side. On one side of the seat sat an elderly man, who looked at Evin with some disapproval. 

"Heh, took you long enough to get the courage to enter here," he said with a raspy voice.