Shades of the New World

Chapter 118: Core Shard Assimilation

"This book will be the first task that you receive from me. It's called the [Compendium of Illusions and Thought Tricks of the year 1477, Northern version]. If you want to become a useful mage, detecting illusions and taking care of them becomes a task of utmost importance. It's a tedious task, for sure, but you don't know how many times your life will be saved thanks to this book," Nasst said.

"I see I will make sure to memorize the contents, then," Evin replied. The year and the country affiliation meant that they frequently updated this book and that every country had a different one. 

"Well, take as much time as you want. Hole up in the World of Thought and memorize the contents. But each day, don't spend more than three hours inside the World. if you spend more than 6 hours in the World daily, in less than a year, you'll start acting retarded outside it. After your session in the World of Thoughts, exit the World and try to fortify your newly gained memories. I won't give you deadlines or anything, but when you feel that you're ready, a specialist will test you"

"Also, I've heard you bought a Core Shard and a corresponding technique to go along with it. Assimilate that for the time being and after you're done, I will find you a different one. That's all for the time being. Oh, one thing you should remember is that if I give you the information through a book, it means that you can do whatever you want with it. But if I explain the techniques in person, then you shouldn't wantonly share them with others," Nasst finished and walked out of the room.

Evin sat on his desk and dazedly read through the book filled with illusions. He spent a little under two hours inside the World of Thoughts, reading through the contents of the book. Truly, the imagination of mages was boundless and varied. Evin could only try his best to diligently memorize the contents. 

The World of Thoughts helped a lot and Evin could memorize most things after only reading it a few times, but judging from the words of Aran and Nasst, Evin could tell that too much of something good could easily become poison. He was glad that he didn't create the habit of spending time in the World of Thoughts beforehand.

After finishing his session in the World of Thoughts, he started doing as Nasst instructed and began to fortify the knowledge in his normal mind, one without the boost to his brainpower. Evin realized that the things he could easily recall in that wondrous World were all but obscure to him now. 

Since time flowed slower in the World of Thoughts, in reality, Evin only spent a minute or so memorizing the contents of the book. But he still had to spend four hours afterwards to solidify his knowledge.

Finished with his new daily duty, Evin decided to focus on the Core Shard and its technique. He got out of the improvised classroom and entered the main corridor. Surprisingly, he was met with two dozen or so children, all wearing cask-like helmets and working on one thing or another. Most of them were busy mixing limestone and sand with their magic. 

Some were drawing some engravings on the finished pieces of the building blocks. Evin could see Nasst in their midst, teaching the children what they need and examining the finished building blocks.

'Cute little things, indeed' Evin thought.

Some of them glanced at Evin, who came out of the instructor's room. Some of them recognized him, but a stern gaze from Nasst didn't allow them to be unruly. Evin floated over the hole in the ground and entered his room and opened the handbook. 

Glancing through the handbook that he bought, Evin's face gradually turned into a frown. The handbook also came with a syringe and 30 special concoctions. Evin was supposed to suck up the inside of the vial and then mix it with the concoction; then inject the contents into his own bloodstream and steadily direct it towards his heart. When it reached his heart, he should have the Core Shard wrap around his heart uniformly and let it dissolve into his mana-core. 

The process required him to be particularly careful when the Shard was moving through his veins, since there was a huge chance of his veins getting clotted in the process.

The techniques inside the handbook described the spells necessary to pull this feat off without accidentally killing himself. They were mostly spells that combined the Dark World and the World of Life. It was recommended that the practitioner should spend no more than four hours when performing this technique and should do so in a dark environment to receive most benefits.

Moreover, after every session, Evin needed to rest his heart and wait 3 days. So one day of assimilation and 3 days of rest. A total of 4 days.

'I really hate this world' Evin thought, thinking of the invasiveness of all the methods.

"Hey, how do you assimilate a World of Space Shard?" he asked Rith.

[Hmm, our World's Shards are also called Star Dust. A bit of a pretentious name and a very scientifically wrong one at that, but there really is no other way of describing it. I don't know how humans absorb Star Dust, but since Cosmics have an astral body, they just have to consume them in its raw form and the process of assimilation begins. It's nothing too difficult, we just have to nudge it in the direction of the heart and the energy will be automatically absorbed into our mana-cores. It's a different story if you're about to assimilate a complete World Core, but I've never really seen one before, so I can't really say] Rith explained. 

Evin realized that it was quite similar to Evin's current method. He could only sigh and get to work. But just as he was about to start, Rith reminded him.

[You should perform the technique inside your shadow. The environment is suitable and the Core Shard won't disappear far if you somehow lose it]

'So it can run away, huh?' Evin thought and heeded Rith's advice.

Inside his shadow, Evin stuck the syringe into the vial and slowly pulled the plunger when the needle's tip touched the Shard piece. Evin half-expected the web-like Shard to writhe around, but there was no reaction from the vial and he carefully extracted a miniscule part of the Shard.

Evin was afraid that the thin needle wouldn't be big enough for the Shard to go through, but it was smoothly absorbed into the syringe's barrel without any resistance, like it knew what was going to happen to it. Evin then added some of the special concoction into the syringe as well and shook it a bit.

The boy pulled out his wrist and searched for a big enough vein. Since he could practically look at his body from the inside out, the task wasn't hard. But the biggest vein he could find was still extremely thin, which made Evin realize why the needle needs to be so thin. After struggling a bit, he found a suitable vein and inserted the syringe. 

The amount he had extracted was truly microscopic, as the handbook was very adamant on small amounts.

Evin gradually helped the thinned-out Core Shard slither through his veins and reach his heart. As if knowing what to do instinctively, the black substance thinly spread around his heart and started penetrating deep into it. 

After four hours, the Core Shard completely merged into his tiny heart. The size of Evin's mana-core noticeably increased this time. Well, even though one said noticeably, it was still a miniscule amount. His mana-core's ratio was 40.2 %, which could be compared to Evin being 1% done with being a half-core. After this small session, the percentage increased to 1.1%. 

'It truly takes a long time... Judging by the amount that is left in the vial, I'll be 4% done after absorbing the entirety of it,' Evin calculated.

It meant that Evin would need to repeat this process 33 times to finally become a lesser-imposer.

After some more calculations, Evin realized that it will take him 120 days to finish absorbing this Core Shard, if nothing out of the ordinary happened. Exactly three months in Alvox's calendar. After that, he will get another method and start working with that. If every technique had the same effects, Evin would be a lesser-imposer in ten years

But that was a very optimistic look on things. After every session, the effects of the Core Shards would diminish greatly. The technique that Evin was using this time would yield a lesser amount the next time Evin attempted it. 

'Well, one thing at a time' Evin muttered. There were thousands of ways to increase one's mana-core. There would be slow and steady methods like this one and more explosive ones like the Velvet Contract.

Evin exited his shadow and looked at the clock. Lunchtime. 

He informed Nasst that he was leaving and the latter told him that Evin could freely take on missions and whatnot during his free time. He then asked for Evin's badge and inserted 1000 points for yesterday's mission. Although, an unfortunate accident happened, Evin's group still managed to slay the ox.

"In the evening, spend your time practicing the illusions you learned in the morning. You're also free to practice your other spells. After you're done with that book, I'll teach you other stuff," Nasst reminded.

Evin thanked the elder man surrounded by children, walked out the mansion and headed towards somewhere to eat.