Shades of the New World

Chapter 130: World Chameleon skins

Evin could now understand why he could so easily grasp this purple strand. The original effects of the Heavy World on him were so great that he practically died at its hands! But Evin wasn't sure if he should explain that to Nasst. 

And besides, he had a lot of other things to think about. For example, what would be the invisible connection of the Dark World? What would its effect be like? What about the World of Storms? 

"Do you know of other World switches?"

"You think other mages are nice and easy to bully like me and would just give away such secrets freely?" Nasst snorted. Evin realized his naivety and tactfully shut his mouth, but Nasst's next words caught his attention.

"Although it's hard to find information on these obscure topics, the Academy of the West should have the relevant information. Everyone knows how the Western Oath forces their mages to report every finding to the Country, someone should have talked about the World switches, Nasst said with a smile.

The old man's words caused a change in Evin's plans. He was wondering whether he should study in the Academy of the West, since he would be under the tutelage of Nasst. But this interaction showed that Nasst could not possibly know everything about magicians. The Academy on the other hand, was a huge institution which gathered thousands of specialists that worked to solely develop the research of magic.

Even in the unlikely case where Evin would not be able to learn something substantial in the Academy, he would still be able to soak his mind with the different opinions and thoughts of various mages.

"Well, you have your own problems to attend to. Become familiar with the magical materials and practice your gestures. There will not be a test for this, but the knowledge you will learn of will not be useless and the gestures will one day save your life. After you manage to successfully cast one spell in under two seconds with the help of gestures, you can ask my opinions on one more World," Nasst said to Evin.

"Oh, almost forgot. Come to this room tomorrow at seven in the morning. I will be teaching you about a certain type of martial arts," the elder man said and dismissed Evin.

Evin didn't stand on ceremony and went to his room to study the books. He started with the one about magic materials. Rith was lying on his bed, seemingly thinking of something, while she idly glanced at Evin and his new book. The Cosmic didn't participate in the sessions, so she would be waiting for Evin to finish in his room. But for some reason, Evin could tell her anything he learned about the things that he learned from Nasst, without the Oath trying to kill him. Enri and Runa also seemed to be okay, since they were originally Evin's World Sprites. 

Evin used to wonder about how the Cosmic seemed to be always exempt from the Oath's radar and inquired about it one day. The Cosmic cryptically told Evin that this body of hers wasn't actually the real her and that the Oath only registers her as a dead carcass. Outrageously, Evin argued that Rith was eating, sleeping, having sex, and giving births to very real kittens and Cosmic kittens, reminding her to think about Riz, Raz and Blackspot, but Rith just told him to not worry about it.

Shaking his head, Evin focused on the book.

The contents weren't that interesting. It mostly described widely used materials and while Evin was a little drawn at first, very quickly, he found that reading through hundreds of obscure materials and their uses was boring and dull. So, Evin found a list that described the most popular magical beast materials and started reading.

[It's quite nostalgic to read all these materials again. Our teachers forced us to memorize all of them and their prices, since we're expected to be able to barter sometimes] Rith's voice sounded.

[The Cosmics have it tough, huh?] Evin replied and read out loud.

"Storm eagle feathers, Heart of a salamander Hmm, a dragonshifter's scale Can't believe they still sell these Oh I suppose some people managed to save and capture some of them after they lost their minds Oh, World Chameleon's skin! This fucker!" seeing the name of the accursed material that he has to swallow every few days, Evin flipped through the pages and found the passage that described the item shortly.

[World Chameleon skin. A type of magical Chameleon skin that is by mages to conceal the World energies inside their bodies. Due to this reason, the World Chameleons are reared in every country in the optimal environments. Since they lay about six to seven eggs a single time and also shed their skins regularly, the material isn't expensive and is the most widely used method for concealing World energies.

There's difficulty in preserving the skin for usage, and requires a special acidic solution. Most of the time, diluted stomach acids of ostriches, or crocodiles are used. In some cases urine of sheep can also be used]

"Fuck! No! Why did I read that!" 

Rith laughed at the boy's exaggerated reaction from beside him.

Evin began to promptly unread the things he just witnessed. Furiously, he began to flip through the pages of the book in search of other methods to hide one's World energies. Finally, his gaze focused on a passage.

[The Heart of the Faceless. A particularly rare and sought after material from before the rule of the Empress. Contrary to the name which describes something organic, this material is a precious gemstone with a deep red color, which pulses to the heartbeat of the one holding it. When one holds this gemstone on their hands, their World energies will be disguised, but excessive contact will result in one's face losing its features over time. There are also speculations of how it grasps the hearts of people holding it, making them unable to lose physical contact with the item due to the high number of mages who end up faceless because of it]

The serious content of the passage calmed Evin slightly. 

"This gemstone is quite useful, but the side effects are quite harsh. Since the book did not mention anything about using the World of Life to counteract the side effects, it mustn't have been effective," Evin reasoned.

"Yep, I know some methods to counteract these effects, but this book doesn't seem to contain it," Rith said. 

"Wait, you possess these things?" Evin asked curiously.

"Ye," Rith said and jumped up. From inside her storage space, she brought out something akin to a small heart-shaped rock lodged into a pendant case. 

"You can try it out," Rith said haughtily.

Evin held the jagged stone in his hand, and it seemed to come to life as it took on a deep red hue. It then pulsed with Evin's heartbeat. 

"Is this why I never see you eating Chameleon skin?" Evin asked with jealousy. 

"Mhm, But I do have to eat it sometimes, since I can't over rely on the stone," Rith hummed happily.

"Are there other methods to conceal my World energies?"

"There are, but most of them are either almost non-existent or have severe detriments. As for the skins, their only detriment is their repugnant taste," Rith said calmly.

Putting the matter out of his head, Evin skipped to the part where the book described Mana-beast variations.