Shades of the New World

Chapter 190: Personal World

"As we've discussed before, we'll start with the upgrade of your shadow. Let's go inside it," Rith said and jumped into Evin's hands. 

Evin willed it and the two entered his shadow.

"Do you think it's going to be alright if the World Sprites are sleeping like this in the background?" Evin asked.

"It should be fine, since you said that they were just hibernating. Anyhow, the first problem we must solve is the matter of security. As you know, even though your Shadow Storage is an extremely powerful spell cast on you by the Vulpine Mother, it doesn't really mean that it's invincible. If someone capable tries to destroy it with a Spell-Breaking method, then you're going to have a bad time. So, we will turn this place into something more than that," Rith smiled as she pulled out something from her storage space.

Evin looked at the thing she brought out and saw that it was black metal spiral which took on the shape of a dicone. It had a fairly large size and it also had a distinct golden hue. 

"We call this a Dimension Core. They're also called the Heart of a Dimension by some people. From its name, you can guess that this is basically what gives fake, or lesser dimensions like your shadow a proper life. They come in many forms, but this one in particular, was specially created for spaces related to the Dark World, like your shadow here," Rith smiled.

"Will that make it so that my shadow isn't a spell anymore?" Evin asked curiously.

Evin realized that even though it was his shadow, technically, it was something made possible thanks to the Blood of the Vulpine Mother and its will, Enri.

"Exactly. Although I can't tell you much more than that, you can just think of it like a personal World that you have for yourself," Rith smiled.

Evin thought about the implications behind this and couldn't help but show a puzzled face.

"Hmm, that sounds pretty disorienting, actually. How big will it be? What can I do with it?" Evin asked.

"Of course, but I feel like it would be faster if I just told you that your shadow will begin to work in the exact same manner as the main World. First of all, this weird solid dark material under our feet will turn to actual soil, in which you can grow trees and grass. Eventually, you can even have animals and whatnot graze around here. Perhaps you can even build communities inside here," Rith explained proudly.

'What? A community? Who am I gonna keep here?' Evin thought amusedly, but he had to make something clear.

"What about sunlight and all the other things necessary for those animals and plants like rain?" Evin asked.

"You can add something like the Light-infused sorbothium in here so it will not be as dark. As for nutrients and whatnot, those can be mostly replaced by mana. I don't know if you've ever thought of this, but what do you think will happen to a plant that's constantly affected by mana?"

"They'll mutate or something?"

"Oh, no. They'll just grow better. You've heard from Ofi that the Oases in the East work much differently than normal Oases, right? With patches of green, arable land scattered across an otherwise uninhabitable desert. That's mostly thanks to the fact that the Oasis waters in the desert are extremely rich with mana. At least that's the most accepted way to explain it. You can also just chalk it up to the Empress' will," Rith shrugged.

'Goddamn Empress' will,' Evin cursed, hearing the familiar term.

"And the animals will have a chance to become mana-beasts?" Evin asked, wondering if he could farm rare materials here. 

"Ah, about that. Well, let's just say that it will depend on your luck, but don't bet your money on it. Although, you could bring in mana-beasts from outside, but you'll have to think of what kind of food it will be eating, what kind of environment it would prefer, all those annoying stuff," Rith explained.

"And how much will these things cost? By the way?" Evin couldn't help but ask.

"Oh, a Dimension Core is pretty expensive, now that you mention it. I still don't understand how the upper echelons agreed to give it to you for free, since even I don't own one... but don't really worry about it," Rith said.

"So, when you put away our horses, aren't you putting them away into your personal Dimension like this one?" Evin asked.

"Oh, that's more of a publicly shared space more than a personal dimention. Every Cosmic has access to that."

"Well thanks for telling me all this, but I meant the cost of keeping everything functional," Evin asked his original question.

"Ah, that will depend on you mostly, so I can't be sure. If you just want to keep sheep and whatnot inside here, then you can probably just keep them here, since there should be enough grass to keep them alive. But if you want to build a town or something in here, well, I'm sure it would cost a pretty penny," Rith said.

Evin felt like his income wasn't quite high enough to support an entire town, but he couldn't really concentrate on the fact, since a lot of questions kept popping up inside his head one after another.

"Uhh, do you know if a resource or something will appear inside this dimension of mine?"

"Ah, yes. After this place grows big enough, it will start producing material that has a connection with your magic. So whatever magic you use more, the more likely a material of that nature will appear here... But most of the time it will be raw sorbothium. But in your case, perhaps some raw nyxium and some dark sorbothium can appear as well. Oh, and also, after 11 years, when all of the World's mana will be used up to create fresh World Cores, a lodestone vein can appear here as well!" Rith said excitedly.

"Well, that's much too far away from us. Can you tell me how much it can grow?"

"In its natural pace, it should grow to the size of Smallwall town in half a year and it will be about half a kilometer or so deep. This is the normal pace, but you can obviously affect it to grow a bit faster, by maybe adding more mana to it, or just manually adding resources," Rith said.

'That's quite a lot...' Evin thought with excitement. 

"So I just need to keep feeding this Dimension Core mana to keep it working? How much mana will I need for that?"

"I'll show you how to solve the problem of mana after we set the dimension up. Now, put this Core on the ground and just keep pouring your mana into it," Rith said.

Evin shoved the thing into the ground and began to gradually pour mana into it. Eventually, he could feel a tiny connection appearing between him and the Core. It felt similarly to how he felt with his soul-tethered weapon.

"I'm feeling some link between me and this thing," he said excitedly.

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