Shades of the New World

Evin was constantly getting new "revelations" about the Dark World's usages. For example, would it be possible for the shadows to influence physical objects? Would it be possible for Evin himself to store himself inside his own shadow? Would it be possible for him to create Shadows on spots where light was shining on?

He tried out all these things and found out that he could basically do everything his imagination told him to do. The World Sprites boosted his willpower so much, Evin was finally starting to feel like a real magician, a force truly able to bend nature to his will. Before, he would at most act like a catalyst. If he wanted to start a fire, he would have to pay the price of mana to the Worlds and receive its assistance on sparking an ember. Using that ember, he would be able to give it a bit more oomph with the oxygen in the air.

But now, he didn't need to go through all those complicated things. He just had to will it and it would happen for him. Although he could only do such things with the Dark World, he was still very content with his new capabilities.

Anyway, his new spells.

Evin soon realized that he could store himself in his shadow and have his shadow move around as well. From what Rith told him, the shadow would look a bit thicker with him inside it, but if he moved into a darker area, Evin's location would be nigh invisible. Evin tried to change the look of his shadow to match the surrounding shades, like he did when he wanted to become almost invisible through the Dark World, and soon got the hang of it. 

Thanks to this, Evin could basically become invisible as long as there were shadows in the area. And it wasn't the same scuffed invisibility that he used normally, which would start looking odd when someone looked at Evin in a difference angle, or shone a light on him. Although he couldn't really do anything from inside the shadows, like casting magic or throwing knives or something at the enemy, but it was still a very useful ability.

Next was his ability to increase a shadow's size forcefully. For example, he could make it so that a spot without a shadow would be encroached with the shadows of a different object. He also tried to create a dark place where there were no other nearby shadows to feed upon, but it took much more mana than he was comfortable with. Evin would make sure to not fight in an open place, as it would be disastrous for him otherwise.

Perhaps he wouldn't have to worry about those things in the future when he received his quarter core or half core, since the mana at his disposal would be much more than what he could work with now.

The final thing he managed to try out was his shadow's ability to influence physical objects. He could make it so that his shadows covered the entirety of an object and then turning it into a disoriented black object, so he guessed he could say that he was influencing the object, but for the love of the Empress, he couldn't make it physically move.

But he could imagine a bunch of little critters made of Dark World energy moving objects. He based his imagination on the World Sprites. After hosting them for half a day already, he could tell that these things were physically hollow inside, made out of only Dark Energy. But somehow, they could move about and touch other things. Evin didn't know exactly how it worked, but he could imagine a lesser World Sprite moving things for him like ants would move big objects, and that was good enough for the time being.

As he was finishing up his little experiment, the door of the customs house opened and a group of well-dressed people came in. At the center of the group, a boy about the same age as Evin was walking, arrogance and confidence oozing from his pores. His hair was dark brown, with sharp eyes and a natural sneer stuck on his face. His clothes were a regal blue, a color tone that was quite difficult to achieve for the ink makers of this time.

The servants around the boy that were busily fussing over the kid did not seem to help the boy's temperament at all. Another hooded man walked behind the group, warily eyeing the strangers in the customs house. Evin saw a shining transparent horn on the man's head. The man's stature was also tall and beefy.

'A Northern mage of the World of Storms. Most likely adept at melee fights as well,' Evin noted in his head.

Evin didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He always knew that spoiled young children plagued the World, and he even saw many spoiled adults throwing tantrums to get what they want. Even as a spirit, he would avoid them like a plague. He felt that he should hurriedly go restrain Arza, so there wouldn't be any unnecessary problems in the customs house.

The servants of the young master were talking to Purzo for the documents for foreigners. They didn't bother to hide their dissatisfaction with the man, looking at him like a dog on the streets. Purzo was back to his professional personality, since he didn't want to deal with overbearing nobles from the West.

Arza was standing behind the counter alongside Purzo.

"Hey Arza, I need your help with something," Evin said after approaching the boy.

"Do it later. You always ask me to act as a gigantic light source for your shadow magic. Go ask Rith," Arza said with unwillingness.

"No, no. I found a way to make my shadows into armor, I'm not sure how strong it is, so I need you to give me some of your punches to test it out," Evin said.

The prospect seemed to pique Arza's curiosity as his eyes sparkled with interest.

"Sure! Let's go out," the boy said happily.

Evin didn't have any new shadow armor ability that he wanted to try out, but it was the only thing he could think of on the fly to get Arza's interest.

But getting a hit a few times so he didn't have to deal with some spoiled noble was a big win in Evin's eyes, so he could only grit his teeth and endure the pain.

But just as Evin and Arza was about to exit the building, the brown-haired noble boy called out to Purzo.

"What's wrong with this loathsome place? Don't you have servants to serve your guests?"

"I'm terribly sorry for the lacking services, but this is a customs house so there wouldn't be anyone with such profession here," Purzo explained patiently.

"Then who the hell are all these people here? Don't they have anything to do? It would be their honor to serve one with my blood," the boy declared with pride.

'He really does know how to get on someone's head,' Evin sighed in his head. Evin looked around and saw that Ssatsko was slightly affected, but was probably thinking the same as Evin. Rith just looked at the noble boy like an animal at a zoo, wondering what he'll do next.

Arza, on Evin's side though, didn't seem to look offended, surprisingly. Evin didn't know why, but it was a godsend to him. Unknown to Evin, Arza was too busy thinking about the free punches that Evin gifted him, so he couldn't quite hear the young noble.

"My deepest apologies to the young master, but these people are also guests of the North. How can I have the shamelessness to make them work for my humble Customs house?" Purzo said with some well-hidden disdain.

"MY NOBLE LAYMONT HOUSE SHOULD NOT BE PUT IN THE SAME LEVEL AS MERE COMMONERS!" the boy shouted suddenly.

'Empress almighty, calm down,' Evin was startled with the sudden shout. He did not know where was this Laymont family or what they did, but they should be located quite far from the capital, considering they were traveling by carriage, instead of just teleporting to their destination.

"Sorry for my ignorance, but please enlighten this lowly commoner about the history of your noble family," Evin asked in a polite tone.