Shades of the New World

Chapter 211: Paper money

Weirdly, Evin's attention was strongly drawn to this idea of producing gold. His instincts were telling him that it could be very profitable depending on the situation. After a few minutes inside the World of Thoughts, he finally found a potential solution.

'Wait! I can have them print money!' Evin thought excitedly, finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

'Wait, but how am I going to profit from this myself? Do I just sell the idea for gold? How much would this idea cost anyway? Wait, shit, how did paper money work in the first place?' 

Immediately, his brain began to work on the problem at hand, approaching the problem from a variety of angles. But as he was brainstorming, some changes began to appear to the wall of Pink Snakes.

"I think Arza's coming out," Ssatsko said from the side as well. Evin then put away his ideas regarding paper money and focused on whatever was happening now. 

The torso which was representing the Serpent was slowly floating out of the big open space, carrying an unconscious Arza in its hands. Through his sharp eyes, Evin was able to see that the boy was still breathing, so his mind didn't immediately jump to the worst conclusion.

Instead, he was more interested in another detail. Evin could notice that the previously simple torso had become much more detailed and alive compared to before. 

Whereas before, the World Sprite only had half of a chest and half of a head connected by a thin neck, now it was a proper upper body of some muscular man. The only part that was missing was the whole lower body.

'Since when are World Sprites so detailed and life-like?' Evin couldn't help but wonder.

"The boy will wake up after a day's rest. Make sure to come here every year. Now leave," the World Sprite instructed lazily and threw Arza's sleeping figure to Ssatsko, who hurriedly caught the boy.

"Thank you, Great Guardian," Ssatsko then replied.

The other seemed to smile a bit before dispersing into a group of pink spheres, which flew deeper into the wooden cave.

Evin took another good look at Arza, noticing the various new details that weren't apparent before. His almost shining skin, his more muscular body shape, the occasional sparks of energy that burst out of the boy's body 

Evin could tell that Arza had become much stronger than before. He knew that the day when he wouldn't be able to easily deal with Arza was coming.

'Ugh, what a pain' he couldn't help but think.

A bit after the World Sprite had disappeared, Evin broke the silence.

"Uhh, so I'm guessing the Beast Lord failed to assimilate with him?"

"The Serpent probably had some of the World Sprites merge with Arza for the time being, slowly getting Arza used to his powers. Pretty sure the boy would die if he tried fusing with the Beast Lord now," Rith explained.

"Ah, I suppose that's true," Evin said and thought of the Vulpine Mother, who only required him to be a decent enough half-core and have a little stronger of a body. He also remembered how Nasst told him about different Worlds having different ways of assimilating its World Sprites in a mage's body. 

"Well, we'll worry about it later. For now, let's go back to town," Rith said and started working on a portal. 

A minute later, the group was floating towards Smallwall town from outside it. 

"Why do you always create portals outside towns? Is it just because of safety?" Evin asked.

"Yes. Although normal portals aren't lethal to non-mages, but when a portal appears it creates a small shockwave around it. So it's been a custom to not create portals in a place where there might be a lot of people," Rith explained.

Another few minutes later, the group had just finished delivering Arza to Liza and explaining that the boy just needed to rest a bit before he woke up. Liza seemed a bit unconvinced, but she really couldn't see anything wrong with the boy, except for the fact that he was looking considerably more healthy compared to before, so she bid the group farewell.

After Evin came back home, he started to work on the letter he was supposed to give to Earl Borna, so he could peacefully focus on the matter of paper money afterwards. 

After he finished describing the details of his battle-mode, Evin's mind wandered off a bit, and he decided to give Bella a gift of some sorts. 

'Though, what should I give her' he thought idly, wondering about the things he possessed. 

A dimension, a group of World Sprites, a pile of sorbothium, some soul-related things, a considerable amount of money, a variety of weapons, books relating to magic, pile of miscellaneous things and personal possessions

'Maybe I could give her that book about illusions?' Evin thought of a possible gift. After all, Nasst told him to do whatever he wanted with the books. 

"I should find a gift for the other two sisters as well, huh?" Evin thought of Arelyn and Olevyn. He remembered a lot about the three sister as they left such a big impression on Evin. He even named Lyn, Vyn and Ayn after the sisters.

Evin didn't really dislike the two elder sisters for bullying their youngest, as he felt that a lot of the problems in that house stemmed from the Earl himself. Most problems in families originated from the incompetence of the parents, after all.

The Earl who would rather turn a blind eye to any and all problems inside the house was a prime example of that. If the man decided to not take such a passive approach, maybe the sisters were going to get along better.

Evin felt that a proper conversation could save a lot of trouble for families and just people who lived together. After all, most arguments stemmed from misunderstandings or conflicts of belief. If the two sides were willing to compromise and get along with each other, then they didn't really mind ignoring a few differences.

He also felt like that was a necessary quality to have as a leader. Evin really didn't know how the man managed to keep his position as an Earl under the strict management of Northern Duchess Klavd. But it wasn't like Evin experienced the Duchess' strictness himself, so he couldn't really be sure of anything on that topic.

'Maybe he's just good at following orders,' Evin thought and let the matter fly out of his head. He still had to find gifts for the sisters.

"Guess I'll go shopping a bit," Evin decided after thinking a bit.

He informed his family and started walking towards the shopping district.