Shades of the New World

Chapter 236: Iva

"Hmm, have you slept well?" Evin asked, after making sure that nothing was off or weird about Sasha at first glance thought the girl did seem a bit dazed and out of it all.

Sasha looked back with a him, but soon after, her brows creased and an expression of annoyance took over her face.

"What did you put inside my head?" She then asked with a grunt.

"What? Isn't there information about creating artifacts through the World of Thoughts? I don't think it's possible for Lady Veidrakar to make a mistake" Evin murmured musingly.

"Is that what this thing is talking about? But there's also a bickering system inside my head, telling me to do this and do that every living minute since I woke up!" Sasha said annoyedly.

"A system? Why would you use the term system?" Evin asked, a bit confused after hearing the rarely used word from his sister.

"That's because the thing itself is calling it that: "The All-encompassing System of Imaginary Artifact Creation,"" Sasha said.

"Is that so What else is it saying?" Evin asked curiously.

"Something about it being stuck inside the Contract for way too long, and about how ungrateful you are in handling it," Sasha said with difficulty, clearly unused to having a voice speak inside her head.

'Sounds like the thing has a consciousness of some sorts, one with an attitude as well Who knew that Lady Veidra had these kinds of hobbies?' Evin thought with amusement.

Perhaps if this was the Evin of one year ago, he might've been surprised, or even fearful, but Evin was so used to dealing with such things, he'd honestly became numb to it, only thinking to himself that maybe having invasive systems and voices inside their head ran in his family's blood. 

"Can you make me talk with it?" Evin asked, but before Sasha could answer, Evin found himself entering the World of Thoughts and a child-like voice suddenly appeared in his mind, in the same manner Karan and the World Sprites spoke to Evin.

[Stop calling me it!]

Weirdly, the voice did not sound like how the Authority herself, confusing Evin greatly. After a small delay, the figure behind the voice materialized in front of Evin, which turned out to have the exact same features as Sasha. 

"Oh, hello. I'm guessing you're a Thought Imprint left by Lady Veidrakar," Evin greeted politely, curiously eyeing Sasha's copy.

"Call me the System! And how dare you keep me inside that scroll for such a long time? Aren't you supposed to hurry to your sister the moment you receive such a huge boon?" the girl raged on in front of Evin.

"I'm truly sorry. I didn't think that you resided inside the Contract as well, and truly, I wasn't in a hurry either, so things ended up being delayed," Evin said in all seriousness.

"Who cares about your apologies? I demand a I don't know what I'm going to demand, but I want a satisfactory compensation for the three months of nothingness I went through!"

The System vented for a while, as Evin tried his best to seem considerate and listening. Evin probably wouldn't have acted so uncaring, if he'd left Rith, or someone close to him alone in a Storage Ring for three months. But truthfully he wasn't going to worry about a complete stranger like the system in front of him, mostly seeing its threats as no more than a form of venting. Though he did feel bad for it, so he felt that he should at least listen to the thing complain.

And also, although Evin felt more amusement than threat from the System's antics, it didn't hurt to play it safe and converse in a polite tone. After all, the Authority behind the thing was most definitely real, and much more powerful than Evin could ever hope to be.

"I appreciate your honesty, but ugh, whatever. At least you didn't wait years to come visit your sister again," she sighed.

'Finally she calmed down,' Evin noted in his head.

"Though, I must say I'm very curious about your existence, how it all works and how you came to be and why you're named such in the first place," Evin couldn't help but ask.

"As I said before, I'm the System tasked with teaching the Imaginary Artifact Creation, a rare method of creating artifacts. As for how I came to be, the exact same method I just spoke about, one that I will impart upon your sister's mind."

'Ah, I suppose it's natural that the method can create these things After all, it's core attribute is its unbounded creativity,' Evin thought with fascination.

"And do you have a name of any kind? It feels a bit weird to call you system all the time."

"You may call me IA System, or Iva for short," the Iva said proudly.

Evin wanted to respond, but quickly found himself at a loss of common topics.

"Well, I don't have any more questions, I guess all that's left is for you to teach everything you can to Sasha" he said, not really giving much thought to it all.

"Oh, almost forgot. I need a huge amount of lodestones for her to work and practice with. I'm guessing she doesn't really have much lying around, considering the fact that she's not a real mage," Iva said meaningfully.

"I suppose, how much do you need?" Evin asked.

"Two tons of crystal lodestones should do for the time being, and in the future, it would be even better if you can get your hands on a Mana Complex as well," she replied brazenly.

Evin didn't mind obtaining the large amount for his sister, since he had about 400 kgs on person, and he was about to receive a mana-complex for himself as well. But he couldn't help but notice the problem with Iva's casual demand.

"I don't think Sasha will be able to burn through two tons of mana in two weeks or can she?" Evin asked skeptically.

"It's just as insurance. And besides, after a few weeks of Circulation Training, I'm sure she'll be up to those standards in no time," Iva said casually.

'Is she hell bent on making Sasha train all day and night?' Evin thought alarmingly, reminded of the torturously slow progress he made the Circulation of his own mana-core.

"Can you tell me about your ideal training routine for a child?" Evin asked skeptically.

"Naturally, I let them sleep and eat. After all, their greatest desire in life should be to become a proficient and successful Artificer."

"Hmm."

'I remember Lady Helain saying something about the Artifacts created by this method need to have a downside, or weakness of some sorts to work best Is this weird personality of Iva's the supposed downside?'