Shades of the New World

Chapter 238: A month

'Weird how all my work gets piled up to one day all the time,' Evin thought casually, as he waited far outside the Ekhri Tribe for the Cosmics to bring in the Construction crew for his shadow. 

After Evin gave Rith the list all the services and items he desired, a few days later, a huge package came through Rith, which included the three magical artifacts, the two Mana complexes, a kilogram of twelve World affiliated materials, a pile of books and some other miscellaneous items. 

One more surprise that came with the package was a man named Snyden, who represented the Construction crew which was in charge of developing Evin's dimension. Although the man was a bit surprised to see Evin to be such a young mage, he quickly put on a serious business face when he confirmed that everything was legit though Evin could see that the man was definitely trying to keep himself from speaking condescendingly/belittling to him.

Evin couldn't really do much about it, because of the way he looked, but he felt the need to speak much more maturely, so Snyder didn't feel like bullying him.

In any case, Evin explained to the man about what he wanted to do with his dimension, while Snyden made some suggestions here and there. Evin explained to the man that he had a small arrangement of trees inside which Snyder might need to consider while planning, but Snyden only shrugged and told Evin he'd do the planning on site. The two only had to agree on the buildings and the other details.

At the end of it all, Evin agreed to lay the foundations for a city that could potentially support five thousand people, with central infrastructure that was befitting of such a huge city; magical artifacts that could recreate the effects rain and sunshine; some other items that could help the growth of soil in the shadow; plus, an artificial forest with a large clear water lake nearby.

Snyden also talked about more 'luxury' landscapes, such as waterfalls, oases, jungles, deserts and even volcanoes for some reason, but Evin decided to stop there. 

Evin also decided to have many other buildings built inside his shadow along the ones, like a laboratory, a library, a school (which Evin had to partially design himself, since he felt that school buildings in Alvox sucked), a mill, a hospital, and a few empty buildings that were supposed to become commercial buildings.

Obviously, all of these buildings would be unattended for some time, but Evin didn't wish to hire Construction crews for every little thing, so he decided to just have them build it all at once. 

'Though I won't lie and say I wasn't excited about a ghost town only occupied by children he-he,' Evin thought evilly.

He even considered kidnapping some people and throwing them inside the town after it was finished, but the accursed Oaths forbid him from having his fill of fun. 

At any rate, the price of the development went up to about 50000 gold, but Evin was very satisfied with the purchase, as he felt the price was fitting for a town of this size. 

'As for the money, well, I'm sure that I would eventually reach a state where my brain just stops registering prices altogether' Evin thought smugly.

Even though he wasn't really making any money, Rith still dutifully gave him the financial reports of the Bank, which showed that he was quickly paying back his debts in the background.

Although there was no sign of the surge of a new Cosmic Currency which were named Nekos, Evin was sure the Elmes Group was working hard on thinking of a way in which they profited the most from his new idea. 

And besides, he was already benefiting from the Contract, so there were no worries on that front.

[When do you think they're going to come?] Enri casually asked from inside his shadow, but Evin could detect the veiled excitement in her voice.

[Any minute now,] Evin replied and glanced inside his shadow.

The World Sprites were sitting near their trees in his shadow, all wearing the same matching clothes. After Evin gave them names, the World Sprites started to quickly grow to become more and more humanoid like.

First of all, the boys and girls developed their respective genitalia, which forced Evin to purchase clothes for them to cover themselves. They also started to grow patches of human skins over their coal-black bodies, which gradually covered their bodies in whole.

And weirdly, these skins of theirs seemed to function only as a beautifying detail of some sorts. Evin saw the World Sprites peel, or rub them off without any signs of experiencing pain or discomfort, while the skins in question would regenerate over time, as if nothing ever happened in the first place.

Evin wondered if he would see organs being developed inside the World Sprite's bodies, but since there was no way of knowing that without cutting them into pieces, he quickly got rid of his curiosity. Though he was sure that their insides would be very different from his own, judging from the fact that the World Sprites still didn't need to eat or drink.

'Besides, the Somaturgy Expert will be in charge of studying them extensively, so I don't have to worry about it all. Pretty sure he'll be able to scan through their bodies with the World of Life anyway,' Evin thought idly.

At any rate, these skins made the World Sprites look completely human at a glance, with only their pitch-black eyes to hint that there was something weird about them. But Evin was very confident that those too would eventually turn human like, with the outer part of their eyes turning white like a normal human.

Obviously, aside from physical developments, the World Sprites' thinking capabilities also went up a few levels and they started to speak much more coherently through telepathy. Evin could even see some of them trying to use their mouths to speak as well.

Evin expected to see them divide into different opposing groups like how a normal societies usually turned out, but the World Sprites were weirdly in sync with each other, never arguing or clashing between themselves. Though they did develop a hierarchy of some sorts where they elected Enri and Runa as their leaders, with Lucario, D and two other World Sprites named Keyes and Gula becoming the sub-leaders.

Evin could also see that they might be further divided into what they were more interested in, with the fact that Ayn, Vyn and Lyn were usually surrounded by a few World Sprites who constantly talked about Magic, while Enri had a few dedicated followers who usually spent their times chilling on her fur. Naturally, Evin was part of the latter group.

In any case, the simple structure of the World Sprites made it very easy for Evin to work with them. Though, for the time being, he only needed to teach them some basic things about Alvox and the things that could be found inside it. The World Sprites, on the other hand, learned whatever Evin taught like a sponge, constantly demanding Evin to spend more time with them. 

Evin tried to find a proper teacher for them, but none of these teachers were mages, so he could only buy some teaching materials and use them to teach the World Sprites himself.

'Now that I think about it, I should really give the Vulpine Mother a visit, huh?' Evin was suddenly reminded of the Beast Lord and decided to give her a visit on a day off or something, since the pile of things he needed to tell her were becoming a bit too big.

One of those things was his upcoming experiments with the Somaturgy expert which, just happened to be planned to start today. Nasst had just told him the previous day that the Expert was coming to his mansion in the afternoon.

This was the reason why Evin was wondering why his work seemed to pile up on certain days.

'But, I'll worry about that after I finish this,' Evin thought as he noticed a portal was appearing in front of him.