Shades of the New World

Chapter 13: World Tour

Liza brought Evin to Arza's room and closed the door afterwards. Evin could see Arza sleeping on the floor with his body's facing up, but his head was facing to the side. He grabbed at his head to fix it into the correct position, but quickly felt something wet on his hands. He then noticed the pool of spit under his cheeks and a trail of dried spit going from Arza's mouth to the rugs.

'Fucker,' he cursed under his breath. A familiar sense of discomfort filled his mind as he touched the pool of liquid, but he tried his best to ignore it.

Evin wiped the spit on Arza's sleeve and checked if he was still sleeping.

'Good,' He was a bit worried that Arza would wake up because of the physical contact, but it seemed to be okay. Evin was itching to try out his magic.

From what he heard from Aran, Elemental Worlds were easier to channel compared to the Conceptual ones, so he decided to start with the World of Storms. It was also probably one of the safer ones.

To access the World of Storms first, Evin needed to express his desire to enter the World to the Authority. The authority's name was Ethez Serlant as he could see from the list that Aran faxed him.

"I beseech the World of Storms' Authority Ethez Serlant to allow me into his World"

Evin's mind blanked for a bit, and then he felt a gentle breeze roll across his face. There didn't seem to be a similar effect of clear-headedness like the World of Thoughts in here. It didn't feel easier or harder to create thoughts in his head. He guessed that such an effect was probably special to that particular World.

Here, though, he just felt free and unrestrained. A very comfortable World. Mages seemed to have a lot of perks, now that Evin thought about it. A lot of people on Earth would kill to have access to a state of being where you could think better and have time move a hundred times slower than usual.

He'd have loved to stay here for a bit longer, but trying out magic took precedence in Evin's mind. He created a clear thought of himself offering the mana in the Air to the World.

The air started to feel a bit dense, but the feeling soon disappeared. Instead, the feeling of freedom in Evin increased exponentially. His desire to be free and unrestrained increased with it as well, and dangerous thoughts started appearing in his head one after another.

Memories of his previous life flooded his brain like some fragile dam was broken and a terribly bad feeling arose in Evin. Just the thought of those three hundred years made his heart feel like it was trapped inside a metal cage, welded shut with no room for breathing.

He forcefully steered his head to the current situation. His playful side disappeared and a serious expression appeared on his face. Even though he acted like a carefree most of the time, he was still someone who lived through a long and harsh 'life'.

'If this goes on, an accident might occur. I must safely get rid of the energy in my mana core' Evin thought with determination.

Evin decided to instantly throw the energy to some random corner in the room after he exited the World, so that he couldn't accidentally hurt himself or Arza in the process.

He willed himself to exit the World, but he found himself struggling with the process of leaving the World.

'Entering was the same as the World of Mind, so why is it suddenly so difficult just get himself out of here?' he struggled a bit and ultimately managed to safely return to the main World.

As soon as his mind registered that he was back in the real World, he immediately imagined a breeze of wind rushing to the corner of the room.

Evin trained his imagination so much in the first few months of his life, holding that lodestone, one would think that this process would work out without a problem. But reality said otherwise, and the energy that was gathered in his core surged to the air majestically and ultimately did nothing.

Evin could see the remnants of light green mana sizzle into nothingness in the air. Soon after, it turned invisible.

'Must've been assimilated into the mana in the air' Evin guessed.

The raging emotions in his heart also died out, and he could finally take a breather.

It seems that entering and exiting a World is not such a simple thing. His experience in the World of Thoughts was such a nice one, that he had let his guard down.

There were a lot of things that could go wrong when you're trying out something new. Especially when trying something completely foreign, like magic.

There was also the problem with Evin himself.

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he was outwardly a kid, but Evin often found himself thinking of childish, immature thoughts. It was not a serious issue if he kept it in check, but it was still there and it sometimes took over his other thoughts.

'Aran told me to respect the Worlds and the first thing I do is a glaring failure,' Evin thought while shaking his head. Then, the paper with the List of Worlds started glowing slightly and new words appeared on it.

[Accessing Worlds will have severe emotional effects on your head, depending on what kind of life you lead. Offering mana and receiving that World's energy would amplify these emotions greatly. The best way to counter this is to train your mental fortitude and meditate inside the World of Thoughts,] the new words read.

'Say that first,' Evin grumbled.

At this point Liza came inside the room, holding a bowl of slushy oatmeal. Elina came to feed him, since Evin still had some trouble holding utensils.

Finished with his food, he resumed his World Tour.

He still needed to check the other Worlds and see what kind of effect they would have on him. Instead of recklessly trying out dangerous new Worlds, he decided to first see what kind of emotional effects they would have on his own mind.

He also wanted to confirm which Worlds were harder to leave and which were relatively easier.

He quickly cycled through the Elemental Worlds to check their effects.

The World of Water made one more erratic, ever-changing and ever-shifting. Evin's thoughts were all over the place and he was sure he needed to use every bit of willpower he had to rein in those thoughts to work toward one aim. He could also feel the presence of liquid things much better: the moisture in the room, the blood running through his veins and even the blood, sweat and snot in Arza sleeping next to him.

He would probably not use this World that much, since the constant awareness of flowing liquids disturbed him greatly.

In The World of Earth, you would feel more steady, but you would definitely feel much more lethargic. You would feel fulfilled even though you weren't doing anything, really. Like everything's just right. Probably one of the safer Worlds in his experience. Although he couldn't notice anything special, like being able to think better or feel fluids like in the World of Water and The World of Mind.

After that was the Luminous World. The Western kingdom's founding king's World. It was a very weird experience. On one hand, Evin felt extremely huggy. He wanted to feel someone's touch and never let go. He debated hugging at Arza to see what happens, but thanks to his immense willpower he could stop that train of thought.

But on the other hand, he felt the need to be famous. He wanted everyone to know who he really was. He wanted to tell his parents about how he came from another world called Earth and just lay everything he had in his mind in front of them.

Long story short, Evin didn't think he was going to be using this World for a long time.

Next was the World of Darkness. After entering the World, he immediately felt exposed in such a bright place, he felt the need to avoid such places and he wanted to stay out of everyone's attention. All the things he might have done that would have potentially exposed his origins flooded into his mind, and he was forced to mull over them deeply. He figured that it will probably be useful if he ever had to clear his tracks.

He also felt nothing extraordinary here. Although the darker spots in the room seemed to strike out to him more: They looked as if a marker in his eyes highlighted them.

Finding nothing else, Evin moved on to the next World.

The World of Fire, though, was a real shock. As soon as he entered the World, the surrounding area was set afire. An unimaginable heat pervaded every bit of his body, rendering him unable to breathe. He felt no pain, but it was difficult to stay calm when suddenly met with such a sight.

The house that Evin was in disappeared and just a landscape dominated by fiery colors filled his vision. Ashes on the ground still sparked embers, refusing to burn out in this world dominated by eternal flames. The silhouettes of his mother and Liza also became visible to Evin, sitting around on a table. Burning.

They didn't seem to mind the fact that much.

And the weirdest part was, the sight brought him unimaginable joy. He wanted to enact this purgatory scene in the main World and the first thing he would do was to burn Aran's house to ashes. If Evin had offered more lodestones to the World, he'd most likely stop at nothing to set the World on fire.

Some part of Evin's head hurriedly brought him away from the World. After exiting, Evin calmed himself down and concluded his exploration of the Elemental Worlds.

In summary, stay away from Fire, Water and Light and practice casting magic in the other Worlds.

It was time to explore the Conceptual Worlds.

And the most interesting thing happened after he entered the World of Space.

The World itself looked the same as the main one, but he could see and discern objects much better here. He could accurately estimate the size of the room, the distance to an object sitting far away from him, and he could even roughly measure the distance to a tree he could see outside the window. He was also sure his hand eye coordination became much better than usual.

He didn't know what kind of feeling this place was supposed to invoke, but he felt something. He felt as if everything was fine, but there was a certain feeling of uneasiness, as if he didn't belong somehow.

But aside from all that, the most important feature of the World, was that soon, a shiny cat would appear from somewhere in the World and greet you.

The one that appeared before Evin had a half-transparent body with shiny orange dots, which Evin presumed were stars, scattered all over their bodies. He could see why Aran called them Cosmic Felines. It was slightly larger than normal house cats on Earth, with pointier ears and large orange eyes. The cat's body would also emit a pale orange aura, giving off a warm and holy feeling.

If he ever saw a cat like this back on Earth, he too would probably start worshipping them like the Egyptians.

The feline greeted him in a female voice:

"Welcome to the World of Space. Is this your first time here?"