Shades of the New World

"Don't worry about the consequences afterwards. I can easily fill the remaining empty space with replacement dirt and stone. And besides, it will be good practice for you since you're going to be the one shoving all that land into your shadow with my help. It's very beneficial to get used to playing around with huge amounts of mana at an earlier stage and you can get to feel how my body feels as well."

"Sounds a bit lewd, but okay," Evin shrugged.

"I'll make some preparations outside, so just wait for me to finish. Also, start digging the ground around there so we have enough space for my cave to fit in without problems," Kyune said excitedly.

"We should probably wait for the research team to finish before attempting this thing," Evin reminded, "For now, let's just chill for a bit."

"I guess you're right,"

The two chatted a bit before the conversation shifted to the Somaturgy team.

"Also, Gizel's team built their first prototype for the World Sprites. Lucario and Chrono are the first two pilots, with Kit and Modi being next in line."

Kyune had already learned every World Sprite's name in Evin's possession and was maintaining a very good relationship with them. Evin also noticed that after she overloaded them with energy and granted them the ability to freely change between two states, the World Sprites became much smarter as well.

"And the problem of their independency?"

"They still haven't found a new direction in that department. Gizel told me to not get overly excited for it as well, so I'm guessing they think that it's a fruitless task… Well, some things in this world are set up to be the way they are, so I won't try to fight something absolute."

"Because of the Empress again?" Evin asked, curious to what rules and settings the Empress imposed on the world, upon her ascension.

"Perhaps so," Kyune shrugged, "Though Gizel did say that over time, the World Sprites might grow independent by themselves. But since there isn't any prior research on these matters, we can only speculate and hope."

"Well, it's best to keep expectations low, so we don't get our hopes crushed later."

"I guess you're right… Maybe we should speak to the World Sprites about this soon…" Kyune said and an uncomfortable silence ensued between the two.

"It's kind of sad how both of us are so pessimistic," Evin said wryly.

Kyune chuckled in realization and told Evin some good news.

"Well, on a more positive note, if we manage to succeed with me moving into your shadows, our chances of losing compatibility will become small enough so we won't have to worry about it for a while."

"Is it because you'll be inside my shadow?"

[Yes. And if you ever need to talk or learn about Soul Magic, or any other method you manage to find, I can just cut off the connection between your shadow and the real world.]

This was definitely good news for Evin. With this, he could take his time trying to find the perfect method for the job. 

With nothing much to talk about further, the conversation died out soon after and Evin said his goodbyes to the Vulpine Mother.

He walked over to the research team to see how things were progressing with his own eyes. As he approached the place, he noticed a construct made of a bunch of black, light-absorbent materials were moving about in a makeshift testing field of some sorts. It reminded him of a modern day gymnastics field, but with lots of measurement devices on the ground.

"Hey," he casually announced his existence and walked over to Tusa's side, "Who's piloting the golem?" 

"It's the kid named Chrono. The tall, but slouchy fella. He seems a bit too relaxed and unserious, but he was determined to be one of the most talented ones of the World Sprites at piloting the golems, so yeah. He's now performing a set of moves that are designed to verify the hand-eye coordination of the golem. Next he'll do sharp stops and sharp turns."

Evin casually observed how the process went, before wondering, how a golem was more effective than a normal mage.

From first glance, he couldn't really see what the big deal around golems was. Sure, the golem that Chrono controlled was quite impressive to look at, but with a few years of training, Chrono himself would be able to perform the same movements in the same level.

'Well, I guess they can have better protection around their bodies… and who knows what kind of perks beings of energy have over us flesh-bearing mortals?' Evin decided.

Sighing, he put the matter out of his head and focused on Chrono's performance, which seemed to be ending. 

The golem he was controlling stopped in a spot where all the researchers were gathered and some blackish gas-like substance hissed out of it. The black gas converged in one spot, before the sight of a tall, slouchy boy gradually formed. 

The researchers asked a few questions from Chrono, and he was soon let go. A few minutes later, the researchers started to gather up their things as the day's work was successfully finished. Evin walked over to Gizel, after the latter sat on one of the seats in the testing field.

"Oh, Evin! Long time no see," the woman said with a casual wave of her hands, as the accessories on her body jingled pleasantly. 

From what Evin could see, Gizel was wearing a different set of dark blue and white silver, compared to the nice set of black and gold she was wearing the last time Evin saw her.

"How's the research going?" Evin asked.

"Hmm, pretty good, if you don't include the Vulpine Mother's request. We've changed the control inputs and outputs to better fit the World Sprites, and they seem to be very talented at noticing the small details that go unnoticed by observers like us. The fact that they're so smart is very helpful for us as well," Gizel said with an impressed tone, "Even if their speaking capabilities are a bit undeveloped, they're very talented in other areas… helps a lot with our job, that's for sure." 

Gizel paused a bit, seemingly trying to gather her thoughts.

"It certainly beats trying to make a World of Thoughts spell work as a brain of some sorts… Do you know how hard it is to make something artificial do the things we do on a daily basis? Simple things like moving our hands, seeing and recognizing objects with our eyes, listening to sounds… ugh, I certainly don't want to go through that again. Compared to that, this is a breeze in the park. I wish every job I did was as easy and productive as this. Did I tell you about that accursed rock that I've been staring at for the past fall?" Gizel started venting a bit. 

Evin dutifully listened to the woman's rant, partly because he felt obliged to do so, and partly because he found the topic of the rant very interesting.

What Gizel described was what modern Earth struggled to do with robots. Moving one's hand, observing and recognizing things… all of this would seem extremely simple for humans to do, but painfully difficult to have it recreated by machines.

As for the accursed ore that Gizel was speaking about, Evin didn't really know much about it. A pale-yellow ore which turns into a silvery white metal after cleaning, which is also ductile and malleable. He tried remembering if he ever heard of something similar back on Earth, but unfortunately, he wasn't very well versed in geology.

After Gizel vented, she started to talk about Kyune's request.