"What problem are you talking about, Lapis? I broke that black gem with an Ice Arrow—Icicle Shot in your case. Shouldn't I be allowed to go?"

"Well, yes. But, for some strange reason, the door's jammed."

"Can't you just call a locksmith?"

"Do you really think a mere locksmith can open a sliding door created by the one and only Minister of Magic?"

"Yes," said Alwin almost immediately.

"Ouch," said Lapis over the intercom. "But, if you're really in such a hurry to get out, there is another way."

"Which is?"

"As you know, my lab is below my cafe. Since we're a cafe, we need to keep our food fresh, so we have a freezer to store them in. Conveniently enough, it's attached to the room you're in. I can open the door leading to it, and you can come out the front. But, there's another problem."

"Which is?" Alwin was starting to get tired of this. Just get straight to the point. His practice time was at stake!

"Boo. At least change up the prompting. Anyway, the freezer is cold. Like really cold. Like freeze your socks off cold. You won't be able to survive five seconds inside of it unless..."

"Unless what?" asked Alwin, obvious to her intentions to get him to follow up the conversation.

"You see, monsters that have an Ice Elemental affinity can withstand such freezing temperatures."

"You want me to refine Ice Essence and evolve into an Ice Element monster. Then, since I already know how to refine Ice Essence, there's no harm in me trying to use it to cast a skill?"

"What? No, I would never do something like that. But, if you insist, I wouldn't mind helping you get out of here pronto, and in return, you help a teensy bit with my experiments."

"Right... Are you really sure the door is jammed?" asked Alwin, hoping that since her plan had been revealed, she would just give up the farce.

"Yup! It's so jammed you can throw in a jar of peanut butter and make a sandwich. So, ready to leave?"

"Fine," Alwin sighed. Maybe coming to Lapis instead of the library was a mistake.

"Perfect! Need any tips for Ice Essence?"

"If you're offering them, then sure," said Alwin. The faster he refined it, the faster he could get this whole thing over and done with.

"Seriously? I thought you would say no. Wait, hold on, I was not prepared for this, just give me a second. Okay, to make Ice Essence. You first make Spirit Essence, then freeze it to the point where it, well, I guess, freezes, and that's how you get Ice Essence. After that, you're free to mold it just like you would regular Ice Mana. Any other questions?"

"So, do you actually have any tips? You just listed out the process that I kind of already understood from when I refined Fire Essence."

"Well, crap. Why do you have to ask so many questions? I really miss the non-possessed you. Tips. Tips. Tips. Speaking of tips, did you know that while it's not necessary to tip here in MOM's Cafe since they're just drones, but because it's so ingrained in our culture, people still do it. Then, I use the funds for their charging stations and make sure they're well taken care of. Even though they're drones, they're still my valuable employees. Good tip, right?"

"Sure... I'll see you later, Lapis," Alwin sighed again. Another waste of time.

"Great! Good luck, slime boy apprentice of mine. After this training session, you'll definitely be a lot cooler. All the girls will swoon over you in a heartbeat."

With that, the intercom buzzed off, and Alwin was once again alone in the pure white training room with a pure white wooden training dummy. The only other colors present were the shattered shards of the black gemstone and the remnants of the Ice Arrow now melted into various tiny puddles around the room.

Having to spend so much time refining Essence was going to cut into his training time by a huge margin. But you've got to look on the bright side of things, after this, he'd have access to another Tier 2 Evolution. More options during his final exam were always better. A quick Devolution later, and he was back as a Dark Slime. Some Essence manipulation later, and the Evolution Counter in his status was at a handsome zero.

Alwin closed his eyes and honed in on his Core. The act of creating Spirit Essence was simple enough, but like a broken record, his biggest issue was time. Specifically, waiting time. One day, he'd find a way to speed up the process, and today might very well be that day.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Creating Spirit Essence involved removing all of the impurities from the mana inside of his Core. Per Lapis' method it involved creating the perfect piece of filter paper and allowing it to work its magic on the mana. The largest time sink was waiting for the mana to drip through the filter paper. He needed to come up with a way to speed up the process. What could he do to achieve that?

Previously, he relied on only a single setup to do the filtering—a fool's method. More filtering stations would definitely speed up the process, but it didn't necessarily solve the waiting issue. Regardless, Alwin was already out of ideas. Still, it was better than nothing.

Inside of his Core, he got out his trusty bucket, handy dandy remote control, and a pair of mental hands. Together, they positioned the bucket in the center of his Core and, using the remote, scaled up the bucket to massive proportions.

Next was the filter paper. Dozens of A4-sized paper materialized, and with the help of his remote once again, their properties were manipulated, making them the ideal filter paper. From there, a large quantity of filter funnels popped into existence. Just two hands weren't going to cut it. A dozen mental hands joined in to lend a helping hand.

Alwin's consciousness started performing the equivalent of wincing as the strain of so many items on his Core, coupled with the fact that he had to manipulate so many mental hands at the same time, was starting to take a toll on him.

Still, he pushed onward. He commanded the hands to strategically place the filter funnels above the giant bucket, arranging them side by side to eliminate any gaps. Next, all of the filter papers were set inside their respective filter funnels. Now came the most laborious part of the process.

More buckets—regular-sized—popped into existence inside of his Core, just enough for each hand. Alwin could feel control slipping with the new influx of items, but what choice did he have? Okay, he did have a choice. He could scale down his production to a more manageable size, but the new Alwin wasn't a quitter. No pain, no gain.

With incredible brain-breaking focus, Alwin directed each hand to scoop up a bucket of mana before flying up to the top of the giant bucket and depositing them into an empty filter funnel.

Rinse, repeat, and wait. Except that Alwin couldn't sit back and zone out like in the past. His mind was firing on all cylinders as he struggled to ensure that each mental item inside of his Core didn't suddenly vanish. A single lapse in concentration and something might disappear. Worst case, the big bucket of already refined mana might poof out of existence, and it was back to square one again.

Alwin didn't know how long it had been. It could've been one second, one minute, or even one hour. But he knew that his stamina was running low. He had to call it quits on the filtering process and hope to Cor that he had enough Spirit Essence.

One by one, the buckets disappeared, and he could start to feel the slightest semblance of relief. After making sure that the filter funnels were all empty—lest his giant bucket of Essence became tainted—they started to vanish back to wherever mental tools were stored in his mind. With the huge load off his head, Alwin could finally take a moment to breathe.

Next time, he'd either have to work out his brain to take on the strain or find a more efficient method. But, next time was next time. Now was now. And right now, was Ice Essence time.

Like Ice Mana, he just had to freeze the Essence he had refined. Unlike Ice Mana, this was going to be a lot harder. If his experience with Fire Essence had taught him anything, he'd need to drastically lower the temperature just for the Essence to freeze over. Snowstorms and hailstorms were already pushing it as far as his abilities went. But were they strong enough to freeze Essence?

All signs pointed to maybe. He wouldn't know till he tried it, but his gut feeling was telling him that it wouldn't work. Was there any way for him to boost the snow and hail storms? Alwin took a moment to think, killing two birds with one stone as it doubled as a chance for him to recuperate his mental faculties.

What if... This was a long shot, but it might just very well work. And if it did work, he could call himself a mental sniper for landing such a hit.

Alwin floated his consciousness over the giant pot of Essence, finally inspecting his handiwork. It was roughly half full. So, it should be more than enough to fulfill the evolution requirements to Tier 2. Then, he began his plan.

Like before, he summoned a hailstorm first. Thick chunks of solid ice started falling down from the skies of his Core. Next, he began compressing the hailstorm, forcing the dark clouds closer together. He strained his mind, trying to force them to move together, but no amount of thinking made them budge.

Well, crap. There goes that plan.

Wait a minute. What if he did something even crazier? What if he channeled the creative powers of the old Alwin? The old him still lingered in his mind, but honestly, at this point, it was tough to know where the old Alwin ended and the new Alwin started. He began to think, throwing all serious caution to the wind.

An idea popped into his mind.

This was an idea he was very familiar with. And if it worked for his Blasts, it should work for the hailstorm—probably. The mental hands ascended to the metaphorical heavens, stopping at the edge of the clouds. Like his Blasts, they started pushing inward, trying to compress the hailstorm by literally pushing the clouds together.

It was working! For some reason, it was actually working! The clouds were growing closer together, the area where the hail dropped was beginning to shrink. And as it shrank, something else grew—the hailstones. The plan was actually working! It was a miracle! Something that could only be fulfilled by the combination of the new Alwin's serious thinking, the old Alwin's creative thinking, and whatever funky stuff his mind could visualize.

The idea was simple: rather than spreading out the storms throughout his Core, what if he compressed them? In theory, if it was directed through a smaller area, while its total power remained the same, the effective power over the smaller area should increase. In practice, it looked like it was actually working.

But a concentrated hailstorm wasn't enough. Thus, snow started falling again. And like before, the mental hands directed themselves to the edges of the clouds. They began pressing inward till the clouds only lay their droppings over the giant bucket of Essence.

With the concentrated double storms, there should be enough freezing potential to cause the Essence to freeze over and become Ice Essence—hopefully. Alwin really didn't want to waste any more time going back to the drawing board.

But, now was everyone's favorite game. The waiting game!