Alwin spent the next number of time units—it was hard to tell time inside of his Core—staring at the giant pot, waiting for his Essence to become Ice Essence. It was boring, so boring that his mental hands had taken the liberty of entertaining themselves even without the directive of their master.
They first started out with Rock, Paper, Scissors, an age-old game for all ages, but after the four hundredth and fourth rounds, even they were growing tired. Thus, they moved on to Thumb Wars. They locked hands with each other, attempting to pin down the other's thumb. It was a glorious tournament with tons of spectacle and cheer. Too bad Alwin was busy with the pot of Essence.
The championship match was reaching its climax—one thumb quivering under the pressure of an impending pin—when something about the pot changed. It was as if the already low temperature had plummeted another couple of degrees. It was subtle, but Alwin managed to catch it. Something he couldn't have spotted if he hadn't spent every second observing his creation.
Immediately, he spawned in an ice auger. The Thumb Wars tournament was put to a halt, the mental hands scrambling to be the first ones to grab the auger. Alwin didn't bother bringing in more ice augers, much to the disappointment of the other hands, who had nothing to grab. Instead, he was focused on the pot and what might hopefully lay beneath.
They started drilling, the layer of ice that had formed from the constant snow and hailstorm being removed. It was the typical white ice, but the moment a different colored ice started being removed, Alwin immediately ordered them to stop all operations. The drill was removed, and without hesitation, Alwin navigated his consciousness into the freshly bored hole.
Just like the Ice Mana, the ice on the higher parts was the white kind that he had conjured up, but it suddenly transitioned to light blue-colored ice. Unlike Ice Mana, the supposed Ice Essence had a lighter shade of blue, possessing an almost ethereal beauty. It was completely see-through, as if free of any impurities—which was the whole point of the refinement process.
Ice Essence refinement completed!
Probably!
Now came another issue. Unless he had a crane, there was no way he was going to be able to move the huge bucket of Ice Essence. So, Alwin tried to summon a mental crane to help facilitate the process. Instead of the mechanical behemoth he was hoping for, what he got was a bird. It gave a couple of flaps of its wings as if it were warming up before flying off to who knows where.
Well, he did get a crane. Just the wrong kind of crane.
Alwin kept trying again and again. Each time, a bird popped into his Core instead of the piece of construction equipment that he desired. It was annoying, to say the least. To say the most, he wanted to bash his head against the wall till his head cracked open. But, if his experience being a goofball had taught him anything, when there's a will, there's a way.
Much to the chagrin of the new serious him, instead of dismissing the cranes, Alwin embraced them. In fact, he embraced them so much that he wanted a whole flock of them inside of him. More cranes hatched into existence around his consciousness. The sound of wings flapping was muffled by the strong winds from the hail and snowstorm.
Pulsating pains permeated his psyche. There were too many things in his head to keep track of, but he needed more cranes. More! If not, his plan wouldn't work.
Alwin gritted his teeth, powering through the pain. The cranes were tough to control—must be the language barrier. Eventually, his message got through, and the chaotic scene of white birds flying all over the place, dodging chunks of ice, finally settled down. One by one, they landed on the rim of the giant bucket, their feet instantly freezing over upon contact with the metallic surface.
A chorus of loud trumpeting squawks echoed off as their limbs locked in place.
To be fair, Alwin was not expecting that to happen. He also didn’t have the mental capacity to imagine bird boots for the innumerous cranes he had summoned. He knew nothing about cranes and their weird webbed feet. It would take so much time to create a perfect piece of comfortable clothing that would protect them from the cold, which wasn’t exactly his top priority.
Did this constitute as animal cruelty?
Still, it was a blessing in disguise—for Alwin, not for the cranes. They flapped their wings at a ferocious pace. Their bird brains, which were barely able to comprehend Alwin's orders, were unable to understand that they were effectively cryogenically bonded to the giant bucket. They flapped harder and faster, their wings moving at incomprehensible speeds, blending into white blurs. Eventually, Alwin's ingenious plan—well, more like idiotic plan—came to fruition.
The bucket started to rise ever so slightly, but as the cranes continued their frantic wing-beating, the pot started lifting itself higher and higher. Then it began to move, flying toward the edge of his Core. It was a slow process but heaps faster than his alternative plan, which involved painstakingly digging up all of the Ice Essence, separating them into more manageable-sized buckets, and hauling them to the edge of his Core one by one.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
The cranes continued their frenzied wing-thrashing. Not even the chunks of hail crashing into their orange beaks were able to slow them down. They were caught in an adrenaline-induced panic—assuming birds could produce adrenaline, Alwin wasn't an ornithologist. Soon, the edge of his Core came within sight.
However, the cranes weren't slowing down. Any order or command that Alwin gave them was met with a thousand flapping wings. Without any hesitation, they passed the threshold.
The giant bucket began to tilt as the birds that had left his Core simply disappeared, along with the side of the bucket they were attached to, unable to exist outside of it. With more and more support vanishing, the remaining birds struggled to maintain lift. Yet, momentum caused the pot and birds to continue moving out of his core.
Even the snow and chunks of hail produced by his storms disappeared as well. The only thing unaffected was the Ice Essence.
As soon as they touched the edge of his Core, they were instantly absorbed. A dozen notifications came pouring in as more and more Ice Essence continued to be taken in.
Ice Essence absorbed.
Ice Essence absorbed.
Ice Essence absorbed.
Ice Essence absorbed.
Ice Essence absorbed.
Until finally, he received a message that he had been yearning for.
Evolution Meter maxed. Unable to absorb any more Ice Essence.
Now, all that was left was for him to evolve, and he could leave Lapis' little inconvenience session. But, there was a tad little problem.
One-quarter of the giant bucket of Ice Essence was still in his Core, momentum still driving it forward.
The message, 'Evolution Meter maxed. Unable to absorb any more Ice Essence.' kept playing like a broken record.
Instead of leaving his Core and materializing in the real world like his experience with Ice Mana. The Ice Essence refused. They smashed against the boundary of his Core, pushing back against the giant bucket propelled by a bunch of frenzied cranes.
As the bucket and birds continued to vanish from existence, Ice Essence continued to pile up inside the remains of the bucket. But, once the giant bucket and all the birds had disappeared, there was nothing to support the pile that remained.
The Ice Essence that he had so painstakingly refined plopped straight down into his mana pool. It was now contaminated, reverting back to regular mana. Not even Ice Mana because there weren't any snowstorms or hailstorms on this side of his Core to maintain the freezing temperature. Without the cold, the Ice Mana melted back into regular mana.
That was annoying. But it didn’t matter. After his tribulation and evolution, he could blow this popsicle stand.
Alwin opened his eyes, the stark white training room blinding him as per usual. He opened his status and inspected it, ensuring that his Evolution meter truly was maxed out.
Name: Alwin
Species: Dark Slime (Tier 1)
Core Skill: Devolution (F)
Species Skills: Dark Tackle (A), Yin-Yang Blast (A)
Skills: Spirit Hands (S), Spirit Barrier (F), Spirit Blast (S), Spirit Scatter Blast (S), Spirit Burst Blast (S), Spirit Feet (S), Refinement (D), Spirit Bomb (A), Mix (E), Fire Blast (A)
Evolution: 100/100
Devolution: NIL
Yup, it was full. Now, he just had to be extra careful and not accidentally trigger prematurely like his Fire Tribulation. He had to make sure that he was ready. The new Alwin wouldn't make such a blunder, that much was certain.
Mentally prepared? Check. Physically prepared? Definitely. Equipmentally prepared? Not in the slightest.
However, that was an easy fix.
"Hey, Lapis! I'm ready for the Ice Tribulation!" Alwin shouted up toward the ceiling. "But I need some equipment and resistance pills first."
The intercom buzzed on, static filling the room. "Sorry, the person you are trying to reach is unavailable, please try again after you cast a skill created using Essence," a monotone voice spoke through the speaker before the connection abruptly cut. It was Lapis' voice.
Alwin channeled his inner Uchronia and rolled his eyes at what his ears had picked up. Seriously, what was her problem? Maybe Milvus was right to be apprehensive about letting Lapis guide him. No time to dwell on the actions of the past, Alwin.
So, with a long, drawn-out sigh, he closed his eyes and entered his Core. From there, he repeated the process of creating Ice Essence, but on a smaller scale this time round. A medium-sized bucket with a bunch of filter funnels overhead, refining mana into Essence, followed by a controlled snow and hailstorm to freeze it over.
As expected, the process was a lot faster. Now, all he had to do was attempt to mold a spell using it rather than mana. The only Ice spell that he knew was Ice Arrow, even if it hadn't been registered in his status yet. Following the steps to create it, the mental hands extracted the Ice Essence from the bucket and began to saw away at it.
Surprisingly, the process was smooth. Alwin had expected some hiccups along the way like maybe the saw wasn't strong enough to cut or the Ice Essence would deform under too much pressure, but none of that happened. It went exactly like when the first time, sculpted a block of Ice Mana into an icicle—or Ice Arrow as the System called it. The only difference was that the ice they were working on was a pure light blue, so clear that it was practically see-through.
Soon enough, the Ice Arrow had been completed. Apart from the shoddy craftsmanship—uneven cuts, asymmetrical, a slightly bent tip that seemed dull—it was perfect.
Without any more delay, Alwin ordered the mental hands to bring his creation to the edge of his Core and toss it out with all of his might.
As they tossed it for the first time, Alwin was excited about this experiment. This was uncharted territory for all of monsterkind. And he was the pioneer.
Would his Core attempt to absorb it but already being full reject it, leaving it trapped inside? Would it materialize into the Ice Arrow that he was expecting? Or something else entirely? What was about to happen?