It was the moment of truth. Time to see the result of Lapis' latest ideations, with Alwin as the unwitting guinea pig. The Ice Essence Ice Arrow approached the boundary of his Core. As it made contact, there was no message claiming that he had reached max Essence. That was a good sign. It passed through his Core, and a familiar tingle in his throat indicated success.

"Ice Arrow!" Alwin shouted.

An almost transparent light blue icicle formed right in front of him, zooming forward once it had completely manifested in the real world. Its target? The wooden training dummy.

A hundred thoughts raced through Alwin's mind. How would it differ from a regular Ice Arrow? Would it be stronger? Weaker? Or exactly the same? His eyes were fixed on the flying icicle, tracking its every movement.

It struck the blockhead, but rather than shattering into a million pieces, the icicle embedded itself into the wooden body. Incredible!

Lapis' regular Ice Arrow created with Ice Mana had barely managed to leave a tiny scratch on its surface before shattering upon impact. And that was with full mastery of the skill. Yet, Alwin's shoddily crafted Ice Arrow managed to sink itself a quarter of the way into the solid wood—without even a single crack permeating through its icy body.

This was amazing! This was fantastic! This was revolutionary!

The door to Lapis' lab slid open. Alwin barely had time to register the sound before Lapis herself came rushing through. Behind her, an army of drones swarmed in. They flew even faster than Lapis, overtaking her and beating her to the punch.

The drones surrounded the wooden dummy from every angle. Beams of light flickered from the tip of their diamond-shaped heads. Scanning. Analyzing. Capturing every detail of the Ice Arrow that was lodged into the wooden body. Bright flashes of light accompanied each sweep of the scanning laser beam as the drones took a multitude of photos of the crime scene. Although there weren't any obvious signs, Alwin could surmise that a couple of drones were recording the whole situation.

"Hey! Move out of the way, boys! Mom needs space!" Lapis shouted, shoving her way past the drones.

They made way for their master before resuming their tasks. Lapis stopped right in front of the icicle. Soft ‘hmms’ and murmured 'aahs' emanating from her as she analyzed the icicle.

"Fascinating," she mumbled to herself. "I had theorized something like this would happen, but this is far beyond my expectations."

Alwin had his jaw hung low at the scene unfolding before him. Lapis had been monitoring him the whole time. Talk about creepy. More importantly, what was with Lapis' reactions? Did it really warrant an entire fleet of drones tending to the site?

The faint aroma of delicious baked treats wafted into the room from the open door. A few drones had dustings of white powder—probably flour—over their blue diamond-shaped bodies. They must have abandoned whatever cooking experiments they were currently working on in favor of this task.

Oddities. Anomalies. Peculiarities.

This was Lapis, after all. Since when did she prioritize work over her cafe?

While Alwin continued to observe the phenomenon evolving right before his very eyes, inside of him, there was a conflict brewing. The supposedly jammed door was now unlocked. With how distracted Lapis was, there was nothing stopping him from slipping away—no longer having to deal with her shenanigans. She had wasted plenty of his time already. How long had it been? If only there was a clock in here.

If he did leave, there was also nothing stopping him from doing to Lapis what she did to him. Alwin could lock the door, forcing her to go through the freezer. It would be hilarious—karmic justice. Revenge was a dish best served cold.

But therein lies the problem. That was the old Alwin's line of thinking.

The new Alwin fought back, resisting the temptations. He wanted nothing more than to remain in the training room, prying into Lapis' brain for answers about what had gotten her so worked up.

Meanwhile, a third Alwin was starting to crop up. That was the one in charge of observing the scene in the real world while the new and old Alwin duked it out inside of his head. At least, that was what was supposed to happen.

Inside of his mind, there were only two Alwins. The first one took hold of the control panel, attempting to steer in the direction of locking Lapis in the room. While the second one continued to report on whatever Lapis and the drones were currently doing.

The third and final Alwin? He was nowhere to be seen, but its influence could be felt regardless. No matter how many times the first Alwin tried to get the main body to duck out of the room, the buttons and levers refused to budge, remaining stubbornly stuck. It was obviously the third Alwin's doing, but where was he?

The third Alwin, or shall we say the new serious Alwin, took command of the main body. While all that the old goofy Alwin could do was watch as control was wrested from him once again.

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No wonder Lapis kept claiming he was possessed. The serious Alwin was still alive. Even after being banished to the deepest, darkest recesses of his brain, he was able to take charge, rendering the original goofy nearly powerless—only able to inject the slightest amount of influence into the true Alwin decision. That explains why he had suddenly become so serious.

Now, with the serious Alwin at the helm, he hopped forward toward Lapis, about to bombard her with a barrage of questions.

"I don't understand, Lapis. Is what I did really so significant?" asked Alwin.

"Oh, slime boy. Right, I forgot about you," said Lapis, turning away from the wooden dummy. "Of course, what you did is significant. Its significance is significantly significant! C'mon, don't tell me you can't see it?"

"I mean, I do see it," said Alwin. "But am I seeing the same thing as you?"

"Only one way to find out," said Lapis.

She cleared her throat—if Crystal Diamond monsters even had a throat—before continuing.

"It's the first time that there has been another way to activate skills other than using mana as a base. Using Essence as a replacement seems to have increased the quality of the spell by a considerable degree. Just look at Ice Ar—I mean Icicle Shot. It penetrated that reinforced dummy. And it didn't even shatter, too, unlike my Icicle Shot made out of regular Ice Mana. That's amazing! It means my research into Essence goes more than into a monster's Evolutionary requirements. It could very well rewrite our whole understanding of skills!"

They had both noticed the same things. That was a good sign. It meant he was becoming smarter, his mind growing sharper. Now able to recognize observations that even the Minister of Magic could perceive. But, there was something bugging him.

"Say, Lapis. Since you're the originator of the Refinement skill, couldn't you have simply tested this out for yourself? Why go through all the trouble of tricking me into doing it for you?"

"Drats! I forgot you were still partially possessed. To answer your question, I did try it, but I couldn't get it to work."

"What do you mean you couldn't?" asked Alwin. An application of magic that the Minister of Magic couldn't perform, and yet he could. What was the meaning of this? Had he already surpassed her?

"It's just that each time I tried to cast a spell created solely with Essence, it'd just get absorbed by the outer layers of my Core. I just kept getting that System message saying Essence had been absorbed. It's so annoying," she whined.

"But why was I able to do it?" asked Alwin.

"Seriously? You haven't figured it out yet?" replied Lapis. "Want me to spoil the surprise, or do you want more time to think?"

"Just tell me," sighed Alwin. "I've wasted enough time already."

"Boo. You're no fun," said Lapis. "Anyway, what I have is only a theory, so it might not be all correct. But, the reason you were able to cast it and I couldn't? It’s because of your Evolution Meter. If it’s maxed out, your Core can’t absorb any more Essence. And what happens if Essence can’t be absorbed anymore? Simple—it passes through instead. And just like that—presto—you’ve cast a spell powered by Essence. "

"Wai! So this whole stunt was just a trick to get me to fill up my Evolution Meter—just so you could test out your theory?" exclaimed Alwin, surprised.

"I thought you already figured it out. Looks like the possession isn’t fully complete yet, that’s good. Plus, trick isn't exactly the right word, but you're right!" chirped Lapis. The whole thing was just to see whether an Essence spell could be casted if one’s Evolution Meter was filled to the brim.”

Why didn’t she just outright ask him for help? Well, she did. But he rejected her. That resulted in her concocting this harebrained scheme—and he fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

Alwin was simultaneously ticked off and impressed. Annoyed that he had been manipulated yet again, but also amazed that Lapis, of all people, managed to pull it off. Maybe he was just that predictable.

Since he was already here, there wasn’t any more harm in helping her.

"There's a flaw in your theory," said Alwin.

"It's a theory. I expect there to be flaws, young slime boy apprentice of mine. Now pray tell. What is this flaw that which you speak of," said Lapis, leaning in closer to his body.

"Before I molded the Ice Essence into an Ice Arrow, it wasn't able to leave my Core. I kept getting notifications stating that I couldn't absorb any more Essence. But, for some reason, after it took on the shape of Ice Arrow, it managed to pass through without any issues."

"That's interesting. Annoying and interesting. I have no idea why that happens, so it's back to the drawing board. Thank you, slime boy, for that important piece of information. As your reward, you don't have to go through the freezer," said Lapis.

"You were still going to make me go through the freezer?" exclaimed Alwin.

'Yup,' Lapis said cheerfully. 'I wanted to compare monsters evolved through conventional methods versus those manually refining Essence. But now… I have something even more exciting to research.'"

"This has been a huge waste of time," sighed Alwin, ready to leave Lapis' cafe and not come back for a long time. Finally, he could work on improving himself before the final exams.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Here's some Ice Resistance Pills and an Ice Coat."

A drone shot away from the wooden dummy, zooming out of the room and back in record time. It dumped a bottle of pills and a thick, light blue fur coat with white frills on top of him before zipping back to the dummy.

"Have fun with the Tribulation," said Lapis. "Try not to die."

"Wait—"

Before Alwin could finish his sentence, a flash of white engulfed him. When his eyes worked again, he was no longer in the training room under Lapis' cafe but back in the academy, specifically the Evolution Chamber.

Alwin looked around the room, half expecting Milvus to be there. The only ones there were him, himself, and he.

A Tribulation without any supervision? That's a first for him. He was pretty sure it was against the rules to perform a Tribulation without a teacher present. But he had wasted enough time. He still needed to work on his Ice Arrow and, if there was enough time, come up with a couple of Mix combinations. The old Alwin still had an influence on him. Rules were meant to be broken.

Alwin donned the thick fur coat and popped an Ice Resistance Pill into his mouth—it, too, was light blue in color.

It was Tribulation time.