It was Uchronia, and she was standing right at the doorway with a disapproving glare plastered all over her face. A lump caught in Alwin's throat as his heart nearly leapt out of his chest. How long had she been there? How much did she see?
"Uchronia. Hi." Alwin gulped.
"Don't 'hi' me. Just what are you doing?" Her face contorted with rage as she glared daggers at him.
"Nothing really... I was just... practicing," Alwin's voice faltered.
Uchronia strode towards Alwin, snarling like a beast. "Practicing my foot. You're fooling around when we have a schedule to keep to."
Even with the extra height his Spirit Feet gave him, Alwin still felt like an ant compared to her. She loomed over him, a giantess compared to his shrunken self.
"What is wrong with you?" shouted Uchronia, causing Alwin to flinch.
A small yelp escaped Alwin's throat. He winced and fell off his feet, the sheer pressure of Uchronia's rage forcing him down.
"But, I was keeping to the schedule..." whimpered Alwin.
"HOW?" she shrieked, causing Alwin to cower in fear.
"I was prac-pract-learning new skills in here. I-I-I thought it would be easier to do it in here, y-y'know, a-a-alone." Alwin's eyes darted nervously, trying to avoid her piercing gaze.
Uchronia leaned in closer, her face red and bloated from anger. Alwin let out a small squeal and ducked for cover, bringing his Spirit Hands above his head.
"PROVE IT! PROVE TO ME THAT YOU WERE LEARNING NEW SKILLS! WHAT EXACTLY WERE YOU DOING IN HERE?" yelled Uchronia.
"Look!" cried Alwin, using the hands to point at his feet. "Spirit Feet! New skill! Learned today!"
Uchronia's mouth twisted into a scowl. "THAT'S WHAT YOU'VE BEEN WORKING ON? THAT USELESS THING?"
"It's-It's not that useless... I-I can—" Alwin's voice quavered as he struggled to get the words out.
"HOW? HOW IS THAT USEFUL AT ALL?" spat Uchronia, cutting Alwin off in mid-sentence.
"Well I-I-I mean... it can... it's like, when Milvus said the thing. It's like the... uh, the, uh, when you learn a new skill... you can, uh, something about gaining... insights about-about-about to improve other skills," mumbled Alwin.
He cringed at his own horrible explanation, almost wishing he had kept his mouth shut. Uchronia's frown only worsened as Alwin fumbled over his own words, struggling to come up with a proper excuse.
"SO WHY ARE YOU DOING IT HERE INSTEAD OF THE CLASSROOM? WHAT ELSE ARE YOU HIDING?"
"No-nothing... I just wanted to be alone..." stammered Alwin, his voice trailing off into silence.
"THAT'S IT? YOU JUST WANTED TO BE ALONE?"
"Yea..." nodded Alwin.
"THEN NEXT TIME SAY SOMETHING! DON'T JUST GO SOMEWHERE ON YOUR OWN WITHOUT LETTING ONE OF US KNOW!"
"Y-yes ma'am," Alwin nodded, his whole body trembling as he spoke.
"AND YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT YOU'RE STICKING TO THE SCHEDULE?"
"Yes ma'am," Alwin affirmed, bobbing his head up and down furiously. Alwin even brought up his status just to show her that he had already learnt Spirit Scatter Blast and Spirit Burst Blast.
Uchronia's eyes narrowed, her gaze boring into him with suspicion.
"GOOD! NOW GET BACK TO PRACTICE! AND I'M SORRY I DOUBTED YOU! AND I'M SORRY FOR RAISING MY VOICE! I JUST THOUGHT YOU WERE UP TO NO GOOD AGAIN!"
As he began to practice, Uchronia stormed out of the room. That was close. Too close. Alwin couldn't even begin to imagine what would happen to him if Uchronia ever found out he was mostly goofing off. The mere thought sent chills running down his spine. He made a mental note to make sure he stuck to the schedule, and then after that, he used his Spirit Hands to write an actual note. After sticking it on his bed frame, Alwin continued his 'practice' for the remainder of the day.
---
During the morning lectures, Alwin fought another losing battle against his eyelids. That man could just go on and on about battle tactics and strategies against humans. Alwin wasn't the type to learn by listening, Milvus' words were like a lullaby. But the threat of Uchronia's wrath if he nodded off kept him on the edge of his seat, eyes wide open.
In the afternoon he abided by Uchronia's schedule, it was a grueling regimen designed to hone his skills: Spirit Blast, Spirit Scatter Blast, Spirit Burst Blast, Dark Tackle, Spirit Hands and Devolution. When he dared to ask why Spirit Barrier wasn't on his list, Uchronia's response was as blunt as ever. "The best defense is a good offense." Alwin couldn't argue with that logic.
Alwin spent many afternoons stuck in the classroom, launching one attack after another at the long-suffering wooden dummy. With each blast, his attacks grew faster. Through trial and error—mostly error—Alwin discovered little tips and tricks to make the casting process more efficient. He figured out the minimum amount of layers needed for a Spirit Blast to actually be considered a Spirit Blast. Anything less was just a fizzle. Alwin also realized that piling more layers of the paper-like mana caused his Spirit Blast to become stronger. But, still, that wasn't enough to damage that lousy wooden dummy, at least not yet.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
As his understanding of the Spirit Blast grew, so did his grasp of the Spirit Scatter Blast and Spirit Burst Blast. It made sense considering that they were built with Spirit Blast as a base, and now he was starting to see how they all fit together. Each attack was easier to form, his mental hands moving with confidence as he fine-tuned his technique. He even figured out a couple of tricks that he was sure would surprise Uchronia.
Using the knowledge he gleaned from improving his Spirit Blast as well as what was written within the pages of 'Spirit Blast and Beyond,' Alwin discovered how to adjust the timing of his blasts. By adjusting the number of paper mache layers of the initial Spirit Blast that acted as a shell, they would either explode a split second after launch or on contact. With the power of variable timing, the element of surprise was now his.
This trick wasn't the only thing that 'Spirit Blast and Beyond' taught him. It also taught him a couple of tips. The process became second nature to him and with even more trial and error, he too managed to make both of them stronger. For his Spirit Scatter Blast, he figured out how to cram a ridiculous twenty-four mini Spirit Blasts into the main container. It was like stuffing too many clowns into a tiny car but with a lot more bang instead of honks. As for his Spirit Burst Blast, he was able to stuff in even more raw mana to make the resulting explosion twice as powerful. With each passing day, his mastery of them grew.
All of the improvements to his 'Spirit Blast and Beyond' techniques wouldn't have been possible without the help of his Spirit Hands. As his mastery over them improved he was able to command five pairs of Spirit Hands independently. This increase in control had an unexpected effect, it boosted the control of his mental hands within his core. Instead of just one pair, he could now wield multiple pairs together.
The extra hands sped up his spell crafting significantly. What once took ages now zipped by in a flurry of spectral fingers. With all the practice he was putting in, his ability to mold out a pair of Spirit Hands improved dramatically. They went from looking like ghostly blobs to being almost lifelike. Each day, they became more realistic, and Alwin couldn't help but feel a bit proud.
They were also becoming smarter as if they had a will of their own. Alwin was even having full blown conversations with them! Although they did converse through sign language, which Alwin struggled with in the beginning. Maybe it had something to do with the mental connection he shared with them, but he found himself able to decipher these gestures, even if they did look like erratic finger movements to him.
Even with all the help from his extra pairs of hands, Alwin felt something was still missing. His casting speed for all three Spirit Blast skills had hit a frustrating plateau. He knew that he was missing some key insight, some eureka moment that would catapult his techniques to the next level. After many weeks of contemplating, it finally hit him. A freshly baked muffin—courtesy of Gus and his strange muffin obsession— hit him square in the face. Even though it was the muffin that hit him, it was its progenitor that provided the spark. And, Alwin wasn't talking about Gus.
The drying process had been a thorn in his side since the day he learned how to cast the Spirit Blast. It was a tedious, time-consuming ordeal that dragged down every spell, sucking away precious minutes. Every time he cast a Spirit Blast or its adjacent techniques, he cursed the slow, stubborn drying process. The warmth of the muffin that struck his face ignited the embers of his creativity, reminding him that there was another way. The solution was so obvious now. This was the breakthrough that he needed. Alwin was certain it would work. His newly hatched theory was like the missing piece to his puzzle, and it all fell into place.
Within the confines of his core, Alwin created another tool to revolutionize his spellcasting: an oven. No more waiting for Spirit Blasts to dry, he would just bake it dry instead. The oven was nothing fancy, just a small boxy contraption with an opening at one end along with a bunch of dials and buttons on the front, it looked like a mini version of the ovens used at the cafeteria to bake all of those tasty treats. It was perfect.
His first attempts at Spirit Blast with the new addition to his arsenal were not so perfect. Crank the temperature up too high resulted in Spirit Ashes instead, setting it too low left the spells damp and unusable. The same trial and error applied to the baking time. Overcook the spells, and they fizzled out; undercook them, and they remained sticky and weak. It took a fair bit of adjustment, but after countless trials, he finally found the sweet spot. Now, with his inner oven dialed in just right, creating any Spirit Blast-related spell took half the time.
In the end that blockhead wooden dummy withstood the test of Alwin's never-ending attacks—unless he was sleeping or trying not to fall asleep in Milvus' class. Still, that didn't mean his attacks had ended, it just meant that there was an extremely long gap between attacks.
For the most part, Alwin's journey in honing his skills had been relatively smooth, there was one skill that simply eluded him: Dark Tackle. Ironically, the first skill he ever used was now the one giving him the most trouble. Spirit Hands was intuitive enough, and he had a handy dandy textbook for Spirit Blast and its derivatives, but Dark Tackle? It was a whole different beast.
Whenever Alwin performed Dark Tackle, it felt like the mana in his core had a mind of its own. There were no mental hands to shape the mana, no balloon for paper mache shenanigans, and definitely no oven to bake it to perfection. Instead, there was only darkness rushing out of his core.
Still, that didn't mean his efforts were for naught. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, one that Alwin could very faintly make out. With every use of Dark Tackle, that light grew brighter. Yet, that light couldn't pierce the darkness, not yet. One of these days, Alwin would unravel the secrets of Dark Tackle, but today was not that day.
Likewise, he still couldn’t figure out how to use his Core Skill: Devolution. He had spent many a days shouting out the name of the skill hoping something would happen to the wooden training dummy. The only thing that did happen was Bion snorting every single time. Do you know how embarrassing that was? Still he had to prevail, lest Uchronia found out and walloped him for not following her schedule.
Should he have asked Milvus for help during the training montage? By all means, yes. Did he do it? By all means, no. Why? No idea. A combination of laziness, anxiousness, forgetfulness, stubbornness, and maybe the Loch Ness monster that filled him up with a bunch of uselessness caused him to delay seeking help. Did he regret it? Not in the slightest. There was something much more important than learning how to learn a useless Core Skill.
Today, Alwin would bask in the sheer satisfaction of having followed Uchronia's schedule straight down to the letter. No amount of front flips or back flips could express how much joy Alwin was experiencing. It had taken many weeks of relentless training, but his progress was undeniable. He had improved so much, so fast. Those no-good humans wouldn't stand a chance against him now, especially when his skills had ranked up considerably.
Name: Alwin
Species: Dark Slime
Core Skill: Devolution (F)
Skills: Dark Tackle (E), Spirit Hands (C), Spirit Barrier (F), Spirit Blast (A), Spirit Scatter Blast (A), Spirit Burst Blast (A), Spirit Feet (F)
Evolution: 4/100
Soon, Alwin would get a chance to get upfront and personal with those pesky humans. It was going to be very soon, Alwin could feel it in his gut. It definitely wasn't because Milvus was about to make an important announcement.
"Good morning, class!" Milvus' voice cut through the chatter. "I know this is sudden, but today we’re having a pop quiz. We'll see if you're ready to dive into the human world."