It was a long, arduous, tedious, laborious, torturous, strenuous, rigorous, onerous—you get the picture—day. Was it worth it? Absolutely! Imagine seeing this every couple of minutes.

Essence absorbed.

Essence absorbed.

Essence absorbed.

Essence absorbed.

New Skill Learned: Refinement (F)

Essence absorbed.

Essence absorbed.

Each ping from the system sent a jolt of exhilaration through Alwin, his slimy body performing a little shaky shake in celebration. Food? Who needed food when you had system pings to feast on? By the end of the day he was more dopamine than slime. Maybe he'd evolve into a Dopamine Slime, if that even was a thing. Speaking of Evolution, he should really consult Lapis about a theory that had just popped into his mind.

"Hey, Lapis?" asked Alwin, finally opening his eyes after dumping tons and tons of refined mana to build up his core.

The bright white room assaulted his corneas, sending his vision into a blank white fuzz. Blinking rapidly, he regained his sight, adjusting to the brilliant lights. This was a stupid room to train in! Lapis was still floating there, the glass bowl now replaced with a dark brown chocolate cake.

"Oh, are you done?" Lapis asked, her Spirit Hand twirling a knife as the other waved at him. "Come have a slice, I'm trying out a new recipe for a Ultra Deluxe Chocolate Lava Cake. Twice the flavor with half the calories."

"Maybe later, I have a question. And yes, I will say it out without having to be prompted. Only problem is, I don't know how to phrase it so I might end up rambling, but here it goes." Alwin took a deep breath, he needed enough air to sustain the rambling rapping—a rapbling—he was about to perform. "You know you said when you use skills or spells you refine a little bit of mana, of course you know you literally said it a couple of hours ago, well I started thinking about what Milvus said. He mentioned that the type of skills and environment you're in affect what sort of tribulation and evolution you'll get. Does that mean you use say lightning elemental skills, you're also refining a tiny bit of lightning elemental mana? Is that what causes the lightning tribulation? Also when you absorb essence from another human do you absorb the elemental type of that refined mana too? Like if he uses plant elemental skills you absorb plant element refined mana and that messes up what sort of evolution you're aiming for. Also what sort of mana am I refining?" Alwin took a big gulp of air, finally done with his ramble.

Lapis sighed, she wasn't impressed by Alwin's lengthy performance. "That was like five questions or something. Honestly, we still don't really get evolution. Sure, what you said makes logical sense and that’s what we’ve always been doing, but reality might just flip us the bird and say no. It's like thinking more meetings will lead to better communication and higher productivity. In reality, too many meetings just mean no one gets any work done, so productivity tanks. I should know because those dumb monsters in the Council are all about 'let's have a meeting for this' and 'let's have a pre-meeting for this meeting.' Trust me, it's a total waste of time. Does that answer your question?"

"Not even close."

"Yeah, I figured. I was hoping you'd be one of those who'd just go, 'Oh, okay,' and leave, hoping everything would work out on its own, or at least try to figure things out yourself. Guess you're not, which means I have to actually explain my theories and stuff. Which also means you're a good student and not one of those annoying yes-monster types."

"Yay?" Alwin's response was uncertain.

"Oh, that's great. You even know when to respond to help break up my monologue into easier-to-digest pieces. Time to continue before I ramble on too much. Now, to answer your question. Honestly, I don't know. It's all just theories and guesswork right now. Does using lightning element skills mean you refined a tiny bit of lightning element mana? Probably. Does having a lot of lightning element refined mana cause a lightning tribulation? Probably too. Does the type of human you absorb essence from affect your refined mana? Probably not. Our guess right now is that the essence you absorb mimics the most elemental type of refined mana that you have. Does that answer your question?"

"Almost. What about the last question? What am I actually refining?"

"I was hoping you wouldn't ask that. Maybe a yes-monster is actually better," Lapis sighed. "Best guess? Spirit Element. But, that's just a guess. It could be Spirit or any elemental type, or it could be based on the element that the mana best resonates with depending on the environment. It could even be a never-before-seen type."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"So, you don't know what kind of tribulation I'm going to encounter? How am I supposed to prepare for it then?" The last thing Alwin wanted was to die before attaining his new form. His story would be over, and no one wanted that to happen. Probably.

"Prepare for the best, hope for the worst. Who knows, maybe you might not even have a tribulation. You are literally the first monster whose Evolution meter is mostly being filled up by this Refinement Skill that I cooked up. I have no idea what kind of effect that's going to have. Anyway, thanks for helping to contribute to the knowledge of monster kind." The Spirit Hand holding up the knife gave a thumbs up.

"Wait, what? If there's no tribulation, then wouldn't that mean I won't evolve? I can't not evolve. It's been two months and I'm still a Dark Slime. I have a feeling some people are starting to get annoyed about that. Also I need to evolve to become stronger and make sure that those humans will never hurt my friends again."

"I am confident that the outcome will be favorable. Please rest assured that your contributions are highly valued and your efforts will not go unrecognized."

"You know, for someone who keeps complaining about corporate life, you sure do sound like a suit right now."

"Really? Crud, you're right. Sorry, my brain defaulted to corporate speak. I've been hanging around the council for too long," Lapis sighed. "Okay, tell you what. Let's wrap this whole Q&A session up: you go back to refining, I go back to working on my cake, and after that, I'll continue my research on mana refinement and evolution. Sounds good?"

"I think so, but how can I trust you? What if you actually knew that using refined mana won't trigger a tribulation and you're using me as a guinea pig?" said Alwin.

"Then I'll be a horrible person. Depending on who's asking, I already am a horrible person. I literally helped to make child soldiers. I honestly don't know what will happen, but that's science, right? Or magic? Once you start going into funky territory, all science seems like magic, so good luck and have fun. Pray to Cor and hope that I manage to figure stuff out."

"You're not exactly making me trust you or feel more confident," said Alwin. "I'm starting to doubt you."

"About time you started to doubt me. You're a weird kid. Anyway, it's your choice. Stay or leave, but if you want to help further monsterkind knowledge, I hope you stay. Anyway, enough rambling. The quality of this conversation has been going downhill. I just really want to continue with my cake, then after that, I promise I'll continue my research. Okay?"

"Fine, but only because doing this means I might get stronger faster."

Alwin closed his eyes and resumed his Refinement, grateful for the break. Although that part about not being to evolve took root within his psyche. On the off chance that he couldn't evolve what was he going to do? Devolve? That skill didn't even work. There was nothing to do but pray to Cor and continue to work on his Refinement.

More pieces of filter paper, more buckets of refined mana thrown around his Core, more essence absorbed, more 'Ding. Ding. Ding' by the system later and Alwin had gotten another prompt. One that he was glad to receive.

Evolution Meter maxed. Unable to absorb anymore Essence.

Alwin's eyes flew open, squinting against the searing white light of Lapis' training room. The harsh glow stabbed at his corneas, making him wince. Next time he had a mana refinement session he was going to do it inside a dark closet. Who thought that fluorescent white was a good idea for a training room? It was like staring into a miniature sun. He blinked rapidly, trying to adjust, and after what felt like an eternity, his vision began to clear—again.

Lapis was gone. So was her chocolate lava cake, the table, the whiteboard, and her drone. Where was she? Oh no. Did she lock him in the training room, so that when she suckered the next monster into trying out the Refinement technique he wouldn't be able to scream into the streets that there's a chance they wouldn't be able to evolve, thus effectively shutting down her plan. During his Refinement session, that little seed of doubt had blossomed into the world's ugliest flower. Alwin couldn't exactly see it, but if he had to hazard a guess the flower took the form of the Aristolochia Salvadorensis—which for some reason looked like the ancient human fictional character Darth Vader.

Then he turned around. The entrance to Lapis' lab was right there. Yup, he was spiraling into a loop of anxiety. Rationality was an afterthought, a speed bump at the end of his road of panic. He really should pay more attention to his surroundings instead of diving headfirst into a pool of doubt. Now enough padding, time to move forward! It was tribulation time. Hopefully.

"Lapis?" called Alwin as he hopped out of the training room. "I did it. Have you discovered anything yet?"

The lab was a mess. Her desk was a cluttered landscape of papers and notes. The trash was overflowing with crumpled pieces of paper and empty wrappers. Indecipherable scribbles were scrawled all over the whiteboards. There was even a dark brown line of chocolate on one of the boards. Her coffee machine was blinking, a fresh cup of steaming hot liquid ready for consumption. Lapis herself was floating over one of the worktables, a series of drones gathered around her. She was mumbling something to the little bots as they whirred and beeped at their mistress.

"Come on, don't fail me now. I'm so close. Just a bit more juice and it's home free. Come onnnnnnn."

Beep boop. Whirr.

"It's not dying. Why are you telling me it's dying? No it isn't! I'm sure it's fine."

Boop, whir.

"Yes it is!"

Whir.

"Just a little more."

Ding, pop!

"Crud! I've failed!"

Failed. She failed her research? This wasn't looking good for Alwin. How was it going to affect his growth?