"Lapis, did you fail your research? Does that mean I won't evolve?" Alwin’s voice quivered as he bounced up to her workbench.

"What?" Lapis turned around to face the very concerned Alwin. "Nope, nope, nope. Drones get rid of the evidence."

The five drones that were helping out Lapis grabbed the remnants of her latest experiment. With a few beeps and a flash of blue energy, the drones flew away, carrying something that looked like a glass bowl atop their pointed heads. Alwin peeked behind Lapis hoping to find a scrap of information that would explain what he just witnessed. The few splashes of creamy beige on the workbench told a tale of a disastrous baking adventure. He had been deceived once again.

No more wasting time! Time to get to the meat of the matter. "Lapis have you actually done anything related to refining mana, the tribulation, or even about evolution?"

"Of course I did. Who do you think I am?"

"A sham cafe owner who tricked an innocent kid into coming into their basement to conduct experiments on and actually has no ties with whatever the council is. That information downloady thingy did not download that info into my mind."

"Rude, my cafe is the most popular cafe in the city, but we're getting off-topic. I don't want to dawdle any longer. Normally breakthroughs take a while and good thing for you it has been a while. I may or may not have a progress report meeting next week and was definitely not procrastinating until the very last second so that I could use the adrenaline that comes with a looming deadline as fuel to rush my research. Anyway, after I showcased that Refinement skill, the council members also wanted to know what type of mana I was refining and basically all of the questions that you dumped on me. All of which, that I might add, I was already planning on looking into. I hate being told what to do. Unfortunately, I could only find out how to see the type of Essence a monster has."

One of Lapis' drones flew back into the room and hovered next to Alwin. A blue beam shot out from the tip of its pointed diamond head, scanning Alwin up and down as it circled around him. Alwin in turn started to swivel around, eyes locked on the drone as they both went around in circles. It circled around him for a good twenty times—Alwin knew because he counted—before the beam shut off and the drone flew off back to presumably the kitchen. Now he regretted it because dizziness had decided to move in.

"Interesting. As always these things create more questions than answers. Based on that scan, you are one percent Dark Element refined mana and ninety-nine percent Spirit Element refined mana. So the Refinement technique either generates Spirit Element refined mana or adopts the most abundant type of refined mana you have, that's under the assumption that using Spirit Element skills does indeed generate Spirit Element refined mana."

"So, I'm going to have a Spirit tribulation?" asked Alwin.

"Probably, that's also assuming that a tribulation can be triggered if a majority of the essence that you've obtained is by the refinement method instead of the usual go out and kill humans and absorb it from them. That's something that we'll get to find out together. Boys!"

Three drones flew into the room, two of them holding up one side of a blindfold that dangled between them. The third drone zoomed behind, balancing a slice of chocolate cake atop its head, the rich aroma of cocoa wafting through the air as it approached causing Alwin's stomach to rumble. When was the last time he had eaten? Actually, what day was it? Other than that short interlude with Lapis he had spent all of his time refining the mana within his core. How long had he been at it?

"Here, have some cake and give me some feedback. Also, you're going to be blindfolded because this teleportation spell is proprietary magic and I'm not allowed to show it to anyone. NDAs and whatnot."

The world around him sunk into darkness as the pair of drones applied the blindfold over his eyes. He could feel the drones hovering behind him, feeling the fabric becoming taut as they tied a knot. In front of his face, he could feel the wet smoothness of the chocolate frosting press against his lips, the aroma of chocolate bombarding his nostrils. Opening his mouth, he allowed the drone to input a small piece of chocolate cake.

It was as if the world stopped and everything became insignificant in comparison. Pure bliss exploded across his taste buds. A symphony of flavors danced throughout his mouth, the moist fudgy texture perfectly complimenting the sweetness of the icing. That was all the description he was going to provide. No more dawdling, time for evolving.

Alwin allowed the drone to shovel in the cake one spoonful at a time, swallowing down each bite faster than the previous one. The moment the final bite disappeared down his throat, light invaded the corners of his vision as the world came into view. The words 'Evolution Chamber' hung above the wooden door in bold block letters.

"We're back in the academy?" exclaimed Alwin.

"Yup, teleported you here. It's time to see whether you can evolve and I'm ninety percent confident you will. I don't have any evidence to back it up, it's just my gut feeling. More importantly, how was the cake? Too moist? Too sweet? Too soft? Too hard? Too bland? I need the deets, kid."

"I liked it, ten out of ten. You know for someone who claims to dislike dawdling, you sure waste a lot of time on irrelevant stuff. Also, you talk a lot. Now can we please focus on my evolution? Like how do I even prepare for a Spirit tribulation."

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Rude, but understandable. We'll settle your evolution, and then after that, you get to be my food taster for my new recipes. It's one of the requirements to be under my tutelage that I just made up. Also, you get free food after not eating for two days. I'm surprised you managed to focus on refining for so long, I personally got bored after five minutes of it. Anyway, let's go in. I've got the room booked for the next hour. Also, I have a surprise for you that I totally intentionally planned for it to happen and it wasn't a coincidence or anything like that."

Wow. Lapis really was full of it. At least she was mostly honest. Mostly. Time to open the door and let the secret hit him right on the noggin.

Alwin pressed against the wooden door and pushed it open. The familiar interior of the room was exactly how he remembered. Cupboards lining the wall, the control panel on the far side of the room, the sunroof opened for the world to see, Milvus hiding inside that glass chamber, a deluge of oversized vines originating from system screens assaulting the monster in the center of the room. Alwin blinked twice, rubbing his eyes against the door frame. Either he was having memory problems or there was a tribulation going on right now.

"Ta-da! You get to witness your friend's tribulation!" shouted Lapis.

"Friend?" Alwin blurted out. If what Lapis said was right and it really had been two days since he started refining mana, then that meant all of his classmates had already completed their evolution. The only people who hadn't were him and... "Uchronia?"

Alwin's eyes focused on the monster at the heart of the vine tornado. Standing in the middle of the writhing mass was a Leafling. Standing next to that Leafling was another Leafing, and another, and another, and another. In case anyone was too lazy to do any mathematics, there were five Leaflings weathering the onslaught of vines. And in case anyone had forgotten about Uchronia's Core Skill, Alternate History, all of those Leaflings were different versions of Uchronia.

Vines slithered forward like green, writhing serpents, but each alternate Uchronia met them head-on with their own set of unique skills. The original Uchronia crouched in the center, casting Haste left and right, keeping her other selves moving at super speed. When the effects faded she would recast them shouting out the skill’s name again and again.

A vine darted past their defenses, and one of the clones shouted out a slew of vulgarities not intended for younger audiences. The original was already acting on it. She leaped into the air, flipping over the incoming vine. Mid-flip, a layer of thorns erupted along her tail while glowing a soft hue. She smacked down on the vine, creating multiple puncture wounds along the hard green root as a shimmer of magic enveloped it. The vine's movements were cut in half, as the alternate Uchronias’ stepped in blasting it with a menagerie of plant-themed skills. They shot out seeds of bullets, vine-like whips, razor-sharp leaves, and one even transformed their tail into a honed leaf blade. That vine that dared intrude into the space of the original Uchronia was sliced and diced, ready to be turned into a salad for any lurking hungry monsters. The alternates moved back into formation, defending the original from the frenzy plant onslaught.

Alwin stood at the edge of the doorway, taking stock of everything that was happening. Where was this side of Uchronia when they were getting their butts handed to them by Gary Stew? Why were Gus and Uchronia handed out such amazing skills, while all Alwin got was a defunct skill that still showed no signs of working? There was that jealous side of him that reared its ugly head again. Maybe that was why he was so eager to learn that Refinement skill. It would be an almost unique skill—there were only two people on the planet who knew it—something that he could have bragging rights about, just like the unique Core Skills his friends and classmates boasted.

The vines rescinded back into the system screen as a bright light consumed the room. Seriously, what was it with him getting blinded today? First the training room and now this? Next time he witnesses a tribulation or enters Lapis' training room he was going to grab a pair of sunglasses to shield him from the relentless assault of light rays against his delicate corneas. The glow began to dim as the light died down, revealing the room once more—that short grumble session of his gave Uchronia plenty of time to evolve, if not he would have been stuck describing a bright white room for ten seconds and Alwin did not have the skills to make that entertaining.

When the light finally died down, Alwin got a good look at Uchronia's new form. It was something... to say the least. But, saying the least wasn't going to cut it here. Description vocation Alwin was on the case. Uchronia's tail had ceased to exist and her round bulbous form was no more, instead replaced in a casing of some sort of brown bio-ceramic armor—she had been transformed into a flower pot. Sprouting out of the top of the armored flower pot was a green bulb—not a light bulb but a plant bulb. That was where Alwin assumed her head was, also the fact that her eyes and mouth were there was another indicator. Two extremely thin root-like appendages seeped out from the bottom of the pot—Uchronia had legs now! What a miraculous transformation. She finally developed the ability to run.

"Milvus, is there a mirror in here? I want to see how I look like," said the new and improved not-Leafling.

"Of course, Uchronia." Milvus walked out of the glass chamber and began to fiddle with the console. All of the cabinets that lined the room and even the protective glass chamber sunk into the deepest parts of the academy. Large mirrors emerged from the floor, giving the new Uchronia a complete look at herself. She paced up and down watching her tiny root legs move underneath her new armored form. Turning to the left and right, she inspected her reflection, now her focus was on her new head—the little bulb that sprouted out of the pot.

"Thank you, Milvus," said Uchronia. "If you'll excuse me, I'll be heading to the training grounds to test out my new Species Skill and new form," said Uchronia.

"Sure thing, don't overwork yourself," said Milvus, waving a tentacle at Uchronia.

As he traced Uchronia's route back to the door, his singular eye widened in shock as he gazed upon the monster that stared back at him. It wasn't Alwin, it was Lapis.

"Hey, Uchronia," Alwin said, scooching out of the way for Uchronia to cross the threshold into the hallway.

"We'll talk later, when there's less people around, okay?" asked Uchronia.

"Sure thing."

"I'm assuming you're here to evolve? Good luck out there and make sure you survive. I need you."

"You got it." Alwin smiled.

Uchronia's form disappeared down the endless hallways of the academy, leaving Alwin and Lapis standing at the door of the Evolution Chamber. Milvus stared at them, his mouth bobbing up and down unable to formulate a word.

"Hey, little Milvee. How you doing?" said Lapis.

Here Alwin stood with his teacher and grand teacher. This was going to be fun.