Inside of that bright white light—it was like being hit by a constant barrage of flashbangs—Alwin felt... strange. Something was happening to his body. It felt like it was being stretched and pulled apart at a molecular level, only to snap back together, in a new way, shape, and form. This was it! Evolution time, baby!

Deep inside his body, he could feel his core undergoing a similar treatment. Layer after layer of essence that he had spent two days refining, plus that whole ordeal in the Forest of Beginnings where he nearly died—but that wasn't important—was being melted down. They weren't being melted down and tossed into oblivion, no they were being melded with his core. His core was growing! Bigger core meant more mana, which meant less chance of falling into mana exhaustion, which meant less chance of dying. Sweet, salty, umami, but mostly sweet!

As the light began to fade, Alwin was blinking as fast as slimely possible—or whatever new species of monster he had turned into. With each blink he could feel two eyelids moving up and down, so he still had two eyes. Alwin forced open his mouth and pushed out a tongue, still one mouth and one tongue. What about hands or feet? Alwin tried moving his arms, but nothing happened. Either he had no idea how to move them or he still lacked arms. Same deal with the legs. Hopefully, it was because he simply didn't know how to utilize his new limbs and not because the only limbs he had were the Spirit Hands, still floating about.

The blinding lights had finally vanished and in front of him were his Spirit Hands. They were discussing something, using their usual sign language. When they finally noticed Alwin, staring at them, they gave a thumbs up and a congratulatory pat on the back, before winking out of existence. Since when could his Spirit Hands do that?

Milvus and Lapis were out of the glass chamber. Lapis, with the help of a drone, was jotting down notes. She was silent for once. Around Alwin, four drones hovered, each equipped with a pen and notepad, surrounded him—front, back, left, and right. Hopefully, the drones recorded down his good side, which was basically all of his side. In Milvus' tentacles were the Resistance Rings and the belt of pills that had helped Alwin during the tribulation, he was placing them back within the cupboards. He slotted the rings back into place—indents within a wooden panel that served as ring holders— while popping the unused pills back into the porcelain bottles.

Moment of truth, time to find out what Alwin had evolved into.

Name: Alwin

Species: Yin-Yang Slime (Tier 2)

Core Skill: Devolution (F)

Species Skills: Dark Tackle (E), Yin-Yang Blast (F)

Skills: Spirit Hands (B), Spirit Barrier (F), Spirit Blast (A), Spirit Scatter Blast (A), Spirit Burst Blast (A), Spirit Feet (F), Refinement (F)

Evolution: 0/5000

Devolution: 0/100

He was still a slime... Why! This was not cool. And why a Yin-Yang Slime? Was it because he spent most of his time fighting cultivators out in the Forest of Beginnings? Maybe. It's not like he understood the mechanism behind evolution other than, Evolution Counter go up. Also, what was up with his status? Since when were his skills divided up like that? So many questions, but not enough answers. Thus, was the life of a researcher—or was Alwin the guinea pig in this situation?

Other than the fact that his status had a nice new way to sort out his skills, there were three other major changes that stood out. First, was the new skill he acquired: Yin-Yang Blast. No idea what it did, but if he had to hazard a guess, it would allow him to create a blast of Yin-Yang—in other words, the floor was made out of floor.

Next up was that his Evolution Counter had been reset to zero. That was obvious. The more glaring issue was the amount of Essence he required just to undergo another evolution. 5000! Why, 5000! Do you have any idea how many buckets of Essence he'd have to create within his Core? Alwin didn't know how many buckets, but it was a lot. Oh, the horrors. The sheer amount of boredom just waiting for a bucket of Essence to be filled up. It was practically torture. No wonder other monsters went out to kill humans, that was way more fun than filling up a bucket.

Last, but definitely not least, in all honesty, it should've gone first. Alwin was screaming inside of his head. No words. Just a high-pitched shriek of joy. Devolution. Finally! Now he won't be useless compared to his classmates. Valedictorian, here he comes! There was still the issue of how to even use his Core Skill and what that Devolution Counter meant, but he'd figure it out eventually. Enough introspection about the changes on his status screen. That was the appetizer, time for the main course.

"Milvus, I want to see what I look like," said Alwin.

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"Already on it," he replied.

Milvus was already at the control panel, and with the flick of a switch, the cupboards and protective chamber sank down into the floor once again. Mirrors rose up from the ground and took their place, giving Alwin a view of his new slimy form.

It was...disappointing, simply because he thought he wouldn't be a slime anymore. It's not like he was any bigger. Nope, he was just a new flavor of slime, one that was both full of light and darkness—and Alwin wasn't trying to be poetic, he was describing what the mirror was telling him.

As Alwin gazed at his reflection, he hardly recognized the body that was staring right back at him. In fact, he only recognized half of the body. One side of his body was a deep dark black, reminiscent of his time as a Dark Slime, while the other was a pearlescent white. Not the boring kind of white, the type of white that made you wish there was a dark mode just so your corneas don't get burned off. They met in the middle, like an old married couple, only this couple wasn't exactly loving towards each other. They never touched each other, keeping their distance like a divorced couple living in the same house, trying to pretend that everything was alright for the sake of the kids.

Within the dark side, there was a small white dot that glowed like stars, shining like diamonds. And on the light side, there was a small dark dot sucked in everything like a black hole, not even light could escape its grasp. Those two dots were his eyes. At least it looked cool, to him at least. Were different colored eyes still trending?

The drones continued to take notes, flashes of light blinking from the tip of their heads as they presumably took photos of his new form. That was going to get annoying fast.

"Congratulations on your evolution, Alwin. Keep up the good work. Just remember to give your new form and skills a try today," said Milvus.

"Boo, you're no fun, Milvee. Our slime friend here just went through such a harrowing experience and you're asking him to go train. No wonder your star pupil got all huffy with you. Other than the obvious, child soldier mental manipulation stuff. Go, my grand student. Take a break. Rest. Enjoy yourself. You can even watch me suffer as I prepare for my meeting in two days' time. So many things to report, so little motivation. I just want to run my cafe. Also, my research helper, no more hunting humans for you until I can finalize my research. Next time we're going to see what happens when you gain Essence using some good new-fashioned Refinement. The results today were interesting, I wasn't expecting two different tribulation types to team up, it's like it became smarter. Anyway, toodle-oo, this Minister is going to go cry as she prepares slides. I'll come find you, eventually."

Lapis and her drones floated out of the Evolution Chamber, the moment they crossed the threshold of the room into the corridor, they disappeared into a flurry of particles. That was probably the proprietary teleportation spell she mentioned.

"I didn't even get to tell her what happened to my status. It might be useful information," muttered Alwin.

"What's wrong with it?" asked Milvus.

"It's just that after I evolved there was a new category called Species Skills. Do you think that information's important?"

"It might be, but that's just generally how tribulation works. After a tribulation, you become more attuned to the system and this manifests in different ways. I covered this in class before you all set out to the Forest of Beginnings."

"Oh, uh. I got head trauma like, Uchronia?" His voice rising in pitch near the end.

"Right... So, Alwin, about the whole debacle about your origins. I would prefer it if you didn't go around spreading news about it to your classmates. I mean this from the bottom of my heart we at the academy mean no harm. Of course, the circumstances might say otherwise. We at the academy truly believe your class will be the hope for monsterkind."

"No biggie. As disturbing as the idea of children being sent to fight the battles of adults, I'm surprisingly okay with that. Honestly, no idea why I didn't react as badly as Uchronia. Lapis just said that I was weird."

"About, Minister Lapis, she is, how do I say this... eccentric. But she is a Minister for a reason. Just make sure to remind her to give you lessons, she tends to be forgetful of the 'boring stuff' as she puts it."

"I don't get it. What even is a Minister?" asked Alwin.

"Ministers are the pillars of the Human Hunter Army, they oversee the operations of the army and help enact the orders of the King."

"So they're really strong?"

"Strength is a factor in becoming a Minister, but it's not the end all be all. Their contributions in the fight against humanity are just as important."

"Alright, cool. Now I've got a new goal: become a Minister. If a Minister is strong and I'm a Minister, therefore I am strong. Flawless propositional logic by a future Minister."

"Good luck with that, Alwin. Now make sure to rest up. Oh, and just remember not to overshare about what happened during the past few days to the class. They've been dying to see you."

"Sure thing," said Alwin, exiting the Evolution Chamber.

Now he could go back to the dorms and call it a day or he could go to the training grounds classroom. As future valedictorian and Minister— which was something he had just recently aspired to become, for some reason even he couldn't pinpoint—he should go to the training grounds classroom and get used to his new body. Maybe he'd even try out that new Yin-Yang Blast that came with becoming a Yin-Yang Slime.

Onwards to the training grounds classroom. As a parting note, maybe the reason he suddenly felt like becoming the valedictorian and by extension, a Minister was similar to how kids tend to have lofty ambitions when they're young. Hopefully, he wouldn't grow out of that optimistic phase. Since he was only two months old, it's safe to say that he still had plenty of time before he grew up. Just imagine, a kid as a Minister, and all of that was fueled by young lofty kiddish ambitions!