Alwin tackled the wooden dummy with a mix of both Dark Element magic and Light Element magic, although it was more dark than light at this point. Apparently, it was enough for the system to force him to yell out the name of his skills. Now there were more things that Alwin had to figure out, like how in bloody blazes did a light bulb create Light mana.

Did it have something to do with the light that the lightbulb was producing or was it related to that association thingamabob that Lapis had mentioned. Something along the lines of since the lightbulb produced light therefore the mana produced by it should be Light mana. If that were the case how come there weren't any lightbulbs generating the Light mana during Alwin's Yin-Yang Blast? Why did magic and skill crafting have to be so complicated?

Time to experiment with the lightbulb and hopefully it might shed some light on his Dark Tackle—yes, the pun was intentional. Alwin moved away from the wooden dummy and closed his eyes. Within his core, he conjured up that lightbulb once again. The moment the lightbulb materialized within his core, the mana around it started to turn white.

Looks like his theory about how light from the lightbulb was causing his mana to gain the Light element had some substance to it. Unfortunately, only a small circle around the lightbulb had transformed into Light mana. This had definitely given Alwin more insight into the mechanism behind how to produce different elemental mana. Does that mean all of the mana within his mana pool was considered Spirit Element mana? That was certainly possible.

While certainly intriguing it wasn't helping Alwin understand how to improve the mastery over his Dark Tackle. Technically, it was doing the opposite. Each time he brought up the lightbulb it would cause any of the Dark mana to convert straight into Light mana. Then another idea popped into his head.

In order to create Dark mana he just had to remove all of the light from his core. But, how would he accomplish that? It's not like his core had a light switch. What if he just put the mana inside of an opaque box? Maybe that would work.

So Alwin did just that. Within his Core, Alwin materialized a box similar to a cardboard box. Using a bucket he started to pour bucketloads of mana into the box until it was filled to the brim. After that, he sealed the box beyond air-tight, light-tight. Now that he thought about it, maybe air-tight was more impressive than light-tight. Anyway, the point still stands and he was not letting technicalities ruin the moment of this stroke of geniusness.

Now came another problem. How was he going to look inside the box? Obviously, the light bulb had been stashed away in the place where his mental tools lived when not in use—Alwin chose not to think about that too hard. Would exposure to the ambient light in his core turn the Dark mana back into Spirit mana? Did the mana even transform into Dark mana in the first place?

To minimize exposure to the ambient light within his core, Alwin could only think of one solution: an even bigger box. Creating an even larger cardboard box, Alwin hopped his consciousness inside of it along with the smaller cardboard box containing the hopefully Dark mana. Fumbling through the dark, Alwin managed to unseal the smaller cardboard box. Now came another problem. He couldn't see.

Good thing, Alwin had another ingenious solution: the remote control! The remote control was summoned and through muscle memory alone, he felt his way to the settings buttons—by him, Alwin meant the mental hands that he had materialized to help with the tasks. Alwin aimed the remote at the hopefully Dark mana and pressed the settings button. Alwin could hear a tiny ping, indicative that the settings menu had been opened up. Well, he still still lacked the ability to see, but that problem would be amended soon.

Alwin sealed up the smaller box and unsealed the bigger box, giving him the glorious ability of sight once again—hopefully, the remote didn't require line of sight in order to function and that it was proximity-based. In front of him was a menu with a new option available to him. Instead of changing the settings, he had the ability to view the status of the object he was targeting. Selecting the option, Alwin could finally see whether any of his theories actually possessed merit.

Mana

Spirit: 90%

Dark: 10%

Status: Sprit Mana currently undergoing Dark Mana conversion.

He had done it! Sort of! He had figured out how to create Dark Element mana. Did this have any bearing in helping him improve his Dark Tackle? Probably. Maybe. Alwin didn't know. He simply got too distracted and ended up going down the rabbit hole of figuring out how to create Light and Dark mana.

It would most definitely have future benefits. So, it wasn't exactly a waste of time. Right now, however, was time to get back to the task at hand. Never mind the fact that putting mana inside a box with no light didn't instantly convert everything inside of it to Dark Element mana, he would figure out that problem another time. Probably. Unless he got distracted again.

Alwin smashed into the wooden training dummy again and again, each time trying to figure out what was going on inside his core. No matter what he did he still couldn't understand how this ability worked. The only thing he knew was that he found himself surrounded by a tornado of black that rushed out of his core only to manifest as a cloak around him and then jettisoned him forward without giving him any say.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

There was only one conclusion that Alwin could draw from this short exercise: he had no idea what he was doing. Should he consult Milvus about how to actually improve his mastery over his Dark Tackle or should he continue to literally bash his head against the wooden training dummy countless times? The answer was obvious.

Alwin continued to tackle the dummy countless times until finally, it happened. A single notification appeared in his vision.

Skill Mastery Increased: Dark Tackle(E) → Dark Tackle(D)

You're saying that's all he had to do? Just keep repeating the skill? Practice did make perfect, but Alwin didn't expect it to be that easy. Time to try out another Dark Tackle. As always the mana from his mana pool turned dark before it rushed out of his core without a single command ordered by Alwin other than thinking, "I'm going to do a Dark Tackle now".

There was a key difference this time around. Less mana was rushing out of his core. That's a bad thing, right? Being forced to charge forward, Alwin crashed into the wooden training dummy. The amount of mana that was used had been reduced and yet the force of the impact had increased. The reason why he didn't notice such a phenomenon the first time his Dark Tackle ranked up? Alwin wasn't paying attention, but now he was. It seemed obvious in retrospect that improving the mastery of his skill would mean more damage dealt and less mana used, that was what happened each time his Spirit Blasts ranked up—sort of.

Whenever Alwin reached a new milestone in his Spirit Blasts or its variations, it was because of the result of all his hard work. That's to say he managed to reduce the amount of time taken to cast the ability, increase its damage potential, and even use the bare minimum amount of mana required to perform the skill.

So both skills had the same outcome, but Dark Tackle only achieved it by ranking up, while his other skills only accomplished it thanks to Alwin's resourcefulness and hard work. Okay, technically his Dark Tackle was the result of hard work as well—continuously utilizing the skill—but the amount of brainpower required to improve it was like a drop in the water compared to what it took to improve his Spirit Blasts and its variations.

Thanks to him actually paying attention for once, Alwin could hypothesize another theory. The way species skills improved was by repetition while the way regular skills are improved was through gaining a better understanding of how the skill works. Now, Alwin may not know much about Adventurers and Cultivators, but he could sense some similarities between the way his skills improved and the way the Cultivators utilize the system. Species skills shared commonalities with Adventurers while regular skills shared similarities with how Cultivators grew stronger.

Time to test out that theory. Alwin spent the rest of the day bashing his body against the wooden training dummy. Dark Tackle after Dark Tackle after Dark Tackle, to the point the words Dark Tackle were starting to lose their meaning. What was a Dark and what was a Tackle? Those were the only two words that his mouth uttered for the remainder of the day. Even at the cafeteria, when Uchronia asked—it felt more like an interrogation—for a status update, the only thing he said was Dark Tackle. Of course, he didn't actually launch himself at Uchronia, that would be foolish even for him.

That night, Alwin's dreams were populated with him performing Dark Tackle after Dark Tackle. Even in his dreams that blockhead wooden dummy refused to get destroyed. It felt more like a nightmare than a dream.

Alwin woke up with a jolt as he was thrust into a situation where he had to tackle the wooden dummy in order to save his life. Turns out that was just his brain being stupid and playing tricks on him. That still didn't stop him from performing the move and tackling the bed. His yells woke up the rest of his classmates, each one of them performing Uchronia's trademarked glare as they were awoken by Alwin's antics in the middle of the night—Uchronia should send a cease and desist letter so that everyone would stop glaring at him, he would even represent her as her lawyer if need be.

"Shut up, Al-loser!" a voice came from the dark.

Alwin didn't need the lights on to tell him who was shouting at him—that's because he hears with his ears and not his eyes, that would be weird. As always, it was that no-good Shadow Jellyfish. Today was the day where Alwin would test out a brand new comeback. Since his brain lacked the ability to voice out any word other than Dark Tackle, there was only one thing to do. Alwin stuck out his tongue and blew the dirtiest, wettest, sloppiest raspberry at Bion.

That should shut him up and it did. There was actually no way for Alwin to tell because he fell asleep 0.1 seconds after he ran out of air to continue blowing raspberries. That way, Alwin would have the last laugh.

The next few days consisted of Alwin practicing Dark Tackle and only Dark Tackle. Even Milvus' lectures were about Dark Tackles. Okay, that was a lie, Alwin's whole mind was just full of Dark Tackle and the only words he could comprehend were Dark Tackle. If that didn't sound torturous this was what Alwin had to deal with during one of Milvus' lectures.

"Dark Tackle, Dark Tackle, Tackle Tackle, Dark Dark Dark, Dark Tackle."

It was music to someone's ears but definitely not to Alwin's. Was this a detriment to his learning and may even impact his chances of being Valedictorian? Absolutely. At least, this time he didn't have a say in the matter unless that say was 'Dark Tackle'. On the bright side, there were merits to his inadvertent madness.

Skill Mastery Increased: Dark Tackle(D) → Dark Tackle(A)

And no, it did not jump straight from rank D to rank A. He simply summarized it because Alwin was considerate like that. Right now, Alwin could call himself the proud owner of a rank A Dark Tackle. Did anything special happen when he hit ranked A? Nope, but Alwin did perform his signature victory dance. A jiggle to the left and a jiggle to the right, let your fats jiggle jiggle jiggle. Oh, and his Dark Tackle used less mana and dealt more damage if anyone found that important—not Alwin because he was only interested in watching letter go up.

Now, to figure out that Yin-Yang Blast of his.