"Yes, oh great master, teach me the ways of refinement." Alwin bowed down in reverence to Lapis, his gelatinous form wobbling.

"I thought we settled on ‘grand master’. Why are you changing it to great master? You know what? I am now grand great master Lapis. Now answer me little one, do you know how to generate elemental mana?"

"Yes, oh grand great master. I have figured out how to generate Dark and Light mana?"

"You have?" asked Lapis, surprise filling her voice. "I mean." She cleared her throat. "As expected of my grand great student, but I thought you would've started out with something simpler like Fire."

"Is Dark and Light mana really that complicated?"

"Well, it's definitely more abstract than Fire. Think about it, all you need to create Fire is oxygen, heat, and fuel. All of which is easy for even a kid to understand. But, what about Light or Dark? What is Light and what is Dark? How do you create something that you don't even understand?"

"I used a light bulb and a cardboard box."

"What?"

"When the lightbulb came on inside my Core it started transforming the mana around it into Light Elemental Mana, then when I put some mana inside of a super air-tight and light-tight cardboard box, it started changing into Dark Elemental Mana."

If Lapis had eyes and a mouth, she would've been stuck blinking at him with her mouth hanging so wide open that fifty flies could fly right in without her even realizing. "What?" she repeated.

"I said, that when—"

"Shush. I know what you said, boy. It's just that... what? Are you sure you weren't hallucinating or something?"

"I can confidently say that I was neither hallucinating nor experiencing a super realistic daydream, or even an ultra-realistic night dream."

"Well, if you say so." If Lapis had shoulders this was the part where she would've shrugged, but instead, she just floated there and continued her speech. "It's just that there's normally more steps involved when creating different types of Elemental Mana. Take Fire for example, normally one manipulates the properties of their mana so that it's more flammable, after that they heat it up to the point where it combusts. That's the common way most people create Fire Element Mana."

"What about oxygen? Didn't you say you need that to create Fire too? So do I turn my mana into oxygen to create Fire?"

"My young dumb pupil, first of all, that's an incredibly hard thing to do, second of all why would I bother with that when there's a bunch of oxygen floating about all around us, third of all, you're young and therefore dumb so I excuse you for asking such dumb questions, fourth of all, yes I really repeated the part where I called you young and dumb. I did that just for emphasis."

"I'm going to ignore everything mean you just said about me." Alwin flashed her a smile. "So, I don't really care about Fire right now, can we skip to the part where you teach me how to refine Light Mana or Dark Mana?"

"About that... There's a reason why I kept talking about Fire Mana and it isn't because you're full of fiery passion."

"Is it because you've only figured out how to refine Fire Elemental Essence?"

"Exactomundo! I take back the young and dumb stuff, now you're my young smart pupil."

"I'm going to remember everything nice you just said about me." Alwin flashed her a smile. "So, can we skip to the part where you teach me how to refine Fire Mana?"

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"Well, actually, young impatient pupil of mine. First, you need to learn how to create Fire Mana, and I have already taught you how to do it, kinda, sorta. I told you the thought process behind it, the rest is for you to figure it out on your own. Have fun my young pupil, while I go figure out more about your weird Light and Dark Mana methods."

"Promise me you're going to do that and not like bake a cake or something."

"I pinky promise."

"Good!"

With that Alwin closed his eyes, his corneas no longer being singed off by the bright white room, letting his consciousness dive into his Core. Time to make Fire.

First, he had to gather some Mana and make it flammable. That was simple enough. A pair of mental hands conjured into existence along with a bucket. After gathering a bucket’s worth of Mana, he just had to change its properties. With the help of his handy dandy remote control, this step was going to be as easy as pie—assuming Gus hadn't already eaten the pie.

With the remote pointed at the bucket of mana, the familiar settings screen appeared in front of him, this time with an additional option Flammability. On a scale from zero to one hundred, Alwin set his Mana to one hundred percent flammable. Go big or go home, or in this case, go boom or go home. As the slider slid to one hundred, the color of the mana began to darken, becoming black like oil. That was the fuel part done, onto the next steps.

What he needed now was oxygen. Since Lapis shut down his idea of turning his mana into oxygen there was only one other way that he could think of. Opening his mouth, Alwin inhaled, bringing in sweet delicious air which had a hint of burnt pancake smell lingering about. Now that the oxygen part was done, there was only one final step until he created Fire Mana.

Now he needed enough heat for the flammable mana to combust. There were a couple of ideas floating about and Alwin meant that quite literally. A lightbulb floated around the bucket of oily mana. That was certainly a possibility, but he didn't want the Fire Mana to become contaminated with Light Mana. Then an oven he apparently conjured up hovered by. Alwin didn't see any problems with using an oven to create Fire, although it did feel like the progression of things was going backward.

Another floating item caught his eye, one that flickered every now and again. Fire, it was fire alright, a campfire to be more specific, but where did that come from? Honestly, who cared? Using fire to create Fire, was almost poetic in a way, or was it ironic? Good thing he wasn't being tested on his language capabilities. Alwin nodded his head at the choice of heat source.

First, let the campfire float over the mana pool, then place a bucket of flammable mana right over the flame. After that wait until the mana bursts into flames. Remember to breathe so that the flame and you don’t die out from a lack of oxygen. Thus concludes Alwin's recipe for creating Fire Mana. Now sit back and relax as Alwin stares at a bucket of mana until something happens.

Was it boring? Absolutely. Did he have something to do while waiting? Definitely. Alwin instructed his mental hands to engage in a perilous, death-defying battle against each other. It was 'Rock, Paper, Scissors!'

The battle was thrilling, both hands tossing out the classic gestures like balls of lightning crashing down on a field. The battle was heating up so much that words couldn't even describe the intensity of this moment. Which hand would emerge victorious? Which hand would triumph and come out on top?

The answer was Fire.

Splashes of flaming mana bubbled out of the bucket, splattering onto the mental hands. Both hands were immediately engulfed by the fire. They floated around in sheer panic. This was absolutely not what they signed up for.

When did the mana catch fire? Dammit, he was too busy watching the battle and now his hands were paying the price. Good thing FireFighter Alwin was here to save the day.

He commanded the mental hands to 'stop', 'drop', and 'roll'. The pair of hands stopped in their tracks and plunged into the depths of his mana pool. They rolled around in a frenzy, generating bubbles as they frolicked within the depths of Alwin's watery domain. Soon, the two hands emerged out of the mana pool, the flames completely extinguished.

Well, that was fun to watch. Time to see if he was successful in making Fire Element Mana. Alwin floated his consciousness towards the bucket of flames, the heat generated by the fire caused distortions in the surrounding space. It looked just about right, but just because it looked right doesn't mean that it was. Good thing he had his handy dandy remote control to solve all of his problems.

Viewing the status of the flaming mana bucket gave Alwin just the info he was looking for.

Mana

Fire: 100%

He had done it! Now, he had a bucket full of Fire Mana. That was definitely easy to do, but so much more complicated than just spawning a lightbulb to convert the surrounding mana into Light Mana or just covering a bucket of mana with a cardboard box. Was Lapis lying when she said that creating Fire Mana was a lot simpler than Light Mana? Maybe Alwin was some kind of super genius! Yup, that must be it. Alwin was a genius slime!

Finally, came a question that only a genius slime such as himself could answer. Now what?