"Yes, slime boy apprentice student of mine. I just said that. Do you have ears?" replied Lapis.

"Maybe? I don't know."

"Anyways, where were we? Right, I mentioned that you could use this on other skills. It's pretty fun, you can come up with some wacky combinations. But, when you mix skills together it's not as strong as when you use them alone. Still fun, though."

"Please teach me the way, sensei."

"Giving me another title? I like it. As your reward, little one, let me give you another demonstration of the wondrous 'Mix' skill."

Lapis summoned out a pair of Spirit Hands—without yelling out the skill name, mind you. Alwin was jealous about her silent casting, he should really work on it. One day. Some day. Eventually.

She directed them to curl their fingers into a fist. "In one hand we have... another Spirit Hand." One of the hands opened up, revealing another Spirit Hand, which gave Alwin a little wave. "And in the other hand, we have... a Spirit Blast." The other hand opened up to reveal a glowing blue orb, ready to blast away anything in its path.

"Now mix it all together." The Spirit Hand and Spirit Blast began to float up in the air. Like the ingredients, they began to orbit about each other. It was slow at first, then as they began to spiral closer and closer together, their pace quickened. Faster and faster they circled till they reached critical mass, colliding with each other. The blue light mixed, blended, and molded together. Seconds later, the two separate entities combined together, becoming one.

Floating there, midair, was a ball of bright blue mana, perfectly spherical except for five finger-like protrusions jutting out of its surface. The Spirit Blast had essentially became the palm of the Spirit Hand—just a really fat palm. As it turned around to wave at Alwin, its movements were sluggish, the weight of its huge ball was too much for it to move effectively.

"Tada! It's stronger than a Spirit Hand, but weaker than a Spirit Blast."

"Woah! That's so cool. With a skill like that I will be invincible!" yelled Alwin.

"If you're creative enough, sure. This method isn't a substitute for learning the actual spells or skills or however, you want to call it. Just think of it as training wheels. After all, magic is built upon each other like blocks on top of bricks and foundations and floors and ceilings. 'Mix' kind of just helps you prototype ideas. Or you can be lazy and get a book to teach you what to do."

"But, I'm lazy," complained Alwin.

"Me too. That's why I use books," laughed Lapis. "But if you suck at finding things at the library, like me, you could always play a little mix and match and figure things out yourself."

"Yes, sensei. Now will you teach me the skill or spell or however you want to call it."

"Wow, you're picking up on my mannerisms as well. Good, slime boy. I was planning to give you an explanation about how the skill works like I normally do, but plans change. You need to learn how to figure things out on your own. Therefore, good luck. I'll be back after this cake is done baking," said Lapis.

His head was still processing everything Lapis had just said. Was she really not going to give him an explanation? Just a short demonstration? She was serious, wasn't she? When Alwin opened his mouth to ask, his eyes caught up to his brain, and he realized that he was alone.

The drones had dismantled the temporary kitchen setup, carrying everything atop their heads as they left the room. Lapis followed behind them, instructing them to set the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Alwin was left all alone in the empty white room with nothing but his own confusion and the faint scent of baking cake.

Well, great. Now how was he supposed to figure out that super special mega awesome skill? What were the mechanics of it? How did it work? More importantly, how long would it take for Lapis' cake to finish baking? The faster the cake baked, the faster she would come back. Then Alwin could hound her for answers till she had no choice but to give in.

For now, he'd humor his grand great master sensei and try to puzzle out how this skill worked. When Lapis did it, she lifted whatever she was about to combine, made them swirl about till they crashed into each other, then boom! They got mixed. Speaking of boom, he could start off his experiment with a Spirit Bomb. Then again the consequences might outweigh any benefits. Should he or should he not?

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

In cases such as this, you should flip a coin. Alas, Alwin was broke, the closest thing he could flip was himself. Heads for bombs, tails for anything else. With the help of his Spirit Hands, they flipped him. The world went upside down, then right side up, then upside down again. Everything around him was revolving as he spun in the air, and then a splat indicated that it was all over. Judging by how everything was upside down, he concluded that he had landed on his head. No bomb for him. Sad.

If anyone was confused, you see, when you flip a coin you judge the exposed side, not the one closest to the ground. Therefore, he had actually landed on tails. Which meant no bombs, unfortunately.

Good thing, there was a pair of Spirit Hands floating about, ready to be enlisted for his experiments. Now spin hands, spin! Spin and crash into each other with such force that your very beings merged into one. Together forever! Married until death do you part.

And spin they did. The Spirit Hands floated up and whirled around each other. Around and around and around and around and around they flew. Slowly, their circling speed picked up. Their loops grew tighter, faster, spiraling closer and closer as if drawn together by an invisible force—hopefully, it was love.

The tension built with every turn, and then finally, their paths intersected. They collided with each other, their momentums canceling each other out, and their journey came to an end. A puff of magical particles filled the air. Alwin held his breath as the tiny specs fell towards the ground. Did he do it? Did he make it on his first try?

Behind the veil of magical particles was a big fat poof of nothing. The answer was that he did not do it on his first try. Investigations into the reasons for his failure revealed that the hands had essentially hit the life force out of each other. Bummer, death by sibling. What a horrible way to go.

Moving on, time to try again. This time, he wouldn't mess it up. Nope, not gonna fail at all. The Spirit Hands materialized again. Just like last time they began to orbit around each other, spinning faster, moving closer, before crashing into each other, disintegrating into particles. You know, maybe he should’ve made some changes instead of doing the same thing again and hoping for a miracle.

That's where the Spirit Blast came in. Alwin shot two out of his Core, watching as they orbited about each other before blasting into each other. Some magical particles later, and it seemed that this attempt didn't go much better either. There was only one solution to his predicament: try everything and hope it works out.

Spirit Scatter Blasts crashing into each other, meant he had to duck out of the way of any stray shots zipping through the air. Spirit Burst Blasts smashing into each other, made Alwin run away lest he wanted to be drenched in a shower of raw mana—which was not as pleasant as it sounds. Alwin even went so far as to get his Spirit Feet to run into each other. Needless to say, nothing happened either. All of his attempts were a bust.

Good thing he still had a few tricks up his sleeve. What were those tricks you may ask? Easy. The goal was to mix and match, but he wasn't exactly mixing anything by getting two of the same exact skills to clobber each other to bits. So that meant he needed to use two different types of skills. Probably. Honestly, Alwin didn't know, he was just making this up as he went. So, hopefully, it would work. Hopefully.

Spirit Blasts crashing into Spirit Scatter Blasts, Spirit Burst Blasts crashing into Spirit Feet, and so on and so forth. There were about ten different combinations, of which Alwin tried all and you'll just have to trust him on it. It would be pretty boring to listen about how the Spirit Blast crashed into the Spirit Hand, and all that happened was that the surviving Spirit Hand mourned the loss of its sibling. The same went for the Spirit Feet.

After way too many Spirit appendage casualties, Alwin decided to call it quits. It wasn't worth the sacrifice. His experiments were too inhumane—inmonstermane? Sending so many young Spirit limbs to their deaths, just for science. Alwin couldn't bear it any longer. His heart ached, but not as much as his brain. Seriously, why was this so hard? Then again, if it were easy, everyone would be using this super mega duper awesome insert-adjectives-here skill.

While he took a break to regroup and lick his wounds, Alwin let his eyes wander across the room. Up and down, around and around, then eventually inside of him. Oh right, he was a Yin-Yang Slime, but he had forgotten to trial his Yin-Yang Blast. No time like the present as they say, but doing it in the past would have definitely helped, then again it would have meant that more Spirit limbs would have died a cruel death. Maybe it was better this way.

Alwin launched two Yin-Yang Blasts, watching the four orbs orbit around each other before eventually coalescing into one. The result was a large explosion that formed a huge Yin-Yang symbol. Such a shockwave would have rattled his bone, but good thing he was a slime, so he didn't have bones.

What knowledge could he glean from this? His Yin-Yang Blast was the strongest in his arsenal, that was all he could tell. No surprise there, though. That wasn't helpful at all. Or was it?

What was the cause of the explosion? It was because the two different elemental orbs crashed into each other, their energies reacting with each other which resulted in such a devastating explosion, and a remarkable piece of art. Yes, maybe that was the key. Rather than crashing his skills together hoping for something to happen, he should be letting their energies interact and combine together—not clash. Or mix together in this instance.