While the little Ice Spies crept through the sect, scouting out an escape route for them, Niwla was going to focus on becoming stronger. Avoiding enemies, especially Gary Stew, was the ideal situation—that was the whole point of sending out scouts. But Niwla had an inkling of a feeling that a skirmish between him and Gary Stew was inevitable. That man would literally sniff him out.

Gary Stew had grown stronger since their previous encounter during the mid-term exams. Sure, they had gotten stronger as well, but instincts told him it wasn't enough. That's where Niwla's plan to get stronger came in. There wasn't much time to create a brand new combat skill and become proficient enough for it to be battlefield-ready. Instead, he was searching for a surge of temporary strength.

The chance encounter with Lapis at RISS had sparked an idea in his mind. Never had he felt more grateful for being forced into one of Lapis' experiments.

It was a simple method to ensure that his attacks packed more punch. A skill created using Mana could only do so much damage, but a skill made with Essence? Its effects would be multiplied considerably.

From now till the scouts accomplished their mission, Niwla would spend all of his effort refining Essence.

Inside his Core, Niwla sought out Winal. He sat on his Throne of Hands, monitoring the scouts' activities. With every passing second, more of the blank map, displayed on the absolute unit of a screen, was being filled up with various colors based on what type of terrain and potential threats existed in that location. For example, brown meant earth, green meant natural terrain, blue meant bodies of water, grey meant structures, and red meant heavy with enemy movement, etc.

"Winal, I have an idea on how we can get stronger, and I need your help," Niwla said.

Alwin's head suddenly popped up from behind the massive display unit. "What about me?"

"You can help by sitting there and staying out of the way."

"Got it, mom." Alwin saluted with his Mental Hands.

Niwla just sighed and shook his head.

"Anyway. Winal, I need your help. Do you think you can set up a mass production Essence assembly line? Once we've filled in our Essence meter, we'll start making skills using Essence instead of Mana."

"Ohh, I get it. That's so smart," Alwin said. "I'll help make Essence too!"

"If you insist. Just don't mess with the mass production pipeline and Winal."

"You got it!" Alwin shouted as he rushed off into the middle of the Core.

"Sorry to burden you with all of this, Winal. Let me know how I can help."

"That is okay. I'll set up and handle the production of both Ice Essence and Fire Essence. You keep a lookout in the real world in case anything happens. Just a warning that production speed will be limited by our Mana Capacity. As you can see here, the Ice Spies have put a dent in our Mana, and we're using more than we can replenish."

Niwla looked toward the Mana Pool. Sure enough, it was emptier than normal. They were already halfway down on Mana, and the levels were gradually decreasing.

"Okay. Just don't go overboard and make sure Alwin doesn't do something that'll make us fall into Mana Exhaustion."

All of the Mental Hands gave a thumbs up.

Niwla exited the Core and opened his eyes. What he found was another pair of eyes staring back at him.

"Peekaboo," Gary Stew whispered.

Niwla flinched, instantly retreating to the farthest corner of his cage. What was that man doing here again?

"Still not ready to open up to me?" Gary Stew asked. "That's alright. I was about to trauma dump on you again, but seeing how you're so exhausted from being locked up in a cage, I've decided to let you rest up a bit before my therapy session. See, aren't I such a nice guy?"

"No comment."

"That's slightly better than just no." Gary Stew shrugged. "I'll take it."

With a smirk, he turned toward the door. "I'll be seeing you around. And don't worry." He glanced over his shoulder and winked. "I've got my eye on you."

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Niwla's heart fluttered. Did he know about the Ice Spies? Or was his choice of words merely a coincidence? It had to be a coincidence. That was a common phrase after all, right? Still… why did Alwin have to make the Ice Spies eyeball-shaped?

Whatever. It already happened, and dwelling on the past wouldn't solve anything. Right now, all Niwla had to do was sit tight and wait for Winal to finish filling his Essence Meter, then they could escape with the highest possible success rate.

Ice Essence absorbed.

Ice Essence absorbed.

Fire Essence absorbed.

Those notifications were good. It looked like Winal had managed to begin Essence production. As long as they managed their Mana levels, they wouldn't fall into Mana Exhaustion.

Cor, what'd he kill for some Mana Pills right about now. He'd kill Gary Stew for even half a pill.

Now, he'd just keep a lookout just in case Gary Stew or some other no-good human decided to pay him another surprise visit.

It was quiet. Almost peaceful, other than the fact that he was a caged bird. The sound of notifications popping up was calming, like a lullaby. Ice Spies would occasionally roll through the gap under the door to replenish their Mana supplies, then roll back out to distribute the energy.

All was going according to plan until Niwla received an unusual notification.

Dark Essence absorbed.

Dark Essence? How?

Niwla entered the Core to investigate the situation. The plan was for Ice and Fire Essence, not Dark Essence. What was Winal doing? And since when did he learn how to make Dark Essence?

Realisation hit him hard like Uchronia's disappointment. He was assigning blame to the wrong person. This Dark Essence had Alwin's name all over it.

Niwla traversed through the factory, past the conveyor belts, and the ginormous freezer that towered over the regular freezer. Winal must've set that up for the Ice Essence production.

Further down, he moved past blazing infernos, their flames licking high into the air. Fire Essence production most likely..

Finally, he arrived at what must've been Alwin's attempt at creating Dark Essence.

His method?

Boxes. A lot of cardboard boxes. A bizarre landscape of cardboard boxes stretched before him. Stacks, towers, and walls of them were scattered across the area.

Perched on top of the largest box was none other than the menace himself, Alwin.

"What are you doing, Alwin?" Niwla shouted.

"I'm making Essence just like you told me to," Alwin said.

"I meant Ice Essence or Fire Essence. Not waste precious Mana on refining a new type of Essence."

"Oh yeah? If Mana is so precious, then why is it all around us? Check and mate."

"You know what I mean. Now stop messing around and help to either refine Ice or Fire Essence."

"But why, though?" Alwin pouted.

"Because we need to fill up my Evolution meter with Ice Essence and Winal's one with Fire Essence. Then we can use skills created using Essence for increased damage. You said you already understood this, so why are you making things harder for us?"

Alwin's pout turned into a frown. He sniffled at the mean person, his eyes beginning to water.

'I just wanted to fit in with you and Winal. You get Ice, and Winal gets Fire. Shouldn't I get Light and Dark? But right now I have nothing."

Niwla let out a long, deep sigh. Perhaps he had been a bit too harsh on Alwin.

"Look, I'm not saying you can't. I'm just saying, now's not the time. After all of this is over, I'll even help you out. Okay?"

"Really?" Alwin's eyes lit up with hope.

"Yes. No,w can you please go help Winal?"

"Okay! But only after you listen to my explanation about how I made Dark Essence!"

"Just be quick, please."

"I made Dark Mana by covering Mana in darkness. Then I made Dark Essence by covering it with even more darkness. And that's it."

"So you put a cardboard box over a cardboard box over a cardboard box?"

"Yup, pretty smart, right? There's still a little extra secret sauce to make everything go faster, but you're going to have to figure that out yourself."

Alwin immediately ran off toward Winal's blazing infernos, leaving Niwla alone with the chaos of cardboard boxes.

That slime's ability to manipulate Mana made him jealous. Cardboard boxes to create Dark Mana. Only Alwin could come up with a method like that.

Niwla began to inspect Alwin's work, hoping to glean some sort of secret behind his unusual Mana shaping prowess. Moving amongst the cardboard boxes, all he could discern was that they seemed to be arranged to form the letter 'S'. That seemed like an Alwin thing to do. Unfortunately, it was pretty useless information for him.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Niwla exited the Core and continued to keep a lookout.

Eventually, he received a message from Winal.

"The Ice Spies have mapped out most of the Crimson Gold Sect. An escape route has been calculated."

Okay, that was good. Now that the Ice Spies had accomplished their goal, he dismissed them. He could sense that his Mana Pool was slowly filling up again, now that he didn't have to keep all of those Ice Spies active.

Not long after, he received a notification that caused him to smile.

Evolution Meter maxed out. Unable to absorb any more Essence.

Following that, Alwin chimed in. "We're full up on Essence, bossman. Winal's already refactored the production line to take in Essence instead of Mana. Let's blow this popsicle stand!"

That was even better news.

Niwla sent a message to both Alwin and Winal.

"Are you guys ready? Freedom here we come!"

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