Did Niwla already forget that Dark told them to stay clear of any more Tribulations? What if they face White again? That White Tiger of theirs would surely kill them.

"No, Alwin. I did not forget about that," Niwla thought.

"Then why are we doing this?" Mind Alwin thought.

"Because it's worth the risk."

Mind Alwin leaned in close to Mind Winal and whispered, "These must be the end times. Since when am I the rational one and Niwla is the one making dumb, stupid, unnecessary decisions? Back me up on this."

"I trust you, Alwin. But I also trust Niwla. I don't know what to do," he signed.

"I can hear both of you, you know? We all literally share the same head."

"So, you must be hearing how bad an idea this is," Mind Alwin thought.

"Good or bad, it doesn't matter. There are so many questions, and we are the answers."

"Sure, but what's the point of answering only one question now, when we can answer many of them later?"

"Meaning?"

"If we do this, we are going to die just to get one measly answer. But if we wait a bit, we can not die and answer many more questions."

"Oh, Alwin, the sweet, foolish part of us. I understand your concerns. However, they're not necessary. You see, the problem all started when we triggered the Devolution to go from a Tier 2 monster down to a Tier 1. But since we're progressing normally, there wouldn't be an anomaly, so there's nothing to be worried about."

"I guess that makes sense. But, I still think we should give it some time before we start another Tribulation."

"The time taken to refine enough Essence to trigger another Tribulation should be plenty. Plus, if Lapis' theory is correct, think about how much stronger your Yin-Yang Blast will become."

"Okay, I've thought about it. And?"

"That training dummy might not be able to withstand your new strength."

Mind Alwin leaped into the air and did three backflips. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get refining!"

Inside the Core, Alwin got to work. He was the linchpin to this whole operation, whether he liked it or not. Okay, he did like the part where only he had the awesomeness to refine Light and Dark Essence. What he didn't like was the part where he had to do all of the work.

Once again, he was suffering from success.

The Light Essence was easily taken care of by the artificial lightbulb sun at the top of the Core and Winal's glassware. However, Dark Essence required a constant supply of Mental Cardboard Boxes of varying sizes. Only the Mental Cardboard Boxes he created could convert Mana into Dark Mana and then further into Dark Essence.

It was unfortunate that they were single-use. The Mental Hands had to ferry the buckets of refined Dark Essence with the boxes still shading them. Once they dumped bucket and all, everything vanished beyond the threshold of the Core. It was the only way lest the Dark Essence revert back into Dark Mana, or worse, regular Mana. That also meant Alwin had no choice but to craft another set of Mental Cardboard Boxes… again.

Meanwhile, Niwla had the easiest task. While Alwin and Winal were hard at work refining Essence, he simply sat back, monitoring the percentage of Essence being absorbed by the Core.

Unsurprisingly, Light Essence was the first to hit that fifty-percent threshold.

"Stop!" Niwla shouted.

All of Winal's glass Mental Hands froze mid-air. A second later, they vanished as he dismissed them, along with the fully-glass Mental Magnifying Glasses and the glass Mental Buckets they carried. Light Mana and newly refined Light Essence splashed onto the ground, already dissolving back into regular Mana.

Alwin continued toiling away, conjuring up yet another Mental Cardboard Box. He stared at Niwla, waiting to hear those coveted words.

C'mon, you lousy, lazy turkey. Say it! Say the magic word!

"Almost there, Alwin," he said.

Those weren't the words! Darn you, Niwla.

Next time you do all of the heavy lifting while he got to sit back and relax.

After ten more sets of Mental Cardboard Boxes, he got his wish.

"Stop!"

All of the Mental Cardboard Boxes disappeared, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, he could rest. His jiggly body melted down into a lumpy puddle, a blissful smile on his face.

"No time to rest, Alwin," Niwla said. "We still have the Tribulation to get through. Unless, of course, you willingly surrender control of the Dark Slime form to me."

He shot back up, springing into the air, shouting, "Never!"

Alwin exited the Core, blitzing to the control seat. He crashed into it, and the seat wobbled, giving everyone a minor headache.

Opening his eyes, he found that Lapis had prepared some gifts to help with the Tribulation. First, a red and blue vial filled with Healing and Mana Pills—the same set that he didn't grab during the Light Devolution. Beside it, a completely black belt made out of metal and another glowing belt that was so soft, he was certain that it was made out of clouds. And lastly, two pills that reminded him of his Yin-Yang Blast, except smaller. One was white and the other black. Light and Dark Resistance Pills, no doubt.

Buzzing appeared overhead as Lapis' voice sounded out all around him.

"Heya, slime boy. I see you're already done with the refining Essence. Did you make sure it's an even fifty-fifty split?"

"I did not."

"What?" Her voice squealed, sharp with speaker feedback. "The whole point of this experiment was to test how an even split in Essence would affect the Essence purity of your Evolution."

"I know," Alwin said. "I didn't keep track of the split. The other me did."

"Good job, turkey boy," Lapis said. "At least I'm assuming it was turkey boy who did it."

"It was."

"Okay, back on topic." There was a brief pause before she continued. "That was really unusual of me, I'm sorry."

"You are forgiven."

"Anyway, I've managed to get some more gear for you to use. It's not as good as the tiara—"

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Crown!" Alwin blurted.

"Right, crown. But it should be more than enough since it's literally the lowest-tier Tribulation. Just make sure to actually put it on this time."

Normally, Alwin would've refused. It was a stain on his pride to use Resistance Pills as well as equipment. But after what had happened last time.

Spirit Hands materialized in front of him. Each hand picked up a marble-sized pill between their fingers, before flicking them towards Alwin. He opened up his mouth and rolled to the left. The Small Light Resistance Pill flew in, hitting the back of his throat. He coughed. Then, he rolled to the right, mouth still wide open. He had miscalculated. The Small Dark Resistance Pill squished into the top of his lip. It rolled down, nearly missing his mouth, but he stuck his tongue out just in time. Catching it, he retracted the half black, half white muscle and swallowed.

Clapping played over the speakers, and Lapis' voice came through.

"Very impressive, but very unnecessary."

It was very impressive. Alwin's ears must've been clogged because he didn't quite catch that last part.

The Spirit Hands grabbed the dark, metallic belt and the other, glowing and impossibly soft one. They placed it on Alwin in an unconventional manner. Instead of around the waist like a normal person, they were stretched diagonally across his body, from his round, squishy shoulders down and over his even rounder, squishier chest. A black and white 'X' had been formed, with the two belts meeting in the middle of his chest.

Now that he was properly equipped, he brought out his Status Screen.

Begin Tribulation?

[Yes] [No]

'Yes'.

A flash of light. A blanket of darkness. They poured out of the System Screen, conflicting with each other, colliding in midair. Both elements pushed back against each other, but there was a stalemate. Until they stopped fighting and the two forces settled, dividing the room in half. One side blazed with light, the other drowned in darkness.

Alwin looked around, getting ready for the White Tiger to pounce on him or the Black Turtle to sit on him. He couldn't decide which was worse. Claws or being turned into a pancake. So, he decided that both were equally bad.

Now, standing right in the middle of the room, half of his body in the light side, the other in the dark side, he waited. Waiting to dodge out of the way when the elemental beast slipped across the boundary, where their camouflage would falter.

Still staring. Still waiting. He didn't blink.

Something grasped his side.

Alwin shrieked. He was so focused on looking in front, he forgot to look behind. He spun around, prepping a Yin-Yang Blast when he saw what, or, more specifically, who had touched him.

It was Dark, standing in the light side of the room.

And standing in the dark side of the room was Light.

Alwin cancelled the Yin-Yang Blast and instead ordered his Spirit Hands to wave a sheepish hello.

"Alwin, what are you doing here?" Dark asked. "I told you to stay away from Tribulations for a bit while we try and figure out what's going on."

"Hey, there, Dark. It's already been a while. So, have you figured out the issue? Everything seems okay to me. I don't see any problems."

"Maybe, I should've been more specific," Dark sighed. "A week in your time is hardly called a while."

"A week!" Alwin shouted. "What do you mean by a week?"

"It's been a week since I last saw you. There's nothing more than that."

One week! One week had passed since the Light Devolution. One entire week spent refining Light and Dark Essence, and he hadn't even realized that time was slipping by.

This was horrible! A situation of the highest magnitude.

His vacation was being burned on work instead of resting!

Okay, that settled it. He had to finish this Tribulation lickety-split, and after this, he'd go lickety some banana split.

Dark continued, completely ignoring the mental breakdown that Alwin was going through. "And while it's true that you are undergoing a Tribulation from a Tier 1 monster to a Tier 2 monster, there is still another problem."

"What is it?"

"It's—"

Light suddenly barged into the conversation. "I told you we should've gotten rid of him. An anomaly only begets more anomalies."

"So, it's an anomaly to go from a Tier 1 monster to a Tier 2 monster? I think maybe your brain's got some anomalies."

"Don't test my patience, child," Light said, her entire body roaring with brightness.

"It's not that, Alwin. It's the fact that this is your fourth time doing this exact level of Tribulation."

"And that's a problem, how? If someone fails a Tribulation, they're not allowed to redo it?"

"It's not that, Alwin. It's the fact that you've already succeeded multiple times and yet are still redoing them. While it's not as egregious as Tier 2 to Tier 1 Tribulation, it's still an anomaly. And as Tribulation Beings, we are required to investigate such anomalies."

"So, it only took you like seven Tribulations for you to realize something was wrong?"

"There's a reason a void is synonymous with darkness," Light said.

"In English?"

"Dark's head is empty."

"Well, what about Fire or Ice? They heard about me through Dark and weren't surprised to see me go through a Tier 1 to Tier 2 Tribulation."

"More slackers on the job," Light spat. "I will require a word with them."

Alwin turned to Dark and mouthed, 'Sorry. '

He felt bad about Dark's situation and came to a conclusion that he never thought he would reach.

"What if I told you why this is my fourth time doing a Tier 1 to Tier 2 Tribulation?"

"That would certainly help with the investigation," Light said.

"But Alwin." Dark leaned in close. "If the reason happens to be against Cor's Will, we will have to dispose of you."

He wasn't worried at all. Unless his Core Skill wasn't a Skill granted by Cor, which he doubted would be the case.

"It's all because of my Core Skill."

"Cor's Blessing!" Dark cheered. "I told you that was the reason, Light!"

"Whatever," Light said. "Make sure the nature of his Cor's Blessing is updated on his file so that these issues won't happen again."

"And what about the Tier 2 to Tier 1 Tribulation? Is it because of Cor's Blessing as well?"

Alwin felt bad for Dark, but he didn't feel that bad.

"No comment."

"If I find out that it is because of your blessing and that you are wasting our time in this pointless investigation, I will make you regret it."

He gulped. Okay, maybe he should tell Light that it was because of his Core Skill, too. But another part of him didn't want to do that. He was at an impasse.

Good thing he had a perfect solution to his predicament. The pair of Spirit Hands which had been playing a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors in the corner were issued orders. They played one final game, and the winner pumped its fist in the air while the loser sulked with a droop of its fingers.

The winning hand grabbed the losing hand, which flopped limp like a noodle before it was tossed high up into the air.

Alwin and Dark looked up, watching the hand spin in the air, while Light remained fixed on the Dark Slime. The hand plopped onto the ground palm up, and he had his answer.

"No comment, again."

Light's eyes shone brighter as it continued to glare at him, then with a slow blink, they dimmed. She turned away.

"Fine. Dark, we shall continue the investigations. And you better remember all of the anomalies that you've previously encountered because you are going to investigate each and every one of them."

"Yes, Light," Dark sighed.

"And what about me?"

"The Tribulation will continue as per normal. But since it's a fusion Tribulation, I'm sorry that I won't be able to show you the new Dark Tribulation I've come up with."

"So I need to fight both that White Tiger and Dark Turtle?"

Light snickered. "You? You think you're qualified to fight our Elemental Beasts?"

"I fought the White Tiger last time, didn't I?"

"As part of my investigation. It's not the same."

"I fought Fire's one. It was some Fire Ant."

"You think Fire's Elemental Beast is a puny Fire Ant? That's what Fire uses to feed the Element Beast!" Light laughed. "I can see why you've taken an interest in this monster, Dark."

"Don't mind, Light, Alwin," Dark said. "Normally, our Elemental Beasts are reserved for higher Tribulation levels."

"And at this level?"

"This is your fourth Tribulation, and you still don't know?" Light said. "Really?"

"Stuff coming out of System Screens?" Alwin sighed.

"Obviously."

Alwin sighed even louder.

"Let's go Dark, we've wasted enough time with this monster."

Light blinked out, leaving Dark alone with Alwin.

"Till next time, Alwin. And if you figure out why you trigger a Tier 2 to Tier 1 Tribulation, let me know."

Dark waved before fading away.

Now Alwin was alone.

Multiple System Screens popped into existence surrounding him. Their blue glow was dimmed against the bright white backdrop. In the other, it shone under the oppressive darkness.

Now, Alwin wasn't alone.

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