Alwin, in a surprising turn of events, was the most eager to start improving their Ice Arrow. He was the first one into the Core. Winal didn't even need to carry him like a baby this time. The Cold Turkey entered last, thinking about the different ways to improve the Ice Arrow. But all that he could come up with was how to reduce the Mana required to craft a single Ice Arrow.

The three of them stood right next to the giant freezer unit where all of the Ice Magic happened. Only Winal, through his link with the Mental Hands, knew the ins and outs of the black box—or white box, as Alwin would call it.

Alwin got out a pair of Mental Hands. They rubbed their palms together as he let out a devilish cackle that made the dark side of his Yin-Yang Slime form glisten.

Suspicious, Niwla asked, "Alwin, what are you planning?'

"Ways to improve the Ice Arrow."

"And why do you want to do that? Why do you suddenly want to do work? What are you planning, Alwin?"

"Like I said, ways to improve the Ice Arrow. And as for why? Because I'm the attacker of the squad. Imagine how cool we'll be when we show up with flashy new Ice Arrow skills once the break is over."

"So you're not planning on sabotaging us?"

"When have I ever done that?"

"All the time. But it's good that you're helping us. Just try not to cause any problems. And please let us know how you're planning to improve the Ice Arrow first, before doing it. When I say let us know, I mean tell it to us, in plain English. Not in some weird convoluted way."

"Aw, man. There goes my plan of using sound effects to show off the new and improved Ice Arrow."

"Plain English," Niwla sighed before turning to Winal. "Do you have any ideas on how to improve the Ice Arrow?"

"All of my ideas have already been implemented." Winal pointed at the huge super freezer with four of his ant legs. "I've managed to streamline the Ice Mana and Ice Arrow creation process using whatever knowledge I've gleaned from the theory books we read earlier. I'm afraid I don't have any other ideas. I'm sorry for being so useless."

"You're not useless, Winal. The only reason we were able to tame the new Ice Mana creation process was because of you. Without you, the whole Core would've frozen over."

Winal smiled, the flames and sparks on his mandible growing warmer.

Niwla continued. "But as for ideas, I only have one. It's an improvement to the Ice Arrow, sure, but not the huge increase in damage that I think Lapis is expecting from us."

"What's the idea? And please let me know how I can help," Winal signed. He raised a single leg up. It trembled as he reached forward before placing it on Niwla's shoulder.

"Thanks," Niwla said. "The idea is to improve the Mana efficiency of an Ice Arrow."

Niwla got out one of the Ice Arrow molds. An indentation of an icicle was on it. He started to modify it, filling in the center of the Icicle indentation until only the outer edges remained. What used to be a solid imprint of an icicle was now just its outline.

"Instead of filling in the whole thing, we leave the center of the Ice Arrow hollow. I'm not sure how that will affect the strength of the Ice Arrow, but it will certainly save some Mana per cast."

"We can test out how it holds up compared to a regular Ice Arrow," Winal signed.

A gust of freezing wind rustled his feathers and caused Winal's fire and electricity to sputter. A pair of Mental Hands, gowned in a set of thick woolly gloves, appeared from the huge super freezer box. They grabbed the mold and waved goodbye before heading back inside. When the door was sealed shut once again, the wind died down, leaving Winal and Niwla waiting for the results.

Inside, Niwla could hear the sounds of bones creaking and cracking as the Mental Hands did things only Winal knew. This was the same guy who made those grotesque Mental Hand Conveyor Belt. Niwla didn't want to know what was happening inside the huge freezer box.

There was a thud as something plopped down near the base of the freezer box. The whir of Conveyor Belts could be heard on the other side of the insulated conveyor belt line. That must've been the new and hopefully improved Ice Arrow, making its way toward the edge of the Core.

It was loaded into the cannons and fired.

A strange tingling sensation tickled Niwla's throat as he was forced to shout Ice Arrow.

In the real world, the icicle materialized in front of them. It zoomed off, crashing into the Stone Training Dummy. Instead of breaking into thousands of tiny little ice shards, it splintered into a hundred.

As far as he could tell, the new Mana-efficient Ice Arrow was as strong as its predecessor—which wasn't a lot considering the lack of damage it did to the Stone Training Dummy.

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Still, an improvement was an improvement. Less Mana for roughly the same amount of damage was great in his eyes. Sadly, not Lapis, as she didn't even comment about it.

Niwla sighed. Hopefully, Alwin actually had a good idea.

He returned to the Core to consult the slime head. Alwin stood in front of a Mental White Board. Mental Hands were drawing on it. The moment they spotted Niwla approaching, they chucked the Mental Markers into oblivion before covering the whiteboard in Mental Sheets.

Niwla chose to ignore it. No point feeding into Alwin. But still, he was desperate for ideas, and Alwin always tended to deliver whether he liked it or not.

"So, Alwin. What's your proposed solution?"

"Are you ready for the big reveal?" Alwin asked.

"Yes, that's why I'm here."

"Just making sure. Feast your eyes on this."

The Mental Hands pulled down on the sheet, revealing the whiteboard to Niwla. On it was a crude drawing of an Ice Arrow, followed by a regular arrow pointing to an even larger Ice Arrow.

"Your solution is a bigger Ice Arrow?"

"Yeah!"

"I mean… I guess? Though I expected something more from you."

"You mean like this?" Alwin nodded at the Mental Hands. They grabbed the top of the whiteboard and spun it. When it came to a stop, Niwla got a view of the other side of the whiteboard.

On the left was a picture of a regular Ice Arrow, followed by a whirling regular arrow. After multiple loops, it pointed to an Ice Arrow with spin lines around it.

"Your other idea is to make it spin?"

"Yeah! Pretty amazing, right?"

"Pretty basic in my opinion."

"And what's your grand idea?" Alwin asked, the Mental Hands poking Niwla in the side.

"I… It's something that you wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you. But since I'm in such a good mood after a successful trial of my new and improved Ice Arrow, we'll take your ideas out for a spin."

"Sure," Alwin said, drawing out the word as long as possible. "I'm looking forward to seeing that idea of yours."

The slime hopped, skipped, and rolled away to the huge super freezer where Winal was working on changing all of the molds to the new one that Niwla had designed.

"Winal! Winal! Winal!" Alwin shouted.

He lunged at Winal, who caught him with two of his legs. Not even the flaming and electrifying glare on his eyebrows was able to deter the ever enthusiastic Alwin. The slime leaned in close, whispering to Winal.

As he listened to Alwin's request, he nodded, the fire and sparks slowly dimming back to their normal levels. Once Alwin was done, he placed him down, giving the slime a pat on the head for his outstanding idea.

The muffled sounds of bones cracking, creaking, and croaking could be heard from within the huge super freezer.

"What's going on?" Niwla asked, finally catching up.

"Winal is working on the changes to the Ice Arrow I talked about."

"The large one and the spinning one?"

"Yup!"

Niwla turned to Winal. "Do you need me for help with the moulds?"

The ant shook his head. Mental Hands overhead signed for him.

"The spinning Ice Arrow doesn't require any modification to the molds, only the delivery system. I'm currently setting up a separate conveyor line to a special cannon that will incorporate a spin when the Ice Arrow is launched.

"And what about the large one? Surely, you need my help with that."

Winal shook his head again.

"After watching you modify the mold and from what I've learnt adjusting the Mental Hands, I think I know what to do. Watch."

Multiple Mental Hands appeared overhead. Their palms and fingers started to grow wider. Skin and bones being stretched beyond normal proportions. The multitude of hands joined together, forming a large, thick rectangle. From there, the hands in the center of the rectangle started to shrink. Their bones were being rearranged again. Some flattened while others gained smooth curves, until the indent of a large icicle was formed.

"That's…" Niwla didn't know what to say.

Alwin spoke more freely. He puffed out his cheeks, saying, "I want to throw up."

Winal sighed. A sad frown on his mandibles, along with dim flame and sparks, revealed his emotions.

No. Niwla had to think fast before Winal's confidence was shattered. He was the most important one in the spellcrafting step after all.

"Just ignore him," Niwla said. "Alwin doesn't understand your brilliance."

"But… even you were grossed out. I knew I shouldn't have done that. I'm a failure."

"No, you're not. I was just speechless by that amazing idea of yours. Who knew you could use Mental Hands in such a way? Only someone like you could."

"You mean it?" Winal asked.

Deep down, Niwla did mean it. Though he purposely left out the part about how gross and mortifying the scene was.

"I do."

Winal smiled.

The door to the huge super freezer opened, sending another blast of chilled air their way as the Mental Hand mold sputtered and flew its way into the freezer.

"Don't they need gloves or something?" Alwin asked.

Winal shook his head. "Only if they required dexterous use of their fingers. Plus, the gloves will interfere with the molding process."

"Kinda sounds like torture." Alwin looked to the Mental Hands signing for Winal. "Are you guys being held against your will?"

The hands looked at each other, then Winal, before wagging their fingers at Alwin.

"Well, if you ever want to escape a life of slavery, you know who to find."

"Just ignore him," Niwla said. "When can we test out the new Ice Arrows?"

The sounds of the Mental Hand Conveyor Belt whirring echoed out behind them. Something was moving within the insulated walls. Niwla followed the trail of sound, noting how the belt split off at a certain point. Both conveyor belts were on, leading to two separate cannons. One with a corkscrew motif and the other a plain old cannon.

A satisfying thunk could be heard as both cannons were loaded.

"Now," Winal signed.

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