Niwla sat there, thinking, trying to come up with any other ways to improve the Ice Needles, or even Ice Arrows for that matter. Anything that could help him destroy that Stone Training Dummy in one fell swoop.

But between all of the muffled screams and what he could only assume were the Mental Hands having their bodies contorted and changed beyond normal proportions, it was difficult to think.

A blast of cold air told him that the time for thinking was over.

He turned around to find Winal and Alwin, with Winal carrying Alwin once again. The slime had stopped screaming. He looked defeated, drained, and exhausted. A layer of frost coated his body, with tiny icicles hanging off of him.

Winal, on the other hand—or other six legs as Alwin would put it—was perfectly fine. Though the flames on his body did seem weaker than normal. They no longer roared, flickering with less of the fierce burning brilliance that he usually carried. The electricity pulsing along his exoskeleton remained untouched by the frigid elements.

"Did you do it?" Niwla asked.

The Mental Walls that insulated the Mental Conveyor Belts started to shift once again. A hole opened up, and the conveyor line extended slightly, sticking out of the protrusion. Small gusts of wind blew down the line as the literally Mental Hand powered Conveyor Belts groaned to life. They continued to turn, bones creaking and cracking under the strain that they weren't designed for, until a single needle appeared.

Niwla moved in closer, beak grazing the conveyor belts, causing him to flinch back. Then he leaned in again, making sure to be more careful of his surroundings. A thin, blue line sat on the conveyor belt right in front of him.

It looked exactly the same as before.

Niwla looked up, asking, "What's changed? Did you fail?"

Winal shook his head.

"Look closer," Alwin slurred from high up in the air, tiny frost flakes flaking down to the ground as his mouth moved.

Niwla leaned in even closer this time. He cocked his head back and forth, hoping that it was just a trick of the light that no progress had been made. Then he saw it. More specifically, them.

Tiny black dots were embedded all over the Ice Needle. Were those… eyes?

"Yuppers," Alwin slurred again, as if he had been able to read the confusion on his face.

It was impressive, sure, but Niwla just couldn't wrap his head around it.

"Why multiple tiny eyes, instead of a single small eye?" he asked. "Wouldn't it be more efficient that way?"

"Oh, Niwla, Niwla, Niwla," Alwin slurred. "It's simple, really. I really thought you'd get it."

"Yes, I'm not as smart as you are, Alwin. Now, will you please explain?"

Yes, Niwla did accept the fact that he wasn't as smart as Alwin. That was because he was even smarter than the slime. Though there wasn't any doubt which way the slime would interpret that statement.

Alwin started to shake, or was he shivering? Either way, he continued to vibrate at tremendous speeds, transforming into a black and white blur. He sprang out of Winal's legs, bursting into the air. A torrent of frozen flakes and small, shattered icicles rained down on them.

Winal just stood there, watching the display, as the debris bounced harmlessly off his shell. Meanwhile, Niwla raised a wing to defend himself from the mini hail.

Alwin landed on the ground and rolled up to Niwla. He squeezed in between his wing and face, sighing, "That's the spirit, Niwla. It's good for you to finally accept your place amongst us."

"Don't make me ask again," the Cold Turkey said, glaring at Alwin.

"Fine. Technically, that is one eye. It's just been split into multiple tiny pieces."

"What? Why would you do that? That seems counterintuitive."

"But it's not. Think about it this way. If you want to look forward and backward, you need two eyes. Left and right? Another two eyes. Or maybe just one extra if you know how to angle them well. But that's a lot of extra eyes, and unless we put in extra ice—do you like my pun?—There's no way for all of it to fit inside that tiny Ice Needle. See, that's why bigger is better and better is bigger."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Niwla stroked his beak, feeling the squish of a slime under his wing as Alwin was still snuggling against him.

"So you managed to reduce an Ice Spy's form factor by literally splitting it up," Niwla said.

"Yup, though at a cost."

"What cost? Alwin, what did you do?"

"It's not me. It's the fact that you gave me so little space to work with."

"What did you do?" he repeated.

"They're a bit dumber than the regular Ice Spies. Once you set a target, they're locked onto it. At most, they can do a little course correction. But they're also pretty bad at that. It's not my fault this time. You try to fly a needle without any wings."

"That's…" Niwla paused, unsure whether to be mad or impressed that Alwin managed to preserve the core functionalities of his design despite all of the limitations. "Actually, good."

"It is?" Alwin asked. "I mean, of course it is."

"Can we take them out for a test run?" Niwla asked, turning to Winal.

The ant nodded.

The Ice Needle on the conveyor belt moved backwards into the line that it had split off from. The Mental Walls closed, and Niwla could hear the muffled churn of the biological conveyor belts moving. Far off near the edge of the Core, they were loaded into the cannons—the non-spinning kind.

"How do we set a target?" Niwla asked.

"You can only do it during the Ice Needle creation phase. Another thing that's not my fault. It'd be possible to do it after it was created, if it was bigger, but alas, your brain is too small," Alwin said, smirking at him.

Niwla ignored him, turning to Winal.

"Could you set it to the cracks on the Stone Training Dummy?"

"They already are."

Niwla smiled.

"You're the best, Winal."

Winal's flames grew warmer, a cozy, radiant warmth unlike the furious one reserved solely for Alwin.

"Thanks," he signed, blushing. Even the Mental Hands used to sign for him turned red.

The cannons were fired. A bundle of Ice Needles surging past his Core. Niwla felt a tingle in his throat as he was forced to shout, "Homing Ice Needles!"

A multitude of Ice Needles crystallized right in front of him. To the untrained eye, they looked like regular Ice Needles, but thanks to Alwin and Winal adding in the ability for the Ice Needles to see—as weird as it sounded. Now each needle was able to hone in on its target as well as a flying needle could. Probably not the best for a fast-moving target, but one step at a time, as they always say.

The Ice Needles soared through the air, making micro adjustments to their flight paths. Tiny black dots embedded within them, allowed for a three hundred and sixty degree view of the area around them. And it only counted as having one eye, somehow.

They struck the Stone Training Dummy. Majority of the needles pierced through the two large holes previously created by the Large Ice Arrow and Spiralling Ice Arrows. The rest dug into the stone along the fracture lines, biting into the weakened stone until the cracks spread further along its surface.

The Stone Training Dummy started to crumble. Piece by piece, it fell to the ground, separating into small chunks as the figure collapsed into rubble.

He had done it!

Lapis wouldn't be able to say anything against his accomplishment now. He waited for that annoying, yet surprisingly sweet sound of static filling the air.

"Good job, bird boy apprentice of mine. But can you do it in one shot?"

"I did that already, didn't I?"

"Nope. That was more like three shots. Now, have fun."

A second Stone Training Dummy came crashing down from the ceiling. It pulverized the chunks beneath it into dust. Niwla coughed, fanning away the pollutants with his wing.

He was annoyed, yet at the same time excited. How well would his Ice Needles fare against a brand-new Stone Training Dummy?

Multiple Homing Ice Needles shot out from his Core, condensing in the real world before sailing off towards the dummy. Unlike before, where the needles mostly concentrated on the two holes, they fanned out evenly. One by one, they struck the small grooves and cracks, sinking into the dummy's stony flesh.

Fractures and cracks spread. The Stone Training Dummy groaned only to crumble into rocky chunks on the ground. As the dust settled, a smirk curved across Niwla's beak.

Now, Lapis really couldn't say anything about that.

Static buzzed around him once again.

"You know, bird boy, apprentice of mine. I really thought that was going to take you longer."

"Think again."

"Someone's cranky. So, are you ready to carry on with the experiments?"

Niwla paused. After his experience today, maybe Lapis was right. Skillbooks really were a crutch. Something that he didn't need. Even with just some basic theory books, they were able to modify and improve the Ice Arrow, creating three different variations of it. Somehow, he had proved Lapis' point. He didn't know whether to be annoyed, impressed, or surprised at how things turned out.

"Actually, yes."

"You are? I really wasn't expecting that, either." Her voice turned into a whisper as she said, "Drones, you can put away the anesthetic hammer." A low beep-boop of sadness could be heard over the speakers before she went back to speaking at a normal volume. "You really are full of surprises, bird boy apprentice of mine. It might just be enough to make me like you over slime boy."

Niwla ignored that. He also ignored Alwin screaming that he should be the favorite student, not Niwla.

"After what I've gone through, I think you are right. I don't need Skillbooks. They'd be nice as a reference, but I don't need them. So, yes. I'm ready to tackle even more Tribulations. I'm confident I can create a spell to tackle most, if not all, situations."

"That's the spirit, bird boy."

"Thank you. I'm ready to tackle a Tier 3 Ice Tribulation."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.