With the ice tray in his mental hand, Niwla plunged it into the mana pool. It resurfaced, filled to the brim with raw liquid mana, droplets cascading down its side.

  "I'm so excited," Alwin exclaimed. "Put it in! Put it in! Fill it up with that delicious liquid goodness."

  "Don't worry, I'm getting to that part."

  Niwla commanded the mental hands to place the ice tray within Alwin's DIY freezer, before shutting the door. Then they waited, not for an eternity, but for about a minute at most.

  "It should be done," Niwla said.

  The mental hands pulled opened the door, a blast of coldness hitting them as they retrieved the ice tray. Within it, the mana had frozen solid, now crystalized with a light blue color.

  "Voila," Niwla said. "Ice Mana in the shape of an Ice Arrow, all in record time."

  "That's amazing!" Alwin shouted. "Try it out! Try it out! Try it out!" Alwin's consciousness zoomed around the ice tray full of glee and excitement. He couldn't wait to see the results of the experiment.

  "Of course," Niwla said. "Hands, if you would."

  The mental hands twisted and turned the ice tray. Cracks resounded out as the Ice Arrow within it came free from the mold that it had spawned from. The hands gripped the thick base of the icicle-shaped Ice Arrow, and waited, ready to receive their next set of orders.

  "Let's go!" Alwin rushed over to the boundaries of their shared Core, leaving Niwla and his mental hands behind to chase after him.

  Instead, Niwla took his time. He inspected the icicle from every angle, taking note of each and every detail. Compared to their earlier attempts, this Ice Arrow was much closer to perfection. It was perfectly symmetrical, with a tip that tapered down to a fine point. For a prototype, it was impressive.

  Still, there were a few flaws. Its surface was rough to the touch and a couple of air bubbles seemed to be trapped inside the ice. Some sanding could address the former, but he'd have to come up with a workaround for the air bubbles. However, he'd have to first evaluate whether the existence of such defects had any tangible effect at all or if it were purely cosmetic.

  Meanwhile, at the edge of the Core, Alwin was running loops and performing flips as he waited for Niwla to catch up.

  "What took you so long?" Alwin asked upon spotting Niwla.

  "Not all of us are as hyper as you, Alwin. Plus, I had to evaluate the product first." Niwla said.

  "Boring. Just throw it already," Alwin groaned.

  "Hands, if you could fulfil my bumbling counterparts' wishes," Niwla said, as he shook his head.

  The mental hands gave a thumbs up before taking aim. They pulled back, building up momentum before it hurled the icicle straight at the boundary of his Core as if throwing a javelin.

  Alwin felt that familiar tingle in his throat and he knew what was coming next. His consciousness was evicted from his Core as the spell materialized in the real world.

  "Ice Arrow!" Alwin shouted.

  An icicle appeared, suspended in midair as it constructed itself from the base to the tip. Once fully manifested, it launched forward straight into his arch enemy—the wooden training dummy.

  The icicle struck its wooden exterior, only to shatter into a thousand pieces. Not even leaving a scratch. Well, that was to be expected.

  Ice bits flew everywhere as a mini hailstorm engulfed the classroom. Tiny pieces bounced off of Bion's jellyfish cap much to his irritation. He stomped over to Alwin ready to give him another piece of his mind, but Alwin decided that he wasn't worth it. Also, Alwin was just too lazy to deal with him.

  Instead, Alwin dissociated from reality and fixated on his Core, ready to have more fun with his new invention—the DIY freezer. The only annoying thing was that he had to go through the whole compressing a snowstorm into a tiny box part first. Good thing Winal was there to do all of the heavy lifting.

  But, when he reentered his Core, something was amiss. What was supposed to be missing was right there. The DIY freeze in all of its glory. Next to it, Winal sat on his throne of hands, while Niwla mumbled about something as he inspected the ice tray.

  "You compressed the snowstorm, already? And without me?" Alwin pouted.

  "What are you talking about?" Niwla replied, looking up from his work.

  "You know, how the Core always gets reset after we cast one skill, and then we need to repeat the process all over again."

  "Oh, that. I was as shocked as you are. For some reason, after you left, everything remained as is. When I made my trek back to Winal, I had some time to come up with a couple of theories as to why, but honestly, it might be faster to ask Lapis about it— as much as I don't want to go near her for the time being."

  "Why not? She's fun as she gives me treats all the time."

  "You know why, Alwin. But, we don't have time for that. Right now, I'm devising a way to increase our casting speed with this brand new discovery."

  "You mean we'll get to hit things faster?" Alwin asked, bouncing up and down in excitement. The thought of unleashing a mega barrage of Blasts on his enemy was almost too much for his little brain to handle.

  "A lot faster," Niwla remarked. "In fact, it might even rival the casting speed of a Species Skill."

  "That fast? Awesome! Lay it on me. Tell me what I can do to help," exclaimed Alwin, pressing up against Niwla.

  "What you need to do is continue firing off Ice Arrows. Increasing our mastery over it is priority number one. While you do that, me and Winal will start working on a proof of concept."

  "You got it boss!" Alwin shouted.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Alwin summoned a pair of mental hands, snatching the ice tray out of Niwla's hands. Together they filled it up with mana, tossed it into the freezer, played a quick round of Rock, Paper, Scissors to pass the time, before finally bolting all the way to the edge of his Core to fire off another shot.

  As always, he was forced out of his Core and back into the real world to watch the destruction his Ice Arrow unleashed upon the wooden dummy—which was nothing. The only thing being destroyed was the icicle itself and Bion's patience as he was splattered with another shower of mini ice bits.

  And it was back into his Core he went. Rinse and repeat.

  Every single time he reentered the Core, things would have shifted or moved about. Like a new white box next to the original DIY freezer or some weird sphere shaped thingy. But, Alwin didn't have time to have a proper look-see, because Niwla would immediately hand him a brand new ice tray—each one tweaked slightly in some way, not that Alwin cared—and it was off to the races.

  Eventually he got the all-important message.

  New Skill Learned: Ice Arrow (F)

  But, that wasn't enough. Not for the overachieving side of him.

  Alwin kept on going at the wooden dummy, firing off Ice Arrow after Ice Arrow as Niwla and Winal worked on something in the background.

  Time passed in the blink of an eye. He lost track of how long he’d been going at it for. Forced out of his Core only to dive right back in, over and over again.

  For the first time, Niwla handed him something other than an ice tray. It was a sign that said 'stop'.

  "Why're you making me stop?" Alwin asked, finally able to have a look around his Core. A huge sheet of fabric covered something equally massive underneath it.

  "Because I need your help once again. It's time to test out my hypothesis," Niwla declared, as his mental hands ripped open the sheet to reveal what he had been working on.

  It was... disappointing.

  A bunch of white boxes were lined up next to each other, with what looked like conveyor belts right outside the door. Except the belts looked like they were made out of some cheap material like paper. In fact, Alwin was pretty sure it was made out of paper. The belts extended out far into the distance, disappearing towards the edge of his Core.

  "What's all this?" Alwin asked, skeptical about Niwla's claimed intelligence after witnessing his latest work.

  "This... is a proof of concept. You see, my theory is that as long as one of us remains here, the objects in the Core will never reset. Because of that, we can start streamlining our spell production capabilities. No more long agonizing waiting time for us. We can mass produce skills!"

  "I need to see it to believe it," Alwin said, doubt prevalent in his mind.

  "Of course. Let me give you a run down of what's supposed to happen." Niwla said.

  Niwla brought Alwin over to the row of DIY freezers, where he noticed mental hands had been stationed, waiting for orders.

  "First, we unload the prepared Ice Arrows that have been chilling."

  For each freezer, a pair of mental hands opened the door, while the second pair began to tip it forward. The ice tray that had been incubating inside slid out, landing on top of the conveyor belt. A perfectly frozen icicle sat within it.

  Then, the conveyor belt began to move. That was when Alwin noticed that the rollers under the belt weren't powered by any form of electricity… They were hand powered.

  Cranks lined up along the sides of the belt at regular intervals. Each one with a mental hand turning it around with a steady rhythm, causing the whole system to move. The ice trays above glided forward, moving toward the next step of the process..

  "While the ice trays move along. The freezers get a refill."

  Even more mental hands showed up out of nowhere, shoving an ice tray that was already packaged with regular mana back into the freezer.

  "As the next batch is being frozen, we process the current."

  Alwin turned his attention back to the conveyor belt. As the ice trays continued to travel down their lengths, he noticed another section of mental hands waited along the sides. The moment the ice trays came within reach, they grabbed them.

  Through a series of twists and turns, which sent cracks echoing throughout his Core, they released the icicles free from the mold. The icicles were placed back onto the belt, while the empty trays were collected by another set of hands.

  They dunked the ice trays into his mana pool for a refill, before sending them back toward the freezers, ready to be frozen again.

  For the first time, Alwin was beginning to see potential.

  "From there, it's a short ride toward the edge of the Core. Follow me," Niwlla said.

  Alwin did as he was told, but in true Alwin fashion he did it his own way.

  Instead of taking the long boring walk, he decided to take the long boring sit. Alwin plopped himself on top of the conveyor belt right behind the icicles and waited. The mental hands were forced to work overtime, cranking with all their might to move the extra heavy baggage.

  Meanwhile, Niwla just shook his head and sighed.

  When they finally arrived near the edge of the Core, the belt began to split off into multiple lanes. At the end of each lane were even more mental hands, waiting for the shipment to arrive. But what caught Alwin’s eye was something happening off to the side.

  Something was being built.

  Winal sat on his throne of hands, guiding the mental hands through a series of single-worded low moans. Mental hands bustled around him, somehow able to follow his cues. Occasionally a piece of something—machinery maybe—materialized right next to him, only to be grabbed by an eager pair of mental hands.

  It looked like... a cannon?

  They were going to launch things out of a cannon! This was awesome!

  However, disaster struck. The mental hands at the end of the conveyor belt grabbed onto the icicles and took aim—not loading them into the cannons.

  Alwin's disappointment was immeasurable and his day was ruined.

  "I see you noticed what Winal’s working on. He might not talk much, but he's surprisingly good with manifesting mental tools to help with spell creation. Everything that you saw before was all created and is currently being sustained by him.”

  “Not everything.” Alwin pouted.

  “That is fair. This would not have been possible without your snowstorm. My plans, your weird ability to create unnatural phenomena, and Winal’s unnatural manifestation prowess. None of this would’ve been possible without any one of us.“

  “That’s more like it,” Alwin said. “But, why no cannon?”

  “That is our new delivery system. In theory, it’ll launch projectiles even faster out of Core. But since it’s still a work in progress, we’re just using hands for now.

  "Oh, phooey." Alwin pouted.

  "Anyway, the spells will be delivered here, where they'll be ejected out of the Core."

  The multitude of mental hands took aim and fired.

  A familiar tingling in his throat and Alwin was wretched away from his Core.

  "Ice Arrow!" he was forced to shout.

  Not one. Not two. Not even three.

  Ten icicles materialized at the same time right in front of him, shooting out and colliding into the wooden training dummy. Another shower of icy bits, except that there was no one in the vicinity to receive it.

  In fact, there was no one else in the classroom except him. Where did the time go? How long had he been at this?

  Whatever.

  Alwin went back into his Core, a smug Niwla awaited him.

  "So, what do you think?"

  "I think that you're awesome! Not as awesome as me! But, still awesome. Now, do one for the Blasts!" Alwin shouted.

  "In time. For now, I need to work on refining all of this," Niwla said.

  "Okay, then what can I do to help?" Alwin asked.

  "Pay attention in class? Go pick up a book? Basically anything that might help with our visualization abilities while I work on this. The more objects we can manifest in here, the better."

  "Got it," Alwin said, exiting his Core.

  He was about to run off toward the library ready to enhance his knowledge when something else took hold of him.

  Sleep. Alwin collapsed on the floor, exhaustion finally catching up with him.