The sunny mountaintop day transformed into a quiet, barren night, yet he remained asleep for a while longer. Only as the sun rose above the horizon once more, in the few minutes of twilight, did he begin to rouse from utter exhaustion.

Every limb still carried horrible weight, and half of him wanted to just lie down to doze off once more. But noticing the orange light falling on snow just outside his cave put him into action. Just a little walking revealed that he slept at least twelve hours straight… Perhaps more?

The mutated glacial wolf turned out to be far above anything he expected. Its effects proved stronger than the gibbon, but not so much that he felt it on an entirely new level. Glacial wolves are just rather powerful creatures amongst the lowest denominators. Only through an unlikely evolution do they cast magic as well.

How exactly the strength of bloodlines were determined still made no sense, but he already knew that the obviously stronger ones would produce greater results when assimilated.

“Does the Nexus have any way to precisely measure bloodline strength?” he said out of curiosity, not expecting much given how little they knew of bloodlines before his assistance.

[Yes, however these measurements can only be performed during assimilation. When a sufficient number of bloodlines are assimilated, we can begin labelling them]

That only made the mission from earlier even more reasonable, no wonder they wanted him to assimilate more bloodlines. With that in mind he finished up the leftovers from that last meal and went about practicing Frost shell some more.

It had not even been a few hours when he received a familiar prompt from the Nexus.

[Bloodline energy has reached an evolutionary threshold. Prepare for evolutionary measures to begin]

His growth phase hadn’t even started yet he already began a second evolution! While that might shock some dragons, he was faintly aware that most would still undermine him and claim ‘he needed them’ as a matter of survival.

More importantly, the Nexus clearly stated that only bloodline energy mattered for evolutions. Therefore, even if he couldn't complete the assimilation progress, everything consumed leading up to it still mattered! But in the end the general goal of his situation hadn't changed in the slightest.

Simply absorb new bloodlines constantly for more evolutions!

Resting, he prepared himself to look through a rather lengthy list of evolutions. The first one set a direction for him, now he needed to continue enhancing himself, whether on the same path or a fresh one. Unfortunately, none of the assimilated bloodlines were strictly magical in his memory.

Perhaps the crystal ice flower would provide something useful?

Pushing down those inflated hopes, he waited minute by minute.

[Evolution imminent. Your possible bloodling pathways are the following:

Chocolate Ice-cream

Strawberry Ice-cream

Slightly magical Ice-cream

Weakly Psi-mana Ice-cream

Volatile mutant…

Ice coated…

Dragon infused…

Soul empowered…

Thick furred…

Dense…

Will infused…

Liquid cold…

Hardened…

Rapid…

Momentous…

Cold-venom…

Flexible…

Please make a selection in 3 minutes, or a random pathway will be used]

Why the hell were those two useless bloodlines still at the top? It didn’t matter enough, he had a huge list to go through, although only a few appeared even somewhat useful.

All the basic bloodlines offered through assimilation still appeared so… Weak. Like, Hardened Ice-cream or Flexible Ice-cream, why the hell would he ever choose those attributes?

Thankfully a few good options existed, the mutated glacial wolf must have provided Will-infused ice-cream. Perhaps when it gained a bit more intelligence it would have awakened this ability, and who knew how frightening it may have been.

[Will-Infused Ice-cream: Your willpower becomes a blade, your mind its wielder. Your whole body now grows stronger and weaker depending on your beliefs, and with practice this power may be extended outside your body to attack or empower spells. Unlock Willpower stat. In addition to previous bonuses, grants Mental recovery +25%, Effectiveness of Will +15%, MP to Will conversion +20%, Mental defences +10%]

In his opinion a solid ability for dragons overflowing with self-confidence. Unfortunately, that attribute was precisely what he lacked sorely. At least for now, and this bloodline provided no bonuses to spellcasting, his current forte.

Dragon infused and Soul empowered were strange to see, he suspected that the Mutation Rate points were directly responsible for that, and he decided to check them out as well.

[Dragon infused Ice-cream: Focus the evolutionary power into rapidly enhancing and purifying your draconic base. This will increase the stability of your bloodline as well as providing general bonuses to all abilities, furthermore invoking a draconic will from deep within. In addition to previous bonuses, grants +15% To all attributes.]

[Soul empowered Ice-cream: Focus evolutionary power into your soul, awakening its abilities earlier than usual. Furthermore, your soul’s stability will be compromised. Expected effect: May devour souls to enhance your own. Unlock Soulpower stat, Soul durability. In addition to previous bonuses, grants +20%, Soul output +15%, Soul absorption +10% (If expectations are met) ]

Didn't that mean it could reverse this all? Make his bloodline stable, so that his endurance no longer remained bound, and then completely remove the ice-cream body he'd been cursed with! Although, if his endurance no longer had to suppress it, then surely it would cut off his ability to assimilate as well? Would it?

He checked with the Nexus by thinking about the Dragon infused bloodline, seeking an answer on the exact effects of bloodline stability.

[In theory, increased stability reduces the ability for outside bloodlines to seep into your own. Ensuring bloodline purity and eventually, a refinement]

Quickly reading that, it took a few moments for it to click that this absolutely could transform his body away from being ice-cream. He didn't even doubt that... But it came at the cost of his assimilation ability slowly disappearing. If he was an adult then this would be fine, he'd have the strength to survive even without needing to assimilate. But actually outgrowing his peers with an ice-cream body?

Why doesn't he just go jump off a cliff?

He regretfully dismissed the choice.

As for Soul empowered… he simply said aloud, “So not even the Nexus is clear on some of these effects then… I'm not taking that sort of risk.” Furthermore, he lacked the magic to even devour souls right now, and such spells are far above Incantations in difficulty.

He had only spent about half a minute looking through these three and already locked them out. So, all that remained to his fancy were two magical bloodlines and the Volatile mutant. He looked at the latter first.

[Volatile Mutant Ice-cream: Highly Unclassified Effects. Store assimilated bloodlines within your own, compressing and refining them into single-use enhancements. A rapid, temporary evolution will overpower your current form and allow for abilities from said bloodline to be utilised. Each usage causes some build-up of mutations, long-term ramifications unknown. In addition to previous bonuses, grants Bloodline defence +50%, Enhancement forte +20%, Mental defences +25%]

“What even… Why?” He barely mustered any words, finding himself dumbstruck for the better part of 20 seconds.

That looked bad. Like really, really, BAD.

Given the mental defence improvement, insanity seemed to be a casual side-effect of utilising this bloodline, so who knew the worst of it? The Nexus clearly had no clue, they even provided not-so-subtle warnings!

Unlike the previous two, which were merely locked out, he wanted to throw this away and burn it to millions of tiny pieces. How the hell did he even obtain this option?

Forget about it! The crown and jewels of his options were saved for last.

[Slightly Magical Ice-cream: Being in tune with ambient mana, it is easier than ever for you to absorb and release the energy as you please. You can sense the surroundings in areas of gentle mana, while turbid flows may even be controlled into attacks. Retains your previous body. In addition to previous bonuses, grants Mana absorption +30%, Max MP +35%, Pure mana defence +15%, Magic damage +20% ]

[Weakly Psi-mana Ice-cream: Merge your mind and magic into one, allowing the two to support one another and greatly easing all mental strains. Your mental strengthening talent is drastically improved and you may produce a weak telekinetic power at will, with some mana expenditure. Retains your previous body. In addition to previous bonuses, grants Mana to psychic power conversion +25%, Mental defences +15%, Magic damage +20%, Telekinesis cost -50%]

The bonuses provided by the Nexus for each both exceeded his current bloodline, although becoming a Psi-mana being was a completely different path. It did come with an interesting question though.

Would he be dependent enough on psychic spells enough to require this pathway? In his head, only the strongest psychic spells really needed a bloodline dedicated to it, and he had no need for those. The moment his growth phase completed he knew that Telekinesis would be a breeze to use at will.

Through that logic, he stayed on his original path until an overwhelmingly great bloodline came his way.

“I choose Slightly Magical Ice-cream,” he said with a calm sureness. Spellcasting proved to be the sole thing granting him power. Meanwhile, chasing a slightly better Telekinesis for such a short-term goal…

He was smarter than that. He had to be.

An identical process began once more. He’d completely forgotten about the horrible process of undergoing evolutions, but it was too late to avoid such a thing. Feeling nauseous once more, he found himself in a cocoon where the situation quickly settled.

Now transforming into that blissful state from before, he knew the evolution already entered its final stretches. A quick check of the Nexus confirmed that.

[Evolution progress: 90%]

Five minutes completed the evolution from his moment of selection, and he easily confirmed it with his status. Although his sense of the outside world proved a far quicker test of change.

Name

Title

Nexus Aid Bonus

Species

Dragon

Bloodline

Slightly magical Ice-cream

HP

100%

MP

100%

Level

6

EXP

28%

Unallocated Stat Points: 8

Strength

0

Luck

0

Agility

0

Growth

0

Magic

5

Mutation Rate

5

It still felt good to see the change. The few points in Mutation Rate did make him wonder if they were directly responsible for some of the options he received, in theory that was the field’s primary effect.

As for a name…

He closed the status and ignored it, feeling no need to name himself. What good was such a thing in this desolate place which lacked intelligent life? Not that he felt strong enough to even deserve one.

Leaving the cave, he decided to test how amazing this new bloodline was. He already noticed that all mana in a large area around him moved around in his mind, and by thinking of these flows he could understand the terrain.

It also clearly pointed out any hotspots of mana nearby, for example he never noticed that the small crystals inlaid on his cave wall contained a frightening concentration of mana. It should be related to the cave having exceptionally tough ice, capable of even blocking his Flame bolts without even the smallest cracks forming.

A far more interesting ability was the incredibly fast mana absorption allowed by his body, this took a while for him to understand. It also seemed that the Nexus embellished the ability a bit as it was far from ‘at will’, for now that is.

When below 50% MP, he found his body rapidly pulled in mana from all sides, taking just minutes to recover over 10% of his MP!

To add, the evolution itself increased his max MP significantly, and then the Nexus’ boost applied on top of that! While guessing his previous quantity of mana was tough, he knew the change in his body practically doubled his max MP.

He did this by repeatedly casting Flame bolts at piles of snow and checking their mana cost. If he could learn to actively draw in mana, then casting endless incantations was on the table. For True spells though… He aimed to worry about it later.

“Nexus, shouldn’t my growth stage have started by now?” On the off chance this matter related to his bloodline, he asked the far more knowledgeable thing.

[Yes, but no clear cause is identifiable]

“An agreement is good enough. If I just kept on evolving then growing doesn’t really matter anyway,” he said with a laugh. How ridiculous would it be for a hatchling dragon to cast those extremely high-level spells?

With his newfound sensing ability he decided to go treasure hunting once more. He actually had a very specific plan in mind, from his cave immediately heading to the mana transferring root and heading past it once more.

Before leaving he found his mental defences increased a slight bit as well, and wearing seven Jump seals became his new limit. With that, he placed seals on the sides of his body, allowing for a rapid escape from charging enemies. Unfortunately, using them sent him tumbling as well, making them useless for general movement.

* * *

He soon found the place where he killed his second Wassat.

The place he obtained those valuable bone shards, and this made his goal blatant. Obtain enough of the wyrm’s body to add its bloodline to his next evolution. Something of its level should provide an amazing direction, not to mention greatly pushing him to another evolution.

With that in mind, he aptly dug up any dense mana sources he located. Two particular objects proved the most common. Magical ice crystals and various plants, of which he made sure to taste a bit of the latter in case it provided him with a bloodline.

[Consumed Ice-mind berry! Assimilation progress 5%

Consumed Snowy field root! Assimilation progress 10%]

With this method he found two more things to assimilate, although no sign of more wyrm king bone shards. He had high hopes though, eventually he would find the skeleton those shards originated from.

For now, he found far too little plant material of those two things, although such great mana density showed their bloodlines held significant power. When consuming the Ice-mind berries, a subtle chill passed through him and cleared his senses to an impeccable level.

The sounds of delicate winds, and even softly moving creatures at a distance, entered his ears with no complications, and his mind felt faster than ever. In just a few seconds he fully grasped his surroundings and relaxed like never before.

No doubt this plant was an alchemical ingredient, strong enough that one of his books actually mentioned a use for it! But he wanted to complete its assimilation first. The experience gain on the other hand was negligible, barely 5% for all the berries and roots combined.

He came face to face with a leopard at some point as well. Its white coat sported some faint yellow circles, but overall could blend in scarily well with this snowy mountain. A single Flame bolt spell scared it off and allowed him to continue searching for mana dense objects

He did not wish to drag a corpse back. Especially one with a mediocre bloodline.

With lots of free time, and a dedicated goal, he happily spent hours searching for anything of interest, finding a few more plants full of mana. With the occasional repeat being found, he obtained another two plant bloodlines, but no sign of bone shards.

[Consumed Earth-frost carrot! Assimilation progress 4%

Consumed Coniferous eternity fern! Assimilation progress 3%]

The two plants in question appeared interesting, but searching for further details on them could wait. Furthermore he acquired another 10% experience, so it all worked out rather well.

On the other hand, those bone shards were likely not randomly scattered and the wassat ate a creature which found them elsewhere. Following such logic demolished any chance of locating the source soon.

Where in this mountain range would he just so happen to find the remnants of such a high-level creature?

Instinctively, the grandest mountain drew such attention. Its peak ascended into the clouds, and who knew what sort of things lived up there. But he doubted the bone shards came from so far away. As the sun began to set he quickly made his way back, sharing no desire to wander around outside. Some light emitting spells flitted through his mind for utility, and he chose a few from the Incantation book to learn first. Light element spells capable of attacking were all True spells, and not exactly the lower end ones.

Moving just past the tree root, he heard some incoherent noises coming from nearby. Not roars or squeaks like many of the creatures here provided, but real communication! But he didn’t understand this language, and more worrisomely was the mana he sensed from the two beings. Far, far greater than his own and somehow it felt a lot more aggressive as well.

In fear, he quickly scraped some loose snow onto him and hoped the white vanilla ice-cream blended in with the background well enough. The two beings walked forward as usual, he soon took a glance at them and saw two humans!