The group of humans stayed warm around a few impromptu campfires as night fell, the already harsh temperatures only becoming unbearable. While trudging around in the thick snow they naturally stayed warm, but with the night breeze cooling them off faster than the fires heated them, things were looking unbearable. Before long the 16 more normal guards shivered constantly.

Finally, as a half-moon appeared, the two wizards believed their target to be outside and hunting for food once more. It was time.

Augusticus peeled off the wax seal and opened the scroll to reveal black and blue lines crossing over in a manner so complex that the others simply saw a set of scribbles. Some strange, unknown characters were present, but to the majority it was impossible to decipher any part of this scroll.

“A two kilometre Blood search spell, how much did you pay for all those boosting runes?” Bachlar commented on the scroll almost immediately, simply reading a set of small black runes at the top, a common action for all scroll makers.

“It doesn’t matter. I absolutely need this heart.” Refusing to state the price which left her sleepless for so many nights, it was a miracle that she even collected what her family asked for in exchange for this scroll.

Her mana surged into the scroll, filling up every blue and black line, and slowly revealing the complex scribble’s true form. The lines lifted from the scroll itself, bending and turning to form three concentric rings with runes floating in between them. Mana continued to flow through the scroll and into the spell, casting itself until it all compressed instantly into a fine point and exploded outwards!

The wave of mana left those nearby covering their faces, and this time they truly felt the sheer power contained. It exceeded anything they’d ever sensed before and those with weaker bodies even fainted. Luckily, that was only two of the weaker guards and the spell instead left most of the group in fine, albeit somewhat shaken, states.

Back underneath the cave in his abode, the young dragon had no clue what time it was and simply assumed it too early to leave. Without the footsteps above to signal an arrival, he absolutely refused to take daft risks.

But at that moment, he felt a wave of mana like nothing else pass through him, his senses felt an inexhaustible pressure for just seconds before it vanished just as it appeared. The wave didn’t react in the slightest with his body, but he noticed that the corpses nearby now contained some mana akin to the quickly passing wave.

While he couldn’t tell what the thing was, he sensed a faint connection between the corpses and it… What on the mountain could possibly have so much mana?

No way it came from the node tree, that was in a completely different direction from this wave’s source. Perhaps a creature by the winter's hope tree released it, but this power completely exceeded him, such a being would have left immediately for greater heights.

Which left one option, and as the links to the corpses remained, he instantly understood what just happened. They tracked him! He really wanted to know why they waited so long to use such a spell though, it could have shown his position from the moment it occurred.

He had to wonder about a certain point though, that being the lack of any link coming from his body. He even triple checked just to make sure it wasn’t well-hidden, an idea which made no sense in retrospect as he easily sensed the links from those corpses. Just some simple paranoia bouncing around in his head.

Finally, he had a conclusion.

“So… they used a spell ineffective against me? Wonder what it was,” he said with a moment of curiosity. That feeling only lasted so long though, and without any need to leave the abode, he hunkered down even more as he reasonably guessed they would never waste their time on a dead wassat and Cantou.

With that, he returned to learning more human words and his new spell. Snap chill provided its own purpose, that being to restrict any warriors he came across, then opening them up to an offensive spell. Although Bronze ranked humans were still too strong, he didn’t need or plan to kill them yet. As such, the relatively simple true spell he chose next was Wind blade storm, an upgraded form of the seven word spell, Wind blade. His second true spell was 13 words long in comparison.

Wind blade storm created over a dozen regular Wind blades, and allowed them to either strike the same target or spread out as the user wished. With more than ample variability and direct firepower, only well-armoured individuals escaped unscathed.

As always, a Bronze ranked warrior could simply shrug off such attacks, at worst receiving a series of small slashes to their skin. As for wizards, most kept simple wind barriers active at all times to divert arrows, and in turn Wind blades.

If he really wanted to kill a Lesser wizard then Glacier bolt more than filled that role, although he wished he had a body powerful enough to kill them instead. Even though assimilation was powerful, the constant danger this body left him in had yet to be overpowered by potential. Anyway, still unable to leave this home, he had no choice but to stay down and wait longer, making slow progress on the spell once more.

Things weren’t doing so well at the spell’s source though. The two wizards looked at the results of such an exorbitant scroll and were left scrunching their faces in disbelief. Bachlar saying first, “It’s not possible, even if not a dragon we should’ve found something related to the fire spells.”

“It… It can’t be right. Surely the thing just malfunctioned. We’ll overturn the whole mountain then!” Still unable to grasp the mistake, Augusticus immediately went to the next extreme. Even Bachlar considered it for a few moments before finally becoming the rational of the two.

“Pearl… It failed. I think it was leading us on a chase in this region and left last night.” She glared over, Bachlar’s back actually tingling slightly in concern. Surely she wouldn’t attack him out of anger now?

“Then I will find it. I have to…” Just a mere glance of the snowy landscape left her heart pounding, but a deep breath steadied the resolve. She had to do this. And if she died, so what?

Most of her personal assets had vanished, and her family knew this, without the talent offered by the dragon heart, she was nothing. A noble with above average potential, that alone held no worth when geniuses like Bachlar existed. Everyone on the mountain saw that convincing her otherwise would be a harsh battle, and as mere guards had no place to argue.

They would only stay as long as it was safe, they belonged to noble families, not the personal whims of two Lesser wizards.

“Let’s head back to the cave, we may have to hide until the blizzard passes by.” A Bronze ranked guard spoke up to get Bachlar into safety, the thick clouds overhead only threatening them further by the minute. And no one disagreed as today turned out to be a bust.

No one spoke as they saw the cold lady brood their entire journey. Once inside the cave she entered her tent and refused to exit. The mental links for the spell still existed for her and Bachlar, but with so many it was hard to really pinpoint anything out of the ordinary.

Although… For a while now she found it pretty strange that the spell was showing two creatures far below their cave. What was going on with that?

If only the creatures in question weren’t a frozen cantou and snow wassat. Unable to really care, she checked on anything further away for clues. Perhaps a region desolate of creatures or a place it appeared they surrounded without actually entering.

For the next few hours she didn’t do much else, focused intently on scouring every creature in the spell’s range to see if anything clicked. Two kilometres is by no means a small area, extending far beyond the nearby winter’s hope and node tree. Only a scruffy coughing outside her tent drew her from the endless search, forcing her to stand and see who dared disturb her.

Surprisingly, it was not Bachlar. The two hunters she originally hired stood outside, overall being rather useless on this trip. Still, she heard them out before lashing out. Like a viper, she spat out, “What do you two want?”

One of the two unintentionally took the lead, still fearful after her previous beration. But he swallowed the fear and stutter, and eventually pushed out his words. “We’ll be going down with sir Bachlar… We apologise for being useless on this trip.”

She eyed the two up and down but couldn’t hold any more against them after they admitted such things so clearly. Simply replying, “Understood, is that all?” She began to turn back for her tent, but the other man suddenly broke that with an interjection.

“We did find something of interest a few days back, nothing like a dragon though.”

“Speak, and stop playing about.” She was no fan of their slow tiptoeing around her possible interest.

“On our first investigation we came across a strange lizard. When Abram found it he realised it was made of ice-cream… I thought, even if you don’t find the dragon then the strange creature should have some value.” He looked down towards the floor, instantly regretting that he even spoke up.

Augusticus frowned intensely, deep wrinkles remaining for several moments as she thought about the matter at length. Finally performing one last check, “This ice-cream lizard, where did you find it?”

“Near the mana root, just a bit down to the node tree. Abram actually thought it was completely made of ice-cream, but that’d be ridiculous.”

“No… No, it wouldn't. This lizard had a somewhat long neck and four large claws on each foot?” The two looked over to Abram, the man who first confirmed their upcoming leave with Bachlar.

“I can’t remember the claws, but its neck was large. At least the length of my forearm when it extended fully.”

“Pure ice-cream… Would it even have one? But how to track it then? And it must have run after being caught like that.” Without end, she began muttering countless sentences to herself. The two men both gulped but dared not interfere.

Just from the words they heard, how could they not guess what she thought? They held the damn dragon in their hands and let it go! Thank goodness neither of them mentioned that specific part or she might have killed them on the spot.

Well, probably not, but it certainly felt that way.

“Good! I’ll be taking a small trip outside the camp, I should be back in a few hours.” Without any more words, she grabbed a few objects from her tent, wrapped a thick cloak over her academy robes, and set off without speaking a word to Bachlar.

He later heard what the two hunters had told her, but through the light snow and dark night he failed to catch any glimpse of the girl. Worried for his colleague’s safety, but unwilling to risk the lives of his men, Bachlar sighed and returned to the cave’s warmth.

This was still a dragon she’d be facing…

* * *

As for her target, he promptly exited the abode after confirming the hunters’ return. Testing his new Snap chill spell was a priority, and no doubt he aimed to have Wind blade storm ready in a day or two. Several times over he practised the specific quantity of mana he had to release for the spell to activate, finding that it only worked after emitting 18% of his pool at a minimum.

However, this was the case of releasing a constant flow of mana from the 8th word onwards. He believed that carefully moderating his output of mana would reduce losses at the earlier stages. The focus and multitasking proved too hard for him though, and for now using 18% of his MP was within limits.

As always, he began by moving further away from both the tunnel and cave, finding a place different from yesterday’s hunting ground. His main hopes were to find some more plants to complete some of the growing stack of bloodlines within him. Returning to the field of poppies one day for those bones was absolutely a goal as well.

With no hunters around he could walk around in the fields relatively safely, troubled by the inherent darkness of the night. Sometimes he threw out a Controllable light spell to see his surroundings, but snuffing it out minutes later helped maintain his unseen position.

He did gather a multitude of plants, although only two contained bloodlines. On top of that, he already knew these two, which was the only reason he collected them. He consumed several bushels of Ice-mind berries for an easy 7% experience, not to mention the far more pleasant prompt he liked seeing.

[Consumed Ice-mind berry! Assimilation Progress 40%]

As for the other bloodline. For the past hour he clutched a bundle of coniferous eternity herbs in his mouth. He planned on consuming them once safely inside to get some rest, the exhaustion would do him well.

Unfortunately, no creatures came his way this night. Especially with the snowfall only growing heavier by the minute, even he admitted that returning soon was far too important. Therefore, using mana to guide him along the tree root was by far the safest method of remaining hidden.

Just like the night prior, he avoided use of any light spells and could ignore his footsteps as the heavy winds covered it up well enough.

But not far away, a figure melting into the darkness looked straight at the small dragon. Her eyes with dark yet vibrant pupils easily saw the so-called lizard's figure. And she smiled, a boundless relief flooding her heart while slowly following behind.