Finishing the wafer egg greatly filled him. And after sitting down in the lit hovel, he finally decided to check his status.

Name

Title

Nexus Aid Bonus

Species

Dragon

Bloodline

Pure mana Ice-cream

HP

100%

MP

100%

Level

10

EXP

29%

Unallocated Stat Points: 12

Strength

0

Luck

0

Agility

3

Growth

0

Magic

10

Mutation Rate

5

The new bloodline absolutely pleased him, a reminder of his constant growth these last few months, although seeing the unallocated points left him thinking for a while. He wanted to keep some at all times in case something appeared which stumped him, but had it not become clear that spells mattered far more than strength or agility?

As long as his magic was great enough he could overcome anything! And two things held back his magic recently, mental strength and max MP.

This fact gave him confidence to make a serious yet important choice. But it was not just him who agreed on this, several introductory books in his mind came to similar conclusions. So, he said, “Nexus, 10 points into Growth.”

From hereon, all future growth would be 60% greater. The roughly 9 months to complete this growth phase shrunk to around 6 and a half months! Practically all dragons tried to get points into the Growth field as soon as possible. Its effects were long lasting and directly increased their power the most.

Not that this figure actually mattered to many other dragons. The calculation simply used a dragon’s natural growth rate to obtain an estimated time, but many hatchlings had ways to further speed things up. Most took the simplest path and consumed plants full of life essence, rapidly completing a growth phase.

If dragons actually had to wait 9 months to reach the next stage of their lives then they’d have been hunted to extinction thousands of years ago! Obviously they knew of ways to speed things up… It was just that his situation wasn’t good.

In his low level region, where mana outside of a few places barely impacted the surroundings, how could he expect plants with such quality to grow?

“It comes back to the tree then… Am I strong enough yet?” Only one place near his home possessed an object of sufficient mana and energy to be a growth enhancer, and he hadn’t visited it in two months now. Even with his recent improvements, he didn’t want to take any risks if a fight broke out.

He chose to hold off for now, opting to use the battlefield as a way to test out the extent of his evolution and whether he could identify the creature within.

In the meanwhile, he also better grasped the changes given by his evolution.

The clearest improvement had to be what he now called mana sight, which granted him full vision of everything within a range double that of the previous one. But what surprised him most was that it now allowed him to see through the snow as well! He no longer had to dig things out to identify them.

Meanwhile, what extended beyond became his mana sense, and only pointed out spots of mana. This extended several times further. Instead of things five or so metres underground, he saw some objects as far as five times that distance!

In a moment of interest, he even dug straight down to identify something, realising soon after that it was merely a plant. Consuming it released a large burst of mana within him, something easy to absorb if he needed it, but no effects beyond that. Such a plant held value, just not to him.

What also surprised him is that digging so far down didn’t even result in hitting the mountain, his mana sight showed pure snow below and even further down he noticed mana hotspots.

The stuff this deep couldn’t have been touched yet, so he might find even better stuff from ages ago! Or ancient plants which required years to grow! Eyes seeing gold, he immediately located a spot of mana below him and began making a spiral pathway down. While slower than a direct hole, this at least gave some way to escape later.

Reaching such a deep layer only took ten minutes with Water control, and his MP dropped by an insignificant 5%. The evolution stating ‘incredible store of mana’ was not a mere exaggeration.

Perhaps the more ridiculous notion was that this small amount of mana refilled no more than a minute later. And such a thing made sense when considering how old a normal dragon is at their third evolution!

For a dragon, obtaining this evolution at the end of this first growth phase is considered acceptable, and by that age they’d have spent a month or two with access to training methods. Like most training, a quick jump occurred at the start before a slower growth set in, taking years of dedicated work. While some major breakthrough points existed as well, they were sparse and took a while to reach.

To state it clearly, a bloodline’s power roughly matched the growth speed of dragons. Obviously obtaining a bloodline far faster than the average made things seem disproportionate.

What level was a mana sight spell which compared to his mana sensing?

Easily an Apprentice true spell!

With that in mind, he realised that he'd dug even deeper. Compared to his cave and underground abode, this circular tunnel easily covered thrice the depth! And even at the bottom he only found more snow…

“At least that explains how that thing can live here. But why is this so deep?” His voice only grew more and more confused with every word. Although he soon realised that other parts of the mountain could also be like this.

That still made no sense though. How did so much snow build up in one place without dislodging?

He knew some things about mountains, and large snow banks hanging over cliffs rarely lasted long periods. But unable to make guesses left him wondering for quite a while, at best he imagined the giant creature somehow kept the whole place intact.

Regardless, if it hadn’t collapsed now then his digging shouldn’t cause any problems.

At this depth he actually did find a few plants, all of which contained a surprisingly vast quantity of mana. The lowest seemed to exceed his own store!

But once more, just having a lot of mana didn’t guarantee a bloodline. Of the two types he found, only one really mattered to him. The other could at least be sold if he needed resources of some type. As for experience, it surprised him to see that consuming both gave 25%.

[Consumed Cry-cotton bulb! Assimilation progress 1%]

A very small amount for the bulb of plant matter he just consumed. Each was about the size of his head. He hoped that either more such plants existed or this type regrew relatively fast.

All around he noticed more spots of mana no different from the plants he just consumed, but none of that really drew as much interest as something near the bottom of his mana sense. Explaining it at first was impossible, but after just a bit more depth he realised what he found.

His sense revealed a large ball of mana, something he’d never seen before as it utterly dwarfed everything else on the mountain. Not even the winter's hope tree compared, but a deeper look showed that this ball was merely a thin shell!

Somehow, this layer of objects produced so much mana that his senses at a distance mistook it for one giant, solid object. And after confirming the shell to be formed of hundreds of smaller objects, he began the process of digging a spiral pathway downwards. Additionally, the weight of snow above concerned him.

To negate that he started placing ice pillars throughout to act as structural supports, having no real idea where to place them for maximum effect. It took well over twenty minutes to dig down a full length of his mana sense for the third time, but now came the moment to investigate this strange shell.

Once nearby, his more detailed mana sense showed that besides the thin shell absolutely writhing with mana, the inside was actually hollow! Just a gap of air with a single object resting at the ball’s floor.

However, whatever this object was, its mana alone exceeded everything in the shell by several fold. If anything explained the strange snow around here, it had to be this thing. And so, when his mana sense only saw a rather normal looking bone within, he decided to open up the shell for close examination.

Giving up a valuable bloodline? Why would he willingly do that!

Additionally, the shell of mana which interested him so long turned out to be a selection of broken bones tightly trapped by a compact layer of snow and ice. Just a bit of fire melted through that though, allowing his Telekinesis to grip a bone.

Cracking it required far more work than expected, in the end requiring him to use a layer of ice and Glacier crush to shatter the bone. Even then it only cleanly broke along some fracture sites, the minimal destruction tempting him to use Explosive bolt.

Eating it gladly met his desires though, the smaller chunks of bone all falling into his stomach and only dissolving at unnoticably slow rates. And like everytime it happened, the Nexus provided updates every single second until he asked it to stop.

[Consumed Elder guard Kandir giant bloodline! Assimilation progress 0%]

Something about the name made him think the progress wouldn’t be going above 5% anytime soon…

“Why are there so few bloodlines for these giants though? Were they born with such a limited set? Oh right!” He cut the thought short as a reminder of the bone flooded back. Thinking about an ancient race came second to such powerful objects!

Leaving most of the Elder guard’s bone above ground, he chose to take a look below before stuffing his stomach with this already powerful bloodline. He saw no benefit in filling up on a weaker bone in advance.

Once underground, the obvious following action was to melt away the rest of the ice before entering…

He cast Cone of fire instead. The blazing flames quickly melted a sizable hole through this light hindrance for him, and mentally it looked way damn cooler.

With a Light spell to give sight inside the empty space, he saw that the hollow ball, large enough to fit him end to end three times over, was coated in large skeletons. Not just decaying remnants, but completely intact skulls, fingers, and toes still existed! With a few skulls looking inwards he naturally felt a bit rude for interrupting this site.

But not a single one of those things mattered to the thing at the space’s centre, the ordinary-looking but clearly powerful bone. Full of so much mana it instantly enamoured him.

Compared to his newfound interest in the bone, he barely felt a shade of embarrassment from the skulls’ gazes. A highly focused thought passed through his mind, like an unwieldy tsunami of a desire which completely beat out any hunger he’d ever imagined before.

Every ounce of his being willed him to take it and eat immediately. He wanted the unimaginable power contained with such a beautiful piece of bone.

Every fibre of his being, even his unfound soul, craved the bountiful source of power.

Every single part that is… Except one.