[Awakening lasted for 10 days 3 hours 27 minutes and 33 seconds]

It wasn’t so much an issue for the process to take this long, but he felt a bit of pain for losing some winter’s hope sap. Those two weeks of hastened growth might have been all he needed to truly become a youngling!

While rather close, until his growth phase ended, he couldn’t truly be called one.

[Consumed Stormfrost lord wolf bloodline! Assimilation progress 99%]

To assimilate 9% in a single meal, he ate all the meat around the wolf’s ribs, sides and back. All that remained to eat was the slab of meat in front of him. Although, that didn’t really mean much as he still felt insufferably hungry.

Not painfully at least, so there were some benefits. He didn’t understand why the animals here provided so little relief, how did dragons in stronger areas put up with this hunger?

He didn’t worry about it too much though, digging into the slab of meat as soon as it finished cooling. Piece by piece descended down his smooth gullet without rest, and before long that final announcement arrived.

[Consumed Stormfrost lord wolf bloodline! Assimilation progress 100%]

An explosion of heat burst within him. Still, he didn’t scream or complain, just lay there and inspected his body closely to see if any bursts of heat grew impossible to bear. After the Kandir giant incident, he knew better than staying entirely passive, and if possible using mana to slow the assimilation. Whilst rotating all the mana within his body in a massive cycle, he unfortunately did not notice any real improvements in the temperature, and he didn’t know if that was due to an incorrect process or a flawed idea at its core.

Having never thought of such a thing before, it was better to try in futility than resign himself to death.

However, while his body stung immensely, it wasn’t to the point of knocking him unconscious or literally burning him alive. The pain passed after a short while and finally allowed him to lie on the ground before being forced to sleep, an expected but retrospectively poor ending.

A last-second clarity before sleep made him realise that drinking the sap should’ve come first. But he missed that opportunity and let it go, knowing this rest to be short.

He wasn’t wrong. Just a couple hours, waking up once more with a few issues, the major two being hunger and tiredness. The new Nexus prompts also intrigued him, not to the point of asking questions or prioritising it over food though.

[Stormfrost lord wolf bloodline assimilated! 4 new bloodline directions potentially available

Title upgrade Mission 2 complete]

He actually expected to only receive 3 new directions, but imagined the higher count either due to being a lord or having some affinity with the beast. Either way, he couldn’t be happier due to the increased variability. Completing the second mission also got him one step closer to the upgrade, but he always saw the first two as inevitable goals.

While thinking about the third mission, he chose to grab the wolf’s heart, preparing it as usual when the Nexus provided another unexpected prompt

[Due to inherent difficulty of Mission 3, and valuable data being retrieved in large quantities, the Nexus has moved the order of some missions]

That seemed good, he hadn’t really started trying to evolve any creatures with his body as well. But before he could go check the new mission, a prompt came in.

[Title Evolution Mission 3 completed, Nexus Aid Bonus has been upgraded

A new list of missions is now available]

Why was the Nexus providing such a thing like this? It felt a bit underwhelming to just be given the upgrade like this, even if he’d never dare voice those thoughts. The upgraded form of the title did exactly as expected.

[Nexus Aid Bonus II: All stat fields offer +2% bonuses. Can be upgraded through completion of further Nexus Missions]

“May I see the new mission selection?” An eagerness to see what stood between him and the future of this title remained. His magic and growth fields gained a massive boost from this, and more wouldn’t hurt in any way.

[Title Evolution Mission 1: Collect 50 bloodlines, no limitations

Title Evolution Mission 2: Find limit for the next rank of bloodlines

Title Evolution Mission 3: Utilise divinity to form derivatives 4 times

Title Evolution Mission 4: Gather 10 bloodlines of every rank up to Advanced+]

So it increased to 4 missions this time, but that evolution-reliant one was nowhere in sight. Anyway, these goals were all far more achievable, albeit far tougher. The fourth one did raise a question though. “Is the Nexus counting the plus versions as a separate rank?”

[No]

That made things extremely easy then! He already completed the Normal rank, and Magical would be a breeze in the coming future. As for the other two, he could worry about it in due time.

For now he finished up cooking the wolf’s heart and ate every last morsel before rushing over to the winter’s hope tree. An interesting sight received him there.

Something moved into his place!

This horse-like creature with webbed feet soon looked straight at him, but his eyes only saw the rather great store of mana within it. Besides its duck-ish feet, the thing’s legs and body were muscular, defined sections more than easy to pick out. Its long face was tough to distinguish from any other horse, but with a walnut brown skin with the occasional large, white spot to stand out, this bloodline couldn’t be too bad, and he walked over with eyes set on the beast.

Unfortunately, the moment he approached, the thing ran off…

He gaped at its galloping figure in amazement, surprised that it would be so cowardly for little reason. Instead of chasing, not that he could with such slow speed, a simple Lesser flame and dagger combo pierced through the trunk to grant him a mouthful of sap. But just as he prepared to use Snap chill, his senses realised that the tree’s mana flow appeared no different. Cautiously, he opened the tree a bit more to take another mouthful.

It only barely weakened, and so he took a third before finally realising how much of an effect this new ecosystem had. Was the tree itself stronger, or did this come as a side-effect of the node tree literally having too much mana to use?

Either way, he cast Snap chill after the third mouthful and the massive pearl of life essence within him. He realised his mistake of greed at that moment… The rest of the wolf’s corpse would be enough, right?

[Consumed Winter’s hope tree! Assimilation progress 49%]

On second thought, perhaps that webbed feet horse was still nearby! That could work….

His five minutes of search confirmed that idea though.

It did not work. He simply found an adult snow wassat on the way back, and chose this creature from one of several possible targets. A very purposeful choice at that.

Still, sometimes things tend to work out really well, a thought he didn’t have until nearing the tunnel to his home, as a new prompt appeared.

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

The timing was convenient, but he somewhat wished it had taken a few more days so he could have tried finding another Magical rank bloodline. Well, he knew that only another Rare rank bloodline could be of any use.

Entering his home with Instant shift took fifteen seconds, and he already deposited the snow wassat corpse before lying down in the main room. It was just a matter of waiting now, not that the alert gave a huge breadth of warning.

Just a few minutes later, his future appeared.

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

Chocolate Ice-cream

Strawberry Ice-cream

Volatile mutant…

Mentally controlled…

Faith powered…

Runic body…

Soul awakened…

Cryo-coat…

Spongey…

Durably minded…

Bloodsoaked…

War-scarred…

Auric spiritual…

Extreme battle minded…

Endlessly withstanding…

Steelwafer…

Metal tracker…

Radial sensing…

Path warrior…

Scripture engraved…

Hyper-cold mist…

Refreezing…

Storm descending…

Frost haven…

Gigantic…

Chaotic wind…

Please make a selection in 4 minutes, or a random pathway will be used]

Just at a glance though, he came to a single conclusion…

So many of these sounded amazing!

Admittedly, Steelwafer and Metal tracker were disappointing, but he never held high hopes from the Cold Iron shrew. The monk seemed worthless as well, although the derivative read like a spellcasting bloodline, something of great interest.

Gigantic from the stormfrost wolf wasn’t useful in the slightest, and as always he ignored the food evolutions and that disgusting Volatile bloodline.

He didn’t even bother reading any of those.

But now came a list of 19 bloodlines, of which he found himself drawn to a majority. And so came the first filter, where he read the descriptions hastily to find the best overall effect. This ignored Nexus bonuses because weighing numbers was far too tough when given so little time.

Faith powered went first, being formed by his body absorbing a small portion of divinity. It required intelligent beings to bow and praise him to gain strength. In what world could he do this with the few intellectual beasts here?

Cryo-coat and Spongy both went next, the two cry-cotton bloodlines weren’t bad by any means, but he didn’t see much depth to their evolutions. With a single body enhancement, it didn’t really synergise with his hunting or growth methods.

Durably minded left right after, only due to its effects simply being a worse version of Mentally controlled he saw in the list above!

From the Kandir giant, he eliminated War-scarred and Endlessly withstanding for different reasons. Requiring one to fight in battles with comrades, for the former, while the latter gave a seemingly endless vitality and defence in the face of death. War-scarred was impossible as a lone dragon, while Endlessly withstanding depended on a defence he just didn’t have.

Scripture engraved… was in a tough spot. It actually held quite a bit of worth as it allowed for spiritual attacks to be blended onto his body, as well as sealing spirits as tattoos to release as attacks. But the usefulness on wafer scales was already questionable, not to mention he’d have access to spiritual attacks soon anyway.

Refreezing simply wasn’t worth keeping, being a worse version of Mentally controlled outright.

Besides that, all the other bloodlines seemed worth arguing for or against. But how much time did he have left after all that filtration?

[3 minutes 4 seconds]

Perhaps enough. He had to jump back into figuring out which to take. His biggest goal had to be something which made further acquisition of bloodlines easier. But it also needed to hold deep potential.

[Mentally controlled Ice-cream: Your body is a complete extension of your mind. As long as it remains intact you may combine any melted, cut, or crushed portions of your body. However, this only works as long as you maintain mental control and have a sufficient mind to control the effect. On top of this, endurance during mental training is greatly improved. +50% mental defences, +30% magic damage, +35% psychic powers, +75% max MP]

A heavy hitter to start off with, so much so that he truly considered focusing on this mental training pathway. But before further considerations he read through the rest.

[Runic body Ice-cream: The runes of Divinus are integrated such that runes may be engraved into your body, allowing for any of the great languages to be inscribed. The effects of this are profound and tough to summarise, however it depends greatly on knowledge of great languages and runic drawing abilities. +40% runic power, +20% auto-correction, +50% defence to rune inscribed body parts, +100% Draconis runic power]

[Soul awakened Ice-cream: The soul’s awakening is not inhibited like the body and mind, and may be awakened anytime through special means. This awakening is then merged with your body to form a soul-infused body with the added benefit of soul harvesting, furthermore granting the ability to identify the power of souls weaker than your own. +25% soul training efficiency, +35% soul spell damage, +50% soul defences, +45% soul precision]

“Why the hell are they all so good?” Looking at just these three in depth, as well as their numbers, their amazing nature was not hidden from him. Was this due to completing the Pure mana bloodline?

[Luck]

The Nexus replied briefly, and he fully agreed with its assessment. But still he had yet to even see the cream of this evolution… The Kandir giant bloodlines.

[Bloodsoaked Ice-cream: A true warrior fights until the land itself cries blood from the devastation on its soft earth; there is no end to the slaughter. Until red rivers dye the world, victory is no such option. Soak in blood. Purify in it. Grow from it. Do not just kill, but absorb the latent power from any blood by bathing in it! +50% damage when bloodstained, +20% damage for every equal fought simultaneously (up to 10), +25% absorption from blood, +75% mental defences, Innate ability ‘Blood Armour’]

[Auric spiritual Ice-cream: Aura is not merely a form of suppression or attack, it can do so much more. Aura may be condensed into a shape, given form, and finally, given will. Your Auric spirit will grow alongside your aura, and strengthens in response to strong willpower. The Auric spirit may be attached to your body or allowed to fight freely on its own accord, its future only bound by your own. Grants Innate ability ‘Auric imbuement’. +25% mental defences, +50% suppression resistance, +60% Auric spirit damage, +45% everything when merged with Auric spirit]

[Extreme battle minded Ice-cream: War, duels, sparring, roughhousing, whatever. All combat is equal, and one’s mind must be honed for perfection in any fight. Any less become mistakes, failures, and an inevitable death. Your body becomes hyper-sensory in battle and during tense moments, granting incredible reactions and an uncanny ability to react near-perfectly to basic attacks. Skills and spells will require training though. +50% reaction speed, +25% all senses, +10% damage per minute of fighting (up to 50 mins), +25% domain radius]

Three bloodlines which took fighting to the extreme, and for some reason they came with some poetic descriptions. He momentarily wondered how the Nexus decided to add such things, but dismissed it when thinking about how he just wasted precious seconds. Also, Bloodsoaked was just a slightly worse version of his assimilation, was it not?

Was there any other types of power to absorb from blood… perhaps some elements in higher-level creatures, but little else.

As for Extreme battle minded? Please, he wasn’t suicidal. In what worlds would he ever choose such a physical, suicidal bloodline?

Only Auric spiritual made sense, and its ability to switch between long and short-range made it so much more useful. It’s potential seemed unlimited as well, and it just barely beat out the previous bloodlines in his opinion.

It was on this winnowing that he realised Hyper-cold mist to be a mediocre bloodline as well. In theory, the effects were rather good… but when compared to Auric spiritual it couldn’t have been any more mediocre. Which only left three important ones.

The stormfrost wolf’s assimilation:

[Storm descending Ice-cream: Beckon the clouds of thunder and lightning, and bring down a rain of lightning to smite foes. Winds to cut through steel, and bolts to burn them to ashes, any elements can be combined with such lightning for complete control. A storm domain may be created at will, however its size and power scales with your own and the natural weather. The raging storm can cross gulfs like few other bloodlines. +100% lightning damage, +50% wind damage, +40% various elemental defences, +25% storm summoning, +45% storm control]

[Frost haven Ice-cream: Ice and snow are your sword and shield, forming a defensible zone like no other for your level. The Frost haven has three levels: Glacier storm, Frozen safety, and Absolute frost haven. The first is an offensive form, and grows progressively more defensive yet immobile with each level. The Frost haven is a natural domain, meaning it draws on a combination of soul and mental power. +50% domain defence, +50% domain damage, +40% defence inside domain, +40% ice and water damage inside domain, +33% domain size]

[Chaotic wind Ice-cream: The winds are one of the most chaotic yet stable existences in the world, following sweeping general paths over the course of months, yet no individual wind is identifiable or traceable. The chaotic winds are a magicised concept of this, creating giant gusts of winds with untraceable paths and laden with Wind blades of a higher tier. Control over chaotic wind means control over all winds, to a limit that is. +50% wind damage, +35% various elemental defences, +120% movement speed, -80% weight when surrounded by wind, +25% wind control]

There was… so much to read. “Time remaining?”

[1 minute 12 seconds remain]

Not a lot. He needed to pick, and quickly.

The stormlord wolf’s bloodlines were all rather good. Having high utility, power, and even defensive options, they were an excellent set of bloodlines to have. It was likely that their elements being split granted him far more powerful abilities in each part, unlike the wolf who could only use them in specific ways.

But even then he didn’t like Chaotic wind or Storm descending, the bloodlines focused too much on offence and offered little to nothing in ways of searching for things. However, their potential to scale with him in the future meant that they remained options for now.

Frost haven was a good defensive option… but that’s also why he chucked it away. Focusing too much in defence only weakened his survival ability. Killing the enemy is always the best way to survive when fighting beasts!

Now for an interesting argument… He thought Runic body wasn’t worth it for several years at the least. The requirement to learn great languages could not be understated, and he’d likely replace the bloodline with a better evolution just a couple months from now!

The bloodline mentioned Draconis, one of the five great languages. In fact, it was the only one his memories recorded properly, as his Draconic originated from none other than it! And from those exact memories, he knew that learning a single word of Draconis required just as much effort as learning a 50 word spell.

Why would he bother with such a bloodline?

That left three, and while getting a soul awakening was tempting, it didn’t actually mean much here. He needed something to speed up his power gain and keep up with bloodline collection. From here on he’d need to collect a lot more Rare and Advanced bloodlines, meaning tougher battles and far more dangerous areas.

So, now it just came down to two…

Mentally controlled or Auric spiritual, it was a tough decision in his mind. Both achieved precisely what he needed in the end. A source of offensive and defensive power, immense utility as well as being able to grow alongside him for the foreseeable future…

But most importantly, they aided him in gathering bloodlines to continue his hasty growth!

“Time?” Going over the two bloodlines over and over again, he checked one more time to see how much remained.

[4 seconds]

There was no time left to think about it, he just had to pick one!