On impulse he saw the words ‘Volatile mutant’ and almost swore, but held back when realising that it actually changed since he last saw it. Perhaps if he simply held off on it, he’d eventually see it improve into an evolution worth taking. With that as a possibility, he decided to at least read through it before disregarding it.

On the first read through of all the bloodlines, he dismissed Suppressive space, Mana world, Soul word, Esoteric existence, and Tidal rage.

Suppressive space and Mana world fell into the same similar category, that being a domain-like effect which simply didn’t feel good enough to keep a hold of. Mana world granted control of the surrounding mana, as though it was his own internal mana… But this ability is near-useless to dragons as they already had spells which did this. Meanwhile, Suppressive space literally just applied the suppression of his aura to a domain around him. Effective at what the label said, but pretty damn useless overall.

Then came Soul word, not exactly useless, but in a similar vein to Suppressive space. Its only real use was to engrave great languages onto his soul, an excellent ability for those races who hold little affinity with such things. But all dragons that reach the master tier can utilise Draconis… So why bother?

Esoteric existence took the World veiler bloodline, and made it better. Good in theory, but dumb as hell in practise. World veiler hid from gold and mithril tiers, but failed against anything higher as spatial searching grew more common. Then along came Esoteric existence which only blocked some of those high level search methods, not all. Therefore, at best he could use its ability to survive in a chase.

Lastly, Tidal rage. It might be remembered how he hated the Rampage bear’s bloodlines due to their innately melee directed effects? Well, Tidal rage was akin to those, but instead of just taking time, it also required him to lose HP… And that simply wasn’t an option.

Finally, that left the good evolutions. And there were a few of them, so he started at the top of the list as always.

[World metamorphosis Ice-cream: Through the wrapping of space, the world and mind merge to a point of transformation. Worldly energy permeates your Mind palace, granting it an ability to modify the surroundings and vastly improves its spell-countering abilities. The metamorphosis of both is a symbiotic process, with long-term ramifications. In addition to previous bonuses, grants +40% Mental defence, +50% Soul defence, -50% worldly power mana expenditure, +50% Mind palace build speed, +60% max MP]

This one actually gave mixed feelings. On one hand, he loved the idea of cancelling Apprentice true spells, and perhaps even higher level ones in the future, but also integrating himself with the world itself worried him.

There were select tales amongst dragons of those who became guardians of the planets, fortunately, only one dragon had been unfortunate enough to take such a position. It rarely ended well for those individuals, as their minds normally ended up horribly protective of the world to the point of losing individuality, although, that’s not to say the world itself did any of that. It was more like a natural progression of merging with something whose collective will overpowered your own by an unimaginable degree.

“Easy pass… But it does sound pretty powerful. Here’s the fun one though,” he said and looked to the next description.

[Auric-refined Volatile mutant Ice-cream: Through aura as a stabilising force, your body tightly binds assimilated bloodlines into a temporary form. This temporary form may be expelled to create an immediate transformation to your body in the direction of that bloodline, meanwhile, aura will constantly suppress its mutating effects. This only lasts as long as aura exists. In addition to previous bonuses, grants +100% bloodline defence, +30% auric power, +50% mental defences, +50% primary stats of transformed bloodline]

“That’s pretty boring. Too bad.” Without time to waste, he let go of the matter and moved on to the next evolution, there were far more important things to care about.

[Emulative true form Ice-cream: Create a soul body with sufficient mana which represents the core of your will, increasing as yours strengthens. This soul body cannot be integrated into the real world casually, but with a combination of worldly power, it may be emulated into a correspondingly powerful state. The soul body cannot attack the physical, and teeters on the edge of reality as a soul-based existence. In addition to previous bonuses, grants +80% max MP, +50% soul defence, +70% mental defence, +60% soul damage

[Divine parody Ice-cream: With the world as your stage, yourself as the actor, and Divinus your language, craft yourself a play which mocks the very roots of existence. The power of the great languages are not lost, imbued in your action and mockery. Satirise and cut deep into the psyches of your audience, using the divine melody to bring comical ruin. In addition to previous bonuses, grants -80% backlash of using Divinus, +90% psychic damage, +50% Divinus learning rate, Instant translation to all creatures in your audience]

The soul body seemed eerily similar to his Auric spirit, instead fully focused on attacking souls and minds. He didn’t know how effective it was, but the idea of just having a bunch of spirits fight appealed greatly to a lazier side within him. It also raised an interesting question of merging the two spirits together… Or within himself.

How powerful would that be?

Probably not that much. These two concepts are formed from entirely different powers, and use a more natural process to ensure their states. Normally, such merging processes either have to be facilitated with an intermediary, like a stupidly tough to create spell, or the base items must be produced to have such a merging mechanic built into them. Needless to say, it made sense for the individual spirits to merge with him, but that would break down when introducing more variables.

This sort of information is very well known to mages, and why normally merging materials into your body is a horrible idea.

Assimilation did turn that on its head though. So, who knew?

Maybe he could infinitely merge spirits into his body?

Divine parody was so strange as a concept he really didn’t know how to grasp it. On one hand, it appeared to be a bloodline which mocked opponents to work… But the use of Divinus had him question that.

Not to mention, it was horribly uncharacteristic for anything below master tier to use great languages. He didn’t trust this bloodline, mostly because it clearly created a backlash.

So, that finished the evolutions his body garnered and only left the wyvern’s bloodline. Five of them were worth using, and none disappointed, in his opinion.

[Lightning garden Ice-cream: Myriad forms of all elements fill the world, and lightning is no different. You can now store that lightning within your Mind palace and rear them as plants for your control, however, a mental space may require modifications for some types. The quantity of usable lightning depends purely on the number of grown plants of that type. In addition to previous bonuses, grants +60% lightning damage, +5% max MP per lightning type, +60% mental defence, +40% soul defence, +2% MP regen per lightning type]

This seemed to be the exact ability of that wyvern to store lightning flowers in its mental space. Although, as it was the only ability he’d seen, it left him to wonder if this was an ability it awakened through another bloodline, or if it too had the Lightning garden bloodline in the past.

[Stormbringer Ice-cream: Call the winds of rain and fire, to block the light and dull the earth. Cast shadows over the life of all below, and take your place in the sky as the one who beckons ends. The ‘bringer’ is a herald of untold destruction, and the announcement of a true storm signals devastation for those who must endure its apathy. In addition to previous bonuses, grants +50% water damage, +50% lightning damage, +50% wind damage, +40% everything whilst in storm, +100% destruction damage]

“What do you mean ‘herald of untold destruction’? Is this some sort of prophetic status?” The way the Nexus phrased it almost made him seem like some sort of world-destroying danger, and it instantly alerted him to a possible danger in this evolution.

[‘Bringers’ are a special class of individuals whose powers bring forth further calamities. It is not an explicit effect, but more of a knock-on effect due to what damage and problems such powers cause. With adequate caution the destruction of a bringer may be minimised]

So, ridiculous storm related powers in exchange for… Possibly creating destruction across the continent. How was he getting these from a gold tier wyvern of all things? Or was it more so that the Nexus’ sophistication with these descriptions was becoming a bit of hyperbole as well?

He read on to find out more.

[Bolt raining Ice-cream: Rain hell from above on all. With lightning as your spear, it penetrates the land, sea, and skies with endless announcement. A depth of pure lightning, excited to strike anywhere it pleases, controllable yet unruly. Grants innate ability ‘Lightning Extinction’. In addition to previous bonuses, grants +100% lightning damage, +500% lightning defence, +300% heat resistance, +5% MP regen for 1 minute after killing with lightning]

[Sky cataclysm Ice-cream: Sky falls; earth rises. Heaven dies; hell begs… And the cataclysm may start. Rupture the sky and the heavens above to bring damage on those who dare oppose you, no longer shall their comfortable supports keep them intact as their very backs break and bleed with the weight you endure. There is no protection they may hide in except your death, and even that does not come lightly. In addition to previous bonuses, grants +90% sky shattering, +120% complete suppression, +80% all resistances when fighting anything one tier higher, Absorb 5% of a killed creature’s soul if stronger than your own]

What was… These descriptions weren’t even making sense now. At least the Warborne and Lunar clipped bloodlines both made relative sense, but these two barely even did that! What the hell were the bonuses for Sky cataclysm as well!

‘90% sky shattering’? That didn’t even sound like a measurable quantity! But before he raised a complaint, he read through the final evolution, just from its verbose title he either imagined it was extraordinary, or extraordinarily stupid.

[Frigid water of boundlessness Ice-cream: What lies beyond is not always clear. Beyond life and death, time or space… Beyond existence and destruction, reality and its illusions… To take on this aspect, is to see what lies in a part beyond, and try to grasp what exactly boundlessness is. Neither cold nor water truly exists here… And the words mean nothing more than their great counterparts. In addition to previous bonuses, grants +100% when studying great languages, +50% ice-related great words, +90% water-related great words, +120% anything which exceeds dimensionality]

“Nexus… What am I even looking at? This doesn’t even hold hidden meanings, you’ve just given me a philosophical discussion.” With the evolution being so time-sensitive, he wasn’t exactly in the mood to play games either. This was serious, and such a ridiculous description with such useless boosts made things even worse!

[This was the best description that the Nexus could formulate. We do not have any true ideas of the bloodline’s effects]

“You have No idea, please do articulate before I run out of time.”

[The Nexus must generate new descriptions for new evolutions, this often leads us to focus on vague concepts of powers over clear descriptions… As you have seen. However, as you lack something, we may only examine these bloodlines briefly with few simulations. The results are poor descriptions and improper bonuses as we guess abilities]

That was a brutal explanation from them, he didn’t expect it to be in so much detail as well. Normally the Nexus replied with an abject reply about how they ‘could not achieve it’ and refused to tell more.

He immediately accepted the explanation and asked, “What do I lack?”

[ ]

Another blank box? Once more he felt that the Nexus was actually trying to tell him something. As opposed to simply not answering the questions he asked, it now at least implied that something either removed the text or stopped the Nexus from writing it in the first place.

Which of the two, he wished he knew.

And while it interested him, this just confirmed that the later bloodlines were not exceptionally powerful, but simply that the Nexus wasn’t given enough time to understand their effects in detail. So, it gave rough expectations instead. At least, he decided to ask this as well to receive another prompt.

[Yes, these bloodlines are all from the same source in the end. It is impossible for them to wildly differ in power too much]

That set his expectations straight and he decided to use the Lightning garden bloodline as a filter for the rest. Through this, he knew how to reel in expectations a bit more, but this still left the final bloodline up in the air. Frigid water of Boundlessness left so much up in the air that he still didn’t even understand its most basic effects.

It did something regarding great languages? But that could mean almost anything given the breadth of those, not to mention it created an issue of the Nexus possibly giving wrong bonuses!

He wiped it off the slate, and now had to pick between several amazing bloodlines. Fortunately, he was able to remove several more bloodlines which left him with a far smaller selection. These were:

Emulative True form, Lightning garden, Stormbringer, Bolt raining, and Sky cataclysm.

“This next one is going to be utter hell… Will I even get proper poetry?” He couldn’t help but laugh as he asked for the time as well, not stressed in the slightest when he saw it.

[58 seconds]

He used up a bit too much talking to the Nexus, but with so much left, he didn’t worry. Time to make a decision though…