Name

Title

First Magical Step

Species

Dragon

Bloodline

Vanilla Ice-cream

HP

100%

MP

100%

Level

1

EXP

72%

Unallocated Stat Points: 3

Strength

0

Luck

0

Agility

0

Growth

0

Magic

0

Mutation Rate

0

[First Magical Step: You may select one Basic tier spell, as defined by the Nexus, and reduce its mana cost by 20%. The selected spell can only be changed once per 24 hours]

A small reduction, but something absolutely noticeable. The spell, Fire, counted for this title, and used about 3% of his current MP every cast.

Therefore, his theoretical number of casts went from 33 to 41! Being the spell he’d use most often for a while, it helped avoid the drawbacks of draining his body of mana. Once MP dropped below 30%, side effects started appearing. At 0% his already weak body turned immobile and entered a temporary coma.

Seeing the title further specify his future path, he began worrying about the best options for combat. Surely putting those 3 points into Magic for future offence mattered most?

The books gave no real advice on paths to pick, saying that ‘Every dragon must forge their own future’. The more he read those basic books, the more he realised just how unguided dragons are with their children.

Ditching them in unsavoury, aggressive environments is bad enough, but all the information provided felt emotionless and only partially informative. With these circumstances, of course he had to form his own path…

But they should have at least told kids what bonuses are best for generic circumstances! Just a nudge to learn this first hurdle.

Bored out of his mind, he saw the snowstorm outside already lightened into a light blizzard. Before long it may as well turn into a minor snowfall, completely removing all safety it provided.

He needed food anyway, but first came the snow gibbon. After melting a top layer of his body off, the lesson with fire came abundant, and all his future practice aimed at forming the flame further away to avoid melting. This proved extremely easy as the Fire spell easily formed wherever he willed, within his line of sight.

After a dozen or so flames, the pool of blood finally warmed up and melted partially, a small puddle of the dark red liquid now in its centre. As the flame vanished, ending due to a lack of mana, he cautiously trotted forward and dipped his tongue in the lacklustre liquid. The frozen blood held a far more appealing appearance.

A long tongue of flexible ice-cream lathered itself in the cool blood, already freezing once more from the cave’s intense chill. Having done so, he did his best to lap up more liquid, but failing and deciding to swallow this bit first.

Closing his mouth, the dragon gagged and almost spat out the coating of blood. A strong metallic, meaty, and outright vile flavour filled his sweet mouth. Nothing he'd eaten so far tasted this bad, leaving him without any other option. One he thought would never be a requirement so long as he lived.

He licked some ice-cream from his body.

It was barely manageable now. As every drop flowed down, he continued licking up blood and taking small bits of his body to avoid vomiting.

By the fourth mouthful, he realised that a hard sheet met his tongue, and followed through on melting the blood once more. Once more taking a couple casts of the spell, melting this stuff demanded far greater effort than his ice-cream body.

But it easily proved its worth. Just in that first cycle, his progress exploded from a mere 2% to over 10%.

Melting took the longest part of it though, having to wait almost half a minute at a safe distance for the dark red liquid to appear once more. After which he walked over, allowed it to cool slightly, and did his best to lick up all of it. Even if it tasted revolting.

Soon he melted it five times, having reached 78% assimilation. Lots of blood remained on the floor though, so no fear of running out remained.

Before long, he stood before a shrunken but still large portion of remaining blood and the last Nexus prompt stating 99% assimilation. Somewhat underestimating the quantity, he was left with quite a bit of blood and the entire corpse itself.

Taking the final dreadful lick, and finishing off without the need for some ice-cream. Something happened… He did not know what, but something indeed happened.

A warm burning flooded his body, soothed by a pleasant but unrecognisable feeling. From the very depths of his body, both these two sensations overlapped and merged before, their noises resonating within him to a louder and louder epitome, until…

An inexplicable exhaustion crashed onto him!

Like an avalanche tumbling through his very essence, the hatchling collapsed and found movement in any manner impossible. Even his eyelids began to feel heavy, and doing his best to stay awake, he weakly said, “Nexus, what happened?”

He felt… it. Whatever the assimilation had done, it quickly began to ebb and all that remained with the assaulting tiredness. This time the Nexus took a while to respond, so he asked once more, “What have I assimilated?”

He barely even made a squeak this time. But the Nexus responded.

[Snow gibbon bloodline assimilated. 2 new bloodline directions potentially available]

Without time to comprehend what just happened, his head dropped to the ground and nodded off. Sleep sounded too good…

The little dragon did not dream, simply passing away his prolific exhaustion hour after hour. The already light snow outside further devolved into a casual wintery day. Some frigid winds swept over the mountain top regularly, but his protection ended today.

Eventually, he awoke to a throbbing ache in all his limbs, like someone threw him back and forth without end. As that strange exhaustion now ended he could move about, albeit in such a manner that he considered sleeping right away.

But with further consideration, he looked around his cave and saw that similar struggle for food. Having tried cooking the snow gibbon a bit, his fire barely even singed its hair. And he absolutely had to cook it! The book discouraged him from appearing bestial, and if a dragon couldn't cook they had to roast it at the very least. Still, this had to wait until his Magic bonus increased, or he learned a stronger spell. Which left a single unfortunate conclusion…

To go outside and find something to eat. Even just some roots were enough to act as sustenance right now. Days of growing hungry frustrated him, and even with a body full of meat in his cave, he could not eat.

With that small goal in mind, he quietly moved towards the cave’s entrance, his initial tiredness clearing up during the slow trod. Speaking aloud, “Nexus, what was the result of the assimilation?” His mind recalled something about bloodlines, but all those words turned hazy.

[The Snow gibbon bloodline has been partially assimilated into yours, allowing for future evolutions which make use of its characteristics]

“My body should have gained some features as well then? But I look and feel the same.” A tinge of disappointment capped that statement.

[The Nexus is now sure that your natural draconic endurance is being used entirely to maintain your existence, including the submission of assimilated bloodlines]

Reading that reply took him a few tries to digest, but the gist of it made sense. He did have a defensive attribute, but his horrific mutation turned it into some sort of life support. At the same time keeping his assimilated bloodlines from randomly mutating him further.

Was that actually a good thing? Maybe gaining some of the gibbon’s strength or speed would have helped more. But what if he grew its hair and lost his draconic tongue?

Pondering right here got him nowhere, but he believed his draconic attributes simply worked in instinct to keep him alive and in fair shape.

No longer hesitating, he stepped outside to take a look. The white blanket of snow eagerly reflected light, only the cloudy sky above stopped it from blinding him. Almost immediately, he was treated to a view that dragons loved to write about.

Near the peak of a sizable mountain, he overlooked a great plain full of forests and farmland. Ponds, lakes, rivers, the fishing huts and mills making use of their natural power. In the near distance a large city existed, like a radiant pillar overlooking this small section of a kingdom.

While he found curiosity in the giant buildings of white and grey stone, looking down on the smaller homes around the city, he drew back and focused on his home. A large snowy peak extended above his cave, but it was still barely half the height of this range’s greatest one.

The cave opened up to a small flat of snow on his left, while the right quickly shifted into a straight cliff spelling a similarly hasty end.

Needless to say he picked the left and slowly trod forward. Every step involved intense scouring of his surroundings, slowly discovering the lifeless field around him. Nothing of notice moved, and even plantlife was bare to an extreme.

But he was only naive, not stupid. Already realising that the heavy snowstorm covered most easily accessible objects around, he instead focused on following tracks. The paths of other beasts should avoid many natural dangers, an exceptional importance given his body’s state.

With every step, his vigilance met with looming silence. Cold winds howling through cracks in the mountains made some noise, but the eeriness of it all left him worried.

Deciding that food was the only way to currently increase his survival odds, he hastened the slow steps to a constant pattering against the snow, the crunching against this fine layer somewhat audible.

But as nothing came, it was even clearer that few predators lived near him. At the very least, being a dragon and using basic magic could scare off anything ordinary.

Just then…

Without realising, he stepped on a soft plane of snow and felt his foot sink through to a small pocket of air. For just a moment he believed himself safe; having stepped through a small gap of snow by pure chance.

A flash erupted from the snow and struck his leg square on!

The entire limb ripped off and knocked the hatchling on his side. Unbearable pain from the torn limb frightened him, having never endured such a thing.

Sweet tears flowed from his eyes, the remaining three limbs desperately pawing at the snow to make it back to the cave as soon as possible. Only then did he catch a glimpse of the thing, a long furred creature. Barely thicker than his leg in the first place, the almost cute looking thing unhinged its jaws to devour his limb in one go.

In just a few moments, he saw a leg torn off and devoured by the same creature.

And as much as he wanted to cry and sulk, the very real sense of death arose. Unable to do much else, he made use of the only attack available to him.

A simple Fire spell, but right now it would have to work.

The words sputtered out his lips, but his crying, chaotic state muttered and urred too much. Trying a second and third time, the thing already began looking towards him again. It struggled to re-align itself on the soft snow, the bulge in its belly quickly getting smaller as his ice-cream leg melted.

The creature turned, and its cute, sleek body revealed a monstrous head exceeding that of a serpent. With its long snout, two pitch-black eyes, and sharpened teeth designed for efficiently grasping a limb before tearing it off in one fell swoop.

While it rarely encountered creatures which survived losing a limb, killing this delicious thing was its sole desire. Doing its best to slither towards its immobile prey, the bestial thing looked ridiculous if not for the opening jaw threatening to steal his life. Just a single flame would do! Just one!

A third and fourth time he tried, still too scared to properly recite it. The onset fear quelled his other emotions, the pain beginning to dull slightly. Taking a single deep breath, he tried to speak the whole word in one go.

No breathing to mess him up, and an entire length dedicated to one single action. The turbulence of his lungs could no longer fail him, and the hours of practice shined through. Mana within him moved rapidly, and a single flame erupted in mid-air.

Inside the creature’s open mouth just inches away from his head.

A small flame, given tinder as the creature’s mouth quickly charred and dried, quickly burst into something bigger. His mana spawned flame remained steady, providing a constant source of heat as the normally blistering cold tried to extinguish it.

As the creature’s brain felt the touch of fire, it stood on its last leg.

From the moment he successfully cast that single flame, every bit of strength went into getting away from as fast as possible. Who knew if regenerating a limb was possible, but right now the flame’s danger was several times that of a lost leg.

Just a few metres away, the strength of the flame still somewhat stung, and he looked back to see the creature dead.

As he continued to look out onto the field of snow near his cave, the sheer danger of this place remained. He needed to learn some spells to overcome this.

Without the Fire spell to provide a constant source of heat, cold winds and water quickly put out the corpse, only lightly charred internally. The smell would attract beasts, and without hesitation he moved further away. This time covering his small body in a layer of snow to hide.

Pain finally subsided, in fact it already felt like he barely even just had the limb torn off. But without the constant reminder of his plight, he found some peace.

He called upon the Nexus for a tally of the battle.

[Killed Level 5 Adolescent snow wassat! Received 190% EXP]

That was almost two levels from a single creature! Of course, being four levels higher and physically stronger meant it was expected. However, when the hatchling relaxed enough to check his status, he realised the experience sat at 36%... At least he was definitely at Level 3 now.

Name

Title

First Magical Step

Species

Dragon

Bloodline

Vanilla Ice-cream

HP

56%

MP

95%

Level

3

EXP

36%

Unallocated Stat Points: 9

Strength

0

Luck

0

Agility

0

Growth

0

Magic

0

Mutation Rate

0

Partially worrying was his 56% HP… but seeing it going up eased that worry. So, he changed focus to clarifying his experience, faintly recalling the book mentioning experience which increased one’s level working in a strange way.

[All calculations are done at your level prior to the fight. The Nexus does not automatically account for increased EXP requirement in display messages]

The specific sentences came back to him. The 190% accounted for his experience requirement at Level 1, and while annoying, the Nexus allowed for him to view his status anyplace and anytime. Did this small inconvenience matter at all?

Looking down at his torn off leg, the light piercing through the thin layer of snow showed it partially regrown. With some time to read, he found one of those books saying that dragons could regenerate any body parts with just their head and heart intact, and they should never fear losing limbs over their life.

Looking at the status for a few minutes showed his HP slowly going back up, leaving him no choice but to sleep and hope the corpse remained there. He wanted to at least assimilate this thing’s bloodline, and then deeply think about where these newfound points went.

A little nap wouldn’t hurt though… Just a few hours to heal up and calm down. Alone under a thin covering of white snow, he fell asleep with a soothing coldness as his embrace.