A few minutes later and the cocoon around him deteriorated into a pile of mush, releasing him from the tight compression. Almost immediately he felt the flows all around him far better, saying aloud, “Is this mana then?” According to his bloodline, his ability in regards to anything magical improved significantly.

And just to make sure, he licked a leg to check if it tasted the same… Sweet vanilla filled his mouth once more. Precisely the same body composition, just that magic now felt more intrinsic to him.

Only five minutes had passed since he even first received that time limit from the Nexus, and so many questions swam in and out of his head in that time. Most obviously was the first one which surprised him. “Why did I evolve so soon?”

[In the process of assimilation, it seems that small quantities of power are absorbed into your bloodline. Every little bit should close the gap till another evolution, please collect more data for a better analysis]

The description sounded a bit half-baked, but that made sense given the Nexus lacked information at the moment. His utmost priority was to continue evolving, growing stronger as fast as possible. On the topic of evolving, he thought of mutations and how he never put any points into the bonuses.

But it was too late now, and using the points now only took away power from other stats. His massive boost in power from this bloodline came entirely in spell form, although his speaking abilities still needed work. “Can the Nexus inform me how close I am to the next evolution?”

[Not currently]

“What are my missions then?”

[To Be Decided. General guidelines will be focused around assimilating bloodlines, and their evolutionary effects. All progress will be cumulative]

The clarification, even if close to nothing, helped. Even without it though he already knew his next goal was to properly learn some spells for attacking. Still so weak at this age, he wondered how tough hatchlings normally found survival.

Moving past other questions, he tried casting the Fire spell to test its improved effects. Standing a fair distance away, it pretty much matched the previous flame besides emitting a bit more heat. He also clearly felt the mana within his heart move away, sensing how it flowed from his body and formed a spell like something gave it will.

With his increased MP, and ignoring regeneration, casting 50 or 60 such flames was simple. But when accounting for his increased MP regen… perhaps only around 100 casts would he begin feeling faint.

If he obtained some wood, cooking the meat would just be a short matter of time.

But whenever he looked out the cave, to the blanket of white outside… No desire to walk beyond the walls existed within his heart. Aiming to survive better, he practised more pronunciation. Never again could he afford the mistake of incorrectly casting.

A few minutes after starting, he found his tongue moved responsively unlike before. While just one portion of the spellcasting process, each bit helped speed things up. By the next day he could generate a small shard of ice at will, although its use was questionable.

The Basic ice spell, or incantation if one preferred, was actually a precursor for a type of projectile spell. Very simply creating a sharp bit of said element and flinging it in a straight line. Such spells also existed for earth, water, dark, metal, and so on. If you can make a knife from it, then a projectile of it exists.

The version he hoped to learn quickly was formed of four words, double that of either incantation he knew. Simply called Ice bolt, and near worthless against anything with armour.

Doing his best to burn off chunks of flesh when hungry, that summed up how the young dragon spent his next couple days cooped up in the cave. Several times during it he considered leaving, heading out quickly to grab some wood for roasting.

But anytime he walked near that entrance his body froze up and refused to move. In the end, it left him with no choice but to sit back down and continue learning magic.

Several times every single day he told himself the same line. That he would leave, he had to!

No true dragon is so scared of the outside world!

But only once he felt even slightly confident in surviving would he step beyond that frightening barrier. No true dragon is stupid enough to rush to their demise…

The hours spent convincing himself of the decision did not go well. But as the Snow Wassat corpse could last him two or three days more, why should he bother going out?

Before learning the full Ice bolt spell, he cut it up into the Ice and Push components. As long as he could use the push spell on a small pebble then it meant beginning attempts of the full thing.

Learning the two brand new words only took a whole day, but having some understanding of how speaking worked made things a lot easier.

As the tongue motions came naturally, he just had to chain them together and push the small pebble. Trying over a hundred times before everything went perfectly and the smooth bit of stone flew out his cave’s entrance.

He couldn’t help but imagine himself casting those long, complex spells at the back of the basic books. Dozens of words strung together, spoken in a fast yet clear manner to be clearly audible. By then he would be unstoppable on this mountain, and be capable of living safely.

His daydreaming lapsed, and he returned to chaining all four words into a single spell. A slight difference existed between casting each individually and when combined, that being how some syllables changed to make words flow into one another. This made sense in his head, but the change was so minute it promptly staggered him in comparison to making so many noises in a row.

* * *

Unexpectedly, a few hours later and still in the middle of attempting the full ice bolt spell, he heard the faint sound of snow moving. When looking around it was clear that the snow patch at the cave’s back was disturbed once more.

Those ants returned.

And this was no small party. Twelve of them, all the size of those larger ants from before, entered his home. While not enough to kill him… he feared the damage they might achieve. But the need for patience reminded him well enough of what to do.

With their poor eyesight, none of them noticed him turning around to look, and as his spellcasting continued they thought the tasty dragon had yet to notice them. While not intelligent enough to have egos, their instincts allowed them to feel safe and push forward.

Before long the twelve ants came up behind him, all planning to climb on his body. But just an inch away from his leg…

The dragon turned around and started speaking different words! Almost flawlessly, a boisterous flame appeared in the middle of the ants, roasting some alive in seconds. Those closest to his legs decided to run forward, bite off a chunk, and run past the fire, leaving their burning comrades behind.

However, creating the fire so close melted him too!

Running forward to escape the heat, the outside winds quickly cooled him. Looking back at the ants retreating, only five caught on fire in his initial spell. And with enough mana, he began casting the spell over and over. Some mistakes happened, but the little ants clutching his body fell.

Seven dropped to six, then to five, and soon after four. Unfortunately, that was his limit as the remainder escaped with sizable chunks from both his legs. But the eight successfully killed ants gave him hope!

“Just you wait, I’ll destroy all you bugs sooner or later,” he said, filled with spite. Almost since birth these ice ants gave him grief, and killing them so quickly certainly helped his mood. What came next was checking the improvements, something enjoyable for the most part. With the battle over, he called on the Nexus to see the battles conclusion

[Killed Ice ants! Received 5% EXP]

And what followed was the disgusting part, eating their bodies alongside some ice-cream just to make the taste bearable. Actually, he found the taste slightly palatable because of the roasting, but the bad taste remained.

[Consumed Ice ant bloodline! Assimilation progress 12%]

With the boost in progress, he realised it was a long way until he fully assimilated their bloodline. He just needed more bloodlines… but that also meant leaving.

No! It could wait, he still had food. Sitting back down, he continued practicing the Ice bolt spell. Forming the Ice part was extremely easy, literally just being the original spell he knew well enough. But he struggled to both link it and say the whole sentence in a single breath.

The moment he ran out of air, a gap formed and ruined the final part of this spell. But such a thing would not go on forever.

With enough time and repetition the spell came to him. The knife-like shard of ice formed mystically in mid-air, hovering for just a moment as a powerful force instantly rocketed it away. The blade hurtled away at breakneck speed, flying outside his cave before finally falling down and sinking into the snow.

Now came the real tests, to see if this spell had even a chance of harming a real predator. Taking aim towards the snow wassat’s corpse, he found a bit of its lower body with fur and flesh intact to defrost with multiple fire spells.

And once sure the flesh was spongey yet tough, he began saying those four words in succession. Eyes gleaming, looking forward to his first real attacking spell. A shard of sharp ice appeared once more…

And then it flew towards the defrosted snow wassat’s body.