A flower of solid ice, leaves so thin he feared they would break just by moving the snow around them. But at the same time, what would such a thing taste like? Or what bloodline would he assimilate?

The questions filled him, and a desire to eat grew larger by the moment. Removing more snow, he slowly extended his head forward and bit down on some of its thin outer petals.

Just a light pull later, and he heard a crisp snapping, the petal cleanly breaking off at the stem and instantly dissolving in his mouth. A gulp later and another Nexus notification arrived.

[Consumed Crystal ice flower! Received <1% EXP.

Consumed Crystal ice flower! Assimilation progress 2%]

The experience was lacklustre, and not worth noting. But that assimilation was actually pretty sizable, even this small lotus contained 20 of such petals. And if he included the bud at its centre he expected to hit at least 60% with just this first one.

Surely he would come across another in due time. For now he gobbled up the full lotus, making sure every last drop of its flower vanished down his ice-cream throat. His experience increased by 10%, but the bloodline remained his major goal.

[Consumed Crystal ice flower! Assimilation progress 56%]

He slightly overestimated the size of those inner petals, but no matter. Surely another one of these had to form somewhere along the long tree roots, and when that time came…

The hatchling smiled to itself for a few seconds with its tail moving in the tight hole. Not to mention the ice tasted rather nice for some reason, there was no reason to avoid consuming another such thing when the chance arose.

With a few minutes to check his body’s condition, the flower did not seem to incite any negative reactions. In a moment of consideration he also tried to eat a bit of the green, icy stem which connected the flower to this tree root, but it was a waste of time in the end.

At first trying to cast Ice bolt, he found the ice too tough to cut through. As such he moved away and melted it quickly with a single flame before quickly cutting off a piece for testing. It provided no experience points or bloodline, and without a desire to waste time he left for the tree root’s mana source once more.

However, things began changing from here on. Not environmentally, but rather seeing far more creatures pop up. If that alone was not cause for concern, then seeing some of them using magical abilities immediately frightened him!

Such a thing was always possible, after all, dragons all have their breaths, which are innate abilities. Why couldn’t other magical bloodlines grant them?

But what caused them to flock here particularly? A horrible foreboding began to fill him, but seeing as most the creatures were rather small critters, their passiveness allowed him to continue forward. Nothing here intended to attack until the other side showed hostility.

Further along, the density of mana now began to rise, and a far taller mountain in the distance grew closer and closer. In his mind, whatever this was, it stood right on the boundary of this mountain’s quickly rising ridge.

With mounds of snow often blocking his line of sight, the young dragon now realised that he had to make his way back, but thought back to his route and how simple it was. Just continue back along the root until the part he dug up, then walk back to the cave. Thank goodness he stuck to such landmarks.

The mana density quickly rose, and no doubt he could refill his MP just as fast as inside the cave now, the idea of what plants resided here was exciting.

The snowy landscape began growing similar flowers of ice, these ones all significantly smaller and more delicate seeming. Additionally, very few appeared as lotuses, many of them like orchids, sunflowers, or drooping bells.

He considered going over to eat some, but the quantities of calm creatures nearby suppressed that desire. Who knew if eating such plants would incite their wrath? The idea alone forced him to hold off the idea, and he continued walking as the tip of a great white tree appeared in his vision.

At a distance it appeared as though a blanket of snow covered this great tree, but only after drawing closer, and seeing its sheer scale, did he grasp what sort of importance this place held. So much so that he just stood in place and looked, not daring to approach any further.

The large tree, bigger than most oaks he sparsely saw in his library of memories, was made of a white, argent wood. Its leaves reflected sunlight immensely, shimmering to an almost blinding manner, their true nature being either ice or snow. But that was not what amazed him.

This tree actually gathered mana! He never expected something so powerful to exist on this weak mountain.

While too far to be sure of specifics, the root below absolutely linked to this tree, and it obtained mana somehow. That left one natural conclusion. A side effect of such a tree was to increase the mana density everywhere nearby as well, which drew hundreds of beasts at all times.

Simply living in this sort of place could trigger a bloodline evolution, it was no mystery why unintelligent beasts flocked here. But it was beneath those argent branches which caused him fear.

Two creatures, a giant wolf and an even larger elk with spear-like antlers. Two such behemoths put aside their differences to live in such an environment together. After all, the injuries caused by any battle might allow weaker creatures to take their place.

And two thoughts went through his mind. The first being that coming here was a good lesson as to what his real goals should be.

And the other was a ravine full of gluttonous desire. To devour their bloodlines and see what he became from it. But not just them, what if it was every single creature by this tree?

No! Every creature on this mountain! Who cares if he was made of ice-cream at that point? His bloodline would have absorbed so many extremely powerful traits that he should be safe in this place, his domain where he possessed complete control.

This tree would just be the beginning. The place its mana leads had to be superior in some way, maybe it was something which controlled the tree?

Whatever it was.

He would devour it.

For now he had to keep his plans small, stick to the plants around here and see what he could get away with eating. If it were completely banned, then trying to eat one would quickly gain some aggression, at which he could pull back.

Without much else to do, he found one of the larger flowers of ice and moved his head closer, eyes mostly paying attention to those nearby. No one reacted to him trying to eat one, and to further check his teeth grabbed one petal, pulling it off with a loud snap.

Still nothing. Some beasts looked over at the noise, but immediately stopped caring right after. A few became curious as to why he tried to eat the flowers, and tried to do the same but lost interest as the ice melted.

Knowing that eating the flowers was safe, he quickly began plucking petals off one by one until the entire flower vanished into his body. Receiving just 5% experience this time, and becoming visibly displeased at the more important prompt.

[Consumed Crystal ice flower! Assimilation progress 70%]

His first thought was these flowers’ true nature. Why did this one plant have so many forms? But then came the matter of its tiny assimilation progress. This flower was clearly larger than the lotus, was something about the bloodline it contained weaker?

He asked the Nexus quietly, “Why did I obtain so little progress from that flower?”

[Most plants accumulate an equivalent of a bloodline by gathering mana. These flowers have only gathered a small quantity of mana from the air]

Thinking back to the lotus directly leeching off the root, this logic made far more sense. Still, it should be safe to consume more flowers, and after just a few more the assimilation was complete. While the sound of him snapping petals did annoy some nearby beasts, when they saw him stopping, it also sent them back to sleep.

Like the snow wassat bloodline, completing this one only gave him a few minutes of weakness and a warm pleasant sensation throughout his body. He wondered how many more he needed to absorb until reaching his next evolution as well.

[Crystal ice flower assimilated. 1 new bloodline direction potentially available]

“Just one bloodline?” Speaking a bit louder, his squeaky voice drew some ire. From the gazes, he reminded himself to stay silent.

[Due to a lack of plant bloodlines in your body, there are few available synergies. Although the Nexus believes this logic to be incorrect, please gather more data for greater surety]

That prompt left him speechless. It went from asking for more information, to directly calling itself incorrect. The hatchling began to feel that the Nexus he obtained was mostly faulty especially as it doubted itself half the time. The draconic memories spoke of a nearly omniscient tool, in comparison.

Nonetheless, he had one main goal for today’s trip. Obtaining food, and these flowers, while tasty, did not fill him up in any manner. Naturally, his eyes moved to leaves from that giant tree instead.

Beneath those gleaming branches, the massive elk and wolf slept on a pile of such leaves. If he could just get near, eat those leaves, then make himself like one… That tree was obviously far from normal! Compared to his current bloodline with some magical sensitivity, his next one could be truly functional!

Before moving close though, he sat distant and waited, checking to see if the two giants lashed out at anything accidentally close by.

It took over an hour, but eventually a small pup of some sort walked by trying to cross over to the tree’s other side. In the process some leaves cracked beneath its feet and alerted the two giants, both opening just a single eye to check the commotion.

However, with the wolf just giving a light growl, the pup ran away in fear with both giants going to sleep…

That was it? No ripping it to shreds? No roaring at it to remind the weaker beasts of their place?

This place was way more peaceful than those his memories showed. He liked it, and after waiting a 30 minutes, give or take, to allow both giants to calm down, he began to edge himself forward.

Of course, he was not stupid enough to base his life on a single observation. That was suicidal!

He waited at a closer distance, lying down like many others, to wait until something else walked near the two giants. But even after another half hour, nothing had come close. Everything here knew more than well enough to stay far away, and rarely did they stray that close.

Did he risk trying to acquire the leaves today? The journey here isn’t too bad, although it did present some dangers being so far from home. He wanted to avoid coming this far out again unless required, and that meant obtaining some leaves today.

For now he could just try munching on a few at the periphery. If that didn’t work, then running away was fine. When he grew a bit stronger then neither of the two beasts would dare stop him!

The plan ran through his head several times, and he slowly trotted forward, nothing really trying to stop him or impede the journey. Some did look up at him, then his direction, but ignored it soon after. Offending the top dog, literally, was not in any of their instincts.

And now the great tree loomed over him completely, its leaves of ice and snow left him awestruck. Light winds caused the thick branches to sway in rhythm, leaves floating down like small stars falling all around.

As he approached, he soon found a few leaves which fell quite a distance from the tree, scooping up the cleaner ones on top to test their effects. Whether made of snow or ice, both types easily dissolved in his mouth, giving off a splendid taste like the Ice flowers. A sweet, but refreshing fluid that one could drink for hours on end.

[Consumed Winter’s hope tree! Assimilation progress 0%]

Unquelled excitement spread throughout him, making his tail sway rapidly as he gently stepped about and ate up more leaves. Furthermore, Knowing the tree’s name now gave him the ability to search for it within his memories, and hopefully learn more about its purpose.

In just a few minutes he made a quarter turn around the overbearing tree and ate hundreds of its leaves, each ranging from the size of his foot to several times greater. But he met with extreme problems instead of happiness.

[Consumed Winter's hope tree! Assimilation progress 0%]

Hadn’t he eaten enough leaves to equal his body weight by now? Seeing that fact, he chose not to give up and continued eating, after a full turn around the tree having swallowed at least a thousand leaves of various sizes. The results were not any prettier though.

[Consumed Winter's hope tree! Assimilation progress 1%]

This… This was hopeless! A mere 1% for well over a thousand leaves? Several times his own body mass as well! Not to mention only a few dozen leaves fell in the hours he had been here, most landing underneath the tree itself!

When he ran out of these peripheral leaves… No, this could not continue. He needed to consume part of the tree itself, only then did he stand any chance of acquiring its bloodline. But to eat the tree meant fighting those giants.

He moved away from the tree somewhat and thought it over a bit, there was simply no chance of him obtaining the bloodline anytime soon. When strong enough to challenge those leaders, or somehow sneak into the branches to eat leaves, he would return.

Was there a reason to stay here?

The hatchling prepared to walk back home, thinking of ways to find food now. He made a simple decision.

Strike and kill the first lone creature he found!

Provided it wasn’t a wolf or other predator. He knew the phrase ‘always remember your limits’, and adhering to that was of far greater importance than the average dragon. Instead, he imagined what hare or deer tasted off, both seemed delicious.