[Consumed Glacial Wyrm King bloodline! Assimilation progress 0%]

A moment later, another prompt appeared.

[Consumed Glacial Wyrm King bloodline! Assimilation progress 0%]

And then another… and another. Long story short, the Nexus provided an update on the bone within him every second, forcing him to agitatedly say, “Stop notifying me about it!”

[No longer providing prompts about the Glacial Wyrm King bloodline]

That finally stopped the constant messages, and he felt the small bone shard still within him. Whatever this thing was… his body actually couldn’t absorb it instantly. He also realised its mana apparently vanished upon entering him, proving to be one of those strange objects he never expected to find here.

It made him wonder if more bone shards existed, enough to complete a bloodline even. For now he had to check how much he needed to complete an assimilation. “Actually… Nexus, place 5 points into Mutation rate,” he said confidently. While somewhat whimful, he knew that the stat needed points sooner or later and using them for these shards was better than waiting.

Swallowing the other two shards, he left. Having waited far too long to cut off any meat, something else would absolutely eat a corpse left in that state.

On the way back, he eventually found one of those hares who usually ran upon any sight or sound. With a hushed voice, an Ice bolt appeared and stabbed through its body.

The hare immediately ran upon being struck, quickly making progress and escaping his sight. No doubt it died just a distance away, but who knew if it escaped to its burrow in time as well. Even with the boosted magic power he failed to instantly kill a small animal like this?

The next priority was obtaining a stunning spell. Since ice barely worked up here he opted for lightning, the shock left most creatures paralysed for a few moments, enough to send an Ice bolt through their brains.

A bit distraught at the lack of easy bloodlines, he continued looking and waiting.

At one point he thought something moved, it ended up being random bits of snow blowing away. It took a while until he found a very dark furred raccoon wandering around. Generally speaking, everything here used a light colour to blend in well with the similarly white snow.

Finding it dangerous, he opted to retreat and look for different prey. Whether right or wrong, a confident creature was not worth the risk involved. Eventually he found a cantou, best described as a hairier guinea pig with a small horn protruding from its forehead.

With a boisterous skull, it adored ramming headfirst into any threats, most strikes instantly killing foes equal to or smaller than it in size. By sneak attacking with an Ice bolt, and leading it near a steep snow mound, he easily jumped over its rampaging charge and watched it fall over.

With Telekinesis he just had to grab the shard of ice and cut its legs several times over, leaving the thunderous beast immobilised. He then had all the time in the world to cut through its thick fur and bleed it dry.

[Killed Level 4 Frozen cantou! Obtained 28% EXP]

In the process obtaining just enough experience for a level, and easily completing another bloodline.

[Consumed Frozen cantou bloodline! Assimilation progress 100%]

While slightly stronger than the wassat or chill-bite snake, it was a far cry from the gibbon yet again. Why did so few strong bloodlines exist here?

“Ah… Right, so I don’t die,” he reminded himself. Not long after the thought passed, he felt the warm flush move on, and the weakness accompanying it vanished entirely. Another bloodline, albeit nothing as important as the bone shards.

[Assimilated Frozen cantou bloodline! 1 new bloodline direction potentially available]

It seemed all the shared bloodline directions unlocked a while ago, likely things similar to the hairy ice-cream, and almost entirely useless in his opinion. But every new bloodline actively sped up progress to his next evolution. In theory he could evolve hundreds of times just by constantly devouring new things!

After devouring all that blood, his MP refilled a sizable amount, and so began the journey of moving this corpse back home. A combination of Push spells and Telekinesis massively speeding up the slow process.

Unlike his first night of dragging that wassat corpse back inside, he only needed 20 minutes to move this heavier corpse an even further distance. Hopefully, one day he might be capable of just instantly teleporting items to his cave.

Once back inside, he believed the cantou to be enough meat for at least a week. Although if he threw away the guts this time it would be far less.

With an Ice bolt and Telekinesis, he spent the better part of an hour slowly skinning it with far more effort than he liked. Then cutting off its legs and head, he started by packing everything with the other corpses besides one sizable leg.

Telekinesis made cutting the meat a simple task, and he could eat well for the days to come. Staying full and learning spells in his spare time, practicing the ones he already knew to ensure his casting never failed as well.

His first goal was a basic stunning spell, this was adequately called Stun. Like a weak lightning bolt, it zapped the target in your sight and stiffened their muscles for a few seconds. Although it only worked against smaller creatures, unless one’s magic power was extremely high.

This four word spell took just over a day to complete, and he used it with ease. By now he adapted to speaking quite a bit, interested in learning some more varied magic.

What came next was Flame bolt, a spell more complex than Ice bolt, but so much stronger.

Firstly, it aimed at releasing the fire as a greatly-concentrated blast. In effect this instantly charred and burned anything in contact with it, albeit with far lower chances of causing fires as the flames vanished so quickly.

Not to mention most weaker creatures simply couldn’t run away from it!

He prepared to begin learning the spell over a couple days, deciding to check up on the bone shard’s assimilation progress. After a full day their size decreased by a bit over half, but it amazed him nonetheless. “Nexus, may I have a single status of the Glacial wyrm king bloodline?”

[Consumed Glacial wyrm king bloodline! Assimilation progress 6%]

So 10% from just a few shards of a bone? Adult wyrms are pretty large creatures, it surprised him that just a few bits of bone provided this much benefit, unlike the winter's hope tree where a massive pile of leaves barely equated to anything at all.

Still… that meant he didn't need too many more shards to fully assimilate this bloodline. Something far above the snow gibbon, and maybe even higher than the winter’s hope. His daydreaming carried on for several minutes longer before reining back into his spellcasting practice.

Flame bolt was easy to learn, an expected result as two words came from Push, another two from Fire, while the last two simply modified the flame into a projectile. In the end, another day marked the rough completion of this spell, and its direct damage was the highest so far.

Alongside his magic power boost, he believed hunting small prey to be easy. And no wonder as the next day he received a chance to test it against a small squirrel.

The tiny thing received a Stun spell and passed out instantly…

He never expected the power of this Basic lightning spell to be so great, but it made sense. If large creatures barely felt its effects, for a tiny thing, stopping its heart fell into a realm of realism. Fortunately, he didn’t kill this squirrel in this case, and he opted against eating it.

With such a miniscule, weak body he doubted it held a bloodline. As such the creature woke up a few minutes later, swayed a bit, and ran off in fear. Who knew if it survived past the day, but he knew how to hold himself to greater morals. When are dragons so petty as to slaughter random beasts?

And on the side he checked the now vanished bone shards, confirmed with the Nexus the last update regarding them.

[Consumed Glacial wyrm king bloodline! Assimilation progress 10%]

A sizable chunk given how little of a wyrm that all was. And in high spirits he continued on for a more respectable hunt.

Later on he happened to come across a boar, and eager at the taste he stunned it easily. The thick beast squealed at the sensation and looked around for a possible target, but did not get very far as a Flame bolt hit its face. Almost instantly, the flames exploded all around, not only blackening a layer of skin but blinding it completely as its eyes charred!

Its painful wails and screams finally came to an end as an Ice bolt controlled by Telekinesis stabbed through its neck, slicing wildly until bloodloss took the poor thing. The effects of Flame bolt could not be understated, he retained its effectivity against these weaker creatures.

At least he had some updates from the Nexus, not to mention licking up blood to check for a bloodline.

[Killed Level 3 Ice-charge boar! Received 5% EXP

Consumed Ice-charge boar bloodline! Assimilation Progress 1%]

A good ending all round… Not for the boar that is. With several minutes spent sucking up its heavy, almost meaty blood, he almost gagged by the time he finished. Snow made the substance manageable, albeit not great. Reaching 60% assimilation in a single stride, he left it to drain for a few moments longer before using Telekinesis once more.

Still, he found it an annoyance to drag it back, but he made do as always.

In his cave, carving off a large chunk and roasting resulted in a gamey but succulent aroma filling his cave. With a shard of ice to separate the chilled, cooked meat. He munched it between his soft teeth simply to better taste the flavours of the creature.

Funnily enough, dragon connoisseurs are incredibly common as they seek pleasures later into life. And a few books even encouraged hatchlings to build up a higher-class palette, adjusting better for various cultures of the world.

It did not take long before his assimilation reached 70%, and then 80%. No doubt another day’s meal proved enough, and he still wanted to grasp more magic. “Ice bolt is good… and the books agree that its upgraded form should be practised. Nexus, is there a follow-up to the mission yet?”

[No. Conditions for future missions still unknown]

Did that mean they had no clue what to hand over as missions? Giving up on that option he sat back down and decided to read into ‘Newborn Draconic Incantations’ some more, specifically of his first upgraded bolt spell.

Glacier bolt fired a larger, and sharper, chunk of ice with far more momentum. Against anything big he practically needed it to deal noticeable damage. An eight word spell with four coming from simpler incantations. He needed time for this one, although things would be moderately safe in the meantime.

But just as he sat down to begin learning it, the sound of burrowing appeared in his cave again… and oddly loud this time. Looking towards the patch of snow at the back once more, he found a frightening sight.

The ants returned. And really wanted him dead this time.