After burying the wolf’s body, he returned to the cave and waited for his mana to fully recover. Re-applying all the seals a second time today, he hoped that nothing else attacked. As well as the glacial wolf's body, he received enough experience for another level, and finally thought a bit more about the term ‘mutant’ in this wolf’s name.

The Nexus did its best to accurately name unknown species, which meant he could expect something interesting from this wolf’s bloodline. But he couldn’t understand why it showed no new traits as a result!

Surely, if it obtained some sort of mutation there would be a difference? A small chance that its bloodline remained inactive did remain, but only a dedicated scholar would be able to tell. With that in mind he simply laid in his cave and waited for his MP to reach its maximum.

Just over an hour later he left the cave once more and returned to the spot of the corpse, below the snow, finding it fully intact and still lightly bleeding. He frowned and used a foot to poke the eye, seeing another drop of blood drip out, then spoke to himself, “Very good blood to withstand the cold, surely the mutations have more effects than this though?”

Even he felt confused by the reality. But there was no time to waste, and with Telekinesis he quickly pushed the corpse back home, scaring off anything which came near with a Stun or Fire spell. A full wolf corpse with a strange bloodline, how couldn’t he be happy and protective?

Once inside, he took an Ice bolt and used Telekinesis to slowly cut through the thick pelt. Several slashes later and he successfully cut through its skin and drew blood, watching it pool onto his cave floor and remain liquid.

“Amazing, I was right to chase after you. Don’t look so sad! You would’ve killed me anyway,” rolling his eyes at the end of this one-sided conversation he dipped his tongue in the crimson liquid and swallowed.

[Consumed Mutated ERROR

E72: Nexus measurement device interacted with inadequate substance]

That was… new. After a few moments he worrisomely asked, “Is something wrong, Nexus?” The dragons recorded no such situation like this, not once had the Nexus actually broken in their tens of millennia of history!

[The new substance did not fill the parameters as expected, a new tool is being created to properly measure substances in these circumstances]

The response somewhat cleared things up, although what the Nexus meant by parameters went over his head. Still, the general idea could be grasped. He knew the absorption process had gone perfectly fine as well since his body long-since absorbed that blood.

[Consumed Mutated glacier wolf! Assimilation progress 0%

Derivative Lonesome yeti absorbed! Assimilation progress 0%]

“Derivative? Is the Yeti bloodline what makes it a mutated wolf?” The individual words all made sense, but why was he just discovering this now. And why did it even work?

[Yes, the mutation is in a special state in that it has replaced some of the Glacier wolf’s bloodline instead of being assimilated. How often this happens has never been measured, but due to rarity it will not be tied to missions for the time being]

Strange that the Nexus automatically provided that last sentence, but he glossed over it due to this being such a weird situation overall. In the end, this mystery practically solved itself as well. A record for the lonesome yeti existed within one of the higher level bestiaries, quickly slotting together all the facts.

The wolf found confidence in its strange bloodline, which also drove it to separate from the pack when paired with newfound instincts. It also explained what he believed to be light intelligence from the wolf, but in the end its confidence became its downfall.

But this was a great boon to him!

Lonesome yetis are powerful, intelligent creatures. While adults are weaker than dragon equivalents, that was only when including spellcasting! All yetis possess unbelievably strong bodies and terrifying resistance to the cold, if that wasn’t already clear from this wolf’s blood.

“Did it eat the heart of a yeti or something? Why would those things even be here?” This mountain was far too weak to support the birth of a yeti.

[Source of mutation is unconfirmable. However, it should be an external object which triggered the forced mutation]

The Nexus probably just gave the best answer he’d likely ever receive about this mystery. It was too bad, first the wyrm and now a yeti, he found the remnants of two powerful creatures here already. Clearly this mountain range contained some great stuff even with such poor properties.

“Time to tuck in then,” he said with a sigh. He had yet to find a creature with tasty blood, but there’s nothing to do besides sulk a bit. He quickly lapped up every bit of blood possible, even deepening the cut to ensure he bled the wolf dry after a long hour of drinking the vile substance.

Blood didn’t even taste bad according to the books! So why did almost everything taste horrible to him, that realisation also made him sulk a bit.

[Consumed Mutated glacial wolf! Assimilation progress 40%

Derivative Lonesome yeti absorbed! Assimilation progress 9%]

The proportion of absorbed bloodlines greatly interested him here, because it seemed to say that a quarter of this wolf’s bloodline was the yeti’s… But that shouldn’t be the case. “There’s no way the Yeti’s bloodline has taken over a quarter of this wolf’s bloodline,” he sought an answer from the Nexus.

[Correct. The Yeti mutation is extremely condensed, if fully released it may have instantly collapsed the wolf’s bloodline and killed the beast. Yeti blood naturally contains a strong proportion of their bloodline]

Hearing that explanation, he thought of his own body’s physique. He truly was an anomaly through and through.

All that remained was eating the wolf’s body to complete its bloodline… And looking at the corpse, he had a week or two of food in front of him. That meant having more than enough time to learn a truly useful spell for once. That Glacier bolt could be learnt in the background anyway, his eyes turned away from offence for once.

A barrier spell! The staple for anything which dared call itself a spellcaster.

Running around and casting spells is recommended, but sometimes you have to stay in place. And for this he chose a type of grounded barrier spell which could not be moved after placement. Frost shell, a ten word incantation which bordered the gap between Basic and True spells.

Only a dozen barrier incantations existed anyway, the complexity of such magic is tough to condense into so few words. Many hatchlings only learnt a single barrier incantation for defence before picking up spells.

What was the reason to not do so?

Every morning he cut off parts of the glacier wolf, slicing them down to small, swallowable pieces before quickly roasting them. Adjoint with reading various books on draconic history, he eventually passed through 4 days of learning and applying the spells, having already memorised all the Glacier bolt words and almost casting it.

As for Frost shell, so far he successfully triggered a mana reaction at the sixth word, but further progress needed more time, not to mention the spell’s main function now took effect. Frost shell formed a layer of transparent ice around a point, but this material had to come from somewhere!

While ice made sense, in reality, moving a solid like a liquid is incredibly hard. Instead this spell required adequate quantities of snow nearby, and similar incantations required their specific element. Still, you only needed one suited for your biome.

Just one is enough to survive. So one is all you need.

With that said and done, he began the hours of staying near the entrance to his cave while practicing the spell. In the morning and evening cooking more of the wolf, and seeing those lovely numbers rise slightly.

[Consumed Mutated glacial wolf! Assimilation progress 80%

Derivative Lonesome yeti absorbed! Assimilation progress 15%]

So far he only finished half the wolf’s body! And he had yet to touch its internal organs, although he had long since disposed of its guts.

Every day he continued to sit outside and practise spellcasting, watching as just hitting the seventh word instantly drained 5% of his MP but still failed to cast in the end. Barriers aren’t known for being lucrative for no reason.

At the very least he could stop throwing mana at Glacier bolt as he could cast it repeatedly now.

But he forged on, practicing individual words between each cast as his MP refilled. By now, he almost perfected the pronunciation of each word, just that some mistakes occurred when speaking them aloud. Whether jumbling up some of the syllables or just missing the beat, he could only improve.

And finally, halfway through the seventh day of this lengthy process, he reached the tenth word once more. The last few syllables escaped his lips, and a massive burst of mana suddenly escaped him, snow around him whipped up into a loose fluttering around him.

Like his own personal vortex, the swirling snow only accumulated, turning into a wall of white before quickly moving outwards and tying off at the top. He saw the snow compact into a thin layer, and almost like melting, transformed into a transparent substance.

Raising a claw confirmed it to be ice, yet he could see the outside world almost as clearly as usual. A defect or two existed throughout, but he could barely be mad.

While it sounded long, this barrier only took a second to form after casting, the process itself took five seconds to complete in comparison. He could only improve from here, and that’s precisely how he spent the next couple days.

While grasping some more two word incantations, like the Wind and Earth spells, he did little else than practise the Frost shell spell and eat. Just a day later he awaited a rather important prompt from the Nexus, having even maintained a steady eating rate as much as he desired it.

As he chopped the wolf’s last bits of remaining flesh, as well as part of its liver, he quickly roasted the two for several minutes and smelt the sizzling meat’s draw as opposed to its raw form.

A few minutes later he picked up a small piece and chewed it as best he could. Enjoying its flavours before swallowing, repeating the process over and over like at every mealtime.

[Consumed Mutated glacial wolf! Assimilation progress 100%

Derivative Lonesome yeti absorbed! Assimilation progress 19%]

A powerful warmth shined through him, like someone dropped him in a bath of sub-zero water to his enjoyment. Almost immediately he had to lie down and enjoy the sensation, almost feeling tipsy from how pleasant it felt, but before he could enjoy it his limbs stopped responding entirely.

Every inch of his body presented unbelievable exhaustion and refused to budge even the smallest distance. Once more he found himself lulling off into sleep, his eyelids refusing to comply and closing near instantly, only his active mind doing its best to stay awake. Even after so many improvements, a bloodline of this level still left him in this state.

Perhaps he should put more effort into mental training… His last thoughts came to an end and his eyes did not open this time. A prompt appeared but quickly shelved itself until he awoke to take a look.

[Assimilated Mutated glacial wolf bloodline! 3 new bloodline directions potentially available]

Sleeping soundly, after so many days the chances of an attack arriving now was close to nothing anyway. And for once he rested to his heart's content, a fear of death unable to pull him from its sweet embrace.

Deep within, his blood remained restless. Not long now…