Minute by minute, he felt each mouthful of blood within him slowly break down naturally, his body consuming the substance for nutrients in the slow manner like a regular dragon. He thought it might be a mistake at first, but even the Nexus had no updates

He asked, “Shouldn’t this Snow wassat’s bloodline be different from the adolescent form?”

[Yes, that was an expectation when you absorbed the Adolescent snow wassat bloodline. But this interpretation was always flawed, and it seems that bloodlines may only be absorbed if they are unique enough. As there is a lack of data, you will only know if a bloodline is non-qualifying through testing]

“Is it something to do with an adult snow wassat being practically the same as its child form?”

[Definitely, but the limits of this effect are unknown. One confirmation of this theory is the Ice ant bloodline. Both Ice ants and Ice soldier ants contributed to the Ice ant bloodline]

While the Nexus absolutely could have phrased it all better, he knew when to give up. As it turned out, simply using the adult form of some creatures would not grant a new bloodline. This even made sense in retrospect as hatchlings and younglings can have the same bloodline, even if at completely different stages of their life cycle.

He really wanted to know how his body reacted to the bloodlines of humans as well. Would his body differentiate between a Bronze and Steel swordsman? What about a far more extreme gap like that of a regular Swordsman and Starlite swordsman?

There were so many questions to answer about his body, but for now he let the body freeze and prepared to bleed it dry outside. At night that is.

And so began another day of learning spells and relaxing right below the hunters’ noses.

The humans in question were having a far less relaxing day though.

* * *

‘Pearl, it’s been two days now and we haven’t caught a glimpse or echo of the dragon. If you’ve got any additional tricks, use them before the others arrive.” Today's search was proving pointless, having checked all the known caves on this mountain and now slowly searching the land for signs of magic a dragon might have used.

The two lesser wizards also used some scent tracking spells in hope that they located the dragon’s excretions, and could then track it through those, but for some reason no such remains existed. Both believed this hatchling to be rather wary and had disposed of their waste to avoid such tracking.

And as the two saw thick clouds approaching, it could only mean a snowfall the next day. She knew her limits for this task and gave a response, “One more day. If we don’t find anything today I’ll show you what I brought.” She paid far too much for the item, but those who study its creation were so rare that few could be blamed.

“Alright, but you’re the desperate one here. Remember that.” Bachlar’s words sounded more like a threat in her mind, but she knew it was just a criticism of her decisions. This strange alternate personality was something many of them shared in regards to magic and politics.

When you grow up constantly being compared to one another, it’s hard not to be so critical.

A lighter conversation did eventually breeze through the group, but no one felt good about the day’s prospects. Not at first that is.

“Sir wizards! We found something!” One of the men from Bachlar’s group shouted out to them in the snowy field, and the small personal group quickly went over to check things out. Perhaps this is what they waited for.

But when they arrived, all that was found were a bunch of elat bones, some still with flesh on them. No one winced at the sight, but the two glared at the guard who brought them over for such a trivial matter.

Why would a dragon ever need to hunt or eat a miniscule creature like this?

Still, frozen elats being hunted in this environment was enough to intrigue them. Bachlar simply being far more experienced with magical analysis first looked into the energies surrounding the elat. Besides the obvious, being copious ice elements, he found a faint residue of something potentially interesting.

“Augusticus, you might want to use an Elemental sight spell. Hurry up,” he said with an urgent gaze. She spent a few moments remembering the casting procedure and soon after modified her eyes temporarily. Immediately, a cloud of white, tinged faintly blue, covered the pile of frozen elats. An expected sight for creatures with wings of ice elements.

But within the barely blue cloud were a few orange and red wisps. Like little embers flying one’s condensed breath, they quickly disappeared in the white mist before appearing moments later.

“It’s just fire elements, how else would you easily… Are there any chances of magical creatures with fire talent emerging here?” Excitement filled her voice with hope, but only severity and concern revealed itself on her face.

“I’m not a fan of the odds,” Bachlar returned with a smile. The two breathed a sigh of relief for the first time in days, as did the guards nearby. He followed up with, “Regroup everyone, this place and its surroundings become our primary search zones. Look for any other hunts in the surroundings. And you three!” Shouting at the small group who found the bones, including the man who called them over, he gladly told them, “Select a training manual from the manor library’s second floor when you return.”

Most of the others looked at the three with envious gazes.

Advancing one’s bloodline through tenacity might be possible, but for the majority it required manuals detailing weapon techniques and mana usage. Furthermore, those books on the second floor were all true lineages, things indirect family members or talented guards used over the basic ones taught to commoners. A conclusion of which is easy to form. If they ever wanted to reach Bronze rank or higher they needed those manuals.

The three guards bowed to their leader in thanks and immediately set off for further searching. But moments before that, Bachlar gave one more order, “Bury these bodies as you found them. We don’t want the dragon knowing that we found its traces here. It doesn’t have to be exact.”

With three of them there it was a breeze to replace the series of corpses as found. Just a few minutes later they set off properly, further searching for signs of the dragon and enthusiastically discussing what manuals in the library interested them.

Of course, throughout remaining quiet enough that the sound barely travelled beyond their ears. There was no need to alert any wildlife, or their superiors for that matter. They were not the only group discussion private affairs though, in reality all of them gossiped or compared experiences while looking thoroughly. It was the only way to pass time during such a boring, yet important job.

The conversation for one pair was slightly different though. "Things aren't looking all that great, Hansen. We've found a few bodies and no real leads on the dragon's position."

"Have a bit more patience will you! If dragon hunting was so easy then they'd be extinct by now... Anyway, remember our actual goals. Don't do anything out of the ordinary yet," Hansen said warning his companion in this mission. It felt like the guy never listened to his concerns.

But the other man only grew annoyed by the constant worries, replying with, "I know, I know. Damn you don't shut up about it. 'We need the tools', 'Gotta get their tools', 'Can't let them use those tools!'... Look, I get it. Sir Tolin wants the tools."

"Seriously Jeremiah?" Hansen sighed at the companion's blindness. Rather than make it obvious, he said under his breath, "He never cared about some magical tools, fucking bastard." But for the amount of money he'd earn from this he'd be able to leave this crappy kingdom behind for the rest of his life; a small price to pay.

Later that day, another group happened to find a few burnt hairs in the snow, and further search revealed strangely large pieces of ice in a small area. Almost immediately they called over the two wizards who once more confirmed that something large was killed with a powerful fire spell.

“This spell is about as strong as my best. What about on your end, Bachlar?” She was unafraid to admit the two month old dragon possessed better magic than years of study on her end. The inherent advantage of draconic spellcasting is simply too great, but such advantages do not last forever.

“I might be able to block one or two, depending on its Magic stat, but who knows what other spells it knows.” He didn’t sound extremely confident. Spellcasting hatchlings are often a massive pain at their levels.

As most in the group lacked excessive field experience, their levels were all in the 10 to 15 range. Bachlar simply didn’t have the time to call out his family’s stronger fighters, and as such only brought two Bronze swordsmen at level 18 and 19. As for Augusticus, her family only possessed so many and couldn’t afford to give any up for a rushed, personal expedition.

Even then, a Bronze swordsman alone should be enough to kill a hatchling. But first they had to find the damned thing, wherever it may be.

* * *

Quite calmly in his little home, the hatchling did his best to memorise the new words for his next spell. Twelve words total, this would be his first True spell, Snap chill, chosen because he knew seven of the words in advance. Snap chill was an excellent support spell against anything not resistant to the cold, but more importantly worked wonders against humans.

Of the True spells which he could learn in a day or two, very few presented usable results. Flame whip was good, but he didn’t dare wield it as any accidents with the flame incurred great self harm. Earth spike required earth below the target to work, and although Ice spike was an option, he ignored it due to it being fifteen words long.

Snap chill instantly gathered ice elements at the surface of a body, and sprayed the person in water to encase that body part in super cold ice. If used on a swordsman he could restrict their movements greatly, or down them entirely by freezing an entire leg. While limited in area, Snap chill was exceptionally efficient at hunting and restricting.

The temperature alone threatened frostbite in no less than ten seconds for a regular individual, although Bronze ranked warriors could resist for some minutes instead. If looking further, higher ranked warriors could ignore the effects through their body’s intense metabolic processes alone. Even wizards could resist the effects for a little while, with their weaker but far from fragile bodies.

There wasn’t much else to do during the day besides that, and for the next several hours he quickly got to the point of saying ten words in sequence. As always the timing for such a thing remained abhorrent, and something about True spells clearly worked differently than incantations.

For an unknown reason, no mana reaction occurred even after so many words.

At first he just checked books to see if he missed a key step, and then tried various pronunciations to see if he messed up a word or two. But none of that made any difference. One thing he completely forgot about for a while were the MP requirements. He had no clue how much this spell needed!

If it required several times his MP then it made sense to not have any reaction, there literally wasn’t enough mana to sustain such an effect. But he ruled that out quickly as the spell’s power shouldn’t be that much greater than Cone of fire, just concentrated in a different manner.

So what exactly had he missed?

A couple hours later he did manage to say all twelve words in series, but as the spell didn't activate it was clearer than ever that he messed up. The books all said that True spells were used in a manner no different than Incantations.

Just follow the spell’s instructions to cast the spell. And Snap chill’s instructions were far from complex. To make sure, he asked, “Is my body interfering with the spell again?” He hadn’t seen this in a while, but he couldn’t find any other reason for a mana reaction to fail.

There was no reaction. Clearly his bloodline was not at fault and he messed up the instructions, this time reading through the book on Incantations even closer.

‘Speak the words of the True spell and release mana.’ It was now that he realised how strange the sentence was given that mana reactions should generally draw mana from his body automatically.

Perhaps the words were just being direct and telling a dragon to release mana themselves. In which case this all happened due to a mis-read on his part. To test, he followed the book and slowly allowed mana to seep from his body whilst speaking the sentence.

At eight words he noticed the released mana began accumulating like in a mana reaction, at ten words that gathering grew stronger, finally, he spoke all twelve words and saw the spell collapse! The mana scattered and he was both happy and sad.

“90% MP remaining… I swear it felt like far more than that. Nexus, keep my status open.” With the new order he confirmed the order of words in his mind before keeping a fixed eye on his MP. At six words finally releasing some at a rate of just 1% per second.

It was far too slow! Once the reaction began at eight words he realised that it already began drawing all his mana away, clearly more was necessary.

He released more mana than this last time, and on impulse he tripled the output while speaking the final four words. Finally, the accumulation of mana increased once more at ten words, but was still slower than the rate he emitted it. At twelve words it guzzled up everything in the surroundings but didn’t collapse this time round.

Through his senses, the gathered mana began forming some intricate rings all on its own accord, compressing suddenly and vanishing to leave a splash of water and dense fog opposite him. On the wall of his cave a thick plate of ice appeared instantly.

[Obtained title ‘Spellcaster 1’. Unlock requisite - Learn and use a True spell of any type or tier]

Walking nearby, he felt the remnants of that cold fog leave him relaxed. He never expected that True spells required him to release mana himself, although the question of why the difference wasn’t more clearly stated already annoyed him. Still, he’d finally cast his first True spell, admittedly one only slightly harder than something like Frost shell.

While he acknowledged the title’s existence, its value was so much lower than the Nexus Aid Bonus that he didn’t even bother looking at its effect. Even if the bonus was miniscule right now, it still meant a lot more than a meagre mana reduction on a single True spell.

He still had yet to hear noises from above, and with that in mind simply found another spell of interest to start learning. At nightfall he could continue hunting for more bloodlines, boosting his strength further. Although…

The situation outside was somewhat different than he expected. The group of twenty stood collected as sunset began, looking outwards at the storm clouds gathering overhead. In a few hours snow and hail were likely, and returning was a fact. Even still, the wizards gathered them all for a special matter.

“We’ve confirmed the dragon is hiding somewhere in this section of the mountain, and clearly knows of our existence. You’ve worked hard finding its trail today but manual searching only goes so far. Sir Augusticus, please speak.”

Pulling a scroll out of nowhere, she held the coarse, white paper carefully in her hands. Sealed with an ornate wax seal, all of them could feel waves of mana hitting their bodies. Even those regular guards could feel the intense mana pressuring them, this was an exceptional scroll.

“I brought a Greater wizard’s scroll before setting off. With this we can track the dragon, but it will sense the mana and try to run. The goal is to trap it tonight when it comes out to hunt. Understood?” She explained carefully, ensuring they all understood the value of what she held right now.

“Yes Sir!” The sixteen guards all spoke in unison, only the two Bronze swordsmen brought by Bachlar remained silent. In just a few hours they would receive a generous payment from the sale of a hatchling, and hopefully even some potions made from its young blood.

This scroll was one of the few things her family was willing to provide, and she pinned the entire operation on it finding their target.