Over the next few days, the hatchling neared the completion of his first growth phase and focused on Pronounced telekinesis, a 23 word spell. Learning it effectively meant that no Beginner true spell held him back, and with his vast MP it was a short matter of time until using even higher tier spells.

Two of the meals over those days made use of the Monk’s body, naturally advancing its assimilation progress until the bubble popped.

[Consumed Monk bloodline! Assimilation progress 100%]

The result wasn’t very eventful. While warm for a while, then weakening his body to a degree, it was clearly below the coldiron shrew on its own. But now it was time to see…

[Movement of divinity onto bloodline. Authorise interaction?]

Why now?

Apprehensive, but curious, he slowly said, “Yes, allow it.”

His body spasmed, a powerful shock leaving him glued to the ground. On top of that, familiar runes began appearing in the snow, at first just one or two but quickly coating his whole home in them! Millions of divinus runes completely filled his sight, changing the world into a glowing golden light, his body and mind unable to make any sense of his surroundings. Even his mana sight stopped working all of a sudden!

“Nexus! What’s happening!” Disoriented, a sense of falling overwhelmed him as he shook on the floor… It lasted for minutes, the sensation never ending and unadaptable as his body refused to stand upright.

But then he jerked forward, his real body that is. The falling sensation stopped, but things were not yet over.

Groaning in pain, it felt like something smashed him into a pile of bricks. Everything ached, but he opened his eyes to see all the runes gone. Instead a single prompt revealed itself, and he almost didn’t know to love or hate the results.

[Monk bloodline assimilated! 2 new bloodline directions potentially available

Derivative Spiritualist monk bloodline assimilated! 1 new bloodline direction potentially available]

“It created a derivative bloodline? Is that meant to be possible?”

[Rather than create a derivative, the divinity instead seems to be capable of copying a bloodline and forcing the various Kandir bloodlines onto it. If an integration is possible, then it is rapidly completed and assimilated directly]

The Nexus seemed to be underplaying the effect, but it still sounded just as incredible. Even whilst inactive the divinity could so casually copy a bloodline and mutate it? And this effect wasn’t exclusive to the giant bloodline, so it’d be of great use.

But he also wanted some answer about how any of that actually happened. Starting with the obvious one, “How can the divinity perform these mutations? It would need the giant’s bloodlines.”

[This is a natural function of divinity. To ensure the restart of a race, a god will collect all superior bloodlines and disseminate it to followers]

That sounded rather important, and it made sense. If a god couldn’t stop some enemy forcing their race into extinction, they’d eventually fade without a species to attach themselves to. The Nexus also clearly stated superior bloodlines, likely meaning the Warborne, Spiritcallers, and Elder guards were being used here.

And then came his next question. “How can it just mutate bloodlines? Is that even meant to be possible?”

[Forced mutations are always possible, albeit improbable. But, as all divinities are capable of making decisions it simply checks any stable bloodlines, in other words, ones accepted by the Nexus. This is a novel process, but not completely unseen]

He wondered where the Nexus had seen such a thing, and could only really think of one group who possessed divinity. Asking, “Demigods can undergo forced mutations?”

[Yes]

It was such a strangely specific situation, but over thousands of years the Nexus must have seen it at least once. Still, that left a remaining issue. “How will I know which bloodlines have derivatives?”

[There is no way to know until all assimilations are complete]

“This damn…” He gave up on that when considering the nature of the Nexus. Its useless answers were a source of frustration for many, perhaps it was his turn to receive a few…

Either way, thanks to this divinity he obtained two bloodlines for the price of one. Although this secondary use of the divinity was barely worth speaking of, it never hurt to have more bloodlines during an evolution.

Overtime he finished all the grapes as well, assimilating the slightly strong bloodline with ease. Whilst stronger than Ice-mind berries, they were clearly weaker than the Cry-cotton.

Soon, it had been four days since he last consumed sap from the winter’s hope tree and he headed off to grab another mouthful. He almost didn’t believe that all those things with the two humans happened in a single night, it almost felt like a dream at this point. And if not for the belt he might have actually fallen for the thought.

When reaching the empty spot, nothing intervened when he stabbed into the bark once more and drank just that small amount.

He even considered drinking more due to the node tree’s situation. Nothing could possibly notice a slowdown from this place, and he came very close to drinking a second mouthful. But considering how weak the tree grew from losing just a tiny bit of sap, he chose to be satisfied with what he had.

[Consumed Winter’s hope tree! Assimilation progress 31%]

Forcing his growth forward by a whole month in a single night already had troublesome consequences, requiring him to eat enough meat to equal his body mass! And even then he still felt hungry… Perhaps the only reason no severe side effects occurred was due to his body’s natural elasticity.

Anyway, the constant hunger when eating already proved that some side effects remained.

With a small pearl of gold within him, he sealed off the tree again and headed home, today's meal was a huge leg of stormfrost wolf. The gigantic, thick slab of meat and bone easily compared to his mostly grown state!

As well as that, he found out that the lord title in its name referred to something right below a king. Or rather, being a lord implies that the individual beast may one day overthrow the current king. Why exactly it existed is a strange question on its own.

He really wondered why this convoluted system for dominance existed.

[Consumed Stormfrost lord wolf bloodline! Assimilation progress 74%]

Directly following this meal he ate some more super-chill grapes, as with every meal the last few days, and finally underwent assimilation. A burst of warmth diffused within him, and it singed him a bit halfway through, but the pain vanished as quickly as it appeared. The ensuing weakness proved to be far more annoying though.

Stuck on the floor for the average five minutes, it wasn’t much of a problem until a bout of tiredness hit him as well. Fortunately, he persevered through it and remained awake. And with its vanishing came the end of this assimilation.

[Super-chill grape assimilated! 2 new bloodline directions potentially available]

As usual it was just two more, he wondered if relative strength mattered the most to assimilation or not. After all, it might just be that his body automatically rejected excessively weak traits… On the other hand, didn’t the Kandir giant provide 5 possible directions?

Also, he felt rather confident in eating the stormfrost wolf now. In the first place it was strong, but nowhere close to those extraordinary giants.

A message from the Nexus popped up in his face.

[Basic classifications for bloodlines now available]

“May I see them?” Once more it informed him of something rather than showing information… Why did anyone think this was a good idea?

[Snow gibbon: Normal+ bloodline

Snow wassat: Normal bloodline

Crystal Ice flower: Normal+ bloodline

Chill-bite snake:Normal bloodline

Snow ferret: Normal bloodline

Frozen Cantou: Normal bloodline

Ice-charge boar: Normal bloodline

Mutated glacial wolf: Magical bloodline

…

Super-chill grapes: Magical bloodline]

Not even reading it, he shouted out, “Close it!” Again, he didn’t anticipate the Nexus just throwing a giant list at him again, why didn’t it neatly place information in pages or something?

“How does this ranking work? And show me the Kandir giant bloodlines,” he said calmly, having picked out on the things he really cared about.

[The Nexus ranks bloodlines according to the effect of the final result. This is not necessarily equal to the mass required, nor bloodline energy absorbed. As such, only assimilated bloodlines can be measured]

[Warborne Kandir giant: Advanced bloodline]

“Is the Advanced rank after Magical?” While he closed the original list quickly, he picked out a few at first glance.

[Normal, Magical, Rare, Advanced…

Further ranks will be created if necessary]

So skipping an entire rank likely pushed him beyond some limit at the time, although with his growth stage nearing completion, he might have survived such a bloodline with minor injuries if repeated today. He truthfully doubted that the stormfrost wolf exceeded a Rare rank bloodline as well…

So he decided to go at it!

With his fears put to rest with a few words from the Nexus, he gladly devoured chunks of the wolf every few hours. On some occasions roasting the bones and crushing them to further improve assimilation progress.

That evening, he completed Pronounced telekinesis, the difficulty of doing so exceeded expectations entirely. The original two or three day estimate ended up being double that!

Unfortunately, the casting failed… Somewhat.

When speaking all 23 words he cleanly began a mana reaction and outputted it at a rate to keep the spell active, but just seconds after completion things changed. He felt a new sense take over his mind, granting full control of the surroundings like those brief moments of activating Instant shift. As long as he picked it up, whether he moved it down to the store room or up the tunnel to the cave, he’d continue being able to use it!

And then he fell unconscious.

While he enjoyed the wondrous sense, it came with a rapidly growing weight on his mind. And when it grew just enough to push the small boat underwater, well, he capsized. His mana and pronunciation allowed him to use Beginner true spells, but could the same be said for his mind?

Without even realising, his mind suddenly endured a weight several times its limit and reacted in the most usual way possible for psychic individuals. Just cutting off senses and forcing someone to sleep.

He woke up several hours later to a message.

[Awakening process starting in 2 hours 39 minutes 16 seconds]

He wasn’t ready for this. And it took a few seconds for his mind to wake up a bit more and finally react, considering if he should block himself in far more, or if his defences for now were enough. He stored enough food as well, so the hunger after this awakening shouldn’t be an issue.

“Will my awakening differ in any way?” While not normally a question related to the Nexus, the near omnipotent beings clearly understood his meaning.

[Unknown. Current expectation is for there to be no unexpected factors, even when accounting for divinity]

He couldn’t argue much with that, his only remaining concern dissipated with that last fact. All that remained was the wait.

2 hours and 39 minutes of it. Not much, but that also meant he had to entertain himself at home without throwing himself into a time hungry activity.

What else could he do but eat?

Two hours passed quickly enough, with eating and reading he didn’t really need anything else. He took some time to both go over awakening itself and what he’d be doing right after, clarifying his plan to himself.

The Awakening of Body and Mind is the first awakening a dragon goes through, and in fact they are not unique in doing so. What is unique are the training methods available to dragons through their inherited memories, and it serves to strengthen a dragon at their roots.

Not bloodline, levels, or spells. But their heart and mind directly, only through the empowerment of those do dragons remain special.

One might question why the soul isn’t included in all this, but it comes down to younglings being far too weak and imprecise to strengthen their souls. Not that most can even find that core of their being, it takes powerful senses to do so by force.

But disregarding all that, the awakening process isn’t something so easy to speed up. The Nexus can regulate powers and focus them, but awakenings are more akin to an unlocking of a being's limits. Dragons simply go through these as a matter of course, their full abilities locked at birth to avoid killing themselves!

In other words…

[Awakening process starting in 2 seconds]

He prepared himself to be asleep for quite a while.

Three days at a minimum; two weeks at a maximum.

Beneath a small hill of snow, barricaded with metres of snow to avoid any detection, he simply slept. On the outside he appeared no different, in fact mimicking a beast in hibernation more than anything… And even internally nothing changed.

His heart thumped regularly, swirling mana about his body with every beat and keeping him in top shape.

For the next three days that was all which happened, apart from regular breaths his body did not stir.

At five days in, something finally changed!

Throughout his ice-cream heart, one would see small glittering crystals strewn about. Like grains of sand lightly dusting a shirt after cleaning, unless the light bounced off them just perfectly it was almost impossible to tell. However, after these dozen or so crystals formed things returned to silence once more.

A sixth and seventh day passed uneventfully… But on the eighth!

He roused gently, but did not actually awaken. The awakening continued.

Ten days.

That’s how long it took.

On that final day, the mirage of a mountain peak appeared above his head. The mirage grew thicker and more developed, allowing something nearby to pick out the individual banks of snow and curves on rocks all over. At the base, a stone path seemed to curve around the mountain's foot as a convenient way to ascend its lowest reaches, but around halfway up, the only path remained a trudge through thick snow. However, the scene remained incomplete at the moment.

As the scene stabilised, a bright light suddenly covered the mountain, in the far distance one could see an incandescent ball rising up over the horizon. However, its light did not reach the mountain for long as thick clouds began to fill the surroundings, and formed an incalculably dense wall which rose up higher and higher. Only stopped once mere inches from the mountain's peak, and in a flash, a new, thick layer of clouds sectioned off the two parts! Below resided the mountain as a whole, plunged into a dreary, weak lighting, while above the frigid layer resided the luminous sun and a horizon which seemed endlessly traversable. Directly above the mountain peak, one could even see the glittering of thousands of stars, not yet obfuscated by the sun in its rising position.

But one final touch remained.

A light snowing appeared, drastically dropping the mountain temperature with every moment. It thickened until a blizzard descended on that peak, and finally completed the image. With everything ready, the mirage dissipated, and his mind unlocked.

The large youngling’s eyes opened.

[Awakening of Body and Mind complete. One irregularity to report]

“What happened?” He was too tired to argue about it, and with every moment awake that all replaced with a sizable hunger.

[Heart replacement changed from mana hybrid into sugar-mana hybrid]

One second…

Sugar… mana? That was a thing?

“Another evolutionary defect?” He silently attributed it to his bloodline like every other strange thing which happened to him, not that this methodology proved too wrong.

[Defect is an incorrect way of stating it, but yes. There appears to be no natural limit to which the sugar aspect may be condensed]

“So I can become so sweet it kills things? That’s just wonderful…” No longer caring about it, he rushed off to get food. As much as he wanted to test out his awakening, the very real aching pains from his belly overcame any other importances.

Besides, how could he resist when he was so close anyway?

[Consumed Stormfrost lord wolf bloodline! Assimilation progress 90%]

Nothing to lose by going for another evolution straight away. Probably.