Collecting the solar-death shrooms was nowhere near as dangerous as consuming them. He just had to eat them soon after collection, as their energy dispersed after being cut unless placed in a soul-heavy area with sunlight. Rather than pointlessly collecting a week’s supply, most of which would be worthless three days in, he opted to just keep a day’s worth and eat it over time.

This way he had a reason to come by daily, hopefully assimilating this bloodline in a matter of days!

According to the book, he should eat the mushrooms until a faint whispering was heard. The noises were from the fragments of souls contained within the mushrooms, and he had to wait until most dissipated to continue eating more.

Too many souls built up within him could mean a manner of issues occurring. In practice, he consumed about three mushrooms before some words seemed to come from the edge of his hearing. Like a human far behind him said a few quiet words, and he barely picked up the sound over a breeze. None of it sounded sensical, and that meant he would be completely safe as the souls dissipated.

[Consumed Solar-death shroom! Assimilation progress 6%]

In the meantime, he removed another two mushrooms to use over the day’s course. Each one granted him 12% experience as well, this alone giving him another level. Of course, after that, he only received about 8% from the third one he consumed, but this much experience was growing tougher to come by with every passing day.

He wouldn’t need points in Growth for the rest of his life, and Mutation Rate certainly tempted him. But it was obvious where he actually needed to put points at this stage, and holding off only injured him in the long run.

“10 points into Magic!” He said with his mind focused more on the surroundings for anything like the Solar-death shrooms. Only one immediate difference occurred from the usage of his points, and that was any mental links growing slightly lighter as the Magic stat increased mental defences.

Name

Title

Nexus Aid Bonus II

Species

Dragon

Bloodline

Auric spiritual Ice-cream

HP

100%

MP

80%

Level

17

EXP

16%

Unallocated Stat Points: 8

Strength

0

Luck

0

Agility

3

Growth

15

Magic

20

Mutation Rate

5

He saved the remaining points once more. Whether to facilitate an escape or overpowering something when merged with his spirit, he could figure out where to allocate them in battle. “Does my spirit gain the bonuses from the Nexus?” Asking a question directly related to the powerful system’s function, it naturally replied succinctly.

[Yes]

He actually didn’t feel the need for more details, and now considered Strength even more. The detached spirit could always use more power when tying down an enemy, but for now he wasn’t sure of its actual effectiveness.

Over the course of half an hour, he found a few sparse plants filled with ample mana, but most turned out to be an assortment of alchemical ingredients. While valuable, none contained bloodlines. Even now he found the distribution of these in plants entirely random, and the Nexus provided no input either. As the sun turned from a bright yellow to orange, he set off for home.

By now he found a consistent rhythm to step across the snowy region without tripping or tumbling, that being to slow down every time. While a lot less efficient, the control offered by only taking a single step at a time allowed him to train his judgement of speed and power to a higher level.

Rather than thinking about how hard to push each time, he wanted to do so purely on instinct, hoping to one day run across the snow like a sudden gust blowing through the mountain.

He was allowed to dream right?

After all that work though, he made it home with his surprisingly small yet noticeable hoard.

Over the course of the day he ate three more solar-death shrooms, the final two would help over the course of the night. But for now he cooked up some of a remaining human’s body with more field root for flavour. Having read more cookbooks he felt a bit depressed at the lack of spices in the mountain, but dismissed it by believing he’d handle spice poorly.

Which was obviously rubbish. He was made of ice-cream! In what world could he feel measly spices?

The human meat tasted nice at least, digesting relatively slowly as he assimilated its bloodline already. While the field root provided a bit of progress as usual, it was so small that he never really bothered reading. Every meal added up, and he believed that its assimilation was a matter of time. But now that he finished eating, he had two big goals to complete tonight. Or one big and one small to be pedantic about it.

Firstly, he learnt the Steady fall spell. This upgraded Slowed fall spell was a very simple Beginner true spell with the added effect of making its effect a variable. If he wanted to fall faster, then with just a simple thought, he did precisely that! With Steady fall practically mastered, he began work on the truly hard thing.

His first Apprentice true spell!

He never forgot about learning Proto-barrier, it was just that he never figured out what his first real barrier spell should be. He considered physical barriers, things to just stop projectile spells and large beasts from slashing him in half. But then he had to better think how likely those things were.

With the spirit he could dodge pretty much all attacks of his level. And most of those barriers didn’t allow his spells out, making its primary use a way to heal up or recover mana in battle.

At one point in time he considered the Magic booster barrier, a variant which instead sacrificed all defence to empower all spells cast within. Of course, Magic booster barriers all had their own tiers, and could only empower spells at or below them in power. But the benefit of these barriers came in the form of lasting quite a long time as all empowered spells used the surroundings’ mana rather than the spell’s own.

But he settled on a different type of barrier, one which provided the defences he needed while aiding his main goals on the mountain.

The Sky sight barrier, a version which not only defended against most Beginner true spells and bronze tier attacks, but also granted him a sort of bird’s eye view of his surroundings.The range of this barrier’s sight was about a quarter of a mile, however this did not account for bonuses from the Nexus.

With his massive magic stat, this easily rose to over half a mile. That distance alone cannot be underestimated, as it easily reached the battlefield from his current position! To be capable of seeing so far gave him an opportune way to find beasts whose bloodlines he’d like.

Like those annoying lizards… He just needed one more body to assimilate theirs.

But no time like the present to get started on it. Not that he had much better to do, the spirit needed to recharge after today’s constant expenditures, and hunting for useful bloodlines is a lot more boring than he realised. Why couldn’t there be a few more battlefields on this mountain?

And so, he began the process of learning his first Apprentice true spell. One which only took 3 hours… Numbers capable of frightening any youngling his age.

* * *

Elsewhere in the mountain range, two figures flew above the ground and circled one another. Occasionally they’d charge towards one another and throw out a few swipes with giant claws or bite towards the other. However, even after half an hour, neither side received serious damage nor tired from the flight. On occasion they released a spell or innate ability, but the results were nothing serious.

On one side flew a wyvern, a few spots on its belly bled lightly as soft, cloudy feathers jammed into its skin. If one touched the tip of these feathers, they’d be surprised to see it slice right through their skin. However, even with those wounds, it flew with ease and continued sneering at its enemy.

That being a large winged beast no smaller than itself in size. A young roc to match this young wyvern, both evenly matched. It showed a bloody and torn leg as well as a patch of feathers missing on its left wing, but flew as gracefully as before. That wyvern’s protrusion almost stabbed right through its wing not too long ago…

“Just give up Kalkuthan, this is the third time today! Rather than fight me, would it not be best to deal with the current king first?” The roc did not hold any high hopes for this argument though, having used it every single time during their battles, yet not once did this cocky wyvern listen.

The whole bunch of them! Arrogant bastards who only respected the strong, and just because he couldn’t win would rather fight tirelessly.

“Why don’t you give up, Shrindirl? Hand over the mountain range to me and I can offer you a good position in the future. You should know wyverns are the strongest species in the third world.”

Clasping his beak shut, he couldn’t think of any other ways to break this wyvern’s defences. The lightning elements here were far too weak to be utilised, and his body’s toughness simply didn’t compare to his opponent’s scales. Of course, his innate ability ‘Steel wing’ allowed him to cut through the wyvern's defences a bit… But nothing truly damaging.

And with his rapid healing ability, he always recovered from the slightly heavier wounds received during each bout today. Seeing the wyvern lock eyes once more, he moved some mana in preparation for the next clash. Both sides would only retreat once the injuries reached a serious point, although never close to being fatal.

But just before he could change directions to swoop towards the wyvern, a burst of mana exploded from the mountain range. And not just anywhere…

The largest peak!

“The… Sea-freezer? Has it awoken?” The roc did not know that much about this mountain range’s current king, and sensing the explosion of mana naturally sent a chill down his spine. But the wyvern flew over right after, and while cautious at first, it clearly held no desire to attack.

“That’s not the crab. Not with this little mana,” the wyvern said emotionlessly.

However, to the roc this felt like an insult. Replying quickly with, “What do you mean little! It’s already close to my level!” It knew the brainless reptile wasn’t actually trying to offend it, merely pointing out that the mana output was on par with the weakest gold tier creatures.

“There’s a new beast on your level, and perhaps there will be even more in the future. I’ll be going on a trip to the node trees. Will you join?” This was no casual sightseeing trip, the words laced with intention.

The easiest way to deal with a powerhouse is while they’re in their crib.