The two strongest outsiders weren’t the only two who noticed the massive burst of mana, such an event sent the entire mountain’s mana into a horrible flux. The various node trees tried to help manage it, but they’d been so overburdened since the rise of mana density that actual management simply wasn’t possible.

The result was tens of thousands of creatures all across the mountain range scurrying around in fright as an oppressive mana swept throughout the lands. The evolution and rise of this new creature was anything but weak.

And obviously, the youngling learning Sky sight barrier noticed the blast of chaotic mana passing by, not that it concerned him much. Ever since seeing those giant parent beasts at the battlefield, he realised this matter was completely beyond him. That wyvern trying to recruit him only furthered that belief.

That didn’t stop him from completing the usual objectives!

He finished up learning his first real barrier spell, also confirming that he knew Proto-barrier. Even if the foundation did very little functionally, he knew its importance for more Apprentice true spells cannot be denied.

Unfortunately, the spell did not work while indoors and forced him to step outside his cave. With the open sky above him, the casting continued as expected. Like all the Beginner true spells he released mana at specific intervals and prepared for astonishing requirements as deserved by a spell of this level.

By the 24th word he already emitted 10% of his MP, jumping to 20% at the 26th word, and finally, when he completed the spell, a sudden guzzling of mana occurred at the last second. But he expected this effect, as it occurred far too often in spells. After he emitted another 10% of his mana in a single moment, he utilised a massive 44% of his MP for this single cast!

But the spell completed, and from there he let it form itself. The convenience of draconic spellcasting never left him.

Like the Sage’s barrier, which he vividly remembered, this one produced a transparent bubble of light around him. However, it was far thinner and instead tinted in green, a colour which more than stood out in the white backdrop. Not that he cared much.

In the centre of the bubble remained a small mote of light, and he felt it link to his mind the moment the spell completed itself. He successfully cast his first Apprentice true spell!

[Obtained title ‘Spellcaster 2’. Unlock requisite - Learn and use an Apprentice tier true spell]

Just like the other spell-related titles, this only reduced the mana cost of a selected spell. Although, unlike the lower tier versions, it reduced the cost by a substantial 50%. Doubling the effective number of casts wasn’t at all a bad title, and he considered it for some of the extremely powerful Apprentice true spells.

Now came the first test of the Sky sight barrier. His mind transferred over to the mote of light, just like utilising the Third eye spell, and his body disappeared. In that instant, he now looked down on the mountain, seeing the small green bubble below as well as everything in a huge radius.

Not only this, but he realised that the limit of the spell referred specifically to the range of his movable vision, just like how Third eye allowed the spell to move a certain distance before breaking. In fact, from this height he could even see over the massive central mountain to a certain degree!

On that other side, he noticed two figures flying about, seemingly patrolling the area… Or maybe searching?

Moving the eye closer showed a very familiar wyvern, its large leathery wings were unmistakable. Besides it, a large feathered beast flew as well, they constantly swooped over a section of the mountain range. Thinking about it earlier, he remembered that strange surge of mana but dismissed it as nothing.

Did some sort of plant or creature awaken? It made sense that the two immediately went to look for it in that case. Anyway, this was a matter completely unrelated to him.

Instead, he focused the spell onto his side of the mountain range, moving the source of his vision downwards and sweeping the ground for any beasts which appeared impressive to any degree. Naturally he came across a few, most of which strangely avoided the winter’s hope and node trees.

Unfortunately, his mana sense didn’t transfer into the spell so he couldn’t accurately rate their power. But from speed and sense alone, none seemed worse than the mutated glacier wolf. In which case, he just had to follow some promising ones back home to hunt! More bloodlines meant more options, although he only really cared about devouring one or two extremely powerful ones.

With all this mana, some beasts who gathered enough bloodline energy should have evolved by now… And in that case there should be a load more magical beasts appearing. Not to mention many more stronger than him!

In a slight bit of curiosity, he started moving the spell over to the mountain, wanting to know if anything grew on its side or near the top.

The flying wyvern and roc didn’t seem to be alerted by his spell, and as such he felt it completely safe to continue upwards. But the spell’s range proved to be its downfall.

The highest peak easily ascended up to the clouds, and he was too far from those, let alone high enough to see the top. As such, he settled for looking throughout the mountain, finding something interesting in the form of small tunnels all leading inwards.

In just his small range of search he already came across several, all of which were placed high above the Winter’s hope tree near his home. And it surprised him to see the cave’s insides were a blank white as well, blending in naturally with the snow such that finding them was near impossible by sight alone.

He wanted to investigate inside, but Sky sight, as its name made clear, only worked outdoors where direct sight to the sky existed. If he wanted to see more, then he’d have to approach it and use Third eye or a better vision spell like it.

Not expecting to see much else, he looked over to the node tree, wondering if he could cut off a beast walking away on its own to kill… What he did not expect was the place to be barren. And after descending somewhat to investigate further, he cut off the spell and merged with his spirit.

With no time to waste, he ran over ignoring his trips and stumbles. It took two minutes to reach the node tree and the silly grin on his face could not have been more intense.

The dry corpses of three beasts lay at the tree’s periphery, although he didn’t see the crane. One of the beasts had a gaping stab wound through their belly, this being a bear which undoubtedly died soon after the attack. But the other two showed dozens of feathers protruding from their eyes, almost like the attacker somehow pushed each to that position!

They just laid here dead, untouched for so long that their unfrozen blood seeped into the ground. While he wanted the bodies of all three he already knew this to be impossible.

Only the bear was large enough to fulfil his assimilation requirements.

But that meant collecting its blood, and dragging the body with him. The former actually proved easier, as Water control brought up the mass of liquid which he just chucked into his dimensional storage. As gravity doesn’t exist in those tools, he didn’t have to worry about anything touching by putting blood within.

It took a while, but he eventually managed to collect what seemed to be every last bit of blood. At least, his mana sense showed no more high-intensity snow in the area, so he could presume it lacked any blood.

And now came the hard part, dragging it back. Casting Telekinesis, he stood behind the bear and slowly picked it up, a constant motion allowing him to properly test his mind’s limit. While not as large as the stormfrost wolf, it weighed about half as much. Of course, not having blood lightened the load immensely.

The bear hovered half a metre in the air and he began pushing it forward gently, walking at the same time with ease. It wasn’t the fastest way, but little better methods existed.

No way could he move this bear whilst merged with the spirit, the high speed it offered was of no use here.

Actually… if his spirit could fly and attack on its own, why couldn’t it carry things? “Can you fly above and help lift it?” Still unable to communicate mentally, he cursed not having enough time to continue building his Mind palace.

The Auric spirit detached per his command and flapped its wings to hover above the floating bear corpse. The small claws proved a lot sharper than imagined as they sliced through fur and flesh until properly gripping the bear. Some more flapping from the spirit greatly eased the pain from lifting this bear, and he found pushing it so much easier that he maintained a stable jog. Why in the world this spirit was so powerful still needed answering, although he expected it to just be that his body was too weak.

How many times had that been the answer to his questions?

Some joking on the way back reined in his excitement, although he made sure not to laugh in case it drew attention. While the node tree turned barren from whatever killed the beasts, things closer to his home were a lot more normal.

Without the rush of having to reach the node tree, it didn’t take a genius to realise that the wyvern and roc likely killed these three beasts. Three beasts at steel tier but weaker than the crane?

Sure, he did not doubt the crane dealing with such beasts eventually, but not all at once and with such methods.

Why did they attack though?

And why now?

Putting that aside, he spent a long while walking back home with the bear’s corpse. But when he finally did make it back, it only took a blade and way too much work to finally dismember the body and prepare for moving it inside. Without any blood he didn’t have to worry about making a mess either!

Additionally, the enlarged tunnel meant that the bear’s entire torso just barely fit as one whole part, albeit scraping the walls all the way in. Then just came placing the huge quantity of blood into several pots and stone baskets.

He acquired a corpse like that quite luckily, no creatures returning from the sudden attack yet. And it made him wonder if other node trees encountered such attacks as well…

What if they were actually sweeping the whole mountain range?

His heart bled at the thought of losing so many strong bloodlines. How many evolutions could they have achieved!

All gone… Ruined by those two…

Although, surely a roc and wyvern of their strengths possessed strong bloodlines as well! Not to mention their species alone made them valuable, so if he could find a way to have them fight an overwhelmingly powerful enemy, wouldn’t he be killing over three birds with one stone?

Now came the tough part of ensuring that situation.

With his current stockpile of food, and bloodlines, he just had to go outside for more solar-death shrooms every day, training his spirit-merged state at the same time. Additionally, he could cast a Sky sight barrier to check on this region’s situation every day!

If the wyvern and roc were nearby, he stayed at home. If not, then it was free pickings on whatever he wanted to collect. And if possible, he had to take a look at other node trees in the future. He didn’t have high hopes for the bodies left behind, but anything large enough was better than nothing.

Just about to tuck into some meat and blood, he thought back to anything he had yet to do as well. Removing the barrier was a vivid memory, so that didn't worry him. No suspicious mana spots stood out when he went to the tree either, so the odds of the wyvern or roc leaving something behind remained slim. In fact, the only thing he consistently forgot to do was eating the winter’s hope tree’s sap…

He really didn’t want to make the journey now of all times. But reluctantly, and very much so at that, he walked to his home’s exit and teleported out.

With a merged spirit he rushed to the tree and saw his space still empty.

Nothing stopped him from walking up beside it and cutting into the tree, but what he didn’t expect was the lines of sap which dribbled out without end. In just a few seconds he swallowed two mouthfuls, but it seemed inexhaustible for once!

Only after the fourth did it begin slowing, and he finally found enough time to cast Snap chill, sealing the flow of sap.

Even then, the tree’s mana flowed as strongly as ever.

Its store of mana grew to such a point that it started massively overproducing sap as a storage, something rather amazing and objectively rare. He believed that the next time he returned, in just a few days at that, he’d be looking at a brand new bloodline. A powerful one at that!

[Consumed Winter’s hope tree! Assimilation progress 73%]

There was also the non-negligible quantity of experience, but he ignored it completely. A quick merging with his spirit allowed him to be back at home and staring at the huge corpse and containers full of blood.

Time to feast once more!