When he made it back home, the sun had moved past the day’s zenith and signalled the afternoon, but with hours until sunset he decided to be slightly productive by checking on another tree.

He already had a great mood from picking up necessities from home.

Namely a couple pots and knives, but it really did help. He never actually realised how annoying cooking without such things was. But with them in hand he could finally eat well-cooked meat!

Although he’d likely still roast the butterfly parts, mostly since the crisp such a char offered actually hid the distasteful bug innards.

And so, he picked another vibrant oak tree, hoping its owner was just as easy to talk to. A use of Sky sight barrier quickly revealed four such trees, as well as the node tree being just within range. He didn’t linger on the others, simply finding the closest which still held potential. The one he selected belonged to a species he recognised.

Beneath it lay a very similar elk to the one beneath his winter’s hope tree. However, this one’s fur was a strange pale green and grey, akin to some of the wildlife on the mountain. He’d seen several plants with such faded colours before, but he thought it best not to bring up such a topic.

When approaching, he unmerged and walked towards the elk with some degree of respect. At the very least this opponent’s mana did not exceed his at first glance.

“I’ve heard, there is no need for you to explain yourself. What conditions can your ‘powerful’ lord offer?” It spoke in Beasten like all others, and remained resting on its belly with closed eyes. But still he could feel the elk’s gaze focused on him with intent.

He did not dare underestimate it now, whether it could sense him through some strange ability or simply its mind… Neither was a small feat. His own mana sight undoubtedly acted as an Apprentice true spell at the least. And remaining cordial, he spoke back in mostly understandable Beasten, “To start, my lord is far stronger. And in the future he will undoubtedly be the strongest on the mountain, only the king is his match at the moment.” He did not know if this was true objectively, but thus far he’d only seen two gold tier creatures and did not believe many more could exist.

At least, few more on the level of those two.

“On par with today’s king? Your lord is gold tier? Then where is he?! Taking this node tree must be a breeze!” Clearly the elk refused to believe such a thing, not understanding how a new gold tier of that power already came to be. Of course, it also did not believe those outsiders could so freely send gold tier beasts…

Most beasts in the Evelard range knew very little of those beyond steel tier, and even less about the world as a whole. While they grasped enough to know that a gold tier beast could not dominate the world, it was an expectation that this tier still held some sway outside the mountains.

“I can’t save you if he finds you a nuisance. My role is to obtain all the mana gatherer trees, with their lords intact, if I can.” His face sharpened towards the end, acting as a small reminder as to what happened with a certain reindeer and its hubris. “The steel tiers under his command will capture the node tree in time.”

“Crushing us one by one with your strength is certainly an option. But why must we stand alone while you come for us? Pick your words carefully, lest you start something you may not complete.”

He frowned at the sight of this threat, not expecting the various owners of the mana gatherer trees to gather together as a way to fend him off.

Given the strange feeling this elk gave, he did not feel happy risking a battle right now.

“If that is how you will fight, then I can’t stop them. But I advise you to stop… I was not told to keep you alive. Only if convenient.”

“I am not so weak that you can threaten me through such vague words.” And with that, the youngling saw no point in talking further, merely stepping away and thinking intently about his next actions.

But more importantly wondering if his first spell could guarantee a kill on this troublesome elk. A Helix blast could do so… Or a Voltaic burst to stun it combined with a full powered strike from his spirit to the elk’s brain. A Great flame bolt to its face had to do significant damage as well.

But its annoying senses remained, with every moment it watched with a deep intensity, like every single one of his actions were transmitted to its mind directly.

Without a better idea of its abilities, he regretfully left with the collection of bloodlines in tow. He set a small limit for himself.

One week.

In just one week he would assimilate bloodlines, learn spells, complete the first building of his Mind palace, and then..

Then he’d crush them all. And preferably kill a few in the process.

Back in the tiny cave home given by the wyvern, he immediately began cooking the crystal-frilled lizard. Having killed it with a Mental blast left some slightly old blood sloshing about inside, and immediately he drank it both from the source and moved it to a pot to finish later.

[Consumed Crystal-frilled lizard! Assimilation progress 65%]

He did not need too much more for a complete assimilation. Roasted with some field roots and salt, he finally dug into the large meal of cooked meat. Intelligently, he blocked off the air flow through the cave and cooked inside to keep smells from drawing beasts.

Half an hour later he finished the meal and checked on the assimilation progress.

[Consumed Crystal-frilled lizard! Assimilation progress 95%]

The slightly smaller corpse gave less energy, as expected, and he immediately focused on devouring meat to finish its assimilation. By the time he’d eaten all the meat, it reached nightfall and he desperately needed some sleep. Assimilation could wait for tomorrow…

The constant use of his spirit drew on more than just aura after all, in fact being some extension of his very soul and mind! And while the latter increased in strength constantly, his soul remained the same as ever. The brunt it bore may be miniscule in the short term, but multiple sessions of extensive use had their own effect on him.

He hadn’t even eaten any of the eternity ferns he picked up early that day.

That night, some beasts scurried around the place. Meanwhile, to the north of the anaconda’s node tree , others began discussions on the upcoming battles. But the specifics of which were only known to them.

* * *

A refreshing night’s sleep regenerated the youngling’s rapt focus and immediately reminded him of the more immediate goals. Starting with the lizard’s remains, he melted the leftovers and quickly ate them before heading over to the wyvern for more blood. One week gave around 21% more progress, placing him at around 63%.

Well, he didn’t expect the wyvern’s bloodline alone to evolve him, which was why he even returned home the day before for that corpse. He hadn’t found any crystal-frilled lizards here and really just wanted to get bloodlines completed.

He finally ate through enough of the lizard corpse, reaching the threshold for assimilation and feeling warmth spread through his body thinly. Like someone merely splashed warm water on him, he barely felt anything, and then came a complete lack of weakness!

[Assimilated Crystal-frilled lizard! 2 new bloodline directions potentially available]

He looked at that prompt in a bit of confusion, from the strength of the assimilation he expected to receive just one, or even no, bloodline. It didn’t need to be pondered too much.

When reaching the wyvern there was nothing to talk about. He drank the usual serving of blood and left.

For the rest of the day, he set his sights on how to grow strong in the short term. The obvious one being to both learn more spells, and then grasp compressed casting to use Apprentice true spells at a reasonable rate. However, both of these were underpinned by the same requirement!

Obtain some degree of photographic memory. Once he did that, everything else fell into place perfectly.

HIs mental defences could also reach a point where Beginner true psychic spells barely injured him. At which point he truly believed no bronze tier creature on the mountain possessed the power to harm him! With great evasive speed offered by the spirit, alongside immense power through spells, his mind and soul were his greatest weakness.

But nothing at his level could attack souls anyway!

On that note, he remembered to try and fill up the soul lantern to 20% as soon as possible. Two shots allowed him to kill two gold tier beasts, and while unlikely he didn’t want to depend on the wyvern constantly in case that crab showed some decisiveness for revenge

And so, the first priority came to be. Simply make bricks in his mental space until the first building’s walls reached a suitable height, at which point he could attempt the formation of some tiles.

One thing he mostly ignored was colour as well.

He used grey bricks for the wall and floor, while black tiles for a roof were recommended. This sort of colouration did not change the material’s toughness, which could only be done through compressing the bricks with tens of times the force. That sort of mental strength required a far larger house simply to generate.

But after most of the day passed, he reached the desired 20 layers of bricks, now just one section away from completing his home!

To lay the tiles, he first had to create a lightweight frame for them all to lie on. This could be done simply by creating long thin rods and ‘sticking’ them to the top of the brick wall as the book explained. In truth, this process only took twenty minutes, such small objects taking next to no time to set in place.

However, each thick tile took no less than a normal brick and so came an end to the day. First some eternity ferns vanished down his throat, and in a few hours he’d begin feeling their effect at large.

[Consumed Coniferous eternity ferns! Assimilation progress 36%]

But his actual meal was none other than the butterfly body, holding off on consuming its brain as its moonlight-ridden organ remained mostly intact even after so many years. Compared to a meal before bed, a refreshing breakfast made far more sense.

[Consumed Lunar-clipped butterfly bloodline! Assimilation progress 25%]

Not to mention, he could push to complete this first building!

That night, he dreamt up some unmemorable situation involving him finding a strange bloodline which even the Nexus failed to identify, but it didn’t last long before changing into an entirely different scene of him just running with his spirit.

He remembered nothing else from the dreams, and while nothing crazy happened in the mountain range, things outside weren’t looking anywhere near as pretty.

* * *

In Remelo, the king spent days stressing over the actions of the nobles. Even with information that an outside force caused most of their losses, and they accepted such words on the surface, he’d be a fool to believe such empty words!

Each of them contained remorse and hatred for what happened, with many still believing that this was merely an attempt to force some peace in the meantime!

Some, like that duke’s family, believed he wished to cover his daughter’s devious tracks… Even if the duke himself claimed such a thing made no sense. Although, some too entrenched in their own machinations believed this to be the cover for some sort of affair. It would ruin the reputation of both him and the princess if such a thing happened.

While others, like the Baron of Augustica and Viscount of Bachlar still maintained their rage at one another. Both seemed to believe an outside party’s responsibility to some degree… But then they had to question a single fact.

Why did they find the bodies so quickly? If they wanted conflict then it made more sense to allow it to brew before only revealing one of the heirs’ bodies. At which point it might grow into a complete war between the territories!

This not happening didn’t mean they were stupid enough to start strangling one another though. Any good intentions between the two sides had been destroyed weeks ago, and nothing the king said could repair the strain between both families.

Of all these conflicts, only the marquises and mayors got off freely. And from previously just those mid-sized nobles wishing to retreat from the nation, now even most of the cities wished for some independence. Whether it was the civilians or those controlling such places asking to become a city state was unknown.

Remelo was nowhere close to the only place this occurred. Its neighbouring nations all encountered similar situations to varied levels of finalities. One neighbour approached the brink of war, with the nobles raising arms and perhaps days from razing the royal family from their nation’s line. While another nation only suffered a few minute losses, some private meetings with their leaders revealed that many traitors had been routed out by nobles.

All in all, it revealed a single shortcoming of Remelo.

He couldn’t truly trust the nobles under him. No one knew who’d been contacted by the Eternals, and this was the result. Pandemonium on a continent-wide scale!

Getting little rest that night, he could only pray that the continent was not plunged into battle. Not for the sake of the people, but because in those times the title of king means nothing.

And without that title… Did he possess any value?