There was one thing he truly perfected over the past month, and it was none other than the use of his own bloodline. In truth, he completely underestimated just how powerful the effect of World veiler could truly be.

Firstly, and what he hadn’t even noticed, was that the folded space actually merged together after entirely covering him, so whilst a faint mana fluctuation came from the space itself whilst he performed the ‘covering’ as he put it, it completely died out just seconds after completion. Unfortunately, he couldn’t physically see outside this hidden space, but any sight spell which connected mentally did an excellent job of compensating. Although, mana sight and sense worked fine at short ranges. Overall, it meant that Steel tiers simply could not see him, even if they stood right next to the folded space, because he had the Pure mana bloodline before.

Most steel tiers couldn’t innately sense minds or souls… So what happens when the body and its mana were hidden?

Naturally, he became unnoticeable. And then there was the World veiler effect itself which claimed to utilise the world’s powers to block out anything which could be used to sense him.

And it did. A test in front of the wyvern revealed that even it failed to sense any part of him whilst that additional effect activated. Then he re-appeared about 15 seconds later because, as he expected, it required an insane quantity of mana to utilise. He didn’t know how it worked, but any mana deposited outside his body, with the cover of space active, automatically hid his presence in any discernible form. He discussed the ability’s limit with the wyvern, and the two concluded that only something with either high affinity with space or so overwhelmingly powerful that their senses penetrated reality as a whole, would ever notice something passively.

Everything changed once spells to search things out came into play.

And so, the dragon’s plan was awfully simple. To spy on the anaconda a few days after the dog’s attack utterly failed and see if it tried to send any more steel tiers after him.

He hid his body’s mana with ample control, and after approaching the anaconda’s mana tree, slowly raised a portion of space around him. For additional safety, he chose a time at night when the oversized snake went to sleep, careful to not draw attention to himself amongst the crowd of bronze tier beasts.

Once he approached the range in which only peak bronze tiers slept, he acted upon his plan to suddenly vanish.

A few Controlled lights flew up from beneath the snow on the opposite side of himself, and instantly drew the attention of those still awake… Including a few steel tiers who were allowed to stay closer to the anaconda due to loyalty and strength.

All those eyes only turned for a few seconds, but that alone was enough. He hadn’t practiced for nothing.

Not a single creature realised as the lizard which quietly entered the region just below this node tree’s canopy had vanished. And with his mana suppressed, none of them could possibly know.

While it may seem dangerous for him to leave his post like this, there was a stark difference in the anaconda and dragon’s relationships with their leader. The former was a protector, and absolutely had to maintain this backline which represented the last point of the wyvern’s land.

Meanwhile, he simply owned a valuable resource, something of far lower importance and responsibility overall. But that also meant he wasn’t utterly bound to his tree, so long as he returned in time to deal with the terror eels which had arrived due to the allure of fresh minds in this world.

What was truly dangerous was the incredibly small chance that one of the surrounding steel tiers bumped into him, or the one who applied mental defences to his attackers came by, as he lacked any way to resist their senses. The 15 seconds of total concealment he could muster was way too little time in the end.

As a whole, the problem with his plan came in the form of constant work. Even after the layer of space merged back together, his mind still played a key part in keeping it that way.

Which meant he had to hold an annoying weight as long as he stayed here.

But he trained for that too… As horrible as it sounded.

Unfortunately, his only regret was that he couldn’t continue building his Mind palace at the same time. He could only hold it for one whole day before a growing tiredness impacted him and caused the veil to fall.

With all that in mind, nothing happened all night long. Why?

Because it was night! Seriously, what else could possibly be the reason?

And so, he stood guard for several hours as the sun slowly rose and he kept an eye on the anaconda, who awoke to see its subjects. But as its gaze completely passed by his hidden spot, there was no longer a concern over danger. He had a day before a sudden light would once more distract everything and allow for a quick escape.

Did he mention that standing beside a giant tree with hundreds of beasts nearby was nerve-wracking? It certainly helped with the fact that he hadn’t slept in almost 19 hours now.

But it didn’t change the fact that nothing came to look for the anaconda. Perhaps he missed the meeting by a day? Or perhaps the two parties met in an entirely separated way through a long-distance psychic spell?

He knew of at least four ways for a steel tier to initiate long-range communication, but cut down on three of them due to his ability to detect them. Which left only a single method which he couldn’t actually track.

If the two met face-to-face.

And that method came with a slight problem. He just had to be lucky. If he was, then great! If not, then it was unlikely he’d ever see. By the time night fell, he confirmed that the anaconda entered an undisturbed sleep through mana sight and prepared to create a huge disturbance high up in the air above him.

Radiant burst, that spell he originally hoped would blind something, could not have come with a better use than this. He roughly chose a position through mana sense, having no clue how far from the tree his position actually was, and quietly cast the spell.

The veil didn’t hide his voice, but at most, only a few beasts heard his whispers anyway. No one really cared about where the light noises came from either, but when the spell completed, he made a rapid getaway without anything the wiser. Unfortunately, he was also none the wiser, having wasted a full day on this awfully random endeavour with no results to speak of.

Of course, it was no surprise why his timing had been so horribly wrong as he then spent the next week at the node tree in complete anticipation of a new attacker…

But none came.

It had now been about 10 days since the last attack, the longest gap so far, and he wasn’t sure if this was a sort of fake-out or if the enemy simply gave up. Or perhaps he massively over-reacted and the anaconda literally never spared a second thought about him this whole time.

Would be rather embarrassing if his spying ever came to light now.

He sat up from his position beneath the node tree to see two powerful creatures walk towards him at the range of his mana sense. Neither appeared hostile though, and their leisurely pace soon made sense as he took a look.

A very familiar black furred tiger and tall, bipedal sloth walked towards him. They didn’t stand on ceremony and the three simply greeted one another. Now that he gained the position of node tree owner, his position amongst them was no less than a powerful steel tier like themselves. And as such, neither of the two felt wronged when he said, “What do the two of you need then? Or did our leader send out a message?”

“It’s…” The sloth spoke up, but as his eyes shifted about it was clear that they feared the information leaking. The three beasts chose a rather desolate region to the west of the node tree, even beyond the nearby infected mana gatherer tree, before finally talking freely. The sloth finished the sentence, “We found some strange ruins to the north of the crab’s mountain. It’s a small entrance, but it descends incredibly far… What do you say?”

“And why would you invite me?” What did they gain in any shape by sharing the rewards of the ruins with him?

The sloth, Kav, answered him, “Actually, there are already a dozen steel tiers there. We plan to head down together. But some keep on saying there’s some sort of greater power below… We can confirm, but we noticed some waves of mana on par with the lord’s.”

“So I’m your safety net?”

The two beasts coughed when he phrased it so bluntly, but the dragon could only roll his eyes at the idea. He didn’t have anything to lose by doing this too, so why not go and investigate it? Worst case scenario was him using the lantern’s charge to kill a gold tier. And he’d get to assimilate it, so why bother crying about it?

The treasures in untouched ruins are varied in the end. Whilst older ruins hold few intact weapons and magical tools, they were overflowing with magical minerals and plants. Excellent things if he wanted to assimilate bloodlines or have armour made for himself.

Indeed, stronger dragons obviously had sets of armour melded to their body at all times, it just required them to be an adult as a younger dragon’s body grew overtime.

This, unfortunately, laid to rest his ideas to stake out the anaconda or test for other attackers. But in its place came a chance to obtain some rather valuable things.

These ruins often came with more than just dangers and resources, but bountiful information or entire training grounds!

A collection of alchemical knowledge is invaluable to most beasts due to its monopolisation by the dominant intelligent races, let alone techniques to craft weapons, engrave magical arrays, or even create scrolls! Yet, what most of the steel tiers cared for was none other than skills and spells.

And if the power of a gold tier existed within these ruins, then no doubt some Apprentice level spells existed. Just from the dragon’s repertoire, they knew that just a single one wildly improved their variation in battle.

However, even he realised that none were so stupid as to go into an old, spooky ruin with no security. Unwilling to draw any of the bigshots to their little treasure… Well, this ha. From what he saw upon arrival, it was actually the steel tiers of four different lords working together, or so they claimed.

The butterfly, roc, an unknown parrot, and finally, their wyvern. Each side came with just three steel tiers, most nearer to the peak and altogether barely strong enough to take on a weaker gold tier beast.

But it was the small dragon who waddled beside a gigantic pair that earned the most attention. That didn’t mean he led, however. Another beast took leadership of the group, a type of rattlesnake with black patterns down its albino body. The piercing red eyes combined with such strange markings surprised him, but it was the black glass-like rattler at the end of its body which drew the most attention.

He felt his mind fade ever so slightly from its noise, and he realised the rattlesnake’s power immediately. It must have been just a single step away from gold tier, and this likely frightened everyone else into allowing it to lead. Not that the peak bronze tier dragon dared voice a complaint.

“Is this everyone then?” The rattlesnake did not elongate any characters as some snakes characteristically performed, but rather shook its crystalline rattle at various speeds and volumes depending on intonation. That single sentence almost entranced him thrice.

All the beasts agreed in their own manners, some respectful but a couple of others, especially on its team, weren’t as energetic.

“You’re from our side, you dafty. Get a move on already.” The two beasts belonging to the same lord just rolled their eyes and the group set off, fortunately moving far slower than as individuals. This allowed his spirit-enhanced state to easily keep up, retaining some pride at the very least.

Soon, the group of twelve came to an almost inconspicuous pile of snow, and even he felt confused as no strange mana sources revealed themselves in the surroundings.

But as a few of the larger beasts moved tonnes of snow away, brown-green brickwork began to reveal itself until he saw an interesting spiral staircase heading deep underground. Only as the bricks entered his sight did they appear in his mana sight, leading him to tap his foot in confusion.

What sort of stone could remain completely hidden until seen physically?

None of the dozen types he knew… Except the books describing all those stones spanned 13 volumes with a little under 800 major types. To memorise every single mineral meant an uncalled for quantity of work, as transcribing in this mana took far too much time.

But he knew one thing for certain whilst seeing the brown brick stairwell appear as an infinite abyss, sucking up all the light of the world and even their fates. This place… wasn’t safe.

No, it was worse than that. He didn’t doubt that they’d all die inside.

After all, every single one of the clean, almost fresh, bricks contained about a tenth of the mana of a considerably powerful gold tier.