He sat around a sizable fire with the group, on which Jaren and Darak cooked the gold tier he struggled to hunt today. After wondering for so many hours, he simply couldn’t see the cause of his combat inefficiency and resorted to asking what the issue was. It did not take long for Korridan to distinguish what happened, and they reached a conclusion. “So you never used those stat points? Well, that’s probably why then, Mala, what’s your magic stat now?”
“Back when we first met, it was 40. I raised it to 50 as soon as I had enough points. And obviously equipped that title,” she replied. He frowned for a moment, wondering what proportion of her points were completely focused on magic.
He wasn’t able to do that back on the mountain as utility was too important whilst alone. He needed speed, growth, and to some degree, mutation rate. Although it had been a while since he used that last one, maybe he should put more points into–
Why wasn’t he listening?!
“The 50 point one, I thought it would be too early to get at my level… At the least, I think I need to increase my damage by 40%. Without the barrier my damage was almost meaningless.” A day of analysis made the problems in that battle obvious, and he knew where the biggest problems lay.
Firstly, the reduction in Plasma Arc’s damage after evolving was way more severe than he realised. From low-rung Intermediate true spell damage back down to the top of Apprentice… his stats no longer kept up with other beasts. In the end, these scalings are all highly relative to one another.
As a major example, Icy’s power jumped from as low as a horribly weak steel tier when he used his physical body, all the way to a considerably gold tier when his palace and spirit were included. It was obvious why rankings for beasts were always so nonsensical.
Well, at least killing that unintelligent beast granted him three levels. This further reinforced why killing intelligent creatures wasn’t that efficient, as they weren’t often as high a level due to requiring experience points. Whereas the Nexus simply adjusted levels automatically for the unintelligent ones as they grew stronger… Since gold tiers appeared at level 35 and ended at 55, this tiger really had to be called weak amongst them.
Its bloodline ought to be Rare as well, nothing worth looking at.
With barely three more levels given by that fight as well, he had even more points to use freely. The most obvious upgrade came first, “Nexus, raise magic to 50 points.” Storing so many points clearly wasn’t beneficial, and now he realised that when his memories spoke of using them in dire circumstances, it more so referred to a small number like 5 or 10 points.
Not to mention… Oh, he went over the book quickly to check and further realised that it recommended the concept to hatchlings who were yet to pick a direction for growth.
With 20 extra points, that would be an addition of 100% to the multiplier for ordinary people, but it rose to 140% due to the Nexus Bonus title. Of course, this is just what was added on. The real change in numbers was from 310% to 450% when taken as a multiplier of his spells’ base damage.
Or, to make it easier to understand, his spells were now 45% stronger!
Speed with the spirit was important to his battlestyle as well, but it really didn’t feel that lacking even with a measly 10 points. But maybe that was due to the beasts he met being weaker or not speed-oriented?
“Firstly, the new title. I guess I’ll be swapping between it and the others until level 40.” He didn’t particularly like having to manage these things, finding it preferable if he could just select a thing and leave it be, but the few titles had very different use cases. Not using training-related ones while training was rather daft.
[Unlocked title ‘Magic Primary’. Requisite condition - Have the Magic stat reach 50 points first]
A Primary title like it existed for every known stat, although why you would ever try to acquire it on something which wasn’t your core attribute is a funny idea at most. He wondered what the equivalent would be for mutation rate, as the version for growth wasn’t a bad title either, just pointless compared to all the good ones.
[Magic Primary I: An element may be picked from a selection, +10% chosen element damage to all spells. Upgradable]
This title could be summarised quite simply. It didn’t make any damn physical sense.
But for a better description…
Primary titles upgraded every 50 points in their respective stat field and had four tiers in total. For Magic Primary, every tier increased the number of choosable elements and the added damage thrown on. That really did mean he needed 200 points in magic to reach its max tier and have full access to all elements. The Nexus did this with reason as some elements were just insanely powerful.
Now, as for how the title itself worked. The first tier gave him the choice of fire, water, earth, and wind elements. When chosen, every single spell he cast would be given an overall multiplier of +10%, but it specifically dealt damage of that chosen element.
So that meant water spells which burnt the target, or fire spells which left deep cuts, were all possible. 10% often doesn’t sound like a lot, and it isn’t, but nothing states that you have to pick opposing elements. One could also just buff a fire spell by 10% for even more damage!
Anyway, it was by far his best title to use in combat with normal beasts. Against lords, it was obviously best to use Lord Slayer, but that summed things up.
He didn’t equip the title yet, as he was about to eat and train more, but just looked at his status for the first time in a little while.
Name
Icryladrom (Icy)
Title
Nexus Aid Bonus II
Complete Awakening
Species
Dragon
Bloodline
Soul Capturing Ice-cream
HP
100%
MP
100%
Level
33
EXP
6%
Unallocated Stat Points: 19
Strength
0
Luck
0
Agility
10
Growth
15
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Magic
50
Mutation Rate
5
“Maybe I will put some more points into mutation rate… But not now,” he made a vague comment as it was clear that a small hill of roasted and carved meat was now available for them all. The smokeless fire was a thing he couldn’t have appreciated more.
Obviously, the tiger’s sizable body contained a fair bit of blood which he stuffed himself on besides meat. He already drank a few gallons of the stuff earlier today after the fight, and this meal just pushed him over the edge for another assimilation.
[Assimilated Flamewalker tiger bloodline! 4 new bloodline pathways potentially available!]
Interestingly, that tiger had a Rare+ bloodline. Perhaps it was rather weak and only evolved recently? Or that flame element was a recent mutation of some sort.
He stopped caring after that thought and turned back to the group. The comparison between his and Mala’s magic now made it clear just how important those points had been. They only compared weak Wind blade spells in this regard, and it now sliced through a foot wide log with the spell retaining some form. While not the best analysis, the fact that Mala’s one dispersed right after cutting through showed the greater power applied by the Nexus.
[Bloodline energy has reached an evolutionary threshold. Prepare for evolutionary measures to begin]
“Did I underestimate the energy contained in those corpses… I know there were a lot, but still. Won’t I evolve like two more times this year alone then?” He thought about it more, and spoke his thoughts in Baranot for everyone to hear.
For a moment, it surprised them that he already evolved again, and only after they remembered watching him remain in place for the past couple minutes due to an assimilation!
How did they even forget?
“Do you need any protection? Or is everything alright?” Korridan asked to make sure, as they weren’t in the middle of a random field, but on an island full of beasts in which one evolved every day at a minimum. Another evolution wouldn’t draw any attention. Hardly the evolution of a beast like Icy.
Before the evolution actually started, he once again removed the usual suspects from the evolution pool. This time anything below Advanced was gone though. He simply didn’t need to look at the 20 different bloodlines he got from gold tiers on this island. Obviously, Volatile Mutant and food evolutions vanished too. It wasn’t long before the main event started, and this bloodline would likely stay with him for the next few months as he focused heavily on growth.
Power mattered, but it was foolish to choose over faster training. Though, he doubted the Elder Guard evolutions would offer something of the latter.
[Evolution imminent. Your possible bloodline pathways are the following:
Worldmauler Ice-cream
Spatially-isolated Mind Ice-cream
Magicus soul…
Auric Divinus…
Fate Tracer…
Palace Devourer…
Awakened Elemental Trifecta…
Equivalence Principium…
True Soul Shield…
Mental Fortress…
Adamantium body…
Spiritually Equipped…
Domain of Control…
Battle-sighted…
Please make a selection in 5 minutes, or a random pathway will be used]
“Is my Stormbringer bloodline that ridiculous? It actually evolved to a ‘mauler’ bloodline…” He spoke out in Baranot just so Mala heard, he didn’t know if she understood what the bloodline meant yet, but her chuckle was enough to tell. While he went on to filter some out at first glance, she explained what made maulers so annoying.
“Bringers are just beings who can summon disasters with mana. Generally speaking, they’re dangerous if aggravated but not so much out of that. Maulers aren’t just like their worse, older cousins… Think more like malicious and abusive slave owners, in comparison.”
Jaren replied without missing a beat, “That analogy doesn’t make sense. Just what do they do?” While her description certainly sent a chill up their spines, it explained far too little.
“They thrive on killing everything. Not just wild animals, but every little wisp of biological matter. Maulers are called that because they leave anything they can no more than a wasteland of dead earth.” She finally gave an apt description, but even that didn’t fully convey just how insane Icy’s bloodline was.
Because his said ‘Worldmauler’.
[Worldmauler Ice-cream: Invert the protection of the world; call for its demise. A ‘mauler’ is a heartless and cruel being who will attempt to annihilate all life it can sense, within its limits. However, to destroy the world is to break the very foundation of life itself, to kill the endless will that protects a world and sustains itself for aeons to come. Acquire a wisp of destruction, and watch it grow as death proliferates. In addition to previous bonuses, grants +400% destruction element damage]
Why yes! Obviously, it was a bloodline anyone could take and reasonably use!
He rolled his eyes and said, “Always remove mauler bloodlines from evolution options.” Becoming a mauler not only made one a hated being, but also marked a dragon as an enemy of their race. He would be lucky to survive a week.
Those more invested might question why the Nexus gave it one insanely powerful bonus instead of a few smaller ones, and that was due to mauler bloodline having next to no other property that benefits from enhancement.
Only the destruction element matters to them.
Besides that kerfuffle, his initial read-through only removed a few from the list full of legitimately viable bloodlines. Those, in particular, were Magicus Soul, Fate Tracer, Battle-sighted, and Domain of Control. The rest weren’t as amazing as a couple options… But rather than write them off, he wanted to think it through a bit and discuss.
After all, he only took a minute to read through every single one of the bloodlines. Time really wasn’t an issue with his current Mind palace.
As for those removed.
Magicus is the great language associated with general spellcasting. And as such, the bloodline was rejected for the same reason he turned down the Divinus-associated one a while back. Fate Tracer was weirder, as it did not focus on tracing a thing, but rather allowed him to see threads of fate which led to different outcomes.
In general, less range is ideal for fate analysis. You only want to be good at one thing, not bad at twenty.
Lastly, the Elder guard evolutions. Battle-sighted made his senses for battle enhance to a maddening degree, to the point where he could grasp an opponent’s flow and battle techniques simply through sight. Domain of Control simply lacked details to such a degree that he couldn’t understand what exactly it did outside of creating a ‘domain’, even this was open to interpretation.
Now, time to start on the rest.
As always, he went down the list for a deeper read. Of course, he knew which ideas caught his eye off the bat, however, he didn’t always stick through with those choices.
Anyway, time for the ninth evolution, to think he wasn’t even two years old yet!
[Auric Divinus Ice-cream: Your aura modifies to adapt to divine power, the Golden Power now melds with ease. Aura may now be used to enhance divine spells, and the spirit becomes a carrier for divinity. By holding runes of Divinus, it may achieve a number of things only limited by its own strength. Aura now contains the effect of divine suppression. Grants innate ability ‘Healing Aura’. In addition to previous bonuses, grants +80% aura damage, +50% aura manipulation, +100% max aura, +50% max MP, +60% all suppression]
This seemed to be a very natural evolution for the Auric Spiritual bloodline, especially since the divinity within him belonged to the Kandir giants’ god.
He saw some use in this bloodline, especially since he could enhance Darak’s healing or achieve… Something with its use. The innate ability didn’t seem all that interesting, but who knew, it may be the difference between life or death at some point. One thing was of significance though.
The Golden Powers.
One clear thing about elements and really anything magical was that they had clear colours.
For long ages, there had been arguments over the symbolism of these things, and colour theory was actually a rather important notion for wizards. Certain spell structures were associated with colour sets, which was why one structure would be used mostly for fire spells, but a different one for death spells.
Gold was also one of these colour sets, and the elements which represented them were rather varied but evidently high-level for their own reasons. For a while now, he’d been trying to understand what the colourless aura represented.
Palace Devourer was next on the list, but he only took one look at his party before his logical and emotional thoughts completely overpowered any desire to take it.
The sort of mental torture that it invoked…
Icy shook his head at the thought. Its main boon, the ability to place consumed palaces within his mind sounded great, but that came with the downside of now having to fit them in. Something easier said than done on a mountain like his mental space.
They might not even get the benefit of his Draconic Mind Palace bloodline!
And now, the final two natural evolutions.
[Awakened Elemental Trifecta Ice-cream: Mind, Body, and Soul are the three cores of any sentient being, awakening all three means proof of sapience and the opportunity to grow further than the limit of one’s blood. But limits exist in all forms, some clear and others hidden no matter how deep one looks. The Trifecta are bound by elements of nature, affinities at large, however. If the trifecta is a perfect balance, then why not simply shift their positions? In addition to previous bonuses, grants +20% trifecta training speed while switched, +80% shared element damage, +60% max MP, +80% soul defence, +60% palace suppression]
[Equivalence principium Ice-cream: Equality in nature is utilitarian; to call it an axiom is as foolish as absolute truth. To some degree, all energy comes from a pure source. This pure source is generally unattainable, but with it as a principle, you may transmute between seemingly any sort of power. Equivalence is not free, an ironic statement, and in turn, it comes with the danger of interacting with the pure source. Mind and Soul must never be tainted by the source, and a weak body will be unable to resist its devouring effects. In addition to previous bonuses, grants -30% transmutation cost, +100% max MP, +80% Pure Source defence, +30% elemental damage, +80% created element defence]
Not too long at least… Sort of…