Placing the corpse in his emptied dimensional storage, he quickly absorbed its soul with the lantern and went back to digging. Nothing bothered him again, and after unmerging the Auric spirit, he asked if it knew why the aura empowerment of his spell failed. The spirit informed him that it personally had to manipulate the aura into the spell, which also meant learning how to do so for each spell individually.
Of course, there was no guarantee that every spell allowed for it as well!
Additionally, it could make use of either its own aura reserves or a released blob of the liquid like he did while falling through the air. If possible, expanding his aura sack was extremely useful. But like most dragon-related things, he imagined that such a thing only occurred at growth phases.
In which case he would likely have to hasten the aura production by manually inserting mana into the sack. While things were rather time-sensitive, he had no real clue what rushing the Auric spirit’s growth would do, and on that alone he chose to only provide liquid aura at the rate he produced it naturally. An easy way to check if rapidly feeding it caused any harm, but at the same time he had been a bit too gluttonous.
His strength and defences now compared to the average youngling, along with speed massively exceeding them to a point of being unnatural for the kind. Spells to reproduce such superspeed existed, but his simply came alongside a merging with his new ability! And that wasn’t the end of this evolution.
He wondered if the other Warborne bloodlines were just as ridiculously powerful as this, it truly lived up to the status of an Advanced tier bloodline.
Obviously, he needed more of them.
[Killed Level 14 Crystal-frilled lizard! Received 5% EXP]
This was the strongest of the three lizards yet it only granted this much experience? He really needed to find some stronger things to hunt.
With a bit more Water control, he finally dug down far enough to properly sense the item which drew his interest. It turned out to be a large bone from some unknown creature, and even after a Glacier crush the thing remained undamaged.
With so much mana still within, this bone was either pretty recent, comparatively speaking, or it came from an immensely powerful creature many years ago. Obviously, the latter sounded best but meant little hope in the way of assimilation.
Not everywhere on this mountain was like that battlefield. Thinking about it a bit more, perhaps he was intentionally placed near it since his parents knew nothing would dare step into its boundaries.
As far as safety went, its outskirts outmatched everything in the whole Evelard range!
After throwing the bone into his storage belt, no further items stood out and caused an instant bout of depression. The lack of a full skeleton made assimilation near impossible, and he prepared to continue searching for other notable items.
A bit more searching around the place found some interesting plants similar to raspberries. Its only difference being how the berry was entirely transparent, and small crystal bits floated within. On the first bite he immediately noted their intense sweetness and knew he had to do everything in his power to collect such plants. That single branch he found was actually part of a larger plant with at least fifty of such berries!
[Consumed Clear-sugar berry! Received 1% EXP]
They contained no bloodline even with so much mana, but he didn’t really care. These berries were the best tasting thing right after his own body!
With that information why would he care about their lack of a bloodline? A food he actually enjoyed meant so much more. And after sufficient searching he came across three more bushes, two of which were above ground and therefore barren.
But the third one still remained underground, providing a large bounty of 44 more berries. Perhaps this would last him a few weeks… If even that much.
With that in tow, he decided to head home soon after. On the way a quick peek at the node tree saw the crane in a similar position, but it had clearly moved slightly since his last appearance. He wondered what happened, although an obvious guess was some creature underestimating its power and dying soon after.
All the creatures surrounding the node tree no longer dared to sit at the edge, clearly hoping to not get on this crane’s bad side. The worst part was that fighting simply wasn’t an option as only a few at this node tree could fly, and compared to the crane they stood no chance.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
He continued past but was stopped soon after as the voice of some beast echoed throughout the mountain range. At first he didn’t take notice of it… But then realised the crane flew up from its spot to stare at the source, not to mention the intelligent beasts all looking at it in a strange manner.
Some appeared hopeful, others eager… And others conflicted? He couldn’t really pick up on animal expressions very well, but he realised these were words, not just random roars and growls.
Something in the mountain range, far stronger than the crane at that, was speaking to most of the intelligent beasts here. And that likely meant a single possibility, one he never picked up on because he’d only focused on learning a single human language.
This was called Beasten when translated, quite literally being the language of beasts. Like any baby learning a language, Beasten required fellow beasts capable of using it to have a chance of learning, but it generally wasn’t too hard to pick up for most animals. This became a common feature since the animals of the world often found themselves isolated, dragons were mostly unwilling to accept them as were most major intelligent races.
Thus, they slowly crafted their own language and spread it freely. He didn’t know exactly what the source of this Beasten said to those in the mountain range, but from the crane’s attitude it clearly felt offended in some way.
And to draw the eyes of every intelligent beast… It had to be something of value to them personally. He didn’t know exactly what, but he believed the next few weeks showed incredible danger.
The crane cried out a few times, its voice far quieter than the far off roars, and in the end having no choice but to descend with clear annoyance towards all the beasts looking towards its enemy.
Whatever it thought of just now, he didn’t want to be involved. Walking along quietly, he acted as though not a single word made it to his ears, which it pretty much didn’t… But he preferred none of these powerful beasts knowing about him. Hopefully none of their parents talked about him as well.
And this seemed to be the case as he safely snuck away from the node tree and headed back home. This fate didn’t last long though…
A winged creature began flying over from the other side of the mountain range and specifically began approaching the battlefield, without hesitation he activated Rapid camouflage and did his best to suppress all mana around him. Ever since improving his mind, doing small things like repelling everything at his scales couldn’t have been easier!
What swooped down, hoving near the battlefield, was a creature he recognised on sight. It had to be one of the wyvern’s children, and its eyes carefully peeled over the surroundings. However, in the white snow it could not visually see the dragon and decided to simply drop down. Its thick wings folded and the beast stood on its two hind legs and wing extrusions.
He worried about having to sneak past the wyvern in some way now, but instead the large beast spoke aloud. Its voice wasn’t insanely loud, but it certainly echoed throughout the mountain as though distance didn’t exist. Sound percussion spell? Or perhaps Vocal repetition… He knew of a few which achieved this sort of thing.
But as the wyvern spoke, he realised that the words all sounded familiar. This one actually knew draconic!
And it said, “I was told a dragon lived near this place, but there is no need to reveal yourself. We beast lords are seeking subordinates, and as we are kin, to some degree, I wish to extend a claw to earn your trust. Hopefully you will enter my delegation on the easternmost mountain.”
Hearing the voice a lot more this time, this wyvern sounded rather similar to the beast that spoke earlier and enraged the crane.
In fact, not even missing a beat, the crane had already flown up in the air and began screeching once more. Although only a faintly bird-shaped figure at this distance, he would not be mistaken about such a sound and its anger. Still, the wyvern merely snorted once before ignoring the bird, clearly it did not think this lord even deserved a chance at the kingship.
Flapping its wings, the wyvern raised off the ground and flew off. A faint jealousy passed through him at the sight of its flight, and he vowed to learn how to properly control his Auric spirit as soon as possible.
Why shouldn’t it be capable of flight when attached with him?
As the wyvern flew off, he wasn’t so careless as to immediately start running home. Instead, he first remained in place for a few minutes and noticed a strange orb of mana enter his mana sense. At first he assumed the Third eye spell, but no obvious black orbs existed at that point!
This wyvern could use Apprentice tier true spells, he didn’t doubt it for a moment. Fortunately, just because the spell is invisible, it isn’t that much more durable. A simple Wind blade cut through the air and destroyed the ball of mana, allowing it to dissipate.
As nothing else came through the area, he presumed that the wyvern only created a single spell and quickly rushed off by merging with the Auric spirit. It took just half a minute to reach the cave, then using Instant shift to enter the tunnel leading to his real home.
How annoying it is to deal with stronger beings.
On the complete opposite side of the mountain range, a wyvern sat in a large cavern with several beasts of all shapes and sizes standing around the edge and watching their leader respectfully. As he opened his eyes to peer out of the cavern’s entrance, they too all turned and watched but saw nothing enter.
The wyvern closed his eyes and breathed out, not really bothered with the development.
Just a single youngling in the end… Even if it caught a sage’s eye, he refused to believe it could shake his dominance in the Evelard range. Instead, he knew who the true enemy this time round was, and as such took none of the other lords seriously.
The current beast king, and owner of the Grand peak of this mountain range. A beast left untouched by humans for decades now, and allowed to gather practically all materials of value here, it’s no wonder that it reached its current level.
The Sea-freezing crab. According to local legend, it turned its entire mountain into solid ice in a fit of rage.
Things would be messy if it woke up too quickly.