A young dragon met the next morning with high expectations and energy, a counterpart to the continent at large entering a state of turmoil.
Even if the mountain range itself was technically in a war at this very moment.
Like every morning, he acquired another bowl of wyvern blood. Today vaguely mentioning the situation on acquiring the mana gatherer trees. “I believe they’re going to group up against me, and I cannot beat them. It may take some time until I grow enough to crush them.”
“Take your time. The stalks take weeks to reach maturity.” As expected, the wyvern never held this node tree in his eyes, only caring about the possibility of harvesting mindless dream monsters.
With that confirmation, he knew better than to bother asking further questions about the various tree owners. If they wanted to fight to the death he’d gladly crush them, there was no doubt about that in his mind. And now he prepared for two important things. Once merged he raced home while withdrawing the butterfly head from the dimensional storage.
Without proper information on how to cook brain, he did as usual.
Roasting it.
While not bad by any accounts, he barely registered any taste when chewing on the firm meat. Only the shimmering power of moonlight spreading throughout mattered, in fact so strong that every piece sent him into a stream of endless bliss. And every time it ended left his heart fluttering and practically gagging to have another piece.
It was so… good. So calming, soothing, enjoyable both physically and mentally.
And so unbelievably addictive.
Piece by piece, the brain within this large insect head slowly vanished, and as the blade went to cut off another section he found it empty. Just like the head, his body also found itself empty, a hole bored its way through his heart and the sensation hurt physically.
He just wanted the comfort again. The embrace like no other which reminded him of his parents…
Why did dragons have to be so cruel? Is that why he never found out what a true dragon was?
He needed to be cruel and heartless like them?
That was horrible. In the plainest of words, he couldn’t believe a whole race truly thought like this and considered such an attitude the best for their race.
The finality of moonlight faded away, and he simply ate the remaining part of the insect’s head in silence.
[Consumed Lunar-clipped butterfly bloodline! Assimilation progress 66%]
Just as he imagined, the brain housed almost all this butterfly’s bloodline energy. It must have been its final act before death to become a sort of inheritance object, something strange in its own right as most powerful creatures used their bones.
But he didn’t particularly think about it further, diving right into his mental space to use the exhausting work as a way to pass time. With his mind focused on holding the tiles in place, copious mana being used to compress them until a merger occurred, the pain eventually dulled.
Never vanishing, but the exhaustion helped.
In the end, he was able to forget how the lack of moonlight affected him. The powerful emotions elicited remained, but whether they truly belonged to him was unknown.
He never even realised just how dangerous the draw of moonlight could be… It was no wonder that creatures of the element are considered dangerous to even dragons. But in a far better state of mind, he’d placed all but the final row of tiles on this house! It had taken something like 6 hours, but in just thirty more minutes he’d finally have a complete building!
So many future plans ran through his mind, and what exactly to focus on was another matter altogether.
But he travelled one step at a time.
From a little over fifty tiles remaining, it dropped to forty, then thirty… and not even that soon after he was counting the individuals remaining. Quickly coming to the final one. The divider between an entry-level Mind palace and a beginner Mind palace. It followed the ranking of spells simply because the Nexus titled them as such.
And as he formed the final tile from clay-like mana, he moved it into place, and began to compress it. With every bit of usable mana, he packed it tighter and tighter and tighter…
The world shook, vibrating at its very core. He felt an oppressive might swim past him, not affecting him but rather rushing into the building just moments from completion. His mental world released a fearsome roar unlike his own, and he was almost left in awe of the situation, reining in those emotions to complete the final tile.
However, the oppressive might did not vanish so easily. Completely out of his control, the link to his mind suddenly tore open to wildly draw in mana, but at the same time being completely unsated by whatever it drew in. An all-powerful devouring force which seemed to consume his existence until a smidge of aura passed on through.
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Just the tiniest wisp, slowly dragged in by the powerful force, and he sensed how even in its gaseous state it became mouldable like mana in his mental space. But it felt different.
Stickier, runnier, more versatile but also so much more volatile.
The oppressive might reappeared, moving past him to focus onto the aura, the formless existence travelling into the sticky substance before the mixture began to coat his building, finished just moments ago.
But it clearly lacked aura! In this state he had no idea how to pull it over, in fact, he thought it impossible prior to this moment!
Without any better option, he quickly cast the spell to fall asleep once more and left the space, moments after leaving, he realised that the small link remained. A tiny pinprick in his head that he automatically knew connected to the mental space, and without hesitation he gathered up any remaining aura to throw right into the space, even requesting the spirit to deposit some as well.
On impulse he tried to re-enter the space through this pinprick, but failed. Clearly he needed to investigate it further, but he lacked time for now. Another usage of the spell transported him back through where he saw something which blew his expectations out of the water.
As though perched on the building, a large ghostly dragon rested on top of the building, momentarily looking down towards the youngling with disparaging yet caring eyes. Neither spoke a single word.
But as the shock faded, he opened his mouth to speak…
The transparent shimmered for a moment before exploding into a shower of fine sparkling mist, he couldn’t help but cry out to it, “Wait! Do I truly possess the will of a True dragon? I just need to know! Does it… exist?”
His words made no difference though. The sparkling mist fell to the snow seeping into the very mountain itself.
He should have fallen into despair.
Fallen into a long silence, ridden with the uncertainty if he could ever be good enough. But, strangely, he did not. He felt relieved. An honest to every god, pure relief.
He wasn’t worthy. Not yet.
But the will existed, and one day he would awaken it. One day he would prove to it that he met the requirements of a True dragon and unlock its powers. The power which allowed dragons to survive against Great sages and Primordius warriors for thousands of years.
But that was a goal for the far future. His mental space merely receiving a fraction of its power was great enough already.
Besides all that, he could be happy that this bloodline actually worked!
And as it had vanished, a simple sigil appeared on the building, facing towards him was a large golden blood drop. It was not a mere solid symbol, but the innards swirled and flowed, constantly being pushed around by something. But, no matter what, he knew the importance of his Mind palace now.
Also, if everything the bloodline description said was true… wouldn’t that mean he could already bring this into reality. A single building is hardly imposing, but with the backdrop of a snowy mountain, it contained some bone-chilling atmosphere.
Happy with the results, he wondered if building a grander palace invoked more of this sleeping will within him. Although, even if it did, so what?
Skirting the rules was a joke compared to understanding the path of a True dragon.
As he looked at the simplistic building, a great yearning blossomed within him. Another goal for him to achieve, and one he truly saw as a challenge. To meet the expectations made to him from this species, and to prove once and for all that even a so-called mishap may become a True dragon.
[Obtained title ‘Beginner's Mind palace’. Unlock requirement - Create a full building capable of housing your mind]
[Beginner’s Mind palace - Remove gravity within your mind, if it exists, and allow for fully controllable flight]
Walking up to the walls, he teleported inside with a simple use of Instant shift, the flurry of snow from outside instantly became muffled and the enclosed space dropped him into a complete darkness.
First order of business. Make a permanent light in this room.
Of course, the Light spell was first used to provide a temporary source, but what came next was some more studying. To exit, he didn’t depend on the spell but rather tried pulling himself through the pinprick in his head. From inside his mental space, this tiny hole felt enormous. Leaving could not have been easier, as his mind focused on the hole and suddenly appeared back in his real body.
Now if only getting back in didn’t prove to be such a pain.
From there, he read through books on Mind palace construction to see which light source matched the best. In the end coming to two conclusions.
Many books recommended simple candles as an initial light source, however, others indicated that going all-in for a proper fixture is best. Neither was easy to make though, and the type made changed quite a few factors.
Candles in a Mind palace, like most furniture, can move freely. However, a wall fixture with a torch is static, and cannot be moved.
While the usability of a candle makes them seem better, in reality he’d need days at the least to create a second building of this size. Not that he intended to throw himself into building more in the near future, his spell memorisation came first.
In the end, he settled on a wall fixture since they housed larger light sources, whether flames or simply light spells.
But construction was… hard. Firstly, unless he wanted another rock-like piece of mana, he needed to transform the inner flows into specific orientations for the material desired. Most of these had been figured out thousands of years back through trial and error. Few races lacked this information. From there he not only had to apply pressure, but part of his mind had to ensure the inner movements of mana to ensure they retained their form.
Only then would it ‘set’ in place as a material of his choice. For example, being metal instead of stone.
In the end he gave up due to the exhaustion of trying to achieve two things at once, not to mention the constant focus tired him directly. Once done, he left the mental space to begin cooking some more of the butterfly, this time roasting more of the body over a flame.
Looking at the remnants in his belt… he’d absolutely need more of the body. The quantity requirements that came with stronger bloodlines seemed perfect for annoying him, but as no better solutions existed he just had to hope anything he obtained had enough meat and blood.
[Consumed Lunar-clipped butterfly bloodline! Assimilation progress 72%]
Sending off the scent with a Wind spell, he merged with the spirit and headed back to the butterfly’s cave. As the sensation of moonlight dulled once more he felt the depression had softened, now easily manageable with no emotions leaving him wailing.
The benefits of a stronger mind were not to be exaggerated.
And so he left. Pulling down the second butterfly corpse and taking it home. A waste as the cave lost its radiant moon, but entirely beneficial as he’d soon take in this lunar power for himself.
Now to learn some faster casting methods.