CRK!

A sound like a gear clicking into place out in Max's body, as his Nexus core slotted into the mana shell, and immediately began to do work, replacing the mana.

Things were going well for Leonhardt, but Max?

'Dad moving slow... eyes hurt. Seeing too much.'

For Max, something odd was happening. He liked change, he enjoyed seeing new things... but having his sight changed felt terrible.

His vision was incredible, not just for a baby, but for experienced warriors too.

Not just that, but the world seemed to be moving in slow motion, Max being able to discern every detail, and every movement was, safe to say, quite taxing on his newborn mind.

Max had quickly developed a killer headache.

"Dad..." Max was about to cry, a rare occurrence for him.

Leonhardt however, was about to cry tears of joy. He had dark circles, and with his strength, that was a feat in of itself. Sleep at last.

"Max? What's wrong?" Leonhardt went from crying tears of joy to going over to Max and checking what was wrong.

"My eyes hurt... Everything is slow... And my head hurts!"

Max coughed out the words between sobs, so Leonhardt had to take him to Althea.

'What's happening? It could be a mana overload, but the slow part is odd...' Leonhardt thought this, but in reality, he would be letting Althea do the diagnostic work.

"Nothing wrong in the manatoric systems. Seems to be a normal headache."

Max immediately felt the effects of his headache lessen, but the effect didn't go away, his mind could process the extra information now.

He was still very drained, and since it was time for him to sleep anyway, he almost immediately fell asleep.

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"Odd. I und- Why am I acting professional? Holy shirt I need to get some sleep."

"Honestly."

Althea and Leonhardt followed suit in sleeping, falling into its embrace almost immediately.

And so, about 10 hours of a great sleep later, Leonhardt and Althea were awake. Max, still asleep, slept soundly, without a single mana aurora being produced.

"Oh my gods. Finally." Althea and Leonhardt said in unison as they looked at each other, excitement painting their faces.

But a small baby had awoken. Max could still be suffering from his case of... something.

"Uhm... I feel fine now." Luckily, he wasn't!

"Are the symptoms still there Max?"

"Yeah. But I'm used to it now."

"Used to it?"

"Yeah!"

'Hm. His symptoms aren't gone, but the side effects are. He says he can see "Too well," and that "Everything is slow." I felt hints of space in the beam during the creation of his nexus core, and an extraordinary sight is a symptom of having a spatial affinity.'

"Woah." Althea had thought this, and it left her speechless on how strong her son was truly going to be.

"What? I'm confused, did you have one of those moments?"

"I mean... It's that Max has a space affinity."

"What."

"And a time affinity! A time affinity! I'm gonna use a swearing ticket because holy shit, both together!"

Althea was practically running around the room in circles, holding Max, who didn't seem thrilled about the ordeal.

"She's running around... how the f— flip do I even react? This child is gonna be a handful."

"Leo, have some faith in our baby boy! You act like he's not smarter than you."

Althea snapped back, and Max giggled in response.

"See? He even responds to what I'm saying!"

"I... kinda forgot that he doesn't need to be treated like a baby anymore. He grew out early, but I just loved the days I could coddle him."

"Dada can still hug."

"Hmh... I guess he's still right on that."

Althea let the little one walk over to his dad, and he did so nearly immediately.

"Oh... WHAT!"

As one could guess from Leonhardt's over-the-top reaction, that was Max's first time walking, likely as a result of the strengthening from the awakening.

"Thea, are you really okay with him not having his first walk be towards you?" Leonhardt was through and through, a family man... A forgetful one.

"Are you not gonna congratulate the guy who just took his first steps?"

"Oh... If I was a little less stoic I'd be crying. Come here, little guy."

Leonhardt had seen the boredom from how slow everything was, so he ended up spinning around and throwing Max in his favorite ways, but fast enough to excite him like before.

"Again! Again!"

"Leonhardt I swear to the gods, if you try that again I'll smite you down."

"I can't ever win can I?"

Max and the parents went on, but the mana training continued.

Max would get stronger no matter what they did—at an alarming pace. Luckily, he seemed to learn faster than his abnormal growth speed, and they would rather keep him ahead of his strength for safety.

Max had quickly learned how to walk and was even running—slowly, however—but the parents weren't ready for the demon that was a hyper child like Max.