Azazel woke up, finding himself in complete darkness.
For a moment he thought he was back in the Underworld. But then his stomach roiled and the horrible pain of hunger made itself known to him.
He had never felt like that before. In all his life, he had never eaten anything before. There was neither an opportunity for it, nor a need to.
But for some reason, he was absolutely starving now.
Looking around the room, he realized he was in a different place than earlier.
Despite the darkness, it was easy for him to see. Demons had excellent night vision, a trait that he had kept, although he was now supposedly a hybrid.
He was lying in a sort of bed basket. Peeking over the edge, he could see a bed beside him, a pair of figures asleep on it.
He tried to raise himself up, but found that he could barely move. His head felt heavy, and his neck muscles couldn’t support the weight of it.
Unable to even get himself out of this basket, he knew he wouldn’t be able to solve his hunger problem by himself.
His eyes went to the sleeping figures, figuring that they were his only option.
Trying to make a sound to get their attention, he found that his vocal chords didn’t respond the way he wanted them to.
As he strained himself, there was only a slight bubbly sound while a healthy dose of drool ran down his chin.
That plan of attack didn’t work at all, so he thought back, trying to remember how the pain had made him scream during the merging. Focusing on how it felt, he could feel his vocal chords stretching as his mouth opened wide.
After just a few seconds, a high pitched wailing noise left his throat. And just kept going. As soon as he had opened the floodgates, it felt impossible to stop it again.
By now, the pair of sleeping figures had already woken up and were now peering over the basket to check on him.
As he saw their faces, Azazel recognized them as the man and woman he had seen earlier.
The woman was quick to realize the problem, and lifted him up, cradling him in her arms. She uncovered her breast and held him against it.
Azazel had never breastfed before, but it was like there was a sort of natural knowledge inside of him, that nature was guiding him, telling him what to do.
He latched on and drank down the milk, filling up his stomach and soothing his hunger.
As he fed, the milk and the sensation of being full after a hearty meal was making him drowsy.
He finished his feeding and was rocked back to sleep in the arms of that woman. His mother, he realized as he drifted away once more.
***
The first five months of his life passed quickly as he spent most of it sleeping. Often over 20 hours per day.
It seemed that the merging had taken a huge toll on his body and that he needed to recover, causing him to sleep more than infants usually did.
His mother and father, or Casey and Camden as he had learned their names were, had obviously been worried. After a few weeks, a strange man came by and looked him over with various instruments.
He didn’t know what they talked about, but the strange man must’ve reassured them because they were far less worried after that.
Still, it was obvious that they still thought Azazel was a bit weird. Or Kaden rather, as he had found out, was actually his name.
It had taken some time, but after people constantly kept repeating it to him, he finally understood. With that, he also figured out that Hale was his surname.
He didn’t mind having a new name; he was just relieved to have solved one of the countless mysteries of the status panel.
Regarding the panel, he had also found out how to summon and dismiss the panel at will. He spent a lot of his free time perusing over it, trying to make sense of it.
He hadn’t really gotten far with that, but there were a few other things he had figured out instead.
The first one was that either everyone in this world lived like kings, or his new family was just very well off. The house, or manor he supposed, was huge.
He couldn’t walk, but there was an abundance of people to carry him around through the halls and rooms. He had seen a lot of it, but there was still an entire wing that he had never been to. It was really that big.
In a contest, it would lose out to the size of the fortress from the Underworld. But the interior here was far nicer, filled with paintings, carpets, painted walls, and lavish furniture. And if you included the grounds and the multiple manors that housed other family members, it was even bigger than the fortress.
With such a large home, it was natural that he also had a fair number of siblings.
A whole three brothers, a sister, and another baby had just been born a few days ago.
This clued him into the fact that the other women he saw around the manor were in fact his father’s other wives.
That fact wasn’t that strange to him. After all, down in the Underworld it wasn’t uncommon. His demon father had two mates himself. The only difference was that demons didn’t actually marry.
Anyway, this also reinforced his belief that his father, Camden, had to be either rich or powerful.
He wasn’t sure which one it was yet, maybe it was even both. It mattered little though, and life was good so far.
Although he couldn’t do much yet, he knew this state was only temporary. And it was still a lot better than his life in the Underworld. At least now he had something to look forward to.
***
The wheel of time continued turning until one day Kaden woke up, and something was different.
Before his eyes were a blue notification, something that hadn’t appeared in a long time.
Natural Growth Cycle 0% —> 2%
Time flows and you’ve taken the first step on your journey through life.
Your Potential Gives You
+3 Strength, +2.5 Agility, +2 Vitality, +2 Endurance, +3 Willpower, +2.5 Essence Power
Your Racial Gives You
+1.5 To All Attributes
+3 Attribute Points
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Kaden read over the text, feeling utterly dumbstruck. Something that happened a lot since coming here.
The message seemed odd at first, but the more he read over it and considered it, the more sense it made.
This wasn’t the first mention of the natural growth cycle. It was right there on the status panel every time he pulled it up. At least now he knew what it did, somewhat.
Having his body’s development summarized into precise numbers was quite a confusing concept for him, but also very interesting.
Deciding to take a look at the results, he pulled up the status panel.
STATUS PANEL
Kaden Hale Age: 0 Half-Human / Half-Demon Class: None (Locked)
Health 10/45 Regen 0.05/m Stamina 10/45 Regen 0.05/m Essence 50/90 Regen 0.14/m
ATTRIBUTES
Strength 5.5 Potential SS Agility 5 Potential S Vitality 4.5 Potential A Endurance 4.5 Potential A Willpower 14.5 Potential SS Essence Power 9 Potential S
Attribute Points 3 Natural Growth Cycle 2% Complete
BLOODLINES
Unknown 1 (Unawakened)
Unknown 2 (Unawakened)
Level 0 - Experience 0/100
He had expected to see the changes to the attributes, but it was a surprise that the numbers next to his health, stamina and essence all changed as well.
Not being a complete stranger to simple multiplication, it wasn’t hard for him to infer what had caused those numbers to change.
Essence was clearly just his essence power attribute multiplied by 10. Health and stamina were the same, just with vitality and endurance instead.
Which one was health, and which one was stamina, he didn’t know. But endurance seemed like it would be more related to stamina, so health was probably the other one.
He wasn’t certain, but close enough.
There was no time to dwell on it though, as the door to his room opened. His father walked in, clearly in a good mood. Coming closer, the man reached down to pull Kaden out of his bed.
After six months of living here, he finally had his own room, and a new bed to sleep in. This bed had some strange wooden walls with gaps in between. It was kind of like the bars on the cells in the fortress’ dungeons.
But it wasn’t a cell, far from it. Kaden had learned that it was called a crib and used for babies to sleep in.
Having wrested him from his crib, Camden carried him through the halls, speaking softly to him the entire time.
Kaden listened, trying to learn more of the language, and find out why the man was in such a good mood.
They ended up in the dining room, where all the occupants of the manor were already seated around the table.
That in itself was quite surprising and didn’t happen often.
It was rare for most of the family to be present for breakfast, let alone everyone who lived in the manor.
All the kids, his mother, the other women, and his uncle and cousins who stayed in another manor on the grounds. Everyone was here, even the family chamberlain Stewart, and the other servants. Only the guards were missing.
Kaden knew it had to be something big and hoped that his vocabulary was good enough to get the jist of it.
After setting Kaden down in a reclining high chair, Camden stood up to speak.
“Today is a great day,” The man said, pausing for effect as he gestured to Kaden.
“Six months after birth marks the completion of the first natural growth cycle. With the first 5% over with, it’s time for the potential of my youngest son to be revealed.”
Camden’s smile was almost reaching his ears, the excitement on his face was clear for all to see.
Kaden could see that the good mood was contagious, with many other members of the family looking just as excited.
Camden gave a nod to Stewart, who then brought over a large metal carrying case.
At this point it was obvious to Kaden that all of this had something to do with him, but he didn’t know what it was. His grasp on the language was still far too simplistic to understand a conversation like this.
Stewart set the carrying case down on the table and opened it with a small click. The inside revealed a long metal plate submerged in foam.
On the side of the plate was a digital screen, currently turned off.
Before coming here, Kaden had never seen or heard about such things, but there had been many devices with those same flat panels around the manor.
Stewart took out the plate, which was far thicker than it had seemed in the case, and set it down on the table, pressing a button. Immediately the screen lit up as things began to change.
Kaden watched with rapt attention as the plate split apart into two. One part was slowly being lifted up, seemingly by sheer nothing, while the other stayed on the table.
With the top plate out of the way, the hollow inside of the bottom plate was revealed. Kaden realized he was going onto that plate when he saw the soft white padding on the bottom.
As the machine reached its full extension, Camden set him down on the white padding, right where he had expected to be.
His father gave his hand a squeeze to reassure him, before letting go as Stewart started fiddling with the screen.
Kaden just watched with a calm expression. It was strange to be under a thick metal plate that was hovering in the air, but he knew they didn’t want to hurt him. There was no point in causing a fuss over nothing.
While a normal child his age would’ve done so, he couldn’t be bothered to pretend anymore than necessary.
His father saw his calm expression, and spurred on by it, gave a nod to Stewart who then pressed another button.
Immediately there was a whirring noise as the device started doing something.
‘Scanning subject’ Text appeared on the screen, but only his father and the chamberlain were in position to read it.
Meanwhile Kaden had a nagging feeling that there was something moving through him, examining his body and mind.
His father held his breath as he waited for the results.
‘Scanning complete’
The machine whirred a bit louder, before the last message appeared on the screen.
‘Strength ~6, Agility ~5, Vitality ~5, Endurance ~5, Willpower ~15, Essence Power ~9’
As the results appeared, Camden was reading them out loud to everyone else. His enthusiasm that had started out high, dropped quickly as he read out one attribute after another. In the end, he didn’t even bother with essence power.
At once, the room was filled with a tremendous air of disappointment.
Kaden knew enough of the language to figure out that his father had been calling out the value of his attributes. Why had that made the atmosphere turn so sullen?
He didn’t understand the words people were muttering, but he could certainly understand their body language.
Beside him, his father hung his head, the disappointment in his expression just as palpable as the excitement had been earlier. It was a stark contrast.
“C grade potential… How is this possible?” Camden muttered, looking gob smacked as he shook his head.
“It is not all bad Master, his willpower and essence power are both rather high. Certainly at least S grade potential in both. In two attributes that complement each other so well, it’s quite rare,” The Chamberlain said.
“I realize this, but the average potential for those two attributes is higher than the physical ones. It’s not enough. With such low talent in physical ability, what use is it? B grade potential in everything is far better than being outstanding in those two and lousy in the rest. This couldn’t happen to my son, it doesn’t make sense!”
Kaden heard a sulk from across the table, and when he looked he saw it had come from his mother. Whatever his father had said, it was apparently bad enough to make her cry. Everyone watched her with odd looks, some of the other wives even outright disdainful towards her.
His father stopped his discussion with the chamberlain and led her out of the room. It didn’t take long for the other occupants to disperse as well.
From that point on, things changed in the manor.
Kaden hadn’t been privy to the aftermath, but something had certainly happened.
His father didn’t come to his mother’s chamber as often anymore, and she barely left her room. When he came by those rare few times, they would always yell at each other.
Since his mother didn’t leave her room, one of the servants usually took care of Kaden. He didn’t understand what had happened, but he understood the looks that the other women gave his mother and him.
But it didn’t bother him, he merely shrugged it off. Since he had no way of finding out where their disdain came from, he didn’t see a point in dwelling on it.