A few weeks later, his father came by and took a sample of his blood. That made things calm down a bit.
His mother still didn’t leave her room much, and tensions were still high between her and the other wives.
But life went on at the manor, and Kaden enjoyed it immensely. It was a life of exploration and discovery, seeing new things every single day.
Among his favorite was the blue sky that stretched on as far as he could see. It would always capture his attention, he would never tire of it.
It was a nice and relaxing life, the tense atmosphere didn’t bother him in the slightest. It was all petty squabbles to him.
As he got closer to his birthday, it was gradually getting a lot easier for him to communicate and move around.
His vocal chords were developing quickly, and though he couldn’t quite talk, he could use his arms to point at things.
And since his hands and legs were now far easier to control, he could crawl around. With this he had explored even more of his surroundings.
The caretaker that attended to him most days was being run ragged trying to keep after him.
He took any chance he could to give her the slip and get away, but there were too many people in the manor for him to stay hidden for long.
Luckily, he had a few accomplices that would aid him.
His seven-year-old sister Amy didn’t mind playing a part in his disappearance acts.
She hung out with their older brother Godfrey a lot, so he often ended up being reluctantly complicit to their mischief.
On the other hand, Kaden didn’t get on as well with his two twin brothers. Perhaps it was just because their mother nagged him the wrong way, but perhaps not. The three-year-old twins were plenty annoying enough themselves.
Still, all things considered, life was good, and the mood had been slowly rising in the past few weeks. Amy’s mother, who was also the mother of his younger sister, Lily, was in a progressively good mood lately.
Kaden had been curious to find out why, but he didn’t need to wait for long. When he was dragged down to breakfast and everyone was already present, it was incredibly obvious.
It was the exact situation he had found himself in five months ago, but now it all centered on Lily.
His father made the same speech, almost word for word, but a bit more subdued this time. He was clearly trying to hold back his expectations so he wouldn’t be disappointed again.
This time Kaden could understand the entire speech, and he felt puzzled when the man mentioned 5% of the growth cycle. Wasn’t it supposed to be 2%?
But then he realized why it was different.
He had known for a long time that humans and demons matured at different rates. Among the books in the Underworld was one about human biology, written by a demon.
It made sense that a hybrid of the two races would also mature at a different rate.
As Lily’s scan finished and the results were announced, Kaden understood why his family had been upset by his attributes.
Her results had indicated that she had A grade potential in strength and agility, and B grade in the rest. For the family, this was apparently good enough to be cause for celebration.
And going by the numbers, Kaden really did pale in comparison. Right now, he was already far weaker than Lily, although her best potential was only A. It was almost comical.
But it wouldn’t matter much if things were truly as he had understood them to be. Even if she burned through her potential faster, he would catch up before long.
Back in the Underworld, his horns hadn’t even started growing, and they wouldn’t for another decade. Demons matured slowly. This was old news.
He could be patient and bear with it for the time being. If A grade potential in two attributes was already something to be celebrated so much, then how would they react if they found out about his true potential?
But he was the only one who knew the truth. In others’ eyes, this day only further cemented him as a lost cause. He was neither the oldest nor the youngest child and also had weak potential.
To them there was nothing to differentiate him, nothing to make him unique or worthy of attention.
***
Another month passed as the family was still abuzz by the latest greatest news.
On the morning of his birthday, Kaden had expected to see it, and was glad to be right.
Before his eyes was another blue notification, bringing good news to him.
Natural Growth Cycle 2% —> 4%
The first step has been taken, but your journey has only just begun.
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
It was the same as before, but it was still nice to see some progress.
And feel it too, he thought as the sensation of the attributes enhancing his body could be clearly felt.
It was a good feeling, and as it diminished, he considered his attribute points.
With the instinctive knowledge of how to operate the status panel, he knew he could distribute them into attributes right now if he wished. He almost wanted to do it, just so that he could relish in the enhancement once more. He was up to a total of six points now, after all. How good would that feel if all spent on one attribute?
But he dismissed the thought quickly.
There was no reason to be in a hurry. The points wouldn’t do him anything good at the moment, and he still didn’t know what this world was like.
The furthest he had ever been from home was out on the manor grounds. There was a gate on the property that lead to the outside world, but he had never crossed it.
There was also the matter of asking someone else for advice, since he barely knew anything himself. He figured his father would know. After seeing the man train, Kaden knew he was a powerful fighter of some sort.
The man also still cared a great deal for him. After that ordeal with the blood, the man had gone back to treating Kaden the same as the other children. Perhaps a little better. Kaden wasn’t sure if the man felt guilty or what, but he would definitely explain a few things if he asked.
And finally, there was the last reason, and it was what truly prevented him from spending the points. Nobody expected him to, or even thought that he could.
On the outside he was just a regular one-year-old child, and while he wasn’t a big fan of pretending, he would act somewhat normal for now.
He took a look at the status panel, easily bringing it up. Despite the fact that he didn’t really understand it, manipulating it was second nature to him.
STATUS PANEL
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Kaden Hale Age: 1 Half-Human / Half-Demon Class: None (Locked)
Health 45/80 Regen 0.05/m Stamina 45/80 Regen 0.05/m Essence 90/130 Regen 0.19/m
ATTRIBUTES
Strength 10 Potential SS Agility 9 Potential S Vitality 8 Potential A Endurance 8 Potential A Willpower 19 Potential SS Essence Power 13 Potential S
Attribute Points 6 Natural Growth Cycle 4% Complete
BLOODLINES
Unknown 1 (Unawakened)
Unknown 2 (Unawakened)
Level 0 - Experience 0/100
He had gotten a better grasp of what most things on the panel meant, but he still did not know about those unawakened bloodlines. Or levels. Or what essence was. Hell, he didn’t even know what defined the regen rate for stamina and health.
Actually, he had pretty much no idea about any of it.
But the numerical progress felt good. Seeing the numbers go up gave him a weird sense of accomplishment and made him lust for more.
He wanted to see his numbers go higher, even if he didn’t know what most of them did.
There was a click as the door was unlocked and the caretaker came in to take him down for breakfast.
The caretaker had begun locking the door a few months ago, when he made his first escape from his room.
It was quite unusual to lock a one-year-old child in their room, after all they shouldn’t be able to reach the handle, but Kaden had found a way.
After breakfast a birthday cake was served, and the attendees sung a song for him.
Kaden clapped enthusiastically when they finished, having found great enjoyment in listening to the crowd of people stumble over the words and misremember the melody.
It was just another glorious experience to add to his growing list. Nobody ever sang birthday songs in the Underworld.
But that was far from all of it.
After the song, he was presented with a fair number of presents.
As he opened them, he found that most contained some form of toy that, while admittedly interesting, wasn’t really suitable for his mental age.
But it wasn’t all bad.
Among the many presents was a strange cube which pulsed different colors as he held it. As soon as he let go of it, the light cut off and it turned into a regular, useless cube.
It was a present from his father, and by far the most interesting of the bunch.
He played with it for a while, holding it in his hands until he began to feel dizzy.
At this point, his father took it away from him and put it up on a shelf that he couldn’t reach.
Then he explained to Kaden that the cube was powered by your essence when holding onto it.
The man knew that Kaden wouldn’t understand until he was older, but he said it anyway.
But contrary to his expectations, Kaden understood all of it.
After a year of listening to this language nonstop, he could comprehend most of what was said in conversations. Only unfamiliar words that had never come up before stumped him, but through experience he had become a master at using context to figure out the meaning.
He opened his status panel and checked his essence, which turned out to be completely depleted.
With this new information, he could put another mystery from the status panel behind him.
The rest of the presents were not so interesting, so he was kidnapped to play dress up with Amy. Or more accurately, used as a living doll for her games. He couldn’t really resist much in his current state.
The fantasies of a seven-year-old were truly limitless. She dressed him up in many costumes, most of them animals. But for some reason, her favorite outfit to make him wear was a prince one. He thanked faith that she hadn’t put him in a princess costume instead.
The girl clearly thought that the look fit him, and Kaden agreed. He had been a prince his entire life, so he was used to playing the role.
Well, it was the first time for him to be wearing clothes that fit the position. Just another thing they didn’t have in the Underworld.
***
With another half a year behind him, Kaden had finally mastered the act of walking.
He still looked clumsy as he walked, waving his hands about for stability. It lacked dignity, but on the bright side he was no longer falling over all that much.
In that time, he had also overcome his undeveloped vocal chords and said his first word.
He had thought long and hard on what to say first, deciding on mama in the end.
It was nice and simple, wouldn’t cause any form of suspicion, and should endear him to his mother who had been distancing herself from him lately.
But her reaction had been far from what he had expected. She had hardly seemed to care, in fact. Kaden had felt slightly disappointed.
He hadn’t thought about it, but his mother had clearly been withdrawing herself more and more.
Tension between the wives was high as they jockeyed for position, wanting to secure the best life for their children and themselves. Because his mother was merely a commoner prior to marrying Camden, she was taking the brunt of the damage. She was an easy target.
Everyone figured that since the Hale family was so powerful, and Camden particularly so, then it didn’t make sense for a child of his to be so weak. In their eyes, his other children couldn’t even be compared to Kaden.
So if the problem didn’t rest with Camden, then naturally it had to rest with the woman who gave birth to the child.
Kaden’s mother had previously been accused of infidelity, with Camden himself believing it until the results of the blood test came back.
But while the test negated the rumor, everyone still blamed her and her blood for Kaden’s low potential.
His father told the other wives off a bit, but even he was split.
Even if she hadn’t cheated on him, he still blamed Casey for all of it.
The parents had a lot of influence on the child’s potential, and he too believed that the problem wasn’t him.
***
It was only after a whole six more months that Kaden finally saw the blue notification once more. He had expected to see it half a year ago, but it never came.
He didn’t panic, but he wanted desperately to ask someone about it. It wasn’t really an option though, so all he could do was wait and hope that it was normal.
Natural Growth Cycle 4% —> 8%
The biggest step of your journey so far, but you still have a long way to go.
Your Potential Gives You
+6 Strength, +5 Agility, +4 Vitality, +4 Endurance, +6 Willpower, +5 Essence Power
Your Racial Gives You
+3 To All Attributes
+6 Attribute Points
Before he could even read the text, he was overcome with shock as the incredible wave of enhancement washed over him,
It was so strong this time, and when he saw the number at the top, he instantly knew why.
It was a whole 4% increase, much more than the 2% he was used to.
This made him wonder if humans also had a large jump at some point, or if they continued with the 5% rate.
He hoped that was the case, because then he was now a little closer to them in strength.
Knowing he would be stronger in the end was one thing, but how long would his growth cycle take? How long would it take for him to catch up?
In this new world, he didn’t want to be some person on the sidelines. There was a primal calling from inside of him, urging him on to become strong.
He wanted to be comparable to other people his age, to surpass them even.
With this new increase, he felt like he was one stop closer to that goal.
He didn’t know the strength of an average fully grown adult, but if he could find out the average potential, he could probably approximate it somewhat.
By now he had already found out that A grade potential meant +1 to an attribute per percentage of his growth. It increased by 0.25 for S, and an extra 0.25 for SS.
He figured it did the same when going down, but fortunately he didn’t know.
The racial bonus was still a mystery. It was hard since he was a hybrid and only had his own data to go by. It probably had to be a mix between the two, but he couldn’t be sure. There was nothing to do but leave it be for now.
His second birthday was a lot like his first, with the only difference being that his grandfather was present.
Kaden hadn’t seen the man before. Apparently, he had some high-ranking post in the military and didn’t come home much.
His grandfather’s presence had also brought his mother out from her room, who had even plastered on a fake smile for the occasion. She greeted the man respectfully and kept her head down like she had gotten so good at.
Kaden didn’t see her smiling very much at all these days.
Something within him made him want to help, to reach out to this woman who had granted him this new life.
But no matter what he did, he couldn’t bridge the gap between them. Lately it was almost like they were strangers, and when he tried to do something about it, she just pushed him further away. Like she couldn’t stand to be in his presence and look at his face.
He wanted to say it didn’t bother him. But it did. He felt bad for doing nothing to change her situation, but doing so would implicate himself and make people suspicious of him.
Besides, he was fairly sure he didn’t understand the plays for power that were taking place. Everything always ran far deeper than it appeared to on the surface. He had no interest in getting in the middle of something he didn’t understand.
He wasn’t embarrassed to say he chose self preservation before helping her. Only being two years old in this world, he was very vulnerable. He had no idea what these people thought of demons.
Going by those old religious books he had read, he didn’t think they would appreciate his little secret.