Kaden was starting to get really annoyed.
Ever since that little girl had learned to walk, she had been following him nonstop, bugging him every chance she got.
Naturally he was talking about his youngest sister, Lily.
The girl was two and a half by now, and had been able to walk for some time.
With them being so close in age, she had seen fit to make him her playmate. She was just as forceful as her sister Amy, which was hardly surprising as they had the same mother.
But worst of all was that the girl was bloody strong. Much stronger than him. When she pulled on him, he had to resist with all his strength to prevent her from dragging him off somewhere. And even then, it was only possible because she was still clumsy and couldn’t use her full strength.
But at least from this he knew for certain that the human growth rate continued at 5% until at least two years old. Else she would’ve been even stronger than him with her A grade potential.
His only hope in sight was that his birthday was coming up soon and would equal them out in strength. But only for a short while. When she turned three, she would be able to do as she pleased with him again.
“Kaden play!” She held up her hands, smiling cheerily at him.
“No, I’m busy.” He shooed her off, burying his head deeper into the kid’s picture book he was studying.
She just tilted her head at him and kept staring.
He tried to continue his study, but it was incredibly hard to concentrate with her there, just silently watching.
It was already hard enough as he couldn’t read the words and had to meticulously study the drawings and images to learn bit by bit.
It was something he had started a few months ago, figuring he better make use of his time and get ahead. He couldn’t teach himself spelling and writing, but he could memorize the words and their meaning.
But he wasn’t getting anything done with the situation like it was.
“Fine…” He creased his brows and shut the book, giving up.
It was an expression that looked entirely too comical on a child his age.
Lily understood his meaning and made a happy sound before dragging him off. Kaden just resigned himself to it and chose not to resist. It was far easier this way.
And like that, what had been a productive morning was instead taken over by dolls and building blocks.
Kaden didn’t really want to play with those things, so instead he sat with the cube that his father gave him on his first birthday.
He liked to observe the feeling as the essence flowed from his hand and into the cube to power it. It had taken some time, but he had learned how to block the flow of his essence and stop powering the block.
It was a smart and practical gift for a child. A fun and easy way to teach them how to control their essence, but disguised as a simple toy that would make their eyes light up with wonder.
Strictly speaking, he wasn’t supposed to have the cube right now. His father kept it hidden away so that he couldn’t use it when there were no adults present.
That hadn’t stopped him from finding it and taking it anyway though.
He knew his father meant well. If a child held onto the cube for too long, it would deplete all of their essence. If you kept holding onto it after that…
Kaden didn’t know if something dangerous would happen, but he didn’t want to find out either. Thankfully, he wasn’t truly a child and knew when to stop.
It wasn’t long before Lily noticed he wasn’t joining in on her game and came over. She held out her hand, reaching out to touch the cube.
“Wanna try?” He handed it to her, aware that it was faster to let her try and get bored with it than resist.
She took it eagerly, her large round eyes shining.
Kaden watched her carefully, waiting until she showed signs of dizziness. The moment she did, he promptly plucked the cube out of her hands.
“Mine!” Seeing the object being snatched from her, she jumped for him and tried to grab it back.
Kaden had to get up on his feet so that he was taller than her and could hold it out of her reach.
She pulled on his arm in an attempt to bring the cube down. She was honestly way too strong, and it took everything Kaden had to push her back and keep it away from her.
In the struggle, he ended up pushing a little too hard. The push combined with her clumsiness sent her right off balance, and she fell right down on her butt.
It wasn’t really a big fall, but Kaden realized his mistake instantly as he saw the tears form in her eyes. He scratched his hair, looking awkward as he tried to figure out what to do.
Damn it, he thought, putting the cube down before coming over to comfort her.
But the tears turned to wailing, and there was nothing he could do. The loud crying got the attention of the manors occupants, and soon enough everyone had showed up, including the caretaker he had given the slip earlier.
Great…
***
Lily’s mother had been livid, insisting that he had tried to harm her daughter. This despite the fact that Lily herself was totally fine just a few minutes later.
That woman was almost as bad as the mother of the twins.
Luckily his father didn’t buy any of it, but that didn’t prevent him from being angry that Kaden had not only taken the cube but also put Lily in danger by letting her use it.
Kaden was too young for any actual punishment though, so except for a few minutes in time out and the cube being locked away, he got off pretty much scot free.
A lot better than he had hoped.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Amy even felt guilty that her mother had berated him like that, so she took it upon herself to cheer him up again. Even though Kaden didn’t really need cheering up.
“…” As he stood, clad in a penguin costume, he didn’t really appreciate her method of cheering him up either.
Amy was nine now and still hadn’t gotten over her obsession with playing dress up.
“Wait wait wait!” She put a crown on his head and took a step back, taking his picture.
A penguin prince, really? Kaden felt puzzled, but he didn’t let that stop him from posing for the camera. Some innate sense of pride still made him want to look his best at all times.
Amy took a quick look at the picture before skipping over to show him.
That was one thing he would never tire of, and always continued to amaze him. As he watched himself on the screen, with his short raven black hair, dark eyes, and that regal countenance which definitely stemmed from his demonic side, he felt a smile tug at his lips. It was incredible how such a small device could capture a moment forever.
Amy was so happy with the picture, she wanted to make a photoshoot out of it on the grounds. But the adults wouldn’t let her take Kaden outside by herself, so she had to rope Godfrey into it, who was only one year older, but much more mature.
Godfrey didn’t want to come along, but Amy was persistent, much like Lily, and he had to relent in the end.
Kaden had to assume that they got it from their mother.
He shot Godfrey a sympathetic look, but was secretly glad that he was no longer the only one forced to come along for this ride.
They took a few pictures at various places on the grounds, and Kaden showed himself from his best side despite the ridiculous outfit. He was a master model, and Amy cooed over the resulting pictures.
Godfrey just watched, rolling his eyes at her antics and wishing that it would end.
***
Kaden woke up to a blue box staring right at him, reminding him that he was finally three years old.
Natural Growth Cycle 8% —> 12%
Step by step, each step builds upon the foundation laid before it.
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
Three years gone, just like that. It felt as if the time had passed by in a flash.
A sixth of his life had already been spent in this world, in this body.
He couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in the Underworld these days. Did they miss him? Had anything changed down there?
Still, he felt no regret coming here, and he certainly didn’t want to go back.
He had a new life now, a better life, and he wouldn’t trade that for anything.
For good measure, he looked over his status panel to see if anything had changed.
As expected, it was the same as always, except for the bigger numbers.
He was still no closer to solving the remaining mysteries. But that would change today.
With another growth notification popping up, he finally had a good excuse to ask his father for some advice and clarification.
He hadn’t bothered on his second birthday as he figured he was still a bit too young. But now was the prime opportunity, and he could finally get some answers.
The status panel would convey its information to you through any means possible, so he didn’t need to worry that his father would be suspicious.
Going downstairs, Kaden found the man sitting at the table, having some coffee while he read the news on his tablet.
“Ahh, there is the birthday boy, you’re up early.” Camden looked up as he heard Kaden come in.
“Mhm,” Kaden nodded, smiling as he sat down next to his father. He was so excited to get some answers, that he forgot to pretend to be distraught.
“There was some blue thingy next me to earlier dad,” Kaden said, dumbing down his speech as much as he could, though it was still not even close to the level of a three-year-old. It would have to do.
“Ah, I see.” The man chuckled and took a sip of his coffee, not seeming too surprised. “I think I can help you with that.”
“You know what it is?”
“Sure, and I’ll tell you in a moment. First, just know that it is nothing harmful.”
“So what is it then?”
“Well, hm, how to explain this in simple terms. What you saw was what’s called a notification…”
The man started explaining, and Kaden listened with rapt attention. Trying to learn every single thing he could.
“As for the status panel, or the system as people call the whole thing, no one knows quite what it is, or where it’s from. All we know is that everyone has one. You haven’t seen the status panel yet, but we can call it up at anytime.”
“Really?” Kaden feigned surprise.
“Haha, would I lie to you? Try it. Just think status and focus on wanting it to appear.”
Kaden scrunched his face up, pretending to look like he was struggling for a moment before he simply made the status panel appear.
It was as easy to him as breathing by now.
“I see it,” Kaden said.
“Good, it’s really not too hard once you get used to it.”
“So what do these things mean?”
“Well, most should be pretty intuitive, I’ll explain the more complicated ones.”
Kaden knew most of what the man said, having already figured it out. But there were a few key things he had been waiting a long time to find out about.
First of them was classes.
Camden explained what they were, and how to get one, but other than that there wasn’t much to say. Unfortunately, a class could only be chosen after your tenth birthday.
Levels, however, were far more interesting.
Apparently levels were a sort of rank, and every time you ranked up, or rather leveled up, you became stronger. They also had an influence on your stamina and health recovery rate.
To increase this level, you had to gain experience, and there were three main ways of doing so.
One was by hunting monsters, and when you killed them, you would be rewarded with experience.
This made Kaden wonder if it was possible to gain experience by killing humans as well, but he didn’t think he could ask his father that.
The two other ways of collecting experience were through the crafting of items and meditation.
People would usually choose a path and either hunt monsters or be an artisan.
To gain experience from crafting, you had to select a crafting class, which didn’t lend itself well to fighting. The experience gain was also slow, but very safe.
Monster hunting was far faster, but a lot riskier.
As for meditation, well… Camden didn’t think it was all that useful. It took about two hours for someone to gain just one single experience point. It was a little faster or slower depending on one’s willpower, but not by much. Camden said it wasn’t worth it.
But Kaden thought it sounded perfect. He was only three years old, and wouldn’t be killing monsters anytime soon. Progress might be slow, but he had plenty of time to spare that he was just wasting every single day.
With shining eyes, he begged Camden to teach him how to do it.
Camden had tried to dissuade him, saying that he was too young for now and had to wait. But Kaden had learned a trick or two from Amy and Lily, and didn’t relent until Camden had promised he would teach him.
With that done, Kaden had to rein his focus back in as Camden explained the last mystery.
Bloodlines.
“Well, normally everyone is born with at least one bloodline. It’s essentially a trait passed down through blood, from either the father or mother, with the strongest bloodline often winning out. As you are my son, you should inherit my bloodline.” Camden said.
“What is it then?”
“Haha, you’ll see for yourself when it awakens.” Camden winked, deciding to be a bit mischievous.
“No fair…” Kaden scowled, this man was really too much. “How do I awaken it?”
“It’s simple really,” Camden laughed, smiling at Kaden’s sulky expression. “All you have to do is get to level 1. It’ll take you around 200 hours of meditation. So probably a year’s time. You could be level 1 on your fourth birthday, if you’re dedicated and quick to learn.”
“Didn’t you say that I have high willpower though?”
“I did indeed, what is it?”
“A four and a zero,” Kaden said.
The caretaker had only taught him the numbers from 0 to 9, so although he actually knew more, he had to limit himself.
He knew he was already acting and speaking like he was far older than he was, but he just had to hope that Camden wouldn’t think about it too much.
“Phew.” Camden whistled appreciatively. “That is quite high for your age. But not for an adult. The average potential for the physical attributes, is between B and C. But for willpower and essence power it’s higher, let’s call it a flat B. A fully grown adult will have almost double your willpower. Double is the difference between having one of something, or two of something.”
“I see…” Kaden frowned, deep in thought.
So it would still take him around 200 hours, but that didn’t mean he was going to give up. If he spent just two hours meditating every day, he could finish it in 100 days, far less than a year. Even assuming it took him 50 days to learn how to meditate, and he doubted it was that hard, he would still finish far faster than a year.
He would show his father just how dedicated he could be. Two hours a day may be a lot for a regular three-year-old, but he wasn’t one.
“Don’t let that discourage you though, you just have to be patient, and stay dedicated,” Camden said to encourage him.
But Kaden didn’t feel discouraged in the slightest. Now he had a plan of attack, and he couldn’t wait to get started.
He pestered his father to start teaching him now, but Camden simply told him to wait until after his birthday celebrations.