He found his father in his study, perusing some documents.

The man had already noticed his presence, as Kaden had come barging in without even knocking.

“I did it,” Kaden said, clearly very excited.

“Did what?” Camden replied, looking up from his work. And when he laid eyes on Kaden, his expression changed instantly to one of shock. He shot up from his desk and rushed over, the chair audibly toppling over behind him. “What happened?”

Kaden’s entire face was covered in blood, and it was still dripping from his eyes. His hands were bloodied and scratched, several nails were broken, and splinters stuck out from underneath the nail beds.

“I leveled up.” In his excitement, Kaden had completely forgotten the state he was in.

“Really?” Camden’s eyebrows shot up, and he seemed deep in thought for a moment. “Your bloodline awakened, I take it?”

Kaden nodded.

“Only a mythic bloodline should be able to do this… What rank was it?” Camden looked rather hopeful.

But Kaden could only disappoint him. “It’s unique.”

“Oh…” Camden’s face fell, and Kaden could tell that he was quite disappointed. “Hmm, that’s rather odd though…”

Camden watched him a bit suspiciously, like he didn’t entirely believe him. But the man soon wiped the expression away, “Well, no matter, this is still rather good. The bloodline has been in a bit of a decline over the past few generations. When it awakened for me, it was only rare grade. It was the same when it awakened for Amy, but now it’s finally back to unique.”

Kaden didn’t miss what was left unsaid. “What about Godfrey and the twins?”

“Godfrey awakened a different one, no one is quite sure how it came about. If you want to know which, you’ll have to ask him yourself. I don’t know if he’ll be willing to tell you though,” Camden said, smiling. “As for the twins… The bloodline on their mother’s side overpowered ours.”

“Why was the bloodline in decline?” Kaden asked, eager to know.

“Well, because of a lot of things. We can get into it when you’re a bit older.”

“Fine…” Having said what he came to say, and knowing he wouldn’t get anymore answers for now, Kaden left, leaving the door open behind him.

“Little rascal…” Camden muttered, getting up to close it, muttering to himself. “I had expected him to take a while longer. I might have to hire that teacher now instead. There is no point in making him wait any further.”

***

Stolen story; please report.

Kaden sat in his room meditating.

It had only been a few days since he leveled up, but he had already returned to training. But he had slowed down his schedule to just a single hour per day. He was still feeling a bit burnt out after all.

There was a knock on the door, bringing him out of his meditation as his father came in.

“Kaden, I’ve got someone to introduce you to downstairs,” Camden said, beckoning him to come.

“Who?” Kaden got up and followed his father out of the room, descending the staircase.

“You’ll see in a second, come on.”

They walked down the final few steps and met a man standing in the entrance room.

He was old, probably at least 70, with balding gray hair and poor posture.

“Is this the boy? He’s clearly not even four years old yet!” The man spoke, seeming annoyed.

“That’s right. Kaden, this is your new teacher, Mr. Stein. He’s going to be—”

“Hold on a second. I haven’t agreed to this! Four years is the standard,” Mr. Stein said.

“Need I remind you that you did in fact agree to this? And you’re being paid, are you not? What’s the problem?”

“Yes, but… Well the boy’s age for one, that’s what’s wrong! It’s a waste, he won’t be able to learn,” Mr. Stein said.

“Let me worry about that. Right now it seems like you’re the only one actually wasting my money,” Camden said, giving the man a harsh look.

Mr. Stein withered under the stare, the fight seeping out of him visibly. In the end he had no choice but to reluctantly agree, and soon Kaden found himself sitting in a small study room with this Mr. Stein.

“Take a seat and tell me what you know,” Mr. Stein said.

Sitting down and thinking for a second, Kaden said, “Well, numbers I suppose.”

“What are they?” Mr. Stein asked.

Kaden said the basic numbers he knew and Mr. Stein nodded, satisfied.

“Good enough, I suppose.” Mr Stein said, meticulously scribbling something in a thick notebook. When he finished, he continued. “I think we should build on top of what you already know. We’ll continue with numbers today, more specifically the tens.”

Kaden just nodded obediently. He already knew this stuff, but he had to at least pretend to go through the motions.

“Any questions?” Mr. Stein asked, clearly surprised by the lack of resistance the kid gave him. He wasn’t used to that happening.

“No.” Kaden just wanted to get it over with, there was no need to waste any time here.

“Oh… good.” Mr. Stein seemed to have been caught a bit on the wrong foot. “Well, let’s begin.”

***

As they worked, Mr. Stein only found himself even more bewildered. He couldn’t believe how smoothly this was going, how easy it was.

The boy was far more intelligent than he had expected. He almost wanted to hit himself for his earlier transgressions, he really was the only one wasting time and money with all his complaining.

He had been as blind as a bat saying that the kid wasn’t ready to learn just because of his age. In all the time he had spent teaching, and that was a fair few years, he had never had a student with as high comprehension as this.

Take the numbers, for example. After the first ten, they were a lot of work to teach to kids and they took a long time to learn. But Kaden just absorbed them like a sponge, and could even form new ones by using the rules he had just learned. It didn’t matter that it was all new knowledge; the kid understood it without needing any further explanation.

As they had gone over far more material than he had expected them to, and therefore prepared for, they quickly ran out of things to do. In a bid to fill the remaining time of the lesson, they went onto how to write the numbers.

It was amazing how quick even that skill was picked up. Mr. Stein thought that Kaden’s memory was frighteningly good. He could recall any numbers with ease and write them perfectly.

As he saw the minutes on the digital clock tick down, Mr. Stein dreaded the end of the lesson.

On one hand, he was eager to leave, as he really hadn’t prepared enough material for such a prodigy. But on the other, he really didn’t want to go to his next appointment. He knew he was just going to go back to being a glorified overqualified babysitter for rich people.

But time didn’t stop for anyone, and the two hours passed by in a flash. Mr. Stein was soon back in the entrance, putting on his coat and wondering where all the time had gone.

When he left through the gate on the grounds, he was already excited to come back again.