“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”

Buddha

“The child is imbalanced.” sighed Grandfather.

After I had been caught out of the air, I had been held and carried all the way back to the island and up to the top of the cliff. Watching the world stand still, had, after my minor panic attack, been entertaining enough for the first hour of subjective time. The problem was I couldn’t yet respond. I retreated into my mind fortress relieved to find everything still the same although my command center showed the world moving incredibly slowly outside. Meanwhile, my stamina continued to tick down. At this rate I would be napping like a normal baby just when I was supposed to start staying awake a little longer. I couldn’t currently respond to them. But it was giving me plenty of time to think about my dilemma and I had found that if I meditated within my fortress I could wait patiently between their sentences and think slow enough to understand what I was hearing even if I could not maintain my meditation well enough to allow me to control my tongue and speak. I focused on mentally imagining myself breathing in and out while I waited for the inevitable questioning of my sister. It would arrive in the end. I just had to wait for it. Any minute now. Calm and steady. This had to be helping me level up my meditation, not to mention my listening skills.

“What do you mean?” asked Aleera. She was no longer panicking quite so hard now that she had an explanation as to why I was lying there in my mother’s arms without seemingly responding.

She had been particularly distraught on the way back to the cliff relegated to holding me while father sailed and grandfather kept an eye out for any denizens of the deep. At least I had not lost my ability to breathe. My hypothalamus that governed the automatic functions of my body seemed to be working independently or was unaffected by the increased speed of my consciousness and the elongated subjective time I was now subjected to. I waited for Grandfather’s response. It was like listening to or watching an incredibly slow game of tennis played on the TV. That was part of the reason I had my eyes closed other than the difficulty of trying to control them. When I watched the world move so slowly the faces everyone made seemed hilarious in slow motion and comedic in effect. It seemed that there was such a lack of control over so many of our movements that we never really noticed because they happened too fast for our eyes to see.

“What does imbalanced even mean?” she eventually asked exasperated by the new weird and wonderful thing her younger brother had managed to do.

Unfortunately, this just delayed my grandfather in responding even further from my point of view. Clearly imbalanced was something that my new trait had caused. The cause and effect was obvious as I was the one suffering from it. I was just wondering whether Grandfather had an explanation for it and hopefully a cure or solution. Having finally worked out a way to make their speech understandable I was hopeful that in time I would be able to control the rest of my body. It was just going to take some time. Something I now subjectively had a lot of.

“Imbalanced is really quite simple. It means that one of his stats far outweighs another to a detrimental effect.” He finally explained to my sister.

I had already worked that one out. How long was it going to take him to get round to a solution. Breathe in and out. 10 subjective seconds in and 10 subjective seconds out. I was going to be very calm by the end of this conversation if I could keep this going and not be driven up my mental walls by the wait. That there was a word to describe my current condition meant that at least I was not alone. Other people must have gone through similar if not exactly the same circumstances to warrant it and when other people had similar problems hopefully other people had come up with viable solutions. Just keep breathing. In and out.

“For example, the easiest and most common example of imbalance is the brute. This is when, and here I am talking in generalities, mainly young lads stick all their points into strength in an attempt to impress their peers or a young lady. Although they will become unreasonably strong for their level at best the consequence to their stupidity is that they have little stamina to no stamina. At worse if they have added all their stats to strength without naturally building up sufficient endurance then when their strength becomes too high in comparison to their vitality and endurance they can literally break apart their own bodies moving, snapping bones or tearing ligaments. There are a variety of cautionary tales on the subject and we have spoken about the importance of maintaining a balance to your abilities.” He explained one state of imbalance in detail.

Oh dear. At least I had not done that. Although at my age, current development, and still unable to allocate my stats myself there was little chance of that particular imbalance happening. Strength being one of my lowest stats before I managed to unlock Charisma and Luck. Speaking of luck this was hardly very lucky. How exactly was that stat helping me out here? Could having it so low have a negative effect?

“Well that is clearly not what has happened here. What other imbalances are there?” Mother asked clearly concerned by my unresponsive state as she quietly rocked me back and forth.

This obviously was not a regular problem for most people. If my parents also required clarification of the possible problems caused by it. I suppose the only time this was likely to happen was when your system was first unlocked and this was apparently a birds and the bees type of conversation that most parents would have with their children before their 10th birthday. ‘Remember to take care only do a couple at a time and remember to keep yourself balanced.’ Although it was clear that some imbalances were far worse than others. Thinking about it I had clearly been imbalanced several times in the last year but managed to work my way through them. Each imbalance self correcting through skill usage although each one causing another imbalance later. A vitality imbalance cause by my mother led to hardly sleeping. Hardly sleeping and my already strong start of an adults mind in a babies brain allowed me to tip over the mind stat. But this in and of itself seemed to hardly have created an imbalance at all. Perhaps if I hadn’t already spent most of a year in solitary isolation within the womb and developed my mind fortress there would have been some negative consequences but as it was I able to simply build it bigger and better spending my mental energies on that. If I had not had the skill would I have been reduced to being trapped in my mind unable to interact with the world much like I was now. Either way this strength had led me to becoming imbalanced with my senses causing my painful hyper-sensory state, another imbalance. Perhaps this could have been avoided if I had levelled up clarity or endurance alongside it. However this imbalance led to the next as Magic tipped over too, I was unsure what could have possibly balanced out the Magic stat but like with Mind there seemed to be little downside to my increased mana production. At some point, with everything becoming imbalanced one way or another I had to eventually reach a new equilibrium as my stats equalised and aligned. Still if I could have placed my points anywhere they would clearly have to go into Dexterity to speed up my body enough to catch up with my brain. Grandfather finally responded.

“Well, the next most common imbalance is the mule. Where they have added all their points to their endurance without developing enough strength to counterbalance it. This results in the opposite problem of being unable to move an increasingly durable body. Although this can be worked through providing you train through the increasing resistance of your body and raise your strength naturally. But you can’t simply dump all your points into endurance without causing a problem you have to do it slowly and grow into it.” Grandfather described another imbalance he had clearly seen or heard of.

This seemed straightforward enough. Equal points into Strength and endurance when I was finally given the option to add them. I didn’t want to break myself but neither did I want to leave myself unable to move much like I was now. Would they think this was what I had managed to do to myself somehow?

“Is that what Kai has managed to do? Has he somehow become a mule?” Aleera asked curiously.

I was clearly not a mule or a brute for that matter. Although maybe it was not clear at all. Hopefully, they would not test this one by bashing my body against things. For once it seemed that Grandfather was not going to pull out a blade to make a prick to make his point. Although that was probably more due to the fact that my mother was still holding me rather than any actual improvement in the mental processes of the man.

“No, if you were watching him carefully, before he closed his eyes and calmed down his body, he was still moving. Twitching, more than moving admittedly, but it was still a relatively quick movement, compared to what happens to those who have become mules. For them every movement including facial movements particularly the eyes takes forever to happen. No his current imbalance seems be related to the relation between brain and body, between his mind stats and his physical stats. There are two that come to mind. Option one, a Twitch somebody who has added too many points to their dexterity stat and their body moves almost too fast for their brain to keep up with and control what they are doing. Option two an Oaf somebody who has far too much strength and endurance without enough dexterity to balance them. Yet neither of these seems to be the case here with Kai as both are still able to move. Although either too quickly or too slowly. What I fear Kai has managed to somehow do here is become a Cripple.” He ominously announced.

Oh dear. That did not sound good. I anxiously waited for the inevitable question of my sister. Stay calm. Keep breathing, in and out. But cripple did not sound particularly positive. Most of the terminology he had been using to describe the imbalances had been pejorative. Brute, Mule, Twitch, Oaf and now Cripple. They were clearly considered less than wise people. But was it really my fault? Nobody had warned me. But then again I hadn’t asked. I had been happy keeping mum and now I was paying the consequences. When I finally worked out how to get my body in sinc with my body again the first thing I was doing was coming clean. How much I was not yet sure but I needed to tell them that I could see my status at the bare minimum. They were still working on the false assumption that I couldn’t see my status or my skill levels. How much had my observation of my development changed my development itself? I couldn’t for the life of me remember much about quantum physics but I could remember the quote that observing things changes the outcome. How I couldn’t remember but I was worried that it applied here, to me, to what I had managed to achieve.

“What’s a cripple?” Aleera cautiously asked clearly aware that they answer was not going to be good.

I knew the word cripple from my world as someone with some form of physical disability. It was hardly a polite term and like all the other terms for imbalances Grandfather was using, equally derogative. But it worryingly hinted at the fact that this imbalance meant that I might not be able to move. For someone who was only just gaining the ability to walk, run, climb, swim and sail this was going to be a horrible revelation, if it was true. I had only just got my sea legs so to speak I was hardly happy with the idea that I would be losing the use of my legs as well as my arms, eyes, ears and tongue. Although I had managed to gain some control of my ears again. I hoped it would not be too long before I gained control of the rest of my body.

“A cripple is someone who has managed to create an average imbalance between his body and brain stats. Too much brawn, the stats for strength, endurance and dexterity leads to a Dullard. Too much brain, on the other hand, the stats for senses, mind and clarity leads to a Cripple. Somehow Kai seems to have achieved this.” Here he paused for an agonisingly long time . . . “Probably by jumping off the cliff.” He finished.

We are only as sick our secrets and it appears my secret access to my stats even though I am still unable to allocate them has caused me bigger problems in the long run. A secret kept in the dark grows and become more harmful in the long run. This certainly seems to be the case here. It seemed that my Grandfather was far more aware of what I was capable of than I had believed but at the same time still ignorant of everything I could do. Is this my fault? If I had told them I could see my stats would I be lying here now? If I had told him how high some of them were would he have advocated the same training? But if I had told them of my traits would they still consider me human and not a monster? Throughout all of our growing conversations about stats and statuses not once had traits ever once been mentioned.

There was a stunned silence which for me stretched on silently for many a subjective minute. But in real time Mother and Aleera exclaimed simultaneously, “We did this to Kai?”

They might have helped. But in the end, I had done this to myself. Hopefully, I would be able to find the cure to it, by myself as well. I had managed work arounds before. I was hopeful I would be able to do the same again. I had my mind and I had been stuck in it before. In fact considering how much I had achieved in it before it was hardly the end of the world. I would just have to wait . . . Hmm, no. I was not going to wait another 9 years to allocate stat points to get myself out of this hole. But neither was I going to despair over it just yet.

“But that’s the point! We shouldn’t have been able to imbalance him. He shouldn’t even be able to become imbalanced! All growth before you are able to allocate your stats is natural and balanced. You might have a natural strength but it would never grow beyond what the rest of your natural stats could support. There was basically no way to know that this could have happened. I have only ever heard of this happening to people who either did it to themselves over the age of ten or those who were simply born this way. Even those who were born this way, can sometimes, if you help them allocate their stats properly on their 10th birthday alleviate if not eradicate their conditions. I have never heard of a child, without stats, suddenly developing an imbalance. It simply shouldn’t be possible!” A frustrated and unsatisfied Grandfather grumbled to both himself and the rest of the family.

While grandfather seemed to be repeating himself as much as justifying himself. It seemed to add weight to the idea, that simply by seeing my stats and skills, I had somehow managed to direct my growth, beyond what a normal child would have been able to do so. Unfortunately to a detrimental effect. I had always believed my growth to be beyond what a normal child could have achieved. Having had a functioning brain from the very start, along with a wealth of a modern world’s knowledge, I felt I had been assured a place myself among the geniuses of the Compass Kingdom’s history a combined version of Mozart, Pascal, Neumann and Da Vinci. But no I had crippled myself and this was after I discovered that I was not as special as I had believed on the Merchant’s ship when I found out that the rich could simply buy their offspring their experience and levels. Obviously, we are all born ignorant but I seem to have worked particularly hard to remain stupid.

“But what if he did?” Mother quietly asked as she held me tight to her chest in concern or possibly guilt.

Where was mother taking this conversation? What did she know? I had already been abused of the notion that I had hidden all my secrets from my Grandfather. Who else had I failed to keep my secrets from and what did she know. It was just as well I was unable to control my facial features at the moment as I am sure I would have given the game away many a time throughout this conversation. I was going to have to level up my acting skills if I was ever going to re-join society once more at a later date.

“Did what?” Grandfather asked confused.

We all waited for mother to respond some of us felt the time go a lot slower than others but we were all resigned to waiting for my mothers response.

“What if he had a status and stats from the very moment he was born?”