“Walking is man’s best medicine.”

Hippocrates

I was sat wrapped around my rebec, treating it much like a cello for an infant. My fingers tried to pluck away as quick as I could, eager to get that last point in dexterity. Finally, on the penultimate day before my 2nd birthday, I gained the final point of dexterity needed to get the next trait. I let out a huge sigh of relief, as I stopped playing and relaxed my sore fingers. It had been a long journey to get here. I had spent half my life unable to walk in one form or another. Admittedly that was only 1 year or rather 16 months but that was still a very long time especially when you looked at it as a percentage. A very long part of the nearly 32 months I had spent here in this world.

Ding! Dexterity reached 100 before the age of 5 you have been awarded the attribute . . .

Celerity!

This was followed by a yell of triumph as I took off. Although I was careful not to drop the rebec it took me only a second to carefully put it down. The added attribute to my stats, on top of the effects of the dexterity elixir, that had yet to wear off, meant that I was zipping around the place. My body had finally caught up to my brain! I liked to think I was uncatchable, but my belief was soon cut short as Grandfather stepped in to pick me up. I had yet to go quicker than him despite my sudden boost. What exactly were his ruddy stats? I was trying to be the bigger man and wait for him to reveal his information himself rather than demand it like a petulant 2-year-old. But some days . . . it was harder than others. Particularly moments like these when my success and progress were held up literally and figuratively by the stubborn old man. Over the last year, we had reached a new equilibrium between us. He appeared able to finally relax a little, have some time off from a mission, decades-long, accept that however strong we were was strong enough for now. He had even laughed when he lifted me up into the air. Much to the delight of my mother who looked up from her weaving. Aleera was practising some of her own mana control weaving something or other while Grandfather as part of his retirement from a decade long command seemed to enjoy listening to me play the instruments he had provided.

“No fair,” I shouted as he swung me around. My voice babbled quickly out of my mouth. It was going to take some time and effort to slow down.

But I was not fooling anyone with my tantrum least of all him. This was all part of the game we played. He pretended I was not an old man already and I pretended that I had forgiven him for his attitude, actions and the decisions he had made in the first year of my life. In truth, despite the fact that I knew he could have done things better, without being under the same compulsions, that he had been under, it was difficult to know how I might have been able to have done any better. I didn’t dig deeper into it and neither did he.

Mother shouted in surprise, “Did you get a trait or a perk?”

“Neither,” I replied drawing the suspense out a little longer. I grinned like a Cheshire cat as I held the answer out of their reach much like the floor was being held out of mine. At least their cliff would soon be resolved. I doubted I would be allowed down until I had answered all of their questions.

“Well, what did you get then?” Aleera demanded.

“An attribute!” I blurted out in glee I could already tell by my sudden increase in speed that it would be enough to balance my stats.

“What?” Mother and Aleera both shouted at me in confusion. I had shouted my answer too fast to be heard clearly by either of them. So, my moment of glee was marred by my failure to communicate clearly, yet again.

“He said he got an attribute.” Grandfather explained to them. He was still able to keep up with me despite my verbal diarrhoea. Surely, he had a strong senses and strong dexterity build to hear and decode my rapid-fire answers.

“What’s an attribute?” They quizzed their questions coming slowly in comparison to my answers. If I was not still being held by Grandfather, I probably would have been running up to them to see if I could move fast enough to prank them. Probably not quite yet. Supersonic speed was not yet within my grasp, especially held still as I was. I even had time to notice that my stamina on my hud was ticking down even faster now that my body was able to keep up with my brain. If just my buzzing brain was enough to drain it quickly, my hyperactive state seemed to be draining it even faster. It was clear what stat I would have to focus on next, Endurance.

“It seems to be just like a trait as far as I can tell. It’s called Celerity and I can move a lot faster than I used to be able to. Although how much that is due to my elixir and how much that is due to my stats I don’t know.” I puzzled out loud wondering whether my elixir would run out quicker now that it was working at an even faster pace due to the spike in my dexterity. Rapid rate indeed. I wondered how fast my heartbeat was going. I would have to do some testing on that. Maybe that would tell me how much quicker I was moving. If the average heart rate of a 32-month-year-old was between 80 beats and 120 beats per minute, I just needed to count to see how much quicker mine was going to work it out. Or maybe it would make no difference at hall due to some system-based shenanigans. Still, I didn’t have time to test this, certainly not a full minute uninterrupted, as they were back to quizzing me. They had the listened to Grandfather translating my sentence into slow speech for them.

“That’s wonderful.” Mother exclaimed ecstatically that my imbalance had finally after all this time and effort smoothed itself out.

“More like diabolical.” Muttered Aleera under her breath but my super senses made me fully aware of what she was saying. Furthermore, I knew, she knew I could hear what she was saying. In fact, if I could then Grandfather could probably hear her too. So the only one being left out of the loop was the only one who would tell her off, my mother!

“Are you going to put me down?” I fired at Grandfather who was still grappling with me. Ever held a child who wants to get put down, an infant who had finally regained use of his legs and wanted to use them? They can be really wriggly when they want to be. It would be nice to get some payback on Aleera especially if I was faster than she was now. If only for a moment until the dexterity elixir ran out. Thoughts ran through my head of possible pranks I might be able to play on her and finally be able to get away with. I was bed-bound no more.

“I will put you down as long as you watch yourself.” Grandfather cautioned.

“I’m fine. Fit as a fiddle. Finally able to be independent. Wheeeeeee!” I ran at Aleera. She put her hands up in self-defence only for me to pass out and fall head first towards the floor before I got to her. Her confusion lasted a microsecond before she stepped forward to catch my falling body. Her basic decency outweighed any annoyance she might still hold against her younger brother.

As my mind slipped into unconsciousness, I heard Grandfather chuckle. “I told you so.” He seemed somehow aware that my consciousness had not just left my body and seemed to enjoy, far too much, the ability to get in the last words I would hear.

. . .

Their conversation continued on without me as my mother launched herself towards Aleera to scoop me up out of her arms before she berated Grandfather, “Why did you let him go? If you knew this would happen!” She snapped.

Leaving him to defend himself once more, “I told him to watch himself. But does he listen? How is that my fault?” The relaxed Grandfather was growing closer to the family, now that he was not pushing so hard all the time but they had a history, that was not so easily buried. Conversations and words sometimes triggered far more of an emotional response than expected.

“You’re supposed to be the adult in this situation!” She remonstrated.

“Why did he pass out?” Aleera questioned curiously now she had been relieved of my comatose body. “Is he okay?”

“He’s fine. Just probably ran out of stamina what with the elixir as well as his new stats running at the same time. He should be fine once the elixir runs out. He will bounce right back.” Grandfather explained.

. . .

I woke up later in the morning just in time for lunch. I might have used up my stamina quickly during the morning, but it didn’t take too long, a quick nap, and then I was ready to go again. Father had returned from fishing out on the lagoon and Des and Sinis had joined us too from raking up the increasingly large salt flats surrounding the mountain.

As soon as my father realised, I was awake there a was a big booming congratulations from him, along with the line, “Congratulations Kai, I mean Callen, now you can spend some more time out on the lake with your father. You don’t want to spend too much time working on that brain of yours lest you unbalance yourself again. Time to learn some practical physical skills from your father.” Everybody had dealt with my imbalance or at least come up with different solutions to resolving it and the one my father had always proposed was that I needed to spend more time with him learning the trade physically and practically to develop the right attributes for it. Which would just so happen to be becoming a Sailor. Many a parent has pushed their child into their own profession. But I didn’t mind too much. I enjoyed sailing, swimming and being able to sense treasure even if it was only pearls on the lagoon bed was a pleasure all in itself. I was going to enjoy going out to collect them and the oysters they grew in with my father now that I was back on my feet so to speak. My ability to find them seemed almost broken I couldn’t believe how easy it was. But I was going to take full advantage of it. Our burgeoning house needed all the resources it could gather.

Level: 12

Name: Lord Kai

Experience: 71,450/ 819,200

Age: 1 year 15 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 12 hours, 30 minutes

Health: 1410/1410 Stamina: 860/860 Mana: 1330/1330 Psi: 1330/1330

Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted

Attribute: Celerity

Vitality: 141

Endurance: 69

Strength: 48

Dexterity: 100 +1

Senses: 133

Mind: 133

Clarity: 113

Magic: 133

Charisma: 36

Luck: 5

Free Points: 40

Skills:

Tier 1: Time sense (Lv 45) Listening (Lv 30) Meditation (Lv 50) Swimming (Lv 50) Humming (Lv 27) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 27) Singing (Lv 27) Drumming (Lv 25) Running (Lv 42) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 25) Breath Control (Lv 30) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Bussola (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 25) Climb (Lv 27) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 12) Knife Skills (Lv 22) Trading (Lv 25) Sailing (Lv 6) Appeal (Lv 6) Knots (Lv 25) Stitching (Lv 25) Diving (Lv 15) Throw (Lv 12) Insight (Lv 1)

Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 40) Eavesdrop (LV 28) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Translation (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 30) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 8) Order (Lv3) Knife Arts (Lv 1) Rebec (Lv 12 -> Lv 13) Aulos (Lv 12 – Lv 13) Cornu (Lv 1 –> Lv 3) Harp (Lv 1 –> Lv 3)

Tier 3: Echolocation (Lv 28) Expel Mana (Lv 37) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Manipulation (Lv 29) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 17) Deception (Lv 3) Melt (Lv 10) Command (Lv 1)

Tier 4: Material Manipulation (Lv 15) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15)

Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17)

Skill experience: 1200

Origin experience: 0

Combat experience: 0

Crafting experience: 0

Trading experience: 0

Popular experience: 0