A sharp pressure hit my forehead.
My vision shook for a moment. Then the shadow beneath me rippled.
It peeled off the floor and rose slowly.
The shape wobbled as it stood.
It looked like me, but smaller, darker, and blurred like smoke.
It tilted its head, waiting.
"Yes! That's exactly how it should look. You succeeded on your first try, Lord of Shadows!" Yuna clapped her tiny hands.
I gave her a flat look. Of course it worked. Skills were like pressing a button. It would have been harder to fail.
She floated in front of me with sparkling eyes. "Now, please give it a command to move."
I focused.
'Crawl to the left.'
The shadow stumbled to the side, moving clumsily.
"Very good! Again!"
'Back.'
It returned to where it had started.
"Again!"
'Forward.'
It obeyed without hesitation.
"You are doing it perfectly! Keep going!
"Using your skill many times is how you will train it and level it up."
Her praise echoed in the quiet room.
I gave her a sideways glance.
Being praised for something so easy felt a little strange. But, ahem, keep them coming.
I kept going.
The shadow moved left. Then right. Then forward and back again.
It listened well. But that was all it did.
After a while Yuna landed near it and crossed her arms.
"Hmm. As I thought, your Shadow Summon has no physical presence yet. It can't touch or interact with anything. Right now, it is just an obedient illusion."
She circled it with interest.
"But do not worry, Lord of Shadows. This is only the beginning.
"Once your [Shadow] Class reaches Rank 1, its power will grow far beyond what you can imagine.
"That is when you will see its true worth."
I nodded lightly.
The summon shivered, then collapsed back into the floor. It lasted no more than ten seconds.
'Tch. That's barely anything.'
It matched what I feared.
With my Spirit stat at zero, I could only hold it for a short time.
'Spirit stat affects how long I can use my skill.'
'I need to raise my Spirit stat. But that's not easy.'
Yuna floated near me again.
"Please do not worry about the short skill duration, Lord of Shadows. It is because your Spirit stat is so low. We will work on increasing it."
She raised one finger.
"One way is to keep training your Shadow Summon. Each time you use it, it drains your mental strength. That is tied to Spirit. So the more you use it, the stronger your Spirit becomes. It is like training a muscle."
She raised another finger.
"Or, we can try to get you a Mage Class. That would also increase your Spirit."
I blinked at her slowly.
She smiled as if she had already planned everything.
"We will start with the first option for now. Since you are still a baby, training with Shadow Summon is the safest and the easiest way."
I let out a small sound that almost resembled a sigh.
She giggled. "Don't look so troubled. You will see results soon."
Her wings glowed faintly as she hovered near my crib.
"Let us try again. Summon your shadow once more."
I nodded and concentrated.
The pressure hit my head again. The shadow peeled off the floor, forming the same small figure.
It tilted its head, ready for commands.
"Good! Now move it again," Yuna said.
I ordered it left, then right. It obeyed.
She clapped. "Perfect! Again!"
We repeated the process until my vision blurred. My newborn body couldn't handle much strain.
My eyes grew heavy.
Yuna noticed. She floated down and patted my forehead gently with her tiny hand.
"Enough for today. Rest now, Lord of Shadows. Training is a marathon, not a sprint."
My summon faded.
I closed my eyes, letting exhaustion pull me into sleep.
The next night, I tried again.
This time I managed to hold the summon for twelve seconds.
"Progress already! You are doing wonderfully." Yuna cheered.
I kept at it.
Night after night, I summoned and ordered it around. Each attempt drained me, but little by little the duration grew.
Ten seconds became twelve. Twelve became fourteen. Soon it reached twenty.
Yuna kept track of everything. She seemed more excited than me each time I managed to improve.
"You see? Your Spirit stat is slowly climbing. At this pace, your Shadow Summon will become more reliable."
I gave her a small nod.
Her eyes softened.
"Lord of Shadows, you are working very hard. I am proud of you."
I turned my head away, pretending to ignore her.
She giggled quietly.
Days passed. My parents noticed I often slept heavily during the day.
"Lyra, do you think he's alright?" my father asked.
Mom rocked me gently in her arms. "He's fine. Babies sleep a lot. It means he's growing well."
My father scratched his head. "I suppose."
They didn't know the truth. That every night, after everyone slept, I trained until exhaustion pulled me under.
The numbers showed the result.
Spirit: 0 → 2.
I looked at the screen with quiet satisfaction.
'This is progress.'
Yuna hovered nearby, her wings glowing faintly in the dark.
"Lord of Shadows, you look pleased. Did your stats go up?" she asked to confirm, since she couldn't see my status.
I nodded.
She clapped her hands. "Good! That means your training is working. But do not get too excited yet. Spirit grows slowly. Don't forget training is a marathon, not a sprint."
She was right.
However, it would have been better if I had a Mage class.
Mages grew Spirit and Intelligence stat naturally.
If I had that class, I would progress much faster.
The problem was Earth had no ambient mana, at least not enough to use it and become a Mage.
I waved my hand through the air as if to prove it. The room was empty of any noticeable energy.
She frowned. "Lord of Shadow, did you notice it too? The ambient mana in this world is pitiful. Trying to gather it is like trying to drink from a dry well.
"That is why to become a mage, you can't use ambient mana.
"You would need mana stones. But we don't know where they are in this world," she said.
I knew the locations of hidden societies on Earth that sold mana stone, but I'm could not go there as a child.
I would have to wait to grow up.
For now, Shadow Summon would have to be my main training method.
I stared at the wall and whispered in my mind. 'Status.'
The faint blue screen appeared.
…
Name: @!$!@#$@
Rank 0
.
Species: Draconic-Blooded Human [Rank 1]
.
Stats:
Strength: 0
Dexterity: 0
Endurance: 0
Intelligence: 99
Spirit: 2
.
Class: Shadow
Class Skills: Shadow Summon Level 1
…
My name was not displayed on the status.
It was the doing of [Shadow], the strongest tool an assassin like me could have.
Shadow erased all records of its inheritor from System. That was why even Yuna, a Fallen Angel sent by System, couldn't read my status.
But the part that caught my attention wasn't the missing name.
It was the other detail.
Species: Draconic-Blooded Human [Rank 1].
'I have a Dragon bloodline?'
In my past life, I never had this.
When half of Earth's population was summoned to Wageah, the soldiers stripped us of our Bloodlines and Traits.
They called it a tax.
Maybe that was when I lost my dragon bloodline.
'Having a dragon bloodline is good news. I will get draconic skills as I grow up, and my potential as both mage and swordsman will be much higher than my previous life.'
A thought rose in my mind.
If I had dragon bloodline that meant one of my parents carried it too.
Did it belong to mom? Or to father?
Neither looked anything close to dragons.
They were normal human, as far as I could tell.
'Hidden societies called Exorcist Clans exist on Earth. Maybe either mom or dad is from them.'
I had no answer, so I turned back to the status screen.
The rest of my stats didn't surprise me.
Everything was near zero.
That was expected for a baby.
The System only showed whole numbers.
Anything under one was rounded down. So even if my Strength was 0.9, it would still show zero.
I wanted to study more, but suddenly my eyelids grew heavy.
"You are too tired. Rest for now." Yuna's voice blurred.
My body sank into the blanket, and the screen faded as sleep dragged me away.
Weeks passed. Then months.
The nights turned into training grounds.
While the house was quiet, I pushed my limits.
Yuna never let me slack.
She nagged, reminded, encouraged, and sometimes yelled when I slowed down.
I summoned my shadow, held it, moved it, and dismissed it. Then repeated the cycle until my head pounded and my vision swam.
There were nights I could barely lift my head from the pillow, but I still forced the shadow out.
Yuna scolded me once. "You will collapse at this rate."
I still continued my training. I needed to be strong to protect my parents.
She looked unconvinced by my attitude but didn't stop me.
Eventually, the results came.
Spirit: 2 → 4.
Strength: 0 → 1.
Shadow Summon: Level 1 → Level 2.
The screen confirmed what my body already felt.
My shadow lasted longer now. Almost forty seconds. It was long enough to try more commands.
'Raise your hand,' I ordered.
The shadow lifted its blurry arm.
'Wave.'
It wobbled its arm back and forth.
Yuna clapped like an excited child. "Look at that! It even waves now! It still might be an illusion, but for now, control matters more than strength. That's where you should focus."
When Shadow Summon reached level two, the time increased again.
It remained for a full minute now.
I was able to walk it across the floor, make it sit, make it crawl, and even mimic gestures. It was becoming capable of doing complex actions.
The strain on my head wasn't as bad either.
Before, it felt like someone hammering nails into my skull. Now it was more like a dull ache.
But the real surprise wasn't the shadow.
It was the Strength stat.
Strength: 1
For the first time, my body felt different.
When I pushed against the mattress, my arms resisted the weight. My legs had some firmness. I wasn't just a limp baby anymore.
I laughed quietly the first time I managed to roll to my side without help.
The very next day, my mother noticed.
"Oh! He's trying to crawl!" she gasped.
Her hands hovered over me as she called out toward the hallway. "Adrian! Come here!"
My father's voice came from the other room. "What is it?"
"He's finally trying to crawl! Come see!"
He had been getting ready for work, but he appeared in the doorway as soon as he heard.
His eyes widened, and his whole face lit up.
"Woah! My big boy is going to crawl! Let me record it!"
He fumbled for a camera, already aiming the lens at me.
Both of them watched with so much hope it was almost funny.
My mother, Lyra Estenwald, reached out and gently pushed my back forward.
"Come on. You can do it," she said softly.
I focused.
Arms forward. Legs twitching.
I pressed down on the blanket and pulled myself forward.
One inch. Two inches.
My head dropped. It was exhausting, but I didn't stop.
Three inches.
Finally, I managed to drag myself an entire hand's length forward.
"Look at him go! Our little warrior!" My dad laughed, almost bouncing where he stood.
Compared to him, my mother was calmer.
Her smile was soft, and her hands clapped lightly as she encouraged me.
They were genuinely happy.
Something in my chest tightened.
I forced myself forward one more time before collapsing against the blanket. My limbs shook from the effort, but I didn't care.
"Go! Lord of Shadows! Go!"
'…'
'Let's ignore that one.'
I crawled.
More than joy, I felt relief.
Finally, I was free.
I didn't have to be carried everywhere anymore.
If I wanted to go somewhere, I crawled there.
No more waiting to be picked up. No more sitting uselessly in one spot!
That little freedom made everything easier.
Now I could crawl away from noisy people—yes, I meant you, Dad.
His voice had no concept of silence. Even when he wasn't yelling, he somehow filled the whole room.
"Now that you can crawl, it's possible to do more training!" Yuna chirped happily.
I smiled.
She was right! More training!
I started reaching for objects. Spoons, pillows, anything I could grab.
I pushed them, rolled them, knocked them over, pulled them back again.
It wasn't for fun.
This was training for Dexterity.
Every little movement built muscle coordination, and I worked on it daily.
The progress came slowly, but it came.
Strength: 1 → 2
Dexterity: 0 → 1
One morning, as I leaned against my mother's chest, she brushed her hand through my hair.
"My baby boy is so active these days.
"When you were born, you were so quiet I thought you would grow up to be a child who only kept to himself," she said with a smile.
We were sitting in the tea pavilion in the eastern garden.
The walls were wooden and open, and the curtains swayed with the breeze.
My father was away on work, and for once, the place was quiet.
The sun was gentle, the wind mild, and the faint scent of tea hung in the air.
Yuna was sleeping on top of my tiny chest.
It was peaceful.
"I've invited a friend over today. She has a daughter too, just two years older than you."
Her hand lightly tapped my nose.
"Maybe you two can become friends."