It’s early in the morning. Adam has just woken up and is currently laying down on his king-sized bed; his eyes staring at the same ceiling. One that he had witnessed its progress starting from wood, turning into finely polished stone with lucrative ornaments on it.

Any feeling of grogginess or drowsiness after just waking up is almost gone now; there wasn’t even any need for him to rub his eyes upon waking up, as the blurry vision that comes with it is gone with just a few blinks. Because in this world, he never had a problem with sleeping.

“…”

His mouth curled up into a smile, showing his little excitement.

Why?

It’s because Graham actually showed him the formula of [Transmogrify] into getting taller and not the gender bending shenanigans.

For a price, he actually called his father to help Graham from Serena. And Creed managed to persuade Serena to knock it off for the day. Of course, Creed was apologetic to Graham at that instance, especially after learning what caused Graham to be in that state and he had been forgiven.

However, there’s a catch, Creed only helped Graham on that day, but Creed still feels sorry about it.

So, he took it upon himself to give him a break. With full compassion and devious sincerity, he has decided that he should let Graham take his break by not helping him out if Serena comes around to drag him into playing dress-up with her.

Everyone’s happy, Adam got what he wanted, Graham got what he wanted (for a day), Serena got what she wanted, and Creed will still get what he wants since Graham is that close on achieving it.

Adam already had his chalk ready, he got it last night and was very ready to draw it down. But he liked his sleep very much that he decided to do it tomorrow morning which is now.

Let’s do our morning calibration first.

“Hmm.”

Still laying down flat on his bed with his black- and yellow-colored pyjamas. He pulled down his blanket with his feet, kicking it down to below his feet, he then relaxed his whole body and steadied his breathing.

*Inhale*

*Exhale*

Relaxing to a point that he might fall asleep again on the warm and comfy clutches of his bed. His eyes became unsteady, his eyelids felt heavy, and with the movements his eyes – it is comparable to a person who’s starting to fall asleep.

*Inhale exhale*

Before falling asleep again, he opened his eyes wide open!

*Bounce*

Adam launched himself from his bed!

“Haha!”

Reaching his highest point of trajectory, he started to get called back down by Gravity.

His untied hair spread all over like a budding flower.

*Creak*

Landing back on the soft bed, he used his current momentum to launch himself even higher!

*Bounce*

This time, he continuously spun sideways like a rolling barrel and then corrected himself to land on his back before bouncing again!

*Bounce*

Now he has done a triple side flip before landing on his back.

*Bounce*

He’s basically just playing around with his bed and using it like a trampoline; looking like an innocent child who’s having fun. Bouncing around with varying techniques and poses, though he’s a bit troubled that his hair blocks his face at times, but it’s not that troubling to say the least.

But don’t let this image fool you.

This is training.

He called it “Calibration”, yet he’s also re-testing his body’s current doable feats.

It was shown that he bounced while lying flat on his bed. However, who even manages to jump on a trampoline while lying flat on it? Usually, to bounce on one, you have to be standing straight and hop a bit to get your momentum going.

But Adam?

He launched! While lying flat on it, on an object that isn’t even a trampoline!

How much strength do you even need to lift yourself from the ground if you’re lying on your back without bending any of your joints to re-distribute your weight? Almost impossible, more so to even jump from that position.

Adam has grown accustomed to his body that he can efficiently do what he thinks he can do with it.

*Lands*

Adam has finished his trampoline training and has bounced, less and less until he has sufficiently rested back to his bed.

“Phew, so far, nothing wrong with my body today either.”

There isn’t any hint of tiredness or beads of sweat forming after such an intensive movement from him. Though, it was only the hardest on the first bounce.

“I can still do what I want and move however I want.”

The strength to easily lift himself up. Something not a lot of people in his old world can already do, is easily done by a 4-year-old boy without even breaking a sweat.

He’s strong, that much is true. But how strong? He still can’t beat Riette nor Danil, and he doesn’t have any idea what the average strength is in this world.

If only there was a way to see my own stats again. All I remember is my old appraisal that was used on me at the moment of my birth. Needless to say, that’s pretty much obsolete by now.

He slowly sat up from his bed.

That sit-up looked perfect; he didn’t struggle nor wobble of any sort. It was a clean normal and natural motion of a person sitting up.

When I’m lying down, it feels like my head is somewhat connected to my back because some strands of my hair manage to get weighed down behind my back.

“…Who the hell is that adorable little girl?”

From across his room, there seems to be a girl sitting on a bed. Having white-silver colored hair that had a length that goes down to the back and brown eyes that seemed to maintain eye contact with him. It made him flustered a bit which made him break eye contact for some reason.

But he caught it on the side of his eye that the girl broke eye contact at the same time he did.

“?”

Tilting his head, the girl tilted her head too. He raised a hand, and so did she.

“…”

It’s his mirror!

Wait! That’s just me! Darn it! This always happens for some reason!

Almost like he’s getting charmed by himself.

*Sigh* “I have to tie my hair…Why do I still keep it this long.”

If he looks at his own pocket mirror, his hair was already tied and it usually just focuses on his face, that’s why he doesn’t get tricked, and it pretty much doesn’t happen outside of his room.

“Hup.”

Adam reached over his bedside table that had a lamp and a small black fabric placed on top of it. With the fabric, he tied his hair in a low ponytail just so that it doesn’t spread all over the place, the same as his father.

“There, kept in one place now.”

He flipped toward the foot side of his bed on his stomach then crawled to cover some distance. After reaching a certain point, he lifted both of his feet behind his back, continuously stretching until both the soles on his feet are on the bed and are over his shoulder. He’s flexibly contorted in a way that would make a certain guy with a boar mask proud.

Adam effortlessly stood up from that position and hopped off from his bed, landing on the carpeted floor. Skipping over to a nearby drawer and pulled out a chalk from it.

“Time to write down the formula, ehehe~.”

He squatted over on a corner of his vast carpet placed on the floor, then rolled it over just to reveal the floor. Now has a vast medium to draw on, more than enough space to draw the entirety of Graham’s magic circle.

“Hmhm… let’s see.”

While pondering about it, Adam is doing casual stretches like turning his body around, reaching his toes, shoulder stretches, and even doing cossack squats of continuously alternating his left and right foot.

He does have plenty of time for himself in the morning, so doing this is as safe as attempting a push-up. No one would bother or see him for the time being.

“Let’s start with the main circle.”

Adam reached for the floor with both of his hands on the floor then lifted both of his feet in the air. He’s basically doing a handstand with his palms on the floor.

He kept that position for a moment then shifted his weight in one hand then decided to push with all five of his fingers on the ground, so he got lifted a bit.

With his free hand, he started drawing while still in a five fingered handstand position.

Doing his first stroke of the chalk, the line came out perfectly. Almost as if he wasn’t doing anything extra like drawing it while doing a handstand.

“The main circle is where the formula should be, so let’s just write down the words Great Aunt wrote, word for word.”

He “crawled” with his fingers to move around to continue drawing the circle. He wasn’t making any noise because of it and with how fast he was moving, his five fingers looked like they were the legs of a moving millipede.

“Next, is the circle for the measurements…”

It’s easy to know this because of my “brain”. I’m so thankful.

“Then the mana circle.”

.

.

.

.

.

.

“There, a complete copy of Graham’s {Transmogrify}, minus the measurements and formula since it’s to become taller.”

Finishing it up, Adam lowered himself to the ground then jumped with his hand like a spring, flipping over to land gracefully on his feet. His arm didn’t get tired because he had been alternating between each hand.

Still, I didn’t change the safety measure circle. That part seems to be using a different theory entirely and Great Aunt didn’t explain any of it…. Tsk, I should’ve asked.

Looking at the complicated arrays of circles on the floor, it’s very wide that not even the Carpet That Adam rolled over earlier would cover it entirely.

Since this isn’t the gender changing [Transmogrify], the mana required for it is less, yet I still don’t know how to activate it since I never experienced mana.

It’s like he finally installed a light bulb but has no idea where the switch is.

Do I even have enough mana for this despite needing less? It should need lesser because I’m small and not really close to being halfway as big as a male Graham. The surface covered by this circle should be smaller too, hence needing even lesser mana.

“Should I try standing in the circle now?”

He sat cross-legged on the floor. “Hmm.”

He wants to get taller, but should he really? Now that it’s really there, he can’t help but think twice since he wasn’t in any actual hurry to do so. Plus, there’s still pressing matters to attend to.

“Right, let’s not experiment with it for now. Hup!”

Adam jumped with his feet on his current position, he flew high up, barely hitting a chandelier that was right above him.

*Land*

“If I was already tall, I would’ve hit my head there.”

He’s more used to his current body right now. If he turns slightly taller, he’s going to have to try and get used to it by redoing everything he did earlier to “re-calibrate” because of the resulting difference in eye level.

“Let’s get ready to go out. Today is the day to initiate ‘it’.”

Rolling over the carpet back to its original position, some parts of the circle are peeking out of it, but not to the point that one can tell that there’s a circle underneath. He then went to a nearby dresser and changed out of his pyjamas, into his normal tunic wear.

“I definitely won’t forget about this circle being there.”

Having that level of memory after all.

I’m gonna need that now.

He went to his vanity table and pulled on one of its drawers.

It’s good that they don’t really move my stuff.

Taking out a piece of rectangular brown paper with various inscriptions on the front, while it looks plain on the back.

I haven’t used this in a while, there also wasn’t any reason to do so. Only Graham and I probably know about this. It’s better if fewer people know about this; sorry, Graham, you’ve served your purpose. I’m going to have to kill you.

The classic villainous one liner.

Haha! Just kidding, why would I even do that? Just wanted to say it.

Adam then took his pocket mirror that was placed on a shelf beside his bed.

“That’s pretty much all I have to bring. If this teleportation paper isn’t enough, then…”

He closed his eyes and lowered his head. Breathing in and out before opening it again and looking straight at the palm of his hand.

*Slither slither*

Underneath his skin – in his hand to his arm, there seems to be countless small snakes coiling, moving, bulging, and protruding around underneath his skin.

“Turning this off… will be another power-up.”

This.

This is the actual training Adam has been doing. This was also one of the only ways he managed to circumvent the sickly image he got last time. Being able to think two different things at the same time is hard, but, what if the other thought was just told to do simple commands?

The result is a resounding success. Before, to even “train” with this method, he needed to be in a meditative state, but with this “cheat” he can carry on with his life while the training does it automatically. It wasn’t as strenuous as before; this is basically the bare minimum muscle workout where he shouldn’t become dead tired.

He had his muscles constantly simulating the movement of walking 24/7 without any breaks. At first, he was easily out of breath, his heartbeat was constantly fast, and he was always warm as if he had a small fever. This is where Graham and Serena’s help comes in. Since it looked like it wasn’t the most worrying symptoms, Graham still ordered Serena to “heal” Adam every night before sleep. That’s the only time he recovers from his built-up continuous fatigue from the entire day.

However, like any workout where you start in light difficulty, any gains for continuing the same light workout would be very miniscule or even pointlessly little. Which is basically that point in a workout where you can feel that you can do more and still don’t feel tired.

Continuing anymore of that feeling would be futile. Little by little, he raised his bare minimum standards, that he has adjusted his automatic command to simulate something at a higher level – now one that is the same as jogging.

Repeat that with the same help from Serena’s healing. He moved on to one that is running.

Repeat

Repeat

Repeat

Repeat

Repeat

He had reached the point where he’s basically running with constant imaginary weights on his body.

Achieving the outcome of not needing his mother’s healing every night to not feel fatigued which took over a year. Currently, his heart rate is as low as an Olympian athlete at rest, but he’s never – truly – at rest.

His muscles that continuously got stimulated resulted in him being extremely flexible too. And yes, he was doing strenuous exercise and stretches on top of this automatic training that kept raising its bars after feeling that it wasn’t adequate anymore. Hence why he doesn’t feel tired anymore when he’s still doing other sorts of movements.

This doesn’t come without a price.

He now eats more than anyone else in the house, the number of calories he burns just by “standing still” is more than one can count since it’s still going up every second.

He’s not getting “ripped” by doing this, in fact he looks perfectly normal with no bulging muscles whatsoever. Though we can see what sort of effect it had on his height, heh.

Still, it doesn't feel real, it’s like him not being human anymore has been cemented to his very core now that there’s another thought focused solely to stimulate his muscles. Even in his sleep, this training goes on, never been turned off, 2 years strong to the present. It doesn’t help that he can do things he wasn’t physically able to before now that he’s “stronger”.

Luckily, he has the resources to sustain this sort of training. His parents’ resources. Or else he’ll have to stop somewhere because he’d be too hungry and too weak to even continue.

And if anyone where to catch him off-guard and touch him like Riette did, they’ll feel that there’s thousands of moving and coiling worms underneath his skin. That part was another – lucky – moment because he caught on it fast before Riette managed to grasp him firmly.

It’s part of his automatic training to also be automatically indiscernible when he’s being touched, though at those times when he’s touched, the training is significantly lessened. Like he’s running in full sprint, and he had to stop running to answer a call, yet to circumvent the stop, he’s hopping in place just so it doesn’t fully halt the operation.

And that’s another factor he needs to add in if he suddenly got taller, he’ll need to get used to a new set of training regime just to continue improving.

*Sigh*

“It’s time to move...”

Adam clutched the door handle and went outside.

“Good morning, young master!”

Outside, he was happily greeted with a bow by a girl with smooth brown back length hair with middle parted bangs in a maid uniform.

It is nice to have a cheery person to innocently greet you first thing in the morning.

“Good morning, Emily!” Adam greeted her back with a smile.

“What may you be interested in doing today?”

“Yes! Today is the time I tell them what I want to be when I grow up!”

“How wonderful! Do your best, young master! Around this time, they all should be at the dining room taking their breakfast.”

“Thank you, Emily! Please, go with me.”

“Right behind you, young master.”

The two leisurely walked on the hallway toward the dining room.

“Hm~ hmmm~ hum~~.” Emily was cheerfully humming a tune.

“Hmhm~ hm~ hmmm~.” Adam easily pitched in.

Emily looked surprised that Adam hummed with her because she realized that she was actually humming out loud! but since both of them were having fun, she continued with him. “Hmm~ hmhm~ hm~.”

“Hhhmm~ hmhmm~ hm~.”

He’s easily keeping up because it’s the tune of a song he sang with Emily before. An anime opening.

While the two are walking, it’s only natural for them to encounter other servants.

“Good morning, young master!”

“Hm~ Good morning!”

Of course, Adam doesn’t fail to Greet back too.

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.

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It’s starting to feel nostalgic to be walking in the hallways.

The two are nearing the dining room, it’s only a matter of time before they reach it.

I feel like this is similar to the time when I confronted mother and father if I’m really their son, we all know how that turned out.

The two are now in front of the door to the dining room, but Adam seemed hesitant to go in.

I might’ve called it the “coming of age” ceremony, but it was actually far simpler than that.

Adam had heard it from his siblings that when they said they decided to become a [Hero], Creed objected but still gave them a test to see their resolve. That test was just them demonstrating their control of [Hero’s Blood] and it was done when they were 4 years old.

Adam is just here to keep that tradition alive, by declaring what he wanted to be at the same age as them, but you see, there’s a slight difference. His parents basically asked the two on their own initiative what they wanted to be, a few days after their birthday.

On Adam’s case, it’s clear that they aren’t planning on asking him; it’s been several months since his fourth birthday, and he wasn’t even being hinted on what he wanted to be. Since, they – do – have this little plan to still keep him here until he’s 25.

“Don’t worry, young master. They’ll understand. You can do it!”

Emily assured Adam because he was just blankly staring at the door.

“… Thank you, Emily.”

Adam gripped the handle of the door.

Time to initiate the “Coming of Age” ceremony!

*Opens*

Inside the dining room a familiar sight can be seen.

 

 

Chapter 23 end ~~~Preparations for the Ceremony in another world~~~

 

 

Oh and here's a rough sketch of Emily since we got over 400 favorites Yay! Take care everyone!