The stacks of books stashed in the shelves were precious heirlooms from his family. Believe it or not, even the book 'Mr. Bird' was something passed on from generation to generation. Although he didn't know why they didn't have a digitalized copy, the Government on Earth banned digitalization of Vis control manuals to prevent mass distribution to keep their value high by making them exclusive. Zalan suspected the government here would do the same thing as well. As for the other print books he suspected his mother wanted him to experience what she had when she was a little girl. He could only know for sure by asking her in the future.
Zalan let his mind wander for a bit before eyeing potential candidates for his building blocks. With a multitude of selections from the various different coloured thick books lining the bottom shelves, Zalan picked out the ones best suited as a stable base and dragged them towards the bottom of the shelf he was aiming to climb.
Slowly but surely, books accumulated as he started dragging books from various shelves.
'Family tree, ancient encyclopedia, paper copy of the dictionary, survival book.. what book do we not have here?'
Zalan thought before deciding that he had enough. By now, a solid pile of books has formed around Zalan. He was ready to begin stacking. Starting with the dictionary as a base, he slowly piled the books on top of each other as he made individual blocks with increments of one or two books. Zalan discovered that his baby body was stronger than it seemed as he could do Olympic weight-lifts with the books to stack on top as the piles gradually became taller. By the time he got to halfway up the shelf, Zalan looked down at his handy work. His planned has succeeded so far and only required a couple more books to complete the stack before reaching the shelf with the Vis control manuals.
The shelf has 4 layers. The manuals were on the 2nd from the top. Just as he was approaching this layer, he felt a slight shuffling behind him as his instincts told him something was up. Curious as to what is triggering it, Zalan took a quick glance behind him and nearly fell off the shelf as a result.
Both his parents were awake and laying in comfortable positions in the floor. Turns out, unawakened or not, people only stayed unconscious for about 40 seconds after fainting. Which means, unknown to Zalan, his parents have been watching him the whole time he was moving books around.
'What the hell?!? We're they awake this whole time, I thought they would be unconscious for at least much longer!'
As if reading his mind Amanda looked dazed as she said "looks like he found out we were awake this whole time". Both of them became more accustomed to the shock and slowly stood up to walk towards him.
Whilst Amanda was concerned how their 6 month old child has such powerful reasoning capabilities, what concerned Alex the most was that Zalan was building his book stairs on the shelf which the Vis control manuals were located.
'It has to be a coincidence right?' He thought. Although Amanda didn't know what the Vis control Manuals were, being an unawaken, she only knew that they were related to combat and not how big of a deal they were. There are other combat books like martial art manuals scattered around the room that she knew of.
'Could she have told him? No I don't think so. Maybe she found out or simply pointed at random and happen to point at the manuals mistaking them for ordinary combat books?'.
As Alex was deep in thought, Amanda perched Zalan in her arms and looked towards the books that Zalan was attempting to reach.
"Zalan, why do you want to read these books so much?" Amanda asked before turning to Alex.
"Alex dear, these were the ones that he was reaching for when we first enters the room. I don't know what about them makes him attracted to them."
As soon as the words left her mouth, Alex paled as he glanced towards Zalan who looked a bit guilty with his head hung low.
'No way'' Alex thought, 'he's barely 6 months old!'. Now Alex was genuinely scared of his son. There were genius and super genius in the world and then there is this monster. His behaviour didn't go unnoticed as Amanda immediately showed concern.
"Alex what's wrong dear? You don't seem well. You look even worse then when Zalan showed us he could walk". Amanda seem to radiate warmth as she genuinely cared about her husbands well being. The loving and concerned gaze eased Alex's facial features a little.
"Amanda, I think we may have just given birth to a monster that could possibly be the strongest being in the Universe one-day".
Now it was Amanda's turn to turn pale as she processed the words Alex has just said.
"W-what do you mean?" Amanda stuttered.
By now, Zalan was also curious as he turned to listen to Alex speak. The horrified expression never completely left Alex's face as he continued explaining.
"Amanda, do you know what Vis Control Manuals are?" Alex asked
"No. What are they"
"They are like guides to which awakened can circulate Vis around their body to produce a variety of different attacks and defences. They are also tiered like the awakens with the difference of each tier methods to move higher amounts of Vis at once. That's why Tier 7 beings can't use Tier 5 manuals because they fundamental route taken by the Vis from the Tier 5 manual doesn't account for the extra Vis present in the Tier 7 body. That's why these are so valuable. Each one has the potential to raise the battle prowess of beings within the same Tier…"
Zalan was listening attentively whilst Alex was explaining the basics behind Vis control manuals. After his explanation, Amanda turned to Zalan with the same shocked and questioning look that Alex had on earlier. Instinctively turning to Zalan
"H-how did you know they were Vis control manuals?"
Zalan pretended he didn't understand as he stared blankly at Amanda before smiling, waving his arms about and making high pitched screams like a normal infant.
'That should get them to stop questioning me.' Zalan though while a bit humiliated during the act.
Both Amanda and Alex could only sign at this scene. Both had forgotten that he was merely an infant. Todays events have already permanently altered their perception of babies, so it wasn't a surprise when they expected him to answer.