"What the fuck…." Caspian was shocked at how he did that. Though his shock didn't last long, the pain he felt overwhelmed him, forcing him down on the ground. He just lay there on the ground, wanting the pain to subside.
Suddenly, the door opened, and there stepped Abby, who was confused about why Caspian was on the ground. She then rushed toward Caspian and helped him up. "Hey, are you okay?"
Caspian's face was clearly stressed due to what he felt as he smiled bitterly. As Abby saw that, she knew that he wasn't, so she carefully helped him up to his bed. After that, she asked, "What happened? Did your mother go overboard?"
Caspian chuckled at hearing that, but he stopped immediately since he felt like his head was splitting open. He then said in a rather weak and raspy voice, "If you mean beating the shit out of your own son type of overboard, you're right…. But that's not it. I have a splitting headache, and my throat feels like it's burning…."
"Let's bring you to the med bay. We should get your situation checked."
With a nod, Caspian tried to sit down with a struggle. Noticing that, Abby helped him up and said with a worried voice, "Slow down, I'll help you up."
She then hung one of Caspian's arms around her shoulder as they walked to the med bay. As they entered, Ruth, Sean's wife, immediately noticed them. She then approached them and asked, "Hello, Abby and Caspian! What brings you—oh, let me get a bed."
Ruth then hurriedly got a spare hospital bed and brought Caspian to the emergency room. Caspian was breathing raggedly as he covered his eyes from the blaring light while Ruth and Abby conversed.
"We'll perform a scan on him after the other nurses get the equipment. So, what happened to him?" Ruth asked while peeking at Caspian. Abby then replied, "I don't know; he just said he had a splitting headache, and his throat felt like it was burning. The fact that this happened right after his training makes me think that cap went overboard."
"Haha, Mrs. Grace does have the tendency to go overboard," Ruth laughed as her fellow nurses prepared all the equipment they needed to scan Caspian.
They then proceeded with the scan, and after a few minutes, they removed all the equipment they attached to Caspian as Ruth walked up to Abby. "He's fine, but he is suffering from overconsumption of blood since his supernatural side was dormant before; that's why his throat has a burning sensation."
"And for the headache, it's because his eyes are strained from watching something at incredibly high speeds, but it could also be because he had a forced evolution and is currently on the verge of being able to activate his vampiric nature. He just needs to rest. But we'll give him some painkillers."
Abby nodded with a smile as she headed to Caspian and sat down beside him. She then held his hand, causing him to peek lightly. Abby noticed that his irises were morphing to red. One of the nurses then injected Caspian with some medication.
Abby then asked, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah… the pain is slowly subsiding. What did Nurse Ruth tell you about my situation?" Caspian asked.
Abby then replied, "She said the headache you're feeling is because of forced evolution and eye strain, and the burning sensation in your throat is the overconsumption of blood. Did your mom beat the shit out of you and then feed you a bag of blood?"
"Yeah…" Caspian smiled wryly. Abby couldn't help but laugh as she heard that. "Your mom really likes to go overboard with training."
After that small talk, silence was the only thing that was heard. Caspian and Abby couldn't look straight into each other's eyes since they felt embarrassed after what had happened before, especially Abby, as she was the one who initiated that.
But Caspian could hold it no longer as he asked, "Hey, Abby… what are we now?"
Abby felt panicked. She then tried to calm herself down, but she failed as she stuttered, "W-what do you mean?"
"The kiss and… shit," Caspian said as he gazed at Abby's burning face. Abby then set aside her embarrassment as she gazed at him with a smile, "Whatever you want… I guess. But… I would prefer to be called your lover than something else."
Caspian and Abby smiled at each other lovingly, but that soon ended as a call resonated from Abby's phone. She grabbed her phone and answered it without looking. She then heard Grace's voice, [Abby, is Caspian with you?]
"Ah, yes, he's with me right now in the med bay," Abby replied
[What happened?], Grace couldn't help but ask.
Abby smiled wryly as she said, "Cap, I think you may have gone overboard with your training…. Caspian is in a forced evolution state right now."
[Oh… I'll come by]
The call then ended as Abby giggled. She then gazed at Caspian again with a tinge of embarrassment lying in her eyes. They were still somewhat awkward as they didn't want to talk about emotional stuff in the emergency room where other people were around.
Soon, Grace arrived and took a glance at Caspian. She slightly frowned as she said with worry, "Are you okay, Caspian? I'm sorry for going overboard. Maybe I made your training progress too quickly,"
Caspian just smiled as he replied, "It's okay, mom. If this is the consequence of improving, I'd rather take it than not. Besides, I've been through worse. And they said I'm in a forced state of evolution, so I may improve if this happens all the time."
Grace couldn't help but giggle as she wryly sighed. She then said, "Forced evolution doesn't translate to evolving in a good way…. Going through forced evolution every time is the equivalent of training your muscles and breaking them down without giving them time to heal. It won't help; it'll just make things worse. And if there's one thing, evolution is rare…."
"Just… rest for now, and after you're capable of using your vampiric nature, we'll head back to training since the disparity between that evolution and the next one is large."
Caspian nodded his head as he closed his eyes. He felt tired despite already sleeping for probably a couple of hours. His consciousness faded as Abby and Grace spoke with each other.
Grace then glanced at Abby's glistening face. She couldn't help but grin as she said, "You've gone ahead and done it, didn't you?"
Abby couldn't help but instinctively look away due to embarrassment. She then said, "I'm sorry for disobeying your orders again, cap."
Grace laughed as she heard that. She then smiled while patting Abby's head. "I'm not mad, Abby. Besides, he's already involved with the case and would be exposed to danger whether or not you get close to him. You better take your chances better."
Hearing that, Abby was somewhat surprised, but her surprise ended as she smiled wholeheartedly, "Thank you, cap."
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After about a day, Caspian had fully recovered, and he felt his overall physique and strength had improved by a large margin. Just as he looked at himself in the mirror within his quarters, someone knocked on his door.
"Caspian, it's time for your training," It was Grace's voice. Caspian then hurriedly walked out of his quarters and followed her to the training grounds.
Just as they walked, Grace spoke, "Sean is currently busy due to having another task, so I'll be teaching you both how to control and use your powers and your combat capabilities. But since you just finished your evolution to the next stage, it would be best to inform you about the evolutions of supernaturals."
"Every supernatural has a stage of evolution which is the same across all races. The only difference would be the half-bloods, and regular supernaturals, so I'll be focusing on the evolution of a regular supernatural. I'll be saying it as vampires, but they would be for all types of supernatural.."
"For vampires, whether or not they were born or synthesized from a human, they will start off as a Lesser Vampire, but as for the latter, they'll only be able to evolve once. Then after that, they become a True Vampire. If they evolve further, they become a Greater Vampire. In ascending order, the next would be Noble Vampire, followed by Vampire King, Vampire Emperor, and then Origin Vampire."
"But evolution is rare, as I told you earlier. The highest record of evolution since the Bureau was founded is a Vampire King. Even I'm only a half-step Noble Vampire," Grace said wryly.
"As for dhampirs, things are somewhat different. Unlike Vampires, they only have about five evolutions. So, that would mean your evolution would start from an Unawakened to a Half-Vampire embryo, Lesser Dhampir, True Dhampir, and an Awakened Dhampir."
"Let me give you a sense of the scale of how strong a dhampir is. A Half-Vampire Embryo is significantly weaker than a Lesser Vampire, but a Lesser Dhampir would be of equal strength. However, a True Dhampir wouldn't be as strong as a True Vampire. Instead, it would be slightly weaker. An Awakened Dhampir is slightly stronger than a True Vampire and can't even compare to a half-step Greater Vampire."
"Of course, in all of those stages, you have five layers you need to break through before you can increase your chances of evolution. Naturally, it all depends on strength, as without sufficient strength, your body won't be able to handle the cleansing of your body. And as you may have expected, each layer requires tons of power before reaching the next stage."
"While we like to call the evolutions as Evolutionary Stages, we like to call the layers in those evolutions as Evolution Layers. I know, lazy naming, but it works. Those layers are just called First Layer, Second Layer, and up to the Fifth Layer. Yes, it's still lazy naming, but it works great since it's easier."
"But for some reason, they wanted to change the evolution layers solely for the Noble stage into Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquess, and Duke."
"As for you, you're at the Lesser Dhampir stage, well, half-step since it's due to a forced evolution," Grace finished up as they finally arrived.
"The different evolutions are kinda confusing…." Caspian said with a wry smile.
Grace laughed as she said, "I agree with you, but enough of that. Ready yourself, as today, we'll be training your control up till you become a proper supernatural!"