"This is ridiculous! Impossible! I've never heard of such a thing before!"
What I saw left me utterly shocked—it was something deep within my very being. Normally, when a child is born from two different races, one race's traits dominate over the other, and their potential is calculated accordingly. But what was happening to me was complete chaos! I had the strength and potential of a dragon, combined with the rapid growth and adaptability of a human. In other words, the greatest advantages of humans and dragons had merged within me, eliminating their greatest weaknesses.
Dragons, while immensely powerful with limitless potential, took years to grow stronger. Humans, on the other hand, had relatively average strength but could reach their potential much faster due to their adaptability. This balance was the way of the world, and there was supposed to be no exception to it. Yet what I was witnessing shattered all my beliefs.
"FINALLY! A POWER THAT WILL LET ME DO WHATEVER I WANT!"
Angelica was brimming with excitement, but her mood suddenly dropped.
"If only I had this kind of power before… I could have saved Braum and the others. I could have freed my city from that bastard. But whatever, there's no use crying over spilled milk. All that's left is to take revenge for my friends and reclaim what's mine."
This dream of mine seemed grand, but a difficult road lay ahead. Even with my potential and the opportunities at hand, this world was full of powerful beings. While I was only just born yesterday (literally, this morning), they had spent years living and honing their strength. Gaining power wouldn't be easy. If you want to be strong, you need to put in a certain level of effort. Sure, I have countless opportunities and limitless potential, but I can't just sit idly by and expect to grow stronger. I need to be self-aware, understand my strengths, recognize my resources, build an army, find an ally—perhaps even a shadow…
As I was lost in these plans, I drifted off to sleep. Damn this baby body!!!
***
When I woke up again, I saw two pairs of white eyes and one pair of purple eyes looking at me.
"Mom, look, she's waking up. So cute!"
When I turned towards the direction of the voice, I saw a child who looked exactly like my mother. The only difference was that the ends of his hair were a mix of blue and golden hues. Judging by the way he addressed my mother, he must be my brother I had heard about before.
"Yes, Alan, now step aside a bit so your mom can hold Angelica," my father said.
Though my brother seemed a little disappointed, he moved aside, and my mother picked me up.
"Good morning, my baby. Are you hungry?" The moment I heard my mother's question, my eyes filled with tears involuntarily, and my stomach began to growl. My pride was really starting to crumble. Not only had I cried three times in one day, but now my stomach was rumbling like a drum.
My mother chuckled, her laughter sounding like a melody. Then she began nursing me. Once my hunger was satisfied, she burped me and changed my clothes. At that point, I had given up and decided to blame everything on my infancy.
After dressing me, my mother held me close and walked to a mirror. When I looked at the reflection, I was stunned. My hair, though sparse, was visible. It was a shade lighter than my father's hair, a mix of white and pale yellow, with hints of blue at the ends. On either side of my head were glowing white horn-like protrusions, merely bumps for now, but I could already sense the power coursing through them. Dragon horns had the unique property of greatly enhancing power, and it seemed mine were especially extraordinary. My eyes, just like my father's, were deep purple, making me look like his copy. The only difference was that while his skin had been tanned from battles, mine was snow-white. I couldn't help but compare my former self to my current one. Once a battle-scarred warhorse from the depths of hell, I now resembled the pure, majestic snow at the peak of a mountain.
My gaze shifted to my mother, who was holding me. She wore a light dress and looked like a masterpiece of art. She didn't look like someone who had just given birth. As she headed towards the door, my father called out from behind.
"Agatha, you're not going to take her outside, are you? She's just been born. She could catch something."
"Oh, Arthur, do you really think a dragon, especially one as strong as her, can get sick?" My mother's words confused me, and apparently, I wasn't the only one puzzled.
"What do you mean by 'as strong as her'? How powerful can a baby born just yesterday be?"
"Just focus on her horns and mana channels, Arthur."
At my mother's words, both my father and I focused on my horns. While I could sense the power in them, I didn't know much about dragons, so I didn't understand what was so unique. But as I delved deeper, I realized something astonishing. There were four affinities within me! And not just any affinities—light, nature, wind, and ice! This realization also brought to mind how, when examining my mana channels earlier, I couldn't identify any affinities. I had been so shocked that I hadn't even noticed my supposed lack of affinity.
Apparently, while my affinities for light and ice were at the knight level, my affinities for wind and nature were much higher! Surprised? Wait, there's more! Light was among the strongest affinities. Ice and nature were combination affinities—ice derived from water and cold, and nature from fire, earth, and water. In essence, I had a vast array of options.
Acquiring an affinity and increasing its level wasn't impossible but was highly challenging unless it was innate. One of the biggest advantages of being born with affinities was saving the time and cost of learning them.
To acquire an affinity, you'd need to meditate for months or even years. Even then, you could only achieve a low level with weaker affinities. Only those considered prodigies—rare individuals born in every generation—could progress faster.
Even after acquiring an affinity, the journey didn't end. You'd need to spend more time to enhance its level. Advancing a high-level affinity to knight level was even more difficult. After a certain point, further progression required enlightenment—a state only the talented and fortunate could hope to achieve, as effort alone wasn't enough to attain it.
If you were lucky enough to find an affinity stone, you'd be in an enviable position. These stones could help you acquire, level up, or even reach enlightenment in an affinity. However, such stones were extremely rare. Buying one was even harder since those who found them usually chose to use them.
Another crucial advantage of innate affinities was efficiency. If you learned an affinity later in life, the mana expenditure to use it would be higher than for someone born with it, and its quality might be inferior. This was because our bodies—more specifically, our mana channels—were naturally aligned with our innate affinities. If learned later, you'd have to create mana channels yourself, a process that could sometimes lead to injuries. Even if successful, an artificial mana channel could never match a natural one.
In short, I had been born with enviable blessings, and my father seemed to realize it too.
"T-This is incredible! There are so many affinities, and they're all powerful. I'm actually jealous!"
"Ha ha, don't exaggerate, dear. Your abilities are still unmatched. Anyway, since we agree, we're going out for some fresh air."
"Hey, we haven't agreed yet—" But before he could finish, Agatha left the room without listening, leaving Arthur shaking his head as he went about his tasks. Meanwhile, I focused on myself, wondering if there was anything else I had overlooked. However, that didn't last long...