"My boy, it's your birthday; why aren't you up yet?" You should be bursting with energy right now!!" My father yells in delight. He pulls me from my bed and carries me outside on his shoulders. My mother was already there, smiling. My father let me down, and I was greeted with a sweet kiss on the forehead from my mother. "Happy birthday, my son." She says this while rubbing her hands against my horns. A chill runs through my body, but it's warm. I wrap my arms around my mother, embracing her in my arms. I really should thank that god for my parents, but he did hit me with a truck, so I'd say we're even.

Finally letting go she takes my hands and we get further away from the house. “What are we doing?” I ask. “Before we go through anything we have to go through a little mythical creature biology. You should know that we mythical creatures are very long-lived. My age will forever be unknown but your father is 435 years old.” I look at my father and he stands there shocked at my mother's words getting a little laugh out of me hurting him more. “Ok, so I’ll live a long time. What's wrong with that?” I ask.

"Well, now that you're ten, your aging process will be significantly slowed. You can be 30 years old and still appear childish. Back in the day, and I mean back in the day, it wasn't until someone reached the age of 100 that they started to look like a teen, and it wasn't until they reached the age of 250 that they finally looked like an adult. This wasn't a problem until humans appeared and began to look down on us for those reasons. Normally we wouldn't care but we still have some sort of pride. I mean, we could be 50 and be looked down upon by a 20-year-old! As a result of our tribulations, we mythical creatures devised a growth ceremony. Whereas after the age of ten, we encourage a child's growth until they resemble a proper adolescent." I was still a little confused about what was going to happen to me after hearing what she said, so I asked Little Helper to explain it more clearly.

[Essentially, they're going to age you up. You'll still be 10, but you'll look like someone between the ages of 16 and 18. This is a significant step for you. It's almost as if you're having a quinceanera or a Bat Mitzvah! Your attack power is currently 155; this age boost will increase it to at least 200. Your mana, HP, and speed will all increase significantly, and there's a little something extra that comes with this ceremony as well, but I'll leave that up to your parents to tell you.]

I quickly thank Little Helper and return my attention to my parents. "So you're going to age me! That's fantastic!! I was thinking to myself that this small body wouldn't be able to hold my strength." I state. "That's my boy, always looking to get stronger and more powerful, a future genius!" He says with passion. "However, that is not all; as is customary, after the growth ceremony, you will be bestowed with a gift from your mother and me." Hearing this, a smile spreads across my face, and I embrace my mother and father once more. My power grows exponentially every time they teach me something new. The humans have no idea what will happen to them once I leave this cave. "When do we start?" I ask.

“We can start now, I and your father have already made the preparations since yesterday. Luckily me and your father had the materials for the ceremony before we were placed inside this cave. It was still a struggle to get it though. Dragons and Dryads have very different Growth ceremonies so we had devised a plan to combine both into one. Through many trials,s we have combined it perfectly and can now bless you with growth. Now follow me.” She grabs my hands and takes me to a huge marking on the ground which I can only think is a magic circle.

She takes me to the center of the circle and pulls out a red seed, which she places in the center of the circle. She takes both hands and appears to pour mana into the ground where the seed has been planted. The ground begins to erupt, revealing a massive flower with four individual petals. The peculiarity of this flower is not its size, but the fact that each petal is lined on both sides with rows of teeth. She motions towards the flowers as she looks at my mother. "Would you like me to get into the flower?" I question uneasily, and she sadly nods.

With a scowl on my face, I obeyed her command and stepped into the center of the flower. As I feel something slimy rub against my leg, I let out a light scream. When I look down, I see two small eyeballs and a tongue wrapped around my leg. I desperately look at my mother, only to see her and my father laughing at my expense. "Don't worry, honey, it's all under my control, but believe me when I say it only gets worse from here." With those words, the flower petals curled around me, leaving no gaps. Shocked, I tried to flee. I even used a Powered Punch by accident, but the flower refused to budge. "Calm down, honey, there are only three more steps! It will, however, become quite hot!" I hear my mother say.

I can still see the silhouettes of my parents as I breathe a sigh of relief. "What exactly do you mean, a little hot?" I questioned, concerned. "Just wait a minute, son." My father says. Looking at my father's shadow, he takes a step away from my mother and begins to grow. His shadow grows larger and larger until it towers over me and my mother. My father is unmistakably a dragon, as evidenced by his oppressive demeanor. Is this what she meant when she said by a little hot?! I wanted to yell my displeasure, but it was too late. My father let out a burst of fire from his mouth, engulfing me and the flower in flames. Surprisingly, the fire dissipated and only remained in the areas where the magic circle's lines were drawn. It was still scorching hot, but much less so.

I felt a chill run through me at my feet out of nowhere. I look down to see a liquid filling the flower cage I'm in. "Mom, the flower is overflowing!" I scream. "It's okay son, it's part of the process; most families would have told their children about it, but we thought it would be better if you experienced it firsthand!" She responds yelling back. With a roll of my eyes, the liquid makes its way towards my chest, which is still rising. "I'll see you soon." A loud bellowing voice said something that could only be my father in his dragon form. When the liquid reaches my neck, I hold my breath and let it wash over me. It started to get very hard, and I was soon frozen in place as the liquid solidified. A wave of tiredness washed over me, and I succumbed to it.