Skill Integration

7 Days Old

Zeke had long since given up on keeping even a fragment of his pride intact. This wasn't only due to needing to be breastfed. Rather, the situation was worsened by his inability to control his bladder and bowels. Nothing breeds humility as much as needing one's diaper changed. He could only hope that he'd get a memory related skill in the future that could let him block out this time.

Naturally, having great wealth and a large number of maids, neither Venelana nor Zeoticus actually changed any diaper. Afterall, if one could avoid it, then why would they ever clean excrement.

During this time, Zeke had continued absorbing and expanding his energy pool as much as he could. The energy-rich breastmilk in the first three days greatly assisted in his efforts. On the fourth day, while there was still a large amount of energy in the milk, it was nowhere near as rich as before. Finally, from the fifth day onwards, the breastmilk had reached was Zeke assumed to be 'normal' levels of energy.

Meanwhile, he persisted in training his energy sensing and control. With his expanding energy pool, each day he was able to train his abilities for a greater length of time before his pool was depleted. Though it had only been seven days, the range at which he could expand his senses had increased by 1.5 meters.

Unfortunately, during this time, he had never been left alone, meaning that he never had an opportunity to integrate his newly obtained skills. In addition to the various maids, Venelana, Zeoticus, Sirzechs, or Grayfia were always present. Zeke knew that, given those fours' abilities, he wouldn't be able to hide all of his abilities from them in the future. However, he wanted to be as discreet as possible while he could so that he would be considered as simply above average or, at most, a genius. He did not want to be thought of as a freak or monstrous.

Currently, on the afternoon of the seventh day since he was born, he was laying on a blue blanket in the middle or Rias' room, with a red dragon plushie gripped loosely in his hands. Venelana was relaxing on a couch off to his left while reading from a thick book. To his right was Rias who was alternating between playing peekaboo with him and watching an anime on the massive widescreen TV she had in her room. Though his position and inability to sit up meant he couldn't see the anime, he could hear it. The dialogue was extremely cringe-worthy, a fact that affirmed that this world really was lacking in entertainment quality. Interestingly, due to a devil's innate ability, Zeke heard everything in English, meaning it was basically dubbed. This disappointed Zeke as, though he liked the DxD dub, many anime had subs that were far better than their respective dubs. He tried using his senses to comprehend his language ability and learn how to turn it off and on, but he wasn't able to sense any energy fluctuations.

While these thoughts were running through his head, he was simultaneously indulging Rias. Though he optimally wanted to train every waking moment since sleep took up most of his day in the first place, he just couldn't resist playing along with Rias' cute actions as she attempted to make him laugh. He was beginning to understand why in the original timeline Rias was allowed to be lazy; she was just too damn cute! How could he not play with such an adorable, energetic girl.

Without consciously realizing it, he had entered the sis-con camp along with his brother, Sirzechs.

**********

21 Days Old

Zeke had continued with the same routine day in, day out. He would get his diaper changed, eat, train his energy skills, and play with his family members. All the while, he kept waiting for just a few seconds of alone time so he could have the system impart the new skills into his body and mind. However, there was always someone there. While it was no longer his family members who were always present, at least one member from their peerages were.

It did cross his mind that the situation was a bit unusual. (Were the Gremory's this protective when Rias was a newborn?) he wondered. But, having never been in a wealthy family or in a situation that revolved around important political issues, he never realized that his mere existence necessitated extra security.

Beyond the reason for being perpetually guarded, being constantly watched over was mentally exhausting for Zeke. Though he wasn't an introvert per se, his focus on studying in his past life had made him very comfortable with being alone. In addition, as he grew older, his role in the orphanage was to be the responsible one that looked out for his younger 'siblings.' He was used to taking care of others, not being taken care of. His only reprieve in this time was when he would concentrate on training his energy skills.

As a result of his helpless situation, Zeke's frustrations kept growing. He had often considered just integrating the skills regardless of who was around.

Finally, today, he was given a reasonable opportunity.

It was morning time and Venelana had fed him a half hour ago. For the past five minutes she had been stealing glances at the door, clearly waiting for someone to arrive. Then, a small magic circle appeared next to her ear. A short message, spoken too softly for Zeke to hear, was delivered causing Venelana to sigh.

She bent over and kissed Zeke on the forehead. "Grayfia is running a bit late but will be hear soon. Mommy has to go take care of some matters and held your daddy. Be a good boy while I'm gone." She then ordered two of her personal maids to remain in the room and watch over him. As she left, Zeke could hear her mutter something about a stray devil. From that, he assumed that Grayfia was late because she was taking care of such a problem.

When the door closed behind her, Zeke's patience finally broke. Even though there were still maids, at least neither his family nor their peerages would see him in pain from skill integration. He gave a look of pity – at least as much pity as his baby face could muster – to the two maids because he knew they'd greatly alarmed in a few seconds.

(System, please integrate all available skills and abilities.)

[Order received. Executing. Calligraphy, flash step, and the contract with the Spirit King of Wind now being integrated.]

Zeke had tried to brace and prepare for the pain as much as he could, but it was to little avail. The pain was even greater than when he had absorbed his eidetic memory ability. After all, the contract was something on par with his eidetic memory, and he now was integrating two other skills on top of that.

His body jerked and flailed around on the ground atop his blanket as he let out a loud, sharp cry of pain. His body reacted so strongly that he rolled over onto his stomach, something normal babies only manage after roughly four months. Zeke felt like his entire body was on fire. It was as though his entire being was changing, becoming something a bit different.

But, just like usual, the sharp pain was over shortly after it began. All that lingered was an ache resulting the toll the jerking and thrashing had taken on his body.

Before Zeke could even breathe a sigh of relief, he felt himself being picked up by a panicking maid. Though being a Gremory maid entailed being thoroughly trained in household and combat duties, nothing had prepared either maid for this situation. She did an extensive search over his body to check for injuries. Finding none, she held him against her and rubbed his back in an attempt to soothe him.

Looking over her shoulder, Zeke saw the other maid also panicking as she sent out messages via magic circles. He presumed she was alerting his mother and other family members.

Very quickly, one after another, four magic circles lit up the room as Venelana, Zeoticus, Sirzechs and Grayfia appeared out of them. Venelana, being the first the maid alerted and thus the first to arrive, rushed towards Zeke and took him into her arms. She then proceeded to inspect every inch of his body.

Zeke let her do as she wished, not letting out so much as a peep in complaint.

Soon, the three others arrived and crowded around him. "He had another seizure?" Zeoticus asked. "Is he fine?"

(Another seizure?) Zeke pondered. Then he realized they must know about the seizures he had in the womb. (Duh! How could they not know?!) he then scolded himself. (That said, if they know I periodically have these seizures, and if they're able to sense that they cause changes to me, does that mean I should be more cautious or less cautious in the future?)

"It appears he's fine. I just wish Sara were still here so she could check him," Venelana said, worry in her voice.

"Did changes happen to him this time, like the others?" Grayfia asked.

Everyone turned their senses to Zeke and inspected his body. Zeke was curious too, so he also engaged his senses to look through himself.

"Hmmm," Sirzechs began. "The muscles in his hands and fingers might be more developed than before, but given how rapidly a baby's body changes, it could be within the margin of error."

"I agree," said Zeoticus.

"Is that all?" Venelana hesitantly asked.

"I think so…."

"No, wait. Look at the energy surrounding him. It's different from before," observed Sirzechs.

Zeke and the three others turned their senses away from his body to the nearby surroundings.

Normally, demonic energy of a destruction nature was surrounding him. Indeed, energy around each person was that which they had the greatest affinity towards. Of course, other elemental affinities could be present, especially when two people or objects of differing affinities were near each other.

However, now, there was a second form of demonic energy surrounding Zeke. The green of wind.

Zeke saw it and knew it was from his new contract with the Spirit King of Wind. While none of the wind energy had entered his body yet, he assumed that was just because he had only gained the affinity mere moments ago.

"How…how is it possible to gain another affinity…especially when one of them is destruction?!" Grayfia brokenly exclaimed. Zeke was a bit surprised by her outburst. While he felt a second affinity was probably unusual, Grayfia had always struck him as the calm and collected type.

However, Zeke didn't dwell on it. Instead, he turned his attention away from what everyone was saying. Just like his previous two times, the skill integration with its accompanying pain had taken a toll on him. Plus, being a baby, he felt quite sleepy. As such, if he wanted to check his status before falling asleep, he would have to do it now.

(System, bring up my status.)

[Acknowledged.]

==========

Name: Zeke Gremory

Age: 21 Days

Race: Pure-blood Devil

Rank: Gremory Clan (Duchy) – High-class Devil

Health: 50/57

Energy: 2358/3127

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ABILITIES

Eidetic Memory

Contract: Spirit King of Wind

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SKILLS

Mana Sensing Lv. 18

Mana Control Lv. 22

Flash Step (Sealed)

Pain Resistance Lv. 2

Singing Lv. 100

Calligraphy Lv. 29

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EQUIPMENT

Premium Onesie

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GACHA TICKETS

Ordinary: 0

Premium: 0

Special: 0

==========

Zeke was thrilled with his growth, especially with how his energy capacity had grown by more than a thousand in the past three weeks. Though he had been training diligently, he figured a notable part of the growth had to do with the energy concentrated breast milk he had his first three days.

He was also interested to see the pain resistance skill. Prior to this, he had assumed that his status would only display gacha derived skills, and not skills he learned on his own. Not that he was complaining. Rather, he was happy to be able to keep track of all his progress.

(A/N: I recognize there's a lot of potential skills for a person to learn in their lifetime. However, I'm only going to list those I think might, potentially, be incorporated into the story at some point. All skills received from the gacha, however, will be listed.)

Having checked his status and confirmed his growth, Zeke then decided to intake as much wind demonic energy as he could before he fell asleep. Naturally, he assumed that his family would notice his action, but now knowing they had realized some of the abnormalities while he was in the womb, he figured it was too late in the game to hide his energy manipulation abilities.

Reaching his senses out, he 'grabbed' hold of the wind demonic energy and brought it along his meridians and into his dantian. He then repeated the process until his energy pool was full. In the background, his ears picked up the sounds of his family becoming somewhat excited as they realized what he was doing.

Zeke stared at his energy. The green swirling around with the red-tinged-with-black energy was a mesmerizing sight. He couldn't wait to see what he could accomplish with both affinities.

Wind blades that were extra penetrating due to destruction magic being mixed in.

Having enemies breathes in destruction magic integrated air.

Creating a wind/destruction wall that would stop and disintegrate any object or attack that came into contact with it.

Zeke's mind sped with all the different possibilities that would ensue from combining the versatile wind magic with the overwhelming destruction magic. His mouth turned up in a smile and, as his daydreams continued, he drifted off to sleep.

Seeing this – though Grayfia maintained a rather stoic face – the surrounding conversation stopped as his family couldn't stop from smiling upon seeing little Zeke's smiling, sleeping face.