10 Chapter 10

Several hours later, Frank's family were all finally home. Each member of his family came in turn to look at him. It isn't every day a family member goes through such a drastic change of appearance. His sister even called out his lack of scarring and blemishes. Of course, she also took several pictures and sent them to her friends, expecting them to say how freaky the whole thing was. Typical teenage girls however, they commented on how hot they thought he was now with the slimmer body. His father told him to shave and get a proper hair cut now that he didn't look like a slob. His mother, having many questions, decided to call them all together to sit down and talk about it.

"Do you really all need to be staring at me like that? It's more than a little embarrassing" Frank said when they had all assembled.

"Screw off, how do I know you're not gonna sprout mantis arms out of your back and kill me the moment I look away?" Lauren piped up, their parents burying their faces in their hands, wondering which of them she got the attitude from.

"I mean, for all I know I might! But it isn't likely. I didn't have mantis arms in the dream I had last night, so I don't think that's gonna happen"

"Woah, woah, back up. What dream? You had a dream you were going to have miracle weight loss, but you can't dream your ass into a proper career?" His father, Harold, asked.

"Ah right, so I didn't exactly dream about weight loss. I dreamt I had super powers and was fighting off a band of orcs" he responded

"What is this, a video game? Get fucking real!" His sister exclaimed

"Lauren! Watch your language" snapped their mother, Nina. Lauren rolled her eyes and scoffed.

Frank looked hard at each of them, Lauren had her mother's long head of wavy brown hair but the stubborn and sarcastic temperament of their father. Frank got his thick black hair, though his father preferred to keep it neat and trimmed where Frank didn't care enough. That might have to change though, if he was going to have to learn to fight.

Frank finally broke the silence, they all knew he had more to say.

"So here's the thing... the super powers are real"

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After a lengthy explanation, Frank detailed what he had dreamt about and explained what little he knew about the system he had showing him his progress. They couldn't see it of course, so he had to write down for them the ability descriptions he had. While he was waiting for them to come home, he was practicing his new abilities and had levelled [Teleportation] to level 3, and [Total Invisibility] to level 2.

This resulted in [Teleportation] having its range increased to 20 feet, and its cooldown reduced to 15 seconds per jump, or 8 minutes for a focused teleport he could visualize well, which dropped the requirement for him to be deeply familiar with a location to make a jump. 

Meanwhile [Total Invisibility] merely received an increased duration of 3 minutes, while retaining the cooldown of 2 minutes once it ended.

Frank stood up and got his family to watch him demonstrate a teleport. With his arms outstretched as if to prove there weren't any weird wire or mirror tricks, he teleported from his spot in front of the kitchen table to the coffee table beside the couch in the living room.

"NO FUCKING WAY!" His sister exclaimed, suddenly holding up her phone "DO IT AGAIN!"

"No! Don't record this! I don't want some weird government agency kidnapping me and experimenting on me to figure out how I can do it. I'm not even really sure, myself. It's like a distant instinct for me at this point. Like how you learn to aim a ball when you throw it, you kinda learn how to calculate it in your head the more you practice. Similar idea here, I just did it by accident half remembering it from my dream"

"That's insane, how can you just wake up and have the power to teleport? Or have the instinct to do it?" Nina wondered aloud

"How can he wake up one day like he's been on a strict diet for months, when I've watched him scarf down a burger that was practically sprayed with grease just last week?" Harold retorted, "the whole thing is throwing us for a loop, but here he is, teleporting all the same.

As if on cue, Frank teleported back to the table

"That's not all, I can do this too" He waved like he was saying goodbye, and then activated his invisibility. His family was suddenly dead quiet, their jaws practically on the table

"Yes, I'm still here. You can't see me, can you? I checked in the mirror earlier but-"

"Nope, not even a little bit. Hot damn, son! You really struck gold, here!" His father smiled at him

"I mean yeah, but I think there were other powers I could have chosen that would have been more impressive. Like shapeshifting, or super strength" His father's sudden frown sent a spike through Frank's heart.

"You could have picked super strength, and you skipped over it?"

"I didn't think it was real! At the time, I thought it was some kind of drug trip! Would you have believed it if a voice called out to you and then a list of powers appeared in your face?"

"W-well I... I mean" his father stumbled over his words, not certain if he'd have reacted much differently. Though he probably would have picked a different set of powers, it did sound too good to be true.

"Wait a second, so what's the catch with this stuff anyway? It's too much give, not enough take" Harold stroked his moustache as he pondered the question aloud.

"Uh, well I think I can answer that..." Frank sat back down and broke his invisibility.

"So, the dream and the system both claim there's going to be some kind of apocalyptic war between humanity and monsters. In my dream, it was orcs, but I don't know if that was just a metaphor my brain could handle or if it was a literal warning about orcs"

Frank's mother paled and looked like she was going to faint. His father got a grim look on his face, and his sister was uncharacteristically silent.

"Fine. We need to prepare then. First things first, lets buy emergency food and emergency water. Warm, functional clothing. A large tent or 2 for the family-" his father began

"Backpacks and guns. Lots of ammo. Remember, this isn't a disaster we're preparing for. It's a war" Frank finished, though he wasn't sure where the sentiment came from. He himself would normally rather run than fight. But something in the back of his mind was pushing him to arm himself and prepare to fight. Frank was a little scared to think of it, but he had a feeling he knew exactly what was causing this spark of fighting spirit to form within him.

Shortly after, the Lepari family broke the meeting to make dinner and unwind, at least as best they could with a potential world invasion happening at an undetermined point in the future. Frank made every effort to teleport around the house to grind his levels of [Teleport].

When his sister got annoyed about it and called him a lazybones, he explained that it helped his skill develop by using it. Jealousy was written plain on her face, and it gave Frank a smug sense of satisfaction.

Frank's father was hard at work watching doomsday prepper videos on the internet and trying to figure out a list of items they would need and skills they would have to develop. He immediately put in an order on express delivery for a massive survival manual. His sister was watching videos on fantasy monsters and aliens, something she never did, in an effort to learn more about what sorts of things they might be faced with. Frank was sad to see his family stressed out over this, but was glad to see that they were preparing.

He knew he made the right choice to tell them rather than keep them in the dark. And as if it agreed with him, the system popped up with a new notification.

[Spiritual Power increased. You have told others about the coming Realm Wars in an effort to prepare them for hardship and secure their safety. You have chosen to lead people with as much information as you could give and held back no part of the truth, rather than lead them blindly to total shock and potential slaughter.

Please continue down your path, blessed awakened. Be you sword or shield, your light shall guide others. Your potential is only just being discovered.]