Chapter 8

After his mother hung up, she texted the family group chat telling them about Frank's condition. Obviously, she had a more worried tone. Frank was more confused than anything else, but he didn't feel bad. He felt good, even if he was a little sweaty. His mom told him that he had broken out into a sweat and was tossing and turning when she went in to check on him in the morning.

In light of that, he resolved to take a shower after he ate his leftovers, which were just about to be finished. As he began scooping everything into a bowl, he took a moment to think about what was happening. Who could help him figure things out?

He checked the internet again and found the same conspiracy channel talking about the earthquakes and strange lights from yesterday. He decided to watch it again, both the video from yesterday and some of the newer ones that had been released since that one came out. It was released a week before Frank had watched it yesterday.

Listening more closely to a follow-up video, the host of the channel put forward the idea that all the strange things going on were related, and that the governments of the world know and are coordinating behind the scenes to deal with it. Of course, he and his co-hosts were very skeptical of the idea that the government was going to help much at all, that they were doing something shady for their own gain. This line of thinking tracked in Frank's mind. If it were really such a huge emergency, why not let people know and tell them to prepare? 

Something felt wrong about the way the hosts were diminishing the threat to some mere hidden secret for profit, though. Frank slowly chewed his food as he thought back to the events of the day before. What was biting him that didn't sit right?

The dream. The weird catastrophe dream, with the lights, the portals, the orcs. It all felt so real. It couldn't have been, right? Frank set down his fork and half seriously concentrated on the spot beside the couch he could see from the living room. He tried to will himself to be there without walking. 

When he felt a strange feeling halfway between strong vibration and an unusual tugging motion, his heart skipped a beat. He stood up, then tried again. After a strange cracking noise that he more felt than heard, he was beside the couch, breathless and frozen with shock.

"There's no way, that can't be..." 

Then a familiar blue rectangle lit up in his vision

'Congratulations! You have used the teleport skill for the first time in physical space, you have achieved Level 1 in [Teleportation]'

Frank screamed and fell on his butt. 

'It was real! The whole thing! No, no, no why? Why pick me?!'

He tried to breath, finding the air in his house suddenly terribly stifling. The screen and the dream, the frozen time effect, it was all real! He stood up, shaking so hard he felt he could fall over again at any moment, a leaf hanging on a tree and waiting for a stiff breeze.

Wait! Wait this means he has super powers! What a horrifying way to realize what could be the most amazing thing to ever happen to him. Not wanting to move, Frank tried to teleport again, back to the safety of the kitchen table. 

'Teleport is on cooldown for 10 more seconds'

Of course, the cooldown period. 20 seconds wasn't horrible, but still inconvenient. Why was he able to teleport so quickly in his dream though?

He took a couple more deep breaths, counted to 10, and then tried again. This time, he teleported right beside his empty seat and sat down at the table. 

"Fuck, that's actually kind of cool when I'm expecting it. I could get used to this!" Frank began to smile and chuckle to himself, the nerves finally leaving him a bit. He suddenly felt really thirsty and decided to get up and grab himself a soda. Then he sat back down, smiling. 

"15 seconds, right?" he counted them down, relishing every moment. Then for dramatic effect, he snapped his fingers and teleported to the fridge, a mere 5 steps away

"No, no, I'll get it myself, thank you" he said in a very poor imitation of a British accent. He grabbed one soda from the fridge and cracked it open, tasting the soda in a whole new light. Had soda always tasted so absolutely refreshing? What a wonderful day this was going to be! Frank even had a whole other power to try! The question was how?

"Uh, excuse me. System? How do I activate invisibility?" With no response Frank frowned. What was it people in comics and novels said when they pull up their system?

He concentrated a little and thought 'Status', and in a blink the blue screen appeared before him. This time, it showed him the same info as at the end of his dream, but it showed a lettered rank beside the numbered rank of his skills as well.

'Name: Frank Lepari

Archetype: Scout

Status: Awakened

Abilities: [Total Invisibility] (Rank E Level 0)

    [Teleportation] (Rank D Level 1)

    [Psychometry] (Rank E, level 0)

Further Akashic Record awaiting spiritual breakthrough' 

'Rank E? Is that the worst possible? And what the hell is an Akashic Record? Why does that sound familiar?'

Frank decided to search for the term, and surprisingly found a decent amount of information, though largely theoretical or unreliable. The idea was that the Akashic Records are a knowledge base hidden away in a plane of existence known as the "astral realm", which contains all knowledge, intents, actions, skills, and stories to have ever happened to all entities to exist. From animals and plants, to people and even beings like angels and demons. 

Frank's mouth hung open, the interface that was helping keep track of his superpowers basically confirmed the existence of such a powerful repository of knowledge. Did that mean the astral realm was real? That angels and demons were real? Frank's hands went to his head at the thought, he searched around the kitchen and looked out all the windows, wide eyed and suddenly intensely paranoid.

The system mentioned being blessed by heaven yesterday. If angels could find him and bestow superpowers upon him, why couldn't demons also find him and kill him outright? He searched again on his phone, this time for knowledge on angels and demons. After a lengthy readthrough on a few sites and some strange occult forums, he got the basic idea. Angels and demons can't directly interact with the mortal plane, they have to follow certain rules.

The idea made sense to Frank, why would the angels need to bless humans if they could just come and do it themselves? Frank decided that he was safe for the moment. If the best angels could do was give him 3 superpowers that could get stronger, he might as well find a way to train the powers. Hell, maybe he could make some money doing it? He wiped the sweat from his brow and walked back to his room to grab some clothes to change into after a much needed shower.

In the idle moment of grabbing clothes, he remembered what he was doing before his panicked episode earlier! He still had to use his invisibility power! With the clothes laid out on his bed he opened his status window again, and this time he touched the screen to see if it would give him more info about [Total Invisibility].

The screen melted into a jumble of mixed colors before reassembling into more info on the power. It was basically a rehash of what the power was when he selected it. 2 minutes of invisibility, and anything he was holding or had in his clothes would become invisible.

Not bad, but with the thought of threats from other worlds coming to fight, he was wondering if maybe he had messed up his power selection. He should have taken super strength, or invincibility after all. He should have taken it more seriously!