Are they aliens?

"You're kidding… right?"

Mark managed to get that response out after a while. He was prepared to hear a lot of absurd stuff, but that didn't include him being spied on for as long as he was alive.

"You never noticed their presence, Master?" Lara asked, her voice laced with suspicion. "Or did you pretend not to?"

"And what made you think I would do that?" Mark glanced at his maid, curios about the reason behind her absurd question.

"As it took you quite some time to acknowledge my existence, I suspect you would ignore any unusual occurrences around you for the same reason."

"You… you're still salty about it?"

"Whatever do you mean?"

Though he found it absurd, Mark saw the logic in what Lara said. Ignoring people was a side effect of his attempts to live with the voices in his head; if he started to worry about others watching him the entire time, he probably wouldn't have lasted for as long as he had.

Natalie's loud laughter brought their attention back to her. He never trusted her to begin with and now she gave him a reason to trust her even less. Her joyous mood didn't make any sense.

"Are you going to spill the beans or what?"

Since they stalked him for almost twenty years then surely they have a good reason.

"Well, the story is a bit complicated. You can ask your parents for the details, but-"

"My parents are involved?"

"Of course they are. Why would we keep our eyes on you otherwise?"

Another shocking revelation struck Mark like a hammer.

"Normally they would give you the talk about the birds and bees much earlier, but since you made it this far without showing any signs they probably just gave up."

All of a sudden, Mark was overwhelmed with a strong nausea. The food he swallowed earlier began making its way back up his throat. He remembered several instances where his mother asked if he was okay. Back then it felt like it came out of the blue. The thought that they might have seen through his act was quite stressful, but he never revealed anything, fearing what might happen if he did. In the end, they never followed up on those questions and life just went on like normal.

'Don't tell me…' Mark thought as he covered his mouth. 'Is this what it was all about?'

A thought flashed in his mind and he looked up with a start.

"Are they aliens as well?"

Natalie frowned once more.

"Nah, they've been from this world all along." She heaved a sigh then pointed at the man behind her. "Ramsay over there is a native as well."

Mark didn't really care about the brown man. He was relieved to hear that his parents were from this world, but at the same time, he felt a little disappointed.

'Having alien origins would've been cool…'

"Nine years, huh…" The large woman held him with her eyes, holding her chin as she thought about something.

"Is it that weird?"

Mark knew he handled it better than most, but he didn't think it was anything special.

"Normal people don't last three days once they start hearing the Whispers." She explained. "Especially if they're older than fifteen. It's not something you can just ignore and live your life like normal."

"Please pardon me…" Lara held up a hand asking for permission to speak.

"You got something to add, little miss?"

"Yes. I…" The girl's ruby eyes drifted to the floor for a moment before returning to the large woman. "The way this conversation has been progressing suggests that Master has only Awakened recently. Is that correct?"

"Yes?"

Mark wasn't the only one confused by Lara's question, but when Natalie gave her the answer, the light in her ruby eyes seemed to grow dimmer.

"But… is he not an adult?" She asked. "How is that possible?"

"Hold your horses, we will get to that part soon enough." Natalie turned her sight back to Mark. "The reason we kept you under surveillance was because we suspected you are an individual with high psychic potential."

Mark didn't know how many times her statements were going to leave him dumbfounded so he decided to keep his reaction reserved this time.

"You sure about that?"

As someone who spent years waiting for his supernatural abilities to manifest, he very much doubted that his potential was that high.

"You heard the Whispers while being nowhere near a Dimensional Rift." Natalie crossed her arms and frowned slightly. "Not only that but you went on to live your life like everything was perfectly normal. You should check your stats. I'm sure you'll find that your Mind and Soul are quite high compared to the others."

Mark paused for a moment before doing just that. He avoided checking his stats during the previous crisis because he was afraid of what he might see. Now that he was safe, relatively speaking, he couldn't wait to start working on them.

He grabbed his imaginary controller and pressed on the Start button then pressed A to open his status window.

[

Name: Mark White

Race: Human

Rank: Awakened

Stats:

Level 01

HP: 100/100

MP: 100/100

Strength 6

Endurance 5

Agility 5

Dexterity 10

Focus 14

Mind 150

Soul 115

AP:

0/20

Abilities:

Force Field.

Equipment:

]

Mark stared at his status screen for a good minute. He didn't know what kind of stats the average level 01 human would have, but he was sure it wasn't as low as 5 in agility.

'Damn, am I really that weak?'

"So? How is it?" Natalie asked.

For a moment Mark wondered if telling her was the right choice. Knowing someone's stats and abilities could be an important factor in deciding the outcome of a battle, and since he didn't trust the muscular woman all that much he felt that the little she knew about him the better. Nevertheless, he didn't have many choices when it came to sources of information. Lara seemed to know some stuff, but apparently, she was lacking others.

"It says Mind is at 150," Mark said eventually, having made his decision. "As for Soul, it's 115."

What Natalie said turned out to be right. Still, Mark didn't expect them to be in the three digits when his other stats were stuck in the singles. The lack of response prompted him to look up and when he saw the slacked jaws of both Natalie and Ramsay he understood that the numbers he dropped far surpassed their expectations.

The muscular woman suddenly burst into laughter.

"150!" She yelled. "Did you hear that, Ramsay!? He said 150! Can you believe that!?

"But… that's impossible…" the man muttered. "He should still be at level 01…"

"That's what it says." Mark glanced back at his status screen again. "Is it that strange?"

Natalie was smacking the table at this point, causing the food trays and cups to bounce a little.

"Strange!" She yelled, holding her stomach. "Yeah, you could call it that!"

It appeared like he wasn't going to get any explanation from her so Mark turned to Ramsay, who looked several shades paler than before.

"Most… Most people have about 15 points in either Mind or Soul when they first Awaken." He said. "A prodigy would have 35 or 40, but…"

"A 150 in Mind isn't something you see in the lower Ranks" Natalie's laughter finally seemed to die down enough for her to speak. "It took me forty years to get there!"