Frank woke up to the smell of cooking. He vaguely remember what happened after forming his core with Raziel guiding him along, and now that he was awake he cursed himself for not reading a book or two. Who knows what kind of secrets were contained in the dusty old tomes of a supernatural dream library? Frank sure didn't, and he kicked himself for not stopping to take the chance.
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Frank checked himself over. His wounds from last night's battle against the Fallen, Gerald, were gone. Not even a scar on his arms!
'Good work, Nora'
He then realized it was bright out, too bright for early morning. How late had he slept in? He checked his phone and found it was about noon.
'Damn, lost out on the breakfast and coffee rush. Easy money down the drain. Oh well, always tomorrow'
Frank decided to check his status page to see what changes the new rank and his energy core brought him.
He hadn't even said it aloud and the status screen popped up before him, more vibrant than usual and less barebones. There were even new info tabs for him to check out! But first, the fresh notifications.
'Congratulations, you have unlocked your spiritual core and advanced from [Rank 0 Awakened] to [Rank 1 Awakened Neophyte]'
Fucking figures, he was rank zero the whole time and the system hadn't bothered to tell him that precious fact.
'You have unlocked [Supernatural Sense, Rank B level 1]
You have unlocked [Limited Telepathy, Rank D level 1]'
'Alright, now what do those do?' Frank tapped [Limited Telepathy] first.
'[Limited Telepathy, Rank D level 1]
You may attempt to contact any sentient creature through telepathy whose eyes you can see clearly within 10 feet or whose body you can touch. Initiating this contact allows the recipient to either allow or reject the offer of communication.
Once established, telepathic contact may continue up to 15 feet without requiring eye contact or line of sight.
Once contact is established, images and words may be conveyed to the recipient or received by yourself. If language is used then similar concepts will be received by the recipient in their language. Warning: some concepts may get lost in translation or may be entirely unknown to some beings.'
'Great, this one even comes with a warning. Guess I gotta be careful with what I say'
Next, Frank tapped on [Supernatural Sense], practically drooling over the potential of a cool, new fantasy power.
'[Supernatural Sense, Rank B Level 1]
Know Thyself.
Bonus Effect: Passive perception when in detection range of sources of magic increased by 5'
It wasn't awfully descriptive, but that bonus sounded really good! What did it mean by perception, though? That was probably the most the System had ever sounded like an RPG game, paired with the most vague and unhelpful description it could possibly give.
Frank checked his new tabs, the main tab he had gotten used to was [Status], but then he could flip to some new ones with a tap or a thought. [Skills], [Core Rank], and [Attributes].
[Skills] showed Frank the skill list he was familiar with, but also showed him a white bar underneath each skill to show how close it was to getting another rank. This would be absolutely invaluable to keeping him appraised of how much stronger his skills became over time!
Next, [Core Rank] showed Frank an interesting screen displaying a spinning orb that was seemingly filled with a glowing liquid. It wasn't literal as far as Frank could tell, but when he focused on the rhythm of the spinning, he could feel the core he formed in his dream last night rotating the same way near his stomach. As a man with the power to teleport and turn invisible, he still had trouble believing he was really experiencing something as far fetched as this. It was a concept from Eastern fantasy novels, yet here he was feeling the rhythm of his core spin and gather energy inside of him. And according to the numbers on the System screen, it was doing just that. Slowly but surely. Every couple minutes a number would tick up towards 1000. It was labelled [Core Spiritual Power], and it was currently at twenty out of one thousand. What happens when it maxes out? Surely it can't be that easy to gain ranks.
Once Frank sighed and started breathing normally he found the number had stopped ticking up.
'What gives? It was going pretty steady before'
Frank realized he couldn't feel the core as deeply as before. Did he have to breath a certain way? or concentrate on it? He'd have to go ask someone on the forum, they might know.
Before he decided to go check on whoever was cooking out in the kitchen, he checked out the final tab. [Attributes], as it turned out, was decidedly the big treat of all the new tabs the system dropped into Frank's lap. It displayed a list of stats, RPG style, that broke down Frank's particular aptitudes. Strength, Agility, Perception, Stamina, Vitality, and Spirit.
"You've gotta be kidding me! This is such bullshit!" Frank had been playing video games all his life, and now the will of Heaven itself was just straight up making his life into a video game. Why did it wait until now to give him stats though? Was it because he hadn't formed a core before? The two things didn't seem linked in his mind, but the tab and its stat lines just straight up weren't there until he formed his core. This was way too confusing.
He heard footsteps coming toward his room from the kitchen. His mom poked her head into his room.
"Honey? You awake? Want some lunch?" she gently asked
"Yes, mom. Thank you. I'll be out in just a moment" Frank rubbed his head, calming the headache building from his frustration with the weird way the System was set up. He grabbed a shirt from his drawer and pulled it on before he went out to the kitchen.
When he sat down his mom gave him a plate with a carefully crafted chicken parmesan and a hearty helping of pasta. That wasn't all, she also had a bowl of meatballs with a gooey sweet and sour sauce that smelled absolutely heavenly.
"Jesus, mom! You cooking for guests too? This looks amazing though" Frank couldn't help but find himself drooling as he greedily took in the aroma of his mother's cooking.
"No, just my hungry little soldier! I was so worried with how you called me last night and then came home covered in blood that I took the day off and went a little overboard cooking"
"Oh mom! I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have worried you like that" He scratched his head with embarrassment. He hadn't meant to brush everyone off last night after he had come home a mess, but the System was determined to get him to sleep, "I was trying to make you less worried with that call but I guess it backfired. I managed to beat the monster in the end. Well, it actually turned out to be another Awakened human, but he decided to stalk his ex with his superpowers. How petty, right?"
"That's disgusting, I'm glad you got the better of him. You saved the girl he kidnapped, right?" She asked
"Yep, actually turns out she had healing powers. Came in real handy, you saw how my clothes ended up after the fight, right? Well my arms were in really bad shape until she healed me. You'd never know it to look at me now though!" Frank proudly flexed, recounting his story between mouthfuls of pasta and chicken. He was almost shocked at how hungry he was. Could this be an effect of forming a core? Did he need more energy to make up for the sudden change?
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"And when the whole thing was over, I was so tired I almost fell asleep at a red light on the way home. Turns out, that was the System. It was trying to force me to sleep to give me a spiritual upgrade"
"Honey! That's dangerous! You should have just called and fallen asleep in the parking lot!"
"Well, I wasn't exactly thinking straight at the time. I'm sorry. Actually, I have a whole set of new menus in the System interface now. Before you told me lunch was ready, I was just looking at this new one. It looks just like a video game, can you believe it?" Frank smirked while he read over the [Attributes] screen. It turned out he already had some stat points allocated before his rank upgrade, and he had more to spend.
'Name: Frank Lepari
Strength: 13
Agility: 10
Perception: 10
Stamina: 12
Vitality: 11
Spirit: 10
Attribute Points available: 15'
Fifteen whole points to spend? That's more points than any one stat on it's own currently had. How did he get that many? He tapped the spot labelled 'Attribute Points available', and sure enough it showed him a breakdown of how he got those points.
'+10 points: Core formation bonus
+2 points: Challenging enemy defeated
+2 points: Quest completed
+1 point: Succeeded test of resolve against challenging enemy'
Frank thought about this carefully. It was an obvious choice to bring his strength up to 15, so he pressed the plus sign beside strength twice. The number changed from white to green, and an "Apply" button appeared at the bottom of the menu. This thing was definitely taking cues from Frank's subconscious, why else would it have a button like that? He doubted Heaven had angels dedicated to user interface design.
Thirteen more points available. Frank hovered his finger over agility. Since his powers were focused on being stealthy and quick, wouldn't agility help him more than any other? He decided to tap on Agility five times. He wasn't sure he wanted to commit to it yet, and he still had eight points left.
"Frank? What are you doing with your finger?" Nina was giving him a puzzled look
"Uh, sorry mom. I'm looking at things in the System screen. I forgot you can't see it. Right now, I'm deciding what stats I want to improve so I can get stronger"
She looked at him with a blank expression, not understanding.
"So, I have points I can put into strength, agility, perception, stuff like that. And when I finish putting them in... I'll..." He stopped. What would actually happen when he put these points in and applied them? How would he get stronger? Faster? Healthier? It didn't make any sense.
In a video game, these would just be numbers used to succeed skill checks or pump up different numbers. Base numbers to make other numbers get bigger, or to make the enemy hit you for less, to make things easier to do. But that wasn't how the real world worked. Muscle growth happened over time with exercise and aided by diet. If he just dumped strength right now, what would happen? Would he just be his normal self and be able to lift cars like a superhero? Or would he hulk out and tear his clothes apart from rapid muscle growth? All that strength had to come from somewhere, the proteins for muscle wouldn't just make themselves, right?
"I uh... well the idea is I'm supposed to get stronger, faster, all that stuff. But I don't know what's gonna happen. This isn't a video game, even if the whole thing seems to work like one" Frank slowly explained.
"Frank, I don't like this. It sounds very serious"
"That's because it is. Deadly serious, even. The wrong numbers here could mean death in battle. And I'm not entirely sure how to get more points. I don't even know how I got the ones I have. If ten is the base number like most games, I started off with thirteen strength, twelve stamina, and eleven vitality. I can guess that the strength came from my nightly sword fighting sessions, the stamina might be-"
"Your what?" His mother raised an eyebrow
"My... my nightly... sword fighting training"
"That's a very strange way to put it, young man. And to think it gives you superhuman strength! I know you haven't had a girlfriend for a little while but..."
"Mom!" Frank yelled, shocked at his mother's misunderstanding "That's not- it isn't what I meant, I meant literal, actual, sword fighting. With a blade, in a weird dream dojo and everything! With a knight!" He realized this sounded even more insane than sword fighting being a euphemism for something more private, but truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.
"Uh huh... and how do you get to these sword fighting sessions?"
"In my dreams, seriously. I'm not kidding! I go to sleep, and while I'm asleep I'm training to fight monsters with swords! And other weapons, but I'm best with a sword right now. I don't know how it works, someone in the forum I go to said it might be something called astral projection. My soul goes somewhere else while my body sleeps, you know? I mean that might explain why I have more strength and stamina than anything else, because I get a good workout during my training"
Frank took a breath and tried to calm himself a bit, his mother was smirking. She knew she got him flustered with her obvious joke.
She didn't quite understand all the strange things going on with her son, but she had faith that he would be alright, even if the idea of him going to war against aliens scared the hell out of her. It scared all of them. Ironically, Frank seemed to be the least afraid from her perspective. He was the one in the most danger, but he seemed to be treating it like a game. He even went out and started working as a delivery driver specifically so he could practice his new abilities. If nothing else, she was glad it gave him a reason to buckle down and take something seriously for once.
Nina noticed that Lauren seemed to be the most afraid. When she was home, all her time that wasn't spent on homework, she spent on her phone or laptop. This wasn't terribly unusual for a girl her age these days, but instead of spending hours on social media or video sites, she spent her time researching monsters and mythology. When Nina told everyone about Frank's phone call he made last night, Lauren went to her room and cried. She was worried sick about her brother and the world shaking events he was up against. Nina was at least comforted by the fact that Frank could turn invisible and teleport far away from danger. She reasoned it was the sort of thing that would keep him out of danger.
Frank was still messing around with his stats, unsure where to place the remaining eight points. He figured he would need some more stamina, so it could be worth investing into. Vitality sounded like a no brainer, but when he really took a moment to think about it he wasn't sure what it would help with. Did it make him harder to kill? Did it mean he was healthier and more resistant to poisons or diseases? Would his blood coagulate faster if he was hurt? His bones mend quicker? It was such a vague stat that he wasn't sure how deeply to dip into it.
Spirit sounded interesting, but also terribly vague. What benefits did it have for him to level it? He couldn't 100% lock in to the guiding theory of video game stats, where spirit would be meant for spell casters. Hell, up until now Frank was thinking of spiritual power exclusively as an analog to "Experience Points", but now that he could feel spiritual energy in his body he knew that wasn't quite how it worked. It probably wasn't going to be used the same way as "Intelligence" and "Wisdom" would be in an RPG, which made Frank hesitant to put points into spirit or to rule it out entirely.
Taking these things into account, Frank finally decided what he would use the rest of his points on. Two each into perception and stamina, then the last four would go into vitality. Frank took a deep breath, and hit apply. Nothing happened, at least not right away. His stat values updated first.
'Name: Frank Lepari
Strength: 15
Agility: 15
Perception: 12
Stamina: 12
Vitality: 15
Spirit: 10'
Then, it started. A sudden burst of heat welled up in his arms, his legs, his chest. He started cramping all over. Frank jumped to his feet, but then fell over and started yelling his head off, his ears began to ring and his vision became blurry. He could vaguely hear his mother get up and rush over to his side, but before she could touch him he warned her away.
"S-stop! Don't get any closer, I d-don't know how much stronger I'm going to be! D-don't have contro-o-ol!" The last thing he wanted was for her to be beside him if he started to go into some sort of seizure and then blast her through a wall from involuntary flailing. Frank just grit his teeth and bore through it while Nina paced the room, clueless as to how to help and crying.
The seizure he feared didn't come, but eventually the cramping and heat disappeared. The ringing in his ears stopped, and his eyes readjusted from feeling hot and being blurred to making everything seem... sharper.
"Frank? Honey? Are you okay?"
Was he okay? Frank felt a little light headed but...
He jumped to his feet with surprising ease, like his muscles were loaded springs. He flexed his hands and arms, did a few stretches. Other than a dull soreness deep in his body from the cramping, he actually felt amazing! Amazingly hungry, as well. The desperate gurgling and roaring of his stomach left his mother shocked.
"Are you... but you just had half of that chicken parm without even thinking about it, how are you still that hungry? And just what trick were you pulling just now, huh? Don't you ever scare me like that again, Frank!" She walked over to her son and went to smack his arm. When she did, she felt like she just slapped a punching bag or a solid slab of meat.
"Oh my... Frank... lift your sleeves"
Frank was puzzled, then did as he was asked. or tried to. The shirt he was wearing was suddenly a little tight past his elbow.
"What the fuck?" He said under his breath while fiddling with his sleeves. The higher his sleeves went, the more shocked they both became. His arms were chiseled cords of muscle like a body builder or a statue. Frank had another thought and lifted his shirt to see his stomach and nearly lost his balance at what he found. Washboard abs! Now it all made sense, the cramping was explosive muscle growth. But what about his eyes? Why was everything super vibrant and sharp? His life seemed to be in ultra high HD resolution now, the sort of stuff a camera would pick up better than the naked eye. Was that from enhanced perception?
Frank didn't dwell on this for too long though. He was painfully hungry.
"Mom, did you happen to make chicken for Lauren and Dad as well?"
"Y-yes, why? I was going to put them in the fridge for later"
"I think I'm going to have to take their servings. and the rest of the meatballs"