*Ring-ring*

  *Ring-ring*

  *Ring-ri-click*

  "M Gramps."

  "Good M to you too, kid."

  "So what's the early m call for? You wao e earlier than usual for your training or something?"

  "ly. I have something important I o talk to you about."

  "Ohh, and what would that be?"

  "It's not particurly something that should be discussed over the phone and rather o be talked about in person."

  "Alright hang tight, sport, I'll be over in a bit."

  "Okay, see you in a minute."

  *Click*

  My phone call with my grandpa John finished. I put my cell away and turo Alice, who was keeping me pany right o me, and said. "Alice, gramps will be here in a little while so I talk with him a him involved with the meeting we'll have with that vile property owner. In addition to that, because I pn oing him involved in this meeting of ours, I believe it's time I let him know of the system, the abilities I possess, and my dream of quering the wastend."

  "Having Grandpa John onboard will be a big help in putting pressure on that bad guy. But besides that, having him a part of our secretive group will make a lot of things you wao do for a while a lot easier to aplish because of the es and aplishments he's made in the past when he was an active wastend explorer."

  "Yeah, that's what I was thinking, and knowing him, he will for sure help wherever he as soon as he learns of my goal. He'll also be a huge asset when we eventually have to tell our parents that we'll be leaving the uy at the age of 18 for the wastend. We'll definitely be needing the backup when we front that particur problem down the line."

  "I'm not really looking forward to that versation, but it will have to happen at some point, so having Grandpa Joho back us up wheime es will be a great help."

  "That he will."

  "Going back to you inf him of what we're going to be doing iure, he'll probably put us through morous training than what we've already experieo prepare us. I wonder what it'll be like." Alice said stly, not knowing that my grandpa John was most certainly going to put us through even more interaining once he learhat the two of us inteo ve into the wastend.

  Our future training upgrade aside, Alid I spent the remaining time until gramps showed up leisurely on the couch together chit-chatting it up sihere was no use starting our reading and learning when my gramps would be arriving soon enough.

  Less than 15 mier, he came through the door. So, as he came over, Alid I separated from each other and got ready for the talk I o have with my grandfather. After he reached the couches where Alid I were, he plopped down on one of the couches, turowards Alice, and asked how she was doing today before looking my way aing down to business.

  "I'm guessing since Alice is here, she'll be involved in whatever you wao talk about."

  "Uh-huh, that she will since she is the only other person who will know of what I've been hiding besides you in a moment here, gramps."

  Intrigued, he held back for the meantime a me tinue. "But before we begin, I would like you to keep everything I'm going to tell you from here on out from the rest of the family. you do that for me, gramps?"

  "Depends on what yoing to disclose to me."

  "It's nothing that could be perceived as ive to family and has more to do with what I would like to do in life."

  "This young and you already know what you want to aplish in life, yrowing up so fast..." He said jokingly.

  "But yeah, if that's what you have me ing over for, I keep what yoing to tell me a secret. However, you'll o tell them about it iure."

  "Already pnning on it. It's just too early to let both of our families know yet. I was actually thinking of waiting until both Alid I had had our 17th birthdays, respectively." I responded before I had the three of us head downstairs to the gym in the basement, si would make things easier to expin.

  "Getting to the secrets I wao divulge to you, I suppose I'll start with my abilities."

  "What abilities?"

  "You know how there are certain humans that have supernatural powers, well I possess a number of abilities simir in nature that put me on the same level as a gifted marked one or a transdent human, but I am her."

  "How do you know you aren't one of them?" He asked, skeptiy cims.

  "For starters, I don't have any markings that a marked one would have and two, there has not once been a transdent born sihe founding of the uy, so why would I be categorized as one? Adding further to that, my abilities don't match up with the kind of abilities they would possess."

  "I guess so."

  "Alright, now that that's out of the way, here's a demonstration of one of my abilities." I said whilst taking my bck t-shirt off I had been wearing and removing my grandad's old bat knife from its sheath.

  As he was my as, I suddenly took the bat knife I was holding and quickly stabbed it at my exposed eight-pack, which resulted in his eyes widening suddenly before bursting over in my dire in an attempt to stop me.

  Despite that, due to my ever-increasing stats, he wasn't able to cover the distand make it to me in time to stop me, thus he could do nothing but wat as the knife inched closer and closer to my abdominal region before the knife eventually made tact doing zil terms of damage.

  The moment after it made tact, I looked at my gramps with a bit of a smirk that said gotcha and began expining. "As you just witnessed, my body has abnormally strong defenses, strong to the point where they are more thae to stop a full-powered stab from a bat knife."

  Although, that's irely true in my case. If I had stabbed my core at full power, it would have easily pierced my skin and right through my muscles before then making its way into one of my ans.

  The reason why that would have occurred when the on's damage is only a total of 16 is because of my high melee ons skill increasing my knife's damage by 0.25% per skill point, and my strength attribute increasing all melee on and unarmed damage by 5% per point of strength.

  Given both of their totals, it would have been more thay to breach my body's defenses and that's not even taking into at the actual strength I possess, which would have increased the damage of my stab even further.

  "Haa, damn it kid, you nearly gave me a heart attack." My grandad said after walking the rest of the way to me, which received a chuckle from Alid myself.

  "So your body has some impressive defenses. I don't think you o keep that a secret from me and the rest of the family."

  "Correct, however as I said moments ago, it isn't the only ability I have within my arsenal. So once I show you the rest of them and tell you my goal, I'm sure you'll uand why I've been keeping silent." I said st, moving over to the room in the gym, I had my pitg maes rigged up with turret-targeting modules.

  …

  "Alice, you start things up the moment I tell you?"

  "Sure."

  As soon as I made it to the tral position of the room, I looked back towards where Alid my gramps were and said. "Gramps, make sure to pay attention to my eyes. Alice, you start them up now."

  Closing my eyes, I prepared myself to begin dodging the baseballs that would begin flying at me from several different dires. No more than a sed ter, into my preparations, a swarm of baseballs came barreling at me. With the many pitg maes targeting me, I directed my focus to my perception field and began dodging and weaving iween the numerous projectiles flying toward me.

  After doing so for a couple of mihe pitg maes ran dry. No longer needing to dodge ining baseballs, I came to a plete stop and opened my eyes before looking back towards my grandfather and Alice were and said. "As you see, I have the ability to perceive things any normal human would be uo seypically, even with my eyes closed."

  "Impressive, though I doubt that's all the abilities you've been hiding?" My gramps responded with a twinkle in his eyes.

  Nodding at the old man's response, I tio divulge my ability. "Aside from my body's strong defenses and my perceptiohat allows me to perceive anything within a certain radius, I also possess multi-thought processing, whi simple terms allows me to think of two different things simultaneously. If I didn't have that ability, even with my perception field, there is no way I would've been able to dodge all of those projectiles."

  "That sounds abht."

  "So if you aren't a marked one nor a transdent, how do you possess any of these abilities, not to mention all three of them? From the marked ones and transdents I've entered over the years in my travels, not a single one of them possessed such a wide array of abilities."

  "Besides all that and going back to what I asked previously, why didn't you tell me about all of this earlier? You don't trust yramps?" He said, starting to fake pout after barragih multiple questions.