"Shit." Stanley stared at the shimmering wall in front of him. He touched it again just in case.

[Dungeon Perimeter] No Dungeon Entities may cross until All Invaders or Defenders are Defeated.

"Shit!" He looked towards his brother, thousands of miles away. The shimmer made everything on the other side blurry but when he looked to the sides the air cleared up a few feet away and if he backed up it disappeared revealing only more suburbia. Only when approached did the barrier become visible and distort the snow-patched green and brown of the other side.

"Fuuuck!" He screamed into the sky. Caffeine stared up at him worriedly from where he stood next to him.

A shoe scraped the ground behind them and they both spun around, both growling. A zombie shambled towards them, it groaned and its one remaining arm reached weakly in their direction.

"Fuck you!" Stanley screamed and slammed his power into it. There was a splat as the zombie was launched into the air, followed by a crunch when it impacted the house across the street.

Another zombie appeared from behind the same house, saw them and headed over.

"Fuck you too!" Stanley screamed. Splat. Crunch.

More zombies started coming into view, from behind parked cars, behind houses, out of the bushes, in all directions.

"Aaaaah!" Stanley screamed wordlessly and attacked.

A few minutes later he was sitting on someone's lawn, sweating and breathing hard. "Why… am… I… draining… Stamina… Caff?" He asked the pug, in between gasps. The dog sitting next to him cocked its head but didn't reply. He had pushed his truck down the road all day without getting winded but now some light zombie splattering and it felt like he was doing sprints.

"Am I doing something different?" He mused. "Is it because I'm using a 'Skill' now?" Stanley sighed and levitated himself to his feet while watching his Stamina. It didn't change, although with no actual numbers, only percentages, it was hard to be sure.

Once he was on his feet his eyes roamed over the barrier, following it to where it met the side of a house. "Does it go through the walls?" He wondered. Though he knew it was extremely unlikely that there was such a glaring loophole, he still had to check.

At the front door of the two story home, he lifted a hand but then paused before smashing the door down. He knocked. There was no car in the driveway but it wasn't impossible that someone was holed up. It had only been one day after all.

There was no response so he tried the handle, it was locked. He was ready to break the door when he had an idea.

When he pushed his truck down the road he'd had to push it with a rather strong force and without simply ripping the delicate fiberglass cab apart. It had taken a lot of trial and error but in the end he had figured out how to grasp onto the frame despite not being able to see it from inside.

Stanley leaned against the door and closed his eyes. He very gently reached inside the house with a mental hand and touched the door. It was a strange sensation, though not a wholly unfamiliar one, as he felt the door with his mind. His mind slid down the inside of the door and stopped when it bumped into a protrusion. After feeling around for a moment he gripped onto what felt like the deadbolt and very gently turned it.

It didn't move as he applied more and more force, only when something in the door started creaking did he realize that he was turning the wrong way. "Idiot." He turned the other way and was rewarded with the sound of the deadbolt sliding free. "Hah. Nailed it." He opened his eyes and tried the door knob. It wouldn't turn… he closed his eyes and took slow breaths fighting the urge to simply shatter the stupid fucking door!

"Stop overreacting." He told himself. "It doesn't matter." He knew that he was still raw and wound up by recent events, despite his best efforts to ignore the memories. After a few moments he refocused and shortly was rewarded by the click of the doorknob unlocking.

He stepped slowly into the house and into the strange world where everything smells off with the odd scent that you can never place, the smell of a stranger's home.

From the front door he could see all the way through the house to the back door and for a moment he felt hope soaring but after a single step the telltale shimmer appeared and his heart sank. "No big deal." He told himself. "It's what I expected after all."

The house was clean, almost pristine compared to the wreckage he had seen outside. Gray carpet muffled his footsteps as he passed generic furniture and he didn't look too closely at pictures of smiling faces on the walls.

The barrier ran through the middle of the living room and the kitchen. He walked up and touched it. Same message. He sighed and Caffeine whined behind him.

"It's alright Caff." He said as he turned to the pug. "I didn't really expect…"

Caffeine wasn't looking at him, instead the dog was staring at a big plastic tub of dog treats on the kitchen countertop.

Stanley laughed. "Of course." He popped the top and tossed one of the crunchy little biscuits to the dog. Snap. Caffeine snatched it out of the air and stared intently at his hand in the tub. Stanley tossed a handful of them towards the dog.

The house shook as Caffeine blurred into motion. In an eye blink, all the treats vanished before touching the floor. "Wow!" Stanley laughed. "Who's a good boy? You're a good boy!" He tossed a bigger handful and saw that one arched towards the Dungeon barrier and instead of bouncing off, sailed smoothly past it.

Before he could ponder the meaning of that the house shook again and a pug sized hole appeared in the barrier, just above the floor. The barrier flashed brighter and ripples cascaded away from the hole. Stanley’s eyes widened even as the blur that was Caffeine stopped in front of him, staring at his hand with a wagging tail. "Caff…" He started but was interrupted by Caffeine suddenly flinching. The dog's head whipped around as if looking for something and he started growling. "What the…" The growls turned to barks, big booming barks that began by shaking the house and only increased in volume until Stanley's ears started ringing and holes started appearing where he barked. Stanley saw that the hole in the barrier was shrinking and as he watched it vanished altogether.

A bark at the ceiling let the gray daylight shine through and illuminated the quickly evaporating room. Before he could try to calm the dog, it was over. Caffeine stopped barking and just growled softly at the ceiling. "Caff?" Stanley called to him. "You okay?" The pug looked at him, stopped growling and rushed over to sit in front of him, eyes locked on the tub of treats still in Stanley’s grip. His tail wagged and he licked his chops.

"That was…" He dropped a treat to the dog. "Can you make a bigger hole?" He asked as he very deliberately tossed another treat at the barrier.

[Warning attempts to Breach [Dungeon Perimeter] may incur heavy penalties.

The message startled Stanley and Caffeine growled at the ceiling briefly before looking at the dog treat on the other side of the barrier and then back at Stanley. He whined sadly. Stanley dropped a big handful on the carpet and sat down on the couch. "So I'm trapped…" Caffeine gobbled up the treats in a heartbeat, looked through the barrier and whined again, followed by another growl at the ceiling, before he jumped onto Stanley’s lap and stared at the remaining treats.

"No quick escape." Stanley handed the small biscuits to the dog one at a time while he thought. "I need to kill all the invaders…" He thought of the darkness and the monsters that almost killed him. "Are they all like that?" He shivered. The zombies hadn't given him any notifications about contributions yet. Maybe they didn't count since technically they had been Defenders before? They also weren't really dangerous to him. Not like the abominations and bladed skeletons…

Caffeine licked his face and he realized he was trembling. He scratched the pugs ears with a weak smile and continued the treat dispensing.

"I can do it." He thought. "I will do it!" He clenched a fist. "I'll get stronger. I'll find all the fuckers. And I'll kill em." He handed off the last biscuit and stood up, grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulders as he headed for the now missing front door.

Caffeine followed him back outside and they found a few more zombies slowly ambling their way. Splat. "One down." He glanced at his Resource bars and noticed Stamina down 1% while Psi ticked back up to full while he was looking at it. "I need to get better at this." He focused on the next closest zombie and instead of telekinetically punching it, he carefully grabbed its head and turned it around. The zombie stumbled as its spine crunched and it started turning off course but didn't fall. "Hmm."

It didn't die so he grabbed the head and squeezed, slowly. It was disgusting but he wanted to figure out the minimum necessary force to kill these things. The skull cracked and compressed but the zombie only fell after the brain was completely destroyed. He turned his face away and took slow breaths when it fell. "Necessary." He checked his bars to distract himself. Psi was full and Stamina was still 99%.

The one remaining zombie's dragging feet brought his attention back. "Let's try something else." He concentrated on what he wanted for a moment, a point. If he could attack in a tiny area it might let him do more damage with less effort. When he felt like he had it, he thrust a mental stab at its head. The zombie stopped its forward progress but didn't die. He released the telekinetic spike from its head and the zombie kept staggering towards him.

He could clearly see a hole in its forehead but apparently these were not exactly like walking dead zombies. "Are head shots not enough?" Stanley had another idea. Caffeine sitting beside him huffed lightly at the nearing zombie but otherwise it seemed that he didn’t see these things as a threat.

Stanley focused his mind and struck. The zombie collapsed as its head fell free of the body. He watched for a moment, waiting to see if it would move, before he remembered his new ability. "[Soul-Sight]." With a thought he activated it and the world changed. He couldn’t actually tell what changed but everything just felt… different.

The zombie on the ground gave off no glow and after looking at the others, and finding nothing, he gazed up and slowly scanned across the sky. "Should've turned it on before I killed em."

"There." He whispered. There was something flying up there, in the distance. He looked at Caffeine. "Wanna run, or fly?" He asked. The pug cocked his head. Stanley patted his chest and Caffeine immediately jumped into his arms. "Okay." Stan chuckled. He decided to take it slow and be ready to run away if he bit off too much.

He flew up into the gray sky, the cold air biting at his cheeks. The Soul in the distance was heading away from him until it either went out of range or his eyesight just wasn't good enough.

He kept his Soul-Sight running, just in case, as he flew straight up; he also moved closer to the Dungeon Perimeter. He stayed close enough to see the shimmer as he gained altitude and his ears popped repeatedly until he finally saw what he expected. The shimmering wall began to angle inward, likely culminating in a complete dome. He didn't feel the need to map out exactly how high it went when he got to the low hanging clouds. It was big. Really big.

He didn't see any souls in the clouds when he scanned them but something about them made him uneasy. He started back down from there, slowly so he could clear his ears as he went. His eyes roamed across the city in the distance below, or at least what wasn't buried in haze. Eventually he found the truck stop this had all started at and scanned around the area where he thought he'd seen the other group.

Part way back down he opened his jacket and shifted Caffeine inside before zipping it up with just the pug’s head poking out. Caffeine seemed surprisingly calm despite being in the sky. His eyes were closed and only his twitching nose betrayed that he was awake.

"There you are." He spotted the three story building and could see a few of those confusing glows that souls gave off, in some of the windows. He stopped and hovered in place when he saw the golden glowing soul of Zeke, his sister next to him and the three men he'd left with them. They had just come around the corner across the street from where the others were and they all carried big bags, likely supplies from the truckstop. "Smart."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Stanley watched the two groups meet up outside the building. He was relieved to see another woman come out of the building to meet them. Not that he thought that the men with Eve were monsters but… people suck.

A few heads turned as if they were looking for something. Maybe because of his Soul-Sight Skill if the reactions the first time had been the norm. He could have sworn Eve looked towards him in the sky but she gave no reaction he could discern. Finally, they all filed inside and the door closed. Stanley briefly considered going down to check on them but decided against it. Maybe later, he had shit to do.

He turned away and flew slowly towards the city in the distance. He kept his head on a swivel as he went both to keep an eye out for the Invaders and also for birds. "Fucking seagulls."

His vigilance paid off and he saw the seagull coming with plenty of time to spare. It's Soul glowed with a different light than the humans had. It was more akin to the zombies, maybe because it was an animal. He would figure it out eventually but in the meantime he focused as the bird closed the gap and started to scream at him.

He aimed carefully and struck. The bird screamed and tumbled down as one of its wings was cut clean off. "Hah!" He followed it down in its death spiral until it impacted in the middle of a strip mall parking lot with a crunch and lay still. Stan watched the soul of the bird carefully as it faded and noticed that while most of it just dissipated some of the energy seemed to flow into the head where it also vanished.

"Maybe the core?" He guessed.

He was just settling down next to his kill when Caffeine started squirming and sniffing intently before he started growling and trying to climb out of Stanley’s jacket. Stan didn't hesitate; he launched himself straight back up, spinning and looking in every direction. It was Caffeine’s head pointing back down that let him see the first rat crawl out from under a car and dash towards the corpse.

He looked on in growing horror as a literal horde of rats swarmed into view. They were the size of Dobermans and they came from every direction. It looked like every car had rats hiding underneath, though how so many fit under there, he couldn’t understand. His eyes were wide as he watched rats pour into the parking lot from every building along the strip mall.

"I'd be dead if I couldn't fly." He shivered before another thought sent even more chills through him. "I'm still really close to the truck stop." Eve and Zeke… he shuddered at the thought of this swarm attacking that building. Other people must have gained powers and abilities, he had seen that one asshole with a fireball in his hand.

The first rats were already tearing the bird apart below and the carpet of rats was closing in behind them. "It doesn't matter." He thought. "I need to get stronger and this is the first step." He struck. The first rat ripping into the seagull stopped and squealed when a bloody gash appeared on the back of its neck. "A bit more power. Or…" He sent a mental spike into it and it stopped moving as a hole oozed blood from the top of its head. "Better for non undead." Another spike and another rat fell. He noticed that the first one he killed was already being eaten by its fellows. "Good." He thought grimly. "Stay here. Eat your friends while I kill you all."

One after another he killed them from the sky while trying to keep an eye on his resource bars.

They were going down but slowly. He was so engrossed with the slaughter that he almost forgot he was carrying Caffeine clutched inside his jacket. He was reminded when the pug started squirming out. "NO way you are going down there." Was all he had time to think before Caffeine Barked.

The force threw him backwards through the air and his eyes widened as something flashed past just inches away from his face. He spun in the air and… there. A much bigger Soul glowed from under a tree across the street. As he tried to see what it was, something flickered. On instinct he juked himself sideways and something passed through the air where he'd just been. "Shit!" He decided it was time to stop holding back.

A car parked next to the tree suddenly launched sideways into the tree. There was a booming crack and the tree fell with a car wrapped around it but the bright Soul darted clear and Stan got to see what was attacking him.

It was an even bigger rat, one the size of a horse. It dashed down the street dodging cars and light poles that threw themselves at it, always staying one step ahead. At one point he tried to grab the thing and throw it into the sky but his grasp hadn't been strong enough and it slipped free when it abruptly thrashed about and then it was back under the trees. Stan gave up the chase when it rounded a corner and was nowhere in sight when he caught up and turned the corner himself.

"Smart rats… fuck!" It was likely the leader of the swarm. "Well fuck you then." He thought and he tore through the air back to the rest of the rats. "I'll just kill your minions."

He flew higher on the way back until he could see the mass of feasting cannibal rodents and the parking lot approaching. Below him cars flew up into the air and soared over his head towards the swarm before gravity took over and they started angling downwards. After he released the first wave more cars flew up behind him and followed the rest, arching into the sky.

As he went he lifted Caffeine higher until the pug was looking over his shoulder. "Time to watch my back again, Caff." It had saved him before and he was worried that the bigger rat would come back when he wasn't watching, plus he still didn't know what it had been shooting at him.

In the parking lot the disgusting, bloody feast was shattered by multi ton hulks of metal and glass raining down into the pile. Many of the cars missed but the ones that hit, hit hard.

High pitched squealing and squeaking sounded out as the rats that took glancing blows had legs and spines shattered. Stan followed behind the cars and dealt spikes of death to every living rat his eyes landed on as he passed overhead, angling to put the swarm between him and the big one if it came back.

It did.

After only a few more kills, the glow of its soul appeared back across the street accompanied by a much louder squeak that set the remaining horde running in its direction. Stanley threw another car at the big one and kept killing the smaller rats. He saw the big Soul dash back the way it had run last time. "Not this time." He blasted himself through the sky to get ahead of it and settled down onto the street, trying to tempt it into not running away again.

It came around the corner and slowed. The smaller rats circled around the Leader as it sized him up. Stanley dropped to one knee while putting up what he hoped was a strong enough barrier, invisible in front of him.

Splat!

Something dark splattered against his barrier and ran down to the asphalt where it sizzled and smoked. "Acid?" He dropped to all fours. The rats charged. Stanley spared a glance for his resource bars. "It's enough." He grinned and dropped the squirming Caffeine out of his jacket and onto the ground. "Caff. Kill."

Not that the dog actually knew that command as he only ever said it as a joke to Caffeine, with his penchant for running right up to people to smell them and see if they had any snacks. Who would be afraid of a tiny pug charging them.

The rat leader was. It knew it had fucked up as the tiny mostly gray haired pug ballooned up to rival its own size and charged forward with a boom of shattering asphalt.

Caffeine who only ever had friends, after all everyone potentially has snacks, now had found enemies. What was that saying? Angels run when a friendly pug goes to war? Sure. Something like that.

Stan lifted off the ground and followed Caffeine, ready to shield if it looked like more spit would be incoming. The leader was already turning to run but he wouldn't make it. A few of the nearest rats died to spiked holes in their heads. Others got trampled as the pug charged.

Stanley finished off all of the minions before he caught up to the boss who was dangling by the neck from Caffeine’s jaws. After a vicious shake that had it bouncing off of a parked car and the ground it hung limp. Stan sent a spike at its head but it barely penetrated and didn't even crack the skull. "Damn." He couldn’t tell if it was just that much tougher but it felt almost like the thing's Soul was resisting his own power.

He wasn't about to be denied this kill. He brought his own fist down into its head while Caffeine held the squirming form down. His power focused around and in front of his hand, in as sharp a point as he could make.

Its skull cracked audibly and the force of his blow drove it into the ground and out of Caffeine's mouth, where it lay still. For a moment he thought that was it but then it suddenly stirred and lunged for his leg, jaws agape.

The rat blasted away from him and embedded partway into the wall across the street while Stanley's ears rang. He saw a trail of smoking acid following its path. "That would have sucked so much… Thanks again Caff."

The sound of Caffeine panting came to his ears as the ringing diminished and the dog shrank down by half. The rat stirred and started struggling free from the wall. "No." He thought. His power wrapped it up tight, forcing it into immobility while a telekinetic blade of force sank slowly through it's resistance and into its throat. It squirmed and squealed in helpless pain until the sound ended in a wet spray of blood. He kept going, pushing until he hit the spine where his blade stopped, then he kept pushing. He watched its Soul this time, mentally kicking himself for not remembering earlier.

Eventually its struggles slowed and stopped, its Soul faded and some of it spiraled into its skull. He dropped the corpse and it sagged halfway out of the shattered wall while Stanley collapsed onto his butt on the street. His Stamina was single digits and his Psi was below 20%.

Caffeine howled suddenly into the sky and the air rang with the sound. Stanley smiled. "You tell em Caff." He said softly, his voice drowned out by the howl. Then the notifications arrived.

Congratulations! You have slain a Swarm while Solo. Congratulations you have Earned a Trait.

New Title: [Solo Hunter]

+1% Effect of All Attributes

(The effect is greatly diminished when you are not alone.)

You have heard the Howl of the Beast Lord.

+5% Effect of All Attributes to Friends

-5% Effect of All Attributes to Not Friends

Stanley laughed aloud as Caffeine walked over and rubbed his head against him. He almost toppled over but the pug shrank down and trotted over towards the rat leader.

Stan almost called him away when he pulled the rat out of the wall and then ripped a piece off and started eating. He felt a bit nauseous at the sight but as he thought about it he decided that Caff had earned his meal. Who knew maybe he would get Buffs for eating a swarm leader? Stanley graciously decided to leave it all for the dog, he was generous after all.

Instead, he settled on some bottled water and jerky from his bag. While he rested and had lunch he went over the rest of his notifications.

Class and Skill Experience Earned.

Class [Psionic] Level Up.

Skill [Mind Over Matter] Level Up.

Skill [Soul-Sight] Level Up.

+1 Willpower

Attribute Willpower has reached [F Rank] Threshold.

Willpower Attribute Fortifying +1

+1 Willpower

Willpower Attribute Fortifying +1

"Odd." Before he could call up his Status, Caffeine stepped in front of him and dropped a glowing Shard in his lap, he picked it up.

Congratulations! You have found a [Core Fragment(Shard)].

[Attribute Shard(UnCommon)](F Rank)

Effect: +1 All Base Attributes

Absorb [Yes/No]

He looked at the pug and a thought occurred to him. "You want this?" He offered the Shard to Caffeine. The dog sniffed it then huffed and walked back to his meal of rat leader.

"I won't say no."

You have gained +1 All Base Attributes

Willpower Attribute Fortifying +1

He sighed in pleasure as the power flowed into him. Then he looked around and floated upright. "No rest for the wicked." He looked at all the corpses. "Waste not and all that."

In the course of looting he discovered that the rats that had been eaten after he killed them had lost their cores. Literally eaten out of their heads. Apparently the rats had wanted the cores more than the meat as in some cases the head was the only thing that got chewed on. Though it looked like some of them settled for the meat afterwards.

After collecting everything he could find he went back to the pug who was still eating and offered him the core chips. To his surprise after sniffing at each one Caffeine ate some, like crunchy snacks, though he only ate the Strength and Dexterity Chips.

"Do they smell different?" He wondered but after checking couldn’t smell anything on them, not even blood. After absorbing the remaining cores he checked his Status.

Status

Name: Stanley Cascade

Race: [Human](F Rank)

Traits: [Adaptable] [Source-Touched] [Solo Hunter]

Class: [Psionic](Initiate V)(Rare)

Class Skills:

[Mind Over Matter](Initiate V)[Epic]

Attributes:

Strength: 4

Vitality: 4

Dexterity 6

Perception 7

Intelligence 12

Willpower 20+

Twin-Soul ???

Non Class Skills:

[Soul-Sight](Initiate I)[UnCommon]

[Source Regeneration]

Buffs:

Debuffs:

[Weak]

[Delicate]

"Progress." His Willpower wouldn't go above twenty, apparently that was the F Rank Threshold and he only got was more messages about Fortifying if he gained more.

Caffeine finished his meal and came walking slowly over to Stanley. He looked at the pug who was literally dripping blood from his coat and floated up into the air. "Don't think you're getting cuddles like that." He told the dog. "Not without a bath."

Caffeine looked up at him with sad eyes then he blurred. It looked like he was shaking, growing and shrinking back down, all at the same time.

Stan got a shield up in time to block the sudden rain of blood. "Damn! What did you do? Climb inside the corpse?" He thought, incredulously.

When it was over Caffeine whined up at him from the ground, his fur now glossy and dry. Stanley levitated him up and inside his jacket, where looked more than happy to settle in for a cozy nap. "Good boy." He whispered and kissed the dog on the head, he paused as he realized what the dog had been covered in a moment before. "Fuck it." He thought, before zipping his jacket up over the tired pug. It felt almost automatic to support him there, the same way it felt to carry himself around now.

He looked around and from his vantage in the sky he could see many souls of varying sizes and strengths. Stanley had been watching them very slowly approaching. He suspected they wanted in on the meat and he had a feeling they were here but also holding back because of that howl Caffeine had let out. "Beast Lord…" He had looked at Caffeine’s Status earlier and while his stats were still all ones, his skills literally only gave descriptions the same as the Skill name, with one new skill, unsurprisingly called [Howl of the Beast Lord] and the description was the same, but his Class had given him something.

[Beast Lord]

Only the Strongest Beast may hold this Class

"Are you the strongest beast Caffeine?"

He hugged the pug a little tighter and went looking for somewhere to rest.