~~~Stanley~~~
-1% Adaptable
Adapting Skill: Still Mind of the Dead (Epic)
No Mana Detected.
No Undead Race.
Psionic Energy Detected.
Similar Class Skill Detected.
Skill Adaptation Successful.
Skill Combination and Evolution Successful.
Evolved Class Skill: Accelerated Thoughts (Rare) = Still Mind of the Psionic (Epic)
Still Mind of the Psionic (Epic)
In the stillness, calm. In calm, power.
User may remove all emotional effects and increase cognition speed while focusing completely on a task.
Skill Level Effects (Intermediate)
+3% Effective Mind Attributes
+6% Cognition Speed
Knowledge flowed into his mind. It was surprisingly simple once he saw it.
Stanley suddenly felt very calm as he looked back outside. Energy moved into his eyes, and he focused on the approaching soul. Nate was a useful ally. One of the strongest. He looked closer at the glow, trying to discern the strength of the human beneath it. He has improved a little... but he's wasting too much time caring for useless baggage.
Protecting Zeke wasn't a terrible idea, but letting that become a detriment to his own power was a mistake. Personal strength was the only reliable power.
"What did you do?" It was Daryl's voice.
Stanley glanced at him. He is potentially useful, but still too weak. I should focus on what I need... which is power.
Daryl said something else, but Stanley ignored it.
The best path for power growth is through cores. I could kill the humans in this building and take their cores. They would all drop skills... He looked down, scanning the occupants of the tower. Most were too weak for meaningful gains. F-grades mostly, with a bare handful of E-grades...
Pathetic. Killing the trash would anger the handful of stronger humans for no practical gain. They're more useful as shields for now. If even that. At the very least, I should wait for them to rank up.
Stanley looked outside again. Hunting for cores out there was a risk. It wasn't the lairs that were the problem, but if another invader showed up while he was hunting... I need an army to use as a backup. Or, if nothing else, a meat shield. The bats proved useful in that regard.
Something he could do without venturing into danger was work on skill and class levels. His newest trait had sent his attributes soaring, and each skill or class level would now be worth more.
He was relatively safe in here, and so floated up into a cross-legged sitting position in midair. The humans in the room were all watching him warily. But it was irrelevant. They fear me and are not a threat.
The dog stepped closer, staring and whining. Caffeine is unhappy... It didn't matter. The Beast Lord was powerful. His greatest ally. He was also absolutely loyal. His unhappiness is irrelevant if he cannot betray me.
"Guard me," he ordered and closed his eyes. Stanley looked at his soul. It was so much clearer now... Sure, it was still a mutilated mess, but that wasn't important anymore. Without that useless emotional response, he could see much more clearly where every facet of his power linked to and rested inside his soul. He could also see the extent of the damage. Repairing my soul is a priority, but it will take time.
There was an area of his power he'd neglected. A very basic area that he'd only dabbled in.
Stanley picked a spot in the air and focused his will on increasing heat and, next to it, on decreasing the temperature. It was very simple; he used his power to brute force the change and then observed the process. Each switch became easier as he gained a better understanding of how it worked and required less energy to do it the next time.
He felt the souls growing agitated nearby. They tried to touch him, and Stanley blocked them. Caffeine did not defend me. Is his loyalty not absolute? No. He is bound to my soul and is only confused and emotional.
The humans gave up on touching him. Very upset... but irrelevant. They are too weak to threaten me.
Caffeine then started trying to chew through the barrier. He shouldn't be doing that... but it was fine. The emotional pug wasn't truly attacking him, and it provided Stanley with training on keeping a barrier malleable yet impenetrable. Very useful. He kept his eyes closed, using his power to monitor the others. Soul and body. Meanwhile, he maintained his focus on his own soul.
Stanley could see the energy coming from the source now. Leaking out along with his soul. It was faint, very faint, but coming from such a strong power, even that faint radiation was impactful. His own body absorbed most of it and converted it into regeneration, both physical and psionic. It had always done so... that was why his regeneration had always been so extreme.
Caffeine constantly absorbed some as well, likely explaining his own regeneration.
Stanley realized that he was wasting the regeneration and started flexing his muscles hard. Over and over. It was awkward and painful, but he could feel his muscles pull in energy from both the surroundings and his core as they took damage repeatedly.
Luckily, his increased mental speed made it easier to manipulate the muscles, which felt so much slower in their reactions.
My regeneration is still greater than the damage. He had another solution. He would start damaging himself. Not enough to endanger his life, just enough to get the most from his regeneration while increasing his vitality.
+1 Strength
Very good. The heat and cold that he’d manifested in the air, he moved into his flesh, condensing the power to avoid excessive damage while keeping the training potential. The surrounding souls grew more agitated.
Class Level Up: Soul Psionic
Stanley carefully watched the wound in his soul. It was flexing beneath the patch but still holding. Perfect. Right to the limit. He only needed one thing. "Bring me food."
+1 Vitality
Debuff: [Hungry]
+1 Willpower
Stanley moved to a wall and jabbed his fingers into it, aiming for precise points to increase his dexterity.
Caffeine was growing increasingly agitated, while the two humans had given up trying to get him to stop.
Skill Level Up: Mind Over Matter
His legendary skill... Stanley knew there was more to discover about the ability, especially regarding magic. He sent some of his focus to the fire encircling the room. This will work.
He started playing with the fire. Touching it. Manipulating it. The energy was harder to affect, and he assumed that was because he never used mana and so had no instinctive grasp the way he did with his psionic or soul energy. Nothing practice can't fix.
+1 Willpower
+1 Vitality
He moved it around. Opening holes in the fiery curtain and bunching up other areas. He started pulling it from the wall and letting his flesh absorb it while the humans put up more. Its healing properties helped with the fact that none of them had done as ordered and brought him food.
Magic holds its own will, or the will of the caster. Makes it more resistant. It was obvious once he thought about it, and he continued his experiments until they gave up on replenishing the fire and retreated out the door and downstairs. As they went, he noticed the souls flinching throughout the building. They used the fire to protect the weak from my soul.
Skill Level Up: Mind Over Matter
Class Level Up: Soul Psionic
His soul was holding up too well anyway, so Stanley removed the coat that was blocking it. Soul information bombarded him. That's better. It would also make it harder for anything to sneak up on him.
The men below stopped running and put up more fire. Excellent. As predicted. He didn't pursue them. There was no need. Walls were not an impediment to his power. He continued training. Including pulling more of their fire from below to keep himself topped off.
Stanley calculated that while he was pushing them towards hostility with his actions, they wouldn't turn if he didn't push too far. Not that they were a threat, but there was no need to waste potentially strong future allies for an insignificant gain now.
+1 Strength
+1 Dexterity
Stanley could feel everyone in the building, despite the fire that once again muted them slightly. His soul was shaking under the barrage but still holding.
Caffeine was very upset now, but Stanley didn't need to bother. The Beast Lord wouldn't turn on him. It was loyal and too simple to betray him.
Stanley also felt Nate approaching and entering the building below. I might provoke him into assisting with my training. Though the man had a solid and analytical soul. Asking would likely work better than provocation.
He settled into the training. With Nate and the others nearby, he was relatively safe. Sure, he was leaving himself somewhat vulnerable, but if anything too strong for him attacked, he could retreat behind the others. Even if they didn't want to help, they would have to in order to save the other weaklings.
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Stanley split off another bit of focus to analyze his Soul Awareness skill. It should be able to strengthen his soul from the description, and he intended to figure it out.
Solidify. He latched onto that word and tried to enact it. There was pain as he pushed his will into the effort, and he sat inside his inner soul while a trembling dog sat on the glowing white crack and watched him. Stanley pulled against his soul, condensing the energy tighter. It hurt. Distantly.
The soul copy of Caffeine howled at him, and Stanley ignored it. It's a small pain. Endure it and grow stronger. Energy swirled, and Stanley directed the minor excess of source radiation towards his soul, trying to increase the condensing effect. It was almost impossible to affect, but not completely.
+1 Twin-Soul
I knew it. His Soul was trembling rather violently, but the patch was still holding. More.
+1 Intelligence
I must be doing something right. He kept at it. There was excruciating pain everywhere, but Stanley didn't care. I need power to survive. Pain is a small price.
+1 Strength
+1 Vitality
+1 Dexterity
+1 Willpower
+1 Intelligence
Nate was in the room with him now. He didn't attack or attempt to interfere; he only observed intently. Stanley sensed no hostility, so he allowed the man to watch.
+1 Twin-Soul
This time, he noticed something. The blinding white crack shrank. Not much, just an infinitesimal amount, but he noticed. My soul is keeping the source contained? He had assumed as much, but this was proof. It also meant that if he lost too much soul, the crack could widen or break open completely. I would die. Unacceptable. Training is more necessary than ever.
His soul trembled again... and a spark of iridescent light slipped past Lee's patch.
-1 Twin-Soul
The patch was not holding. A serious problem. Increasing my soul will not help if the patch fails... I can't guarantee Lee will fix it again.
Stanley could feel the strain on his soul. Something was causing unforeseen stress. Perhaps the wound... or a flaw in the patch. I will need to slow or delay the advancement of my soul for an indeterminate amount of time until the wound heals.
He considered hunting again. Harvesting this dungeon for every core it held. He wouldn't have to go himself. He could order the other humans to go. They couldn't fight him. Some would resist, but most would comply after seeing his power.
Caffeine stood up from where he sat on the brilliant crack in Stanley's soul. Stay.
The pug grew bigger. Is he trying to defy me? Stanley thought. Impossible. The crack shivered and spasmed beneath him. What's he doing? Stanley strained to direct the massive increase in source radiation back towards his soul, but it was too strong. It would burn him if...
Caffeine grew until he loomed impossibly large in the small soul space. Until the pug towered above him. Then Caffeine stepped on Stanley with one massive paw, pinning him down without ever stepping off the crack.
You can't! Stanley insisted.
The jaws descended as Stanley pulled all of his power away from the training and tried to stop his mad beast. It was useless. Teeth sank into him, and Stanley screamed.
Skill Level Up: Still Mind of the Psionic
Still Mind of the Psionic (Epic) has been forcefully Evolved by the Soul-Bonded Beast(Caff Caffeine).
His scream trailed off, and he sobbed instead.
Still Mind of the Psionic (Epic) = Still Mind of the Psionic Beast (Epic)
Still Mind of the Psionic Beast (Epic)
In the stillness, calm. In calm, power.
User may remove all emotional effects and increase cognition speed while focusing wholly and completely on a task.
The Psionic or his Soul-Bonded Beast may both activate or deactivate this skill at will.
Skill Level Effects (Intermediate)
+3% Effective Mind Attributes
+6% Cognition Speed
Stanley felt a lot of things at that moment. Pain, fear, and, mostly, horror. He had been so cold, so uncaring about anything or anyone else. Planning to... but the worst part... that absolutely worst part...
"Caff?" Stanley whispered, and then a tongue attacked his face, and dancing feet stepped onto his lap and on his crotch. Stanley didn’t mind. He squeezed his arms around the happy pug and held on.
Caffeine didn't care about what Stanley had thought or said. He was nothing but pure happiness. Stanley could feel it. It poured from the pug in a tsunami of unwavering affection. Caffeine was happy that his human was himself again, and nothing else mattered. His Dearest Human...
Stanley wasn't so easily able to move on, and he couldn't stop the tears that Caffeine kept licking away. He felt his new jacket settle over his shoulders, and Nate sat down next to him with his back leaning against the wall Stanley had been hitting. He also felt Daryl and Adrian approaching, and then fire spread underneath him and up the wall.
Nate yelped and started to get up, but settled down and started running his hands through the red-gold flames instead. "Forgot about that," he said cheerfully. "Good to see you're okay, Stanley. Get some new skills?"
Stanley laughed bitterly. "I did." He sighed and turned to lean on the wall as well, Caffeine sitting in his lap. He felt Walter suddenly appear just outside the room.
Caffeine must have been more worried than he was showing, because he stayed in Stanley's lap even when Walter walked in with steaming platters of fish... Stanley took a platter and rewarded the pug for being the best boy ever. He avoided the gazes of everyone in the room while doing so.
It wasn't like he'd done anything to them... barely anything.
Nate accepted the food happily. "This is fantastic! Forgot how much I've missed fish."
No one else tried to talk to him, but Stanley could feel their gazes on him. He ate slowly while feeding most of the fish to Caffeine, and then told them what had happened as his lingering aches regenerated.
He thought about not mentioning his worst ideas, but decided it would be better to just go with full-disclosure. He didn't want to hurt people who had helped him... nevermind people who'd cared for Caffeine. They needed to know, if only to stay out of his way in the future. Because he knew he would have killed them if they overstepped... though perhaps Caffeine could stop him now.
They listened quietly.
When he finished, Nate jumped in. "That was amazing! Were you training every attribute at once?"
"What?" Stanley stared at him. "That's your takeaway?"
"Amazing skill!" Nate laughed. "Besides, you said that Caffeine can turn it off now, right?"
Stanley opened and closed his mouth a few times. "I didn't care about anyone, not even Caffeine! Everybody was just a tool to be used or discarded!"
"Man, you were focused! A bit too much, sure, but could you have fought against the invaders any better with that ability?" Nate asked seriously.
Stanley thought about it. "Probably. I also think I would have used someone or everyone as a human shield and run away."
"Yeah... that's not ideal," Nate mused, "Maybe if you pick a task first? That was in the skill description, right?"
Stanley blinked at Nate. He had been thinking about how he needed power... could he really use it like that? Could he use it to sleep? "It wasn't working, anyway. Something was hurting my soul..."
The moment stretched as he stared at Nate, his thoughts churning, and not just about the events of the day. Nate's smile faded as he met Stanley's gaze. "I'm sorry I wasn't there."
"They attacked you," Stanley said. Even though he wanted to scream at the man. "You had to protect Zeke..."
"I'm sorry, Stanley. I'm sorry that you took the hit for us. I'm sorry that I wasn't there when you needed..."
"Shut up," Stanley whispered, and then his voice grew in volume. "Shut up. Shut up! Shut the fuck up!" His vision blurred, and he clutched at his chest in real and remembered pain. "All of you... shut up."
Nate shut up, and no one else was talking.
Stanley fled from the emotional turmoil into his meditation.
It didn't help. Their souls felt even louder in there...
Then the fire crawled up from the floor to enclose Stanley away from the others. That helped. A little. Stanley thought about his new skill... and he wanted to use it again. Except he didn't want to use it. He didn't want to not care... but it hurt so much to care.
Why? Why did life have to be so fucked up? Why did he have to be afraid? Why did it have to hurt for him to be happy?
Stanley huddled in his fiery cage and screamed in impotent rage at the injustice of it all. He screamed silently inside his head.
Caffeine was in his lap and licking at his face while Stanley screamed for the pain of being alive. For the fear of death. For fear of things worse than death. For fear of losing what he had left.
It lasted an unknown amount of time, but Stanley felt better when his rage petered out and he could gaze upon the clear image of Caffeine's brown eyes staring up at him. "Good boy."
Caffeine's tail wagged, and Stanley couldn't help the smile that crawled onto his face. He didn't even question how the pug had altered his skill. He was just happy he had. "You really are such a good boy."
He floated the both of them out of the dome of fire and rejoined the other humans in the room. None of them mentioned his breakdown... or his new skill, or the experiments it generated.
Instead, they were already sitting around a table while Walter placed food out. The tuxedo clad butler drew out an empty chair and looked at Stanley. "Will you join us, sir?"
Stanley did, settling into the chair with Caffeine still in his lap. Walter said nothing about a dog at the table. Not even when Stanley pulled the plate closer so the pug could grab some bites from it.
"How bad was the attack?" Stanley asked Nate.
"Worse than I'd hoped," Nate said. "But better than it could have been. People died. Good people."
Stanley thought about the few people he knew at the base. Or at least the people he occasionally interacted with. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know if they were dead or not...
"Zeke has asked about you."
What? "Why?"
Nate smiled. "I think you inspired him. Hell, you inspired a lot of us... when we felt you fighting."
"You... all felt that?"
"Yep." Nate nodded. "You scared that thing away, you and Zeke, and we all felt it." He shivered. "It was a bit unsettling, but very welcome. Then you went quiet and never came back." He looked around the room. "Didn't know you found another group of survivors until your team came back to report."
Stanley nodded.
"We were just talking about how we can work together going forward," Nate said. "Daryl here was suggesting we move into the tower. Unfortunately, or I should say fortunately, Zeke put on quite the light show, and we've had other survivors trickling into our camp in a steady stream. Too many to squeeze in here."
"I was also thanking them for taking care of you." He winked at Stanley.
Both Adrian, Daryl, and their animal companions were staring at Stanley nervously. He could feel their unease like a physical pressure.
"Sorry for..." He hadn't actually attacked them. Other than messing with the fire. "How bad was I? With the skill, I mean."
"You were eerily calm," Adrian said. "I don't know if it was the difference between earlier and now, but... I don't know, it was like being judged by a machine."
Daryl nodded. "It was actually better at first. But then the pain started coming through from your soul..."
Stanley winced.
Adrian looked down at the bird when it suddenly chirped. "It's fine," he said. "Go ahead." To the others, he said, "Don't worry, he's just growing up."
The baby bird hopped away from the table before bursting into flames, and everyone jumped. There was a loud screech, and the flames danced higher before settling back down and revealing a full grown... hawk. Or hawk-like, at least, and covered in red and gold feathers that shimmered and undulated like the air above a hot road. Its head twitched and moved as it examined each of them with piercing golden eyes.
"That's a neat trick," Nate said with a smile.
Caffeine jumped out of Stanley's lap and tried to approach the phoenix, but once again, Princess blocked him. Before anyone could do anything, the bird hopped over her and onto Caffeine's back. The pug spun around a few times as he tried to sniff the bird, but eventually gave up and laid down with a whine.
The bird screeched at Caffeine and walked over to hop down near his head. Then Caffeine sniffed at Cheesesteak while the bird examined him in turn.
Princess made a small, sad yip, and the phoenix moved away from the Caffeine to go nuzzle up against her.
"So," Nate said to the duo. "Want me to take him away?" He jerked a thumb at Stanley.
Stanley knew they did. They were afraid and wanted him gone. All except Walter. The butler held some fear... but his gratitude was still stronger from where he was hiding away from the others in the next room.
It was fine. He could go back to Nate's base again.
Stanley floated upright, shrugging into his coat as he went. "You guys helped me... saved me. I won't forget it."
He smiled as much as he could. "And thank you, Walter," Stanley said toward the door while he mentally patted the old man on his shoulder and saw him flinch.
Sorry, he thought. Couldn't resist.
"I can fly pretty fast, so I'll be able to check in. Maybe bring Caffeine for some playtime." He smiled at the fox, who was studiously ignoring the pug sniffing at her swishing tails.
"Let's get flying!" Nate cheered.
Stanley looked at Nate. "Did you want me to go back just so you didn't have to run?"
Nate put on a shocked expression that didn't match his soul. "I would never... It was really far." He laughed, and it was only a little forced.
Stanley shook his head. "I'm wounded. It might be better not to carry you..."