~~~Stanley~~~

The mood at Nate's wasn't the best after... some stuff happened. That, combined with Walter's soul-silencing room made it an easy choice of where to spend the night.

It was just as well, because Stanley woke up to the sound of something breaking in the night and fell out of the air into his bed. Other than that, he slept great... ish.

Walter served up breakfast, and Stanley spent his meal trying to figure out ways to communicate how he strengthened his soul to Eve. Day one of her training hadn't gone well...

That all vanished from his mind when Daryl and Adrian joined him for breakfast.

Adrian looked healthier, though his soul was definitely still recovering from his time in the ant nest. But Stanley found himself far more concerned with a completely different issue.

"So, guys," Stanley said, his mouth suddenly too dry. "I... remember you saying... you mentioned that... Princess could talk to... Caffeine."

"She can," Daryl said, nodding hesitantly. "But he's not very..."

"Of course she can," Adrian said as a smile bloomed across his face. "I can't believe we didn't sit you two down for a chat already!"

Daryl sighed and glared at Adrian for some reason. Then he looked at Princess.

Stanley could have sworn she rolled her eyes before yipping toward Caffeine. Stanley didn't care; he only watched the pug anxiously, his heart pounding.

Whether it pounded from terror or excitement, he didn't know.

Caffeine stared intently at Stanley's food. He then continued to stare, completely ignoring Princess' increasingly loud noises.

Stanley laughed nervously and tipped the food off his plate. Caffeine gobbled it all up before even a speck touched the tablecloth. Then he looked around the table once and scrambled over to beg Daryl for his food.

Princess barked at him, and Caffeine whined while standing up to put his front paws on the table. Then he stared at Daryl's plate.

Adrian laughed. "Maybe we should finish eating first?"

"Sure. Yeah," Stanley said, fiddling with a napkin. "We can do that."

Walter whisked away Stanley's empty plate. Simultaneously, a fresh and identical meal to the one Stanley had just given Caffeine appeared in its place. Caffeine noticed.

The pug practically teleported back into the seat he'd vacated moments before. His gaze only strayed from the plate briefly, and then only to stare at Stanley pleadingly.

"All Princess got from him was basically him shouting breakfast over and over," Daryl said as they all kept eating.

"Ree!" Cheesesteak screeched.

"That's pretty much what Cheesesteak heard, too," Adrian said with a glance at the phoenix. Then he exchanged a silent look with Daryl...

Stanley ate a few more bites that he barely tasted, in between tossing more food at Caffeine. His heart wouldn't stop pounding.

"Stanley, I think you should know...?" Adrian's voice trailed off and the hesitation in his soul drew Stanley's gaze.

"What?"

"Well..." Adrian looked away and shared another glance with Daryl. "Caffeine is... not very..."

"He's not what!? Tell me!"

Everyone flinched, and Caffeine even stopped staring at the plate to lick Stanley's cheek.

"Articulate," Adrian said. "He's not very articulate."

Stanley frowned as he looked back and forth between the now nervous men. "You're saying he's stupid?"

"Not stupid!" Adrian rushed to exclaim. "Just..."

"I don't fucking care if he's stupid!" Stanley shouted, then clenched his jaw when Caffeine licked his cheek with another whine. He continued in a much quieter voice, "I only care if... I just want to know if..."

Stanley swallowed the lump in his throat and stared into the pug's big brown eyes, even as his own vision blurred. "Is he... happy?"

Daryl burst out with a laugh that turned into choking. "Sorry, Stanley! It wasn't..." He coughed again, and Adrian took over.

"He's definitely happy, Stanley. The only time I've seen him not happy is when he was fighting the... skeleton."

Daryl finally finished choking. "He's probably the happiest one inside this entire dungeon! Every day is a new adventure for him, and he loves every second!"

Stanley couldn't see them through his tears or past the pug licking said tears away. "He doesn't... hate me? All the times he's gotten hurt... all the times I fucked up..." Caffeine was whining again. Stanley was hurting him. Again.

"I'll tell you what he's saying," Daryl said. "Dearest human is a... good boy? Dearest human should... treat? Dearest... yeah, he says that a lot. He's using a lot of words like... sit, stay, play, go, good, and chicken..."

Princess made some squeaking noises at Caffeine, and the pug huffed softly. Daryl laughed. "He says they are the... magic words?"

"Magic words," Stanley murmured while staring at the pug in his face. "Good boy," Stanley said, watching Caffeine's curly tail wag back and forth. "Good boy," he said again, and the tail wagged faster. "Good boy!"

Caffeine sprang away and started spinning in circles before sprinting around the room excitedly. He brushed against Princess repeatedly until she finally snapped at him and took up the chase.

Stanley watched them play while the knot in his guts unraveled. He'd worried for nothing. Even though he'd known deep down that Caffeine didn't hate him. Couldn't hate him. He'd still worried. All for nothing. Just some ugly paranoia lurking in the recesses of his mind...

Speaking of paranoia, Eve would be waiting for her soul training... Whatever, she could wait. Caffeine was playing.

He stayed right where he was until Daryl and Adrian headed downstairs to help their own newbies learn to fight. Even then, he didn't rush to return, and it wasn't because he looked ridiculous.

Walter had taken the destruction of Stanley's suit with remarkable calm. Nothing in his expression or soul betrayed any upset when he took the destroyed suit and promised to repair it. Stanley wasn't buying it.

Obviously, Walter had figured out how to hide his emotions. That was the only explanation for the all-white monstrosity of a suit he'd foisted on Stanley this morning. The first suit was bad enough, but this was just mean.

Unfortunately, it still provided the soul shield and armor buffs, so Stanley couldn't bring himself to reject it.

His flight started with a stopoff above the tower, where he amped up his soul sight for a good look around. The unplanned rescue from the church the day before had gotten Nate and Zeke all hot and bothered to find more survivors who might be struggling. Not that Stanley was against the idea, in theory, but...

He sighed and took a new route toward Nate's base.

It wasn't completely unreasonable that some people might struggle. After all, the monsters kept getting stronger every day, and the miasma was supposedly getting stronger too.

Of course, that was just an excuse. All anyone needed to do was never stop fighting. If they did that, then no one would fall behind.

Stanley ducked into every lair along the way and either wiped them out or got the queen to surrender. Either way, he left each lair with a new skill shard. Some crap, some decent, and the occasional one that looked promising.

It seemed that if he wanted the promised army to help with the war, he might actually need to put in some effort toward making it happen. One small effort toward that goal was bringing in more skills.

The idea was that Nate could use his intuition to determine who got which skills. Assuming it would work that way.

Stanley had been an idiot for a long time. Too worried about other people getting stronger than him. Sure, he still didn't like the idea. As a general principle. But it also felt more and more unlikely that anyone would match his power. Unlikely enough, in fact, that he was half hoping it would happen... just to have some real backup.

Obviously, he was on the lookout for any skills that might help him as well. It was just hard for anything to compete with the legendary skill he already had.

He'd turned down that soul skill from his class rank up... and he wasn't upset about it. He had a better idea, anyway. An idea he was... well, fairly confident about. Just not something he wanted to test until he finished fixing their soul.

Eve was waiting on his porch when he arrived, and she was already glowering at him. Stanley flew past with a wave and a smile that only intensified the glowering.

He stopped at the base and traded a handful of skill shards for double his bodyweight in chicken while Caffeine made the rounds. He didn't join Nate's training this time, but was pleased to see more of them actually putting in some effort to hurt each other.

It helped when they saw the new skill shards flying into Nate's hands.

Stanley took a minute to watch them fight. Particularly, he wanted to see how the lucky winners from the day before were enjoying their new skills. The only two who had run to Zeke's defense.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Ethan had taken the Shattering Touch skill, and it worked... well enough. He could shatter weapons and armor easily enough, and while it was less effective against flesh, it could shatter bones if he built the charge high enough. It would definitely come in handy if they ran into armored creatures.

Neal was the other one who'd stepped up, and he took the rat queen's skill shard. Which, predictably, was an acid spitting ability. Stanley had offered to get him something better if he waited, but the guy wanted it. The weirdo.

It was gross, but no one could say it wasn't effective. Horribly effective. Stanley had a feeling everyone on the receiving end of that skill longed for the good old days when they only got pelted with rocks.

Inside, there might have been a few more wary and hostile souls when he passed through, but no one opened their mouth at him. Either because Zeke had gotten to them or, more likely, they knew better.

Stanley stared back at any of them who looked his way, daring them to say something. They all looked away.

Word must have spread after yesterday. Turned out that cutting off someone’s hand during dinner and then freezing them mid-scream while you finished eating really sent a message... even if it bothered Caffeine a little.

Jerry, of course, was the least bothered by the display. But then he knew what Stanley was about. He was allowed to talk shit. He’d been out there in the slog. He was just more useful as a cook than a hunter. Really, anyone who contributed to this place in a meaningful way could open their mouth.

It was the freeloaders and cowards. Some of whom were still learning that their lives weren’t precious.

Chicken restocked and Caffeine let loose with Barbie, Stanley went back to his house. And his waiting pupil. Here we go again.

~~~Eve~~~

Eve glared at Stanley's back as she set up her antenna, now complete with a dish, after another useless soul lesson. The whole dish part didn't actually matter, since she wasn't trying to catch radio waves. Rather, it was just the extra surface area for the mana drain to work with.

Stanley, with his stupid, useless explanations! Oh, just move your soul energy into your eyes! Oh, just swirl it around! Oh, it's really simple! A bunch of useless nonsense! Soul energy didn't swirl or flow! It zipped and jumped like electricity! How could he be so dense as to not see that!?

She touched the antenna and let the spark of her soul jump inside it.

-1 Soul(Reserved)

Eve could abruptly feel the device. Like a separate limb detached from her body. It was definitely weird, but she was getting used to the sensation. Plus, it came with some perks.

She activated the Mana Drain skill in the new phantom limb and felt the trickle start flowing into her. It didn't matter that she was physically separate from the device; the mana still became hers. Sure, there was a limited range where it would work that way, but it was enough for her purposes.

Stanley didn't respond to anything she was doing. He just sat there like a lump. A loud one. A fucking grating one!

His dog had run in and off again somewhere. That was fine. She didn't need more hair getting into her equipment. Not when she was working with things that liked to go boom if she screwed up. The fucking Beast Lord—that little pug. It was so hard to believe... for more than one reason.

Eve went back inside, leaving her mana drain going next to the old fart. At least he was still good for something, since he was a shit teacher.

He might claim not to use mana, but that didn't change the fact that he was generating it. Whatever was going on with his leaking soul, or his source, or whatever other bullshit he hadn't mentioned, he was like a little fountain of mana. An annoyingly loud fountain!

She tried to ignore the sensation pulsing regularly against her soul and got back to work. It was useless, of course. You couldn't ignore the waves on a beach if you sat in the fucking surf! So all she could do was endure.

Those cores Stanley had tried to bribe Zeke with were the best ones she'd seen—if only that idiot hadn't wasted the D-grade core! The power she could have gained from it...

With nothing better to work with, she'd have to make do. E-grade cores were fine. She only muttered a few depreciating remarks his way while she wired the cores together.

Unfortunately, this wasn't difficult work. She could make power packs with her eyes closed by now. Which left her mind with far too much free time... and with the big, blaring loud speaker that was Stanley making it very hard to think about anything else.

She hadn't told him the truth. Why should she? What difference did it make? He had apologized. She would just sound like a bitch if she brought it up again. Plus... it looked like he really didn't remember. Asshole!

How do you fucking forget that!? Oh, I tried to kill you? So sorry. Yeah, I was grouchy that day. Don't even really remember it. I'm sure you don't mind.

Eve's trembling finger slipped... and the wire she was wrapping around the cores snapped off. "Fuck you!"

She glared uselessly toward Stanley before starting over. He'd asked her about her traits. All because Nate had to run his fucking mouth! How did that muscle head even know about her trait? She'd never told a soul.

Or... was he just bluffing? Nate might just be guessing. Maybe she should ask what he'd meant... but no, that would just tip him off if he was fishing.

Eve clenched her jaw and looked again at the trait. A trait she'd received that night. The second time she'd met Stanley... and the first time she... didn't die.

[Cheat Death]

Your death was absolute and irrevocable. Yet the Beast Lord decreed you live.

Continue not dying.

Effects(Recharging):

When you would die. Instead, evolve and keep fighting.

It was a good trait. There was no denying that fact. If only she didn't see that glowing monster every time she closed her eyes. If only she didn't see those... eyes. That murderous, killing gaze.

Now the trait was recharging. Because she had died. There was no almost about it this time...

She could never tell Zeke. He could never know the truth. Not after what he'd told her about his faith. Broken and unbroken alike.

For all his talk about forgiving that lunatic psychopath... he still hadn't forgiven himself for those deaths. Especially for Byron. Zeke had gotten too attached to that guy—to all of them.

Her baby brother had so little to smile about... after everything. But he still smiled. Despite everything. Despite the absolute shitshow that was his life. Both before and after the system fucked everyone else's lives up. He could still smile.

But he wasn't okay. Eve was doing her best to watch over him, so she saw him when he thought no one was watching. She saw the silent tears when he pretended to be asleep. She saw the white-knuckled fists when he woke, curled into a ball and shaking.

How... how could she ever tell him he'd failed to save her as well?

It was a secret he could never know. One he would never fucking know!

The memory of it was something she was still coming to grips with herself... She'd been out of her mind in pain. Babbling. Zeke just had to fucking tell him about that!

Then time stopped, and she fell away from the light.

You have died.

That notification... why was that even a thing? What sadistic fucking bastard thought anyone needed that notification?

[Cheat Death] Activated.

She'd stopped falling when that one appeared. Stopped plunging down into the abyss.

Above her, she saw Zeke. She saw her body beneath his hands. She saw the zombie looming over both of them. All of it frozen in a timeless moment.

Below her and behind her, she felt it. She couldn't see it, but she knew what lurked back there. Waiting for her. It was Nothing. The Void. The End.

Evolution Traits Available:

The system had offered her two traits to choose from. The first one would protect her from corruption. Not only that, but it would let her channel the corruption herself...

She chose the second trait. Zeke could heal the corruption, and she didn't want that rotten shit touching her! Never mind channeling it!

[Blood Bound Alloy]

You channeled enough mana to turn metal molten. Then you dumped that metal into your veins, which ravaged your body and contributed to your death.

You have evolved to turn a weakness into power.

Effects:

The metal in your blood is yours to command.

That trait had proved much more useful than the other would have been. Well, useful, at least. She couldn't compare it since she hadn't taken the other. She didn't want to compare them. Fuck the undead and fuck their disgusting magic!

Besides, Eve couldn't imagine the other trait would ever have lived up to what this one had given her.

A wire extended out from the flesh of her leg. The same wire she was using to wrap the cores into their lattice.

Commanding metal in her blood was so much more than she'd expected. She didn't just command it; she could reshape, remake, and change it. Eve didn't know what alloy she was using now, but it was the best mix she'd found for handling heavy mana use, and she'd created it inside her blood...

The worst part of all this. The absolute worst thing about it was that Stanley had not only saved her life by trying to kill her but he had also given her more power. Or had he?

That bastard!

She should thank him... She was still alive. She could still protect Zeke. But that was all because Stanley had tried to kill her and failed! It wasn't fucking okay to murder people because you were in a bad fucking mood! Fuck you, you...

+1 Soul

You demonstrated sufficient mastery to acquire the Non-Class Skill: Soul Leech (Rare)

What the hell? Eve felt knowledge enter her mind as the skill appeared on her status, and she understood. His leaking soul...

Soul Leech (Rare)

Take what you can. Give nothing back.

User may attempt to leech soul attributes from any target they touch which has a soul.

Amount and rate of leeching dependent on the difference between the user's soul and the targeted soul.

Target may detect leeching attempts, especially if used on a target with a higher soul attribute than the user's.

User has a chance of acquiring random effects from leeched souls. Chance increases from repeated use on the same target.

Skill Level Effects (Novice):

+1% Effective Soul

I'm not a fucking leech! But... It was an opportunity. A way to improve her soul. Stanley hadn't reacted to the point she'd already gained... and that was probably because of the leak. He said he couldn't use the shield while meditating and supposedly fixing his soul. She was likely just taking the soul he'd already lost. What did it matter if she did that?

The skill was working with and alongside her mana drain. She didn't even need to change anything. Stanley could sit out there doing... whatever bullshit he was doing, and she would just clean up after him. That was fine.

If he detected it and complained... well, that could be his apology for wanting to kill her. She hadn't forgiven him for that. Only for attacking Zeke...

Because Stanley had done so much worse before. When they first met. When he left her and Zeke in the clutches of that cunt...

He was a fucking psycho! Why couldn't he have just finished the fucking job?!

All those people... all the death and abuse.

Stanley didn't deserve any credit for saving them from the skeleton. They never would have ended up there if not for his failed assassination of the cunt! The bitch had been a lunatic before that, but she really went off the rails after someone resisted her fucking voice and tried to kill her... and after Eve resisted it.

Eve felt the ghost of a torch in her hand, felt the heat against her face... heard the screams... and her fingers spasmed, nails digging into her palm. Fuck you, cunt! And fuck you, Stanley!

She would leech every drop of his worthless fucking soul, and he could just go to hell if he didn't like it!

The old fart had already rubbed it in her face about how much more soul he had than anyone else. He could stand to lose plenty!

He was also certifiable. For all his claims of being the only thing between them and the undead, he couldn’t be trusted to protect Zeke. He’d already proven shit at that too. Eve was the only one who could do it. She had to be strong enough. Whatever it fucking took.

There was one teeny tiny little little issue with her plan. It came in the shape of a too-friendly, incessantly shedding, and god-damned beast lord pug! A fucking pug! Worse, it was a pug who had decreed she live. How the fuck could he do that!?

All of that really meant that Caffeine was the one who saved her. Not Stanley. So fuck the old bastard and fuck his soul! She didn't owe him shit.

Though there was that mention of random effects... so maybe she wouldn't leech too much? With his fucked up soul, who knew what twisted effect she'd end up with?

He better not turn me into an old fart!