~~~Lee~~~
Trak's soul potion still tasted vile, but Lee didn't complain. He also didn't balk. While the urgency to find an alchemical solution had faded following the soul enkindling trait, that hadn't stopped Trak from trying to improve. Which he had. Slightly.
Buff Gained: [Soul Elixir](23:59:59)
-5% All Soul Damage
Apparently it wasn't easy to get the numbers higher, but for an all day buff, it wasn't bad.
Lee swirled water around his mouth while watching his newest alien bodyguard. He had a question he wanted to ask Z. One he'd considered for a week now. A question that might be dangerous, and to more than himself.
Of course, he might be over-thinking things because Z was bound to him for a decade... and Lee had a feeling that their circumstances would be vastly different by the time that changed. So he asked the question. "Have you ever heard of a twin-soul?"
"No," Z replied. "Heard of soul-bond, soul-pair, and similar soul links. Never twin."
That answer was about what he'd expected. Their twin-soul was supposedly unique, after all. "What is a soul? A regular one."
"Everything. You asked before. Same answer. Every time."
"Yeah, yeah... Okay, then what is a soul if two people share it?"
"Unknown. Still everything. But more. Twice as much?"
"Wow," Lee said dryly. "How'd you come up with such a well thought out and in-depth theory?"
"Not scholar. Should ask teacher. Smart. Analytical. May have insights."
"Maybe I will," Lee said, then sighed. There wasn't any concrete reason to avoid telling people about his brother and their twin-soul... but he was still hesitant. Plus, he doubted Jeremy could actually help, even if he was smart. The guy was all about physics, and souls sure seemed to operate on fundamentally different rules.
Maybe. It was harder to say definitively one way or another once Jeremy started ranting about quantum physics...
"I have an identical twin brother, Z. Born from the same... embryo? Or is that just a human thing? Do you guys have twins?"
He'd forgotten to ask Trak about that... but he saw the anubian nodding along with Z. "No zhint twins. But know the concept. Many races have them."
"But no twin-souls?"
"No. Soul is always singular. One individual. One soul."
"Well, it's not that way anymore," Lee said, then frowned. "Huh, we really should have gotten a title or something for that... the first twin-soul."
"Perhaps not first."
"It said it was a unique attribute..."
"Perhaps unique. But not first?"
"I'm special, damn it!"
Amy chose that moment to walk in the door, and she cackled at him. Lee forgave her gross insubordination because he was a benevolent god... and because she had the breakfast burritos. "You finally asked him about your twin?"
Lee nodded distractedly, eyes fixed on the prize in her arms. "I brought it up."
He hadn't actually told Amy about Stanley. Her secret class, which she still wouldn't tell him about, must have told her something because she'd brought up the question of his twin on her own.
"You asked about undead before," Z said. "No sign of them here. Assume twin is fighting the eternals?" It was a reasonable deduction and a topic on which Z was sadly lacking.
"He's doing more than fighting them," Lee growled. "He's killing them." Though it wasn't without a price...
Z knew the undead were a major faction in the universe and confirmed what Trak said about them always going after every new world. Though he hadn't shared Trak's opinion that they always won. Which was something... Unfortunately, the so-called Eternals never hired zhint pairs, and his particular contracted zhint had never even fought against them before.
"Twin-soul..." Lee felt the growing frown in Z's soul, though he wasn't even sure if the zhint had human expressions. Not that he could see its face behind that helmet, either. They had emotions, at least. "If twin dies. You die?"
There it was. A rather blunt question, but it was straight to the point. Lee was equally direct in his reply. "Yes."
His answer put a damper on the mood, and everyone went silent while Amy passed around the burritos. Finally, Z spoke. "Problematic. Cannot fulfill contract properly. Assume twin is equally powerful? Can he win?"
Lee glared through the walls toward his brother. "He damn well better!"
"This twin-soul... It's how you hold source?" Another reasonable deduction.
"Yes." He didn't really need to think about that one, and while he wasn't absolutely sure, it was likely. Of course, Caffeine was likely playing a part as well... As for what part exactly, he had no clue.
"Fascinating. New. Yet shouldn't work. Soul is powerful. Could hold source if strong enough. But flesh will die. No matter if one or two."
Lee considered mentioning that Caffeine's shadow was sitting in their soul... but he honestly wasn't sure how to describe it. Let alone all the other madness of their soul. "Can you see or only sense my soul? Our soul?"
"Only feel it. Not normal. Most souls hidden. Protected. Suspect the injury is responsible."
Lee hadn't told him about the soul wound, but Three had offered the soul-link to Z the moment the contract was official... so there was no hiding that, even if he wanted to. At least Three had waited until the guy was firmly on their side...
"Does my soul feel... fucked up to you?"
"Unknown. First time feeling a soul like this. Maybe all souls feel the same if injured?"
Lee shivered as he recalled the first good look he'd gotten at their soul. Stanley had thought it was ruined, and Lee could admit it didn't look... healthy, but he wasn't as pessimistic.
On the bright side, he now had a pretty good idea about why they'd lost so much soul in the fight with the skeleton.
Souls were strong—among the strongest things in the multiverse. Allegedly. Especially the inner soul. The core of a person. What Z called the True-Soul.
Supposedly, even the system couldn't touch that part of someone. Which explained why the system didn't seem to know they had the source until they'd let it out... and which might also explain why it didn't know what their soul attribute was for so long.
There were spells and abilities that targeted people's souls—Lee knew that from firsthand experience—but those were supposed to debuff or injure someone, not destroy the soul. Because destroying someone's soul was apparently the most difficult way to kill them, assuming you even could.
Because the true-soul was inviolable.
Or at least Z claimed so. He said that to change the true-soul was to change a person in the most fundamental sense. Who they are. What they believe. How they feel. Or, more simply, everything.
All of that information left Lee with a singular, burning question. What the hell had happened to their soul!? More specifically, what had they done to it to leave it looking the way it did now?
Except, that wasn't really the right question. The right question was who were they now versus whoever they'd been before, and were they still the same people? A question that may well be impossible to answer, with the only remaining comfort being that they'd done this to themselves. Presumably for a good reason... if only he could remember what it was...
Also, their true-soul wasn't that bad. It wasn't untouched by whatever they'd done, but the... damage was less substantial in there. The mutilation was less... terrible. Assuming that center was their actual True-Soul?
Or maybe it only felt better because Caffeine was in there? Or Caffeine’s shadow? Lee wasn't actually sure what it was, because he'd seen Caffeine fighting both inside and outside their soul...
He pressed Z for more, but the alien had no new information beyond what he'd already given. Mainly that a soul was incredibly powerful and durable. It was capable of almost limitless potential—like holding a source—but it needed a body to house it.
Z didn't know the why of it all, only that the easiest way to destroy a soul was simply to destroy the body. Something Lee would be sure to mention if and when he next got a chance to see Stanley in their soul...
After a probably unnecessary reminder to keep their discussion to himself, Lee sent Z back out to keep hunting cores for him. But only for a quick run, given the circumstances. A solo run.
Lee usually sent him out with a whole mob of people, who then rotated back and forth to carry cores and raw materials home while Z wrecked everything. They had only been at it for a week, but the results were fantastic.
Status
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Name: Lee Cascade
Race: [Mana Soulforge](E-grade Human)
Titles: [F-grade Source] [First Time?] [Swarm Chaser] [Minor Lord](400)
Contracts: [Nicholas Alberton] [Zynthar]
Traits: [Adaptable](55%) [Source Nexus] [Soulforged Mana] [Ley Line Attuned] [Runic Resonance] [Rune Harmonics] [Source Burned] [Ruthless Soul]
Class: Runic (Legendary) - Level 99 (Advanced)
Class Skills: Artistic Rune Creation (Epic) - Level 99(Advanced) | Rune Soul Storage (Epic) - Level 49 (Intermediate) | Soul Infusion (Epic) - Level 35 (Basic) | Language of the Rune (Unique) - Level [N/A]
Attributes:
Strength: 450(+290%)1755
Vitality: 444(+290%)1731
Dexterity: 448(+290%)1747
Wisdom: 557(+2589%)14977
Intelligence: 583(+2589%)15676
Willpower: 568(+2589%)15273
Twin-Soul: 108(+567%)720
Non-Class Skills(4/6):
Liquid Mana Beam (Rare) - Level 15 (Basic) | Liquid Mana Inferno (Rare) - Level 1 (Novice) | Mana Mind (Epic) - Level 85 (Advanced) | Create Plate (Rare) - Level 45 (Intermediate) | Soul Awareness (Epic) - Level 40 (Intermediate) | Temporal Shift (Legendary) - Level 30 (Intermediate)
Buffs: [Three] [Soul-Link]
Debuffs: [Deadly Soul Wound(Rune Seal)(Shielded)]
Lee had never felt stronger, both physically and... magically, as he followed Z onto the balcony. He was pretty sure he could now jump easily out of the courtyard and clear over the roof, which he obviously couldn't test. Not yet.
The soul debuff hadn't changed, but Lee had a feeling it was getting closer to that eventuality.
Stanley had been... extra focused this past week. That was the best description he had for the feeling of his twin. Focused and relentless.
Their soul attribute had gone up as well, though he still couldn't figure out how Stanley was doing it... He'd also given up on trying to help his twin with the process.
There was a feeling he'd picked up on over the last few days—a feeling he was fairly confident was Stanley doing—whatever it was he did in there.
It started as a kind of pressure on their soul, then it built into a dull ache, at which point Stanley would stop doing whatever it was and go hunting. Then the ache would fade throughout the day... It was a repeating cycle that left Lee with no way to contribute to the effort. Not without potentially fucking something up by experimenting...
Stanley still held that same focused feeling when he went hunting, but there was a... sharper edge to his focus. A killing edge. Enough to tell the difference between soul repair and fighting. Which meant right now Stanley was hunting.
Lee found himself in the opposite situation. He wasn't the hunter. He was the hunted.
"Uncle Lee!" Gabriel abandoned the breakfast table, bounding his way up to the third floor with only slightly more effort than it would take for the adults. Probably faster, too, since Martin's training was pushing all the kids nearly into E-grade—at least the ones who took part. "Did you get it yet!?"
"Not yet," Lee said, wincing as he saw the disappointment fall over the boy's face. "But it should be any day now!" He fled into the garage to get away from Gabriel and also to keep working on leveling.
He'd made great progress with both his class and scribe skill. Until they plateaued at level ninety-nine. It was another threshold. One where he was missing something. Again.
By now, plenty of people had found out about class and skill thresholds. A sort of limiter that stopped them from progressing further, but not a universal one, as Z shared. It turned out that the lower the rarity, the easier it was to keep leveling, and, of course, the higher it was, the harder.
Jeremy had been stuck at a very low level with his ability because, as he put it, physics were all wrong now. But he'd gotten past the first block once he finally started thinking outside the box, and it went pretty much the same for everyone.
Though if you got extra creative, you could evolve a skill or class into something... different. Usually something better, and often higher rarity.
Dennis was a good example of that. He'd turned his bananas into... a lot of stuff. Honestly, it was totally a stretch to even call them bananas at this point.
Still, it just meant Lee needed to get more creative. He would figure it out. He had to. Gabriel had a growing collection of trinkets and doodads that he was already dreaming up runes for.
Of course, it was one thing to know what he needed to do and another thing entirely to figure out how the hell to do it.
He'd made Saira a weapon in the same way he'd made Bradley's, except her staff was a living tree branch instead of stone. Also, it only held mana; he'd never found a way to channel her healing energy. Still, the staff itself was alive, so in an emergency, she could destroy it. Obviously, creating it hadn't pushed him past the threshold. Probably because he'd already done it before. He needed something new.
Lee had tried a lot of new and not so new stuff in the name of leveling. Some of it was... unsavory. Like getting Z to drag monsters into his Mana Mind range so he could experiment with sticking runes into their flesh—or rather, their bones. Since actual flesh was surprisingly hard to put a rune on...
It was possible that making flesh runes happen would do the trick, but he'd already tortured a lot of monsters to death trying to figure it out... Sure, they were all creatures who would kill and eat him if they could... but none of them would torture him.
They were only animals, not real monsters. Not like some of the humans out there... or the invaders. Except... Trak and Z had been invaders... No, he wouldn't hesitate when it came to the invaders. If they attacked him or his people, then they were asking for whatever horrible things he did to them.
Lee reflexively checked the timer again.
[Victory](02:00:15)
They still had time. Besides, there was no guarantee they would get attacked right away like they had last time. Lee hoped they wouldn't have to wait while simultaneously dreading the attack. It was better to get it over with... but last time had been so close. He'd almost lost people.
Speaking of which, he hadn't seen Mar or Bradley since they left at the crack of dawn. They were keeping track of the timer... right? Or did they want to avoid the next invasion?
Lee shook his head. So far, the young couple seemed far less upset about the entire thing than anyone else. Though it turned out Bradley wasn’t as welcoming to Z once he saw the zhint back in his full armor.
At least they both had enchanted skeletons now...
Of course, if Lee really wanted to experiment with flesh runes, he could always use his own flesh... but maybe later. For now, he looked over his renovated elevator room with a wide smile. His former elevator room.
With some help from Three and Bradley, they'd removed the elevator and turned the space into a bunker. A bunker that doubled as an extra staircase. Albeit a cramped one. The metal from the elevator had also gone into fortifying the walls a bit more, along with more magically compressed stone to replace the cement.
Jeremy knew all about it, and Lee felt a lot better about him sticking invader D-grades inside when they showed up.
It was a great plan. Lee would bubble the D-grade to slow it down, Jeremy would swap it into the new room, and Three would kill it. Easy. Unless they got two D-grades again... which Z thought was likely, thanks mostly to his added presence here.
Z didn't know all the rules for invasions, but he knew a lot of them. Probably because his job involved constant dungeon diving.
He'd shared the knowledge freely, and Lee'd ensured it was all written, copied, and distributed to every human settlement they could find out there. Despite Wilson’s protests.
Some of that information didn't go over very well with everyone. Like when he confirmed that the number of humans in the fort was directly proportional to how many invaders could come through, at least on easy mode...
Easy mode. Talk about some bullshit.
The system actually kept track of combat versus noncombat people, and the invaders could see those numbers. So could Lee. At least for his own fort.
Fort Greenfield Residents: (681) Combat. (1509) Noncombat.
It was less clear how each individual got classified. Lee's class hadn't been labeled either way when he picked it, and Bradley might technically be considered a crafting class... until you saw him fight. Then there were the crafters that evolved into more combat capable roles. Like Dennis.
Even Z wasn't sure how the system decided, but he knew the invaders could technically send in two-thousand, one-hundred, and ninety attackers if they wanted to. So, an army.
On top of that, there were many more invasion types, like Grand Raids, which is what Z thought the undead had used. An invasion area the size of San Diego. Not just the city proper, but the entire greater San Diego metropolis...
Learning something like that was possible helped drive the new outreach program. Not only did they need to be united if something on that scale ever happened over here, but there was another positive to keeping as many smaller forts standing as possible.
Because every active victory buff acted as a block against a larger invasion which might otherwise include that area. So long as even a single fort in the city had the buff, there would be no grand raids. Of course, there were smaller raids...
Z also confirmed that the system liked to send invasions to the forts, as opposed to some random wilderness. Which was another reason to keep more forts standing. If too many fell, then there wouldn't be any victory buffs... and so on.
To that end, along with sending Bradley around to build walls for those who needed them, they also needed to balance the forts.
Lee's home was a standout in sheer numbers, but the combat to noncombat ratio wasn't that far from standard. Though his and Z's presence definitely skewed things away from normal... and even Z wasn't sure how much exactly.
The trick now was to make sure each human base had enough solid fighters to repel the maximum number of invaders they could get. Apprenticeships were another way to boost the combat numbers, but there were only so many to go around, even with the increased access to more people helping find better affinity matches.
Despite his lofty goals, Lee accomplished nothing over the next couple of hours and only ended up pacing almost nonstop.
They all set up the same way as last time, while the clock ticked toward zero. Amy and Jackson stood beside him in the courtyard with Z, and Jeremy hid nearby.
Lee could see a lot further as his Mana Mind leveled up, and so could watch Alejandro on the wall with Mar and Bradley. He could even see Meathead lurking far below them. Underground.
He felt a little bad about threatening the animal before, but only a little. Meathead had almost cost Mar her life, and on the plus side, Mar said he was being far more cooperative now. Though he was still afraid to get anywhere close to Three again.
Buff Removed: [Victory]
He saw Amy glance at him and said nothing. He would not jinx them this...
You have been conscripted into Major Dungeon: [Dirty Hunters]
Lee felt his heart rate pick up speed and his hands clenched into empty fists as he waited for the inevitable. He needed a weapon to hold in moments like this—maybe a staff of his own. Though that didn't really make sense for him—not while he was in here. But maybe a wand? If he could figure out a good way to help Three aim its mana beams...
As he'd learned in the last invasion, Three could fire mana beams. What he hadn't figured out until later was that Three couldn't actually see—at least nothing outside the walls. Even when Lee directly told the building to attack something.
He'd really thought Three could see through his eyes... or at least hear his thoughts, considering all the times it had defended him. But it wasn't so clear cut. Three didn't hear thoughts, more like... intentions? It was probably something to do with the runes and his soul in those runes.
"What's out there!?" Lee finally demanded, as the lingering, stretching silence only heightened his anxiety.
"There's... nothing out here," Bradley said through his communication disc. "No sign of a portal, either."
Alejandro's voice followed, the man now on the far side of the fort. "Same on this side, but this dungeon's bigger than before. They might be down the hills somewhere."
Or they were invisible.
"We can go look around," Bradley said, and Lee saw Meathead swimming slowly higher through the ground toward them.
"No!" There was no way they were going anywhere. Not with almost certainly two D-grades out there. "Z can..."
Resource Lair is under attack by the Invaders.
Failure to defend your resource lair will result in its permanent destruction, while a successful defense will result in an upgrade of the resource.
Defend your territory. Fight.
What the hell? The invaders were attacking the iron mine? Why would they do that?