~~~Stanley~~~
Stanley crossed the river back into downtown. He stayed high and watched for birds while looking for a new lair to target. Preferably one with no fucking magic.
His head was throbbing again, but he refused to lie down for another nap. He'd already wasted enough of the day sleeping. The pain left him faintly nauseous, but it wasn't increasing. He even tested throwing some cars across the streets to make sure.
That was how he found the rats.
Stanley had nothing against the rats, aside from them wanting to eat him and being way too big, but he was in a bad mood. So the rats had to be the ones to suffer for it.
Four of them had been under the car Stanley picked up, and they scattered when their cover flew away. Stanley slammed the car right back down and caught two of them beneath it. As for the other two, parked cars lined the street, and he wrecked more than a few of them in the process of smashing the runners.
More rats were revealed under every car Stanley moved, and it turned into an increasingly chaotic game of whack-a-rat as the street came alive with a swarm of giant rodents.
He thought he was safe in the air. Even the speed they showed in running away wasn't nearly enough to jump to his height. So, of course, they had their own fucking magic.
Stanley didn't know what their magic was when they struck. He didn't even get to see it. The only warning he had was a flash of pain across his face. A horrible burning pain. It only lasted for an instant though, and was gone before he could even fully register it. Because Caffeine grew to fill his vision and jumped out of his lap. Jumped from well above the rooftops of the three-story buildings lining the street.
Trying to keep the pug in his lap was futile. Not only was he now far too big to wrap an arm around, but the force of his kickoff sent Stanley flying backwards. Damn it, Caff!
The yelp of pain was loud coming from the larger pug, and Stanley regretted his thoughts immediately as he realized Caffeine had just taken a hit for him. Regret turned to fear, and then fear drowned beneath a rising tide of anger.
Headache forgotten, Stanley followed the giant pug down. He tried to catch Caffeine on the way, but the pug somehow kicked off his mental touch and launched himself down the street. Following his trajectory, Stanley was just in time to see a glowing green... something shoot right over his head as he plummeted.
Then Caffeine reached the origin of the green light and a squealing noise sounded out before ending abruptly.
Stanley followed behind, deciding to trust Caffeine's instincts and his new F-grade strength. It would be a good test of his evolution. As he went, Stanley threw cars at anything that moved. Primarily because it took less effort than attacking the rats directly, but also because the cars were big. Each one between him and whatever magic they threw his way could act as a shield.
Caffeine didn't stop after his kill, and he bounded back towards Stanley at his normal size, leaving behind a headless rat. However, halfway through his leap, Caffeine was abruptly bigger; big enough that his feet now touched the ground. Then he shot past Stanley in a blur.
Another rat squeal ended prematurely, and Stanley silently thanked Caffeine as he smashed innumerable rats with his mind. He stayed airborne, high enough for a better vantage on his targets, but low enough that Caffeine could still protect him.
The rats came in force, their numbers only seeming to grow as they died. Stanley threw cars, and then the wreckage of former cars, until eventually, he was tossing around scrap. Though the engine blocks still made good cannonballs after he'd destroyed the rest of the vehicles.
Stanley kept moving too, trying to avoid the increasing number of glowing green balls of... whatever it was. It wasn't until one landed on a car he'd just picked up that he realized what it was.
It was acid.
The sight of it chewing through the frame of the car chilled some of Stanley's anger and brought renewed fear for Caffeine. He snatched up a handful of engines, sending them into orbit around his person, and went looking for the pug.
It wasn't hard to find him, just follow the barking and squealing, but it was difficult to pin down the dog with the speed at which he was blurring around the battlefield. Stanley finally caught him, dragging Caffeine back into his lap, and then stared in horror at what he found.
Caffeine had holes in his body.
Stanley could see his exposed spine... his skull showing through where an ear should have been... one eye only a hollow socket... the side of his chest was nearly bare bones from the shoulder and down his ribs. On the other side, his entire front leg was missing.
What have I done... The world shook around him as Stanley stared. There was a roaring noise in his head, drowned out only by the whine coming from Caffeine's mouth. Oh, god! What have I done!
Acid flew in from every direction in a sudden deluge, and Stanley realized how much of a moron he truly was. He dove in here like it was nothing, and let Caffeine go protect him. He hadn't even realized how bad it was... because Caffeine was doing most of the work. Caffeine was taking all the hits for him!
Stanley reached his screaming mind down into the street, reached deep below it, and then ripped everything he touched from the ground.
The pillar of asphalt and dirt shot up toward them, then ripped itself apart as it passed around him and the pug. Darkness fell as literal tons of earth and rock spun into orbit around the duo, enclosing them in a sphere of meter thick protection.
Stanley didn't need light as he simultaneously ripped apart his backpack and nearly forced the food into Caffeine's mouth. Eat... please eat!
He couldn't speak past the choking lump in his throat as Caffeine finally started eating what felt like an eternity later. He couldn't see the grievous injuries in the dark, but he didn't need to. The sight was burned into his mind so vividly that he would never forget it.
Stanley could barely draw breath as he hung in the sky and piled food in his lap. This was all his fault. Every time Caffeine got hurt, it was because he had been an idiot. Every time Caffeine cried out in pain, it was because Stanley was the one responsible... I am the monster.
Acid continued to pelt the surface of his spinning shield. He couldn't hear it, not over the pounding in his ears and the intermittently crying dog, but he could feel it. Each spell burned through his mind before digging a hole in the dirt surrounding them. Each burning trail felt right, felt deserved. It should hurt... It should hurt so much more!
He should have just flown away. That was all he'd had to do. Just fly away from the dangerous magic and take Caffeine with him. But he had to be an idiot. He had to think he was powerful enough. Had to let Caffeine pay for his uselessness...
Now it was time to go again. He knew he should fly away. They'd lost. He lost.
But Stanley couldn't do it.
He was just... So. Angry. Angry at the rats. Angry at horrible, stupid humans. Angry at the invaders for trapping him in this place. Angry at the system for starting the whole shitshow. But most of all, he was so angry at himself. So angry that he was such a useless fuckup! So angry because this was all his fault.
He'd abandoned Lee when his brother needed him the most. Had gotten himself trapped thousands of miles away. Then he had almost gotten himself and Caffeine killed over and over.
They were trapped in a nightmare. And every day it got worse.
Stanley was so very, very angry that he had to turn it on something else, anything else! Otherwise, he feared what he might do... So he let it flow from him, his mind along for the ride as his power reached out for something to kill. Something to hurt.
He found lots of soft things with his mind. It wasn't difficult. He just followed the burning trails back to their source. Then he crushed everything in the vicinity into as small a space as his anger dictated. Which was far too small for anything to survive.
Squish went the rats. One after the other. Then two or three at a time, then a dozen.
Then the trails of pain stopped coming.
Stanley reached out further, seeking for something to kill, anything to hurt.
He found moving things, all of them going in the same direction. He squished them and reached further.
It wasn't enough! He needed to kill more monsters. Needed to destroy... everything!
So he moved in the direction they were running, his spinning shield of dirt going with him.
More movement touched his mind. They were running away from him. Trying to escape... Stanley wanted them to run. He wanted them to lead him back to their home so he could KILL EVERY LAST FUCKING ONE OF THEM!
So he compromised and only killed half of the runners. Killed them slowly. Grabbing, dragging, and grinding their lives away on the asphalt as their fellows raced ahead. It was the only way to appease his rage... because Stanley wanted to hurt himself even more.
It was irrational. It wouldn't help anything. Wouldn't help Caffeine. But it didn't matter. He wanted to hurt himself because it might drown out the pain in his chest. Drown out the memories of his failures and fuckups... and he didn't dare do it.
The small traitorous voice in the back of his head was telling him how easy it would be. His power was strong. Far stronger than his body. All he needed was to think about it... just one small thought and this would all end... the nightmare would be over.
So he tortured the rats as they led him home. Fed his rage to them before it could destroy him.
They led him to a pit beneath a basement apartment. A hole just wide enough for them to crawl inside and scurry away. None of them made it into the pit alive, and Stanley sent his mind down in their place.
It went deep. Splitting multiple times along the way. It also made it too easy to find the rats.
This wasn't like trying to grab the truck frame, or feel out a lock on the other side of the door. Not even like finding rats in the street. It was a nice narrow tunnel, and all he had to do was push.
His mind felt resistance occasionally, and it got harder when one tunnel became three, then eight. But that was good. It took effort. Took enough concentration that he had no room for thought. No room for regrets. Only pushing.
Some of the tunnels ended abruptly. Some ended in larger rooms. All of them ended with something soft getting smashed into the wall until it stopped being soft.
More of the tunnels rejoined the others, all of them culminating in a massive open space deep below the ground.
Stanley kept pushing.
His mind screamed and burned, and Stanley welcomed the pain because it drowned out everything else. He pushed until the rear wall was flat. Then he kept pushing. His head was full of searing agony, and Stanley kept pushing. It hurt so good that he didn't want to stop. He never wanted to stop. Even when everything started getting cloudy and far away, he kept pushing.
He just had to keep...
The abrupt stabbing pain in his hand was different and followed by a violent shaking of his entire body. It was shocking enough that it dragged his attention briefly back into his body.
Stanley blinked in the bright daylight as a scream trailed off... his own scream.
His throat felt raw, and his mouth was dry... and gritty.
He spit out the dirt in his mouth... and met the big brown eyes of the black pug staring down at him and whining. Stanley looked away, his head thick and clouded with guilt and shame... then his gaze trailed back to the pug. A pug with two eyes... two ears... and two front legs digging into his chest...
His arms felt terribly weak as he reached trembling hands up to touch the pug. Caffeine was whole again? There were a few patches where his already short hair looked even thinner, and one of his paws had no hair at all, but he was okay...
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Stanley pulled him down into a hug. Somewhere deep down he'd known Caffeine would be fine. The pug had healed from equally bad injuries before, and that was before F-grade. So of course, Caffeine would heal this time, too. Then why did he freak out?
Because he was a worthless...
Caffeine squirmed from his arms and barked one of his too loud barks.
Stanley's eyes snapped open, looking for the threat as he tried to lift himself... and pain stabbed through his head. He blinked away the tears of pain and... found Caffeine standing on his chest again... staring down into his face. Was he growling?
"I'm sorry!" Stanley's voice was rough, and it hurt his throat as he sobbed. "It's all my fault..."
Caffeine barked again. Directly in Stanley's face, then lunged down to... lick his face.
Stanley reached up to hug him again... his hand throbbed and bled from a few punctures.
Had... had Caffeine bitten him?
That was fine. He'd deserved...
Caffeine stood up to growl, and it was very clearly and deliberately aimed at Stanley. Then he spun away for an instant and came back slightly bigger... with a can of ravioli in his jaws.
Stanley had a moment to process what he was seeing, and then the jaws snapped closed.
Sauce and bits of pasta sprayed everywhere, including Stanley's face.
When he wiped his eyes clear and opened them, he found Caffeine standing over him with another can. "Wait," Stanley croaked and reached a shaking hand up. "I'll... eat it."
A few drops and chunks had found their way into Stanley's mouth from the crushed can, and it lit a fire in his stomach. New strength surged through his limbs as he sat up and peeled open the can, just grateful it was a tab top since his brain was still on fire...
By the time he had dumped the can down his throat, which had to be measured in seconds, Caffeine was dropping the sixth unopened can into his lap. Stanley didn't question the uncharacteristic behavior from the normally starving pug and just went to town on the food.
Debuff Downgraded: [Famished]
Debuff Removed: [Brain Bleed]
Stanley's thoughts abruptly became much clearer, and he almost regretted it. Almost. Instead, he sat frozen for a few seconds as his mind raced. He couldn't believe how fast he'd spiraled... What the fuck is wrong with me?
Caffeine growled softly and nosed his unmoving fingers where they wrapped around the can.
"Good boy, Caff." Stanley kept eating. Food was something simple, and his body was demanding it, anyway. He ate and tried not to think too hard.
Was his mental state already at the breaking point? Was he truly that weak? Was he...
Stanley redirected his thoughts before Caffeine could growl at him, and to a related and less depressing but still tangentially related topic. Maybe I should have taken the meditation skill. After all, His Premonition skill had proved completely worthless ever since...
He froze in the process of peeling another lid off. His Premonition skill had warned him... many times, in fact. He just hadn't realized it. That burning on his chest right before Caffeine blocked the acid... small burning pains in the fight later... all so minor and fleeting that he'd ignored them. It wasn't just today either. He could remember multiple instances ever since he'd gained the skill, and all of them ignored because the damage never actually happened afterward.
Because Caffeine protected him every time.
Stanley poured more salty crap down his throat before he could spiral again, and then finally looked at his surroundings.
It was dirt. A towering pile of dirt that surrounded him on all sides, with him in a pit at the center. Right. The dirt. He'd dropped it at some point... and it was obvious why he hadn't been buried in the mess.
Caffeine. Again.
So he kept eating and checked his notifications while he did. Stanley wasn't looking forward to seeing more proof of his stupidity, but he wanted to know why his head screamed every time he tried to use Psychokinesis.
There was a lot.
+1 Willpower
+1 Willpower
+1 Willpower
Debuff: [Rage Overload]
Class Level Up: [Psionic]
+1 Willpower
+1 Willpower
Skill Level Up: [Psychokinesis]
Debuff: [Brain Bleed]
Debuff: [Famished]
Trait Upgraded: [Psycho]
+1 Willpower
+1 Willpower
Skill Level Up: [Psychokinesis]
Debuff Upgraded: [Critical Brain Bleed]
Debuff Upgraded: [Starving]
Debuff Downgraded: [Brain Bleed]
Debuff: [Cerebral Fatigue]
+1 Willpower
Debuff: [Minor Bleeding]
Caffeine had indeed bitten him. "Good... boy," Stanley said through a mouthful. The good boy in question had finally sat down, but was still staring intently at him.
Stanley went back to the notifications, the rest of which were mostly his healing from another deadly injury. This one self inflicted.
Then he went to his status to see how the system would reward his reckless and suicidal behavior.
Status
Name: Stanley Cascade
Race: [Psychomancer](F-Grade Human)
Traits: [Adaptable] [Energetic Resilience] [Psycho]
Class: Psionic (Rare) - Level 15 (Basic)
Class Skills: Psychokinesis (Uncommon) - Level 18 (Basic) | Premonition (Epic) - Level 6 (Novice)
Attributes:
Strength: 24(-20%)20
Vitality: 22(-19%)20
Dexterity 21(-15%)18
Wisdom 23(+71%)39[Cerebral Fatigue]19
Intelligence 19(+70%)32[Cerebral Fatigue]16
Willpower 35(+512%)214[Cerebral Fatigue]107
Twin-Soul ???
Non-Class Skills 1/3: Knife Work (Rare) - Level 5 (Novice)
Buff:
Debuff: [Hungry] [Cerebral Fatigue] [Rage Overload]
It had rewarded him, quite well, in fact, and Stanley suspected what was responsible.
Trait Upgraded:
[Psycho]
Rage against the dying of the light.
You have found additional power by embracing rage. Keep the anger alive and become stronger as you rage.
You have fully embraced your rage and forged it into a deadly but volatile weapon at the cost of your own flesh.
Rage can be a powerful tool, but keep your will strong lest this power turn against you.
+400% - 1000% Effective Willpower
-20% Effective Physical Attributes
Yup. That was it. Stanley didn't care about the new decrease to his physical stats. What he did care about was the added line in the description. A line that might have been really fucking useful to see when the trait was first offered to him, before he accepted it!
He checked the debuffs next, though the first was clear enough.
[Cerebral Fatigue](1:45:16)
You have pushed your mind beyond its limits and will require time to recover to full strength.
-50% to All Mind Attributes
Duration and severity may increase with continued mental exertion.
[Rage Overload](45:01)
A strong rage has overcome you so fully that it will require time before your mood stabilizes.
-50% Emotional Control
That was... something. Could you actually quantify emotion like that? Did he have a hidden emotional control attribute? Was this going to happen every time he got angry? If so, then what was the use of the damn evolution!? Or was this just how it worked for everyone? As in, more power equals more downsides. He had no answers and no option to choose differently now.
Debuff Removed: [Hungry]
Stanley shook his head and looked at the pile of empty cans before struggling to his feet. Speaking of attributes; he should really claim the cores. Might as well get something out of his meltdown.
His shoes were full of dirt when he slid down the far side of the mound that used to be his shield, and he stopped to dump it out before shuffling toward the apartment building.
A trail of blood and gore led him to the door, and just inside, he found what he'd expected.
Lair [Pit of Dissolution] Destroyed.
Lair structure may be claimed by new occupants for the next (23:38:55)
Skill Shard[F-grade]
Acid Spit (Uncommon)...
+0.2 All Base Attributes
He didn't bother even reading the description. No way was he going to be spitting acid. On that thought, he dug another core from his pocket.
Skill Shard[F-grade]
Winged Slash...
+0.2 All Base Attributes
Something was clear to Stanley now. He didn't need more skills. Definitely not random ones that might not even benefit from willpower. He only needed power. Raw power would beat anything and everything. He had just proven it here.
Then he stood in the doorway and stared at the pit leading down into the ground. He turned away. Nope.
Stanley went back outside and began picking up each core as he followed the trail of ground up rat down the street. Caffeine followed, clearly tired, but some of his regular excitement returned as he ran around sniffing everything, though he did glance back at Stanley a bit more than usual.
I'll be okay, Caff.
It was a long walk. Surprisingly long. He hadn't realized how far they'd come. How far the rats had been roaming from the lair... which was another disturbing fact to discover. He'd thought the birds might be an anomaly since he'd attacked them first before they came for him, but the rats had been roaming far before Stanley got there.
His body handled the walking fine; he was still stronger physically than before the system, but the ever-present throb of his head didn't appreciate the impact of his feet against the ground.
Each rat gave up the good cores, which made sense considering how fucking dangerous they were. It added up on the long trek, especially when he got back to the beginning... where there were a lot of dead rats. Some crushed beneath cars or other debris, but far more with pieces missing or obvious and fatal bite wounds.
He wasn't sure if the fight had scared everything else away, or if the rats had done that, but nothing showed during the core collection. Even Caffeine never reacted to anything. Not till they were almost done.
Stanley was watching Caffeine chow down on a rat, and was pleased about it since they were pretty much out of food and he wasn't in the best shape to go shopping. He was also considering trying to roast some rat himself when Caffeine looked up and growled softly.
Before Stanley could turn, someone whistled. Long and slow. "Quite the fight you've had here, friend."
Stanley looked at the group of people emerging from around a corner and felt his head pound faster as his heart-rate sped up. This would not go well. He just had a feeling.
"You look tired," the first speaker said. "Why don't you let us help you out by gathering all those cores?" He was eyeing a core only a few paces from him.
Stanley raised his hand, and the core in question shot through the air into his palm. He absorbed it immediately. "No, thanks."
It stung his mind, but technically, he still had more willpower now than before the rats... he wasn't helpless.
"Let me put it another way," the man said, while he and his group advanced. "You should walk away. Get some rest... while you still can."
Stanley glanced around at the cores while his temper flared. Then his sweeping gaze landed on Caffeine staring silently up at him... and he slumped. "Okay. I'm leaving." It wasn't worth the fight. Caff had taken enough hits for him today. Besides, he'd already taken most of the cores.
Caffeine wagged his tail at Stanley, then growled softly at the core thieves once before following him. They only made it ten steps before Caffeine abruptly towered next to him.
Honestly, it was almost a relief that they were attacking him. It helped reaffirm his belief that humans were all monsters.
This time, Stanley was paying attention to his premonition and knew where the attack was coming from. Not that he needed to. Caffeine had already moved to shield him from it. As expected.
Stanley was already upset about getting robbed, about his own failings, about... everything. Seeing Caffeine ready to take the hit for him once again was more than enough to push him all the way back into Rage.
His mind was spread out around them in anticipation of this very attack, and Stanley felt the magic burn through it from the rooftop across the street. Heading straight for Caffeine. Obviously, they'd sent someone up there specifically to attack him. It had been the plan all along to kill him. All the words were just meaningless distractions.
Stanley grabbed the magic.
It roiled and burned in his mind as he turned to face his attackers. He didn't look at the figure on the roof. That was just a dead minion. Instead, he looked at the leader. The man who had, until that moment, been sprinting towards him with a glowing knife in his hand. Behind him, his little band of dead men were all preparing spells or abilities and one was even drawing back on a bow.
Stanley couldn't physically see the magic in his mental grip; Caffeine still shielded him completely with his larger form, but it felt... hot.
Then it exploded.
Stanley held onto the explosion, squeezing it tight so it couldn’t escape, the fiery pain of it feeling good in his rage. Feeling... right. He squeezed it tighter and tighter until it finally vanished. The whole time staring at the leader of these monsters as it stared back in shock. Stanley wanted it to see. Wanted the monster to be afraid. Wanted it to know despair. Wanted it to Hurt!
Then Stanley ripped the monster’s head off.
His gaze slid to the next monster as blood fountained into the air, and Stanley hesitated when his eyes caught on something else.
Caffeine was small again, and he was ignoring the monsters to stare up with those big worried eyes at him.
It was so hard not to rip them apart... slowly, while they screamed. But Stanley waited anyway, eyes locked on the only good thing in this whole dungeon. He waited for them to run away. To make the right choice, and...
The archer fired.
Stanley killed all of them.
For Caffeine's sake, he took their heads. He wanted to take their limbs first, make them scream and beg, but he didn't. He showed mercy to the monsters.
Then Caffeine was in his face again, and Stanley wrapped his arms around the giant neck and buried his face in the glossy black fur. He stayed there until the rage cooled, and Caffeine waited the whole time, not shrinking or moving. He stood still and let Stanley hold him until it was over.
Then he laid down on Stanley's feet and passed out.
Stanley picked up the pug and cradled him to his chest as he went around and collected the cores, including the human ones. Then flew them back to the rat lair and started a fire. He brought a few of the undemolished rat corpses along; they would need something to eat when Caffeine woke up.