~~~Stanley~~~

Stanley didn't linger in the main room again for his nightly meditations. Not because he had a problem with it. Or the people. He was perfectly nice to... most of them.

It was Nate's idea to give him his own room.

He didn't mind. Caffeine got a soft bed to sleep on, which he promptly ignored in favor of curling up in Stanley's lap all night while he meditated.

Stanley spent much of that time considering his new skill option. The last one turned out okay with Psionic Charge. So there was hope for the shield as well. The question was if it would be any better than what he could already do.

Sure, it mentioned magic in the description, which was his biggest weakness. But there was no guarantee it would keep that description after evolving to his class... Plus, it would cost him another percent of adaptability just to see what happened.

His F-grade evolution had cost him a chunk, and he had no idea what E-grade might require. Eventually, he would run out, and Stanley didn't know what would happen then.

That was his only real concern with learning a new skill, and not a serious one. That problem wouldn't matter for a long time. His current survival was a much more clear and present issue.

It also might not switch the boost from intelligence... Sure, his willpower was flying high right now, and he suspected, hurting him because of his low physical attributes, but that might not be the actual case or it might not matter later. He'd lean into more willpower until he knew for certain.

He was getting better at meditation, which was the only reason he could think about something else at the same time. It was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing since he didn't have to focus mindlessly, and a curse because he could think about other things...

It wasn't all bad. The meditation made all his thoughts... less. He still felt the emotions, only with a lighter impact.

Stanley only lost the flow a few times through the night. Then he finally woke, or rather stopped meditating, in the morning. I feel… I feel… kind of good.

Caffeine was raring to go when he opened the door, and the pug shot off down the stairs. He only shook the building a little on his way down.

Stanley followed at a more sedate pace, content to drift slowly through the building as he made his way to breakfast. Along the way, he absorbed the skill shard.

-1% Adaptable

Adapting Skill: Spell Shield (Rare)

No Mana Detected.

Psionic Energy Detected.

Skill Adaptation Successful.

New Non-Class Skill Learned: (1/3)

Psionic Barrier (Rare)

Don't touch me.

User gains a passive resistance to all outside forces at the cost of reserving a portion of psionic energy. Total reserved energy and resistance dependent on skill level and willpower.

Skill Level Effects (Novice)

+1% Effective Willpower

It was... almost perfect. No, scratch that; it wasn't even close to perfect. He couldn't use it to protect Caffeine... Stanley could feel the power gathering on... or in... his skin. Not a lot, but it was only level one. That, plus the knowledge the skill put into his head, told him it wouldn't push any further out...

He also couldn't feel any change from the supposedly reserved power. Likely another result of it being too low level. For now. It would level up, and he could make it happen faster by tanking some hits...

Another thing the skill didn't tell him was if the barrier would strain his mind or not. Obviously not even a possibility now, but once he put some levels into it...

Stanley put the worries and concerns out of his mind. None of that would matter for a while, and he had more important things to focus on. Like finding more E-grade lairs...

He heard the shouting once he made it to the ground floor, and from the opposite direction of where Caffeine had gone.

"Who’s the goddamned electrical engineer here, brat?" a man yelled.

A woman's voice responded with, "Maybe that would matter if we were dealing with fucking electricity, you senile old fart!"

Stanley floated into an expansive room that was almost a mirror to the dining hall, with large windows down one wall letting in enough light to see the chaos strewn about. Countless and seemingly random appliances were everywhere.

Round tables scattered around what must have been another communal dining hall at one point, and Stanley saw microwaves, toaster ovens, blenders, coffee makers, leaf blowers, another chainsaw, a washing machine, a dishwasher, and even a riding lawnmower.

At least half of everything was in pieces or partially disassembled, and in the center of the room, he saw Eve.

She was facing away from him and leaning over something on a table in front of her. Behind her, an old man in a wheelchair saw Stanley float in. His eyes widened briefly, then he winked at Stanley while Eve continued her tirade of insults.

Stanley flew silently up next to him while Eve ranted. She had quite the vocabulary... similar to the first time he met her. It went on... and on... while she did something to what looked like an electric motor.

"Stop staring at my ass, you old pervert!"

Stanley wasn't staring... but the way she was bent over...

Eve finally straightened up and turned... Then she screamed and leapt a few feet into the air while scrambling to pull something from her belt. It looked like a gun when she finally pulled the weapon, though she didn't quite point it at him. That might have been from all the shaking... "I knew you were a perverted old fuck!"

"Can you make guns?" Stanley asked, eyeing the weapon curiously. If it even was a weapon?

"You're going to find out if you don't fuck off!" She pointed it at him.

Stanley turned the barrel away. She was too weak to stop him. Too weak to even try to threaten him. "You..."

"Eve!" Nate came strolling into the room. "Any closer to getting us some spotlights?"

Stanley let go of her gun and flew away. It was stupid to let her bother him... she wasn't a threat and didn't matter. He was just wasting his mental energy. Why did I even go in there?

He found his team eating, all of them feeding pieces to Caffeine as he made his rounds of the hall. Stanley joined them after he dragged a pile of meat from the cooks, along with something new. It looked like vegetables—ones he'd never seen before. He wasn't a fan of the things before... but new world and all. Maybe they would taste good?

They didn't. Even Caffeine knew better to eat the disgusting green things. The meat was still good. Great, even.

Buff: [Bill's Special]

+2 All Base Attributes

That was new. Starting at plus two instead of one. Bill must have leveled his skill or class. Stanley welcomed the extra power, especially to his vitality... He was actually feeling relatively confident about his willpower at this point, and he thought things might go differently if he faced that skeleton again.

Aside from their cheating immortality... That thought reminded him of... something. A blinding light... and strings?

Stanley closed his eyes against even the memory of that light and rubbed his temples at the phantom pain in his head. He'd seen something of the magic that made them immortal, but he couldn't remember...

He'd seen nothing of it before the source. Felt nothing. It was obviously magic... but was it soul magic? Would he be able to see it now? Would he be able to do anything, even if he could see it?

Nate had no new intel about E-grade lairs, so Stanley took his team and flew toward the city. He stopped on the outskirts when he saw the familiar rectangular skyscraper looming ahead.

The skyscraper where he'd spent the first night with Samantha... where he'd... hurt her. The hole he'd left in the building while running away was gone. A not at all disturbing development.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Stanley turned away from the past and scoured the nearby lairs instead. He wanted to scour the city and find the undead, but that could wait. E-grade first. Then he'd slaughter all of them... and today might just be the day it happened. For sure if he found another E-grade lair.

Soul Sight helped with that... a little. After days of using the skill on both E and F-grades, he'd spotted the difference between the two. A very slight difference. Their souls glowed brighter. Unfortunately, no two souls were the same brightness.

Presumably, brighter souls were stronger, but he didn't know for certain. He was still the only one with an unlocked soul attribute, and it didn't even give him a number to go off. Not that numbers would help if he had nothing to compare it to.

He picked the brightest looking souls and poked one to test it... Not E-grade. Then he dropped his team off at the next closest lair and got to the killing.

It was tempting to keep looking, to hold out for E-grades, but there was no guarantee they would find any. He didn't want to waste time...

Stanley could see the others still inside their lair when he finished, and he could feel Caffeine's focus. Which meant they were still fighting... So he gathered his own cores before moving to the next lair.

He was definitely going through his food faster than before, and the only thing he could think of to blame was his frail and feeble debuffs. Yet another sign that his weak physical body was impacting his mental power. Or... it was from letting the monsters hit him occasionally to level his new barrier skill...

Still, it was nothing he couldn't handle by throwing extra raw meat into his stomach. Gross, but only barely. He didn't have to taste it, and there had been no negative side effects yet.

Stanley found another lair not too far away and resumed the hunt. Caffeine could find him if the others finished and came looking, so he didn't mind straying further away. The real reason he didn't want to go far was in case Caffeine needed help... So he kept a close watch on the pug even as he hunted.

They were still in the first lair when he finished, and Stanley decided to check on them even though Caffeine still felt calm. Maybe it was a bad matchup for their powers?

There was no warning premonition as he flew past a large tree. Stanley only knew he was under attack when something pushed into his domain and shot toward his back. Fast!

He tried to move in the single instant he had to react. Tried to fly away. But there was no time. He tried to hold back the attack, and it brushed past even his domain boosted power as if it didn't notice.

Stanley knew why he'd felt no premonition when the lightning fast tendrils didn't actually hurt him. They touched him and wrapped around him, but it didn't cause any pain. Not at first. Not until they had a good grip...

Then they squeezed.

He pitted all of his considerable power against the crushing tendrils even as his mind reached out to find what was attacking... and found... the tree?

It wasn't a tree. Though it sure looked like one as the mess of branches all snaked out after him. It didn't even have a soul... until it did. He saw the soul appear even as the branches stopped looking like wood and turned pink. Fleshy.

It can hide its soul! That was a whole new problem that hadn't occurred to him before now. Monsters that could hide from Soul Sight. He'd flown right past it... thinking it was just another tree...

Stanley didn't even try stabbing the monster. Instead, he spun the spear like a saw blade and went straight for the tree trunk.

He cut less than an inch deep before the entire thing rippled and swelled, going from a two-foot diameter to ten feet... twenty feet...

Stanley bailed on the trunk and went for the branches-turned-pink-tendrils that were dragging him closer. They only seemed to multiply, even as he chopped through them. They also kept dragging him closer to the trunk with every passing moment.

The worst part was how irresistible the pull felt. He never stopped moving, despite his rising anger. Despite carving apart the fleshy branches one after the other.

Then the ground burst apart with a thousand more of the things. All of them shooting up to entangle him in an inescapable web. Hundreds of the things went for the spear, and for each one that splattered into goo, two more latched onto the spinning weapon.

No, damn you! Stanley couldn't breathe beneath the crushing grip, and he could feel it squeezing tighter still. Then sharp points started digging into his flesh...

NO! He forced his rage against the monster... and drew in half a breath before the tendrils snapped back around him even tighter than before. More horrible stabbing points dug in with a disgusting squirming sensation.

He didn't feel Caffeine coming; the fight to escape was taking all his attention. Then the inexorable pull abruptly stopped, and he lurched away from the monster. It tightened for a split second, and then he was free... He had a single moment to see the two-story pug, his massive jaws clamped around what looked like a worm as he dragged it from the ground and away from Stanley.

Then the tendrils all turned on Caffeine.

In an eye blink, hundreds of flailing pink tentacles wrapped around the giant pug and lifted him right off the ground.

Caffeine shrank, blurred between the tendrils, and then slammed to the ground when one tendril snagged his foot. Instantly, the remaining tendrils shot after him and wrapped him up, even as he ballooned in size and dug massive feet into the ground.

Stanley's rage bloomed as he watched dozens of those tendrils stab into the pug. His spear moved like a lightning bolt, punching back and forth through the gargantuan worm in a continuous streak.

Caffeine yelped as he slid backward, his feet digging massive trenches. He grew even bigger and slid to a halt with his feet buried in the dirt that was now nearly up to his chest.

"No!" Stanley screamed, latching onto the worm and adding his own power to the straining pug.

Caffeine took a step, dragging the worm from its hole... Then the worm's body undulated, and Caffeine slid another hundred feet closer to the pit it had emerged from.

"NO!" He gave up stabbing it; the worm didn't even seem to notice. Instead, he started spinning the spear again. Stanley didn't know how durable the spear was anymore, but at this moment, he didn't care. He only needed to cut the worm off before it could...

The worm rippled and dragged the section he was cutting into the ground.

Stanley ripped up the ground, tearing the earth away while reaching deeper to find the rest of the monster hiding underground... It went straight down... further than he could even reach with his mind... He had to cut it off!

Caffeine slid closer as dirt flew and the spear sawed through the worm. "No! No! No!"

Orange light bloomed around the worm, and bright beams of white light burned small holes in its pink skin. Small shards of crystal flew in, punching dozens of holes.

It wasn't working! He couldn't cut through the rubbery hide fast enough...

Stanley stared in frozen horror as Caffeine looked back up at him with his big brown eyes while sliding enexorably over the edge of a pit into the abyss. He felt no recrimination from the pug... Caffeine was only happy that he'd helped... No! you can't do this to me... This can't be happening! Cut, damn you!

Caffeine was unstoppable... he'd survived everything this nightmare world had thrown at him... he couldn't lose to this... this... worm. It was unthinkable.

As dirt flew and his spear spun, as all of his power pulled against the immutable strength of a fucking worm, as Stanley watched Caffeine about to be taken from him...

Something… shifted.

Stanley stared into those big brown eyes that were leaving him behind... and he finally understood the truth. A truth about the world he lived in that sought every day to destroy him.

The truth about reality. Mind Over Matter...

His gaze moved to the worm as he felt the ripple traveling up its ridiculously long body. The final pull that would take Caffeine down. That would take Caffeine away from him.

No.

It was never about cutting the worm. It was never about imposing his will on reality... not like he'd tried to do so many times...

I don't need to cut you, Stanley thought as his power gathered in a newfound calm. I don't need to cut you... because the reality is... you... are...

CUT

Reality corrected itself. The worm split in half.

Stanley felt a stabbing pain in his head, but it didn't matter because Caffeine was free. He felt and dimly saw the pug flying toward him... then Caffeine was in his arms and whimpering, even as he slobbered all over Stanley's face.

"Good..." The encroaching darkness fled, along with his relief, when he felt hot liquid splash against his chest.

"Caff..." Stanley's eyes opened wide as he stared at the massive blood gushing holes in Caffeine's body where the tendrils had stabbed him. So deep!

He'd be okay... Caffeine had been hurt so many times before and healed from it all... he'd be fine... Zeke! Zeke can heal him!

Stanley shot into the air with the bleeding Caffeine clutched tightly to his chest. Where's Zeke!? He spun franticly in the air, trying to orient himself toward Nate's base... But it all looked the same right now! Where is his soul!?

Soul Sight was on, but he couldn't spot the golden soul anywhere. Where the fuck are you!? Without thought, Stanley forced more of the skill's energy into his eyes... and the souls brightened... more appearing in the distance. More! His eyes burned as glowing souls lit up the world in a riot of color, and... There!

Stanley hauled himself through the air toward the spot of gold in the distance. Move faster... faster... MOVE!

The air threatened to shred him and Caffeine as the golden soul loomed rapidly larger... and Stanley made it stop touching them.

He no longer felt the hot blood on his chest... now it felt cold. Caff!

Stanley ripped a hole through the sky in a straight line toward that golden light. Its glow was his only remaining hope and the only thing he cared about anymore.

Trees loomed into his path as he got closer... and Stanley went through them.

A wall appeared while he was slowing down... and he went through that, too.

Then he was there. He'd made it! Zeke was right across the room, and Stanley flew directly toward him.

People got in his way... magic lashed out...

Stop

Everything stopped with another spike through his brain. People froze in mid motion, and magic hung unmoving in the air. Nothing would interfere with saving Caffeine. Nothing!

Stanley halted before the blindingly bright golden light, Caffeine held out in his arms and pressed to the boy's chest. "Heal him!" he gasped. "Please!"

Golden light flared while Stanley's vision narrowed into a dark tunnel... He fought back, clinging to consciousness with every scrap of willpower he possessed... and heard a child's laughing voice saying, "Caff, stop!"

Stanley fell to his knees as he blinked blurry eyes at a small wiggling tail... Caff? Then the gray shape turned, and he felt a tongue lashing his face. He's okay?

He's okay!