~~~Stanley~~~
He's okay!
The terror left him like a physical weight lifting from his chest, and Stanley felt exhaustion dragging him down into the darkness. He couldn't fight it anymore... he didn't need to... Caffeine was... okay...
Buff: [Purifying Light]
The warm, soothing glow pushed back the darkness, and Stanley used the reprieve to hug Caffeine close. He buried his face in the gray fur and just breathed in the smell of the pug, even as the burning pain faded from his head and the weight crushing his heart subsided further.
Debuff Removed: [Cerebral Fatigue]
Debuff Removed: [Rage Overload]
Stanley blinked in surprise as the last lingering pain in his head vanished along with much of the emotional turmoil. He looked up. I didn't know he could heal...
Zeke was swaying in front of him, his golden soul appearing... dimmer? Eve's blinding silver glare outshone her brother where she stood behind him. Nate was even brighter on the other side; he was yelling something while pulling Zeke away and pointing at Stanley's face. "Turn it off!"
Stanley blinked again and felt his eyes burn as they reopened. Oh... right. He canceled Soul Sight, and everything suddenly felt much calmer. Quieter. All the blinding colors vanished, and the world looked almost... drab in comparison.
Then he heard the other voices yelling and crying.
Stanley looked around the room as Caffeine whined in his arms. He saw Nate pulling Zeke over to someone else. "You got any more healing left in you, Zeke?"
"Leave him the fuck alone!" Eve was on the other side of her brother and trying to pull him away from Nate.
"I... can still... help." Zeke swayed on his feet but still laid hands on a prone figure.
Stanley saw the massive gap in the wall and remembered his entrance. A rather violent entrance... Then he looked at Caffeine in his arms, meeting his brown eyes, and didn't care what damage he'd done. "You're really okay?" Stanley whispered, while Caffeine whined and licked his cheek. "That's… that's… I'm so glad!" Stanley crushed Caffeine in another hug, his eyes burning, and not from Soul Sight. Good boy. Best boy!
He was pretty sure he hadn't killed anyone on the way in... which was why he didn't understand when he finished hugging Caffeine some more and looked up to find Eve glaring at him beside her brother. It wasn't just her...
Stanley furiously blinked the remaining moisture from his eyes and looked at Zeke. "Thank you for healing him, Zeke! I owe you. Whatever you want..."
"I... Caffeine was fine... I only had to heal... you." Zeke didn't want to meet his eyes while he spoke.
"You... you were okay, Caff?" He'd known Caffeine would heal... but in that moment... "Thanks anyway." Stanley choked back a sob. "I was so scared..."
Zeke nodded mutely but didn't look at him. Meanwhile, Eve wouldn't stop glaring... and she had tears in her eyes...
"I didn't touch you or your brother, so..." He didn't say what he wanted to. Her brother didn't deserve it. "So, what happened to you, then?" Stanley asked instead.
Nate spoke up in Eve's place. "You did."
Stanley frowned. "I didn't touch her..."
"When you were... approaching," Nate said. "We all felt it… we thought something was attacking. We knew something was coming for Zeke."
Zeke was trembling slightly. "I felt it," he whispered, still not meeting Stanley's gaze.
"I was... pretty sure it was you," Nate said. "But it was... um, rather intense."
Zeke nodded jerkily.
"Then you came bursting through the wall, and I didn't have time to stop anyone from attacking you... so, thanks for holding back there."
"Your eyes were burning with black light," Zeke whispered. "Awful light."
Soul Sight, Stanley thought. "It wasn't that bad, was it?"
"The light in your eyes..." Nate swallowed. "I could see something in that light. It was... I don't even know how to describe it."
"It felt like reliving the worst moment of my life," Zeke whispered. "But the best moment, too..."
Nate nodded. "It was beautiful, horrifying, and... wrong."
"It was a baby's laughter," Eve croaked hoarsely. "And the deafening silence when it stops forever."
"What the fuck!?" Stanley exclaimed, not liking where this was going at all.
Nate nodded again. "Yes. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." His eyes glazed over with an awestruck look for a moment before focusing back on Stanley. "But it was wrong. Mutilated. Ruined."
Stanley sat in silence, not sure how to respond to what he was increasingly worried were descriptions of his soul.
No, they were wrong. They had to be wrong. My Soul isn't ruined.
"And there was a crack… a blinding white crack running through it all," Nate finished.
Fuck. Stanley slumped, while Caffeine whined and licked his face. They don't know what they're talking about!
He lifted his head to deny their claims and saw Zeke's tired face turn away, flinching from him. Stanley didn't yell. They didn't know, and Zeke had just helped him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset anyone with my fucked up soul!" So he was still a little salty...
He looked at Caffeine. "I was so scared for Caff... I was trying to find Zeke and I did something to my skill to help me…" Stanley looked back up and paused at the expressions on their faces. "What?"
"That's... your soul?" Eve whispered as she stared at him, her expression horrified. Then she turned away and vomited.
What the fuck! Stanley lifted himself back into the air and drifted away from her, while Caffeine whined again.
Zeke went to his sister with a faint golden light on his hands, and Nate only frowned as he stared at Stanley.
"I…" Stanley struggled for words and found none.
Nate lost the intense scrutiny of his gaze and smiled instead. "Don't sweat it, Stanley. I'm sure your soul is perfectly fine. It was probably just the skill messing with us... In fact, we should probably thank you since you unlocked my hidden soul attribute with whatever that was."
It was Stanley's turn to stare. "I... what?"
"Eve? Zeke?" Nate asked. "You get it too?"
Zeke nodded with a weak smile, while Eve just flipped him off without turning or standing up from where she was bent over and spitting on the floor.
"See?" Nate said, "It's a good thing." He hesitated, then asked, "If you don't mind... what was the skill?"
"Soul Sight," Stanley said distractedly, before realizing what he'd done and glaring at Nate.
Nate chuckled and shook his head. "Relax. Everyone knows you have that weird eye thing going on, and..." He looked around. "Um, where's your team? Did whatever hurt Caffeine..."
"No. I left them... out there." Stanley winced. It was Arthur all over again. Or maybe not. His new team didn't need him to survive out there. They were probably fine... He'd seen their spells at the end there... when Caffeine almost... No, Caff is fine. He was always fine! It was my fault... again...
A hand touched him, and Stanley didn't flinch. He'd known Nate was moving in his domain, even if he hadn't paid attention. "I'm sure they're fine. If you don't want to go back out, could you point me..."
"I'll get them," Stanley said, drifting away from the man. "They were fine when I left. It was only me being too weak." The self recrimination felt dulled this time because, despite his failure, Stanley had gained a new understanding of his power from the ordeal. Power he wanted to test immediately, and thanks to Zeke, he could do exactly that.
He flew out the new entrance before anyone else could complain about his soul—flew away from the crybabies that couldn't handle reality. Not Zeke, though. Zeke had done more than Stanley expected from the kid, and he deserved a reward for it.
Stanley wanted to give him an E-grade core for his efforts, but the damn worm had shredded his pants in the struggle, and the cores were nowhere to be found... Nothing better eat my fucking cores!
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
His flight to reach Zeke had been the fastest he'd ever moved, or at least on par with his old Psionic Charge skill, but over a longer distance. A skill that had supposedly merged with Psychokinesis... so Stanley looked more closely at his very recent and very bleak memories.
Move
It wasn't so much a thought... as it was a command. Only, it wasn't even that. It was a statement. Not, 'I want to move faster.' Not, 'I will move.' But, 'I am moving faster!'
Stanley shot across the sky... and immediately stopped when the wind threatened to scour his skin from his flesh. Okay, that needs some work. "Sorry, Caff."
He flew at a more sedate pace and tried the other new aspect of his power on a passing tree.
Cut
The tree fell with a very minor drain on his mind, and Stanley had mixed feelings while watching it topple down... On the one hand, that fucking worm had disguised itself as a tree! On the other hand, Samantha and her damn trees...
So he found a monster and tested it again.
Cut
The monster died. Bisected cleanly and abruptly. The drain in his mind was also more noticeable… but not nearly what it had been on the worm.
Skill Level Up: Mind Over Matter
+1 Willpower
Debuff: [Hungry]
On that note, Stanley went back to the notifications he'd missed in the moment's panic earlier.
Skill Level Up: Psionic Barrier
Skill Level Up: Psionic Barrier
Skill Level Up: Psionic Barrier
...
Skill Level Up: Mind Over Matter
+1 Willpower
Class Level Up: Psionic
Skill Level Up: Soul Sight
Skill Level Up: Mind Over Matter
...
+1 Willpower
Willpower has reached the E-grade threshold.
+1 Willpower Fortification
It had been a long time since he'd seen the mention of fortification... and that was only one of his gains. Stanley checked his status.
Status
Name: Stanley Cascade
Race: [Psychomancer](F-grade Human)
Titles: [Titan Slayer] [F-grade Source]
Traits: [Adaptable](65%) [Source Nexus] [Psycho] [Source Burned]
Class: Psionic (Rare) - Level 55 (Advanced)
Class Skills: Mind Over Matter (Legendary) - Level 55 (Advanced) | Premonition (Epic) - Level 37 (Intermediate) | Accelerated Thought (Rare) - Level 32 (Intermediate) | Harmonic Meditation (Rare) - Level 30 (Intermediate)
Attributes:
Strength: 100(+30%)130
Vitality: 100(+31%)131
Dexterity 100(+30%)130
Wisdom 100(+737%)737
Intelligence 100(+737%)737
Willpower 100(+1687%)1687
Twin-Soul ???(+40%)???
Non-Class Skills 2/3: Soul Sight (Rare) - Level 20 (Basic) | Psionic Barrier (Rare) - Level 10 (Basic)
Buff: [Bill's Special]
Debuff: [Feeble] [Frail] [Hungry]
It was slightly misleading thanks to his food buff... but it let him see what the buff added. So that was nice. It also highlighted more than ever how far off his physical and mind stats were... namely, willpower. Once again, he didn't know if that was normal. Or was he fucking himself up somehow?
Regardless, he was powerful. Even if only for a short time before the debuffs appeared. That was enough... so long as he didn't get stuck fighting another monster skeleton that refused to die...
His cores were gone when he got back.
Stanley sat in the air and glared at the giant pit beside a huge pile of pink meat. The rest of the worm was missing... and he couldn't see a core from the piece he'd cut off. Don't tell me it survived!
He sat down on the ground, near another tree. One he was mostly sure was a real tree... though he wasn't afraid of that monster showing up again. Hell, he wanted it to show up.
Then he meditated.
Caffeine jumped off his lap, and Stanley dropped the meditation long enough to see the pug eating the worm meat. Sorry, Caff. I should have brought more food.
With another glance at the souls inside the nearby lair, Stanley went back to meditating.
His team was fine. They hadn't even stopped hunting while he was gone.
So he sat where he was until Caffeine ran to join them in the lair. Then visions of the pug getting hurt roused him from the void, and he sent his mind into the lair after Caffeine.
There were only a handful of monsters remaining inside, and Stanley cut them in half, one by one, until there were none left.
He could see the human souls group up around Caffeine briefly before splitting up, one heading Stanley's way. It was only when she emerged from the lair that Stanley saw the glow of Samantha's spear in Serenity's hands. He'd left it behind...
She let go of the spear when he pulled on it, then followed behind it as she approached him. "Stanley! We... worried." She dug her hand into a pocket and pulled out cores. "We also grabbed these for you."
Stanley took the E-grade cores while she eyed the pit nervously. "Thanks... I thought Caffeine was... hurt. Didn't mean to abandon..."
"It's fine!" Serenity said quickly. "You aren't our babysitter." She kneeled beside him, her hands reaching for his face, before hesitating. "Is it okay if I heal you?"
"I'm not hurt."
"You've got some... blood on your face." She touched his cheek, and Stanley felt her magic trickling through him. It wasn't anything like Zeke's healing... "At least you're looking younger every day. It probably means your transformation isn't permanent."
"I am?" Stanley looked at his hands, surprised to see she was right. They weren't back to what he remembered before the source, but definitely less decrepit... That's good.
"What happened... before?" she finally asked with another glance toward the pit.
Stanley sighed. "That... worm? Caffeine saved me and almost got dragged underground." He could see the trenches the giant pug had left in the dirt...
"I'm sorry we weren't enough," she said, sitting back and looking away. "We barely scratched it... All the times you and Caffeine protected us... we should have done more."
"You tried... That means something." He didn't know what it meant... but it was a good feeling.
It was disappointing that they hadn't been more help, sure, but even Nate would have struggled with that monster. It was bullshit, and Stanley had a feeling it must have been another 'king' monster. Underground king? The opposite of a 'sky king?'
How did he keep attracting these kinds of monsters? Were they that common in the world? How was anyone supposed to survive in this hell if there were monsters like that everywhere?
"Anyway, thanks for trying. It wasn't all bad. I finally learned something from my failure."
Stanley concentrated not only on himself but also on the surrounding air, a bubble with him at the center.
Move
He was abruptly beneath the next tree over, a crack of displaced air echoing from where he'd been. It worked much better when he included the air, unlike the first time he tried...
Serenity toppled forward in the gusting wind, but she didn't look upset when her gaze landed on him. "Is that the skill you used before you got... old? I was wondering why you never used it anymore."
It was technically... almost the same. Different in that he had to do it more manually than before? Which should mean it is more flexible... Theoretically, he could expand the 'bubble' to include as much as he wanted. The cost would skyrocket, but it was possible. He could also speed up something smaller...
Rather than risk the spear, Stanley picked up a rock and moved it toward the empty lair.
The rock never hit the building. It exploded the moment his power stopped protecting it from the wind. So he tried again and blasted a hole through the lair wall...
That one hurt his head, but it was likely because he'd forced the rock through the wall. What if he let go at just the right spot... or used something stronger than a rock?
He ripped apart one of the rusting cars and threw a few different metal scraps with great results before trying the engine block.
It was harder to move the heavier chunk of metal, but doable. The engine block blasted through the entire lair and went out the other side...
Stanley stared after it as something finally occurred to him. The skill is powerful. Really powerful...
He cut another engine block into pieces. Tiny pieces. Slivers of steel.
Orbit
The experiment took more energy, probably because he was keeping it going instead of a one and done attack. Also, he was fighting the centrifugal force the whole time. Keeping the projectiles nearby let his domain help with the load, but it was still draining. Stanley let it drop when he felt Caffeine approaching. Feeling a cold sweat when he did so.
That was not a good idea for a defense if Caffeine was going to be jumping around like he always did... Besides, it was a waste of energy. He had a better attack, one he needed to practice. "Let's keep hunting."
Stanley carried everyone to the next lair, absorbing his share of F-grade cores on the way. He was still reluctant to use the E-grades. Not before he knew he had enough to rank up. Just in case E-grades didn't pop up everywhere. It was unlikely, but not impossible.
"Stay here." He left them all outside and flew into the building alone. Two furry things pounced... and he focused for only an instant...
Cut
Two furry things became four pieces of meat, and Stanley flew deeper.
They died in ones, twos, and even threes. So long as he focused his will on the groups and included each monster in his new reality, they all cut.
He also tested throwing the metal slivers along the way. Or rather, he moved them. It took less energy to kill that way, same as before, but it required a different focus...
All in all, he wiped out the lair in less than a minute. Then he ate while collecting the cores.
His hunger grew much faster doing things this way, but it felt worthwhile. It felt like power. A level of power he'd been missing lately... Now he just needed to find more E-grades.
Like that damn worm!
~~~Eve~~~
Fuck you, monster! Eve cursed silently at the demon as it flew away. Fuck off and die already!
Eve watched her little brother heal people. Idiots that didn't have the fucking guts to stand up to the monsters!
She couldn't stop the trembling but hid it well enough until the rest of the onlookers split off to go do their own stupid shit. Then she went to her latest project and stared at it for a long time... the latest notification still fresh in her mind.
Hidden Attribute Unlocked: Soul
+1 Soul
Soul. A new attribute. One that was unlocked when that monster attacked them.
Eve didn't know what it meant or did, but she could feel... something. It was important. More important than any of the surrounding morons seemed to understand.
She touched the machine before her and smiled grimly. It was exactly what she'd been looking for... so maybe that freak could still do something useful?