~~~Stanley~~~

Relaxing in the tub, Stanley could feel Caffeine and the others in the next room. The pug was still after the fish, but at least the fox seemed to be enjoying the game now.

Stanley lifted himself and the water out of the tub. Another application of his will set the water spinning around him, and a dash of soap turned his flying tub into a bubble bath. He did it all slowly, waiting to see if he felt anything from his soul or if any notifications would appear. He felt and saw nothing.

Eventually, he settled back down in the cooling water and turned on the tap to rinse off the soap. Of course, nothing happened. How did Walter get this bath set up and steaming? Obviously, he has some skills or a class helping him, but what is it?

Stanley hadn't talked to that many people about their classes since this started. Eve was probably the most out-of-place one he'd seen, with some kind of tech class in a now magic world. At least, he assumed that was her class. All he'd seen so far was a chainsaw and a flashlight. Unless that gun she'd pointed at him did anything...

Zeke was a healer, or maybe a purifier? Not that Stanley knew the difference when the purifying skill healed people. The boy had mentioned something about his skill or class, but Stanley couldn't remember what.

There was that teleporting kid as well; he had an interesting skill.

Adaptable... The Human trait could be incredible, or it could be nothing special. Stanley didn’t know what the rest of the... aliens? He didn't know what traits or other things existed out there. But there had been a wide variety of classes and skills so far, and he'd barely interacted with any of them. There were bound to be some interesting possibilities.

Like a magic butler.

By now, the water was getting cold, but Stanley didn't want this to end; he didn't want to go back out there again... not yet. I can create heat. He'd done it before, badly. But this was simpler than cooking.

Stanley focused on the water, pushing his will against it.

Then he stopped and pulled a globe of water out of the tub, holding it above the rest. Just in case, he thought. It would be a shame to boil himself by accident. He focused on the idea of heat as he pushed his will into the floating ball of water, gently and slowly.

You are hot... boiling hot. Almost immediately, the water started churning and boiling in midair. "Ha!" He smiled at the victory. That wasn't so hard.

In fact, it was far too easy. Still with no reaction from his soul, either. He'd have to try burning some monsters instead of cutting them, though he expected that trying to burn an actual enemy would be more difficult than heating water.

He carefully let the boiling water rejoin the rest and sighed in satisfaction as the warmth swirled around him. Given the lack of trouble with his soul, he heated another floating blob before adding it back. Awww... Stanley smiled as fresh warmth arrived, then kept at it until his tub was steaming heavily again.

Then he went back to his notifications.

A glance at the ruthless soul trait told him why his attributes looked off, and he expected that was what made it so easy to heat the water. He was technically far more powerful than he'd ever been before, if it wasn't for that soul wound ticking away like a time bomb. Not to mention that he'd take double damage to his soul now...

Next, Stanley did what he didn't want to do but needed to. He looked at his soul. Or tried to. It was there; he could feel it. Hell, he couldn't not feel it with that aching wound...

It was meditation combined with Soul Awareness that proved the key. He went into the void... and there it was. In all its terrible glory.

His misshapen and mutilated soul. Now it sported a new brand, one that marred its already fucked appearance. An ugly scar radiating with that same iridescent light... and a pair of blinding symbols sitting on... in... around? Whatever it was, the symbols looked to be holding the wound shut. Mostly. Lee saved us.

Stanley stared at the wound in a daze, his mind unwillingly revisiting the events that had created it. He didn't realize how bad it felt until he crashed back into the real world while gasping for air that he couldn't seem to get enough of. All he could see was that magic flashing... his soul ripping open... bleeding.

"Ahem."

Stanley almost screamed as he violently flinched. Water sloshed out of the tub until he finally sagged and settled back down, his heart pounding.

"If sir is finished bathing," Walter spoke calmly. "I would be happy to assist you with your wardrobe." His soul felt concerned.

Stanley saw Caffeine halfway between the door and the tub, his eyes jumping from him to the sloshing water and back repeatedly. Caffeine, you're an absolute beast, and yet you're still afraid of baths? Stanley laughed weakly. "It's all good, Caff," he reassured the pug. "Go play."

Caffeine whined faintly, glanced at the water, and sprinted for the door. Stanley's smile faded. "Walter, do you have some more water for me to rinse off with?"

"Of course, sir." Walter lifted a bucket of steaming water that hadn't been in his hand before, his soul radiating confidence.

Stanley chuckled. "You've got some nice tricks, Walter."

"As you say, sir." Walter spoke with no inflection, but his soul betrayed a faint yet happy pride.

Stanley levitated the water from the bucket and himself from the bath. He was naked in front of a stranger again, but after the last few... weeks? Well, it really wasn't worth worrying about. Plus, considering the fact that Daryl and Adrian had a butler, Walter was probably the one who had cleaned and cared for him. And diapered him... Stanley dropped that train of thought while dumping the water over his head. It literally does not matter.

After a moment of concentration and another experiment with his domain, he was dry, as the water previously covering him fell away into the tub below.

That's useful, he thought, somewhat surprised that it had worked.

He dressed himself until he got to the tie, then glanced at Walter. It was stupid. The whole outfit was fucking stupid, but Walter had helped. He'd fed Caffeine. The guy had supposedly made this outfit; it wouldn't hurt him to go along. "I don't..."

"If I may, sir." Walter stepped up and started quickly manipulating the tie into place.

"Just call me Stanley," he said awkwardly as the man finished and cinched the tie tight.

"As you say, sir," Walter replied. He finished adjusting Stanley’s collar and produced a weird little vest. He held it until Stanley turned and slid his arms through.

Stanley felt very awkward as the man buttoned it up for him, but there was something else. Something was coming from Walter's soul—a hesitant and unsure awkwardness to match Stanley's. Very at odds with the butler's demeanor.

Stanley sighed. "Spit it out, Walter." The man met his eyes for a moment, surprise flashing in his soul but not on his face. "I can feel your soul," Stanley said as the other man finished with the buttons and turned to pick up the jacket.

Walter hesitated, his soul fluctuating, until it settled mostly on resolve. "I must thank you, sir," he said as he helped Stanley into the jacket.

"There was a young man," he continued quietly. "I cared for him, protected him, as if he were my own son." Stanley was quiet as Walter moved around him, adjusting the jacket on his shoulders. "I found myself helpless," he said, despair echoing from his soul.

"When he needed me most, I found myself powerless to render aid. First, when he did not return from his hunt. Then, when he miraculously emerged, alive and unharmed, I saw him facing a monster I did not think was possible."

He buttoned Stanley’s coat. "I could only watch as that young man and his..." Walter hesitated.

"Boyfriend?" Stanley supplied. "Husband?" Walter blinked, surprise once again coming from his soul, even as his face remained stoic. "Souls," Stanley reminded him.

"Ah. As you say, sir." Walter recovered quickly. "Thank you, sir." He bowed slightly, and before Stanley started feeling more awkward, he gently pulled him to stand before the mirror. "Thank you very much for saving those whom I could not," Walter said with only the tiniest catch in his throat.

His soul radiated gratitude and pride as he looked into the mirror.

Stanley couldn't blame him. I actually look a bit like a distinguished old man now. The trimmed beard looked better, he begrudgingly admitted. He still felt it was all a bit out of place. He looked like a businessman. Not bad, but definitely not apocalypse themed.

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"Thanks, Walter." Stanley smiled. "It's great."

"Yes, sir," Walter replied and turned to the door. "Shall we?"

Stanley walked into the other room, and Daryl whistled. "Looking good!" he cheered as Caffeine rushed over to sniff at his new clothes. Adrian smiled briefly at him, but his attention was on the egg in his hands.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm all fancy now."

"One more piece." Daryl pointed behind him.

Stanley turned and found Walter holding up a long, heavy coat. He put his arms through, and Walter settled it onto his shoulders, the bottom resting almost to his knees. As it wrapped around him, Stanley noticed something happening.

The souls in the room quieted, and the new calm felt like someone had turned down a stereo that he had been ignoring and talking over. Meanwhile, the souls further away dimmed almost completely.

"How did..."

"Fantastic work," Daryl praised, clapping Walter on the shoulder. "Look at your buffs," he said to Stanley, still grinning.

Buffs: [Soul-Link] [Walter's Gratitude]

Stanley focused on the new one.

[Walter's Gratitude]

Set Bonus Effects:

-50% to all physical and magical damage received while the armor maintains at least 50% integrity.

Passively reflects 50% of soul energy from all directions.

Stanley noticed something else when he looked at his status.

Debuffs: [Deadly Soul Wound(Rune Seal)(Shielded)]

Curious about the Shielded bit, he pulled up the debuff.

-1 Twin-Soul Attribute per 4 days

It didn't say what it was exactly, but it slowed down the leak, and Stanley assumed the reflection was responsible. As much as he didn’t want to wear this, he couldn't ignore the benefit. Which meant he was a suit guy now, or did he just need the overcoat? It did mention a set bonus. Either way... "Thank you, Walter. This is... it will make a big difference."

Caffeine was pawing at his leg when Walter reached over and pulled one side of Stanley's new coat open. "If the lord would like to take his throne?"

The pug immediately jumped up and into the pocket, and Stanley gaped. "Did he just..."

Caffeine squirmed around until his head popped out of the pocket and he panted happily up at Stanley.

He shrank! Stanley was speechless. Caffeine was just... too cute! He floated off the ground as he curled up around the tiny, puppy sized Caffeine, and he was making incoherent baby noises when he felt something happening nearby.

He looked away from the adorable pug in time to see all the fires spread around the room, suddenly flowing between Adrian's hands and into the egg. The soul within flared... There was a moment of quivering anticipation. Then a cracking sound broke the silence, and a tiny little voice went, "Cheep!"

Stanley felt the relief and joy that burst from Adrian like a physical wave, even with his new coat. So, of course, Caffeine immediately jumped out of his pocket and ran to investigate.

Princess flared into a brilliant, flaming fox in front of Caffeine. Fire engulfed her entire body, and she grew bigger as she growled at the pug. Fear, warring with determination and resolve, screamed from her soul.

Caffeine stopped abruptly at her reaction and lay down in front of her. His tail wagged as he whined mournfully up at the burning fox.

Stanley watched Daryl and Adrian as they clasped hands and looked joyfully at the tiny baby bird sitting in Adrian's lap. It was chirping wildly and continuously as Adrian tearfully nodded and whispered in response to whatever it was saying. He felt Princess struggling between keeping Caffeine back and her longing to greet the bird herself.

They'd earned his gratitude. For all that Walter had said, Cheesesteak had blown himself up and given Stanley a chance. The chance he'd needed to win...

"Caff," he called. "Come." Stanley held his arms out, and Caffeine bounded into his chest. He settled into a cross-legged sitting position in midair and petted Caffeine in his lap while the small family reunited. One day that will be us with Lee, Caff, he thought as he rubbed something out of his eye. One day...

A thought intruded into the happy moment. An ugly, suspicious thought that might explain why they were being so nice to him... "Who took the invader's core?"

Walter held out a single gloved hand, two cores glowing in his palm. "Master Daryl entrusted them to my care until such time as you awoke, sir."

Stanley felt... relief. There wasn't anything nefarious happening here. He was just being paranoid. Though he wasn't sure why there were two cores... touching the smaller one gave him his answer.

Mana Drain (Epic)

Your mana is my mana.

User may drain mana from whatever they touch, be it a creature, a stone, or the air itself.

Skill Level Effects (Novice)

+1% Effective Mind Attributes

+1% Mana Drain per second

...

It must have come from the bat lair. Which was extremely surprising. It looked like a great skill... though maybe the whole touching part might be a problem. Still, he was having trouble believing they'd saved it for him, and he stared blankly at the fire as it once again coated the walls. What was wrong with these people? Was it just because he rescued them from the bats?

Walter didn't move or make a sound, still holding out the remaining core. Stanley lifted it into the air without touching it, staring nervously and wondering what he would see.

Then he wrapped his hand around it.

Skill Shard[D-grade]

There it was. He'd been right—it was a D-grade monster. It was pure bullshit. Why was there a D-grade when the earth was barely into E-grade? Why did the damn invaders get to play by different... rules?

Rules.. where did I...

Stanley flinched as he abruptly remembered, and this time there was no static to drive the memory from his mind. That fucking static! He remembered a man in a suit... but not a man.

They'd watched Stanley's past self burn. They watched Caffeine struggle... The not-human thing had said something to him—something to him and Lee—about how they'd changed the rules. How did I fucking forget about that!?

The whole memory felt like a dream... It had been a dream. He'd been asleep in the truck stop at the time, and yet he knew it was no dream. That... thing was very real, and it told him this was all their fault. It was Stanley's fault. He'd unleashed the source...

Sure, he would have died without it, but it was his own damn fault for being up there... where he'd found Zeke... where he'd saved Zeke.

Did that mean something? Nate thought it did... but what had Zeke even done since they found him? He healed people better than anyone else could, but he'd done nothing more. Zeke hadn't stopped the monsters... Zeke hadn't gotten his soul carved apart!

Stanley spasmed when the memory crashed into him, but the ache intensified when he imagined Zeke in his place. He... he's just a kid. He shouldn't have to suffer like I did... should he?

Caffeine sat up and licked Stanley's face with a steady but slow repetition, silently licking away tears Stanley hadn't realized were falling.

Walter stood beside him, unmoving and stoic in expression, while his soul betrayed worry and sorrow, along with a pain that felt far too close to his own. That, on top of what he'd seen already, had Stanley assuming the soul wound was broadcasting his emotions. He'd replaced Soul Sight, and it had changed nothing.

Stanley didn't look his way. He wanted to meditate... but didn't want to see his soul again. Not right now. Later. Besides, he had something else to help take his mind off that...

Skill Shard[D-grade]

Still Mind of the Dead (Epic)

The dead do not know fear.

Allows the user to remove all emotion from their mental processes while increasing cognition speed.

Skill Level Effects (Novice)

+1% Intelligence

+1% Cognition Speed

Requirements:

Mana Core/Channels [Requirement Not Met][N/A][Adaptable]

Any Undead Racial Variant [Requirement Not Met]

Adapting to this Skill will require All Adaptation and will alter your Class and Race.

Adapting this Skill to your Class will require 1% Adaptation but may drastically alter the Skill.

Adapt Yourself and Learn Skill: Y/N?

Learn Adapted Skill: Y/N?

Consume and Destroy Skill Shard to gain +300 All Base Attributes: Y/N?

Well, shit, Stanley thought. An undead exclusive skill... He was a bit intrigued, though. Suppress emotions... He had a lot of emotions that he didn't want to feel. But who knew what it would turn into if he used it?

On the other hand... three hundred attributes. It was a lot. How powerful would he be after stacking that on top of what he already had? Or... did it even matter? Given the attributes up for grabs, he was pretty certain that the next grade must be much higher. How long would it take him to grind out enough cores for that?

Of course, that was the same thinking that had led to him getting trapped inside the bat lair... Only it hadn't mattered what grade he was in the end. "Walter, did any of the invaders try to get at me in here?"

"No, sir."

So either Walter was an absolute powerhouse, or Stanley had actually hurt the undead by killing that fucker. Hurt them badly enough that they weren't coming back. Not yet...

The best thing he could do now was to hold on to this shard until he reached close enough to the next grade... which he had no idea what it was... Five hundred? A thousand? He'd be able to jump right to D-grade without worrying about finding D-grade monsters.

If it was at a thousand attributes, how many monsters would he need to kill? Including what he knew from absorbing a few bat cores... the base count would be thirty thousand monsters. Depending on when the diminishing returns kicked in... or how many plus to all cores he found, it might be over sixty thousand. Way over. That was a lot of monsters and a lot of lairs...

"You didn't take my cores," Stanley said when Daryl looked his way. It was almost a question.

"A few more days, and I might have," Daryl said, looking away to watch Adrian and the baby phoenix named Cheesesteak as one chirped and the other whispered. Stanley could feel the happy emotions from both of them, and it felt voyeuristic to eavesdrop on their souls like this. Though at least it was a nice, happy feeling for once...

Stanley considered the information as he drifted over to hover at the window. They were high above the city, on the edge of the water. Stanley could see out across the ocean if he turned his head right or into downtown to his left. Expensive. Which explained the luxuriousness of this penthouse.

Had they lived here before? Or claimed this place after the system? The fact they had a butler spoke to the former...

Is that... Something was moving across a bridge in the distance. Damn, is my vision that good? He narrowed his eyes, and out of instinct, he moved soul energy into them. Something about his new class or the whole ordeal with his soul made the process feel easier. Almost natural.

A glowing soul lit up, bounding across the bridge in the distance. I still have Soul Sight? Stanley wasn't that surprised, since he hadn't forgotten how to use the old skill when it evolved. Though experimenting with his soul was probably not the best idea in his current state...

Stanley wondered all that while he watched the soul get closer. It looked familiar... Then more souls appeared, undead souls, intersecting with the first. The new souls vanished quickly, with one even ricocheting off the first. It's Nate.

Edward had said he would signal Nate... and now the guy was running this way. Too little, too late. Though it wasn't so much Nate's fault, Stanley had seen the undead attacking the base... when he'd finally needed their help... and when they failed him.

Stanley canceled his Soul Sight and looked at the shard in his hand. Whatever it takes. I need power. The question was if he could justify claiming the skill versus hoarding it for later.

Hoarding and trying to fortify before had nearly killed him, so he should just take the attributes now. But... how much better could he fight if he wasn't afraid?

There were more invaders out there. He'd felt at least one. The one that got away. What if there were more D-grades? He wouldn't survive that ordeal again. Lee worked a miracle, but Stanley doubted he could repeat it. I don't want to die.

The core dissolved into his hand.