Skill [Mind Crush] Level Up.

Stanley grimaced at the pain he felt in the deer-like creature's Soul, then snapped its neck with a thought and felt only the barest resistance to his power, something he attributed to its mind being crushed. Unfortunately, despite his quick administration of mercy, the C-rank beast still seemed to take an agonizingly long time to finish dying. "That was… unpleasant."

"It worked, didn't it?" Daryl asked, glancing between Stanley and the deer.

"Yea," Stanley nodded slowly, "but it felt like I was torturing this one."

The new Skill, [Mind Crush], very nearly killed all the D-ranks he'd tried it on, and by doing exactly what the name implied, or at least that was what he assumed. The weaker monsters didn't scream when he hit them with it, not for more than an instant before their Souls went blank. That was the best way Stanley could describe it. As if their minds had been destroyed and the body just hadn't caught up yet.

The C-ranks, however…

Caffeine whined in his lap, and Stanley again wondered at the pug's reluctant attitude toward the current violence. He still gave Caffeine some comforting pets as he watched Zeke go to work butchering the dead animal.

"Wasn't Caff out here killing shit all this time?" Stanley asked the two men, his eyes moving away from the gory work and onto the pug in his lap. "Why does he seem upset by this, and how else would he have gained so many Cores? Don't tell me that he is still befriending everything he meets?" Maybe it was that they were technically beasts and neither a threat to the group here or even attacking anyone?

"I… think he was hunting," Daryl answered, sounding unsure, "though, now that I think about it, I'm not sure if I ever saw him kill anything that didn't attack him first… and honestly, I didn't spend very much time with him… I was… distracted." His Soul felt a bit guilty, but only a little, still mostly overshadowed by the absence of Adrian.

"I'd have to agree," Zeke chimed in, "never really saw him clearing Lairs or the like. We usually didn’t even know where he went most of the time until he came back to check on…"

Princess huffed.

Daryl looked down at the fox and then over at the midnight wolf lounging in the thick shadows of predawn. "I guess he is still trying to befriend everything… or at least the beasts?"

Stanley shook his head and hugged Caffeine close. "Still a teddy bear and always a good boy."

Zeke finished the butchering quickly and stepped back as a blast of golden light burst from him. The light dimmed, and the young man was revealed, now sans the blood that had covered his hands and arms during the process. A neat trick that, and something Stanley was looking forward to being able to avail himself of. Though it wasn't perfect, and Zeke claimed that he needed more practice before he could use it on other people, especially for more than the most obvious of messes. Something about clearly understanding what did and didn't belong on a person.

Unfortunately, Zeke claimed that his light couldn't be used offensively, not really, shooting down Stanley's immediate thoughts of purifying the blood right out of the veins of a monster. While technically possible, it was more likely that he would only heal the monster, and far more than he hurt it at that. Except, of course, for things like the Undead, who had nothing to heal, their entire bodies anathema to all such energies.

But back to the matter at hand, Stanley was surprisingly not on meat-hauling duty. Instead, the task was handled by Daryl and, more specifically, his illusions. As soon as Zeke was finished preparing the bodies, Daryl would split off a new copy, and it would pick up the corpse, leading to the odd sight of a dozen Daryls, each with a dead animal thrown over one shoulder. The fact that illusions could do that was… well, maybe it was just the norm now. Nevertheless, it was another neat trick and one that allowed the illusionist to keep himself clean as well.

"Where to next?" Daryl asked.

Stanley closed his eyes and lifted himself and Caffeine higher into the air. In the darkness behind his eyelids, Stanley could still see the ocean of stars that were the Souls all around them, even through his Soul Shield. But the shield did muddy those stars, smudging them together until it was hard to pick one from another or even to tell how far away each one was. However, as the vast majority of the Souls sensed were terrestrial, simply looking from a different angle could help immensely, more so for those nearby.

Stanley drifted slowly higher until a larger smudge of Souls stood out from the rest in the distance. As he went, Stanley paid careful attention to the sky, especially to the Souls he could sense up there. Because while most of the Souls were indeed terrestrial, a disturbing number were still above and below, hence the reason for his sea of stars comparison. There was also the ever-present danger of an enemy capable of hiding its Soul from him… something that Stanley had learned the hard way, even if it did take a few lessons to get through to him.

One mental split was entirely devoted to feeling the space around him in intense scrutiny since he'd left the truck. One split still sat in the dark and meditated, while the third maintained the Soul Shield. The last one handled everything else, from talking and petting Caffeine, to testing out his newest Skill. It seemed like a healthy balance, especially while exposed out here, and Stanley couldn't afford to be surprised by an attack. Not that it might endanger him directly, but more that he might inadvertently lash out too hard and unleash the Source, potentially drawing a new threat down on all of them. That was an unacceptable and wholly unnecessary risk.

"I think there is a Lair that way," Stanley said upon returning to earth, or at least just above the earth, as he was still hovering cross-legged in the air. He had to. Where else could Caffeine sit otherwise?

They moved off, three humans, a fox, two wolves, and a dozen plus copies of Daryl, each carrying an animal corpse.

Stanley stopped their advance when his mental touch reached the first of the Souls he'd sensed. It froze up the moment his Soul-infused mind touched it and then bolted away into a tunnel, but not before Stanley got a good… feel. It felt mammalian, quadruped, furry, and about the size of a horse. So, in other words, something Caffeine would probably want to be friends with… "It's just ahead," he told the others, "but I'm going to keep Caffeine back here." The pug in question was already sitting up and sniffing at the air before standing and turning to go investigate the smells. "Or maybe I'll take him back to the truck," Stanley added as he forcefully but gently held Caffeine back.

"Good timing," Eve's voice came from the small metal spider sitting on his shoulder, "I'm about ready to test out the shell. Now that I've fixed the fucking thing…" Her voice trailed off.

Another smaller spider clung to the back of Zeke's leather armor, a spider that Stanley guessed Zeke was unaware of because he hastily redonned his helmet when hearing Eve's voice.

The helmet was a combination of leather and metal, much like the armor covering his torso, where metal plates protected the most vital areas of his body. All of the metal adorning Zeke held touches of his sister's Soul and was likely the best possible protection available at the moment, and all of the armor had been equipped before Eve would allow Zeke to depart from the truck.

A tad controlling on her part, maybe, but Stanley wouldn't say anything, at least not on purpose… and he couldn't blame her, not really. Hell, he was tempted to ask for some of his own. Though Zeke claimed that it interfered with his healing and lowered the amount of power he could pump out into other people.

It made some sense, as Zeke's healing power came from the Core inside his body, and anything that blocked power from coming in would probably block it in the other direction as well. Of course, that was likely the only reason Eve hadn't sent him out in full plate armor…

"Go ahead," Daryl said, "I'll send the meat back with you while we scout out what we're dealing with."

Stanley only nodded and started floating back the way they had come. There was something to be said about slaughtering entire Lairs of animals, especially considering that they were almost exclusively after the Cores and would leave the corpses to rot… but they needed those Cores. Stanley had mostly made his peace with such wanton killing, though it was much easier when he was killing bugs, or something else he didn't care about, like, for instance, rats. But if they found a Lair of wolves, or even just something cute… well, sometimes Stanley was glad that he could kill without direct visual contact.

Caffeine settled down as they floated away, mostly just happy to stare at Stanley's face and wag his tail. Until he started sniffing toward the fake Daryl walking close by with a dripping mound of bloody meat over its shoulder and licking his lips… "You are so much like a human, Stanley thought, "not wanting to know where your meat comes from but all too happy to eat the final product." Not that he could blame the pug, Stanley still found the sight of Zeke preparing their kills a bit nauseating, but he was getting used to it.

The truck came into view not far away, where their drive had been cut short when the power supply for the truck ran too low. Apparently, the small charge Eve was draining from everyone through the bracelets wasn’t enough to run the entire vehicle, and it wasn’t worth it to just have everyone pour their Mana pools into the batteries, as Eve claimed that it would only give them a minor charge. Eve had also mentioned her suspicion that their range had been reduced somehow, likely because of Adam’s modification to the trailer and the increased number of powerful people being carried within. A theory that Stanley was inclined to agree with based on his own experimentation with the costs of moving.

Which brought up the fact that it cost Stanley seemingly no extra effort to carry Caffeine around in his lap, while even lifting one additional person cost more than he and Caffeine combined. Stanley didn't know what exactly that was about, whether because Caffeine was obviously utterly and desperately willing to be carried or something related to the binding between their Souls. Either way, Stanley was happy with the result.

Eve took the opportunity of the forced downtime to keep working on repairing the coffin… or shell that Stanley was meant to be sitting in. Meanwhile, everyone else headed out to hunt, both for food and Cores, now that they were no longer in the path of the mosquito swarm—everyone except Walter, who, for obvious reasons, remained behind with Eve. Adam, on the other hand, had vanished… no one knew where to, but Eve claimed that he had done that all the time back at the Tower. She only muttered under her breath that he better come back before they left…

Stanley didn't know the boy's Soul well enough to pick it out under the muting of his shield and didn't want to drop the shield… for obvious reasons. He did feel bad, though, as he was pretty sure that his own loud Soul was bothering Adam and was part of the reason he'd left.

Walter met Stanley at the door and took the fresh meat from each of the illusions, disappearing the carcasses to wherever he put things… The clones dissipated one by one as they handed off their burdens, except for the last one. "We won't be long, Walter," the illusion said, its voice sounding normal, if not exactly a match for Daryl's, "it doesn't look like a very strong Lair."

"Very good, Sir," Walter replied, "I shall have breakfast ready upon your return."

"Thanks, Walter." The illusion smiled at the older man before fading away into motes of light and vanishing completely.

Caffeine had been uninterested in the entire conversation until the word breakfast was spoken. Then he was off Stanley's lap and inside the truck, staring back and forth between Walter and the stovetop. Stanley smiled and followed him inside.

"Stanley," Eve snapped, drawing his attention and ruining the mood, "get in there. I'm ready to test it." She pointed at the former half-melted shell of metal that now looked pristine and rather like an open flower splayed out over the floor.

"Eve," Stanley said as he floated next to her, "I just want to say that I really appreciate everything you've done to help and protect me."

His statement caught her off guard, and Eve glared at him suspiciously. "What are you doing?"

Stanley turned away before he spoke. "Just wanted to get on your good side in case I accidentally think aloud later."

That almost got a smile out of her, almost. "Just sit down," she growled, "and don't you mean when not if you say something stupid?" Stanley hid his smile before turning around and settling into his spot right before the metal folded up around him and completely enclosed him inside. It immediately smothered his Soul Awareness even further, turning the field of slightly blurry stars into a cloudy night sky, one without any city lights reflecting from below… Close by, however, Stanley could still feel Walter and Eve with decent clarity.

Eve's Soul was still in turmoil, both from the mental attack they had all suffered and all the previous trauma that had been brought violently back to the surface by said attack. But Stanley did feel the weight dragging on her ease up just slightly at his words, even if she would never admit it.

She moved around the outside of the metal shell, touching it in various places and sending out tiny pulses of power. "How was…" Eve started and then hesitated, "your Skill."

"She really didn't like that I got that Skill," Stanley thought.

"You're doing it again," Eve growled.

"Ah, thanks," Stanley replied and quickly reassigned the split mind that had relaxed after entering into Walter's domain. It had relaxed partly because he suspected that Walter had an even greater awareness of anything and everything in here and also because his new habit of keeping his Soul infused through his mental touch caused a bit of a clash with Walter's power. The interference was worse when he tried to maintain the intense scrutiny he'd used while outside. So instead, Stanley let Walter have the watch and set that split to work on his Soul Awareness and the Soul strengthening technique he'd developed therein. Doing said technique properly required intense focus, and so kept that one split from speaking, hopefully…

"The Skill works well," Stanley finally answered her question, "though maybe a bit sadistically…"

"But you can fight without the Source?" Eve asked.

"I can, but…" Stanley trailed off as he recalled the tests.

Throughout the recent hunting trip, Stanley had used Mind Crush on everything they came across, and he had learned more about it along the way. For instance, he knew that the Skill had a sliding scale on how much power could be forced into it, very much like all of his Skills once he thought about it.

On the one hand, it meant that Stanley would feel better about using it on Walter once the man decided to embrace masochism and train mental resistance. On the other hand, however, Stanley suspected he could kill even C-ranks with the Skill, or at least as close to death as he had left the D-ranks. The only problem was that as he ramped up the effort and power going into the Skill, Stanley felt the Slumbering pug in their Soul stir.

Stanley reviewed his Status once more, looking for anything that might explain the issue.

Status

Name: Stanley Cascade

Race: [Slumbering Psionic Source of Power(Human)](C Rank)

Traits:

[Slumbering Source] [Mental Soul] [Ruthless Undying Soul] [We Are Three]

Titles:

[Solo Hunter]

[Inspiring]

[Raid This!]

[First Time?]

Class:

[Soul Psionic(Adept II)](Rare)

Class Skills:

[Mind Over All(Initiate II)](Legendary)

[Quiet Meditating Soul(Initiate V)](Epic)

[Psionic Soul Shield(Apprentice V)](Rare)

[Mental Fortress(Adept VI)](Rare)

[Split Minds(Journeyman II)](Epic)

Attributes:

Strength: 1010

Vitality: 1040

Dexterity 1020

Perception 1010

Intelligence 1020

Willpower 1044

Twin-Soul 625

Non Class Skills:

[Mind Crush(Initiate III)](Epic)

[Soul Awareness(Journeyman V)](Rare)

[Soul Reinforcement(Apprentice II)](Epic)

[Source Regeneration](Legendary)(Passive)

[Heat Resistance I(Passive)](Common)

[Cold Resistance I(Passive)](Common)

Buffs:

[Soul Support Tether] [Walter's Gratitude]

Debuffs:

And he found it or suspected he had. It was the Trait [Mental Soul], a leftover Trait from his previous Evolution at D-rank and not something he'd thought about recently.

[Mental Soul]

You have Chosen Mind and Soul over Flesh.

Your Flesh is Becoming Nothing More than a Reservoir of Power for Your Mind, and while You Cannot Yet Live Without the Flesh, You No Longer Require the Flesh to Sustain Awareness as a Portion of your Mind is Held Within your Soul.

50% Mental Capacity Retained Within the Soul.

-90% Effectiveness of All Physical Attributes.

+200% Effectiveness of All Mental Attributes.

+50% of All Mental Attributes added to Twin-Soul Strength and Durability.

+400% Psionic Power.

+400% Psionic Energy Pool.

The Trait had changed somewhere along the way. The Notification, if there was one, had likely been overlooked in the recent chaos of his existence. Nevertheless, the bit that Stanley was focused on now was the 50% of his Mind that was supposedly in his Soul. He had experienced a diminished capacity while trapped in Stasis, but it was hard to gauge any difference now, seeing as he had ranked up to C since then. If it was accurate, then Stanley's latest theory was that the part of his Mind that was most protected was also the part that he couldn't utilize without awakening the Source. Or rather couldn't utilize it fully since it didn't feel like he was lacking any ability to think. It was only an issue when he attempted to turn those thoughts into weapons.

Of course, this was all speculation, and Stanley honestly had no way to untangle the web of connections that was his Soul and Mind. Between his Traits, Skills, and even Class, it was a mess of back-and-forth power flow. Stanley never liked math, and he wasn't about to start doing it now. Instead, he would just focus on the obvious solution… Get strong enough to use the Source and then use it to kill whatever came after them, and get home… and ideally accomplish both of those as soon as possible.

"I can fight," Stanley said after his long and mainly useless retrospection, "I will fight."

"Damn," Eve said, her Soul feeling odd, "so that's how you stayed awake in the Stasis?" Stanley just sighed while wondering if he'd just spoken his entire status out loud… "and your Attributes are too low. Me and Zeke are nearing two thousand across the board already." Apparently, he had.

Stanley turned his attention to Caffeine, who was still sitting at Walter's feet but casting worried glances toward the shell that covered his human. "I'm still here, Caff," Stanley said while smiling and used his mental touch to give Caffeine some pets where he sat across the trailer. Even with Walter's domain muffling him, at least so long as Stanley didn't push things, it still felt like he was touching the pug, soft hairs and all.

"Just how much can you feel?" Eve asked, "ever since you woke up, it feels like you've been touching me, even more so since whatever you did with spreading your soul around. I don't know if I just got used to it before, but…"

Her words brought Stanley's attention from Caffeine to her and to something that he was technically always aware of with his mind spread out to feel his surroundings, but something that was always relegated to unimportant background information.

"She does have a smoking body under…" Stanley realized that his mouth was moving too late.

"I knew it!" Eve exploded.

She was angry, as expected, and embarrassed but also… slightly pleased about something? He supposed that he had just given her a compliment, if in a creepy way.

Stanley was grateful for the metal coffin hiding him from her as he tried to think of what to say. "Technically, I've almost always been able to feel everyone…" That wasn't making it better, but Stanley was distracted by something else.

He had pulled his mental touch back into his own head for the first time since he woke up, and yet… he could still sense everything surrounding him.

It wasn't the same sensation as before, yet even without touching anything with his mind, Stanley somehow knew what was around him. Thinking about the phenomenon made Stanley aware that it was his [Mind Over All] at work. The legendary Skill said nothing about an effect like this, but it said that he had power over reality itself. The information he was getting from the Skill now was just a passive effect and most likely just his subconscious mind touching upon the reality around him. At least, that was his best guess.

It also only reached about ten feet in every direction… for now, and inside that radius was Eve. He could still feel her, in a way, and at the same time, not. She had an aura above her skin when he observed her this way, and it seemed to blur the edges, preventing him from seeing her clearly. Stanley instinctively understood that this was her own Will, her conscious and unconscious mind that would actively resist any attempts to alter its reality.

It was fascinating! Something he had before only felt as a resistance to his power but could now actually see, with 'see' being the closest approximation that he could compare it to. He was finally seeing another person's Will. "I wonder what mine looks like…" Unfortunately, Stanley couldn't sense anything similar around himself, only Eve, as she was the only other person in range.

Walter was too far away at the moment, so he couldn't compare the two, but Stanley could feel the man's Domain spread throughout the truck. It was a subtle thing, almost invisible, and the only reason Stanley even noticed was that his passive sense was also reaching outside the truck and outside the Domain. Mainly it was the dirt underneath the trailer, but that was enough for a contrast… Stanley lost a few more seconds just looking at the dirt. Every pebble, every speck of dirt or dust. The air itself… he knew all of it!

He pulled his attention away from the dirt and the seemingly infinite levels of detail he could dive into and looked back at Eve. Her Will hovered around her, and it was too weak. Just like he understood what it was, he also understood that it couldn't stop him. Even as he focused on it, the protection was slowly stripped away under his scrutiny. He wasn't even trying to do that… but either she was too weak, or his Skill was too powerful.

Just thinking about it made Stanley want to level up the Skill and see what changed, which, unfortunately, was probably not going to happen any time soon…

"...just go around, doing whatever you…" Eve was ranting when Stanley finally started listening again.

"Sorry, Eve. I got distracted. What did you say?" Her anger and embarrassment surged. "Not that!" Stanley laughed and continued, "I just learned something about one of my Skills… Besides, can't you feel that I pulled back?"

"I…" Eve floundered, "you did…" Which confirmed that she couldn't detect the [Mind Over All] passive. "Dirty old pervert…" she pressed on with her attack, but he could tell that her heart wasn't in it anymore.

"I really don't even notice stuff like that anymore!" Stanley said, "It's your fault for mentioning it. You made me look!"

"Anymore?"

"It's not technically touching you, I think." Stanley ignored the question and pushed his power out again, reaching past Eve to Caffeine.

"You're doing it again!"

"Look at Caff," Stanley said and ruffled the pug's head, making his ears flap as he stared up at Walter with unwavering attention. Walter, for his part, continued ignoring the argument as he cooked. "That is me touching something," Stanley told her once he saw her looking that way. "I'll show you what it feels like…"

"Don't you dare!" Eve took a step back, one hand coming up toward Stanley.

Stanley reached out and very gently booped… her nose. "Boop!"

That did it.

Stanley laughed and held the shell closed while she yelled threatening obscenities and tried to get it open.

Ever since he'd known Eve, Stanley had never really thought of her in a romantic or sexual way. When they first met, she had been terrified of him, and that situation hadn't improved quickly.

Of course, there was also the fact that he had turned himself into an old man, something that may have affected his libido. Honestly, Stanley hadn't been pursuing any women since the incident in the mountains, and he couldn't remember before that…

Or maybe, just maybe, all of the fighting for his life and numerous near-death experiences had altered his priorities…

Now… she was just Eve. A friend, ally, someone who had his back and he trusted with his life, even if her loyalty could be a bit… acerbic. He also knew that she saw him the same way, mostly.

Now, he could have said all of that boring stuff to calm her down, but he had a better argument to attack her with. "I bet you spied on tons of people with those spiders."

Stanley knew he'd caught her when his statement dialed down Eve's outrage while increasing her embarrassment. It was an easy guess because he knew of at least three cameras within his perception, not counting the one on his shoulder, and given her paranoid nature, he assumed that she had spread cameras everywhere back at the Tower.

"No I haven't!" Eve lied, "and that's different!"

Stanley just laughed again. He was also sure that Walter was afflicted with the same ability to see absolutely everything, but he didn't want to drag the butler into this…

"Do you have any kind of energy shield?" Stanley asked instead, deciding to change the subject, "I can't usually feel past magic barriers if they enclose something completely. Honestly, I expect that a lot of people will, or already do, have abilities like mine, and it will be up to individuals to protect themselves from things like that."

"I don't have a fucking shield," Eve growled, but it felt like she was also ready to drop it and shift the topic. "I want one, but it's a lot harder to create something like that than I expected. All I've managed are stationary domes that aren't practical as a personal or mobile defense system." Her voice turned thoughtful as she added something else, "what about this?"

Stanley kept his mouth shut as her body was slowly but thoroughly hidden behind… something? Whatever it was seemed to come directly from her flesh and spread out from there. It did nothing to conceal her Soul, however, and it actually felt like it was doing the opposite.

Stanley finally pushed the metal shell open to get an actual look at what was happening and stared in surprise at what met his gaze.

A humanoid that looked to be composed entirely of the shiniest silver metal Stanley had ever seen. The metal seemed to flow like a liquid as it closed off the last few openings and then stilled, leaving behind a slightly creepy figure where Eve had stood. It conformed to her body, mostly. However, it was much smoother with all the edges rounded out and with one glaring difference. A singular glowing silver eye was staring out of an otherwise flat, featureless face, or at least where a face should be. "Like the silver surfer," Stanley thought, "or the T-1000…" It somehow looked more bizarre that she was wearing clothing.

The silver eye fixed on him, and Stanley gave his honest opinion. "It looks badass and definitely blocks my senses." Eve liked that, and she was smiling when the metal started sinking back into her skin, revealing her face.

But the smile didn't last. "It is badass," she said, "but completely useless for most threats."

Stanley opened his mouth, and she closed the shell back around him before he could ask a follow-up. Eve answered the unspoken question regardless. "It is my Soul. Or maybe holding part of it, I'm not sure."

Stanley understood the problem now. "So if it gets damaged, or…"

"Yea."

"That's… bad," Stanley mused, "though if you got an Undying Soul…"

"You mentioned that," Eve said as she returned to work on the shell. She didn't specifically ask, but the question was there. So Stanley told her the basic details.

"Son of a bitch," Eve cursed, and Stanley could feel the jealous anger welling up inside her. "and all I got was the fucking anger!" She couldn't have gotten the Trait regardless because Stanley hadn't had it yet when she was leeching. So Stanley continued talking and told her that. He also included the method by which he had acquired the Trait, just in case she wanted to take a stab at it herself.

Eve already knew where it had started, with the raid leader cutting their Soul open and Stanley using the Soul energy, or Soul blood, as a weapon. She even knew something of what had happened during the final battle against the Undead. Everyone knew since, apparently, Stanley had been broadcasting rather loudly.

He gave her the gory details anyway and must have done an excellent job conveying the experience because Eve went silent in horrified contemplation. Too good a description, in fact, because just retelling it also put Stanley on edge…

But it wasn't all bad. In fact, it almost felt cathartic to get it off his chest… Stanley still dropped two more of his Split Minds into meditation. That left him with only the one maintaining the Soul Shield, but that was enough to still see and hear what was happening around him, if not enough to keep his mental touch going.

Stanley just left that worry to Walter. The man had continued to work silently during the discussion, not butting in or responding but obviously listening. So Stanley ignored his presence in turn as he sat in the enforced calm that came with his meditation stretching out the moments.

He recovered gradually while the world around him crawled forward in time, and the shadow of remembered pain shifted gradually into amusement as he contemplated what was happening. "It's like speed therapy. Get traumatized, deal with it, and get over it, all in a few seconds, thanks to our patented Quiet Meditating Soul! Order now!" Honestly, Stanley liked the Skill more every day. Though, technically, this was only the second day and still less than twenty-four hours since he'd gained the Skill…

It was quiet inside his Soul space as well, with Lee flickering in and out occasionally. There was a bed in one of the Soul Fortress rooms now, the one Lee claimed was his apartment back in the real world, and his twin was appearing in said bed, asleep.

Lee had fallen asleep earlier, during a lull in their conversations, and while still standing in the courtyard looking at his Rune designs. It had been amusing to see him sleep standing up like that until he'd faded and, shortly after that, started flickering in and out on the bed.

Stanley didn't know if his brother had already been lying in bed while they talked or if someone had carried him to it when he passed out. He hoped it was the latter because that meant Lee had people looking out for and watching over him…

Despite that, Lee wasn't sleeping easily. He mumbled and even screamed occasionally while in the bed. Symbols flickered in the air around his twin as he tossed and turned.

"Three," Stanley said to the building in his Soul, "I know you're supposed to be alive, and all, and I doubt you can hear me, but our Fortress must look like you for a reason… if you can do anything to help my brother sleep, I'd appreciate it." Nothing happened, not that he expected anything.

As for himself, Stanley was getting tired too, though not to the point of requiring sleep yet. He suspected his meditation was delaying that eventual necessity and was not looking forward to it. Though, with Zeke on hand, it might not be too bad… yet another benefit of having his friends along for this trip.

Skill [Quiet Meditating Soul] Level Up.

Stanley dropped the extra meditations and spoke through the metal wall between him and Caffeine, "I'm fine, Caff. You can go get some snacks."

The pug, sitting anxiously with his nose pressed against the metal, huffed softly and hesitated only a moment before dashing back to keep an eye on the stove.

Stanley could feel the dent left behind in the metal shell, a nearly perfect imprint of Caffeine's nose. Eve noticed it as well and smoothed it back out. "I hope you can keep him from destroying this one…"

"I can try," Stanley said, "but back to your metal. It looked relatively flexible, so if you really want privacy, why not use smaller amounts to cover your… important bits. It might even be worth it to protect your vitals in combat…"

"My head is… safe. The metal is actually already providing protection under my skin. As for the rest of it, well, it would take a lot of concentration to keep it outside in patches like that, especially to keep it flexible at the same time."

"All the more reason to do it then," Stanley countered, "for the practice, if nothing else. It took me a long time and a lot of paranoid anxiety to get my power to where it is now. I couldn't touch jack shit in the beginning, and now I can see…" He pushed his mind to the limit in every direction. "a lot."

Eve didn't say anything, but Stanley felt her power reappearing as he'd suggested and covering her… bits. He didn't know how comfortable that was but kept his mouth shut as she got back to work.

"Okay," Eve finally said, "I think it's ready for a test. Can you drop your shield, but only for a moment?"

"I think I can do one better and just turn it down." And Stanley did so, dropping the strength of his shield until Eve told him to stop.

"Hold there. I'm getting some power, and it seems to be holding. At least I'm not sensing any Source."

Stanley had another idea as he sat there and watched Eve make minor adjustments. His Soul was hard to pin down in the physical world, at least in relation to actual physical space. But it should be possible to… He pushed the Soul Shield… out? Or wider? Whatever the technical term was, he moved the shield so that while still encompassing his Soul, it did so while also outside the shell.

"Stop, stop!" Eve exclaimed, and Stanley quickly reversed his actions.

"Was it leaking? Sorry, I thought it would…"

"It wasn't leaking," Eve said, sounding surprised, "but the power was too strong… how did you do that?"

Stanley told her.

"That's…" Eve suddenly stiffened, and Stanley felt fear rising in her Soul. "What is it?" Stanley tightened his Soul Shield immediately and prepared for…

"It's Zeke and Daryl…"

"I'm going!" Stanley pushed the shell open and headed for the door at a speed just below Source triggering levels… and was outside with Caffeine in his arms before her voice reached him.

"Wait!"

"I have over a thousand Attributes to burn if…" Stanley stopped talking as he realized that she wasn't actually afraid, only a bit worried.

"They aren't in trouble," Eve said from the doorway, "just moving out of range. Which they shouldn't be…"

"Are they still in the Lair?" Stanley asked, "The ground might just be blocking…"

"They're still in there, and I've been keeping an eye on them… but the damn thing is deeper than any I've ever seen… both of them fighting together should have been more than enough to be finished by now."

Stanley relaxed slightly. "Want me to go check on them? Or… do you want to go? I can wait here and keep charging the truck."

Eve wanted to go, that much was obvious, but she finally shook her head with a look back to the shell. "No, you go. I need to improve this damn thing some more. With what you just did, we might be able to drive non-stop…" Her gaze jumped back to him. "But don't use the Source! Unless…"

"I know," Stanley interrupted her, "only if it's necessary. Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to them. As I said, I have Attributes to burn if it comes to that."

Eve hesitated before adding, "I don't know if you noticed, but you regained some of the lines in your face when you dragged us out of that… Dungeon, and they haven't faded."

It took Stanley a moment to realize what she was talking about, and he looked at his hands for confirmation. They looked… normal? Regardless, it didn't matter. "Even if I turn back into a decrepit old man, I'll still protect my friends. You know that, right?"

Eve scrutinized him with a solemn gaze as he felt her fear and worry diminish before she nodded slowly. "I know…" she turned back inside, "and thanks."

Stanley honestly didn't care what he looked like, not like Eve did, so long as he was alive…

"Just go already!" Eve snapped from inside.

Stanley just smiled at his slip-up and turned to leave before Walter called him back. "Please take this, Sir." He had a handmade but quality-looking leather backpack in his hand.

"Thanks, Walter." Stanley took the pack and, with it, the food it was stuffed with, thereby gaining the complete attention of Caffeine.

"Safe travels, Sir."

"Hurry up already," Eve muttered from out of sight, but Stanley was already flying back toward the Lair.

Caffeine earned himself some snacks during the trip on account of his being a very good boy, and they reached the hole quickly.

You have entered [Lair of the Underwood].

The light from the sky was quickly left behind, and Stanley carefully remedied the situation.

light

It wasn't that he needed light precisely, but more that he wasn't currently a fan of darkness.

Caffeine led the way on foot once they were inside, his nose up and sniffing at the air. They didn't find any signs of violence for a surprising distance, and then there was a pile of the creatures that Stanley had glimpsed outside, all dead. Stanley didn't look too closely, but it appeared that they had died in a variety of different ways. Caffeine gave the dead a careful sniff before hurrying off, following a trial of something down one of the many tunnels that branched from the cavern.

Deeper and deeper they went, the tunnels branching and splitting at random intervals, and as they went, Stanley picked up more and more Souls below them. It was a lot, like a disturbing amount that exceeded any Lair he'd seen before.

Eventually, Stanley found something new in the dark underground. A wall ran across the large tunnel and blocked off the path. Or at least it would have been if not for the large hole in said wall that looked like it had been made with explosives or fire, an assumption supported by the many badly burnt corpses before and past the wall. The strangest part, however, was that the remaining wall looked crafted, not natural but built out of stone blocks.

Stanley briefly considered if the wall was part of some old ruins, which he doubted as this was America, or the more likely but worrying explanation, that the Lair residents had built it… and what that meant in regards to the intelligence of the creatures.

Regardless, he continued following the pug as Caffeine led them deeper. Along the way, they passed another destroyed wall, beyond which Stanley found new structures, ones that looked like dwellings. Though, to be fair, they were little more than caves off of the main tunnel, but they all held small individual touches. A few flowers in one corner, little piles of nuts and berries, and some even had furs draped over the opening as if the occupants desired privacy.

Stanley couldn't tell if the furs were from the local inhabitants or something else they hunted outside. Or, for that matter, why would furry creatures even bother to make something like that?

Even more dead littered this area.

The entire Lair was a maze, and Stanley gave up on trying to feel it all out as they descended. It had been possible initially, but as they went lower, the tunnels branched further and further in every direction.

Instead, he focused on the area directly around them just in case anything tried to slip past Caffeine's nose or his Soul Awareness, which he was using to also monitor the mass of creatures below. And among the sea of Souls below, Stanley could sense a point of golden light. So he at least had a general direction to head towards. Of course, he could also just follow the trail of bodies…

Eventually, some of the Souls he could feel finally moved into horizontal positions in relation to him. Stanley used the light of the Souls to send his mind out to find them. One was frightened and hiding, while the other Soul felt unworried and a bit oblivious. He reached the scared creature first, and it felt his Soul-infused mind touch it and panicked. It was only a D-rank, so Stanley killed it quickly… and discovered a new problem when he tried to retrieve the Core.

His mind could reach through the walls without much trouble, though it did feel slightly more challenging to act through all the stone between them. Unfortunately, the Core needed an open path to return. An annoyance that forced Stanley to stop moving for a bit as he mapped out a route. All for practically nothing.

+0.1 Strength

The other one felt smaller when his mind touched it, and it had a different reaction to feeling his presence. Hostility and anger flared in its Soul as the furry animal scrambled from the small room it had been relaxing in. Its mouth was opening and closing repeatedly, and Stanley thought he could feel vibrations in the air, though he couldn't hear anything where he was. His best guess is that it was trying to sound the alarm, only there was no one left to hear it…

The anger in the creature faltered and then turned to fear when it found a room full of its dead fellows. It slowed from its headlong scramble, moving among the dead as sadness and despair filled it…

Stanley killed the animal by crushing its head into goo. A quick, painless death… he hoped. "This is fucked up." He had killed so many animals and monsters and cleared out so many Lairs, but this was new. Even worse, inside the room it had come from, Stanley could feel a lone block of something, maybe a rock, sitting on the floor surrounded by chips and flakes that had been carved off the block. It wasn't an art masterpiece or anything. Hell, it didn't look like anything more than a carved-up chunk, but even if the monster was just carving out a brick, didn't that mean something? Someone had built those walls after all…

The Core, when he laid hands on it, only made things worse.

[Wood Carving](Common)

Allows the User to Carve and Shape Wood with Greater Ease and Control.

"You just had to drop a Skill Shard." Stanley continued deeper into the Lair. He didn't spot any more evidence of potential art, other than the walls, that is. "Maybe they killed humans and got the Skill that way. The same thing could have happened with the walls." The wood carving skill didn't have any requirements after all. But there had been those emotions in its Soul…

Stanley had seen animals with emotion before, primarily hostility and fear, sure, but did it matter…

"It doesn't matter," Eve's voice came from the spider on his shoulder, and Stanley physically flinched in surprise. He may have forgotten about it… "They are fucking monsters," Eve continued, "just kill them and get the Cores. Don't make this more than it needs to be."

"But…"

"They are wild animals at best and a dangerous threat to humanity at worst. You think they wouldn't kill all of us and take our Cores if given a chance?"

"I… yea, probably."

"They have a fucking army of these things down here. What happens when they decide to expand and find a city or town nearby? They won't give a shit if some humans are artists or have fucking emotions!"

"Damn, Eve. But that's fair… and have you been watching this whole time?"

Eve laughed. "I didn't have to watch. You've been fucking narrating everything."

"Ah, Seriously?"

"You were in and out plenty, but I got the gist."

Stanley smiled sheepishly, his face warm, and then did his best imitation of a narrator. "We continue today following the intrepid explorer Stanley as he descends further into the mysterious depths of the Underwood. Along for the journey, we have his trusty sidekick, Caffeine. As well as their grumpy talking spider, Eve." He kept the narration going as he continued and only talked louder when Eve protested. Caffeine didn't mind at all.

The next survivors of Zeke and Daryl he came across didn't give him any moral quandaries. They charged violently from the dark tunnels, claws leaving furrows through the stone as they came on. Caffeine growled slightly upon seeing them, and Stanley didn't wait for the pug to decide if he wanted to make friends.

Mind Crush

Both of the beasts went limp when he blasted the area effect of his Skill and tumbled across the ground until they slid into a wall. They were lacking in mental defense, but then Stanley tried to snap their necks and met too much resistance. "Damn. Not lacking in the physical department, I guess." They were C-ranks and not fresh ones either.

So instead, Stanley used the blade Walter had left strapped to the pack. It was a sleek, almost needle-like weapon and perfect for what he needed. The blade stabbed effortlessly through their eyes and deep into their heads. "That works," he thought once the Cores started forming.

+1 All Base Attributes

+1 All Base Attributes

That was more like it! There was something about seeing useful gains like that that just made him feel better about killing them… "Plus, they were asking for it."

"Exactly," the spider on his shoulder said.

He didn't make it much farther before the spider spoke again, or rather, tried to. "Losing… damn… fucking deep…"

Stanley half expected the spider to fall off him, but it kept holding on, only silently now. He could now also clearly pick out Zeke's Soul below and even feel Daryl and Princess, though their Souls were a bit spread out, which made sense once he remembered how they fought. He could also feel an absolute shit ton of C-rank monsters… so he flew faster.

He heard the fighting before he saw anything, quite a ways before, in fact. Then Caffeine woofed softly as they approached and sprinted ahead. Stanley let him go but held back himself. He was already feeling out the way forward and knew that the cave opened up into a genuinely massive cavern that he still hadn't found the back of. Every Soul, at least the ones he could sense, was in that cavern.

Instead of charging in to join the battle, Stanley dropped his light and set up a little ways back from the entrance. He didn't want to risk drawing an attack more potent than he expected and accidentally use the Source. Though, whether it even mattered this far underground, he wasn't sure. Regardless, there was no urgency. Despite the numbers, neither Zeke nor Daryl seemed worried. A bit tired, maybe, but not struggling. Plus, Caffeine had just joined the action.

+1 Twin-Soul

"Perfect timing." Stanley stopped the Soul training and used the now two free Split Minds to map out the room ahead.

It was a city. That was the only thing Stanley could think of to describe it. Only instead of sprawling across the ground, it filled the interior of the cavern. Streets and alleyways ran vertically as well as horizontally. Stone bridges connected clusters or neighborhoods and also ran out to the walls where more tunnels extended away. The creatures there seemed to have no trouble navigating, some even crawling along the undersides of the bridges.

Daryl, or at least the one he assumed to be him, stood nearby to Zeke, with Princess at his side. Alongside the healer was a giant wolf whose shoulder topped out above the young man's head. Stanley couldn't spot the other wolf and guessed that it was the shadowy one, probably lurking around and picking off enemies somewhere.

During his inspection of the area, Stanley also noticed a sizable number of the enemy creatures off to one side, enemies who appeared to be trying to flank his allies. But before he could attack or warn them, Caffeine turned to face the threat, and his mouth opened…

There was a deafening and earthshaking boom!

The damage was immediately apparent, as stone structures shattered and monsters either collapsed or were dashed against the walls, and in some cases, were shredded by the broken rocks that went through them like a flak cannon.

Unfortunately, it didn't hurt only the enemy. Zeke and Daryl both stumbled under the sonic shockwave, though they recovered almost immediately thanks in all likelihood to Zeke's healing.

Even Caffeine paused to shake his head after the blast.

Stanley escaped unscathed by being far enough away, and though his own shield vibrated ominously under the assault, it held up.

The slightly over-enthusiastic attack did accomplish what it needed to however, and Daryl split off more illusions to deal with the flanking force that had been largely decimated already. Stanley pitched in himself as well, sending broad Mind Crush attacks at any area that was looking too energetic.

Until he tried to attack one group that had been far enough back to escape the devastation, and they all vanished from his mental touch behind an opaque bubble. He didn't know if it was actually opaque, but his mind couldn't feel anything inside the dome. He could still feel their Souls however, and so knew they were doing something when he felt the anticipation building.

Mind Crush felt like it only bounced off the barrier, but Stanley was already moving to a new tactic.

The blade leaped from his backpack and shot down the tunnels at the highest speed Stanley could safely muster. It struck the bubble barely a second later and seemed to pause halfway into the barrier… before the entire thing shattered into shards of… something.

Mind Crush

His attack hit the group of maybe a dozen creatures, half of which collapsed or nearly collapsed.

Mind Crush

Mind Crush

Stanley directly targeted the rest of them two at a time with his Split Minds, and all but one fell to the much more focused attack. The last one standing was on its hind legs while a roiling knot of… something grew between its front paws. Stanley could only assume it was using magic, and rather than try to disrupt whatever was growing there, he had a different solution.

The flying dagger snapped through the air like a striking snake and left two holes straight through the creature's head.

Whatever had been building up between its paws went haywire when the creature's head was aerated. The magic exploded outwards in every direction with twisting, clawing ripples that left a stinging sensation on the parts of Stanley's mind that enveloped the area. It also came with the bonus effect of shredding the downed but not yet dead creatures around the caster, and Stanley finished off the rest with his flying dagger.

It was oddly nostalgic to be fighting this way, and it made Stanley think of Kira and the spear she wielded.

It felt like such a long time since he'd used the spear, or any weapon, for that matter. Once his mind became capable of basically being the weapon, he'd left them behind. But maybe it was time to fall back on his original methods… Stanley honestly felt like an idiot for not thinking of doing this earlier.

He could ask Walter if he had more knives and if he used his Split Minds to wield four at once or leveled up the Skill to wield even more…

But before all that, Stanley moved himself to join the others in the cavern. He was feeling a bit exposed alone in the dark, thoughts of assassin ants that he couldn't detect creeping up in his thoughts.

His plan of staying out of danger was technically a good one. However, it ignored the fatal flaw of him not being with Caffeine. Unarguably the most powerful thing on earth, and literally the safest place to be located, was next to him. Especially now that Caffeine seemed to have learned his lesson about super barking in a cave…

The golden aura was as soothing as ever, and all the lights spread about didn't hurt either as Stanley added his own to the mix. He joined the others, and Caffeine bounded into his lap with happy face licks while Stanley ignored the fact that the pug had been very recently chewing on giant… Stanley wanted to say rodents now that he laid eyes on them. Giant monster rodents.

"Eve kicked you out?" Daryl asked with a grin.

They were hunkering down behind some of the less destroyed structures, and Daryl seemed relatively relaxed, or at least this copy of him was. Other copies were running around the area and throwing all manner of magics toward the deeper sections.

"She got worried when her spiders couldn't get a signal all the way down here," Stanley said, "so I came to check on you."

Zeke's clothes and armor were covered in blood, but his skin was clean, and he was holding a giant spear Stanley didn't remember him having before. He noticed Stanley's gaze and held it up. "Some of them have weapons!"

"Doesn't it bother you that they…" Stanley blasted a charging trio of monsters and put his knife through their heads an instant later. "...are intelligent enough to make something like that?" He almost had to shout to be heard over the noise of roars and exploding magic echoing through the cavern.

Daryl chuckled as he stroked the fox next to him, while Zeke only hesitated briefly before shaking his head. "We need Cores. Plus, we don't even know if they are native or Invaders."

Daryl chimed in then, "While you were sleeping, Stanley, we saw more than a few Lair breakouts, and the smart ones are always the worst."

"Yea, Nate says to kill the leadership of the smart Lairs, even if it's good farming," Zeke added.

"You realize that town we passed, what was it, Springfield? They were probably overrun by a Lair breakout," Daryl piled on.

Stanley held up his hands in surrender. "I get it. I wasn't…" He also wanted Cores. It was just the memory of that Soul… that despair… and for the first time, Stanley kind of wished he didn't have Soul Awareness and so wouldn't know that some of these monsters had feelings like his own. Ignorance is bliss and all that.

But deep down, Stanley knew that it didn't matter. He had killed thousands of animals and monsters. He had even killed humans and would again since that was almost guaranteed if you knew humans. Stanley accepted that and would do whatever it took to survive and reach his brother. Well, almost whatever it took… when they were dying, Stanley had given up rather than start slaughtering the Humans. So there were some limits. He wouldn't harvest humanity for power, but if anyone made themselves an enemy…

"Wait, what about the bat Lair? Did Nate kill them?" He thought he remembered the queen being relatively intelligent…

"Nah," Zeke said, "they got a pass for helping against the Undead. Though, Nate did go threaten her after some bats attacked a human. He didn't even go through the Lair, just punched a hole straight into her room on the top floor." Zeke smiled. "It was awesome! He brought someone with a beast tamer type class who could kinda communicate with the queen, and I think it worked because they've been real quiet since then."

"I didn't hear about that," Daryl said thoughtfully.

"So anyway, what's the hold up here?" Stanley asked, ready to put aside his moralizing and start the killing.

"Just taking a break while my Mana regens," Daryl said, "the strongest and smartest ones are all that's left, and they know the layout of this maze better. It's slow going trying to dig them all out while avoiding ambushes. But now that you're here…"

"Sure," Stanley said, "this should be a good test. Just watch my back while you rest."

The others gathered protectively around him, and Stanley sent his mind out to start the murdering. The knife flew out as well, and along the way, he found another of the large spears. A bit of effort rewarded him with the removed spearhead as an additional and less unwieldy flying weapon. Then he went to work.

Mind Crush slowed or disabled his targets, and the blades finished the job. Two by two, the monsters died. It would have gone even faster if he didn't need the extra effort of keeping his Soul Shield active. But regardless, it was enough to handle the threat, and he went through them like a machine gun. He attacked so fast that he even managed to get his Psionic pool to dip below 90%.

In the end, almost everything was dead, and most died quickly, not giving them a chance to get emotional about how they were being slaughtered. There had been plenty more magic users among them and their barriers with them, but none could stand up to his attack for long.

The stone spearhead finally shattered on one barrier too many, but Stanley found another more readily available weapon. The monster's claws were bigger than the knife Walter had given him and were effortlessly removed after the beast's deaths. They weren't as sharp as the blade and required more precision as they needed to go for the soft spots, but it was good enough.

Everything died.

Well, almost everything. All but the two Souls hiding behind a barrier at the center of the beast's fortifications. Both felt much stronger than any of the dead had been, and their barrier withstood the flying weapons. The magic even retaliated against the weapons by melting down Walter's blade and destroying the claws.

"Sorry, Walter," Stanley thought when he laid eyes on what remained of the knife, mainly only the hilt and a tiny nub of the blade. He ripped more claws from the dead and hurled them against the magic wall until his growing headache became too much. "What the hell!" He shouldn't be able to even get a headache while inside Zeke's aura…

Stanley was breathing hard when he opened his eyes and spoke.

"There are two left behind a magic barrier, and I…" His eyes felt heavy, and Stanley realized that he was getting tired. "Damn it."

He'd been hoping to put that off for later, much later. A look at his status revealed another issue, but one that was simple enough to remedy. He was hungry. He had to remember that while his regen was insane, it wasn't free.

Daryl whistled as he looked around. "How come I've never seen you fight like this before?"

"Because I'm a badass," Stanley said, smiling as he dug out the food from the pack, "Or I was. I used to just… I guess brute force them? Now I gotta do it the weaker way using tools."

They all took a meal break while he filled in details on what he'd seen around the leaders of the Lair. He also kept a close watch on the two remaining Souls while he did this. Meanwhile, Daryl and Princess sent their illusions in to surround them and help keep an eye on things.

Stanley had found the shadow wolf during his killing spree when it appeared briefly to drag a lone monster into its own shadow, taking them out of the light and out of Stanley's awareness. He didn't sense the wolf's Soul either, only felt its physical body when it lunged from the shadows. He'd almost attacked it once before realizing what it was…

Now it surfaced from the shadows to prowl around the perimeter of the final barrier before vanishing ahead of a spell coming from within. The wolf resurfaced next to its mate while dragging a corpse along for the ride. Both wolves dug into their meal, and Caffeine watched them for only a moment before continuing to beg the Humans for their food instead.

The food helped with his headache, and it, along with the ongoing meditation, helped reduce his fatigue. In the process, Stanley finally realized an issue he hadn't considered. What would happen to his Soul Shield when he slept?

That was a very worrying thought… until he remembered why Eve had remained behind and sent him to go check on her brother. The shell she was working on had technically contained him when he put the shield outside the wall… or so he thought. Frankly, that was his only hope at the moment, other than maybe trying to sleep down here. The Lairs did block his Soul Awareness, but whether they did the same for Source energy, he didn't know and didn't really want to find out. Sleeping down here didn't sound like a good time.

Though, if it did work… could Stanley set up in a beast Lair? Could humans claim beast Lairs? He could be the boss at the end and draw monsters in to attack him…

"We can't claim it," Daryl said, "humans, I mean. We can't claim the Lairs. We have to gather in place for some amount of time before our Lairs automatically appear."

Zeke only nodded in agreement, his mouth full. He swallowed and said, "this entire cave system will start to collapse if nothing moves in fast enough. We've seen it before, doesn't matter if people keep going inside, still crumbles."

"Did you see a lot of Lairs this big?" Stanley was pretty sure that he'd seen, and probably cleared, every Lair that had been inside the Raid Dungeon. None had been anywhere near this size.

Both men shook their heads, and Zeke answered, "I'm guessing it is because this place is so remote. They never got attacked and so spent all their Mana on expansion instead." He must have seen Stanley's confusion, so he elaborated, "Lairs generate Mana at a much higher rate than outside. If you kill most of the monsters, then they spend the Mana on repopulating, but if you leave them alone for a while, then they get bigger instead. Nate has people studying things like that."

Stanley finished eating first, with a bit of help from Caffeine, and then fully meditated with three Split Minds while the others finished, which meant that he couldn't move and got to watch them eat in slow motion for what felt like an eternity. It was worth it though, as his mental fatigue diminished even further from the effort.

When everyone was ready to finish the fight, Stanley tried an idea he'd thought of while meditating. He started dropping dead monsters on top of the shield bubble. He knew that the shield had to be using up Mana to damage his weapons and hoped this would be a cheap way to deplete it. The bodies immediately started to sizzle and melt on contact with the shield, and Stanley just piled on more.

It might have been a bit sadistic to use their dead fellows this way, but was it really any worse than ripping the claws out and throwing those? Regardless, it worked, and the shield fell. Only then did Stanley realize that he could have thrown all the shattered stones from Caffeine's bark…

Daryl was ready when the shield broke, and his copies immediately attacked by sending a variety of spells at the two revealed monsters. One monster retaliated with its own magic in the form of searing beams of red light that burned holes into the stone after destroying the illusions. The other charged ahead while roaring.

Stanley pummeled the caster with jagged shards of stone, wearing down its smaller personal shield. "Told you, Eve." The shield failed while the monster wasted its attacks on killing illusions, and it didn't last long after that. Its physical body was clearly neglected in favor of magical power, and Stanley quickly filled it with holes.

Zeke met the charge of the more physically oriented monster. His looted spear stalled the charging beast but broke after only penetrating barely a foot into the thing's chest. Zeke leaped into the air as it faltered and drove a spinning kick into the side of its head, sending the monster tumbling aside.

"He wasn't kidding about Nate teaching him to fight."

The monster recovered quickly and charged again. Zeke jumped above a clawing swipe, and his knee met the underside of the creature's jaw, snapping the mouth shut as it rocked upwards from the blow.

The next exchange followed the same pattern, only this time, the beast turned its head to dodge the knee and sank its teeth into Zeke's leg as it bit down on the extended limb. Zeke didn't even hesitate at the wound, only drove a powerful punch directly into its nose, eliciting a squeal of pain and forcing it to release him almost immediately.

Stanley saw the punctures in Zeke's leg begin healing the instant the teeth left his flesh, and it wasn't even bleeding by the time Zeke landed. He attacked without waiting for the wound to finish healing and caught the beast still reeling from the last blow. Another kick into its head sent the beast staggering sideways, and Stanley finally recovered from his surprise at Zeke's prowess enough to join in. Rocks pounded into the beast's head before it could dodge, and Princess followed up by breathing out a stream of green fire that engulfed the monster's rear legs.

There was a lot of screaming and limping after that until Stanley finally got a rock through one of its eyes and into the skull, ending its struggles and putting it out of its misery.

[Lair of the Underwood] Destroyed…

Caffeine spent the battle sitting in Stanley's lap, and the wolves seemed content to follow his lead as they lounged nearby. To be fair, it hadn't been a difficult fight. Stanley suspected that any of them could have cleared this entire Lair solo. It would have just taken longer. Though, the two leaders might have been a bit more difficult for Zeke to fight at the same time…

Cores were gathered quickly with Stanley's help, and he split them three ways despite Zeke's protest that he should take them all. Daryl shared his with Princess, and the wolves declined to take any. Stanley himself was unsure about how to proceed toward the next rank. Lee had told him about the issue of spreading Cores around too much versus having enough strong people to deal with the significant threats. But unlike before, Stanley was technically no longer the big shot that could handle every threat. Well, he could still do that, but not for long… No, now he needed his allies to be strong enough to handle things while he could act as the last resort.

It was the best he could come up with, for now anyway. Unfortunately, the Cores weren't all full plus ones. Only the stronger C-ranks dropped those. However, the leaders dropped plus tens, so that was something.

Walter met them at the door. A newly replaced door that he opened to greet them. "Welcome home, Sirs, My Lady."

Stanley had sensed Adam's Soul as they approached, and he pulled his mind back before entering the trailer. Eve was still working, and Stanley felt her relief when she laid eyes on Zeke briefly before turning back to her project. The shell looked much bulkier now and no longer unfolded quite as far with the added structure around the outside.

Stanley headed for his designated spot, but Eve stopped him. "You've got a present on the couch."

He floated over to a large pack that looked to be of much poorer quality than the one Walter had given him. Inside was… Cores. Stuffed full and filled to the brim, a note atop it all.

"Stanley, Adam appeared back in my neighborhood, and I think I convinced him to carry this back to you. It was all I could scrounge up on such short notice, but I hope it helps. I didn't even have to threaten that many people. Don't worry about us, they can't invade here for a while after that last one.

Stay alive.

Nate."

"Wow," Stanley said, "that's some nice range, Adam."

"No shit," Eve agreed.

Stanley shoved a hand into the bag… "Damn, these are all plus ones… or better! We should split…"

"No," Zeke immediately stated, being surprisingly disagreeable for someone who usually hung on his every word. Zeke continued, "they owe you, Stanley, everyone who survived the Undead, and even everyone who lives in safety thanks to Nate. They all owe you. We were dead, Stanley. We lost in the end. If you hadn't done everything you did, hadn't given me the Source… we all would have become Undead… I would have become just like that monster…"

"If I hadn't done that, then the Undead would have just killed me while I was in Stasis," Stanley protested.

Zeke opened his mouth, but Eve beat him to it. "Just take the fucking Cores!" she yelled angrily, then became embarrassed, and then she went back to being angry… only it felt like she was angry at… anger?

Stanley looked around at everyone finding them all in agreement with Eve, if not quite as loud. "Okay, then." He started absorbing them and even handed some to Caffeine, who ate them and promptly sent the Attributes to Stanley… Next, he tried putting the Cores in his mouth, which made Caffeine much more interested all of a sudden. Stanley didn't chew the Cores, obviously, simply absorbed them from his mouth.

Unfortunately, Caffeine, while even more eager to eat the Cores, still sent the Attributes… What was more interesting was that after Stanley had gained around two hundred attributes, Caffeine started sending them to both him and Lee.

A quick check confirmed that his twin was still sleeping. "Lee did say he was planning something that would require Source…" So Stanley dumped the bag onto the floor and let Caffeine divvy up the spoils as he saw fit. He also reminded himself to mention that Lee needed to warn him before enacting said plan…

As his numbers climbed, Stanley noticed a disappointing effect from a Core in his hand.

Attribute Shard[C Rank]

+10 All Base Attributes

And then, after another influx of stats from Caffeine, it changed.

Attribute Shard[C Rank]

+9 All Base Attributes

"That sucks," Stanley murmured, though he supposed it made sense. They couldn't go around killing weaker enemies and expect decent gains. Though he hadn't ever noticed this effect at D-rank…

In the end, Stanley was surprised and pleased with the changes. "I'm over two thousand now."

"Good," Eve said without looking away from her work.

Zeke smiled at him as he teased Caffeine with a bit of leftover breakfast, and Daryl didn't even look up from where he sat with Adrian's egg. Adam was smiling where he sat at the table but only scrutinized the small box in his hands.

The wolves yawned one after the other, where they lay on the floor.

"Now you can get in," Eve said, and Stanley moved.