Stanley didn't waste any time and immediately pressed his Soul around Eve's. She narrowed her eyes at him briefly but didn't say anything as she started pulling chunks of metal from a cabinet.

Daryl and Zeke were gearing up to leave, but before that, Stanley said, "So, I'm pretty sure there is a B-rank in this Lair." As he did so, he spread his mind out… and almost jumped when he saw what was on the roof. Now inside his Soul shield, Eve must have felt his surprise because she did jump.

"Is it coming?" Eve demanded, her hands frozen in mid-motion.

"No. At least, not that I can tell." Eve glared at him for scaring her, but Stanley ignored her. Instead, he picked up the spider off the roof and brought it to the door. He wanted to see why it…

"What the hell," Daryl said and stepped back as a dog-sized spider floated through the door. Stanley had to turn it sideways to fit the spread legs and, in doing so, revealed the reason he didn't mind bringing it inside. It looked like a statue, a beautifully detailed, yet clearly made out of stone, tarantula. Though, most of its core was missing… or eaten, leaving it nearly hollow.

"Can you heal something like this?" Stanley asked the wide-eyed Zeke.

"I don't know." Zeke poured golden light into the petrified creature and then shook his head. "I can't do anything if it's dead. Especially with the entire thing already being changed, but I'm sure I could heal myself or Daryl."

Eve was watching, clearly concerned at the sight of the spider.

"Have any of you seen petrification before?" Stanley asked, at the same time wondering if he himself would resist an effect like that. Zeke shook his head at the question, and his sister did the same.

Daryl only shrugged. "I never get hit by anything, and so usually have no idea what the intended effect is supposed to be." He glanced at Princess and amended his statement. "I almost never get hit." Then he shook his head and exclaimed, "Are we not going to talk about the fact that you said there is a B-rank here? Can we even risk hunting? What if we just get swarmed like the acid, slime thing?"

Stanley was doing his best to keep track of the Souls around them and, more specifically, deeper into the Lair, but it was impossible to see individuals in there. The whole area was just a bright twinkling mass of Souls. He could tell one crucial detail, though. "I think hunting should be fine, though. From what I can tell, they are almost constantly killing each other."

"What, why?" Zeke asked.

"Survival of the fittest?" Stanley shrugged. "I'm guessing that it's the only way for most of them to get stronger, other than leaving the Lair. And given that it appears they've already claimed most of this island…" He watched the steady trickle of Souls coming from the trees and crawling down the massive webs. Some did move in the opposite direction, climbing back up the vines, but he was sure that the vast majority moved outward to every point of the compass. Even now, a steady migration was going past their location, heading north and out of the Lair. It wasn't very many at once, not with how many he could feel dying on the way, but it was a steady flow. The constant monster outflow also might explain the hostile reaction from the bridge, especially if there were spiders capable of using illusions of humans.

That was a disturbing thought, and Stanley shared it with Daryl, just in case. However, Stanley also comforted himself with the knowledge that the bridge full of people would probably have been overrun by spiders eventually. Probably.

"As for triggering a reaction from the boss…" Stanley trailed off as he explored the area they had crashed into with his mental touch and could feel they were inside a warehouse. Eve had crashed into a large bay door built large enough for trucks to fit, which was likely the only reason they had broken through. He remembered how strong Lair buildings were… and also the Notification that popped up when he attacked the building. Though, that had been a human Lair… "My best guess is that the acid was melting the Lair buildings, and that triggered it, or it could just be a monster thing?"

"I need Cores if we're going to fly over the river," Eve was serious and anxious as she explained, "just the batteries alone will require… maybe a hundred shards, each. If we can't hunt, then…"

"If the boss comes after us…" Stanley sighed, "I think I can kill it. Or, worst case, I'll just take us all over the river. Walter has that Core if I need more Attributes." However, he was very hesitant to use that disgusting thing.

Eve opened her mouth, clearly ready to protest his plan, and closed it without speaking. There was no other option at this point, and she knew it. They could die from the spiders or the acid or risk an Invasion. None of it was ideal, but it was what they had.

"I could make us look like spiders," Daryl suggested, then waved a hand. In his place, a giant tarantula appeared. Princess shook herself and also turned into a spider.

Caffeine sat up abruptly to stare at the change, but after sniffing toward the illusions, he lay back down and returned his full attention to Walter at the stove.

"That might work," Stanley shrugged and gestured to the door, "let's find out."

Daryl and Princess didn't leave the truck, but their tarantula illusions wandered out to the street. They were set upon almost immediately by a genuine trio of passing arachnids from a different species that looked similar to a black widow. There was no obvious reaction to the violence either because the illusion held or because Stanley was right about the acid.

"Should we test without the spider disguises?" Zeke asked, "you know, just in case?"

Daryl waited for confirming nods before sending a copy of himself outside. It also quickly drew attention, and the fake Daryl blasted the two charging spiders apart with the same lack of response from the boss.

There was a collective release of tension when nothing else happened, and Daryl smiled. "I think we're good. You ready?" he asked Zeke.

"First," Stanley interrupted, "we need to move the truck." That earned him some questioning looks, and he explained, "If that acid thing comes back… well, I'd rather it doesn't know where we are." He had already found another warehouse deeper into the city, and it still had the roll-up door, so they would be pretty much impossible to spot once inside.

No one complained, and Stanley gave Eve directions to their new hiding spot. Along the way, his new knives flew ahead as he killed any spiders in their path and those living in the other warehouse they intended to claim.

The oversized spiders didn't have much armor, and Stanley only used Mind Crush on one as a test, which turned out to be unnecessary but did reveal that they had minds to attack.

The trip deeper into the Lair helped reveal a better understanding of the ongoing situation, and Stanley saw the spiders living in every building. Nearly every building held bundles of tiny Souls that Stanley guessed were nests, while others… he didn't know what they were doing, but every building had residents.

Some buildings felt clogged with the creatures, while others held only a handful. Stanley observed more than a few inter-building battles as they moved and became confident that this was the primary source of conflict between the spider species.

As far as he could tell, the spiders were stronger the closer they were to the trees, with the strongest being high into the treetops near the boss. Meanwhile, the weaker monsters fled from the deeper sections and either fought and claimed a building or kept moving until they were forced entirely out of the Lair. Stanley assumed this had something to do with why the Lair was so big and likely still expanding.

Eve backed into the new warehouse once Stanley managed to lift the doors. First, he had to clear out some webs, but the mechanism surprisingly still worked. Then he closed it back up, leaving no trace of their presence, and pulled in the Cores from everything he'd killed in here. Unfortunately, they were all Chips with no Shards. Stanley suspected they would need to go deeper to acquire those.

Eve was worried and didn't want Zeke to go without her, but she didn't say anything, only made sure that he was equipped and left one of her metal spiders on his back. Walter handed over a backpack to Daryl and a smaller belt pouch for Zeke, both full of food. For his parting words, Stanley told them to remember to look up since he could sense a lot of Souls drifting across the sky overhead and in every direction away from the towering trees.

They left with the wolves, and Adam vanished from the trailer to presumably follow them moments later while Stanley kept Caffeine with him. He didn't precisely fear for the pug's safety, but… well, Caffeine's bark could potentially count as an attack on the buildings… plus Stanley had seen enough of the horrible effects the spiders used on each other already.

There was the first petrified one, to some half dissolved, with others shriveled up like mummified twigs, and a few that literally exploded when killed. Stanley knew that Caffeine could very likely handle all of those and more, maybe even up to killing the B-rank, but Stanley was still worried. If Caffeine got into trouble, Stanley wouldn't be able to stop himself from acting…

He'd shared all that he saw with Zeke and Daryl, but they weren't too concerned. Daryl would be the main combatant, and the others were there more as a backup force if things went wrong. Also, the shadow wolf had proven that it could transport humans, so at the least, they should have a way to escape if things went very badly.

…

The rest of the daylight hours passed rather calmly, which was a nice change of pace.

It was mostly quiet in the trailer as Stanley sat in the air and did his best to crush Eve's Soul. Gently, of course, with the only sounds being Eve's occasional cursing and the clang of metal when she dropped something.

Outside, the sun's last light faded from the sky, but lights illuminated the trailer's interior as Walter moved in and out of the Soul effect while he continued building furniture.

"You must have a magic storage," Stanley said after seeing Walter pull another piece of lumber from thin air. Back in the Tower, Stanley had assumed the butler was simply grabbing things from elsewhere in the building. But the truck was too small to hide even half of the stuff that had appeared.

"I do, Sir."

"Does Adam have one too? I saw that box that was bigger on the inside, plus what he did to the trailer."

"I think not. Though I do believe the young Master Adam has an incredible compression of the subject, whereas my own understanding is limited to the Skill the System granted me."

"You don't have to call people Master, Walter," Eve grumbled with sweat on her brow. "It's creepy."

"Of course, Mistress Eve." Walter's face and tone were as deadpan as ever, but his Soul was smiling as he pulled a freaking mattress from nowhere and put it onto the completed bed frame.

"How much do you have in there?" Stanley asked incredulously, "and who carries around a mattress?"

"A Butler is always prepared, Sir."

"Is your Class actually Butler?" Stanley was curious, and he'd never thought to ask before.

"It was in the beginning but has evolved since." Walter smiled with pride, which meant that one corner of his mouth twitched upward less than a millimeter. "It changed to [War Butler] upon D-rank, and now I am a [Frontline War Butler]."

"Nice. Guessing that is better than before?" Walter nodded once as he pulled sheets, blankets, and a down comforter out of thin air. Stanley watched intently with his recently discovered perception as the War Butler was close enough to be inside its range.

The twisting space was disorienting to observe, especially when Stanley could see it in such fine detail. Walter's hand didn't seem to go anywhere, he just closed his fingers, and space… did something… and then a pillow was in his hand. Then he did it again, and there was a pillowcase.

"I started as a [Telekinetic], but now I am a [Soul Psionic]," Stanley said, feeling like he should reciprocate. "Basically, I use my Mind and Soul to affect reality."

+1 Twin-Soul

Walter nodded, and Eve fell face down, unconscious. Well, she almost fell. However, Stanley was polite enough to catch her before her face hit the ground. It wasn't the first time this had happened, after all. He also pulled his Soul Shield in to protect her from the effect as he continued to work on his own Soul growth.

As he did that, Stanley mentally snagged a Core from the warehouse roof and pulled it in through the melted-looking hole under a spider corpse. The gap was courtesy of a spider with guts that had turned out to be highly acidic. A fingertip on the Core showed Stanley what it was. "Still no Shards."

+1 Vitality

Stanley absorbed it and waited for his next victim to approach the pile of Core Chips still on the roof.

He'd discovered that the spiders wanted Cores, not that he blamed them, and that they could spot them from a reasonable distance. It meant he didn't need to seek out targets. Instead, they would come to him.

Walter did something, and the wooden legs of the bed fused with the floor. A great idea with the way Eve drove. Then the butler pulled out more wood and started building another bed.

Stanley killed ten more spiders with his flying knife before Eve woke up. They were pretty stupid, luckily, and just kept coming, even when he left the corpses up there. Still no Shards, unfortunately, and Stanley hoped Zeke and Daryl had better luck than he was having.

"Got a new one, Walter. Wanna see it?" Stanley said as he pulled the new spider variant inside to show to Walter.

"Promising, Sir." Walter reached through the doorway to touch it, and the corpse vanished. "I will test it shortly."

They were looking for spider meat that was good to eat but had little luck. Most of them were… not good.

Eve looked around groggily, as usual, after getting knocked out, and then her gaze finally settled on Stanley. Her mouth opened, and Stanley pushed his Soul back over her before she could start complaining.

She only grunted and got back to work.

Between his Soul training and spider killing, Stanley was trying to learn more about his new perception from [Mind Over All]. Unfortunately, it was slow going. The sensation was there, it came from his Skill, and he suspected that it would make everything he tried to do within its radius easier.

At least, that was how it felt. But, unfortunately, Stanley still needed to get a chance to test it against the monsters, seeing as the radius didn't even reach halfway to the warehouse roof above the truck. That wasn't to say he hadn't experimented with it in other ways.

Caffeine was sprawled on his back in Stanley's lap, snoring softly under the gentle belly rubs. Stanley thought about the pug floating up from his lap and hovering in place. Caffeine floated up through no discernable effort on Stanley's part. It worked the same way with rocks, Cores, food, and other random items around him. Unfortunately, it did not work on Eve or Walter and failed against Eve's Soul-infused metals. Stanley could still push them around, but it did require some effort, and simply thinking about it wasn't enough.

Stanley felt something similar to this ability had been with him for a while. Specifically, the way he sometimes blocked attacks. To test the theory, Stanley asked Walter to take a turn tossing the metal balls back at him instead, only gently, though, because Stanley didn't want to risk an overreaction on his part. The critical bit had been for Walter to wait until he suspected Stanley was distracted and then throw from outside the radius of his perception.

It worked as expected, and Stanley subconsciously pushed the projectiles away or slid out of their path, sometimes without even noticing.

Stanley found it fascinating and exhilarating to affect the world around him with nothing but a subconscious whim or thought.

[Quiet Meditating Soul] Level Up.

He also spent the entire day Meditating. Along the way, he'd experimented and compared the Skill with its two predecessors. Like the original, Stanley could change the flow of energy slightly and regain the use of his senses, but he could also go in a different direction and increase the time-slowing effects. He also suspected that he could increase the regen and calming parts of the Skill if he tried, but that effect was a bit harder to gauge, and Stanley couldn't be sure if it was working.

Nevertheless, his efforts had paid off.

Skill [Quiet Meditating Soul(Initiate X)](Epic) has Reached the Initiate Threshold. Rank Up to Apprentice Available. Proceed? Y/N

[Quiet Meditating Soul(Apprentice I)](Epic)

Stanley felt the subtle shift in the energy flow as it moved ever so slightly easier. He tested all the previous techniques and found them all improved, though the difference was marginal at this point.

A spider floated in slow motion down toward the pile of Cores on the roof, its mandibles and many legs all reaching for the loot… The knife leaped up from where it lay next to the Cores, seeming relatively slow as it punched through the creature's head twice, once on the way up and again on the way down, before settling back onto the rooftop. All of this transpired before the spider touched the roof.

"Easy enough," Stanley thought while waiting for the Core to form from the dead spider. It was one of the annoyances of using slow motion and involved a lot of waiting for anything to happen, but the other newly discovered issue was how he expected his knife to move faster and then pushed too hard to make it do so. That had brought him dangerously close to waking the Source a few times, but he managed to keep it under control with practice.

Eve remained conscious this time until Zeke's golden Soul finally moved closer. Stanley saw her perk up as her brother approached and figured she must have lost the signal to her spider before. Likely because of all the Lair buildings between them.

Both men were tired when they climbed inside the trailer. Zeke even had a few damaged sections of armor, which by Stanley's guess, had been caused by one of the acid-blooded spiders. Honestly, there had been too much acidic shit lately. Though, at least none of their limbs had been turned to stone…

Unfortunately, they hadn't had any better luck than Stanley on gathering Shards. They did have a few, but only from some short and careful ventures deeper into the Lair. Ventures that would need to go deeper tomorrow.

"The boss hasn't done anything since we got here," Stanley reassured as they sat down for dinner.

Walter doled out hot food to everyone, with plates for the Humans and bowls for the others. Eve sat next to Stanley and insisted that he keep the Soul training going. She looked… rough, but she was determined to get stronger, so Stanley kept it going. Of course, it didn't hurt that he was improving himself at the same time.

Adam appeared inside the trailer while they were eating and had barely sat down when a steaming plate appeared in front of him. Adam grunted some slight sound and started eating… Stanley was surprised at what might have been a word, and he wasn't the only one. But no one said anything to the young man, and they ate peacefully.

At least as peacefully as possible with a starving pug circling in desperation for even the smallest of crumbs.

Stanley could feel the fatigue in everyone and so offered to stay up on watch. He'd been awake for almost two days now, but it didn't feel like it. Between the meditation and what seemed like hours spent in slow motion, it felt simultaneously longer and shorter. But regardless, he wasn't sleepy and so volunteered to let the others rest.

Zeke, Daryl, and eventually Walter all partook in a bit more Soul training before sleeping. "Might as well do it before I sleep," Daryl explained, "it makes me tired as fuck afterward."

Eve passed out first under the pressure, and Stanley pulled back from each of them as they either waved him off or fell asleep.

Walter hadn't finished his bed-making spree, so they still didn't have beds for everyone, but he pulled out enough mattresses for each of them. Stanley hovered between them as the lights dimmed, and Zeke's aura shrank down into a small nightlight while he slept. Caffeine curled up in Stanley's lap and joined the sleeping.

Meanwhile, Adam convinced the gray wolf to lie down on his assigned mattress. She didn't seem to care about the bed but did allow Adam to cuddle against her back as he slept. The wolves once again seemed to take turns sleeping, and Stanley saw their eyes glinting in the dark trailer more than once as they watched him and Caffeine.

Other than that, it was quiet and mostly peaceful through the night. Stanley watched for and killed any spider that tried to steal his roof Cores while keeping watch on the groups of arachnids in the surrounding buildings.

He had cleared one neighboring building early on. He had planned to remove them all until he realized that doing so would make their location more evident to anything that could detect the blank spot in an otherwise densely populated city.

So instead, Stanley cleared only half of them across a scattered area. The places he cleared didn't stay that way for long, though. More spiders moved in almost constantly, providing a never-ending influx of new targets. The only thing he did worry about was that something might notice all the Cores flying back to this one warehouse.

The solution he came up with was to stuff a corpse with the Cores and then run it across the streets in what had to be a terrible approximation of a spider running. But considering how many of the creatures were constantly moving around, it had to be less noteworthy than the Cores flying through the air.

Stanley was in the process of bringing back another such haul when he felt something odd. A spider was moving down another street while making no attempts to hide, and it very obviously had no Soul.

Stanley's first thought was, "of course, there would be some that hide their Souls," but he noticed another oddity in how it was walking, or more specifically, not walking. Yeah, its legs twitched a bit, but Stanley had now gained enough experience with arachnids to spot the difference.

His suspicion was confirmed when he threw a rock at the alleged spider.

The rock punched right through as the bug literally splashed into a puddle on the street, and the rock started to dissolve.

The puddle instantly reformed into a spider and then just stood there.

Stanley felt a chill… "It's still after me." Fortunately, the acidic ooze disguised as a spider was a few blocks away from the warehouse and hadn't even been traveling toward them. Stanley didn't do anything else while he waited for a reaction; it took a few minutes before something changed.

The ooze-spider just continued up the street… "Does it know that I threw the rock?" Stanley had kept his Soul close and tight tonight, partly to keep training without disturbing the others and also to hopefully avoid this very situation. So he figured there were good odds that the ooze didn't know for sure. Assuming that it even knew what Stanley's powers were… and depending on how smart it was…

Of course, Stanley hadn't known that it could even split itself into smaller pieces like this. So there was no telling what else it was capable of. Even now, the ooze-spider was moving away from him… but it was passing in front of a densely occupied building.

Stanley found a spider on the roof of said building, and he poked it in the side. It spun and skittered in small circles, and Stanley poked it again, trying to lead it to the edge of the roof where it should see the intruder.

It took a few attempts, but the increasingly annoyed spider finally stopped at the lip of the roof and stared down at the ooze-spider passing below. At least Stanley assumed it was staring. It had enough eyes that it must be able to see it, even in the dark.

It did.

The two front legs rose, and Stanley felt the Magic gathering between them before shooting down to impact the target. Stanley couldn't actually see anything in person, so he had no idea what magic was used, but it was effective and blasted the ooze-spider into a mist of tiny droplets. It must have also been loud because it stirred up everything else in the building below.

Disappointingly, the droplets all recombined and started to flow further up the street, only this time as little more than a puddle rather than a spider. "It's getting away!" Stanley thought at the real spider on the roof. "Kill it!"

The spider was stationary, legs still raised threateningly, and three more of its fellows joined as it launched more magic into the street below. The puddle got blasted again… only this time, it didn't recombine. Stanley felt some droplets roll toward each other, but they all slowed and eventually stopped.

He watched for a while longer, but it appeared to be truly dead. Assuming something like that could die… it had to be only a small piece after all, though Stanley could feel that the total size of the puddle did seem smaller than before. "Maybe enough of it was evaporated? Or destroyed?" The spiders responsible for the deed wandered around the roof for a bit before settling back down when they didn't find anything else to fight.

Eve poked him in the ribs or tried to, but Stanley slid aside from her slow-moving touch.

She looked better than before but definitely not back to one hundred percent. Stanley wasn't sure if he should tell her to get more sleep. However, considering that he was still awake and training himself, it didn't feel right to criticize her, especially since this was precisely the work ethic that would have saved everyone a lot of trouble back in the Raid Dungeon.

Her mouth moved, but Stanley didn't hear anything. That was odd, but the silent effect ended as she followed him toward her work area. "...Shards out there?"

Stanley shook his head in response and then spread his Soul shield to encompass her while she got to work. As he did so, Stanley felt something shift in Walter's Domain around them but couldn’t tell what had changed.

They both settled back into the routine. Only now, Stanley was getting better at picking up on her Soul, and he managed to pull back before she passed out. She still bitched about it, of course, but Stanley discovered what Walter had done when he floated away from her tirade, and the sound of her voice vanished. "Hah, soundproofing! Nice."

Stanley went back to watching and killing spiders that got too close. He even found another of the fake ooze spiders. This time he didn't throw a rock at it and simply agitated the nearby spider dens until they took notice. The ooze died similarly to the previous one, and Stanley again saw that no Core appeared after its supposed death.

Unfortunately, that was just the start of it. More and more ooze spiders appeared as the night went on. At first, Stanley ensured they were all killed, but as more continued to show up, he wondered if his manipulations were creating an anomalous area and drawing more attention here.

So he left them alone, at least any that weren't on a direct route to his location, which luckily was most of them. As he observed the creatures, now free of his interference, it became clear that a grid search pattern was underway. But Stanley was also gratified to see plenty of them get attacked through no effort on his part.

The training montage was interrupted well before dawn by breakfast, seeing as how little sleep was required by everyone these days, followed by the subsequent departure of Daryl and Zeke.

Stanley told everyone about the ooze spiders, and no one disagreed when he suggested they might need to relocate further into the Lair.

Unfortunately, Stanley hadn't found another warehouse within his reach that could hide the truck, so he gave that task to the two hunters instead. He didn't know the city at all but suspected finding what he wanted might be impossible, which left them with the next best option of squeezing into an alley and relying on Daryl's illusions to keep them hidden. A real possibility considering that they had successfully fooled the ooze before.

Hiding from the spiders was a different matter, however. Daryl had found some that saw through his illusions, others that hunted through heat, and still more that he didn't know how they hunted. It meant that hiding in the open might be more problematic than initially hoped.

Nevertheless, the others headed off to find the new hiding place, and Stanley watched the ooze-spiders steadily increase in number. They even started grouping up to fight back against their attackers.

When they escalated further and started to invade the buildings, Stanley knew time was running out. But, unfortunately, he had nowhere to go yet, and Zeke's golden Soul was out of his range as they roamed through the city to the south.

He asked Eve, and her response was, "I can't fucking reach him!" she was clearly on edge about it…

While he waited for Zeke, Stanley did his best to ensure that the Lair spiders always saw the ooze coming. Between poking to get them all riled up and scattering his bait Cores across every rooftop, he did what he could to draw in more combatants from the sky.

It worked for a time, but Stanley could feel the danger closing in. "We might need to move before they come back," he finally said.

Eve immediately protested. "We can't leave without Zeke."

"I found a spot that should work," Stanley told her, "and it is within my range, so worst case, I can lead them there if they come back here."

But he was still worried. Especially about driving the truck through the streets in plain sight. If they triggered a full assault from the park…

Stanley tensed up at a new development.

He had noticed the convoluted mess of underground tunnels, including at least a few large subway tunnels, the majority being smaller sewer and storm drain channels. Most of them held some spider colonies, and Stanley only worried about the ones with nearby exits that could reach his location.

Many of the drains had streams of water trickling along the bottom, runoff from… somewhere. Stanley knew it was water because he had observed plenty of spiders walking through it without issue repeatedly until now. But now, a spider had just stepped into one such stream and melted into it almost instantly.

A stream that ran through a tunnel almost directly below them.

"Does it know where we are?" Stanley thought, "It can't know, can it?" He still had no idea how the thing actually saw anything as a mass of liquid, but it obviously did. While it had been fooled by the illusion before, Stanley didn't know whether that was because of the visual aspect, the Soul mimicry, or even something else entirely.

The one thing still in their favor was that the tunnel below had no nearby outlets, and he was sure that it couldn't just melt through the ground without drawing the entire Lair down on itself. Mostly sure…

Stanley decided to test something else and picked out the furthest ooze-spider in his range.

Mind Crush

The ooze collapsed into a puddle, but it was still twitching… Stanley waited and watched. It had been affected by the Skill, though he was unsure by how much or if it bothered the rest of the creature. The stream underground had given no reaction to the attack, but it was a stream… how was it supposed to react?

When the ooze started to move down the street again, still as a puddle, Stanley hit it again. Once again, it went still except for the tiny twitches. He hadn't used the Skill in any previous encounters with the ooze, so it shouldn't connect the attack with him, at least, so he assumed.

The next time it recovered, Stanley tossed a spider from the nearest roof right into the puddle.

He didn't know if spiders could scream or make any sounds for that matter, but whatever happened over there, it got attention from the rest, both inside and on the roof, and reinforcements stormed outside to obliterate the puddle.

Stanley continued the defense, only varying the range at which he attacked to try and keep the exact location murkier. Until finally, Zeke walked back into range.

As they approached, Stanley went all out on killing spiders, and their ooze mimics wherever he could reach and had the area cleared when they arrived.

Unfortunately, they hadn't found another warehouse, but Daryl had found something else. "It's not quite closed off," he explained, "but the spiders holding the building seemed very susceptible to my illusions. Meanwhile, they are holding a solid line of defense against everything around them. I think we can slip through their lines and use them as extra cover."

It was the best solution, if not the only one, and Stanley was all too happy to try anything at this point. So they traveled further into the Lair and crept deeper beneath the far-reaching shadow of the towering trees in the distance.

The building turned out to be at least a dozen stories tall, with a deep overhang on one side. The pillars holding up that side also blocked most of the rubble from the neighboring skyscraper that had collapsed across the street.

The result was a nearly cave-like space that Eve backed into. Stanley added to the cover by dragging some of the debris into piles around and even on top of the truck, after which Daryl added his illusions to blend it all together into an unassuming lump.

Stanley hadn't physically seen any of the new neighbors, but they felt like giant black widows… He didn't ask for confirmation on the literally hundreds or thousands of spiders filling the building. Just touching them was more than enough.

On the plus side, countless Souls in the surrounding area felt strong enough to drop Shards. On the downside, countless Souls in the area felt strong enough to drop Shards…

After waiting a while, to ensure the deception would hold, Zeke and Daryl left to continue the hunt further from the hideout.

Stanley settled back into his training while trying to keep an eye on Eve's deteriorating Soul. Unfortunately, it was taking longer and longer to bounce back, and the instability got worse after Zeke left her range. He also set up another bait trap, only on a neighboring building rather than the one they were hiding under.

+1 Twin-Soul

Stanley pulled back before Eve collapsed and looked over his Status with a smile.

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 I)](Rare)

Class Skills:

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

[Quiet Meditating Soul(Apprentice II)](Epic)

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

[Mental Fortress(Adept VI)](Rare)

[Split Minds(Journeyman VIII)](Epic)

Attributes:

Strength: 2009

Vitality: 2144

Dexterity 2111

Perception 2186

Intelligence 2197

Willpower 2250

Twin-Soul 654

Non-Class Skills:

[Soul Awareness(Journeyman VII)](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:

[Hungry] [Tired] [Thirsty]

"I'm getting stronger. Soul is up almost thirty points, and my Soul Shield should rank up soon… unless it gets stuck like meditation did before. But maybe I can…"

"Why the fuck did you stop?" Eve growled, interrupting his thoughts.

"I still need you to make the truck fly." Stanley killed another spider. "My stats haven't gone up much." The Core chips only gave at most one attribute point, and some didn't even give that much, but he was hoping that problem would improve now that they were further into the Lair.

"I need more fucking Soul to do that!"

Stanley sighed and opened his eyes to look at Eve. "You also need to be alive."

"Just fucking do it!"

"Your Soul's getting all squishy and weak like it might get damaged…"

"I'm not a fucking weakling like you! I can take it!"

"No, Eve. You can't take it." This is what he’d worried about, her growing instability.

She opened her mouth to continue the protest, and Stanley talked loudly over her, "I am a damned Soul Psionic, and I have so many Traits affecting both my Mind and Soul that I don't even know how powerful I am. Your Soul is fucking weak!" Eve flinched as Stanley's voice escalated into shouting, and the trailer groaned around them.

Stanley flinched as well and backed off abruptly, pushing his free Split Minds into meditation.

"What the hell was that?" Stanley thought, slightly calmer now as Eve blinked in slow motion and her face twisted in anger. "Why did I snap?" Plus, he had done something to the trailer without trying… The Source still Slumbered, and his Soul Shield was still active, so he hadn't completely lost it. The Split Mind handling that task was also spread out around them and watching for…

Eve's eyes were opening after her blink, and Stanley could feel her Soul reaching out to her machines, could feel the weapons powering up… "Crazy bitch!" Stanley's anger flared, and he gave her what she wanted. His Soul engulfed and crushed hers, and not gently.

Stanley saw the connections to her machines blur and fail as her Soul trembled… and she keeled over again. "I might be able to attack with just my Soul," Stanley thought as he watched her topple.

Walter caught Eve this time, appearing between them and blocking Stanley's line of sight before she even got halfway to the floor. "That may have been a bit too…"

Caffeine got in his face then, not affected by the slow-motion the rest of the world moved in, his tongue lashing out at incredible speed but somehow not hitting Stanley with the force such speed should impart.

"How does he do that?" Combined with the evident distress in the pug, that strange thought brought Stanley from his anger, and he eased up on the meditation-induced slow-mo. Especially since the meditation was clearly not helping with his rage.

"If Sir could please refrain from destroying the furniture and each other," Walter said as he moved to place Eve on the bed.

Stanley couldn't see any damage on the wood… only; once he thought about it, Stanley knew that there were countless microscopic tears throughout the wood within his perception, and the nearest corner of the comforter also had the same tiny tears in the fabric. "What the hell did I do?"

Stanley dropped all of his meditations…

Debuff Gained: [Exhausted]

Debuff Gained: [Starving]

Debuff Gained: [Dehydrated]

…and almost burst into tears or screamed. Stanley wasn't sure which would have won out because he immediately resumed meditating.

Debuff Downgraded: [Tired]

Debuff Downgraded: [Hungry]

Debuff Downgraded: [Thirsty]

"The fuck?" His stomach gnawed at his insides, and his mouth suddenly felt bone dry, but the worst part, however, was the eye-burning fatigue that had dragged at him… Luckily, all of it got easier to handle once the meditation resumed. "I'm exhausted and hungry?"

His meditation reduced his need for Sleep, but apparently not enough. It had only been… two days since he woke up… shouldn't it help more than that? Though, now that he thought about it, did Stasis actually count as sleeping? "Don't tell me… no, I didn't have any tired Debuffs after ranking up." To be fair, a lot had happened since then, but he couldn't remember if he had just been ignoring the Debuffs or if they only popped up once his meditation stopped. "Walter, do you…"

Walter set a bowl on the floor, which caused Caffeine to vanish a moment before a plate was presented to Stanley. "I believe Sir may be, as the kids put it, hangry."

"…thanks." Stanley ate, and Walter lured Caffeine away with continuously dropped morsels.

Probably to prevent Stanley from sharing his food like he usually did.

"The fuck is wrong…" Eve burst awake yelling but trailed off as her eyes unfocused. Happiness bloomed in her pain-filled Soul and shifted to concentration before returning to anger. "You…" Walter appeared between them and forced a plate into her hands.

"You are hangry, Miss. Please eat."

Eve blinked rapidly, wholly thrown off as she muttered, "hangry?" Nevertheless, she took the food and started eating, her angry mutters muffled by the meal.

Stanley avoided meeting her gaze, mostly because Walter kept finding a reason to appear between them whenever they looked in each other's direction.

Debuff Removed: [Hungry]

Buff Gained: [Mana-Rich Meat]

Stanley received a second plate the instant his first was clean, and remembering the [Starving] Debuff, he kept eating. He also checked the buff from the food.

[Mana-Rich Meat]

Well Prepared Meat taken from Creatures in a Dense Mana Area.

Effects: +48% All Regeneration for 10 Minutes. (9:01)

Stanley kept an eye, or rather a mind, on the roof next door while he ate. He killed the attempted thief before it claimed anything, and when the Core formed, Stanley was sure it was a Shard. "Finally!"

More of the stronger spiders approached the bait, and Stanley had to resort to Mind Crush on some that managed to dodge the striking blade. The sheer number of them showing up actually had Stanley a bit worried, but he could feel Zeke and Daryl still out there. Though it was more so Zeke's golden Soul that he could pick out, and he could sense enough of it to know that the healer wasn't upset or worried himself. So they were probably fine…

Stanley retrieved his loot during a lull and found that he was right about the Shards. Four more were added to the pile, and he could see Eve finally noticing and looking around in confusion. As far as he knew, she had yet to send out anything other than the spider with Zeke, so she didn't know about his rooftop harvesting. She hadn't wanted to risk the Soul loss if her machines were destroyed like before and had no eyes outside.

Stanley broke the silence between them once the food was gone, and Eve started eyeing her project again. "So what'd you get?" He knew something had changed in her Soul.

Eve glared at him but relented, her excitement winning out over the anger. She told him.

[Enduring Soul]

Your Soul has been under the Pressure of a More Powerful Soul and Endured.

+20% Resistance to Soul Pressure

-20% All Soul Damage

"Not bad," Stanley thought, "a lot like my first Soul Trait," and then he asked, "you still have the angry Trait?"

"You still have the Can't shut the fuck up Trait?"

That was a yes… and it made Stanley finally stop and think. "Why can't I shut the fuck up?" How did he even analyze something like that?

Stanley went deep into his meditation again, watching the world crawl around him as Walter prepared tea and Eve reached for her project. It looked like a… Well, a jet engine was the closest thing he could think of. A miniature tail end of a jet engine… or maybe a tiny rocket. "I'm meditating for a reason, and it isn't to study Eve's machines."

Stanley went through each of his Still Minds, and they all seemed identical, save for the different tasks each was performing. He set one onto watching his mouth and only that, as he wanted to see which thoughts made him speak and which didn't. Stanley was sure he could study this. For fucks sake, he had four minds with which to do so.

He let the world speed up, mostly because he knew his mouth couldn't keep up with his thoughts otherwise. "Walter is making tea." No talking, and his lips didn't even twitch. "I never really liked tea, but then again, I never really drink it." Nothing. "Caffeine looks interested in it, though." His lips twitched, but nothing was actually said.

"Can dogs drink tea? Some of it has… Caffeine… in it, and that's bad for them. I don't want Caff to get…" His mouth was moving. "hurt…" He couldn't stop himself from speaking, though at the moment Stanley wasn't telekinetically trying to control his mouth, instead restricting himself to thought alone. "Even though I doubt he can be… poisoned." The words kept coming, and Stanley ignored Eve's looks as he focused. Something was happening… but what?

Stanley set another split to watch the thoughts of the first and continued the experiment. He looked at the beds and thought about how nice it would be to sleep in a bed. No reaction. "I won't be able to sleep in a bed, not without my Soul Shield." His mouth spoke the words, and Stanley felt a glimmer of understanding. He continued.

"I can't take the risk of sleeping right now, but I also can't risk not sleeping. This fatigue and… instability is not safe either." His mouth moved, and Stanley was sure that he felt the trickle of power this time.

He looked over the truck and thought about everything he could observe. The environment brought little to no reaction. His thoughts on the spiders he continued to kill overhead brought out a few mutters.

But when he thought about Walter and Eve and how he wanted them to survive and be safe, that got a much stronger reaction. Thinking about Caffeine got the strongest effect, and Stanley was pretty sure he knew what was happening now. Sort of.

He ignored the glances and feelings coming from the others as he struggled for answers. "It has something to do with emotion, particularly strong emotions. Things I care about or am afraid of…" Stanley looked at the pug, who was sitting at Walter's feet and staring upward intently. "I want Caffeine in my arms, to feel his fur and know that he is okay." Caffeine flew into his embrace as Stanley's mouth spoke his thoughts, the pug flying as before, through no conscious effort on Stanley's part.

Caffeine took the surprise hug as he always did, with tail wags and attempted face licks, before rolling over for belly rubs. Stanley stroked his fur as Caffeine's head tilted back and forth at every sound Walter made. Meanwhile, Stanley thought about what had just happened. "I was right." It had to be his Mind Over All Skill.

That confirmed it was his Skill, but not why it was happening without his conscious consent.

Eve had finally finished with the latest jet engine-looking thing and was gathering the Shards. She wrapped each one in silver wires heavily infused with her Soul. Then wired each Shard into a larger grid-like pattern with the others.

Stanley expanded his Soul Shield to include her once again since it looked like she had mostly recovered from earlier. She didn't look up from her work, her Soul a mix of anger warring with necessity. She needed this, and Stanley needed her. He needed her to carry him from this place and get him home. He needed the others to protect him if he ran up against something immune to his attacks.

And they… needed him? Or did they? Sure, he was powerful, but just being near him had to be riskier than any potential benefits. Did they owe him? Stanley didn't like that view. It was too… mercenary. He had saved everyone, as Zeke said, but mostly he had only been trying to save himself. Even at the very end, when he had expected to die and took a wild shot, he'd just hoped to take the Undead with him and maybe give the others a chance.

But it was also more than that.

They were his friends. Stanley cared about them and wanted them to be safe. Deep down in his Soul…

"My Soul…" The thought tickled his mind until Stanley finally realized what was happening. "…so many Traits affecting my Mind and Soul…" It was obvious once he finally connected the dots.

His Soul was interacting with [Mind Over All] and, through it, imposing his Will upon the world, or more specifically, in this case, onto himself. Though, that wasn't quite right either. He wasn't mind-controlling himself into speaking… "Though, technically, isn't that already what talking is?"

It was more that his Soul had genuine power, and since it was intertwined so deeply with his mind… "Just my thoughts alone have power, and because of my Soul, so do my emotions, even if only accidentally." It was all passive, his subconscious mind effecting things, including, he guessed, placing more importance on specific thoughts. In the end, that minor amount of passive power required an outlet, even if it only amounted to a few spoken words.

"I will have to control my thoughts," Stanley realized, especially once he became stronger. He could envision himself one day thinking negatively about someone and killing them without even trying. Luckily not something he needed to worry about just yet.

Though, he could still kill in bouts of anger…

A spider appeared on the roof, stayed for less than a second, and vanished before the knife could reach its head. Stanley wasn't sure but suspected that it had taken at least one Core from the pile. "Cheater!"

"You're the damn cheater," Eve whispered.

Stanley ignored her as he felt the spider's Soul reappear on a rooftop further away and reached out for it.

Mind Cru…

It vanished from the other roof and reappeared directly on top of the Cores. Stanley launched the knife and…

Mind C…

The spider dodged both attacks by teleporting away, and Stanley cursed, "Son of a bitch!" The world slowed down as he ramped up the meditation again, and… the damn bug must have had some kind of danger sense, "or spider-sense?" because it managed to teleport before he could even try again.

"You're a son of a bitch!" Eve spat out the words very slowly.

The spider stole another Core from the roof while again evading Stanley's attempts to stop it, and he yelled, "I'm not fucking talking to you!"

"Then shut the fuck up already!"

"This fucking…" Stanley almost blasted her with a Mind Crush, but at the last moment, he instead attacked the entire rooftop with the area effect of the Skill, hoping to get lucky. The spider took another Core immediately after the attack… "God damn it!"

He saw Eve opening her mouth as she took a breath to say something and opened his eyes to…

Caffeine was abruptly in his face, his form large enough to completely block the line of sight to Eve as she yelled, "Shut the…"

"Enough!" Walter's voice boomed in the trailer, and Eve flinched at the sound. Even Caffeine seemed surprised as he turned to look at the man.

"Wow, Walter is pissed…" Stanley thought, his own anger faltering at the sight as Eve opened her mouth again, her Soul still buzzing angrily.

Walter beat her to it. "You two are behaving as petulant children who missed their naps!"

"Hey! What did I do? Though, I could probably use a nap." Stanley resisted the urge to yawn.

As obstinate as ever, Eve yelled back, "no one forced you to come with us!" To her credit, she did feel slightly guilty after saying that… slightly.

"Eve might need a nap too." Her Soul was going wonky again. So Stanley pulled his Soul shield closer, leaving her outside its influence.

"Why the fuck are you stopping!"

"Do you seriously want to die!?" She'd lost it… Stanley considered trying to Sleep her as he had done to Kira but figured it would probably wake the Source. Maybe a Mind Crush?

Walter's Domain thickened and surged with power as it seemed to fill the trailer with suffocating pressure. At the same time, the man appeared in front of Eve, looming over her as his Domain forced Stanley's mental touch away from both of them.

Despite the high level of power previously unseen from Walter, it still failed to remove Stanley's passive perception… though it did feel just a bit weaker.

"It is time to sleep," Walter stated, "you have done enough for the moment."

"You can't tell me…"

"Silence!" Walter didn't shout, but his voice held enough weight that it even had Stanley's mouth snapping shut, and then he continued, "I do not know all that you have been through, Miss. I do not know what demons haunt you, but I know this conflict must end."

"There's no…" As she tried to respond, Eve lost some of her venom, but Walter continued as if she hadn't spoken.

"I greatly admired the decision you made. To come out here and leave behind the comfort and relative safety of Master Nate's kingdom, to risk everything in an attempt to repay the debt of all our lives.

"I did not always think very highly of you, from the moment we met and you tried to leech my Soul to the constant hostility and arrogance. But…" Walter held up a hand when her mouth opened, and he continued over her attempt to protest. "…I understand that we were at war, and that changes people. You were only a child thrust into a nightmare that no one should have to endure.

"Then I watched you grow into a warrior and rise to the occasion. I saw you face your fears and stand in defiance against them to the end.

"When the call came to carry Stanley away, you prepared to see it done, but then Stanley awoke, and you no longer needed to risk all that you had built.

"And yet you still made the decision to embark on this journey, a noble choice, the honorable choice, and one I am ashamed to admit that I was unwilling to make… " Walter’s voice trailed off, the pure emotion evident in his words.

No one broke the silence as Walter dropped to one knee in front of Eve, her eyes wide and mouth open in surprise. Even Stanley managed to keep silent until Walter continued.

"You do not know the gratitude I hold for your decision. For all of this." He gestured at the truck around them. "Your sacrifice granted me the opportunity, no, the freedom to do the right thing, all at no sacrifice to myself or my duty. For that alone, I will be ever in your debt."

Walter bowed his head briefly, then stood up and looked down at the wide-eyed woman.

"So tell me, Eve, what is wrong? We are once again on the frontline of this war, and all that stands between us and the darkness is each other. We must hold onto that if nothing else."

Eve finally pulled her gaze from the butler to glance at Stanley. Her Soul was a roiling mess, and Stanley very carefully kept himself silent.

"If what is bothering you is of a sensitive nature, I can give you…" Walter waved a hand, and they both vanished behind an opaque barrier in his Domain.

"That's a neat trick." Unfortunately, Stanley could still feel them in his new perception. He watched Walter's mouth stop moving and Eve's open as she responded. Stanley could see her lips moving, and if he knew how to read lips, he would have known what she was saying. However, he could also feel the air vibrating from her words… and it almost felt like he could understand… "I can't… you… it's…"

Skill [Mind Over All] Level Up.

Stanley floated further away, taking his perception with him to avoid observing the duo. "I could hear what they were saying!" The sensation was crazy. As soon as he'd thought about sound and tried to hear it, it started to come through, as if his mind could take the vibration in the air and interpret it without requiring his ears.

Honestly, it was very cool, and even if it hadn't worked completely, the fact that [Mind Over All] gained a level meant that he must be doing something right.

What wasn't cool was that the fucking teleporting spider had cleared out all the bait while Stanley had been distracted. But it was okay; Stanley had a new idea that he wanted to try now.

Walter and Eve remained out of sight while Stanley sent his mind to the next-door nest. He took the knife along and, after a few moments, had a new collection of bait Cores.

Ironically, the spiders in what remained of the fallen building used an attack that Stanley was pretty sure involved sound magic, at least from the way his knife vibrated under the assault. But it was far from strong enough to stop him, and Stanley killed them one by one. He did have to use Mind Crush on the strongest arachnids, but even they fell to the blade piercing their heads.

Despite what was likely a noisy slaughter, none of the migrating spiders tried to investigate the interior of the building and only passed on by. However, the spiders in the next farthest building did get a little stirred up.

Stanley wasn't sure if they would want to move into the now vacant nest to get slightly closer to the center of the Lair since that seemed to be how this fucked up kingdom of spiders worked. He knew something would move in, and it was only a matter of time.

Just in case, Stanley gathered the Cores and retreated with them. The Shards he snuck through the small gaps in the rubble to stealthily retrieve them and add to Eve's stash. The Chips, he spread out more, with some going to the roof where he hoped to lure in his nemesis again and the rest creating a trail.

The teleporting spider returned, and Stanley grinned as it picked up the first piece of bait. This time he didn’t bother trying to catch it with an attack. Instead, Stanley had a better plan.

The spider took the few Cores on the other building and then started going for the closer ones. Teleport by teleport, it kept popping in and stealing the Cores, but it also approached closer and closer to Stanley’s location.

He knew this spider had a bit of a ballsy streak with the way it had kept stealing his Cores despite all the attempts to kill it, and so he expected that it wouldn’t balk at intruding into another nest’s territory. It didn’t hesitate and followed the breadcrumbs until the only ones left were directly overhead.

Stanley was ready when it appeared inside his Domain of perception. Time was crawling, and his Skill was on a hair-trigger as space twisted to spit out the spider.

Mind Crush

…and it fucking blinked away with a Core! "Son of a bitch!"

It reappeared, and Stanley somehow resisted the urge to lock it down with his mind, knowing that the effort would be too much to do without waking the Source. But he still lashed out with Mind Crush and the knife.

There was a noticeable difference in the speed and power within his Domain, but unfortunately, it wasn't enough to catch the damn spider, and it slipped away again. It was just too fucking fast!

Again the spider returned, ready to snatch up another Core. Stanley grasped at it with the absolute maximum power he could without…

Walter's Domain bulged upward through the roof, barely extending even millimeters beyond yet touching on the spider's feet… and then the spider vanished from overhead to reappear in Walter's grip as the man drove a knife through its head.

Walter's mouth curled in distaste, and he quickly tossed the corpse outside when it started dripping on the floor.

"Might I advise that we do not lure the monsters directly to our hiding spot, Sir?" Walter pulled a handkerchief from a pocket as he spoke and started wiping his hands.

"…sure." Stanley saw Eve collapse into her bed and quickly avoided her gaze when she glanced in his direction. She didn't say anything to him, and he could feel her almost immediately dozing off.

"Ahem," Walter cleared his throat, grabbing Stanley's attention. "I would speak with you as well, Sir."

"Okay…" This time Stanley was inside the barrier when it appeared and blocked out the rest of the world.

Walter sighed once they were alone and sat down. Meanwhile, Stanley finally realized that he was still hovering by the ceiling and dropped down to join him.

"I do not know what to say, Sir." Walter spoke slowly. "I understand that your experiences have been… unique, and yet such things are merely the norm now.

"I have also been listening to your… thoughts, and I must ask, are you well?"

"I am… okay," Stanley said and felt like that was the most accurate description he could find for the current state of affairs. "It's a struggle, and I am afraid every day. But I am… hopeful as well."

"The same thing I told Miss Eve applies to you as well, Sir. We followed you out here to repay a debt…" Stanley opened his mouth to voice his dislike of that ideology, but Walter continued before he could, "…and to help a friend that needed it."

"Thanks," Stanley mumbled, "and what happened to calling me Stanley?"

"My apologies, Stanley." Walter smiled softly. "Old habits."

"I'm trying, Walter." Stanley said with a sigh, "but most days, I don't even know what I'm doing."

"I have learned from listening to you," Walter said, "and I believe I have figured out some of what is wrong. I also believe that you are doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances."

"I really hope so, but I doubt it…"

"If I might make some suggestions?" Walter asked, and Stanley nodded despite his trepidation. Walter continued, "Firstly, while not something I would usually advocate for, I would suggest less communication."

"I…"

"I know you are working on it," Walter said, "and I will gladly assist your efforts where I may. In fact, I must apologize for failing to understand the situation previously, as I did not consider the sound barriers before."

"Thanks," Stanley said again, "I honestly don't even know where to start on that."

"It is no matter," Walter said, "I will be happy to help however I may. As for my other concerns, I worry that you are enabling Eve on her self-destructive path."

"I'm what?"

"She is fragile and vulnerable right now. Plus, she looks up to you. She feels pressure to grow, and your strength drives her to push beyond her own limits."

"But that's good, isn't it?" Stanley asked, "don't we all need to grow to survive?"

"Yes, but I'm sure you have noticed Eve's deterioration, and I also worry about your own… mental state. You may not have noticed, but I have observed the effect you have on the others. I fear that your thoughts are not only affecting yourself but also influencing those around you."

"I should have gotten some sleep earlier," Stanley conceded, "but I've been careful about keeping my Soul under control."

"You have done well in that regard, but I have detected a subtle… something that I believe the others have not, yet which is affecting them all the same."

That sounded terrible to Stanley, but Walter didn't seem very upset… then Stanley remembered his new perception and told Walter what he knew about it, including the range. "You think that's it?"

Walter spent a few moments studying the area around them, and when he didn't seem to detect anything, Stanley intentionally pushed his Will into stirring the air around them. Only he didn't use any Psionic power, just his passive thoughts. Nevertheless, it was enough.

Walter nodded. "That very well may be it. Though it does seem to fluctuate with your emotions."

Stanley grimaced and shrugged. "Sorry, I only just figured out that it was happening today. I'm still not sure how to control it."

"I am sure that you shall figure this out, Sir. In the meantime, I am prepared to stand watch if you would like to retire for some rest."

Stanley shook his head. "I think I should wait for Zeke, just in case." He had a bad feeling about possible nightmares and the damage that might result from them. Better to wait a little longer to be careful. Besides, he didn't absolutely need to sleep just yet. Meditation would be enough for now.

"And I'll keep a better watch on Eve," Stanley added, though he wasn't looking forward to her tantrums when she was cut off. But maybe Walter had gotten through to her…

"She will be better for it." Walter stood, and his previously relaxed attitude, at least relaxed for him, faded as his butler persona took over once again. "Some tea, Sir?"

"Sure." Stanley took the cup, and Walter proffered a bowl onto the floor for Caffeine. Stanley chuckled at the hesitant and tentative licks from Caffeine as he sent his knife back across the street to continue the harvest.