It had been three months since Shane had woken up in the world of the game Endless Veil. A world he had a significant hand in developing. While he was familiar with the basics of the game, there was enough to it that it would take someone years, maybe decades, to discover and experience everything.

Shane had spent the majority of his time grinding various monsters and enemies. He discovered early on that his Barbarian class prohibited him from learning spells. In this world, skills were called feats. So while he could only learn feats, the more he would use a feat, the stronger it became, thanks to his class.

One of those feats, in particular, was something he used to explore the world's infinite map at an insanely accelerated rate. It was one of the beginning feats available to him, amounting to nothing more than a slightly higher jump. As he fought, gained loot, and leveled, that feat evolved to allow him to now reach as high as the clouds themselves.

For most of the morning, Shane had traveled north, jumping over entire towns and mountains in a single bound. He only stopped when he obtained a randomly generated quest or when an exciting point of interest popped up on his heads-up display's visible compass. Most of the time, Shane traveled like this alone; NPC companions would just slow him down. Besides, he had Liz, and she was always there for him.

At least, she was for a time. Her ball-like body was made of metal, and while she could change sizes and travel within his light armor, there wasn't much of a point anymore. She had suffered too much heat damage during a tense battle with a Dragonsquid boss. Leaving her metal shell scorched in some areas and utterly liquified in others. Shane could tolerate other party members and even enjoyed some greatly. Too many, though, and his social anxiety would spike, prompting Shane to excuse himself "for some air" or to "use the bathroom"—when in reality, his digital body kept him from having to expel waste.

Liz had been a critical companion to Shane—she was a conscious device he could use to interface with many of the game's systems. Beyond that, she was his best friend, his mentor on occasion, and was primarily a delight to be around. She would always encourage him and was endlessly optimistic. Even her aptitude for being incredibly blunt was something that eventually grew on him.

Endless Veil was a game world where he would usually die alone but always revived to the sound of her voice, and for that, she was irreplaceable.

With Endless Veil proving difficult at times, Shane was accustomed to what healing magic could do. Especially early on in his adventures where he needed to hire clerics for more challenging encounters. Unfortunately, those same clerics didn't have the level of healing he eventually discovered Liz required for a full recovery.

After some time, he encountered a particularly money-hungry human merchant in a randomly generated northern city. Since the merchant occasionally traveled long distances, Shane figured the merchant might be willing to share some information. Unfortunately, the greedy man wanted Shane to buy something of extreme value before he would even mention a healer. Charming and coercion did not work well on the merchant—nor was he capable in either field. This prompted Shane to show the merchant just how sharp his two-handed battle ax could be.

This intimidation resulted in the knowledge of a powerful healer many more thousands of meters north of the game's central city Krooth. He had already spent weeks traveling dozens of thousands of meters in each direction of the game's infinite map looking for such a being. Hopefully, this tip would lead him to Liz's resurrection.

Another near-frozen village, another dead end, Shane bitterly thought as he walked through the gates of a tiny mountain town inside of a large winter biome. He knew the farther one traveled, the more challenging encounters could be. The same thing could be said of neutral or even positive encounters, and that's what he counted on—a high-ranking healer. As he walked through the blowing snow and wind, he observed the character stat window he willed into existence.

Name: Shane Carther

Race: Human

Class: Barbarian

Level: 25

Exp: 320/4615

HP: 540/540

Mana: 16/16

Fatigue: 5/205

Soul Points: 2

Attributes:

Strength: 102

Agility: 55

Vitality: 38

Endurance: 43

Intellect: 8

Wisdom: 7

Luck: 20

Physical Attack: 220

Magical Attack: 0

Physical Defense: 91

Magical Defense: 20

Satisfied with how his stats had been building the past few weeks, he opened up his "Feats" tab, with his evolved jump feat highlighted.

-The Lord's Leap-

(Legendary Feat)

The user can jump as high as 3 meters per 1 Strength.

The user also takes zero fall damage from using this feat.

Cost: 75 Fatigue

Duration: Instant

Cooldown: 10 seconds

Requirements: 90 Strength/50 Agility

Through his class's unique evolution mechanic, Shane could take a minor-level feat and raise it to the highest ranks. All because he used it daily for almost two months straight. Its high fatigue cost meant he couldn't use it rapidly back to back, but a few minutes of walking between jumps generally kept his fatigue low.

Of course, that wasn't the only thing that helped him succeed in this world. His Mighty-rank two-handed battle-ax and its high physical properties allowed him to cleave most of his problems in two. It was just one of quite a few powerful pieces of loot he obtained through the game's dynamically generated quest system rewards.

Strangely, as of late, his quests had started to have time limits assigned to them. He found it odd, given he had successfully completed every quest the system gave him thus far. Once Liz was fixed up, he would ask her about these timers. Currently, he only had only one active quest left, and it was to travel back south to Krooth to help quell a mixed-race uprising.

He couldn't be bothered to travel that far, even with his ability to jump great distances. If he had been granted a magic-bearing class, he could use said magic to fast travel, but not with this current ax-loving profession. Knowing this, he steeled his resolve, braced himself, and used the lord's leap skill again. As he jumped, the ground crumbled beneath the force, simultaneously kicking up several feet of snow and wind.

While flying through the air, he quickly noted that his one remaining quest to travel back to the city of Krooth had only thirty minutes left on its timer. Shane hoped the penalties for running out of time on a quest weren't too terrible. Even if they were, his search for a high-leveled healer took priority for Liz's sake.

Shane landed just shy of the blended border between the winter biome he was in and the swamp biome further north. His landing caused the ground to shake all around him, and bits of dirt, rock, and snow filled the air. It was fun to land in a super-hero pose but was harder to control, making his landings a bit too heavy.

He continued forward, crossing the invisible boundary of the two biomes. The snow and ice adorning the dead trees and frozen earth slowly transitioned to muck, grime, and moss. The temperature rapidly increased. Thankfully a couple of lucky armor drops gave Shane the ability to resist most temperatures outside the extreme.

As he jogged through the vines and weeds of the musty biome, points of interest came and went on his compass. A cave, a lower-level nest that spawned enemies, a dungeon, nothing immediately stood out to him as something that held a powerful healer within. Ten more minutes passed, and a new point of interest caught his eye—A dwelling.

City, town, and village icons looked different than this on the compass. This icon looked like a small one-story home with a single window and chimney. With his hopes high, he lept a shorter distance through the air using his feat—trying hard to land where it would be given how small the icon was in his compass. The house's icon rapidly increased in size as he grazed the tops of the swamps' dying trees.

When he did land, it sent a small shockwave through the damp undergrowth. Shane looked around and finally saw a medium-sized cobblestone hut with a dome-shaped roof made of solid gray marble. It was nighttime. Thick dark shadows blanketed the swamp's murky waters. Luckily, a single torch to the left of the building's entrance illuminated the otherwise hidden structure.

He made his way to the simple wooden front door and noticed its aging metal hinges were broken in multiple places. Shane placed a calloused hand on the door, and it swung open quickly with a clunky creek, its remaining hinges straining.

He walked inside. The place was in shambles. Anything that could be opened, like wooden drawers, chests, and the like, had been left wide open. An overturned table, wooden chairs ripped apart, and a dead fireplace set the scene of a home invasion.

Either they couldn't find what they were looking for and left, or they're still here, he thought grimly. Shane closed his eyes and extended his warrior's battle sense feat, a passive feat that let him sense nearby hostile life. His eyes flew open, and he looked down to see the outlines of life energy below the floorboards.

Shane moved light and fast through the trashed home, following a small light that emanated from under a door at the end of a dark hallway. There were three life signatures clumped together with a weaker-looking one. Over the months, the gear bonuses and points allocated to Strength and Agility left his body rigid and hardened with muscle. So as he descended the stairway to the building's basement, he felt confident he could handle whatever was down there.

The warm light grew stronger as he entered the basement. The room he stood in looked to be used for storage, with crates, barrels, and bags of herbs and grains. At least, it used to be storage, as most things had been opened and ransacked. On the other side of the room was a thin hallway. The light was coming from there. Un-afraid, Shane trotted over and witnessed more warm light coming from the other side of an open, broken wooden door. As he got closer, he heard voices.

"We won't ask you a second time. Come with us and heal our leader's injuries, or we burn this place to the ground with you in it." said a gruff male voice.

Shane briefly wondered if whoever was talking had learned of this healer's location from the same wandering merchant he encountered.

An older woman's voice rang out in response to the man.

"Oh please, I wouldn't heal that cheating bastard scum if he walked in here himself. Besides, plenty of other healers are much closer than I am." Her voice was full of scorn.

Another man with a deeper voice tried to reason with her.

"He asked for you specifically. You may be old and prolly haven't healed anyone in a while, but you're still his mum, yeah?"

"He's no son of mine, not after every terrible thing he's done," she snarled. "Now get out of my house! Go find another healer!"

"He said to bring you alive, but he didn't say we had to be gentle," the first man said with menacing mirth.

The two other men grunted in agreement with the villainous statement as Shane watched the outlines of the men close in on the woman's signature. Enough listening. It was time for action. Shane burst through the door with his battle-ax ready in both hands.

As the three armed men wheeled around in surprise at his entrance, he quickly took in his new surroundings. This room must have been an extension of the other storage room he passed through as he saw more barrels and boxes. While the previous room's floor was made of dust and dirt, this room had floorboards like the upstairs. To the left of him and the three men was a long table against the cobblestone wall covered in many different-looking herbs and plants.

A lone, lit glass lantern adorned the wooden table, casting light shadows against the older woman and three men. She must have been working down here when they broke in, and at her age, she likely didn't even hear them until it was too late. He thought as one of the men swung at him with a basic wooden club.

The club was aimed at his left shoulder. As the club landed, the hardness of his defenses and body broke the club in two.

-4 HP (Thug's Club Attack)

The surprised look on the man's face turned to horror-filled shock as Shane separated his legs from his waist in one swipe of his ax.

210 Damage!

There was no forgiveness in his heart for those who would break into a home. One of the men he hadn't heard yet speak let out a cry of panic while shakily loading a bolt into his crossbow. Shane traveled the fifteen feet between them in two bounds and split him in two from top to bottom—his ax breaking through the wooden floor and getting stuck in the dirt underneath.

213 Damage!

As he faced the last man threatening the woman's life, he let go of his ax. Shane glanced to his right. The old woman was cowering against the back wall but was thankfully not too worse for wear.

"Those boys were weak, but I'm not like them. I'm gonna kill you, then take that ax for myself." The man tried to sound confident while holding his longsword, but Shane had an inkling they both knew the differences between them. This was one of the more common tropes these NPCs would sometimes exhibit. He would have already been out the door if this one had a higher intelligence.

Shane smirked as he lifted his fists in a boxer's pose. The man smiled back at him and began to lower his sword before suddenly lunging forward with it in a fake-out stab toward Shane's stomach. Shane sidestepped the attack as if it were in slow motion and moved next to the outstretched sword. Before the man could pull the sword back in, Shane grabbed it with both hands and broke the middle section of the blade over his knee.

With his weapon shattered in two, the thug could only croak out a plea for mercy before Shane delivered a punch so heavy it caved the man's face and skull inward.

91 Damage!

His body slumped to the floor, leaving gore running down the wall behind the corpse. Shane sighed and wiped his knuckles on the stiff leather sown onto his pants.

The old woman was standing now, looking at him, terrified. She was utterly silent while her body trembled. Shane gave her an understanding half-smile.

"I promise I'm not here to harm you. I was told I could find a powerful healer in these parts for a friend."

She seemed to calm a little visibly and took a step forward. Her voice was still shaky from the events that transpired.

"That would be me. I stopped taking healing requests a long time ago, but you saved me from a horrible end, so it is the least I could do for you. Where is your friend?"

Shane reached into his inventory, and a robotic ball appeared in his hands, along with several pieces of broken and melted metal.

Her face lit up with surprise and intrigue. "Oh my! I'm not sure I can fix such a…person, but I can try." She tip-toed around the invaders' bodies and made her way to the long table against the wall.

She lit a candle and began combining various ingredients into a small bottle. As she prepped for the spell, Shane carried the bodies upstairs and disposed of them in one of the swamps a hundred meters from her home. The gaterducks that live in these swamps will feast tonight. Maybe the left-over skeletons will ward other invaders, he thought, feeling hopeful.

When Shane returned, the healer's potion was glowing green and fully prepared. She instructed him to set Liz and her parts on the table within a drawn circle made of further crushed floral ingredients. The woman then downed the small potion in a single gulp.

He watched as she changed and grew younger by the second. Her crooked, frail body morphing into one of youth and beauty. Her white hair, gaining both length and its original bright red color. While her eyes began glowing with green energy as the rest of her face tightened and smoothed.

"This change won't last long, but it will allow me to cast a spell far beyond my usual means." Even her voice became light and airy.

Shane nodded and said nothing, feeling a little intimidated by her sudden youth and beauty. The healer stepped into another circle made of the same crushed floral ingredients. A brilliant green column of light suddenly engulfed her and Liz's metal body.

The various broken parts of Liz's shell began to reform into her body at the same rate as the old woman started visibly aging. Incredible, she can use her temporary youth as a conduit for healing! Shane thought with amazement.

When the spell finished, the woman was once again old. The bigger shock came from Liz, her body now spotless and perfectly formed—and even shinier than when he first met her. A few seconds later, the ball began to float in the air, and a pair of pixelated eyes opened on a screen in the center of the ball.

"Shane? Is that you? When did you get so buff?" said the ball, oblivious of the old woman smiling nearly as much as Shane was.

He embraced Liz with a hug. "You had gotten hurt. I couldn't fix you myself, so I found someone who could. I'm so glad you're back." he said as tears filled his eyes.

The ball turned in his arms towards the old woman.

"I'm assuming you're the one who repaired me! Thank you for helping this big softy." Hearing her bubbly voice made Shane hug even tighter.

"This man saved my life. It was the least I could do." said the old woman as she slowly bowed toward the two of them.

Both Shane and Liz thanked the healer again and were about to head back upstairs when a new window popped in front of Shane's face.

-Notice-

The Timer for The Quest "Return To Krooth" Has Expired

Quest Expiration Is Cause For Failure As Shane Carther

The System Has Deemed You A Failure

You Will No Longer Be Shane Carther

Before he could make sense of the message, the screen disappeared.

Liz floated up to him.

"What did the screen say, Shane?" Liz asked happily.

Shane stared at the ground. "It said one of my quest's timers expired."

"What?!" Liz yelled in shock. "When did you get a timed quest??"

Shane was about to answer when he suddenly felt his mind begin to shift and break down. It felt like his memories and who he was as a person were systematically deleted. At the same time, his body began changing.

The excruciating process made him cry out. One of his legs gained an extra joint, causing it to fold in on itself. His right arm elongated and thickened, while his right hand's fingers stretched to an ungodly length.

As Shane's thoughts and mind emptied, his head began swelling to an unnatural size. During this, one of his eyes became much larger than the other.

He could barely remember himself as two powerful emotions flooded his psyche. Rage at the system that took his mind and a misguided determination to find what took his place in this world.

A subconscious link began to form between him as he was now and a new existence that simultaneously appeared somewhere in the world. The link felt like a vague direction that would lead him to what he used to be—and he wanted everything back.

Liz watched in horror as the physically and mentally distorted man began raging. Now wielded in a single oversized hand, his ax cut down the old woman, her table, her walls, and everything else.

"No, please, NO, not again!" She shrieked in anguish as she flew up the stairs and out an open window.

Behind her, she could hear the broken voice of her friend and companion. Destruction of the healer's home stopped, and he was now roaring—a sound deep and raw from the very pits of what was left of his mind. Liz tried to ignore it as she continued flying low over the swamp in the direction of the city of Krooth.

After some time, the malformed shadow of the man known as Shane Carther forcefully jumped through the building's roof. He soared high into the night sky with a battle-ax in hand—a single directive guiding him in vengeance.