-92 HP (Cain Prime's Kick)

-50 HP (Fall Damage)

Cracked stone and rubble went flying from where Shane's body left a broken crater. Shane coughed and sputtered up spatters of blood. Cain Prime's kick had slammed against his diaphragm with enough force to restrict any further breathing. Half a second after being kicked, his powerful doppelganger stood mere feet before his crumpling form. Cain Prime cleared his throat while inspecting the top of his right hand with overzealous interest.

To Shane's surprise, his face told the story of a nasty shock, as if Cain had watched someone slap his mother. The upset man held his hand out in front of Shane to see. Shane didn't understand at first; it was just a hand. Then he looked closer and saw Cain's hand had actually aged.

No, that's not quite it. It's different than just stealing time at a one-to-one ratio, Shane thought. The words "Time Absorbed" planted toward the top of his vision told him just how much he had taken from Cain's hand—exactly ten years. I took that much time, and yet….Shane focused on the bar itself, and more information expanded outward from it.

-Time Conversion-

15 years absorbed = 15 minutes of time manipulation

I think I held his hand for roughly fifteen seconds. If I continue to improve the spell, the ratio of time stolen to usable time should improve. Shane absentmindedly reached out toward Cain Prime as he processed the possibilities. To his intense amusement, Cain quickly recoiled away from his reach.

It was Shane's turn to flash a sinister, unhinged smile in the face of his fleeing opponent. Cain Prime's eyes narrowed as he hid his hand from sight.

"What spell are you using, Shane? What did you do to my hand?"

Shane only stared at him with that same energetic smile, his anger and satisfaction mixed, pushing him through the fading pain of Cain's kick. He slowly stood and brushed some rubble from his pants and tunic.

"That's for me to know and for you to experience," Shane replied with faux confidence.

Before Cain could reply or even react, Shane felt the absorbed time within him and intuitively activated it. This power didn't feel like another spell like the others he had used. No, the sensation went beyond that. There was more freedom in it somehow—like there were ways to use this power that he wasn't fully conscious of yet.

Cain Prime's movements began to change as Shane felt the power fully activate. If Shane's counterpart tried to mime his way through molasses, he was doing a convincing job. Oh my god, Shane thought. The default use of this time power is basically old-school video game Bullet-Time! His mind immediately recalled memories of playing games like F.E.A.R with an identical mechanic.

Going off pure intuition alone, Shane bounded forward toward Cain as fast as he could—his hands smoothly unsheathing the claymore from his back. Each movement shortened the length of the time bar by a sliver as the time energy continued powering him in its raw, unfocused form. The new power felt like flexing a muscle, but there was no time for nuance. Cain Prime finally reacted when Shane was just a few feet away and disappeared entirely from Shane's sight.

Dust, dirt, and rubble were kicked up into the air from where Cain Prime had been standing.

"You think you're faster now? You think you're getting stronger? That you're superior to me?! You're just a low-level COPY!!" Cain's words were said in less than a second, yet Shane heard every word perfectly.

Shane's reaction time was nearly fifty percent faster overall. Unfortunately, all that meant was that when he turned his head to the left, a blurred fist was inches from his face. A ridiculously strong impact to the bridge of his nose left his eyes watering as pain radiated outward across his head.

-35 HP (Cain Prime's Haymaker)

Shane felt himself flying backward yet again, eyes watering, nose bleeding and broken, and everything in a daze. He felt himself smash into another stone wall.

-40 HP (Fall Damage)

Shane could hear the notifications of the damage he was suffering, but after breaking through the wall, he stopped feeling the hurt altogether. God damnit, I died again, he thought with deep hate for his attacker. Shane wanted to land at least one blow or offensive spell on Cain. Deep down past the rage and disappointment, he knew there was only so much a level eight could do against someone like Cain Prime.

I couldn't even sense his relative strength. Is his level in the triple digits? Leveling past ninety-nine was indeed possible but became exponentially harder per level beyond that point. He was without senses again. Even though this was his fourth death, it still felt surreal, much like changing positions in bed but never being able to find that state of comfort. Shane couldn't speak, and he didn't have to. He was alone with his thoughts, and they were more painful than any killing blow.

After a few minutes of aimless floating, the sensation of his physical, digital body returned in peak form. Shane opened his eyes and found himself in a long small tunnel of dirt. A wave of confusion washed over him until he looked straight ahead toward an opening. Dull light spilled into it, and Shane immediately realized where he was.

Cain Prime must have hit him with enough force to break the stone wall and drive him dozens of feet into the cold dirt beyond. The two-handed claymore he wanted to skewer Cain Prime with had fallen out of his grasp. He found it halfway up the tunnel, thankfully intact.

No wonder I died. Shane thought to himself while observing the damage to the wall he was sent through. He struggled to accept the reality of his "first dungeon dive" going utterly wrong.

After a minute of crawling, he became free of his horizontal dirt prison. Shane found himself standing in the curve of the same tunnel from which he and his group entered the chamber. He walked into the pitch-black and dusty hall with all the flare and energy of a wet sponge having been rung dry. The small, minor fires that had once illuminated the place had long since vanished.

"Skeleton crew, I need you…." Shane's voice was barely more than a whisper as he summoned them.

If the trio of skeletons appeared, he wasn't aware of it visually—though he immediately heard light echoes of bone on stone.

"Mage, I'd like some light, but keep the spell to a minimum, please," another accidental supernova was the last thing he wanted as he spotted Alabaster's pale, rotting corpse at the far end of the chamber.

-Notice!-

-Level 13 Dungeon Quest Complete!-

Vanquish The Boss - Complete!

You Have Earned The Fol—

I can't look at this right now. I just can't, Shane thought while closing the window.

Sure, he completed the quest, technically. The lanky Cain and Cain Prime, the bastard, had long since disappeared. Luckily, counting as vanquished for his quest, but at a cost that was in no way worth the completion. Shane even began wishing he'd chosen corruption if it meant keeping his companions—if it meant that Alabaster would have survived….

That's stupid. Alabaster would scold me if he heard me talking like that.

Mage and the two other skeletons followed Shane. They stopped when their master did, a couple of feet from where Alabaster's body sat hunched over. A layer of dust covered every exposed part of the vampire's once dashingly regal attire. Alabaster's pale skin had begun to fall away in its dry and flaky state, revealing many dull bones underneath.

Before he died, there was a slim hope he could somehow have used the time he acquired and reversed the attack on Alabaster. But now it was impossible. His friend's corpse showed a level of decay that indicated it had been weeks, maybe even an entire month, since his passing.

Shane stood there, clenching his fists again and again. He could tell his pants were working to smother the more depressive emotions he was feeling. The rest, the anger, the bitterness, and sour rage, quaked his very core. A couple of stray tears tickled the slowly-growing stubble on his cheeks. He wiped them away using the sleeves of his tunic and took a series of deep breaths.

A strange sense of calm began to set into the recesses of his mind. The sensation made him visualize the eye of a hurricane, and he was smack-dab right in the center of that eye. Peace and clarity as torrents of deadly wind spun around his mind's sight, reaching higher than the sky itself. In a precise moment of amplified lucidity, Shane had a thought as he stared at the tall ceiling of the room.

I wanted to enjoy this new world, make new friends, and reinvent myself. I thought if I played Endless Veil by adhering to who I am inside, I would have a great new life.

Shane looked at Alabaster once again.

How truly naive I was.

Then and there, he decided to change in front of Alabaster's corpse. Simply living the game as a player wasn't enough, and going about things the way he was wasn't enough. It would never be enough so long as Cain Prime roamed the infinite lands.

From here on, whatever he had to do to get stronger, he would. No matter what quest the system bestowed upon him, he would complete it and any objectives without exception.

Then, and only then, could Shane make Endless Veil a new and proper home for himself and those he cherished. The first step toward that goal began with a little bit of grave robbing. Shane bent down and carefully lifted the amulet off the headless neck of his late friend.

"Thank you for everything, Alabaster. I hope you don't mind if I take this back," Shane said as he pushed through the significant discomfort that was essentially grave robbing.

He looked at the amulet in his hand and inspected its features before slipping it into his pocket to sell later. Strength, skill, magic, and wealth were what equated to power in this world, and he would acquire as much as needed.

-Living Iron Locket-

(Uncommon)

+5 Magical Defense

-Modifiers-

Living: Heals are 10% more potent to the wearer of this item

*Spell Acquired*

-Tainted Growth-

(Uncommon Shadow Spell)

The user absorbs life near them from any life source up to a limit

Heal: Up to 50HP

Cost: 30 Mana

Range: Self

Duration: Instant

Cooldown: 30 Seconds

Shane had given this to Alabaster to both avoid his responsibility for stealing it and as a gift. A gift that he hoped his friend would use in moments like before, and maybe he already had. It was more than possible for Cain Prime to have gear that made it so attacks couldn't steal his health.

"Your death won't be in vain, my dear friend."

With the help of his active feat [Triple Strike], Shane made short work of a few already broken stone bricks that made up the floor of the large room. Soft dirt lay underneath the broken rubble, and with Tank's assistance, they dug a few feet into the earth beneath. Shane then gathered what was left of Alabaster and splayed him out relaxed resting position.

Not far away, Shane found Alabaster's dried-out skull. The vampire's eyes were missing, and he was grateful. Rats or some other small creature possibly ate them, he thought numbly. He might have lost it if he had seen those dead eyes staring back at him.

Shane ignored that macabre thought and placed his friend's head with the rest of his body. He stared at Alabaster's resting corpse for a long while, until finally, Shane put his hands together in a small prayer. An absolutely worthless gesture in a wholly digital world, he knew. Still, a small part of him thought it a good idea nonetheless.

They all covered Alabaster with the soil they had dug up. With the remaining thirteen minutes of usable time, Shane reverted the stone blocks to their pre-shattered state and placement. Satisfied with the now seamlessly hidden impromptu burial, the man who taught the system and his skeleton crew made their way topside.

The doors were still open, in the same spots he and his party had left them all those weeks ago. Then they were outside in the bright midday sun. The wind tousled the leaves of the nearby trees and made the shadows dance over the short grass and flowers of the nearby cemetery. Shane took another deep breath of that beautiful fresh air and began walking.

Burgling that unique-grade family heirloom by the grave of someone's lost son was the first of many actions Shane would make in pursuing Cain Prime's demise.

Finding Alabaster's mentor and alerting them of their student's demise was the second.