The warm light grew stronger as he entered the basement. A single candle lit the room he stood in. It looked to be used for storage, with crates, barrels, and bags of herbs and grains. At least, it used to be storage, as most of them had been opened and ransacked.

A bevy of dried foods and spices littered the cold stone floor of the dwelling's basement. Even the wooden paneled walls weren't spared from the chaos of a break-in, as some panels were coated with sticky residue from discarded jars of preserves.

As Shane traversed the mess, he spotted a thin hallway toward the back end of the cellar behind a couple untouched wooden casks. Another, brighter light source seemed to originate from further within. Shane followed it with unwavering concern and curiosity as he monitored the radiant life energy of the people beyond an ajar wooden door. As he snuck closer along the paneled walls, he heard the voices that belonged to those visual life signatures.

"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 that meant business.

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 bastard if he walked in here himself. Besides, many other healers are likely closer to him than I am." Her voice was unflagging and full of spite.

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 the terrible things he's done to the hybrid peoples," she retorted. "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 criminal statement as Shane watched the glowing outlines of the men close in on hers. 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, Shane quickly took in the details of the second smaller cellar room. Unlike the previous room, this room had old wooden floorboards like the upstairs. To Shane's left was a long table tucked up against the same paneled wall covered in various samples of herbs and plants.

A lone, lit glass lantern adorned that table, casting dark shadows against the connecting walls. That woman 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 attack was aimed at Shane's left shoulder. As the club landed, the natural rigidity of his body broke the hardwood of the club in two with a splintering crack!

-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 quick swipe of his ax.

210 Damage!

There was no forgiveness in Shane's heart for those who would break into a home. One of the men he hadn't heard yet speak released a high-pitched cry of panic while shakily loading a bolt into a crossbow. Shane traveled the ten feet or so between them in two bounds and split him in two from top to bottom—his ax breaking through the wooden floor and wedging itself deep in the dirt underneath.

213 Damage!

As Shane faced the last man threatening the woman's life, he let go of the ax. Peering ahead, he could see the older woman was cowering against the back wall but didn't seem too roughed up.

"Those boys were weak, but I'm not like them. I'm gonna kill you, then take that ax for myself!"

The middle-aged, somewhat muscular man sounded confident while shakily holding a sharp-looking longsword. Still, Shane had an inkling they both knew the differences between them. With all of the smarts Shane had bestowed upon the game's system's artificial intelligence, some NPCs still exhibited profoundly hopeless naivety.

"Leave this home, and tell your boss that his mother has passed on and can't help him."

He gave the cornered woman a friendly wink, but she must have been too frightened to notice.

"Nah, I don't think so. Good to know you're a right coward without your ax in hand though," the man replied with a wicked grin.

This guy would have already been out the door if he wasn't so headstrong. Poor fool.

Shane frowned as he adopted a boxer's fighting pose. The home invader's dark eyes danced back at him with anticipation. He slowly lowered his longsword before suddenly lunging forward with a quick stab toward Shane's stomach. Shane sidestepped the attack as if in slow motion and placed himself beside the outstretched blade. 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 the remaining invader's weapon shattered in two, the thug croaked out a hurried plea for mercy. He probably thought Shane didn't see him slowly pull a dagger from a pantleg compartment, but Shane did. Before the man could try attacking again, Shane delivered a punch so quick and heavy it caved the man's face and skull entirely inward.

91 Damage!

The man's body slumped to the floor, leaving gore running down the wall behind the corpse. Shane sighed and wiped his knuckles on the flexible leather sewn onto his pants.

The elderly 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 am not here to harm you. Also, I'm sorry about the mess I made with these fellas," Shane motioned to the bodies around him and apologetically shrugged.

When she didn't immediately respond, he cleared his throat. "I was told I could find a powerful healer in these parts. I am sorry to bother you at this time of night, but would you take a look at my friend's wound?"

She seemed to visibly calm a little and took a step forward. Her limbs still quaked a bit from the evening's events, but she gave Shane a small smile anyway.

"Yes, that would likely be me you heard about. I stopped taking healing requests long ago, but you saved me from a horrible and uncertain future, so it is the least I could do for you. Where is your friend?"

Shane reached into his inventory and pulled out a robotic-looking sphere the size of a volleyball alongside several pieces of twisted and melted metal.

Her face lit up with surprise and intrigue. "Oh my! I'm not sure I can fix your....friend, but I can try." She tip-toed around the invaders' bodies and went to the long table against the wall.

She lit a new candle from a drawer underneath 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 gaterfish that live in these swamps will feast tonight. Maybe the left-over skeletons will ward off other invaders, he thought with a sense of confident hope.

When Shane returned, the healer's potion was glowing a bright forest green. She instructed him to set Liz and her parts on the table within a drawn circle made of 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 gray hair gained both length and its original bright red color, while her eyes began glowing with green energy. Even her face tightened and smoothed, with no remaining hint that she was once much older.

"This change won't last long, but it will allow me to cast a spell far beyond my usual means," she said in a voice that seemed lighter and fairer than the air around him.

Shane nodded and said nothing, feeling intimidated by her sudden youth and beauty. The healer stepped into another bigger circle of similar ground-up flowers and spices. Two brilliant columns of radiant green light suddenly engulfed her and Liz's metal body. The various broken parts of Liz's shell began to reform and reinsert themselves into her body at the same rate as the healer started visibly aging.

Incredible! She's using her temporary youth as a conduit for healing! Shane thought with amazement.

A minute passed, and 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. Her body began to immediately float in the air. A pair of green pixelated eyes opened on a screen in the center of the metallic sphere.

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

He embraced Liz with a tight hug. "You had gotten hurt. I couldn't fix you myself, so I searched for so long to find someone who could. I'm so glad you're back," he rambled as tears spilled down his cheeks.

With some effort, the ball swiveled in his arms toward the old woman.

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

"This young man saved what remaining life I have. It was the least I could do."

Both Shane and Liz took turns thanking the equally grateful woman and were about to head back upstairs when a digital window popped in front of Shane's face.

-!Alert!-

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

You Have Failed The Quest "Return To Krooth"

The System has recorded Quest Failure

The System Has Deemed You A Failure

All Failures Will Be Immediately Corrupted

Corrupted Individuals Will Lose All Sense of Self

You Are No Longer Shane Carther

All Rights and Functions of Shane Carther Will Be Transmigrated Immediately

Before he could make sense of the message, the screen disappeared. Liz floated up to him, curious about the screen's contents.

"What did the screen say, Shane?" Liz asked, with a curious smile in her voice.

Shane stared into the distance, stunned. "It said one of my quest's timers expired," he said dryly.

"What?!" Liz yelled in shock and utter dismay. "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 was like his memories and who he was as a person were systematically being deleted. At the same time, his body began changing, twisting, becoming something new and terrible.

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, parts of his skull began swelling to an unnatural size. Even his right eye became much larger than the other.

Shane, or whatever he had become, could no longer remember where or even who he was. While stupified within that blissful ignorance, two new and powerful emotions flooded his psyche. Rage at the system that took his mind and an intense hatred toward the being that would adopt the impossible-to-recall name he had owned seconds before.

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

Liz watched in horror as the physically and mentally distorted man began dismantling the room and everything in it indiscriminately. The battle ax lodged in the ground was quickly recovered and now wielded in a single oversized hand. The corrupted man's ax cut down the aging woman's table, apparatuses, walls, and everything else.

"No, please, NO! This wasn't supposed to HAPPEN!!" Liz shrieked in anguish as she flew up the stairs and out an open window.

Behind her, she could hear the broken shouting of her now corrupted friend and user overpowering the screams of the elderly healer. Destruction of the healer's home abruptly stopped, and the man alone roared—a sound deep and raw from the very pits of what was left of his mind.

She added her own helpless wailing to his as she tried and failed to ignore it. Liz continued coasting 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 dwelling's roof. He soared high into the night sky with a battle ax in hand—a single directive guiding him in blind vengeance.