Months. It had taken him months to reach the surface. He lost count after the third what he considered to be days. But at this point it had to have been months. Elims's strategy had been to slowly and arduously creep his way through every single piece of regolith and crevice that he could find to get back up to the surface.

It was then, when instead of high-pressure immovable Stone, his body encountered no resistance. In this area his surroundings were cool to the touch. Something his body recognized as being wet. And so, after this long journey, Evan exited the never-ending field of rock.

Besides the wet sensation there were no other indications of where he had exited. Only that now he was floating in a massive body of water.

"I can't see anything." Evan said. "Elims, is there something you can do?" If one good thing had come from the months of travel, it was that Elims had been there to keep him company.

Elims as it turned out was a quasi-consciousness that served the entire world of Olem. It was a planet in a parallel universe of Earth. According to Elims the world itself had need of him to right a centuries long wrong. One that had been established when a woman had seized the throne of power and began to teach a different ideology to the world.

Suspiciously there was no account for what this dark ideology was. Just that the new order juxtaposed the beliefs of Edgoo of the Lost War clan or something. When he was ousted from his rule and left to wander the world for centuries.

The system, as Elims had explained, reported that Edgoo was somehow siphoning the power and spirit from random monsters and passersby in order to extend his life. Somehow, he wasn't the one that the system needed gone.

Evan found the entire situation perplexing. It was, however, not his call he would complete the magical quest for his murderer and return home.

One of the best perks of having a talking magic god assistant in his head is that he had access to an almost etheric therapist. And after months of work and counseling he had never been calmer.

Digging monotonously through the earth had definitely had a sort of meditative effect on him. He had come go to terms with the loss of Amber. The girl who had kept him together. He had dived into this world to escape the problems of his past and while most of that was easily escaped by no longer being in that world, the trauma definitely followed him here.

But that was now behind him. He had accepted what happened. And after several weeks of internal crying and depression he had moved forward with himself. Elims had filled the void that she had left. And while he knew it wasn't healthy to replace a crutch with another one, this new crutch was very helpful so who cared really.

"Status Affect: Forged by the [Redacted]of the Dark [Redacted] land beneath the [Redacted] God has expired. Due to the powerful nature of the world around you, you have been molded into a shape shifting human. Your status has stabilized, and you are able to change form." A robotic voice said. It permeated his mind. "Do you wish to assume a human form?"

"Yes." Evan said. His mouth had moved before his brain had pieced together exactly where he was. Slowly the black ooze that was his body began to coalesce into human flesh and tissue. The stabbing pain he had grown accustomed to vanished alongside of this transformation. A pain that was suddenly replaced by the feeling of suffocation.

It was at this point even knew he had fucked up. The upside-down smiley face that was Elims seemed to vibrate and radiate a strong sense of laughter.

"You forgot where you were!" Elims said. Her voice shivering with laughter and mirth. "This drowning sensation is actually quite fun!"

Evan felt this was not the time. Of course, a human body couldn't breathe underwater. And after spending months in that weird gooey state, he had no oxygen or any way to purge the buildup of carbon dioxide in his lungs.

"Is it too late to mention that you are only a few feet from the cavern that is above us?" Elims said nonchalantly. A too innocent aura radiated from the floating entity.

It was then Evan found himself clawing hand over hand towards the surface of the water. It had been several minutes sense his return to human form and the pain was building up to levels just below that of the pain he had felt since his arrival to this world. He finally crested the surface his gasping breath echoing around a medium sized cavern.

"Movement of the Earth has been added to User Status.

Movement of the Earth has increased from 0 to 100.

Deep Breathing has been added to User Status.

Deep Breathing had increased from 0 to 25.

Deep Breathing has been upgraded due to the existence of a similar skill.

Deep Breathing has decreased from 25 to 0.

Deep Breathing has been removed from User Status

Subsurface Breathing has been added to User Status.

Subsurface Breathing has increased from 0 to 25." Elims said. For the first time since they had met the being inside his mind's eye had. Spoken in that same impassive tone.

"That couldn't have happened before I almost drowned?" Evan said. His chest rose and fell in an impatient rhythm.

"I was sure you had already received the skills even before I announced them to you." Elims said rotating around as if he hadn't nearly died. "Okie Dokie! What's next now?"

"Wait." Evan said between breaths. "Movement of the Earth, is that some sort of magical power?"

"Movement of Earth." Elims replied in a monotone. "You have spent months moving through the depths of the world. Your body flows like the earth and the earth flows like your body. Together you are like one. Granting you an innate ability to manipulate matter that is in a solid state."

"Ooo, Ooo! Did I sound like that weird creepy voice again?" Elims said a bit later. "That thing was kinda spooky. But it did kind of sound like me didn't it?"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Wait aren't you with that thing?" Evan asked. "I kind of assumed you were somehow a component of it. Aren't you the result of that Voice of the Angel thing or something?"

"Am I?" Elims said the face momentarily stilled in his mind before rapidly spinning in circles. "Yes, yes! I'm the Angels Voice! I'm the Angels Voice. I like it."

"Sometimes you can be so immature." Evan said.

"Technically I'm only a few months old." Elims said. The face's eyes narrowed. She stared off into an imaginary distance. "I know about the world never said I know about me, did I."

Evan groaned internally as much for his newfound companion as his current situation.

"Okay, dark eerie cave, check." Evan said. He stared into the black abyss that surround him. His words reverberated back.

"Judging by that echo, this is a pretty large cave."

"I guess to you its large to me this feels medium in size." Elims said bobbing around. Around her the regolith seemed to shimmer with a white glow.

"I can see you?!" Evan said. The floating upside down smiley face that was Elims shimmered like a really crowded constellation. She was white and made up of a large collection of bright pinpricks of white light.

"Oh, would you look at that." Elims said. She somehow seemed to look inward onto herself. As she did so the light that comprised her began to grow brighter.

"Light of the world has been added to User Status." Elims said once again in a monotone voice. "Light of the world has increased from 0 to 1."

"Oh, dag nabbit." Elims sighed. "I don’t know if I will get used to that."

"Is that not you saying that?" Evan asked.

"No, no, I know it is me saying it. I can even see your status information if I really focus on it. But I’m not actively reading it. It's like something just takes over and hijacks me." Elims said. She shivered, the light cascading around the cavern into shadows. "Oh well!" She said brightly.

"Still." Evan said. "We know there is some sort of base user stats. I think it was dexterity, speed, and strength. You told me zero is basically a normal human. While one hundred is nearly god-like. Okay that’s something. It's not insanely warm down here so we have to be somewhere relatively close to the surface. Not only because of that but the fact that I can actually breathe means that we have to be somewhere with open access to the sky."

"Ooo I bet its beautiful up there." Elims said looking in admiration towards the ceiling.

"It was pretty nice. Nothing like some worlds I've seen in movies."

"So, I'm not good looking enough for you then?" The smiley face huffed and wandered to the far side of the cave.

"Okay I'm sorry. I forgot you are kind of the world at this point."

"Don’t worry, I sense some very warm somethings over this way sleeping." Elims said. She slowly floated towards two dark furry masses that seemed to slowly rise and fall. "I wonder what would happen if I get close to one."

Evan put his fingers on the bridge of his nose. This definitely felt like a bad idea.

"Ooo I can see something. Ghostwalker. That sounds like a cool name. I'm gonna' call you Ghostwalker-y." Elims said. Her words were met with a very loud growl that pierced through the otherwise calm cave. "I'm sorry, did I wakey-wakey the little baby."

Now that she was closer, Evan could see that there were in fact five giant furry catlike beasts. Two large obviously angry parents and three very tiny cubs. The three cubs were adorable. But the mother who had just been awakened by the bright light from Elims definitely wasn’t something to be taken lightly.

"Oh sweetheart." Elims said. She rapidly circled the growling mother. "Do you know who I am? I am this world you live on. Well, an embodiment of it. How dare you roar at me."

To the mother Ghostwalker it didn’t matter if Elims was God himself, she would protect her cubs or go down trying. And a ghostly apparition, no matter how strange, was definitely a risk to her cubs.

"Evan!" Elims yelled across the cavern. Her words had a directional quality to them. The Ghostwalker who previously had been unsure of how to handle a brightly glowing mind symbol, knew exactly how to extricate a living meat smelling creature from the area of her babies.

In a flash, the Ghostwalker was gone. Moments later, it appeared five feet from Evans left. He didn’t know how to fight. How would he defend himself? Ten times stronger than the average person, would that be enough? He quickly ran backwards, the space increased dramatically as he moved faster than he expected. It was just enough to miss the swipe of a very sharp claw that was now exactly where his torso was meant to be. Lucky draw it seemed.

In another flash, the Ghostwalker was closer than it was the first time. Mid swipe it struck Evan sending him hurling across the cavern and into a stalactite that hung from the ceiling. Reflexively as if it were him taking a step to catch his weight from a jump, the rock seemed to bend, caress, and pass the energy from the impact into the stones around him. The cavern ceiling wavered like Jello before stiffly settling back into place. That was a close one. Had it not been for Movement of Earth he would have definitely been separated into two or more pieces.

The Ghostwalker let out a roar that shook the cavern. It sank back before jumping once again across the cavern landing just below where Evan was hanging.

"I have to think of this like a game." Evan said. "Focus Evan, focus. Movement of Earth is supposed to let me control the earth as if it's a part of my body. Like it is me. And it just caught me."

"Focus has increased from 0 to 1.

Time of the Mind has been added to user status.

Time of the Mind has increased from 0 to 1.

Time of the Mind: By focusing intently within the midst of battling a deadly predator, you have unlocked the capability to slow down time. This gives you a moment to take in and process the details of the world around you." Elims said. Her monotone announcement catching the Ghostwalker off-guard.

The large cat looked at Elims and slowly tilted its head to the right. It gave a 'what the fuck was that' look to the floating entity. It then glanced at Evan, who met its confused gaze with a slight shrug.

Focusing on the newly acquired skill Evan slowed down the world around him. It wasn’t quite affective, but when you were facing a lightning-fast predator from the depths of an unknown cave, in a random world, in a parallel reality, anything will do.

While mid focus, he saw the giant cat slowly lean backwards towards its hind paws. He could see the earth below it ever so slightly sink into the ground and then in slow-motion speed the rock began to flatten back out. In real-time this transition from sunken rock to flat rock would have happened instantly. But in this Time of the Mind, Evan saw it happen over the course of a few seconds. Long enough to anticipate the animal and form a rock wall between him and the creature.

It was not as effective as tv shows have led him to believe. He had assumed it would do something. Either this cat was way stronger than characters in fiction, or the rock was just incredibly weak. The wall shattered into gravel as soon as it made contact with the animal's head. The cat didn’t even realize anything had been in the way its deathly stare focusing entirely on Evans form hanging from the cavern ceiling. Eyes that continued to make contact with Evan until the cat's jaw closed around his torso.

This was it. In second the cat had almost killed him twice, and now it had succeeded. Except to the cat's dismay, Evan who had burst like a balloon full of bright red blood, suddenly tasted like tar and soot. A black smokey goo coated the inside and outside of the felines mouth, as the cat began to loudly hack and spit the frothing remains.

"Resilience of Death has increased from 3 to 4." Elims said. Evans body began to reconstitute itself slowly stacking layer by layer until he once again stood in the cavern. Evan quickly began to pat every inch of his body. How had this happened.

"Resilience of Death: For each instance of [Death] the User faces, one instance of [Life] is gained in its place up to the master level of [redacted]." Elims said. Once again monotone in explanation.

"That makes no sense." Evan said. "So, if I die, I just get revived? That sounds boring."

"I agree" Elims said looking down and shouting. "Where's the fun if you get to see what happens next?"

"I don’t think that’s the angle I would pull from." Evan replied.

The cat growled in annoyance as if to say, 'don’t forget about me.'

"Okay so. Wall of rock didn’t work. I can't move faster than you. So, what if." Evan said. Before he finished the last sentence a sliver of rock stretched from the ground beneath the cat and pierced cleanly through its chest. "Well, that takes care of that."

Except it didn’t. The cat like Evan began to melt into a pile of boiling, frothing black goo.