Truly, Death is not the End!

What was this? Alistar's thoughts wandered far. However nothing came back to answer him. Nothing could explain where he was or even what really happened to him.

Truthfully no one would either until Alistar freed himself from the void he was in now. The awakened that inspected his body as he arrived her could've found out if they inspected a little closer and noticed one of his skills hadn't been truly lost. However none of them were lost. As even when the green glow of the status screen opened, for him everything was exactly like it was before except well. His conditions, they read simply.

<Conditions: Dead(???), Ethereal(Currently just a Soul)>

However Alistar could still see his HP tick down into the negatives. However other than those two changes he couldn't see anything else that changed. Even his mana which normally should drain still read 12/12.

Actually now that he thought about it the status screen itself changed. Normally it was blue, for some it was red and some were gold. However for him his was basic blue. Now however it was a sickly green. He didn't really realize due to it really being the only light in the unending dark.

Well almost the only light, the more he looked around and the more his thoughts wandered. The worse his situation seemed. He still had his body, however it too was a sickly green hue of transparency. He was standing on something, but it was a black that was deeper than the darkness that surrounded him.

As his eyes adjusted though that's where thing really startled him.

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"What the hell? Is this my axe? and... knives, hamm-... Hmmm, Hmmm."

I trailed of quickly despite keeping my voice, the fact that all the random tools and weapons gathered over the years were spread out around me, it was throwing me off.

I picked up a red fire axe. Stolen from a hospital, the first ever weapon he used. It was stolen just before he was teleported from the hospital when he was getting diagnosed.

I remembered the cigarette I had smoked after realizing I had been teleported out of the hospital along with the people that were there with him. That was where he first met providence and... "I should stop using that bastards fake name."

It was where I met Calvin and Clair... That little sickly sister of his. I was almost tempted to kill her once, but she was a real saint. Never awakened herself, but if I had to name the nicest person in my life it was her. Even when her brother wasted the Elixir on her she cried her eyes out to me. Disowned Calvin on the spot and never spoke to him again. No matter how famous he became, no matter what he tried to give her.

I dropped the fire axe and began wandering off. After my short flashback if you could call it that. I had a good guess where I was. I trained my unique skill slipspace near religiously.

I even sometimes activated it on reflex to store arrows or bullets that were fired at me. To my guess it seemed I activated it on reflex one last time. Though what exactly I did was....

Well honestly I had no idea, perhaps I managed to reflexively store my soul inside it? That would make sense, but that was... nothing short of incredible and terrifying. I knew my slipspace like the back of my hand.

It was to my knowledge infinite, had accelerated speed and gradually eroded things. The fire axe I picked up was proof of that. It was barely usable as an axe anymore the blade being dull and rust not to mention heavily chipped. While the wooden handle was rotten and dry.

That was another thing, there was no humidity in my slipspace. Combine that with the chill I was feeling made this a true Arctic desert. "Specially since I never stored water bottles or food inside. The stuff always went bad before I could try and eat it."

I looked down then sighed, not like I could eat anyway.

---------

Years had passed and Alistar was still walking. The slipspace still worked normally and anything he stored could be called to him. With time he could even remember everything inside it. That included his soul, The only problem?

He could only call it to him, so his soul couldn't be brought outside the slipspace. However time passed and Alistar had found something that did change.

It was his status. After walking for so long his endurance had increased. In the past he could barely ever increase his stats like Vitality and Endurance, in fact his endurance only got to where it was because he was dying. In his early years he would gain a stat point in endurance. This however was double edged as what ever muscle he built to increase his vitality was lowered due to his illness.

Now however he was freed from that. Even though his conditions read him as dead and only a Soul. He still could increase his stats. Though his intelligence couldn't be trained easily. In the past he spent hours on rubic cubes and sudoku puzzles increasing the difficulty until he couldn't even more. It was only on his hunts where it increased.

Only knew strategies and attack patterns increased it now, just like in the past. However it wasn't stagnant just slow. As he called the eroded weapons to him he spent his time walking mastering each of them to the best of his ability.

He had a skill that encompassed his skills with all of them however he never used a weapon long enough to truly gain proficiency in them. So the skill he had was simply acquired due to him never compromising on a weapon.

He even began training mana even though he had no skills or spells that used it. Hell he didn't even know how to begin with mana. However due to his time spent in his slipspace he had the time. The mind numbing and untrackable time.

He inspected his changed status once more to pass the time. As just recently his titles updated again.

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<Name:Alistar Hathaway>

<Species: Ethereal Spectre/Unbound Human Soul>

<Class: None>

<Level:98 Age:288>

<Titles:Ungrateful Living, The Traveler, Master of Blades, Master of Clubs, and more...>

<Health Points:-1000/214>

<Mana: 88/88>

<Vitality: 98>

<Endurance: 109>

<Spirit: 211>

<Intelligence: 91>

<SP-None>

<Blessings: Blessing of the Damned, Blessing of the Lost>

<Conditions: Dead(???),Ethereal(Currently just a Soul)>

<Leveled Skills: Self-Defined, Unique Soul, Perfected Off-hand, Perfect stab, Perfect Slash, Perfect throw, Self-Mastered Skilled Weapon Talent, Self-Mastered Natural Talent, Master of Blades, Master of Clubs, Master of Missles, Master of Walking, Levitation, Astral Strike, Astral Bolt, Astral Grasp, Astral Fade, Soul Strike, Soul Song, Unhinged Mana Control, Mana Dupilcation, Mana Warp, Faux Aura Control, Bright Vision, Ghostly Appraisal, Deft Hands, Sleight of hand, Compromising, Inhuman Self-Control>

<Unique Skills: Slipspace, Hellbent, Loss of Humanity, Master of the Soul, Escape Death, Formless Self, Soul Crush, Soul Wane, Soul Purity, Precious Life>

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Alistar scoffed, "Ungrateful living? This is the third title like this. However it did come with another unique skill." He looked over Precious Life and shook his head.

It was certainly a unique skill alright, explained ungrateful living as well. The descriptions of both were similar to that of the title he got when his health points hit -500.

To summarize the first two, at -500 he received Escape death as a Title and Unique Skill. Though he could only view the title Escape Death if he clicked on more under the titles. Titles were just fancy things that you could show off.

The Unique skill Escape death though, it was a good skill allowing him to as the name implied escape death. This included any type of death, from just ordinary natural death or even irreversible death. Though at the time he got the skill it made him rage. As if he had it before his current situation well it would've cured him of all his illnesses.

The skill even could prevent death from old age. However you would have to use it on cooldown to live forever. As the skill had a cooldown of a year and would if used to prevent death from old age would return one year to the person.

Now however he was mocked further as Precious life was a very similar skill. However the title that gave it was certainly unusual. He read it aloud, "You have spent a long time out of the reach of the omnipresent death. he has chosen to finally give up on reaping your soul and returning you to the natural cycle. May you rest knowing unless you enter the natural cycle yourself you will die a true death whenever you die again."

This irked Alistar slightly, as number one irreversible death wasn't true death and number two it meant that even if he gained a flesh body again. If he died he would become a soul again and end up in the exact same position as he is now.

Before his current problem he never knew titles gave skills he never got one that did. Now however he was acquiring them like pennies. Some were special and some weren't. Just like the how he got some normal skills and some unique skills. However after reading the title he just got for reaching -1000 HP he stared at the unique skill that came with it.

Sure it was special, but it felt like a moldy penny. However he still chose to read the description of the unique skill to find out what it did. "Precious life, it is something you no longer have. As the saying goes fear the reaper. Now you are a reaper, take a life and earn a life."

Alistar frowned, the system had to be fucking with him. However truthfully he had no idea the real forces behind the system nor how true some of the descriptions could be.

However as he reread it he put two and two together and got an answer most would never reach. For the first time he ever thought about it, he turned a blade towards himself. A rusty kitchen knife that was on its last legs. A Broad Grin warped his already ghastly face. Using the skill Soul Strike he could attack ghost and other ghosts and ghost-like beings. However he was an Unbound Human Soul. So he stabbed himself, before he died though he used two more skills in tandem.

Two skills that worked perfectly together for his current situation. The first was the skill that mocked him Escape Death, While the Other... Well it was the obvious new skill Precious Life.