Rain was so immersed in trying to glean more insights that he never felt the passage of time.
The sun was already sinking beyond the horizon, the last of its orange rays casting long shadows against the towering oaks of the jungle.
He was so desperate to succeed that he didn't stop when his stomach grumbled--- not even when his mental energy was drained to its last trickle.
The beating he had received served as a fundamental reminder and motivator to get a movement skill, ASAP.
He was determined never to let something like that happen again--- it takes only one mistake, one oversight, to get killed, or worse, get captured.
And so, he put his half-baked ideas and insight into action.
To hell with everything else--- either he got it right there and then or collapsed trying.
The instinctual unrest--- the one his intuition kept blaring into his mind--- did little to dampen his spirits.
When it came to executing the idea, he paused, replaying it over and committing it to memory.
His logic deemed that if he could literally wrap shadows, then moving through them would not be an issue.
And he was correct… to some extent.
He gave the shadow before him one last look-- the shadow of the oak tree--- and triggered his [basic shadow manipulation], aiming to rip the shadows apart and sink in.
On his attempt, the shadow felt like a membrane, a thin veil separating the material realm from whatever lay beneath.
One more prod, and the thin membrane gave way--- he plunged as if into a pool, all light flickering and fading away.
Not a pool of water, but rather of mud or wet concrete-- judging from how viscous and restraining it was against any motion.
Feeling cautious but determined, he took a step forward, then another, then another.
Yet the deeper he went, the more viscous the pool became, strange colors flickering at the edge of his vision.
The overwhelming feeling of suffocation drowned him, each tick of a second stretching into eternity.
He gasped, choking on the viscous goo.
Within the next span of what felt like ages, his lungs seemed to fuse together yet tear apart at the same time.
His heart thrummed. A panicked shriek tore from his throat---only to emerge as a muffled gurgle.
He screamed and thrashed, trying to swim away, but to no avail.
Logic dictated that he retreat, yet even turning felt as if thousands of tons were stacked upon his shoulders.
There was no retreat.
And so, he pushed toward the edge of the pool, his energy gettimg sapped by the second.
Unrelenting, he pushed until no further advance was possible---a thick membrane barred his path.
He shoved against the membrane--- no response.
He punched, only for the membranous wall to ripple, then settle into unnerving stillness.
His ears began to ring under the blanket of silence.
He screamed again, only to choke and gurgle.
*This is not how I perish!*
He burst forward in a deranged charge--- a swiping claw arc tearing through the membrane.
He paled in terror.
The reprieve he was desperately craving was nowhere to be found.
Nothing but a suffocating, cold expanse of nothingness awaited him.
He slipped into a debilitating and disorienting state of free fall, crashing through the vast realm of suffocation and silence.
The void around him seemed to thin.
The strange colors that once flickered at the edge of his vision began fading into pale gray, and even that gray felt like it was stretching apart, as though reality itself was unraveling.
His heart hammered. The inevitability of his situation settled over him as his vision dissolved into a pale, shifting haze.
"No!" a muffled scream tore through his throat.
His limbs jerked and thrashed in frantic motion, desperately searching for something to cling to.
Yet there was nothing to grasp
The disorientation tore through his mind, sending him into a twirling, suffocating spin.
The suffocation went on for ages, his body refusing to obey his commands.
A profound sense of loss settled deep within his core--- as if an essential piece of himself had been torn away.
His mind teetered on the edge of collapse, violently pulled apart, culminating into a slow and painful tug toward his doom.
All sense of perception slipped just beyond his reach, as if he could grasp it yet pitifully fell short.
*This is it, Rain.*
He resigned, leaving his body and sense of self at the mercy of fate.
*You are dying a free man*.
A smile wormed into his swollen lips--- only to contort into a wrathful snarl when he thought of the torment inflicted by his captors.
To let them get away scot free?
*No. They must all pay!*
A wave of wrath surged through him--- his body crying out for one last chance.
Something snapped. The void itself seemed to fracture, propelling him forward across the realm of silence.
His figure barreled through the opening, thrusting him back into the material plane.
He crashed onto solid ground, gasping and retching.
The suffocating, disorienting feeling lingered faintly, but he could breathe again.
His figure curled into a ball, limbs twitching and trembling---the torment still vivid, yet fading.
An anguished wail escaped his mouth. Tears ran freely down his visage.
Only the floating notification kept him sane, preventing him from diving deeper into the rabbit hole of torment and anguish.
And then… he felt it---- the familiar chime rang through his consciousness, simple and undeniable:
[Ding! Skill learnt: Shadow Vault]
His vision streaks and locks onto the floating notification, urging it open.
[Shadow vault]
[Tread through the realm of shadows, disappear and reappear from shadows within sight or range. Efficiency scales with skill mastery]
He takes a while to rest up and shrug off the disorientation still lingering at the back of his mind.
An hour passes, only then did he feel like he was recovered enough to give it another trial.
He moves, prodding his arcana--- shadows beneath him stirred, alive in a way they hadn't before.
Not fully obedient, not yet under his complete command---but responsive.
Tentatively, he reached toward them, testing the connection.
He thought of moving, of bridging one place to another.
He willed himself toward a distant patch of shadow across the clearing--- and for a heartbeat, it seemed to respond, only for him to cower at the last moment.
He tried again, heart pounding, muscles still trembling from the membrane's suffocating embrace--- a flicker of possibility sparked within his chest.
The shadows quivered, bending, swallowing him whole and sending his figure shuttling through the realm of shadows.
His body landed roughly, unsteady, a harsh reminder that the skill was new, raw, and unrefined.
A gasp of exhilaration mixed with exhaustion escaped him.
The potential was there--- the leap, the sudden displacement from one shadow to another--- but it would take time, patience, and practice to truly harness it to its fullest potential.
Rain sank back against the earth, panting--- His body screamed for rest, but his mind churned, alive with a glimmer of what was possible.
The exhilaration surged, the thrill of freedom and power coursing through him.
And in that moment, the reward for his suffering arrived.