Congratulations. You are now Level 31.

…

You are now Level 33. You have fifteen unused stat points.

Several painstaking and slow hours later, Tyler had to admit, at least to himself, that the whole grinding thing was starting to get on his nerves. Sure the experience and gains were nice but…there was just no thrill. Even when he had pushed himself in melee range and started whacking the Sporians with his staff while throwing out punches. At least he got skill upgrades if his system notifications were anything to go by.

Unarmed Combat is Level 15

…

Unarmed Combat is Level 23

Staff FIghting is Level 3

…

Staff Fighting is Level 14

Mana Manipulation is Level 16

…

Mana Manipulation is Level 22

Either way, this felt more like a job than an enjoyable way to spend his early morning hours. At least he thought it was morning. Man, being underground really sucked. He would like to see the sun sometime soon, but he wasn't sure on how to even reach the surface. Activating his Trait, [Void Sight], Tyler scanned the area. Nothing but Sporians as far as he could sense. At least he had read upon the book that Fizzlespark had given him before he left the village. It was an interesting read, a book about beginning the shaping of one's Soulspace.

Apparently you could draw materials into it with mana and then, during meditation you could use those materials to shape the liminal space that housed your soul. He had found some mud that gave off a shadowy feeling and tried it out, resulting in a literal ton of dark material sloppy floating in his Soulspace near where the representations of his Cards and Skills were. He'd have to figure out what to do with it later. Maybe build a house of mud bricks? He liked building brown bricks with M–Heh. He was distracting himself again. Dammit.

As he was pondering, something caught his eye. There seemed to be a large collection of energy that the Sporian were avoiding. A quick check of his surroundings told him that it was vaguely to the west. Were this a video game, it would have also had a rather large red dot on a minimap he imagined, but no such luck for him. This WAS a real world after all. He was a bit leery of getting closer, but then again he was overleveled for this area and had been killing monsters like they were nothing. So whatever was there shouldn't be too difficult, right?

With his mind set and resolve firmed, Tyler headed off towards the source, curious but wary of anything that would try and attack him. It only paid to be cautious after all.

Another few hours passed, with Tyler killing and walking like it was a mundane chore, but eventually he found the source of the energy. In what he assumed was the middle of the Fungal Forest was a large stone obelisk, about ten feet high and five wide, that glowed with a deep cobalt light. Just looking at it gave him a sense of foreboding. Entranced as he was by the magical sight that it was only thanks to Void Sight being active that he just managed to dodge the swipe of an enemy. Pivoting, Tyler turned to look at the creature that had attacked him.

It looked like a twenty-foot behemoth made from moss and dark clay, a single blue eye at the center of its head, which stood atop a long scraggly neck. Like its neck, the limbs on the body were also much too long but it was much faster than the Sporians it would seem. Tyler decided to use [Analyze] on it to get a read of what it was. In all honesty, the thing looked like someone's grandpa wearing a loincloth. But much bigger and where there would have been skin instead there was a mass of clay and greenery. Hell, it even had shaggy brown leaves that made up its 'hair'.

Name: Marshland Stalkweed

Level 40

Lore: Like the Sporians, Stalkweeds are generally found in areas of dense Nature and Dark-attuned mana. Unlike Sporians however, they only appear when the mana has been tainted by Abyssal energies. Faster and stronger than their cousins, Stalkweeds emit a constant aura of mist that obscures them from view from normal eyes.

So he had stumbled onto something related to the Abyss then. That meant there must be demonic energies about if he recalled the term. How fun.

Tyler had to admit the thing was impressive for managing to reach Level 40 in this place, even though he wasn't sure if that was normal for it or not. The large creature was a bit dense, but it was still a level 40 monster and seven levels above himself. Thankfully with his Void Sight activated, it seemed like the obscuring mist had no effect on him. Immediately, Tyler retaliated. There was no way he could run even if he wanted to, and being stuck in a place filled with mushrooms just pissed him off. With a hand raised, he called out in quick succession."

"Grasping Tentacles, Wither, Geyser!"

Three spells hit the creature who had just turned around to fully face him. Purple appendages clung to its legs, restricting his movement while corrosive energy attacked its defenses before a blast of water erupted underneath the Stalkweed, sending it stumbling backwards. It wasn't enough to finish it off however, that would have been too easy. Instead, the thing got its footing back relatively easy and punched out at Tyler. With no time to block, he took the full force of the blow, seeing roughly a fifth of his health bottom out from that single attack. The impact sent him flying a good distance away, his back scraping painfully against a nearby mushroom's cap, making him lose another sliver of his HP.

"Just great, Tyler. You just had to pick a fight with an overleveled monster. They're gonna write stories about you." He grumbled to himself as he got to his feet.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Tapping into his Dao, Tyler stepped onto the pool of water that surrounded the obelisk, creating platforms of ice that disappeared as soon as he jumped off of them. This was a technique he had figured out a few hours ago. He could empower anything he did with his Dao and since his was of Chill, he could just barely freeze water enough to let him, in essence, waterwalk. It was a neat trick.In this case, it allowed him to get some distance since the Stalkweed didn't seem to want to cross the body of water.

Instead it did something arguably much worse. It grabbed a large boulder and hurled it at Tyler with surprising speed and force. Thankfully he was focused enough on the creature's movements, and saw the projectile coming. Quickly spreading out his Dao he created a second platform and jumped up onto the new surface he had just formed. With as much dexterity as he could manage, Tyler landed as the rock sailed past him.

Dodge is Level 18.

He needed to bait this monster into attacking him, so he pulled deep on himself. He wasn't used to using his Dao in such a manner, he had just gotten it after all. But thinking back on his vision gave him just enough insight. With a motion of his arms , Tyler froze a large section of the uppermost part of the water in front of him, a thin wave of frost flowing down and towards the Stalkweed, which was going for another boulder. This in turn caused the moisture in the air to cool rapidly, as well as inflict a crippling cold onto the monster. Feeling this effect, the creature roared angrily and rushed forward towards the icy water, thinking the ice was thick enough to walk on.

The sound of the thing's roar shook the entire area around Tyler, some rocks even justling from a nearby outcrop. The creature placed a foot onto the thin ice and took a step forward. Once both of its feet were on the ice, Tyler let go of his control of his Dao. This in turn caused the ice to fall away and the Stalkweed to plummet into the water. The creature thrashed but thankfully appeared to be unable to swim. This gave Tyler all the time he needed to blast the creature with enough Dao-infused energy via [Mind Sear] to stun it. With the creature on its last legs, it finally managed to get to shore. Only to meet the metal of Tyler's staff crashing into its eye with a sickening popping sound, putting it out of its misery.

You have killed a Marshland Stalkweed.

Bonus experience is awarded for killing an enemy above your level.

Congratulations, you are now Level 34. You have 20 unused Stat Points.

Looking over his status, Tyler decided to add all 20 of his points into Constitution, bringing it to 90 and bumping his max health to 1585. His numbers just kept going up, huh? Regardless, the feeling of the system energy was always nice. At least when he wasn't power leveled and felt bloated. Oh, and the skill gains. It was about damn time.

Combat Casting is Level 8

…

Combat Casting is Level 10

Congratulations. Your Spell Card, Mind Sear has reached Level 3.

Geyser, Wither, and Grasping Tentacles are now Level 2. Effects and costs increased.

Cumulative Bonus: +15 to INT, +10 to CHA

Out of the corner of his eyes, Tyler spotted two things on the corpse of the Stalkweed as its essence streamed into his mouth thanks to his class ability.

The first item was a Card, which Tyler grabbed and looked at it.

[Obscuring Mist]

Level 1

Type: Spell Card/Aura

Rarity: Uncommon

Description: Surround yourself with a cloud of mist that allows you to obscure your actions from normal eyesight. While enshrouded, you move faster and water-attuned spells cost less. Effectiveness increases per level of this skill and your Wisdom.

Reservation: 25% of Mana

That was new. If he was reading the card correctly, that meant it was a permanent effect so long as he reserved his mana pool. Which given its current standing of 2394 meant he would reserve 599 mana. It looked like a lot by raw numbers but his mana was his highest resource so far. Adding the Card to his Catalog, he activated the ability. Immediately, he felt his body become lighter and a misty energy enveloped his hands and feet while a majority of the energy seemed to form a shroud around the rest of his body. Thankfully, he could see through the energy even without Void Sight activated.

The second item though was much more ominous in feeling. It was a rock of some kind with several red cracks along its surface that pulsed eerily with red light.

[Impure Demonic Core]

Type: Monster Core

Rarity: Rare

Description: The core of a monster effused with demonic energies by a Demonologist. It is a highly dangerous object. It is a source of the purest demonic essence in the known world, capable of corrupting the very souls of mortals if exposed to it. However, if tempered, this essence may be purified, creating a much safer, yet equally powerful object.

So. What. Was he supposed to eat this? Throw it in his Soulspace? He really wasn't sure. It would probably be a bad idea to keep it in his bag, given the description. Either way,the fact that such a thing existed could only mean one thing. There was a demonologist inside this forest. And if Tyler’s knowledge was accurate, then that definitely wasn’t a good thing. Part of Tyler debated just leaving the forest and getting away from the accursed mushrooms. But the better part of him realized that he couldn’t just let demonic shit take place. He could at least scout out what the hell was happening.

He picked up the dominic item using his mana, being careful not to fully touch the thing and just making it float beside him as he sat down to meditate and recover. His trait allowed him to sense mana signatures, amongst other things. Could he perhaps use it somehow to track the source of this item? No, his Trait was only a small sphere. But perhaps he could do something similar with Mana Manipulation? Perhaps echolocation of some kind? It was worth a try. Everything had mana after all.

Tyler stared at the orb he held aloft and tried to really get a feel for how it felt. It was dark. Not like Void or Darkness, but it being in his presence just gave off a feeling of wrongness. Like how some know that death is coming for them, or something just…not right had happened in a place. It was faint, but it was there. Next Tyler started to, for lack of a better word, ping the orb with his mana, willing it to work as he intended. There was a barrier there, he could feel it stretch the more he played around with the energy. But eventually it gave way. The next time he pinged the orb, reverberations shot off of it, and Tyler traced the energy far into the distance, towards the underground mountains that the Fungal Forest bordered.

Mana Manipulation is Level 23.

…

Mana Manipulation is Level 25. Beginner Tier.

You gain: +15 INT, +20 WILL, +10 DEX

Huh, so it seemed Skills had their own tier system built into them and they gave bonuses when you reached the mark? Looking at his stats, Tyler grinned and stood up. He had a few skills nearing the 25 mark by now. And numbers going up was always a good sign, right? Either way, he had a goal. Investigate this demonic energy and if possible, destroy it. No good could come of demons.