Cooking is Level 8
…
Cooking is Level 11
A painstaking 30 minutes later and covered in bruises, Tyler found himself sitting down and eating half-burnt Bunicorn meat with several much too charred pieces tossed to the side. He had to be honest, it did taste pretty good. A bit like steak really, if a bit burnt. But while the food was good there were more interesting things to look at. Namely his skill increases from the bout.
Staff Fighting is Level 15
…
Staff Fighting is Level 21
Combat Casting is Level 11
…
Combat Casting is Level 14
Dodge is Level 26
Had had, admittedly, dragged the fight on longer than he should have but he was REALLY lacking in skill levels. So he had pretty much led the poor thing into a battle of attrition with it giving out in the end due to the many bruises and card abilities Tyler had used against it. Still, the fact that the damn thing had managed to survive that long was a testament to its strength.
There was another thing that caught Tyler’s attention though. While it had not dropped a card, sadly, it did seem to have actual loot. A small blue crystal the size of a child’s fist had dropped when the Bunicorn expired. And immediately Tyler had used Analyze on it.
Mana Core (E)
Type: Monster Core
Rarity: Uncommon
Description: Formed from the experience and energy of a dying, low level monster.
This core has many uses in a variety of professions and can recharge enchanted gear.
It can also be crushed to directly gain the experience contained within.
Warning, consuming a core directly can have adverse effects depending on the beast that dropped it.
Tyler nodded to himself and shoved the core into his backpack, which tinked lightly against the Impure Demonic Core he still had in there. He really needed to find out what to do with it. But that was a problem for future Tyler. Maybe he could sell it and any cores he got from the monsters here? Food for thought.
For the moment, he just had to focus on progressing. Maybe waiting for the Drow to arrive would lighten his mood. While he liked Agha and the Duergar there was only so much he could do in the vicinity. While he had been in this new world he had come to a conclusion at some point. He liked fighting. The thrill, the adrenaline, the rush of experience when he defeated something. But these monsters just…they sucked in his honest opinion. But while that was true it was a safe way to level up.
He was sure he could find a high level monster if he looked around, and it would give him a good fight. But he had no doubts that such a way of thinking was a quick way to die. He didn’t know what awaited for one after death here, but he still liked living. And it’s not like his class or anything in his arsenal would let him go toe to toe with enemies higher than ten levels above him or more. He wasn’t some chosen one or whatever that had a unique bloodline or overpowered skills. He was just a guy with a few neat tricks.
With his poorly cooked Bunicorn finished, Tyler stood up and stretched. It was time to get back to killing bunnies, he assumed.
----------------------------------------
Agha walked down the streets of the town with the Netherling girl by her side, the shy girl clinging to her. She couldn’t blame the lass, her parents were dead and she was in a town full of strangers. The only good thing was she seemed to like Agha and had latched onto Tyler since he had saved her from the same fate as her mother and father.
Thinking of the man, Agha hummed in thought. Ever since that tall, if admittedly good in bed, dumbass had arrived things have been getting stranger and stranger. News of the Church spreading its influence far faster than should be possible up on the surface, this demonic stuff in the Underdark, and hell, the man being a Voidborn as well. All the strange things she had really only assumed were things for storybooks. Her life before he came into it had been dull and monotonous. Now though? Well at least things were getting spicy. She wondered if it was due to him being a Transmigrator?
Transmigrators were a rare sight, most of which didn’t really make it to Level 20 if the stories were to be told. Something about a wrong mindset and slipping up, or pissing off a noble in human lands and ending up dead. Those that did rise to power however, always ushered in a massive change for the world. She supposed that only made sense. It took a lot of divine power to pull a soul from another plane of existence after all.
Her musings were interrupted when she finally noticed she had gotten to her cousin’s hovel. Like the majority of buildings in the town, it was cute from the same dreary, blue-gray stone and only the symbol of a crystal ball and scent of herbs let her know she was in the right place.
“Alright lass, let’s get ye inside. No need tae be afraid, I trust me cousin with me own hammer.” Agha said to Kelsie, who looked up at her.
Then, raising her hand to the door, she knocked. She hoped the damned shut-in was awake this time.
----------------------------------------
Tyler stood breathing in what could only be called the site of a massacre. Several bodies of Bunicorns lay scattered and broken, along with some of the remains of the rock-like creatures he had also taken out. The golems, or as the system called them Lesser Plains Elementals, were a much harder opponent to take down. Mostly because his staff did jack all to damage them and forced Tyler to spam spells to slowly whittle them down.
Still, looking over his gains in the system prompts for this excursion, he was rather happy with what he had accomplished so far.
Congratulations, you are now Level 35.
…
Congratulations, you are now Level 37. You have fifteen free stat points.
Staff Fighting is Level 22
…
Staff Fighting is Level 25. Beginner Tier.
You gain: +5 INT, +10 STR, +15 DEX
Combat Casting is Level 15
…
Combat Casting is Level 23
Dodge is Level 27
…
Dodge is Level 29
Geyser, Wither, and Grasping Tentacles are now Level 3. Effects and costs increased.
All in all it was a good bout even if it lasted several hours and he had many cuts and scrapes. The majority of his wounds, thankfully, had healed over thanks time and his high Constitution. He would probably need to get his robes cleaned and repaired along with his staff, which was showing some wear and tear thanks to bashing in the elementals. Now he really just needed another level to reach the pinnacle of Low Copper.
Speaking of gains he really hated looking at his whole status screen as it was rather radius but he supposed he should look at it in full. Just to memorize things for his own sake. But he added his 15 points into Strength right before he opened the large screen to stare at it.
Name
Tyler Orchardson
Race
Voidborn (E) / Transmigrator
Class
Eldritch Scion
Level
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
37
Health (HP)
1950
Mana (MP)
3042
Stamina (SP)
1784
Primary Attributes
Strength (STR)
90
Dexterity (DEX)
125
Constitution (CON
100
Wisdom (WIS)
70
Intelligence (INT)
159
Charisma (CHA)
50
Secondary Attributes
Endurance
91
Luck
15
Perception
114
Will
79
Skills
Analyze (5)
Dodge (29)
Staff Fighting (25)
Combat Casting (23)
Mana Manipulation (30)
Runic Lore (9)
Deception (2)
Unarmed Combat (25)
Meditation (19)
Runesmithing (13)
Abilities/Catalog
Grasping Tentacles
3
Wither
3
Mind Sear
3
Geyser
3
Obscuring Mist
1
Daos
[Dao Shard of Chill (Apprentice)]
Traits
Void Sight
All in all, his stats were looking good, if he said so himself. Though he was a bit lacking in Charisma all things considered. But really, did he actually NEED that stat. He had no idea what it was used for, aside from something to do with summons and merchant prices but he couldn’t be bothered. Plus the fact that it seemed to do with mind fuckery was just a big turn off for him. Call him a wimp if you will, but anything that messed with heads was a no go, he had enough of that shit back when he was dating on Earth.
Returning his attention to his spoils he was at least pleasantly surprised to receive not one but TWO skill cards from the massacre.
[Photosynthesis]
Level 1
Type: Spell Card
Rarity: Common
Description: Passively absorb sunlight to regenerate resources. After spending an hour of using this skill, gain a +10% bonus to all nature affinity magic for 8 hours. Moving cancels this effect.
Resources gained and mana cost increases and decreases based on Constitution respectively.
Cost: 5 Mana per minute.
Cast Time: Instant
[Speed Rush]
Level 1
Type: Spell Card
Rarity: Common
Description: Increases your movement, attack, and cast speed for 10 seconds. Amount of speed gained scales moderately with Dexterity.
Cost: 150 Mana.
Cast Time: Instant
While the first card was okay, it wasn’t the best. It wasn’t like he had any nature type abilities anyway. Hell it was kind of an antithesis to the whole “cold and shadow” thing he sorta got going on. Still, if he combined it with Meditation it would at least get him up into fighting shape much faster, so that was a nice bonus. He would have preferred something like the smashing attacking, that way he’d have an actual single target ability that wasn’t a fucking damage over time effect. Maybe once he reached Bronze Tier he could make up something like that himself. He was looking forward to using magic more directly without the whole card system, Either way, he turned his thoughts to the next card.
This one was an overall buff and not quite as exciting. Still the fact that it increased the speed of spells, attacks and movement speed was good. An overall boost to all his necessary aspects. Combined with [Obscuring Mist] would make him move at such a speed he doubted most would be able to see him act, though for that he needed higher Dexterity than he had most likely. Still, thoughts for the future.
With nothing better to do, Tyler decided to finally do some actual work. Namely, Runesmithing. He had an idea in his head that had been brewing for a bit. If he needed to supplement his kit with single target damage, why not use runes to do the job? His first idea was making some kind of stake of sorts, which would impale an enemy and require be pumped mana into. The rune would then activate its effect. He wanted to put something like an explosive rune on the stake for a good bit of burst damage. Digging into his backpack, which he had discarded previously so as to not damage anything during a fight, he took out several books and his Runesmithing equipment, the latter of which contained a hammer and a chisel, a bunch of crushed gems, and a small foldable table.
Lastly, he took the remains of the plains elementals he had taken on to use as a base. Waste not, want not, right? Their stone bodies would serve as adequate material for his work. With everything set up around him and no monsters in sight, Tyler got to work. It was time to get some professioning done.
Firstly, he grabbed the largest pieces of the elementals and began chipping away at them with his the chisel to form them into crude spikes with a large top for the actual rune to be placed. A bit like an oversized nail. This was rather tedious work, because even with the enchanted set of working tools Fizzlespark had given him, the damn bodies were tough. It took at least a couple of hours to get them to the right size, roughly ten inches long with a pointed tip and a fist width top. It was crude but it would have to do.
Next, he looked through one of the books containing runes that his teacher had given him. The problem with runes, it would seem, is that there was nothing concrete like “explode”, which required him to fuse multiple runes together and link them. So skimming through the book he found four that should work for his plan.
The first was a force rune. This would create a kinetic blast emanating from the rune when supplied with mana. Simple enough. The next was a simple fire rune, which would expel a ball of flame under similar conditions. Next was what was called a pooling rune, which would hold mana and allow him to set the amount of mana needed for therunes to actually activate. That way they wouldn’t go off if someone put a single point of energy into it. THe final was a timer rune, which could be set so that when the whole “system” was filled it would detonate after a certain amount of time and give him time to get away from the blast. It would also double as a way to turn the stakes into grenades if need be.
“Let’s see…if the pool of mana contained exceeds 250, then activate fire and rune after…let’s say three seconds…” Tyler mumbled to himself.
It was a lot like simple coding, something he had done as a young adult back on Earth. Getting into this mindset, it was easy to make the rune itself, though he almost ran out of space for all four runes on the stopper of the stake even if it was a fist’s width. It took several tries and he went through at least three elementals and over a pound of crushed gem dust before he finally managed a success. And after that it was like he was a machine, making about 25 of the items.
Runic Lore is Level 10
…
Runic Lore is Level 21
Runesmithing is Level 14
…
Runesmithing is Level 25. Beginner Tier.
You gain: +35 INT, +15 CHA, +10 CON
You have reached Level 25 in a Profession Skill. Would you like to allocate this as a profession?
Allocated Professions move up to below your class on your screen and gain increased experience.
Note: Once allocated, you can never unallocate this Profession, but it can be evolved, much like your class and race upon reaching every 50 level Milestone. Can you reach this far in your path? Only time will tell.
Y/N
Tyler looked at the system notifications and wiped some sweat from his brow. Huh, that was new, no one had told him this would happen. Though he guessed it was only fair since he had never asked and it was probably common knowledge to most adults. He gave it some thought before he shrugged. May as well, especially if these worked. If things came to worst he’d just evolve it into something else. Mentally accepting yes, he shivered as the System Energy rang like a bell in his soul before leaving as quickly as it came.
Turning his attention to the items, he gave them a good look with [Analyze].
[Runic Stake of Exploding]
Type: Timed Rune
Rarity: Rare
Description: A rare rune using a timer, logic and booleans that will, when activated, explode with fire and kinetic energy once fully armed with the required amount of mana after three seconds. It’s a stake, and a grenade! Probably very dangerous against vampires. Just don’t sell these to kids. Or do! That might be fun.
Cost Per Use: 250 to arm.
System snark aside, Tyler was proud of himself, and it only took what…a few hours? He really needed a watch or something but that was a problem for future Tyler. With his new stakes created, all he had to do was test them. He supposed it was time to head further into the plains. At the very least he might find a good fight and some experience. What’s the worst that could happen?