It was roughly a few hours, give or take before Tyler eventually found what he was looking for in the plains. In that time he had managed to avoid most of the annoying creatures that he had gotten tired of fighting. The elementals of rock and stone and covered in moss were the most annoying to deal with, as his staff didn’t very well leave much of a crack in the creatures. At least against the Bunicorns, the staff did something. He’d need to eventually fix his build, which was what he was calling his set of cards and skills in his head.

Despite his lack of overall power compared to those he had seen, Tyler pushed onwards. The only way to advance further down his path was via combat, stress, and innovation. So that was why he stood in a rather unassuming clearing amidst a crop of trees in the plains. Or rather it would be unassuming, were it not for the giant creature that stood before him. ANd the thing WAS massive, even compared to the ten foot elementals.

The creature resembled the Bunicorns but had to be at least twenty feet tall. It was rabbit in shape and had a large wicked horn made of some white crystalline substance upon its brow. If that was all, it might have just been passed as a large Bunicorn. But besides that, the entire thing was covered head to toe in what could only be called rock armor. The plates of stone seemed to grow out of the thing’s body, with vines interlacing in a makeshift set of armor. All in all the creature was a veritable tank.

So naturally, Tyler used Analyze and got the info he needed as well as the typical snark. He really didn;t know why the System seemed to translate his skill into comments like that, though he knew that it was a reflection of his own inner personality. Self-deprecation, woo.

Name: Earthen Bunicorn

Level: 45 Elite

Lore: A dangerous variant of the Bunicorn menace. Now this is one creature that you need a lot of power to defeat, especially at your level of power. This variant is created when a Bunicorn reaches True Copper tier after absorbing a vast amount of earth-attuned mana via treasures, environment, or other factors. They are slow but heavily armored and pack quite the punch. Be wary of the quartz horn upon its brow, as the mana inside of it can make most magical and mundane defenses work at half their effectiveness.

So, that was great. It was basically a miniature boss version of the Bunicorn crossed with the elementals in the plains. It was also his first time seeing a true Elite creature. Which likely meant it did a lot of damage, or if not that, then had a ton of health. Still, with his new runic stakes and his ability to move much faster than the beast, it should be viable to beat it in his mind. With that set, he walked into the clearing and gout ready to fight.

First, Tyler made sure to look around and saw that, thankfully, there were no other creatures around. So nothing would come to assist the creature when he engaged it. That was good. Next, he checked his three resource pools and made sure that they were topped off. Finally, Tyler did some stretches while going over his skills in his head. It was good to have some sort of plan. Though he knew from prior experience both here in Aurelia and on Earth, that no plan survives contact with the enemy. Looking at the large Bunicorn, he began his start.

First, he started by casting Grasping Tentacles, conjuring a small portal to some otherworldly dimension, or that’s what it looked like. As always, the skill summoned long purple tentacles that looked like octopus limbs, sans the suckers, that wrapped around the beast. Immediately the rabbit-like creature let out a loud high pitched screech as it was slowed, the purple tendrils clasping onto the back half of it.

Next, Tyler cast Wither, only to get a new notification. One he hadn’t expected.

Effect of WIther Resisted. Better luck next time.

That was the first time he had seen anything resist one of his spells. Was this because it was an elite? He didn’t know and he was forced out of his idle thoughts when the elite creature got far enough away from the tentacles and bull-rushed him with speed that seemed far too fast for its size. Tyler just barely had time to dodge out of the way of the rampaging rocky beast and even then he still lost a good ten percent of his HP with that glancing blow.

The result was his body spinning in place and he was lucky he had over a hundred points in Dexterity, as he managed to spin on his hands and flip over to regain his balance, albeit with a sharp pain in his side. Luckily he had managed to avoid the elite’s horn so he was just a little bit bruised from getting hit. Admonishing himself in his head, he went through his list of skills and abilities.

With a cast of Geyser, he briefly stunned the elite and thought over his plan. If this thing was resistant to his spells, he’d have to get up close and personal.

Activating Speed Rush for the first time, he felt the world slow to a crawl as his muscles burned. Wasting no time, he darted forward. Thankfully his perception of time was warped for the next ten seconds, and in less than one, he was in front of the creature. Looking for an opening to strike, he couldn’t find one. He needed at least several holes to shove the Runic Stakes into, so he did the only thing that he could think of. Forcing mana into his hands without casting spells, he punched at the armor of the beast with as much as his ninety points in Strength would allow. One, two, three. It took three strikes, which left his hands sore, to open a wide enough gap and he quickly pulled out two stakes. Infusing his mana into them, he shoved the devices into the crack he had made in the armor and ran away.

Just in time too, as Speed Rush had run out of juice and the perception of Tyler’s world returned to normal. Just a couple of seconds later, right as the elite was turning around to charge him once again, its side exploded with more force than Tyler had thought his creation had contained. Spatters of rocky exoskeleton and blood spew from the site of impact, scattering the ground for a good foot and a half with the stuff. Unfortunately for Tyler, this did not kill the Bunicorn. Instead, it seemed to only enrage it.

“Well Shit.”

With another charge, the monster ran at him, aiming its horn right where it saw Tyler. Thankfully it seemed that the explosion had weakened the creature somewhat, as it was moving at a slightly slower pace. Slow enough for Tyler to dodge freely out of the way and kick off of its rocky body with all the grace of an olympic athlete. The resulting action caused the Bunicorn to slam into the tree that Tyler had been behind, lodging itself in the wood of the large trunk.

With no time to waste, Tyler rushed forward and started to punch and kick at the stuck beast, but not before casting several spells at it now that he had time to cast. He was tempted to use his staff as a blunt weapon but thought better of it. The metallic rod seemed to act more as a casting focus and defense tool than something to actually use in physical combat. Each time he broke a piece of the armor off to reveal mottled flesh beneath, he kept a mental record of the spot for later. Soon enough though, the large beast managed to pry itself out of the tree, but not before Tyler managed to charge four of his stakes and shove them into the beast.

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Backpedaling and doing what amounted to a clumsy flip, Tyler got just out of the blast range of the next volley of explosive stakes.The following shower of rocky armor and viscera pelted him even as he tried to dodge them the best he could. When the debris was settled, Tyler looked at the beast. It was limping and weak. Had it not tried to kill him before, and had it not been a giant rock covered monster rabbit, he might have felt sorry for the beast. As it was though, it was just a monster.

Panting a bit from the exertion, Tyler walked forward, watching as the elite seemed to gaze at him. Then, without further ado, he primed two stakes in each hand and jabbed them into the beast’s eyes. One, two, three. That was how long it took for his first elite to die. Hiding behind a tree so as to not get hit with even more gore and stone, Tyler watched as the rocky stakes beeped three times before exploding in a blinding flash of brilliant cyan light, taking the head of the creature with it. Somehow, the horn on the monster’s head survived and it spun in the air before landing onto the dirt some distance away.

With the beast now dead, he could now check out his notifications.

You have defeated Earthen Bunicorn.

Bonus experience awarded for defeating an enemy above you level.

Congratulations, you are now Level 38. You have five free stat points.

Unarmed Combat is Level 26

Combat Casting is Level 24

Combat Casting is Level 25. Beginner Tier.

You gain: +30 INT, +15 WIS, +10 STR

Another skill to Beginner Tier it seemed, and he was at the final point between Low Copper and High Copper. While he knew it wasn’t a real tier up, it was still nice to achieve a half-step. He needed to see Agha about that Body Elixir. For now, he needed to replenish the small bit of HP he had lost as well as his mana pool, which was sitting at roughly 30% after the fight. Looking around, Tyler saw a rather nice looking tree with rich mahogany-colored bark and deep green leaves. So he sat under it and began meditating to recover. Before closing his eyes, Tyler dumped his free points into Charisma, because it was looking rather low compared to everything else.

Meditation is Level 20

…

Meditation is Level 25

Alert. Synergy detected between:

Combat Casting

Mana Manipulation

Staff Fighting

Dodge

Unarmed Combat

Meditation

Would you like to enter your Soulscape and attempt to merge these skills? Warning, failing to properly merge skills may result in catastrophic damage to your soul.

Y/N

Tyler opened his eyes and stared at the system message before him. He sighed internally. He really needed to get a handle on all the intricacies of the System. Maybe he should pick up a book? He could always bother Agha or her father but well, he wasn’t exactly good at asking questions. Never had been really. Deciding to just wing it, he mentally accepted yes as he felt his consciousness fade.

Once again, Tyler found himself in his Soulspace. And the more he looked around at it, the more disorganized it looked. He was practically standing on a dark gray platform in a formless void below the representation of his core, which hummed and spun softly above him as it pulsed with dark blue and black energy that was almost liquid-like to the naked eye. Thin, almost invisible threads of mana connected his contained gyroscope of a core to each of his skills and cards. His skills were represented by fractal symbols of runes that vaguely looked like that they represented.

Deciding to experiment with the visual state of his Soulscape, he used some earth, which he had deposited here previously, to form a loose sort of ground around the center upon which he stood. He had roughly enough to make a rough square about thirty feet wide in each direction. Next, he focused on his skills and turned them into small miniature planets that he moved near his spinning core, where they obeyed his will and started orbiting around the energy like it was a star. The cards were a different matter, so he just moved them to act as sort of barriers to contain any wayward skills, not that they would suddenly disappear.

Six of the newly formed visualizations of his skills pulsed in rhythm with each other and Tyler flew up towards them. It was his mind after all, so why shouldn’t he be able to fly? Looking at them he knew on instinct that they were the skills he could merge them. With a wave of his hand, he pulled the six skills towards him and thought. How exactly should he do this? He had no idea how, so he figured he’d just push them together.

The closer they got to each other, the harder it was to keep them close. Like magnets with similar poles, it was difficult to push the skills together all at once and even here in his Soulscape, Tyler could feel the effort as the pseudo-world around him shook the more he moved forwards with his goal. Still he did not let them get the best of him. Pushing with all his might and willpower, he squeezed the six spheres together. Once he was sure they would all more or less occupy the same relative space, he clasped the new orb in his hands and focused, even as blood began to drip from his nose in the outside world.

He kept pushing his will into it, along with his mana. Fuse, fuse, fuse. He wasn't sure exactly what the backlash would be for failing to merge his skills, but given the system had told him it could cause soul damage? Well he wasn’t too keen on finding out. Eventually though, his efforts were rewarded as a ring of energy exploded from his hands and he got a notification. Or was it a prompt? He really needed to stick to calling it one thing in his head. He would decide on notification for now.

Congratulations, you have merged multiple skills into a singular skill that is more than the sum of its parts. Additionally, due to your class and race, the new skill has become infused with your Historum.

Combat Casting, Mana Manipulation, Staff Fighting, Dodge, Unarmed Combat, Meditation have become Path of the Empty Hunger.

Path of the Empty Hunger

Epic

Level 25

You have fought with the power of hunger and void by your side, consuming the essence of beasts and humans alike, though not nearly enough to rouse suspicion. This path is one few people tread due to the requirements necessary to advance. Originally discovered in a bygone era by which she would be empress, this martial style allows you to infuse the concepts of emptiness into your strikes, dealing not only damage to health, but also mana and stamina. Allows the user of this skill to dodge faster, wield staves with the grace of a dancer, cast between melee strikes easier, and manipulate the very Ambia around the battlefield to further satiate their hunger for more. Whether that be more fighting, or more power.

Additionally, when meditating, the effect of resource regeneration is further amplified if done next to a defeated enemy.

Effect of this skill scales with level and slightly with Willpower.

“Huh, neat.”

Those were Tyler’s final words before he felt himself pass out from the effort of combining six skills into one.