Tsukiyomi lazily drifted above the plains upon which her surveillance target was bashing his way though, cloaked from all but the highest of Perception-based skills. A small yawn crept up on her as she observed the man bumble his way through Bunicorns and elementals. This was the one who had forced Aldous away? Even if ALdous was a coward, surely he could have outright killed the man with little effort. While his magical abilities were passing for a mortal, his fighting style was abysmal. She had to hand it to him though, he had interesting ideas for Runecrafting items. Though, if she were honest to herself, his general technique, if you had to call it that, left much to be desired.
She watched the man sit down and focus on something, likely something with his Soulspace. Then she felt it. While one normally couldn’t tell what was going on in someone’s Soulspace without entering it, a combination of high Perception and some passive class abilities gave her an inkling. Was this guy trying to combine skills, and six at that? It was laughable. Combining skills, while common in higher tiers, was difficult in and of itself. There was no way that he could possibly pull it off.
And yet, he did. By some manner she couldn’t comprehend, this man at the end of Low Copper combined six damn skills. He had to have some kind of luck-based title or something. Either way, this couldn’t be good. If she were to let her target snowball, it’s likely that in a few years he could go toe to toe with her Master. So, she would have to strike him down. Fiddling with the metal slave collar on her neck, she folded her wings behind herself and moved towards him under cover of invisibility.
----------------------------------------
Tyler woke up with a start, not sure of how long it had been since he had passed. He really had to stop doing that, but it wasn’t like he knew how to avoid it aside from playing it safe. Maybe if he bumped up his Constitution. Either way, it was food for thought. Getting up and off of the ground, Tyler stretched to get the kinks out. Mostly out of habit, because with his stats, he would be hard-pressed to feel too bad waking up.
Looking over himself, and then his status sheet, Tyler pondered on what to do next. Agha and previous information he had read had told him that he needed to take three elixirs before he ascended to Low Bronze tier at Level 50, which was still a ways off in the future. So he would have to see about that when he returned to the Duergar settlement. He had fused six of his skills into one, leaving him with four. He also had his seven cards. Though upon reaching Bronze they would be moot.
According to what he had learned from various texts and questions towards Agha and Fizzlespark, cards were only useful until that point. From there, all stored cards would be converted to skills, and obtaining new skills would require experimenting with Ambia itself and imposing your will onto the world. It was pretty esoteric, but Tyler supposed he would have to experiment with that for later.
There was also the matter of his gear. His staff would last until True Bronze at the very least but he was lacking fully enchanted gear. His Hanfu was just sitting over a mundane tunic and trousers, complete with un-enchanted boots. He also lacked any amount of trinkets or rings that would give him a slight boost. Her frowned, wondering why he hadn’t gone out and kitted himself as best as he could. He supposed he could make stuff like that for himself, honestly. While Runecrafting was typically applied to stone and such, who’s to say he couldn’t do the same on cloth, leather, or even paper?
All in all, Tyler had a long way to go before he felt fully equipped, so to speak. He’d have to take care of that later. For now, he would shore up his weaknesses. That Deception was at Level 2, but he really didn’t care for that skill so he would ignore it. Analyze was currently stuck at Level 5, so he might work on that next. Then there was his Dao. He only had an Apprentice Tier Dao and it felt rather lacking all things considered. Though he had little idea of what a Dao completely entailed. Perhaps that was part of understanding a Dao? He’d have to meditate on it later when he wasn’t in the middle of a forest.
Tyler spent some time meditating, over a couple of hours, when he felt something pickle against the back of his neck. Void Sight had picked up something. Whatever it was, it was closing in fast. Too fast. Were it not for Void SIght he would not have managed to block in time. An invisible blur slammed into him from what was previously a blind spot. Turning at the last second, his staff met a sword as he was pushed back and his attacker came into view.
It was a woman with white bird-like wings dressed in what was some approximation of a shrine maiden’s outfit and a metal collar etched with runes across her neck. She was also extremely strong, as Tyler was flung backwards and lost a good chunk of HP as he went flying through two trees before he managed to get his bearings.
“Really, attacking me on the first date? At least buy me dinner first.”
When in doubt, try to throw your opponent off guard.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The attacker paused for a brief moment before narrowing her eyes and charging forward yet again. She was fast, faster than even the Earthen Bunicorn he had killed previously. Barely rolling out of the way of another dashing attack, Tyler managed to get Analyze working.
Tengu-Human Hybrid
Level Unknown
Well that couldn’t be good. If he couldn’t see her level that meant she had some means of obscuring it, or worse, she was over twenty levels higher than him. Furrowing his brow, Tyler re-activated Obscuring Mist, covering himself in a shroud of gray water vapor, then began casting spells one after the other at her.
The woman batted aside the tentacles that reached to constrict her and dodged a beam from Mind Sear, but got hit by his cast of Wither. She slowed for just a few seconds before she shrugged the effect off with relative ease, then proceeded to intone a skill of her own.
“Senzan Blades.”
Her sword flashed out, too fast for Tyler to see and like a bell was struck, the world around Tyler began to vibrate in a ten foot circle around him. Sensing danger, he did a cast of Speed Rush but was only able to escape half of the attack’s radius. Several blades on nearly invisible mana coalesced in a half-globe around the area Tyler had been in, cutting into the ground like a hot knife through butter. Unfortunately, the attack struck his back and his nerves exploded in pain as 65% of his health pool was deleted in an instant.
Tyler swore and grit his teeth as he stumbled, grasping onto a tree for balance as he winced from the pain. The woman, for her part, simply walked towards him slowly like a stalker in the dead of night. Tyler grimaced at his situation. Why did he keep running into people of a higher level than him? He had gotten lucky with the demonologist, perhaps this woman was his boss coming for revenge? It was irrelevant though, and Tyler pushed himself to his limits.
Holding the spell pattern of Geyser in his mind, he began to pump more and more mana into it while also unfusing his concept of the Dao into it. There was a deep resonant hum in his soul as a steady staccato built up inside of him. One hundred, two hundred, a thousand. Two thousand points of pure mana were poured into the spell pattern and it felt like his entire body was about to explode from the sheer force. But just as the woman entered the radius of Void Sight, Tyler let loose a desperate attack with what he had brought to bear.
A waist-wide beam of coalesced water colder than ice itself formed and shot towards the winged woman at speeds even she could barely dodge. Her dark, pupil-less eyes widened visibly as the beam collided with her side as she twisted, and she escaped most of the attack. The side of her that did get his started to slowly freeze over with Hoarfrost as she almost tripped over her footing and paused to look at the area that she had been hit.
That gave Tyler just enough time to grab the remainder of his runic stakes and charges them with as much mana as he could spare before he tossed them in her general direction before he sprinted deeper into the crop of trees at the center of the plains, as far away from her as he could get using every point of his Dexterity and pushing Speed Rush beyond its limits as he became a blur, hoping to lose her.
----------------------------------------
Tsukiyomi strode towards the man, lazily observing him. He was injured, having taken most of her skill, Senzan Blades, across his back, leaving him bleeding. The pale man glared at her and made hand signs to call on a skill as she leaned against a nearby tree to keep himself from falling down. She almost pitied him.
That was when she felt the sheer amount of mana being poured into a single skill. Her pupils dilated as she felt the build up of energy and she was a moment too late to stop the cast as shot a Dao-infused beam of water from both his hands in her direction. It was fast, almost at the level of a Low Bronze. She spun out of the way but got hit in the side by the attack. Sure, it didn’t do too much damage, as only about 6% of her HP was taken out. But still, for this man to actually manage to damage her? Perhaps she has gotten rusty over the past decades.
Her distraction proved to be almost deadly however, because as she turned back to look from where she had been staring at the patch of frost on her side, several charged runic stakes came flying her way and she widened her eyes, using a hastily erected barrier of Sword Ambia to lessen the blow. Just in time too, as the improvised explosives’ timers ran out and she was engulfed in flames.
When the flames subsided, she was signed, part of her robes tattered and exposing just a bit too much skin. But other than that she looked healthy, if a bit smokey from the subsiding heat. Looking down at herself and then back to where she had last seen the man and scoffed. Well, with his wounds, she doubted he’d survive. But she’d go and look for him just in case. It wouldn’t do right for her to fail to kill a lowly Copper.
----------------------------------------
Tyler stumbled about, breathing heavily as he started to feel the bloodloss in combination with hunger. He was stuck in a damn forest now thanks to wandering too deep into the trees, but he had to make sure that he wasn’t being followed. The rumbling of his stomach made itself known and he grunted in frustration. There had to be something to eat around here, right? His eyes looked around as he tried to focus and he spotted a large orange-yellow fruit hanging from a tree nearby. Not even bothering to use Analyze in his state, he grabbed the object and bit into it. It tasted like a spicy banana mixed with a hint of mango. An odd taste to be sure but better than nothing.
Moving as fast as he could while snacking on the fruit that seemed to make his entire body heat up, he continued his absconding for several minutes until he finally ran out of stamina. He was in a denser part of the forest now, perhaps he had lost her? Regardless, it was probably good to keep getting away from that crazy woman. So with his mind fuzzy from his wounds, he stumbled forward until something caught his eye.
A rusted portcullis hidden by vines and an overgrowth of moss was off to the side near a large rocky mound that was too big to be a hill but too small to be a mountain. As he neared it, a System Message popped up.
Scalemoss Depths
Requirements to enter:
None
Do you wish to enter?
Y/N
Seeing as this was probably his best bet to recuperate and hide from his attacker as well as look at his notifications that were building up, he mentally accepted and felt the invisible barrier of the dungeon fade, letting him walk inside. Well, dying in a dungeon was better than dying to some assassin lady. At least in his mind. In for a penny, in for a pound.