Entering his Soulspace was getting easier and easier the more he did it, and Tyler soon found himself suspended in the center of the massless void.While he couldn’t form an Inner World until he broke through to Bronze, it was always good to set up a foundation for the future. Digging around mentally, Tyler pulled out the various materials he would need. First was the mud that he had taken from way back when he fought the Stalkweeds. Molding it took a bit of thinking but he eventually decided to treat it like it was an extension of himself. Tapping into the pattern of Mana Manipulation, he drew out the dark, nearly black mud and spread it around the blank gray slate that had been the only metaphysical object in the space until now. He had just enough that he made a platform of the material about a quarter the size of a football field. Yeah it was a flat plane of mud.

Next, he called upon the newly acquired stone and wood from the first section of the dungeon. He separated the marbled granite from wood and thought about what to do with it as the two materials hovered around him in orbs of matter. After some hemming and hawing, he moved the wood with his will and started to construct a makeshift Toori gate at the center of his Soulspace. He shaved the material down with intent, shaping it with quite a bit of effort until the wooden structure was complete. Then, he slowly lowered the object until it was firmly set into the ground directly underneath his core.

After that came the stones. With the Toori gate in front of it, he only found it natural to keep the oriental theme he seemed to be building. Tyler split the energy and formed it into two orbs of swirling gray mana. After that, he directed the orbs to hover at the bottom of each of the gate’s pillars and began to visualize. Visualization was key when it came to many things in this world, and creating a foundation for one’s Inner World was no different. While he had absorbed the material out in the material world, it became mana inside of his body and he had to mold it to take whatever shape he wanted. Tyler pushed his will and intent towards the orbs, and slowly the energy started form according to his desire.

Several minutes passed as the amorphous blobs of energy writhed and contorted, almost like they were resisting Tyler due to their inherit nature obtained from being dungeon material. It wasn’t like the material had a mind of its own, but being taken from a dungeon left a modicum of the area’s will inside of it. That wouldn’t do, so Tyler drew on the essence of his class and race, as if on instinct, and reached out. He ate the will that resisted him, and as soon as it had appeared, it fell apart as the invisible energy of the dungeon’s influence on the mana was sucked into his maw.

With that out of the way, it only took a few more seconds for the mana to fully form into what he wanted. A pair of stone lions, or lion dogs depending on who you asked. Large six-foot tall statues made of stone on a wood pedestal stood on either side of the Toori gate below his core. One male, and one female. The male statue had an orb under one paw as it stared outwards, ever vigilant. Meanwhile the female one was surrounded by three small cubs and, like her male counterpart, radiated a sense of might and ferocity.

A ripple of esoteric might washed out after it was done, washing into the entirety of Tyler’s being and infusing his skills as notifications popped up.

Congratulations, Eldritch Scion.

You have formed the foundation of your future Inner World. About time, huh? Took you long enough.

Due to the materials used and the visualized concepts of your foundation, your skills have been imbued with the essence of Ferocity, Sturdiness, and Nature. Reach Bronze TIer and build your Inner World to increase these bonuses.

XP Earned.

You are now Level 39.

…

You are now Level 41 and have 15 unused stat points.

Immediately, Tyler was kicked out of his core and returned to the material world with a rush of dopamine as System energy flooded him. Well, at least he gained some experience for creating a foundation. Looking at his current stat sheet, he shoved the free points into Wisdom, bringing it to 100. He felt the effects almost instantly as his mind cleared and slight irritations he had barely known in the back of his head cleared up. While there was no substantial bonus like when he had increased his Intelligence to 100 in Low Copper, it was still a nice bonus and felt more centered. Now he just needed to boost his Charisma, which had been his dump stat for the most part due to not really needing to use it. Charisma was fine and dandy if you were a merchant class or a summoner, but he was basically a monk-sorcerer hybrid in earth game terms, so it was pretty much useless to him.

Standing up from his position, Tyler did some stretches to get his limbs limber for whatever came next, then proceeded to place the cores in his backpack before heading back to the central chamber of the dungeon. When he got there, he noticed that one of the torches above the main door in the fairthrough was lit up. Apparently killing the three Drakelings had done that. Or perhaps it was taking the bracers? Either way, it was time to go down the second hallway and see what awaited him.

Tyler entered through the right passage this time. Much like the other one, it was wood and stone with various flora covering the walls. Though as he got closer to the antechamber this runnel led to, he could feel something in the air shift. He wasn’t all that good at detecting Ambia, or ambient mana, passively, he needed to focus to do so and it wasn’t the most fun thing to do if he was being honest. Maybe it was because his Wisdom was at one hundred now, but he could feel a deep sense of what he could only call some type of life mana around him. He walked for a few more minutes and passed into a gate and what he saw wasn’t what he had expected.

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There were no enemies in the room. Well, no living enemies. There were several Drakeling corpses on the ground around an altar of some kind, their bodies dead with various vines and plants growing out of them. The sense of life mana appeared to be coming from the object on the altar. Not an item, or at least an equippable one, it was nothing more than a large acorn-like seed that was visible letting out wisps of green-gold energy. Tyler felt the draw of the item on his soul and he stood there, transfixed for a few seconds before he managed to pull himself out of the trance. There was only one thing this could be. A Dao Treasure.

Dao Treasures were, as far as he could recall, items of some importance that would enable someone with the right affinity to learn some insights of the Dao the item was imbued with, Now, Tyler himself did not have an affinity for life, or plants, or anything of that nature. Normally that would be against him and make him unable to use anything that required such an affinity. But he wasn’t exactly a normal person. He was unbound by the rules of this world, at least to some degree. His mana was aspectless, and he was a Transmigrator. There was only one way to prove his theory though. Walking towards the treasure on the pedestal, Tyler formed a barrier of energy around himself on instinct to shield himself, applying the shape of Void SIght but using only his aspectless mana.

He stepped forward, nearly invisible waves of white mana escaping from his pores and meridians as he placed one foot in front of the other. Within mere seconds he was within grabbing distance of the treasure and with only a split-second of hesitation, he placed his hand on it.

You have touched a Lesser Dao Treasure of Life, Seed of Bountiful Harvest.

You do not have the affinity for Life and cannot use this item.

Error: Transmigrator Status detected.

Transmigrator Status supersedes all affinity limitations.

Would you like to tap into this treasure? Warning, the treasure will be consumed if you do so.

Y/N

Well that proved his theory correct. Without hesitation, he selected yes. After all, if he had to face that winged woman again, he needed an edge to at least survive. Having a second Dao should do nicely. A blink of the eye later, Tyler found himself falling into a Dao vision.

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An acorn fell from a branch of a simple oak, and was promptly carried away by a passing-by squirrel. The squirrel carried the acorn some ways away, intent on stashing the object in one of its many hovels to snack on later. Unfortunately for the squirrel, it wan across a hungry badger. The larger mammal chased the squirrel and in its panic, the acorn was dropped. The acorn rolled downhill where it plunged into a small river that led south. The river carried the seed down twisting pathways before it found itself on the bank of a stony beach.

Time passed and the small amount of life in the seed withered, almost dying. Then something happened. Two people were doing battle above it, their power washing over the ground and the acorn itself. As if by luck, heaps of dirt ended up covering the object until it was obscured from vision. The battle lasted for days and the energy let off by the two mortals washed over the seed, revitalizing it and letting it grow. Hours passed and the battle was eventually over. Then came the rain.

Wet droplets of water from the heavens fell in a steady pour and the acorn drank it up like a dehydrated dog, eagerly taking in as much as its small form could take. When the rain was over, and the dirt sufficiently moist, the seed began to calm down and absorb as much of the remaining energy from the battle as it could. It did this for hours. Hours turned into days, which turned into weeks. Until finally, it brought through its shell and a small sapling of mana-infused plant life sprung from the ground.

Weeks turned into months as the tree sapling grew, basking in the sun when it showed and sleeping during the night under the glow of the moon above. Months passed by like this as the plant grew and grew. Eventually as the years passed by, the tree came into its own. Thanks to absorbing the energy in its early days, it was no longer a common oak, but a Spirit Stone tree. It grew and grew, first five feet tall, then ten, then a hundred. Years became decades and eventually it reached so high that the clouds brushed against its canopy like a soft lover.

The tree flourished, gaining ever more energy. In return, it grew spirit stones and eventually a sect of mages formed around the base of the tree and formed a village. A village hidden in the leaves of the mighty tree, that sheltered it from rain and wind. A village that anyone with the will, could know to call home.

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Tyler jolted up from the ground as the vision ended abruptly and he felt a deeper connection to the world than he had before. While the exact details of the vision were fuzzy in his mind, as all Dao visions were at his level of power, he got the basic understanding of it. This treasure, this Dao, was one of growth, of nurturing, of rejuvenation and standing tall. It was exactly what he really needed. While his Dao Shard of Chill was focused more on being slippery, and hampering anything that was touched by it, this one was more focused on himself and providing things for others through him. He looked at the notification.

You have formed a second Dao Shard.

Dao Shard of Growth (Apprentice)

Allows you imbue the aspects of ‘Growth’ to things you can touch and interact with.

You gain:

+30 Constitution

+15 Endurance

+5% Resistance to all source of Nature Damage

This is your second shard. Reach Level 50 and combine these two shards to form your first Dao Fragment. I wonder what you will create. I can’t wait to see.

The rush of power entered Tyler’s system and he buckled slightly at the pressure, but it only lasted a second. The boost to his Constitution was nice, pushing his health to 2,760. The Endurance bonus was nice too, even if it was smaller. That would let him tank blows just a bit more. Closing his eyes, Tyler activated Obscuring Mist, but this time he imbued it with his new Dao. The mist took on a strange feeling. Similar to a refreshing minty breeze and he felt his body lighten up a bit as if he had a relaxing massage. Well that was nice.

Looking around, there didn’t seem to be anything else to do, so that only left the final room to clear. Anyone with knowledge of dungeons, or games from Earth knew what that meant. It was time to fight the boss and clear this place once and for all. At least until the core had time to respawn the creatures. With that goal in his head, Tyler backtracked to the center room.