Merchant Of Yliaster

Onlookers closed their eyes as a powerful flash ripped through the arena. Two incomprehensible attacks met each other in a matter hard to understand.

Firstly, a ripping sound echoed, and under the gazes of everyone, the area around the butcher disappeared. As if tearing down a painting, everything close to the man was destroyed, not even dust remaining.

At the same time, a luminescent green arrow moved with blinding speed, none, including the caster himself, being able to follow it. As the zone created by the cut of solitude expanded slowly, The Last Flash reached it at an unbelievably fast speed, and the expansion stopped.

For a moment, it seemed like there was a stalemate, as the concept of speed was shredded by the cut of solitude, making the arrow hang in the air, vibrating fiercely. Maxwell, though, could see that there was a battle of dominance between two attacks.

Slowly, the arrow got fainter and fainter, the metal it was made from losing its luster, and lightning died down, the sound of crackling coming to a sad end.

Yet, Maxwell was calm as he stared at the unmoving figure of the butcher. Unlike him, the man still controlled his attack, and he was in intense focus. The weird energy inside him moved like a typhoon, and his sword kept cycling through colors, yet remaining on a few repeatedly.

Lighting, metal, and wind? Sadly, that's not enough. As he thought, the arrow soon disappeared, its components disappearing into nothingness, as the very concept they were made out of was cut from the world.

Something, though, remained. A green glowing outline moved forward, now unhindered by the physical form of the arrow that once contained it. Herman's sword once more turned green, trying to imitate the otherworld material Etherium was, yet both knew that it was a futile effort.

The arrow kept moving and completely ignored the pitiful attempt at its recreation. Wherever it passed, the colors returned, and the world got rewoven into existence, carving a path through the nothingness that surrounded Herman.

The butcher just gave a resigned smile as the arrow reached its destination, finally unleashing its energy following the command it was given.

Herman's eyes widened for a brief moment, as he tried to comprehend the nature of the attack he was receiving, yet the defences which was never been penetrated before were obliterated in a moment.

Did his arrow recreate the concept of destruction? What is this? Herman thought, and he was no more. In a blink, his body dissolved into a glowing dust of green particles, and those, too, disappeared.

The shape of the arrow dissolved into the particles, breaking them down, as it made sure that the command it received was followed to perfection.

A good battle, Maxwell thought. He never expected to use his full strength in this fight, and he was pleasantly surprised. If he didn't have Etherium, he was sure that Herman would have demolished him. The very concept of Etherium seemed to be too resilient for the man to cut after all.

He waited for the system to teleport him back to his platform, but even the system seemed to take its time. Just as he was thinking whether the man was still alive after all, a familiar pressure descended, and the world around him lost color. Everyone froze, and time lost meaning.

Maxwell felt his mind strain, but the experience was much more bearable after all of the upgrades to his mental defences. He felt the presence tremble and focus on the spot before him, as if it was trying to understand what had happened, and it suddenly locked onto him.

Maxwell wasn't sure what was happening, but the next thing that happened was a great clue.

The System is trading the soul of "Herman, The Butcher of Known" for experience.

I have his soul? Maxwell was a bit confused for a moment, but it didn't take long for him to realize the problem. Etherium was great at absorbing, and it could also absorb the souls of the people he killed. He attacked Herman with his strongest attack, which was infused with Etherium, so it was no surprise that the man's soul was gone.

But you could at least ask for my opinion, don't you think? Maxwell thought, taken aback by the system's manner of doing this trade. His trait, though, seemed to agree with him, as something moved in his soul. He felt the system's presence pull back, and a moment of silence followed.

Merchant of Yliaster is activated.

Designated Product: The soul of Herman, an anomaly of peak tier 2.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Designated price: Unknown

Please set a price.

Oh? Maxwell thought intelligently, staring at the notification. This was not the first time his trait intercepted the actions of the system, but this was by far the most direct one. Instinctively, Maxwell felt a weird sense of value from his trait, as it helped him understand what he could request from the system.

If he wanted levels, he could probably jump directly to level 100, yet that wouldn't make much sense. Levels were hardly something unique. Questions came to his mind as he considered asking questions about the Ethereans, or etherium itself, but his trait rebuffed him. Those questions were apparently too expensive.

Suddenly, Maxwell had an idea. There was something in his arsenal that he found lacking for some time, despite their immense power. None of his other skills lacked in a great manner, but he felt for some time that this skill was limited by knowledge itself.

The skill was, of course, his runic formations. Even after the upgrade of his skills, this tier one skill still remained immensely powerful, and even now, Maxwell only had two runes in his arsenal. He thought of requesting complete knowledge of runes, but to his surprise, his trait rebuffed him even strongly than the time he considered a question about Ethereans.

This only proves my point. It was apparent that there was more to this area than two types of runes, and Maxwell wanted to learn them. He tried a couple more ways to phrase his request, but all were rejected. In the end, he managed to set a price deemed fair by his trait.

Price set: A way to learn more runes, which will remain reliable no matter the tier.

The price is fair. The system will accept.

Proceeding.

A rather interesting way to put it, Maxwell thought. And waited for the results. He was surprised for a moment as something was ejected from the deepest part of his soul, and under his senses, it moved to the platform Herman used to occupy. This was the soul of the man.

So I really absorbed it? I felt nothing of the sort, though? Maxwell was confused, but his attention was soon claimed by the fruits of this encounter.

Skill: Runic Formations will be changed and advanced by the system as payment.

Do you accept?

Maxwell didn't have any reasons to reject, so he accepted, and things started to happen immediately. Feeling a change, he dove back to his soul space to find something interesting happening.

Near the compendium and Records of Curiosity in his soul, another construct was slowly forming; this, though, looked completely different. Slowly, a giant slate of marble took shape in his soul space, but it looked like real marble despite the fact that this was his soul space.

The only thing that had this quality had been the Mask of Drakhabgar, so even this was a sign that Maxwell got something great out of this trade.

Skill "Runic Formations(70)" is advancing.

Skill "Language of the Beginning" acquired.

Language of the Beginning**(1):

In the upper realms, runes are called the language of the beginning, as beings believe that they are the language spoken by the old ones.

In lower planes, the spoken words are lost, yet they are still used far in between primitively in the manner of ancient humans carving images on the cave walls. With this skill, you shall have a chance to learn the language of the great.

Old ones? So even the greater multiverse has a mythology? I guess that's only expected. As anyone would be in his situation, Maxwell, too, was curious about how the universe was created, but he was also sceptical about most beliefs on the subject. Maybe one day, he would get strong enough to actually unravel how everything began. For now, though, he limited himself to unraveling the Marble slate in his soul space.

The skill description didn't say anything about the slate, so Maxwell figured that this would be something separate from the skill itself. The slate towered over him, as it was almost 100 meters tall, and Maxwell could see two tiny symbols at its lower left corner.

With the thing's immense size, it looked kinda funny, and Maxwell realized that these were actually his amplification and reduction runes. They looked absolutely pitiful, crammed into a tiny area despite the available space. He observed the slate.

Primordial Tablet - Tier 3 (Upgradable)

A tablet thought lost to all creation since the forgotten time. The endless wear it was subjected to removed the language it once contained, yet the stone remembers.

The artifact is connected to the soul of the Merchant, and it will evolve as the Merchant's knowledge increases.

The tablet will provide the merchant with runes according to his proficiency with his skill. Every 10 levels in the skill are rewarded with a tier one rune. When tiers of the runes match the tier of the Merchant, their slot will be taken by a new rune.

Tiers can be increased by carving them onto the slate until the slate is completely filled by the rune. Carving a rune will use soul energy and will nurture the slate.

Contained runes:

Amplification - Tier 1

Reduction - Tier 1

"Did the system steal this from an ancient civilization?" Maxwell asked out loud, laughing to himself. The artifact was amazing, and even the knowledge that there were more tiers to the runes was incredibly valuable.

Carving a small rune until it filled a giant ass slate was a bit depressing, but Maxwell was pretty sure that it would be easier than the usual mind-numbing college education. As he considered his future, the world resumed, and he found himself back in his previous spot.