Thank you for your response!
I do have access to both. I created a bootable usb and have several legal iso files for various OS types.
I have also discovered the root of the issue and managed to get 8.1 loaded back on (begrudgingly). The issue was that though the tablet will support a 64-bit OS the UEFI controller will not. I had to dig through the tech document from ASUS to find this out. But after loading 32-bit 8.1 everything appears to be working correctly.