Limitless Path

It was really just Beth and Blood messing with the flow, as the other three were still rather used to working together. It was tougher for the three to work around Beth and Blood, as they were so fast and so strong that they didn't fight alongside the three. Kim and Sabs had to adjust the most, as they had to work around Beth and basically let Blood do her own thing, while Soph was able to continue mostly the same. Beth and Blood also had some experience with working alongside spellcasters, so there was little adaptation for them to get used to working with a long-ranged powerhouse.

And Soph was a powerhouse, with a preternatural skill with magic and quite high INT, she could lay down absolute devastation from any distance. Her only impediment was her relatively small mana pool, meaning that her all-out damage burst could only go on for a couple minutes before she was entirely out of juice. She typically was much more moderate in her output, sending out pinpoint strikes with thin, dense blasts of lightning mana that could even punch a small hole through mana steel plate.

Beth was the anchor of the team, even though she wasn't really built to be a tank, she was plenty tough enough to stand at the center and absorb damage for long periods of time. Not that she needed to take a beating for very long, as the group had more than enough damage to kill the kobolds quickly. The whole field was cleaned of the menaces in less than an hour, at which point they took a brief rest. The other disadvantage to working with a caster, at least one early on their Path, was that their mana efficiency was just plain bad. Soph needed to rest to recover at least a little mana constantly, which sort of balanced out just how much damage she could do in a short amount of time.

Beth led the way down into the underground after their ten-minute break, getting a handful of fearful exclamations as she leapt off the edge. She landed with a crash at the bottom, hopping a little and flexing her knees, feeling like she took a bit of damage. Good to remember that she still wasn't back up to her pre-rebirth END levels quite yet, but it was nothing a couple seconds of healing skill couldn't obviate. Blood had followed her down, though she leapt from side-to-side as she always did, grabbing a little jut of rock or managing to plant her boot on a small ledge with every bounce.

The other three joined them after a minute, Sabs angrily scolding Beth for her reckless antics while her sisters watched on with some amusement. After apologizing profusely, Beth led them down towards the residential area, knowing that fighting along the way and in the first part of the maze that area had become would be easier than trying to go down the old dungeon path. It was also a good thing that the tunnel had a ton of enemies in the side areas and a moderately steady stream of enemies coming up from the depths to try to spread across the field above. Beth was sure if the place was left alone for just a couple weeks, they would have a serious problem on their hands. It was a little trickier to say it would be a beast tide, as neither of the portals they had found down here seemed to be directly related to the kobolds, meaning their current spawn rate was mostly natural. Tides usually started from a mana source that powered some kind of spawning system building up too much excess mana, which wouldn't really be the case here.

They spent the whole day fighting, Beth a little insistent that they go until as late as the other three could tolerate. The regular breaks they took to help keep Soph's mana from bottoming out didn't really help, but they did manage to reach the goal. The other three had all gotten a few levels over the course of hours of continuous combat, fighting up levels really helping. That was especially true as they started encountering enemies at or over level one hundred, which Beth insisted that Sabs kill essentially un-aided.

It was enough to just barely get Sabs two levels, putting her at level ninety-nine, but that was fine. A single more day of this, which they had planned on at least two days of this from the start, would see the vicious rogue hitting one hundred, though they would likely have to call it early when that happened. Beth saw that both Kim and Soph had gotten three levels, which meant they were both over ninety now and pushing towards that first huge goal. If Beth was willing to go a little slower for a few days, they could likely forcefully grind the two to one hundred as well.

They retreated to the Hall for the night, Beth insisting that everyone stay in her room, there being plenty of space for all of them. That included the tub, which very comfortably seated four, an easy fit for their group with Sabs on Beth's lap. Kim was the only one who seemed a bit embarrassed, which surprised Beth, mainly not because of Kim, but because Soph seemed to care far less than any of them ever had about being unclothed. Then again, if she had a hot bath in a pleasant place, particularly with fine foods before or even during, Soph was perfectly content.

Beth let the others decide where and how they wanted to rest after they had finished with cleaning, eating, and taking care of their routines. Again, slightly surprising Beth, Soph insisted on curling up with Blood, burying her face in the tall woman's mane and passing out immediately. Kim used the bedroom, while Sabs and Beth intertwined on the couch, which was still immensely comfortable.

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The next day was an early one, and Beth got them up and moving early, pushing them through a fast morning routine and out the door. They trotted back to the field quickly, Beth thinking how nice it would be if the others had some kind of storage item or power, considering their armoring up and prepping of gear took about the longest of anything. It didn't really matter too much, but Beth loved the convenience of her necklace too much not to be a bit annoyed by things it normally helped her save time over.

The underground cavern was simply an endless fount of kobolds, the field having more than a dozen wandering around in small circles just from when they stopped eight or so hours ago. It was even more packed inside, with almost everything they had killed the day before having been replaced by the endless generation of beasts. That only benefited them now, allowing them to get Sabs that last level by the early afternoon, that bump from ninety-nine to one hundred taking just a bit longer.

Beth knew immediately it was happening without needing to check Sabs's level or stats, feeling a heavy power hanging in the air. There was a sense of breathless anticipation, and everything in the area seemed to slow briefly, space slightly twisting while the air itself crackled with building potential. Things in the area grew dim, Beth checking for a second to make sure she wasn't seeing things, but finding that a darkness had seeped into the room they were in. Sabs was the focus of all of it, the power, the potential, and the darkness.

Beth watched, curious to see the first-time process of a Presence manifesting from the outside, having not had a clear idea what was happening when it had been her turn. Sabs had fallen to her knees, though it didn't look like she was in much, if any, pain. She bent forward and a smothering darkness wrapped around her body for a few seconds, only extending one or two feet outwards, but making her less than a blurry outline, even to Beth's enhanced sight. Heat vision wasn't much better, as she showed up as only warm, and it was a vague mass of warmth at that, not the clear definition of her body Beth should be getting from this close.

"What is happening?!" Kim exclaimed, having recovered from her shock and started towards Sabs.

Beth plucked her off the ground with one hand and set Kim behind her, saying, "A sneak peek of what you're gonna have happen soon."

"I have to go through…that?" Kim asked, anxiety clear in her voice.

"Similar," Beth shrugged in response, not elaborating any further.

The darkness cleared from Sabs at that moment, allowing Beth to see her Presence in all its glory. It was very different from Beth's, of course, and came in the form of more of a piece of clothing. It reminded Beth of a duster or long-tailed jacket, made of a dark black fabric, it split into many pieces below the chest, being made of dozens of strips of the 'fabric.' The coat extended far, down past Sabs's knees as she stood, and Beth could just make out the patterns she thought would be filled in as Sabs underwent rebirths.

The power coming from the small girl was different than Beth's, as it felt more…elusive. Sabs's Presence didn't add brute strength or greater toughness, not in the same way Beth's did, but instead seemed to focus more on making her harder to detect. There was a very slight added effect of making Sabs's very existence seem fainter and, as Beth poked at the effect, it seemed the early stages of a way to make her presence, with a little 'p,' slide off of people's minds. She would be far harder to notice, and able to move around both less impeded by obstacles and hostile mana, while at the same time her speed would likely be greater. Her Presence would make her stronger overall, as all Presences were a total force multiplier, but with Sabs's already high DEX, her speed would likely become quite significant whenever she had her cool new duster on.

"Beth?" Sabs asked, turning to look at her girlfriend, who appeared beside her in an instant.

"Take it easy, Sabs," Beth said with a smile, placing and arm around the petite woman before giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Your Presence is pretty damn cool."

"So, that's really what this is? I knew a small bit about it, but I wasn't expecting…well, this!" Sabs said, looking down at herself, twisting at the waist to try and view even the back of her new piece of clothing.

"Yep, you're part of the big boys and girls club now. Oh, and you should probably release it now. It's gonna be quite tiring," Beth said.

Sabs had a bit of a questioning look for a second before closing her eyes and concentrating a moment. The duster disappeared from her torso, showing her armored body and legs again. Sabs swayed slightly, but Beth's arm around her prevented her from even staggering, and the tall woman simply scooped Sabs up. She shifted her slightly so Sabs was sitting on Beth's left arm and curled against her chest before turning to the others.

"I'm gonna take her back to the Hall," Beth said.

"What's wrong with her," Soph asked, biting her lip with eyes slightly wide.

"She's tired," Beth chuckled in response. "Using your Presence is draining, and the first time you get it is doubly so. I'll take her back home and let her sleep the experience off. The two of you are already in the nineties now, and Blood is more than strong enough to help you keep slaughtering through these guys. You should stay for a while longer and push as much as you can."

"Right, because you two will have to go back to…whatever it was soon, right?" Kim asked.

"Yeah, we can't take more than another couple days on this, then we're back at what we had been working on before we had to rebirth," Beth replied a bit obliquely.

"We'll keep going. Just make sure she's alright," Kim said, nodding at Sabs before turning back to keep clearing the area where Sabs had hit one hundred.

Beth left, returning up the tunnel to the shaft before hopping up a couple times to get to the field, not bothering with walking the ramp. She started jogging back to the Hall, carrying Sabs in her arms as she followed the same path they always used, though the summer had seen it get a bit of a undergrowth in the wooded area. Their constant passage, and a little use of a blade every once in a while, kept it clear, and that let Beth make it back to the Hall in very good time. She headed straight down to their room, where she managed to get Sabs slipped out of her armor without tearing any straps before making all her own gear disappear.

She helped the short girl with a shower, Sabs not really being that tired, but it was a good excuse to spend every moment together. The two didn't bother with the bath today, but returned to the living room, whereupon Beth moved to the kitchenette to start making some food. Once that had been taken care of, including cleaning up after they were done eating, the two sat together for a while before Sabs had a few questions.

"So, that thing is my Presence," she started with more of a statement. "Does it always make you that tired?"

"It is tiring, but not by that much," Beth explained. "I can use my Presence for a decent bit of time without becoming exhausted, but it's a balance. It makes you stronger, but it makes you tire out super quick. That's one of the reasons a lot of people treat it like a last resort sort of thing."

"Right. I haven't seen you using it in combat, either. So, you just save it for a bad situation?" Sabs asked.

"No, not really; I've practiced with it enough that I don't have to be so sparing. I just don't really use it that much because it's still tiring and I…don't really need it? Like, even when Blood and I were level one and double-teamed a level ninety, we weren't in that much danger, so I just didn't bother with it."

"I see," Sabs said quietly before curling up tighter on Beth's lap. It wasn't long before she nodded off, and Beth wrapped her up tightly, even pressing her legs against Sabs to maximize body contact. They stayed like that for a long time, long enough that the others came back, let into the room by Blood, before Sabs woke up. It was pretty late, and Beth saw that Soph and Kim had each gotten a level after she had carried off Sabs earlier. The other three cleaned up and ate, with Soph taking a very long bath, though Beth and the others drew the line at heeding her demands to take her food into the bathroom for her.