Limitless Path

The only other thing that stood out was her Ancient World Gate power had jumped a level after that previous two-week binge, and she was curious what was different with it. It wasn't too hard to find a chance to test it, stopping Blood before they headed back, even though Beth was a little weary, and opening the menu. She scrolled through, a bit disappointed that there was no new time compression feature, but then again, ten-to-one was already pretty insane, especially since she could keep it open for objective weeks at a time now. In fact, nothing jumped out to her at first as changed, but that turned out to be because it wasn't a change, but a new feature that she had gained. Raising both eyebrows, eyes a little wide, she selected the new feature and pushed out mana, making the gate form.

This time, the gate took the form of brilliant silver columns, carved with intricate geometric shapes, with a brilliantly decorated arch at the top. She stepped through the glowing silver portal, arriving instantly, with no feeling or visual cue of transition, in a room that was about twenty feet wide, thirty or so feet long, and fifteen feet high. There was a forge with an anvil in front of it at the far end plus a workbench and several barrels and pieces of equipment used in forging. That took up about the last third of the room or just under, but the first twenty feet were clear, with a floor made of large, silver tiles, though the metal wasn't actually silver, but something Beth couldn't recognize.

Blood followed her in and asked, "So, your power gives you a forging room now?"

"I don't think it's just that," Beth said with a shake of her head. She walked over to the anvil and pulled out her very first sword, the steel one that she had so quickly outgrown, and set it on the anvil. "Let's leave."

Blood just looked at the sword, glanced around, shrugged her furry shoulders and followed Beth back out. The shorter of the two tall women closed the gate before walking over to a rock and sitting for a minute, literally a minute, then standing and opening the gate again. Blood looked on, bemused, as Beth confidently strode through the gate, following after her companion. When they were inside, they found the sword still sitting on the anvil, Blood frowning again when Beth turned to her with a massive grin, her eyes wide.

"Blood, do you know what this means?" Beth asked with her grin growing.

"You can make stuff here. But you don't have to pay to use the CRA forge, so I don't know why this is such a big deal?" Blood asked with plenty of puzzlement in her voice.

"Because the sword stayed and is fine is why this is so huge," Beth explained patiently. "That means that this whole room is a perfectly viable spatial storage area. We can huck shit in here and not have to worry about it being in our necklaces."

"Cool," Blood shrugged.

"Cool? It's way more than cool! It's a storage power attached to one of my skills! It means no one can steal or destroy it as long as I'm alive, nor can they peak in here, if I understand how storage powers really work," Beth shot back, her tone clearly exasperated as she put her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, but it's not very convenient," the wolf replied, continuing, "You have to open that big-ass gate, revealing your power, to get in here. It's nice to store stuff we don't need often, like all that weird loot we keep picking up, but stuff we use a lot, like our weapons, is better kept in our necklaces."

Beth deflated a little, tapping her chin as she thought. "You know what, you're right. I wasn't thinking that clearly, thanks. We'll store all the random loot, like that flower heart thing, in here; keep out necklaces clean and tidy."

The two had fought a lot, and Beth had then used the gate multiple times in quick succession, so they were quite tired. It had also been two weeks, and as much as Beth wanted to keep going, they really needed to turn back for now.

It was time for a rest for them and by that she didn't just mean a quick sleep. They were heading back from their remote location in the woods in the northern Appalachians to their hometown and, more specifically, the Hall. It was a journey of a little under an hour for the two of them when moving at high speed, and they both used the time to observe the changes around them. It appeared that Earth's mana level was still increasing fairly steadily, though there weren't any massively over-leveled beasts out wandering about at this point. If the mana increases didn't slow down at some point soon, it would be like the world they had been dropped into in the Trial, where even teams of Enlightened had to be careful of the mountains north of the city. That was going to cause even more problems, especially since most people just weren't leveling fast enough to either deal with those problems effectively head-on or to have the skills and mana pools to reinforce the towns and cities to withstand attacks from such beasts.

At least Beth and Blood would be able to contribute, and the three other girls were still fairly steadily leveling themselves, and Sabs would likely be hitting one hundred in not all that long. Despite her admittance that she couldn't keep up with Beth's pace, Sabs was still going fairly hard, and her mad sprinting for a time had pushed her decently high; Beth was curious to see where she was at now. She thought of introducing her to Bai's group, but decided that Sabs likely had enough on her plate, and likely at least Jaq would demand they pay for using the teleporters without Baelvyr, even if it was just a short few thousand mile jump.

She dismissed the thoughts as they made it back to the Hall and made their way to their room, finding it empty as they had decided they had been out long enough in the middle of the day. The two didn't care, and both took plenty of time to luxuriate in the bathroom, overjoyed with the infinite hot water after going with no more than a quick rinse for almost five months. It was good they took a shower first too, as the water was a distinctly dark color for the first few minutes of scrubbing, and Beth certainly wouldn't have wanted to sit in that. They had finished up, taken care of eating food, and even done laundry and maintenance on their equipment by the time Sabs was back for the night, Beth noting that she had just broken into the eighties at an even level eighty.

The two spent some time together that evening before going to bed, leaving Blood to sprawl on the couch as usual. All three, even Blood, were up early the next day, though that had more to do with her and Blood still being mostly in 'combat mode' as opposed to 'laying around' mode. They escorted Sabs up to the lounge, and then Blood disappeared somewhere while Beth went down to the smithy to work on her forging. She didn't pay Elana anything because she wasn't getting lessons from the dwarf, just using the facility to practice her skill. She knew it was going to take a bit longer, but she really wanted to get herself to Journeyman. Once she hit that point, or really after a few more levels in Journeyman, she could start crafting gear that actually had a rarity and level requirement, similar to the pieces she was now wearing. She wouldn't really be making anything any better than the stuff Jaq had to dole out to them until she hit Expert, but she could definitely repair anything they used and even make decent equipment for others, such as her sisters, to use without having to buy from Jaq. She still had the mana steel ingots, as well as all the frost iron from the early fights with the kobolds, and they also had some old gear which she could likely recycle for materials.

She spent that day and most of the next day working in the forge, making sure to head back to the room early to spend some extra time with Sabs. She didn't see her sisters or any of the others during those two days, but she knew everyone was busy with their own things, and she didn't feel like she had to constantly check in with people. When it hit the morning of the third day, they escorted Sabs up to the lounge before returning to their special, super-secret spot: a random clearing in the woods.

Two more weeks of grinding exactly on the nose got them a whole nine levels, which put them in the one-seventies. Based on that speed, it would be either two or three more two-week sessions before they could hit one-ninety, which is the point where Beth thought they could at least scout out the dungeon. They cycled back for two days at home, spending time with Sabs and stopping to see her sisters, though Soph seemed distinctly unsurprised to see Blood, and then they were back out again.

They repeated the pattern three more times, including this trip, making it partway into August, and meaning that Beth had plopped down another gold coin on their room to extend the stay another hundred days. That would have once been a big deal, spending a whole gold, but farming for subjective months, now almost two years, in point of fact, in the high hundreds had made them quite a bit of money. It was to the point that the thrifty Blood, having not needed to replace any armor or buy any supplies, was just over a whole diamond coin herself, though the wolf didn't much care about money either way. Beth herself was up to just under two diamond coins, having double what the Lord of Traversal had sent her even after spending a ton of money buying gear and other essentials.

The morning after they were done with their last two-day rest, she stopped in the lounge with the others, though it was mainly to talk to Baelvyr. She chatted with her sisters for the first time in…quite a few weeks, catching up on the few changes around the neighborhood. The dungeons had grown again, making a jump that made them highly challenging for the three lower-level girls, which allowed them to both farm experience and money while staying right next to home. Baelvyr interjected that he doubted those two dungeons would grow any more, at least in terms of massive expansions, so they didn't really have to worry about them running up over level one hundred and making the area scarcely inhabitable.

The conversation died down after a minute and the group split up, with the others going to find their trainers or out to fight, while Beth and Blood pulled Baelvyr aside for a minute. She didn't want to risk exposing even part of her screens, and she wanted to consult with him about something. They went down to the training room in the basement, which Baelvyr locked behind them, understanding Beth wanted some secrecy.

"What, girlie?" he grumbled at her.

"Take a look at our screens. I need some advice," Beth said, showing their screens.

Name

Elizabeth Anne Bell

Class

Brawler

Level

188

Strength

526

Dexterity

288

Endurance

362

Intelligence

60

Wisdom

60

Free Points

0

Titles

Silver Flame Empress' Inheritor

Skills

Acid Resistance Copper[7]

Ancient World Gate[2]

Beastly Body Silver[9]

Blacksmithing Apprentice[9]

Celestial Annihilation Silver[5]

Crush Silver[9]

Earth Resistance Copper[8]

Flame Resistance Copper[9]

Focused Meditation Copper[9]

FrostFlame Eye Silver[3]

Ice Resistance Copper[8]

Indomitable Heart Silver[4]

Lightning Resistance Copper[8]

Lordly Reconstruction Silver[7]

Monstrous Blow Silver[1]

Pain Tolerance Silver[9]

Spatial Step Copper[9]

Swift Silver[4]

Swords Journeyman[9]

Toxic Resistance Silver[2]

Unarmed Journeyman[9]

Wealth

1d 98p 97g 99s 54c

Emblems

CRA Silver Badge (150CP)

Bonds

Blood

Name

Blood

Race

Red Wolf Queen

Level

188

Strength

344

Dexterity

500

Endurance

240

Intelligence

60

Wisdom

60

Free Points

0

Titles

-

Skills

Acid Resistance Copper[3]

Blood Queen's Claws Silver[9]

Earth Resistance Copper[6]

Eyes of Hallowed Truth Silver[1]

Flame Resistance Copper[8]

Ice Resistance Copper[7]

Leatherworking Apprentice[6]

Lightning Resistance Copper[6]

Meditation Copper[9]

Pain Tolerance Silver[6]

Regeneration Copper[9]

Rending Bite Copper[9]

Swift Silver[9]

Toxic Resistance Silver[1]

Unarmed Journeyman[4]

Wealth

1d 9p 1g 10s 40c

Emblem

CRA Copper Badge (100CP)

"Yeah, I see yer problem," Baelvyr muttered. "Ya clearly got plenty of cash right now, so give me ten golds. Gotta make sure we keep this above board, 'specially now ya got yer Silver Emblem."

Beth fished out ten gold coins and handed them to him. He made them disappear before making a little gem, which looked like a small candy on his finger, but was really the size of the end of Beth's thumb between the second knuckle and the tip, appear in his hand. It was a deep brown color with a few golden lines on it and Beth examined it before taking it from his hand.

Crystal of Earth Reinforcement(Minor)

{This crystal is a minor reinforcement crystal meant to affect a Wayfarer's attributes. Absorbing the mana from this crystal will increase the Wayfarer's END stat by a permanent four points.}

Beth held the crystal in her hand and concentrated on it, easily absorbing the mana and feeling it settle in her body. She checked and saw that her END stat had indeed increased by four points, putting her at three-sixty-six. The problem Baelvyr had instantly recognized was that she wasn't going to be able to put her free points into END up to level two hundred and hit an even number. This was a bit of a minor quibble, but when a stat kept, for example, ten percent of its total on a rebirth, it shaved off anything after the decimal point. Put another way, anything that wasn't a zero in the 'ones' place on a stat would be basically wasted on a rebirth, so trying to get a stat to an even tens number was pretty good. The crystal would push Beth just a little over, but better a point 'extra' lost than having three hundred ninety-eight and have the eight points go to waste.

Blood did the same exchange, though Baelvyr sold her a crystal to boost her STR by four. That let Blood dedicate the final seventy-two points she would get in a split between fifty DEX, taking her to five-fifty, and twenty-two into STR, taking her to three hundred seventy. The two thanked Baelvyr and said they were heading north on the last of Blood's missions, and he just rumbled at them not to "die a stupid death," before stomping out of the now unlocked room.