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Limitless Path Chapter Three Hundred Fifteen
🕑 Added 2024-10-23 17:00:07 +0000 UTCIt took a while for them to get to the area where they were encountering level two hundred enemies, though only a dozen minutes or less had passed outside the gate. It also took a while for Bjorn to slow down, the huge hulk digging deep divots into the ground as he slowly bled off his speed and got back to a normal level of movement. As soon as he was back to a reasonable jog, he turned to the nearest group of enemies and plowed into them, using the last of his momentum to smash several of the large hobgoblins to the ground. The rest of the group caught up a handful of seconds later and helped clear out the area, killing the group of a dozen beasts in a minute.
"Was that just you running?" Beth asked Bjorn before he moved to the next group.
"No. Skill," he said briefly. Seeing her questioning look, he sighed and said, "The skill's name is Unrelenting Charge. I have it at Gold. Combined with my defensive skills and powerful body, it's hard to stop me. Really, really hard."
"Cool," Beth said with a grin, getting a grunt in response before Bjorn grabbed the next group.
While Bjorn generally set the pace in grabbing enemies and killing them, Beth set the overall pace for their time in the gate. That meant long days with only one or two rests during the day and short nights. The others didn't complain, not at first, though there were some rumblings in the ranks by the tenth day, and morale steadily worsened from there. Beth finally gave them a full day, still in compressed time, to just do whatever, the rest of the group setting up their temporary camp in a clear area and taking the time to relax.
"I can't believe they're still fighting," Andrea said.
"Beth and Blood?" Adam asked rhetorically.
"Who else?" Andrea replied with a very obvious eyeroll.
"Just making sure," Adam muttered quietly.
"Warriors know when to rest," Bjorn grumbled, sitting on the ground and working on something involved in his armor.
"Not everybody's built the same, lad," Rell commented, sitting on a stool and smoking his pipe. "Rest is important, but everyone needs different amounts, and at different times. The two of them are capable of far more."
"They were surprised the first time we did stuff with them and wanted a break," Andrea added. "They're clearly used to going much harder than most people."
"Seems to be working for them," Kris added quietly.
"Careful about burning too bright, as you might burn out too soon," Itharion commented with a chuckle.
"Eighteen hours a day, seven days a week, and no breaks for months at a time. I certainly couldn't do it," Andrea said with a shake of her head.
"I'm confident they know their limits," Rell finished the discussion before puffing heavily on his pipe.
The group spent the entire fifty days they had first predicted in the instance slaughtering hobgoblins, going so far out that it took them half a day moving at close to full speed to make it back to the portal. When they emerged back into the cargo hold, they found nothing had changed, and a quick check of the ship systems showed that it had only attacked a few beasts that had managed to wander too close. The team immediately split up and headed to their quarters to bathe and relax.
"I think we need a day to rest," Rell said the next day, looking much better than when they had just walked out of the gate, but still sagging on the bench in the galley.
"We've got plenty of time," Beth replied. "Despite how amazing this ship is, it still takes it quite some time to fly great distances. We'll be in the air all day today to get to the special challenge by early evening."
"Then I'm going back to bed," Itharion declared definitively.
Beth and Blood were still rather chipper, taking the watch on the bridge, though Blood was actively flying the ship. She preferred to control the ship versus just let it fly itself even high in the air while mid route, and Beth was perfectly content to let her get more time hands-on. The two didn't really speak much, which was common for them, and Beth spent the entire time reviewing information on Mana Physiques. She went through all the basic introductory materials she could easily get her hands on, including a few free write-ups that were highly recommended by the CRA basic guide.
The main gist of what she read was as Rell had explained earlier, in that the Mana Physique was the direct welding of the person's mana and their physical body together. There were simple explanations in the basic materials, but then they went on to outline many of the common ways that the incorporation of mana and body were accomplished. The basic methods involved incorporating mana in a uniform pattern into the person's flesh, binding it into the person's cells. There were far more complicated ways to do it, and Beth started browsing through more complex materials. People built more powerful Mana Physiques by making more complex arrangements of their mana, creating arrays of runes linking their cells together. It didn't stop there, with people going to the point of imprinting patterns on the molecules that made up their body in specific patterns, organizing their mana in minute detail while binding it to their physical body.
All that told her that she needed to study runes in far more detail, and she sighed, sitting back in the captain's chair and rubbing her eyes for a moment. She reached out to the net to download a huge amount of data on runes and enchantments, getting ready to dive back into her study on the subject. She also understood a bit more why people who tried to sprint through rebirths got stalled at rebirth nine and rarely advanced from there. Someone sprinting through rebirths was not someone who would be very likely to stop and spend hundreds or thousands of hours studying runes, making yet another thing that stalled their progress.
"We're getting close," Blood said some time later.
"Find somewhere good to set down," Beth commanded.
"Sure."
Blood took them in near the hill where they had found the special instance twenty minutes later, finding a clear area to set them down in a little dip in the land. Beth could always pack the ship up later, but it was a good spot if they wanted to leave the ship out when they explored the challenge later. It was evening now and, while the time didn't really mean anything to more advanced Wayfarers who needed little sleep, Beth thought it would be good to take the night to relax. That would let the rest of the team fully reset their mental states and get back into top condition before they challenged a rather difficult instance. Beth checked their stats before heading down for the night, quite happy with her and Blood's progress.
The next morning was bright, clear, and just a bit cold, with the team's breath frosting a bit in the air as they exited the airship after breakfast. Beth decided to pack it up, seeing as how the team had eight people that all had spatial items or powers, making her not really worried about them running out of space to store things. She was a lot more worried about somebody with bad intentions stumbling on the ship and damaging or stealing it than about packing it up as well as having less spatial storage.
"Are we all set?" Rell asked everyone, unlit pipe clenched in his teeth.
"Blood," Beth said simply while the rest of the group nodded.
The lupine woman led the way around part of the hill's base after Beth packed up the airship, leading the group to the tunnel between two chunks of rock. They followed the wolf down the quite long, frigid hallway for five minutes before they arrived at the same room as several weeks ago. This was the first look their called-in help had at the gate, and Rell and the rest took a few minutes to examine it before they were ready to proceed.
"Anyone have anythin' more on it?" Rell asked.
"Nobody’s done it yet," Beth replied with a shrug.
"Some eye powers or other skills can discern more about an instance than the general information most see," Rell explained.
"Endless enemies. Eternal ice," Blood said but didn't elaborate further.
"Nothing we didn't expect," Rell said, finally putting his pipe away as everyone finished checking their gear.
"Bjorn," Beth said.
"On it," he rumbled, stomping forward and passing through the gate.
The rest of the team followed right on the massive man's heels, experiencing a brief moment of dislocation and twisted senses before arriving on a huge, frozen plain. Ice and frost rimed everything, with a deep, bone penetrating chill immediately piercing through their armor and trying to burrow into their flesh. The broken and shattered terrain stretched as far as the eye could see, with wisps of chill fog and frozen, gelid air slowly swirling around.
The terrible scenery didn't hold their attention for more than a moment, as the teeming masses of enemies already starting to swarm towards them quickly drew their focus. Beth had been at the forefront of a few beast tides so far, but she still hadn't ever seen anything like what they had to face. There had to be tens of thousands of enemies around them at a bare minimum and even worse, the gate had disappeared, meaning it was conquer or die. Beth took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment to center herself, opening them up with her face taking on a very determined look. She followed behind Bjorn, who had already started moving, wading into the massive hordes of enemies.
The devils were strange and unusual, with oddly deformed limbs, torsos, and sometimes even heads. An aura of ice and death hovered around each and every one of them, with the chill being further exacerbated the more devils that grouped together. Whether the horrific chill of the plain was feeding into the devils' power, or their unnatural cold was freezing the plain even further, or it was both, as if a hellish ouroboros of ice was continuously devouring itself, Beth couldn't say. What she could say for sure was that her resistances were being tested and pushed past their limits just standing on the plain, let alone fighting the frigid enemies.
Bjorn became the center of their formation, with even Beth and Andrea acting in a more supportive role. The level two hundred and sixty devils were fast, powerful, and quite resistant to damage. One of the only good things for the group was the devils’ affinity to ice was close enough to water that Kris's void lightning spells were still highly effective in dealing damage to them. With the beasts so concentrated together, she was able to slaughter tens of the devils with a single moderately powerful spell. That was rather good, as it could really help with her mana conservation, as she didn't need to use her most powerful spells to kill large swathes of devils.
The team had now spent a couple months fighting together, and they were seamless in their coordination, keeping a tighter formation and having to talk very little to stay synchronized. Moderation was the name of the game for this experience, with the team having to fight for hour after hour without any rest. The good part of having a group of a decent size was someone could step out of battle for a few minutes to get some rest without endangering the team's formation. The key member was Kris, as her ability to thin the herd with spells was far beyond anyone else's damage output and, conversely, her need to rest was greater than anyone else's.
Hours and hours of fighting later saw a few of the members starting to flag a little, so they instituted a system of resting in pairs, letting the group get their stamina back a little faster. Beth and Blood needed the least rest of the group, and often fought for quite a long time without sitting out as part of the rest routine. With Blood being highly mobile, able to be everywhere and fill any gap that appeared instantly, and Beth being a very powerful frontline fighter, the two could keep the group stable by staying in the fight so long. Adam and Bjorn didn't need that much rest, either, and Adam would cover the rear defense whenever Rell needed to rest. Rell always held the rear, protecting both the team's back as well as watching over Kris and making sure nothing could get to her.
"We've been at it twenty four hours now, lassie," Rell commented from the center of the group as he took a short break, leaning on his hammer and smoking his pipe.
"Not much we can do," Beth bit off tersely as she Crushed a devil's head. "Not unless you know some way to break out that you haven't mentioned."
"Just keeping us aware, lassie. We'll need more rest soon; not all of us can fight as long as you and Bjorn," he replied.
"Adam can," Andrea added in to the discussion as she held three devils off on the left flank.
"Can't," was Adam's only contribution, the young man focusing as he kept the rear of the group clear with long, heavy swings.
"Could use the airship," Blood commented.
"Last resort," Beth snapped as she waded into a group alone to pull attention to herself.
"Mana's low," Itharion called.
"Swap," Rell commanded, allowing Itharion to join Kris in resting while he took Adam's position. Adam swapped with where Itharion had been roaming on their right flank, an easier place to defend as it was between Beth and Rell, meaning the person in that position was only mopping up stragglers.
"Focus," Beth commanded the team. "Situation gets bad, I'll use the ship, if we even can."
"Understood," Rell responded, speaking for the group.
Comments
Garrett Byers
Experience isn't an issue; going in with less than eight would make the challenge harder and wouldn't necessarily give a better reward. So much added risk for a few more experience points isn't worth it, unless you meant experience as in the experience of the fight itself, but that's still not something that has much value being hoarded.
clea24
I'm curious why they didn't use kobolds to train in the gate. They use frost attacks and aren't especially strong which would allow the party to prepare better.
PickledTink
Poor Blood. She's being left so far behind in skills and stats :(
SDCard
Thanks for the chapter!
Tyler Machado
If you even can use the ship is right. I wouldn't allow that if I were the path. Lets bring in a nuc as well, that will make it easy. No, using a ship is cheating and you would get less points. I would rather risk death. I would've been hesitant to bring in a full 8, wanting the experience for myself.
