LimitlessPath
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Limitless Path Chapter Ten
🕑 Added 2023-04-23 18:55:33 +0000 UTCThey kept going for a couple dozen minutes, Kim killing another three ants, including a level two, before they stopped. Kim had gotten a level out of all that, dumping her two free points into Intelligence, which Beth didn’t really have any comment on. Afterwards, she looked to Beth for where to go from there.
"What now?" Kim asked with a sigh.
"Lunch, I think," Beth responded, motioning back toward the house.
"Nice," Kim nodded, a relieved look stealing across her face.
The two turned back south and headed back to the house. When they entered the backyard, their father came out the back door and handed Beth two kits.
"What's this?" she asked, looking at the kit in her hand.
"Weapon kits. If you're going to use those swords to fight the ants, you need to maintain them. You paid a copper for them; I doubt Mr. Jones will let them go at such a steal the next time, even throwing in something like these kits as an afterthought. Better to keep the ones you have in working order for as long as possible," he responded.
Beth opened one of the kits and found cloths, two stones, several bottles of what looked like oil, and a piece of wood that looked like it could be used as a base to set the stones on. There was also a small booklet containing some basic instructions on how to use the kit to keep knives and other blades sharp.
"We'll probably need more clothes for cleaning and wiping the blades down than this," Beth said to her father, tossing the second kit to Kim.
"We have some old rags that would work, at least for the wiping clean portion," he replied, heading back inside the house.
Beth and Kim sat down at one of the two large tables they had in the backyard and got to work cleaning off the ichor and dirt from their blades. Beth's blade didn't really need much sharpening, but she would do her maintenance anyway. Beth moved on quickly to oiling her sword with one of the clothes and bottles of oil while Kim was looking through the instructions. Kim set up one of the whetstones as described on the base and began to run her blade over it. It made a rhythmic Shink, Shink sound as she did so, which was for some reason calming.
"This really seems like a lot of work," Kim grumbled as she continued to run the blade over the whetstone. "Isn't there a machine to do this?"
"Taking care of your gear is important," Beth responded. "Besides, any machine to do this would probably cost tens of thousands of dollars or something."
"What a pain," Kim continued, grumbling as she worked the sword across the whetstone.
Their father reappeared briefly to drop a few old rags on the table they could use for the swords. He left again immediately, likely busy with trying to coordinate the wall project. Beth and Kim continued working for a few minutes until Beth finished oiling her sword and re-sheathed it. She got up and headed inside after a few minutes, luckily not having nearly as much ichor on her as Kim had. She headed into the kitchen, on the hunt for some serious food.
It was early in the afternoon, and Beth's mother was in the kitchen laying out a huge spread of food. There was a ton of chicken, huge salads, and a bunch of beans and rice.
"I made plenty, knowing that you would be quite hungry. They always say it's teen boys that eat without stopping, but I guess the nebulous ‘they’ didn't count on everyone fighting with swords all the time. Dig in while it's fresh," her mother commented lightly, filling a pitcher with water from the unit built into the fridge.
Beth practically leapt on the center island, piling a massive plate with chicken and beans and rice while also filling a huge bowl with salad. Filling a big glass with clean, clear water, she dug in like an excavator in a dirt pit.
"Good lord. Remember to breathe, sweetie," her mother reprimanded in an exasperated tone before going to fetch everyone else. Beth could faintly hear the entrance of the ichor-covered Kim causing some stir, but she was far too focused on inhaling good food to listen in.
At some point the rest of the family joined in at the kitchen island, which saw far more use than the table in the dining room for family meals. The dining room was a place used for holiday dinners and for gatherings of friends, not for lunch. Beth tuned it all out until her second massive plate and third bowl of salad were done. She looked up, licking her spoon clean, to see the rest of the family staring at her.
"How did you even do that?! That had to be, like, half your body weight!" cried out Sophia.
"What? I just ate lunch. I don't know what you mean," Beth replied, frowning.
"That was pretty impressive, honestly," Kim added, piling on.
"Good. That's what I was aiming for; shock and awe," Beth responded, nodding firmly.
"As marvelous as that feat was, let us move on," interjected their father. "What are you girls doing now?"
"I'm beat. I think I might lie down in the living room and sleep," answered Kim.
"Since I am not allowed to study within this household anymore, I will be in the backyard," replied Sophia haughtily.
"I'm gonna go kill ants. With a sword," Beth deadpanned.
"I'm not comfortable with you being out there alone," her mother replied.
"Relax mom. Beth can slaughter those things no problem," Kim responded to their mother with an airy wave as she left the kitchen for the living room.
"Brutes," muttered Sophia under her breath as she left through the mudroom.
"It's fine mom. I'll be back later," Beth said, following Sophia out through the mudroom.
Sophia was sitting at one of the two tables and narrowed her eyes at Beth as she exited the back door of the house. Beth slightly turned toward her and let out a huge belch.
"Barbarian," Sophia sniffed, some electricity dancing on her fingertips as she turned back to what she had been doing.
With a small chuckle, Beth moved out through the yard into the wood lot. Her goal was to roam an even greater distance to see what level the ants had that were further out. Beyond the wood lot was an open field that was also owned by Mr. Jones. Beyond the field were a few houses to the east off a road that was over in that direction, as well as more wooded areas scattered north and east. Further past that was a large section of fields of a nearby farm. Beth didn't want to have to go all the way into the farmer's fields but would if she had to in tracking down the ants.
Beth didn't encounter any level one ants heading north throughout the woods, but as she neared the border with the empty field, she did encounter an ant where they had killed one of the level two ants earlier. She used Identify on the ant.
Common Ant Level 1
It seemed that she might have been right when she theorized about some kind of dungeon or spawner producing the ants. Beth simply walked up to this ant and punched it in the head, infusing just her fist. The low-level ant's head shattered in a shower of ichor.
Common Ant Level 1 slain.
Beth dismissed the notification immediately and continued walking. She entered the field a moment later and looked around. She could see two ants in the distance, but not together; one was to her northwest, while the other stood to the northeast. They were both far away, both from Beth and each other. She couldn't be totally sure from the distance she was still at, but they also looked like level two ants. She decided to cut a little east and take that ant out, as it was closer to the area that had a few houses.
She swung to the east and trotted up to the ant. A level two ant should be no problem now, so she charged up Crush in her right hand and wrist. She used Identify as she got close.
Common Ant Level 2
Just as she thought, it was a level two ant. The same dance steps she walked through with all other low-level ants played out, and in just a moment she was jogging on from another ant corpse. She continued to the north now, approaching the far edge of the field.
As she got close, she noticed two ants grouped together just outside a copse of pine trees at the edge of the field. She used Identify as soon as she was close enough.
Common Ant Level 2
Common Ant Level 2
Beth approached a little more cautiously, seeing the pattern was different than in the gate she could summon. The pattern was, in fact, inverted from the gate, with fewer, high-level ants the further on she went. That applied doubly so when she moved through the copse after killing the low-level ants and emerged into the farmer's field, spotting a giant ant's nest. She killed several more ants on the way to the nest before climbing a long ramp leading to the top of the nest. At the top was a level four ant which charged her, providing a bit more challenge than what she had experienced so far, but nothing that her sword wasn't able to deal with.
Common Ant Level 4 slain.
Swords Apprentice[0] acquired.
Nice! thought Beth ecstatically. She now had two weapon skills, which had to be rare and powerful this early on in a planet's integration. She was likely among the company of some martial artists as well as perhaps a few professional soldiers.
Beth planted the tip of her sword in the ground and looked around, breathing heavily from the exertion of swinging the large blade around so many times. There was no reaction, either from the nest or the ants further out. After catching her breath fully, Beth cleaned her sword roughly with the now very dirty cloth from her pocket and headed to the foot of the ramp.
Seeing nothing special about the ramp, Beth climbed up to the top. The top of the nest was about ten feet across and was simply a large opening. A ramp led down into the depths of the nest, and as Beth stepped up to the edge of the new ramp, she received a new message.
Basic Ant Dungeon discovered.
{Properties: Open, Simple, Discrete.}
A big smile curved her lips as she stared down into the dark opening, contemplating the experience and loot within. She didn't really know what any of the descriptors below the dungeon name meant, and she tried focusing on the properties to find out.
Open - Anyone can enter or leave without restriction. The dungeon is not split into different instances or reality pockets.
Simple - The dungeon extends a kilometer or less. The layout is generally contiguous without branching.
Discrete - The dungeon is supplied by a naturally dense mana pocket at this location. Enemies are spawned at a rate based on mana density and factors of type. Clearing the dungeon will result in a temporary halt of monster spawning while mana is refreshed.
The details gave Beth quite a bit of information. In multiplayer games many people could run the same dungeon without being in one massive group, as a unique or "instanced" version of that dungeon was spawned for a single group. It looked like the ‘Open’ modifier meant that the dungeon was not instanced but just a place existing in the real world anyone could enter.
‘Simple’ seemed to be the part that defined size. Many dungeons in games were as big as the developers made them, but it looked like the system or gods or whatever controlled the Path had a descriptor to show the rough size of a dungeon.
The final piece was ‘Discrete.’ It seemed that it described some of how the dungeon operated. Perhaps a different modifier here would mean that the monsters would spawn continuously or even not at all. It was all something that Beth would have to try to figure out more in the coming weeks. A trip to the Combat Ranking Association (CRA), as Liveria had mentioned doing, would be useful just to get some information on all this, if nothing else.
Beth decided to explore, as it seemed she wouldn't be trapped or teleported. At least, nothing the Path decided to do would hamper her, though she could still be swarmed by ants. Just as she was about to move on down the ramp, a new ant trundled up. Beth used Identify on it then frowned.
Common Ant Level 1
It seemed like it was a weaker ant leaving the nest. Likely it was some way the open dungeon protected itself or dealt with excessive beasts inside. This also might confirm her guess that weaker ants went to the fringe while stronger ants were more central to the nest. She wouldn't waste time on this and casually walked up and sliced the ant’s head off with a single swing of her claymore.
Continuing, Beth descended the ramp. She was worried about being submerged in inky darkness, but either she was system-blessed in her luck, or the ants also needed some light. There was a type of moss growing on some of the damp earthen walls and ceilings in the nest that glowed faintly. It wouldn't be great to explore or especially fight in the dim light, but it would be just barely manageable.
The ramp leveled out after somewhat under one-hundred feet, leading Beth to believe she was only a moderate distance underground based on the angle of the ramp. There was only a single tunnel in front of her, so she simply walked forward into the nest.
After about half a minute of walking, Beth entered a room roughly fifty feet across. There was only a single other doorway, leading into what looked like another plain tunnel to her right. In the center of the room were two ants, which Beth immediately used Identify on.
Common Ant Level 4
Common Ant Level 4
She slaughtered both of those ants, moving on to the next room, where she killed two more, getting a copper coin for her trouble. As she cleaned her blade and took a brief rest, she spotted another level one ant, trundling into the room from further down. She dispatched it with a quick cut before resting a minute, moving onto the third room of the first floor to find two more level four ants, killing both with some more effort, feeling a bit tired at the end.
Common Ant Level 4 slain.
Common Ant Level 4 slain.
Level acquired.
Beth was immensely satisfied. She hadn't found any treasure, but she had slaughtered what was an, admittedly, tiny army of ants and gained a ton. A new skill, a shiny new copper coin, and even a class level were pretty good for a single afternoon's work. She was tired, but the slight increase in stats from her level up had done a little to help refresh her.
