LimitlessPath
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Limitless Path Chapter Two Hundred Twenty-Three
🕑 Added 2024-05-15 17:00:37 +0000 UTC"These things are basically perfect," Beth said, lifting the rather heavy gauntlets and admiring them, not missing Jaq's snort at her words. "What, you disagree?"
"They will work quite well for you, but they are far from perfect," he replied caustically. "The best equipment there is, apart from being of a much greater rarity, is crafted specifically for the person wielding it. That allows the equipment to resonate with the wielder, providing greater bonuses and adaptability, among other things."
"That's got to be crazy expensive though, right?" Beth asked with a slight frown and a raised brow.
"How expensive is your life?" Jaq retorted crankily.
"Point," Beth conceded with a shrug. "But, speaking of expense, what are we talking?"
"Six platinums," Jaq replied simply.
"Damn. Fine," Beth sighed in response, making six coins appear before making the gauntlets disappear. She equipped them briefly, just letting them fit to her hands and forearms, as well as getting an idea of how pushing mana into them worked. In short, it was very much like her sword, where she fed mana into the item in an almost intuitive manner and an effect happened. In this case, two effects happened, but she felt she could easily control what effect happened when, having either only one or both trigger at will.
"Now, boots or helmets next?" Jaq asked.
"I'm gonna have to take a raincheck, since I'm now broke, so ask her," Beth replied, hooking her right thumb at Blood.
"Your helmet will do OK for a small while longer and your boots can probably survive, but you will need to replace both. The sooner, the better," Jaq replied before turning to face Blood.
"Boots," the lupine woman growled.
Jaq produced two pairs of boots from whatever storage he used, keeping with the theme from the greaves. There was the matching set for Blood's "new" armor, as well as a set of purely leather boots. Blood looked over both for a minute before selecting the scalemail, paying Jaq another three platinum coins for the boots.
Finally, after making the unused boots disappear, he made two helmets appear. Both were somewhat strange, as the first was a fully enclosed helmet that had a full visor covering the face, fully covered the head with metal, and had a tail of armored leather that covered the back of the neck. The helmet wasn't that strange overall, just odd in the combination of medieval styles it seemed to be made from, but the second piece was definitely weird comparatively. It was a mask that fully covered the face with seemingly no other protection or even straps to secure it.
"What the hell is this?" Beth asked, lifting the mask to stare at it with a deep frown.
"That's called a mask," Jaq replied sarcastically. "It's typically used to cover the face."
"I meant, why are you presenting this as a helmet?" she clarified crossly.
"Because it is a helm," he replied stoically. At Beth's glare, he elaborated, "It has, of course, all the usual enchantments, and is very resilient. In the same manner as your current headpiece, it creates a shield of force around the user's head when they are about to be struck. Unlike your headpiece, the shield is much more powerful and can selectively stop almost any kind of attack, regardless of velocity or density."
"How much?" Blood growled out.
"Five platinums," Jaq answered.
"Done," Blood said, dropping the coins on the counter. She picked the mask up and equipped it, allowing it to contour to her face before she made it disappear into her necklace.
"Anything else?" Jaq asked with a bit of pique.
"No, not for now," Beth replied before turning and leading the way out of the shop.
Beth walked over to the elevators, but surprised Sabs when she didn't punch in their floor but took them to the ground floor of the arena. She led them out through the side door and then set course for home, Blood following along while scanning the area, with Sabs just sticking close to Beth. It didn't take very long for them to reach the neighborhood, walking in through the open gate and nodding at the man on guard duty.
Beth led them to the community center, finding that only her father was still there, going over some paperwork. She walked up to the table and stopped across from him, waiting for a minute before eventually clearing her throat while rolling her eyes. Her father started a bit and looked up, Beth noticing he reached for his weapon before realizing who it was.
"Beth! You startled me there," he said, taking a deep breath before letting it out slowly.
"Sorry. Wanted to drop these off," Beth said, holding out her hand above the table and making the four low-level communicators appear.
"And what are these?" he asked, picking one up to examine it closely.
"Four communicators," Beth explained. "They're pretty standard, not that great, but they'll work for what you guys wanted. We went down and picked them up earlier."
"These are fascinating," her father replied, already lost in examining the first device. She waited another minute before clearing her throat again, bringing his attention back to her. "Yes?"
"You hold it and push mana into it to activate it," Beth continued. "There's only four, so don't do it for fun, because I'm not buying a fifth if someone accidentally uses one."
"How much were they?" he asked.
"Twenty-five golds each," she replied, seeing his start at the price.
"Beth, that's quite a lot of money," he began but she waved him away.
"I can afford it, at least this once. But like I said, there're no more after this, so don't lose one or something," she said.
"I'll be sure to be careful," he said with a small smile. "But anyway, how are you doing, dear?"
"Fine," Beth replied with a shrug.
"Just 'fine'?" he asked with a raised brow.
"Eh, could definitely be a lot worse," Beth said with another shrug. "Kinda feel like we wasted a bunch of time recently, even though we made progress. And now I'm tired and want to rest a while and I need to be pushing forward. It's just…mildly frustrating."
"You have plenty of time," her father said, leaning back and pushing his glasses up to his forehead before rubbing his eyes with the tips of his fingers. He sat back up with a light sigh and continued, "You're eighteen, Beth. Something that still surprises me, from both ways. You've already done so much after the world changed, and gotten so strong. You're mother and I are quite proud of you, though she still struggles to express it a little.
"At the same time; you're eighteen, Beth. You're not going to keel over dead tomorrow, or the next day, or likely any time in the next century. You don't have to try to sprint through all of life in two weeks. It's OK to take time to rest and recover."
"I just want to go do," Beth said as she turned to leave. "I'll be back out there in no time."
"We're always here if you need something, dear," he said as the girls left.
"He is right, you know," Sabs piled on as they left the small community center. "You can relax for a while. It's certainly not going to kill you."
"Well, I'll try," Beth replied non-committally as they left the neighborhood.
It didn't take long for them to return to the CRA, where Sabs split off to get a little training with John in. Beth stopped in the lobby, waiting behind an older man who was asking Tazeen a long-winded series of questions. Beth leaned her hip against the counter while she waited, noting that Blood had also taken off, likely heading down to their room.
The man was eventually done with his long and overwrought questions, leaving with a small nod to Beth, possibly by way of apology. Beth straightened up and turned to face Tazeen, getting a small nod from the man.
"How can I help you today, Beth?" he asked.
"I was just a little curious about, ah, what exactly I need to report to finish the job in the kobold area?" she asked.
"Update me on your progress," Tazeen commanded in response.
Beth relayed her progress to Tazeen over the next five minutes, explaining everything they had found so far. She detailed everything, starting from what they had found with John, just in case he hadn't shared the details. She went on to explain the kobolds and the massive cavern, including the strange dome and the portal. After she was finished, Tazeen thought for a moment while seemingly taking some notes on a screen before he was ready to reply.
"You need to explore further," he said. "These things are discretionary based, but I would say you haven't found everything that you could with a scouting expedition. You do not need to discover every single item or small thing there is in the area, but we will need a more detailed report before counting the mission complete."
"Gotcha. Do I need all three missions before taking the test?" she asked.
"Yes. The tests are the final part of moving to a new rank and cannot be done before all other requirements are satisfied."
"Alright, that's all. Thanks, Tazeen," she said, giving a wave as she wandered back down the hall.
"Certainly, Miss Beth."
She made her way down to the underworks, finding Blood sprawled out sans armor and clothes when she entered their shared room. Beth joined her immediately, everything disappearing into her necklace as she sprawled out on the couch, grunting in annoyance as she saw that Blood already had firm control of the remote.
It was two days later that Sabs finally got fed up and kicked both their asses, making them clean up and get out of the room for at least a few minutes. Beth grumbled and mumbled a little but followed Sabs's directions, leading Blood out of the room in their full kit that morning. They walked into the lounge a few moments later, Beth noting a half dozen people other than Enforcers present. She made her way over to Baelvyr's table and slumped down, Blood mimicking her.
Before she could even say anything, Baelvyr commented, "Ain't ya supposed to be studyin'? Both of ya?"
"Please, we're being forced to take time off," Beth started before immediately being interrupted by Blood.
"Speak for yourself," the wolf growled.
"Look, I gotta do something," Beth growled back.
"Fine, come on, ya louts," Baelvyr rumbled at them before getting up and lumbering out of the room. Beth gave a small fist pump as she jumped up and followed him out, smirking at Blood's growling groan. They trooped down to the training room after him, where he proceeded to kick their asses all over the stage for most of the day.
Blood was perfectly content to lay around for a few weeks, but Beth dragged her up to practice with Baelvyr for at least a few hours every day. Blood would disappear after that, back to their room or to bother somebody else, while Beth would head down for another couple hours and practice her smithing. They kept that up for almost two weeks, with Beth spending plenty of time with Sabs during the course of those fourteen days.
Eventually, Beth couldn't take it anymore, feeling like they weren't making any progress and wanting to get back on her path to her Silver Emblem. She woke Blood up early that Friday morning and had her get ready before heading out for the day. They stopped very briefly to confront a cranky Jaq to get some rations for a few silvers before heading up and out of the arena, turning southward to make their way down to complete the investigation.
Two weeks of rest had done nothing to quell the kobold problem, as Beth stopped in the section of woods just north of the field where the shaft was located. The reason she had pulled up short was that there were already kobolds in the woods, the ones she could see at level eighty. She shared a quick glance with Blood, neither needing to say anything before they resumed their path, darting forward and engaging the kobolds.
They swept the entire area of kobolds, killing dozens of them before they even ventured underground. Beth wasn't sure where or when it would stop, but she was starting to get a little worried about their spread not seeming to slow down at all. She should try to get the other girls up to the point where they could at least handle the kobolds in the eighties so that there was someone else who could help take care of the area above ground.
Beth walked a slight way down the ramp and leapt off, hearing Blood grunt from behind her as she plunged down dozens of feet to slam into the ground. She smashed down with both legs, the ground cracking slightly as she bent her knees just slightly before straightening. She glanced around, seeing a level one hundred kobold running at her from one of the tunnels before glancing down and checking herself quickly for damage. The fall was probably a little further than the stage where they had first fought a giant beast and now it didn't even feel like any distance at all.
She killed the weak, at least relative to her, kobold as Blood caught up to her at the bottom, glancing at the cracked stone before briefly shaking her head. Beth just shrugged as Blood took the lead, moving down the path towards the strange new area that had replaced the labyrinth. The lupine killed everything she encountered in the tunnel with quick, precise strikes with no need for Beth to step in, the slightly shorter girl just nodding at her companion's skilled display.
They got more serious as they reached the enormous cavern, knowing there were threats in here that could very easily seriously injure them with just a small moment of carelessness. The work today would be mostly on Blood's shoulders, as she could do a far better job of quickly scouting the area while staying out of sight. Blood still needed further training in scouting, and she still lacked any stealth skills, but she was far better than Beth's random clomping around.
Beth moved slowly, trying to follow the route that Blood took. Every once in a while, the wolf reappeared by her, sharing her map data, a feature that their advanced communicators allowed, though they had to be close or in direct contact to do so. At least, they had to be close without any kind of relay nearby, they likely could transmit large chunks of data if they were in the CRA Hall or a city that had relays for communicators, but underground they had to be within spitting distance.
