Chương 119: Limitless Path Chapter One Hundred Forty-Four

When Beth had described it as 'sloppy,' it might have been an understatement. The perimeter was likely supposed to be an earthen berm with heavy pikes or thick, sharpened stakes driven in around it. Instead, it was more like a dirt bump with a handful of thin sections of tree trunk embedded about in little clusters. The interior of the camp was a handful of medium-sized tents, enough perhaps for five or six of the goblins to sleep in comfortably, more if they crammed in together.

They were arranged around the large open area with no discernable rhyme or reason, creating areas with clusters of tents and areas where a single lone tent stood despondent. The closest group of enemies to Beth and Blood was still a little distance away, sprawled haphazardly around three of the tents. They were in no discernable order nor working on any kind of relevant task, many laying around on mats or chunks of wood or stone on the muddy ground.

The large goblin leading them was a little more alert, sitting on a stump and looking around, though he was facing into the camp, his back to the perimeter and Beth and Blood's current position. Beth scanned the group with her much improved vision, taking note of more than just their lackadaisical nature. Level 55 Goblin Warrior Level 55 Hobgoblin Commander'Not very original,' Beth thought to Blood, noting all the goblins were plain old warriors.

'Strong, though,' Blood sent back.

'Let's see how many we can kill before they notice,' Beth said, slinking forward towards the closest goblin. The beasts were all either asleep or facing away from them, Beth taking advantage of that fact to get right behind her target. This particular fine specimen was sitting on what seemed to be a dirty mat, little better than the churned mud of the yard, facing towards the center of the camp.

Beth made a swift lunge forward, leaving her sword sheathed as her right arm snaked around the beast's neck, her left following to lock it into place. The goblin managed to make a very strangled gurgle as it clawed at Beth's right armored gauntlet, but it wasn't enough noise to attract any of the surrounding beasts. Beth continued her assault, clenching her arms even tighter as the beast's struggles grew more frantic.

So far, she had taken a very confrontational, direct strategy with basically all the enemies she had killed, but she saw no reason this wouldn't work. At the level range they were currently fighting in, nothing she had run up against had any kind of regeneration powers that were at all worth mentioning, let alone high-speed regeneration or flat-out healing.

Based on how her own regeneration currently worked, taking a bit of time and only usable outside of combat, Beth was pretty sure they wouldn't be encountering any fast healing for a little while yet. Maybe after level one hundred things would start to regenerate or heal in some way. The goblin's struggles grew even more frantic before they suddenly grew weaker, the beast only lightly clutching Beth's gauntlet before its hands fell down to its sides.

Beth continued crushing its neck for a few moments until the alert popped up in the corner of her vision, confirming her kill. As she let the corpse down quietly, a second alert popped up in her vision, informing her of a second kill. She quickly looked to the side to see Blood, who had pinned down one of the sleeping goblins and silently tore its throat out, a few wet gurgles not enough to draw the attention of the rest of the group.

Beth nodded to the wolf and moved forward, taking a moment to prepare before lunging and grabbing her second target. Beth was not as delicate with this beast, engaging Copper Body as her right arm circled its neck, taking advantage of every boost she had as she grabbed the top and side of its head with her left arm. Her endless hours of training, coupled with the instinctive knowledge from Unarmed, led to her knowing exactly what to do in this scenario.

Pumping mana into her muscles, not to activate a skill but just to strengthen them, she hooked her right hand onto the goblin's jaw and twisted with all her might, a rapid motion that caused an audible crunching noise, an alert popping up in her vision a moment later. She looked around quickly as she laid the corpse down gently, worried that the goblins would have heard the sound of their fellow's neck shattering, but it appeared they were still in the clear.

Beth watched as Blood finished her second kill, the greenish tint of the goblin's blood coloring the wolf's muzzle into a sort of dark brownish color. The two moved on, able to keep up the stealth surprisingly easily, aided by the fact most of the goblins were asleep, those that weren't just being rather oblivious. It also helped that none of the other groups sat or patrolled in a way that brought them close to this corner group, allowing Beth and Blood to kill all nine lesser foes without being detected.

That left only one, the hobgoblin commander, though Beth was a little hopeful it wouldn't be a particularly difficult kill. Its commander designation would mean it might not be as strong overall without others to, well, command; at least, that was Beth's current fingers-crossed idea. She signaled to Blood to let her have a crack at it, happy that even if they got discovered, they had already taken out a tenth of the enemies while barely using any strength.

Beth squelched up behind the hobgoblin as quietly as she could, stealth certainly not one of her strong suits, before she bolstered herself as much as she could with mana. In a single second she pumped her blood, muscles, and skin full of magic before leaping on the hobgoblin, crushing its neck while locking her grip firmly in place. This beast struggled far more than the others, Beth silently cursing to herself that her assumptions about the commander class were wrong.

She had hoped the class would be physically a little weak, the only additional strength coming from the beast being a stronger type as a hobgoblin. She wrestled with the commander as she dragged it backwards, Blood shadowing them closely while the wolf also paid attention to the rest of the camp, ready to intervene as soon as another group noticed their assassination attempt.

Beth wasn't faring as well with this enemy, finding she was having much more trouble crushing its throat than what she had previously done, the hobgoblin just that much stronger. The higher level of the enemies was also probably actually coming into play here, now that she was struggling with something stronger than the most basic of beasts. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Having pulled the being back to the corner of the camp, she continued to struggle, not making a huge amount of headway for a moment. She started to get a little worried as the battle became messier and noisier, not wanting to attract more enemies as she gripped the hobgoblin tightly, putting even more force into her arms. She knew it wasn't enough and forced more mana out of her reservoir and into her muscles, not activating any of her current skills but focusing on increasing her muscle density and strength.

At the same time, the hobgoblin had managed to grab its belt knife and was attempting an eviscerating strike, the first couple bouncing off the scales of Beth's armor. Beth flooded her skin and flesh with even more mana, pumping all she could into Copper Body when the knife slashed through just above her right hip, digging more than an inch into her side before stopping.

Beth didn't let up, the hobgoblin trying to twist the knife with only marginal success, Beth's flesh already too powerful to allow such a move so easily. She concentrated even more mana into her body, overwhelming her muscles with what she called on, squeezing on the neck in her grasp twice as hard.

Magic let her do things that were otherwise improbable, impossible, unbelievable; things like choking out a massive green humanoid, Beth's muscles rippling as her joints popped and cracked, her whole frame swelling nearly an inch. The popping of her joints was joined after another handful of seconds by the snapping and crunching of the hobgoblin's vertebrae, the beast letting out a hissing gurgle as it died.

Beth had apparently become a little too strong, having tried to choke the beast out but instead totally pulverizing its neck with just her armored right arm. She panted heavily as she let the corpse down slowly, making sure not to make any noise here at the finish line, before taking a step back and kneeling in the slush. She had given up the inch she had just gained, back to normal as she pulled the knife out of her side with a jerk and a suppressed grunt.

She gave Blood a quick signal to play lookout while she closed her eyes, dropping into meditation and focusing on the wound. It took only a few minutes with her recovery skill at the max level of copper to fully heal the wound, her powerful meditation skill supplying enough mana that she was actually a tiny bit better off in that department when the wound was healed. She checked her messages quickly before getting up, curious as to what happened that suddenly let her exert so much more power at the end.

Skill Muscle Enhancement Copper[0] learned. Under duress, in response to a pure will, Muscle Enhancement and Copper Body are merging. Muscle Enhancement and Copper Body have successfully merged into a greater skill. Skill Beastly Body Copper[2] learned. Level 55 Hobgoblin Commander slain Beth was a bit flabbergasted, not having expected to create a new skill on the very first stage of the trial.

Not that she thought she had really created a new skill as, referencing back to her talks with Baelvyr, it was likely an existing skill people knew about already but she hadn't yet heard of. Considering it combined a first-tier skill with a second-tier skill of reasonable strength, it was likely to be at least second tier. She quickly checked the description of the skill to see if it had any more insight to provide. Beastly Body Copper[2] {You have acquired the strength and toughness of beasts. Your muscles are naturally slightly stronger and body slightly more durable. Using this skill, infuse your body with mana to increase the effects.} Well, thought Beth, that's certainly something. The new skill looked like it was a combination of the two old ones, obviously, but likely more powerful.

Just having the skill made her stronger and more resistant to damage and, even though the language mentioned 'slightly,' the previous skills had almost no passive effect to speak of at copper level, so 'slightly' was already a great improvement. Now wasn't really a great time, but Beth definitely needed to play around with this skill and test it a bunch; she needed to know its exact benefits and limits.

She slowly stood up, finding the pain in her side, which Pain Tolerance had made rather manageable, to be entirely gone. She nodded to Blood, signaling she was ready, so the wolf led the way forward, quietly padding through the goblin's rather sloppy camp. The next group of goblins was even more isolated, sitting in a large group of tents on the eastern side of the camp.

Beth and Blood were able to get away with assassinating nearly the entire group, Beth finding that surprise coupled with her new skill allowed her to quickly shatter the goblin's spines before they even realized what was happening. Their luck didn't entirely hold for this group, as one of the last goblins making a particularly loud death noise alerted the hobgoblin before Beth could grab him.

Beth was still on top of him in a second, letting mana course through her muscles as she tackled the beast as it attempted to draw the short sword on its waist. The two went down in a heap, but Beth's training prevailed again, as she was easily able to get the mount on the enemy. She started raining down enhanced blows with her heavy gauntlets immediately, the hobgoblin too busy trying to defend its ugly mug to cry out.

They were certainly making more noise than previously, but none of the other residents of the camp came to investigate as Beth slowly turned the hobgoblin's skull into meat paste. She let up when she heard the notification pop up in her mind, checking to see that she had managed to pulverize enough of the enemy's brain to kill it. She hopped up a little too quickly, still not used to her enhanced muscles, popping almost six feet off the ground with a simple hop.

Doubly luckily, the members of the camp were not at all observant, not noticing the tall warrior woman appear briefly above the surrounding tents. Beth landed in a crouch, giving Blood a sheepish look as the wolf narrowed her eyes at the young woman's antics. The two continued circling the perimeter, taking out another two groups with their mostly stealthy tactics, Beth having to smash in another hobgoblin skull before they were done.

They had now killed four of the ten groups in the camp and Beth was a little more confident in their odds in taking the whole camp if they made a mistake. Blood could outmaneuver the entire camp on her own, and Beth was only really worried about her stamina in a fight against such a group. They moved on to the fifth group they would take out, managing to almost wipe the group before things went south.

They were around to the western edge of the camp at this point, and the hobgoblin saw Blood finishing a kill before they could get the whole group. This one cried out, a rather shrill scream as it drew its short sword, getting the blade out before Beth could get to it. The racket attracted the rest of the camp, to Beth's frustration, and they were now in the thick of it.

The only fortunate thing was it took some of the groups some time to get themselves together and respond, allowing Beth and Blood to finish group five and start killing group six before they were swarmed. They had some practice already with these kinds of fights from the Endless Trial, not allowing themselves to get overwhelmed even when surrounded, Beth using the tents to help corral and trap the enemies.

The goblins were reluctant to just bull through the structures, and Beth was also able to smash the beasts into the hide constructs to tangle them up and get some more breathing room. It made the fight a good bit easier, especially as Beth adjusted to using her new strength with her sword, sweeping the blade in an arc around herself, knocking back and down a whole group of enemies.