Chương 126: Limitless Path Chapter One Hundred Fifty-One

And what a terrible stage it was. They appeared in a small room that contained only a small table with a bowl placed upon it. Within this bowl was a small pile of marbles which Beth didn't need any help in figuring out, as the description helpfully popped up when she looked at them. Water Adaption Pearl {Consuming one of these pearls allows the wearer to breathe in water for a period of forty-eight hours. Additionally, it allows the imbiber to exert a greater control and freedom while submerged.}"Fucking hell," Beth cussed, crossing her arms as she stared at the pearls.' What is wrong?' Blood asked.

"It's a stupid fucking water level. They're notoriously bad in video games and even in novels, and I guess we couldn't go forever without encountering one. This is going to really suck. A lot," Beth explained, glaring at the little table as if it had personally offended her which, in a way, it had.' Well, maybe the next stage will be better…' Blood commiserated. Beth glowered as she grabbed the four pellets from the table, casually tossing one into Blood's massive gaping maw before tossing two into her pouch.

The last she tossed in her own mouth, swallowing the dark blue pearl with a grunt, feeling it travel down her esophagus towards her stomach. It never reached her guts, however, feeling like it dissolved with a burst before her lungs suddenly had a feeling of heat followed by intense cold. The cold spread from her core to her limbs, causing her muscles to ache before they seemed to cramp for a second. Her muscles relaxed before her skin seemed to change, becoming slightly smooth and… odd feeling.

Glancing over, she found a strange sheen had come over Blood's fur as well, the large lupine not looking particularly happy with the effects, if her scrunched eyes and slight snarl were anything to go by. The small room they were in was made of a smooth, light brown stone, and had only two other distinguishing features apart from the table and bowl. There was a small light on the ceiling that illuminated the room and an opening in the floor in the corner that glimmered faintly.

Beth walked over and glanced at Blood, who just shrugged as best as a wolf could in response, before she leapt into the water. She noted as she impacted and fell below the floor that the water was a little cool, but the lower temperature didn't bother her. She found that the area was dimly lit, but Beth's new eyes were easily able to pierce the darkness for an appreciable distance.

She also discovered that her heat vision worked to an extent in the water, first by the large heat mass of Blood entering the water beside her, then second by the armored fish that swam up to them. The fish was not friendly, with heavy scales and large teeth in a protruding jaw, and the jaw attempted to take a quick bite out of Beth as soon as the creature was close. Beth responded with a straight punch right to what amounted for a face on the beast, identifying it as she did so.

Level 62 Ravenous Gar Beth dug in her mind for a minute before remembering that Gar, at least on earth, were a huge fish that lived in rivers and had been doing so since the age of the dinosaurs. The beast versions of them had slightly more fucked-up mouths, with much larger teeth, but were essentially the same long, heavily scaled fish with an attitude. If this was their opener, she wasn't exactly thrilled to find out what else was waiting in the depths for them.

The gar returned immediately, beasts only being fueled by hunger and anger, whichever of the two being more dominant determining how fast and hard the creature was currently attacking. Beth found that responding to the angry fish was much easier than she had expected, the pearl having done a good job of easing their movements in the water. It wasn't all good news, as she found her un-enhanced strikes didn't deliver as much force to the target as she estimated they should.

She assumed that the reason was the pearl wasn't really some sort of ultra-rare, supremely powerful treasure that would just eliminate the disadvantages of a land-based being in the water, instead merely cancelling out some of the worst. Fortunately, the last piece she found out was that their skills seemed hardly affected, as she was able to deliver a massive amount of damage when she infused the next strike against the beast with Crush.

That hit wasn't a lethal blow, but it was enough to seriously concuss the creature and allow Beth to slide forward through the water, impressed at the ease with which she slipped through the liquid. She dished out a series of devastating blows to the fish's head, the fourth one another empowered strike that dealt lethal damage, the notification of the beast's death popping up for Beth.

Blood seemed to adapt to the environment rather rapidly, moving quickly and easily through the water, though she did struggle very slightly with navigating, as her eyes hadn't been enhanced in any way. It turned out not to be too much of a problem, as the enemies of the stage were all too eager to come and find them, and Blood had enough range to see them coming.

The more frustrating part was that some of the beasts were fairly decent at attacking from their blind spots, but the two girls were generally able to cover each other, with Beth having a slightly easier time twisting around in the water to scan their surroundings. Apart from the gar, there were a number of fish-type beasts that presented as pike and sturgeon, though with much nastier teeth and tougher flesh than what the same fish as an animal would have.

There were also a handful of octopus beasts that had powerful crushing strength in their limbs and could shoot jets of water from the very tips of each leg. Beth was certainly not into tentacles and made her extreme displeasure known with heavy hammer-blows from her gauntleted fists, pulping all the creatures they swam into.

The most annoying beings by far, however, were a type of vaguely fish-like water sprites that were small, agile, and, due to their spritely nature, took reduced damage from purely physical strikes, meaning both Beth and Blood had to really work to take even one of the numerous creatures down. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The stage was nothing but a tedious slog, and the two girls spent hour after hour navigating the dark, cold, swirling currents as they killed beast after beast. Everything they encountered for nearly a day was in the mid-sixties in terms of level, and the near continuous battle against beasts roughly ten levels higher than them did wonders for their own levels. Beth wasn't sure if there was still a little tampering with the stages, but she would have assumed the beasts would be tougher.

Level fifty was supposed to be a rather large jump in the power of beasts, with every ten levels afterwards being another minor threshold. Beth and Blood being in the mid-fifties, they should have been having more difficulty than they were against enemies between sixty-four and sixty-seven but, other than the squirrelly sprites, they were able to take out the other beasts with only a little bit of struggle, even when they had to fight small groups of enemies.

They did eventually find a boss, which Beth wasn't even sure would have been the point of the stage by this time, but she was glad for it. Doubly so because the boss was a massive crustacean that waddled along the 'floor' of the underwater area, with a large, thick shell on its back and two arms that were very similar to what a lobster might have.

It was able to spit a concentrated stream of water from its mouth and punch with its arms with a massive amount of force but, unfortunately for the boss, it just wasn't fast enough, even considering it was at level sixty-eight. Beth and Blood were both able to run, or rather, swim circles around the boss with ease. What's more, Beth was able to grab onto its shell from the side, staying out of the range of its claws and mouth.

That was really it as, when they figured out the beast couldn't hit Beth or shake her loose, she simply charged up a good handful of Crush -empowered strikes in a row, smashing through the boss's shell and its soft body underneath. They were blessedly returned to the array room shortly after, though Beth couldn't really complain too much, as the nearly twenty-six hours of constant fighting had propelled them three whole levels, bringing both girls up to fifty-eight.

Beth absent-mindedly distributed her stat points as she led Blood over to the counter, happy the wolf could now handle her points on her own. The first thing she had to say to the woman she stopped in front was a slight bit critical.

"A water level? Really?" The woman quirked one corner of her mouth up slightly and Beth could see the laugh lines by her eyes crinkle. She didn't take too much amusement in Beth's suffering, however, saying, "We are aware of the criticisms leveled at such stages by those not of aquatic species. It is still a valuable testing ground."

"Complaint noted and discarded?" Beth responded with a slightly quirked brow and the hint of a frown on her lips.

"Apologies," the woman replied, Beth noting she didn't actually deny the allegation.

"Hey, like, I wanted to ask if the difficulty is adjusted down even after stage five? The enemies in that level seemed a little too easy, considering they weren't just above fifty, but sixty even."

"I believe the water level is a slight exception for people of a land-based species, even with the pearls. Also, from what I can tell, you have slightly high stats and skills for your level, which would also show in the early stages."

"Makes sense, I guess. I think we need a break after the water level before stage eight," Beth said before narrowing her eyes.

"Unless there's a water stage part two?"

"There is currently only one entirely water-based stage in a full trial run, though other stages may include water as part of them," the woman replied, a slight grin on her face.

"That's fine. Thanks," Beth replied with a nod before leading Blood out of the array room and back to their suite. They had a quick shower and went down for a few hours of sleep before heading out and grabbing some food, trying yet another of the restaurants before they returned to the array room. Beth requested the start of stage eight at the counter before walking over with Blood to one of the array Warders. The portal was a brighter yellow, and they entered as soon as the Warder gave the signal.

The transition was nearly instantaneous, Beth's vision flashing bright white for a moment before sensation returned. They found themselves standing in an elaborately decorated room with three different doors leading outwards. The room was carpeted in a deep red with golden sconces on the walls providing light. There were a few pieces of furniture in the room made of white wood with golden trim and accents, in particular around the back of the chairs and seats.

The one small table had a pattern inlaid in gold on the top that Beth didn't recognize, but the wealth on display was rather clear. Beth and Blood glanced around before Beth moved to the nearest door, a thing of heavy wood carved in a baroque fashion and painted white, with golden accents gilt across the surface. Opening the door, she checked to find a long hallway with a heavy carpet runner down the center, a dark red with golden accents along the edges.

Closing the door again, she moved to the next only to find the same thing, with the third and final door yielding an identical result. Beth was starting to get a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, but decided to test her current hunch with Blood before jumping to any conclusions. They headed out the left door, Beth leaving it open behind them as they made their way down the well-lit hallway.

They walked for a short while before coming to a set of armor stands in the hallway, one on each side of the carpet runner facing each other, each with a sword clasped in both hands. Beth stopped and looked at both the armor sets before glancing back at Blood, the wolf giving a rather articulate raised-eyebrow look. Beth shrugged before turning and continuing forward, not at all surprised as the armor sets came alive and stepped down from their short plinths while bringing their swords up to the ready position.

"Oh no," Beth said in a deadpanned voice.

"The statues came alive. I never could have seen this coming. How shocking." Beth slid to the right as the statues swung at her, lithely dodging their blades as she lashed out with a blisteringly fast left straight-punch, crushing the rightmost statue's left elbow. She proceeded to dance around the two armors, crushing them into scrap as they failed to find her with their blades. She checked their levels as they were so crimped and crumpled that they had trouble moving at all.

Level 68 Echo of a Knight It was the first time Beth had seen an appellation like that, where the creature had some kind of special name that seemed to act as more a category than a type/species classification. The knights seemed much tougher than anything she had fought before, it taking her some considerable effort to cripple the two suits of armor. Their skill, however, was rather lacking compared to many sword-wielding enemies she had faced so far.

She estimated they were about the middle of Apprentice, likely not more than five, meaning she had no problem outclassing them with her Journeyman skill level. Blood participated in the kills to at least a minimal extent, allowing her to get a decent portion of the experience from the two level sixty-eights. Even Blood experienced the difference in levels that they were dealing with again, having to spend some considerable effort to damage the metal of the knight's armor.

Beth once again countered these enemies rather well, and was considerably more skilled than them, but even for her it took some effort, and quite a bit of time, to kill just two enemies. She could understand the difficulty most people faced in their first and hell, sometimes second and third, journey to level one hundred. The biggest problem that beasts would present, especially to new adventurers, was always their level of toughness.