Chương 154: Limitless Path Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Nine

The crocodiles were the clear lords of the swamp, as they grew more numerous and higher in level. The girls also observed them attacking a number of other beasts and tearing them apart, though there was a kind of armored ape that lived deeper in the heart of the swamp that could give the crocs a run for their money. A group of apes would lure a crocodile into attacking, which they would dodge, before pounding its head and legs with stones.

Sometimes the croc would tear several of the apes apart, forcing them to retreat while more crocs swarmed to devour the meat and even fight each other, but other times the apes would score critical blows that wounded or even outright killed a croc. They were no more gracious in victory, hauling the reptilian corpses up into the trees and tearing them apart quite viciously, devouring the bloody meat in great gulps with much snarling.

The apes were a roadblock in their traversal of the trees, but even as a group they just weren't able to pose that much of a threat to the girls. Not at first, anyway, as the two were easily able to kill even a group of ten, but the deeper they went, the stronger everything became. The groups went from small and scattered to large tribes that lived near each other and eventually to massive colonies that swarmed the trees.

The point where they had a hundred apes, armored with a type of dark brown scales and sporting massive fangs, charging them as a group, led by a group of elite variants hurling massive rocks and mudballs was the point where they retreated. The terrain was simply too treacherous for them to tackle at this point, likely needing better skills and equipment to make the battles easier.

It was also a place where Beth's Presence was practically worthless, as using it would likely not even take care of one of the larger groups, leaving her exhausted in dangerous territory with only Blood to protect her.

She felt like she was missing a bunch of things with her use of her Presence, memories from Liveria tickling the back of her mind about the vast potential of the ability, but she was still too new to it to really dig deep into its secrets, and Liveria's information remained frustratingly elusive at times. They had spent hours traveling deep into the swamp, but they made a little better time returning to the city, as they knew the route and what to look out for.

They had killed a handful of beasts over level one hundred at the heart of the swamp, and Beth turned in the beast cores they had harvested to a collection point in the guard barracks before they set out westward. The half dozen cores were received with much appreciation, but Beth had no idea how much credit they were actually worth, hoping that they could find much more amenable grounds where they were currently headed.

They passed through the agricultural lands around the city very quickly, pleasantly surprised to find a decently maintained road heading west beyond the fields. Even though the area out that way was considered highly dangerous, the terrain was less harsh than the swamp, and the natural bounty that could be found much greater. They were heading towards a range of massive mountains in the distance, the peaks capped year-round with snow and ice while beasts roamed the slopes in great numbers.

Even before they reached that area, they would encounter places with many different beasts in somewhat more hospitable terrain. The first area after the fields was a dense forest, the girls glad for the road that cut straight and true through the center. The forest was still plenty dangerous, even on the road, as roving bands of beasts, including wolves, deer, giant mantises, and even bears would cross the road with little concern for the possibility of encountering sapient beings upon it.

The enemies started in the high seventies in level, but rapidly progressed into the eighties before hitting around ninety by the heart of the forest. The levels didn't increase from there, but they didn't drop much on the far side of the forest, likely due to the fact that that part of the forest faced higher pressure from the more dangerous hills further west. The hills had only sparse copses of trees dotting them, mainly covered in tall grasses and thin brush.

There was a small waystation at the edge of the forest, a little fortified area on the first hill outside the forest that had a high wall and a half dozen buildings contained within. It was late into the night by the time Beth and Blood reached the safety of the waystation, and they were allowed to stay the rest of the night for two silvers each, something that mattered little to them but would be a steep price for quite a few young Wayfarers.

They set out early the next morning after just a couple hours sleep, eating a huge breakfast from the small kitchen at the waystation that charged them a silver each for all they could eat eggs, bacon, hash browns, and oats. It was highway robbery, almost literally, but they still paid the money, able to fairly easily make up that amount fighting level one hundred plus beasts, as they had a fairly high chance of a silver coin drop every kill and when that didn't happen, they still got a few dozen coppers.

They progressed on into the hills, having somewhat wasted a day in trying a different direction, but it was a valuable experience. Beth wouldn't discount the reports of others, but she liked to find out things for herself and she liked to explore places even when people had a lot of information on them. She was constantly finding things that others missed, often because they didn't even attempt to go into areas where the beasts were gathered most thickly.

They worked their way westwards, progressing into the hills as they made for the mountains in the distance. The range stretched across the entire horizon, white-capped peaks kissing the sky as they held onto deep snows year-round. Every peak in the range was massive, with broad slopes leading gradually upwards, coated in dense forests and likely full of beasts and hidden treasures.

Beth hoped they could get there before their time ran short, but they would have to really push, as the size made the mountains appear to devour the entire horizon, but they were likely still a significant distance away. The hills were already a tougher zone, with the beasts mostly in the nineties, though that wasn't true for everything. Even in higher leveled areas, they would occasionally stumble into creatures that were well below the overall average.

They would also sometimes stumble on animals, which could level up and grow in size and strength, but were much like animals used to be before Earth was integrated, not displaying the unreasonable aggression of beasts nor the cunning evil of monsters. Two hours of moving through the hills, fighting occasionally when a group of beasts intercepted their path, led them into an area where the beasts were fairly uniformly level one hundred and just above.

They were now into a pretty good territory for their mission, as they were consistently stripping beast cores out of their kills. Most of them were just above the diameter of an American quarter, little spheres of energy that had several uses. Turning them in not only served as proof that they were hunting quite a few level one hundred and over beasts, but their value also helped contribute to their score for the stage. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"Have we gotten any closer to the mountains?" Beth asked as they rested for a brief minute after a fight.

"I have no idea," Blood replied with a shrug, something she did often now that she had a human form.

"I think we're closer, but they're so big I can't really tell. Your special eyes don't let see it any better?"

"No, my eyes don't give me all that much better far vision," Beth replied while rolling said special eyes.

"Heat vision and being able to see item information, as well as it working like basic Identify now, is all I've got."

"Well, I don't know how big this world is or anything, but we've traveled pretty damn far and the mountains look…slightly bigger?" Blood said.

"Let's just slowly move towards them. We've got to be able to get back and turn in everything we collect before the seven days are up." The two continued on towards the mountains, moving at a sedate pace, as they were already encountering plenty of beasts that they could kill for the stage. Blood started to actively seek out more beasts, her nose back to full working order now that they were out of the swamp.

In her human form she still had her powerful lupine senses, her sense of smell far stronger that Beth's even passively, let alone when Blood was actively sniffing something out. By the end of the second day they were slightly closer to the mountains and had a whole pile of beast cores, plus some sections of hide that Blood felt were good enough to keep. They also had taken a handful of fangs and claws from some mountain lion beasts and a stone lizard that seemed to enhance their claws with metal over time.

Having seen the stone lizards eating not just rocks, but rocks containing large amount of mana iron ore, they had some idea of how the lizards' claws developed that metallic composition. They found an overhang to rest under for a few hours break late into the night. Beth was easily capable of operating in the dark, especially with the light of two moons shining down on the hills, and Blood wasn't much behind even without enhanced eyes, but they did need to take a little time to restore their energy.

The big problem with their stamina would remain even after getting meditation to Silver, Beth having some idea from the knowledge sitting in the back of her head that even a good meditation skill would need to reach Gold before it had any significant stamina restoration capabilities. To restore stamina extremely quickly, they would have to improve their meditation to high Gold or even to low Platinum, something that was quite far away at this point.

Everything being equal, sleep wasn't going to be leaving their schedule any time soon, even considering their ever-increasing END. They took turns with sleep that night, Beth staying up for several hours first, as her END was a decent bit higher, meaning she could keep running for a while beyond when Blood could if she hadn't used her Presence actively. Blood woke after four hours and stood guard for about three and a half while Beth rested up.

Blood had to kill a couple of weird flying beasts that were almost like manta rays that flew through the air as easily as normal rays glided through the water. The fights weren't all that challenging for the young wolf and didn't even cause enough disturbance to wake Beth before she was fully rested. The next two days proceeded the same as the second, with the girls moving through the hills towards the mountains, seeing the craggy peaks loom larger and larger as they journeyed.

Day five they stopped progressing forward and instead moved laterally; considering that they had set a rather brisk pace, they wanted time to make it back to the city before the stage ended. It turned out that that lateral movement was a pretty good idea as well, as they found a cave at the end of the morning full of old stone lizards.

The claws from them would be rather valuable, and the reason they were gathered in the cave in the first place was a high concentration of valuable ores, a little of which Beth and Blood grabbed for some extra points for the stage. Beth could see how the stage might be difficult for some, especially any young Wayfarer that had been overly pampered to that point, even if they had trained hard.

Having to run around in the wilderness for days on end while seeing to your own needs and constantly fighting beasts wasn't something many would be that used to. Beth and Blood already had rather ample experience with such practices, and Blood didn't seem to mind it at all, while Beth was fine if she could get back to civilization every few weeks. She was a little disappointed they never made it to the snow capped peaks now resting at their backs as they returned to the city, but they had a mission to complete.

She was quite eager to start journeying and exploring again on her own time, at her own pace after the trial was over. Much as she appreciated the rewards, and the great way they were treated while they were undertaking the trial, she was eager to be free to make her own schedule again. Not only that, Blood would have even more freedom to come and go as she liked now that she had her humanoid form, and Beth was eager to give her all the choices she could possibly want.

Their second and, amusingly, final turn-in was a bit of an entertaining sight. There was a room at the front of the guard barracks specifically used for interacting with members of the city and visitors who wanted to contribute, and it had a few people within other than the guards working the desk when Beth and Blood entered. They waited their turn, stepping up to the desk when it was time before pulling out armful after armful after armful of materials to turn in.

The faces of everyone in the room comically morphed over time as the table was piled to literally overflowing with beast cores, beast materials, and semi-rare ores. It was apparently an exceptional harvest, doubly so considering it was done in less than seven days. The stage ended as soon as the guards in the barracks had tallied their haul, apparently enough to earn them a single extra level of reward, which was still quite a bit considering just how much experience was needed per level for them now.

They had leveled once during their hunting as well, putting them both at level one hundred five now. They found themselves back in the array room, a little surprised to see a crowd had formed at the back.

"What's that all about?" Blood asked.

"Let's just go see," Beth responded calmly, leading the way to the back, where they found the dozen participants observing a single screen. It was someone who had chosen not to private their match and was in the middle of stage sixteen, which Beth and Blood had done some time before. The crowd had gathered not due to the difficulty, but due to the ease with which the man was defeating the groups of bosses.

Even as Beth watched, he made a movement with his hands that she couldn't quite follow, bright flashes glimmering from the edge of his sword as it sliced apart two bosses that were both poised to take a bite out of him. The competence and skill with which he wielded his blade was extraordinary, Beth betting that he was at very minimum an Expert-class swordsman already, but he could even be a Master.

She had no idea how someone of his apparent age, not looking much older than them, had such an unbelievable level of skill, but she was only further shocked the more she watched. He started the next round immediately upon slaying the fifth boss of the round he had just been on and, while the bosses were a different grouping than what Beth and Blood had faced, an interesting tidbit to know, they were still of a level to be in one of the double-digit rounds.

The man had already cleared the stage and was doing as Beth and Blood had done previously, working his way towards a full clear of all twenty rounds. The next five bosses spawned in a loose circle around him, and he showed no fear or hesitancy at all, instead slowly walking towards the nearest one. As the boss charged him, the man drew his blade and slashed in a single, fluid motion, a line of light meeting the boss's neck.

Blood fountained into the air as the man twisted his wrist, slashing again, and again, and a fourth time, practically dissecting the beast before him, a casual demonstration of skill and expertise that appeared effortless. Beth and Blood stayed to watch for a time longer, in awe of the man's prowess, as he demolished every single round until the end of the stage with ease.

He never paused nor stopped, taking no breaks for the next six rounds, cutting apart the remaining thirty highly powerful enemies with the ease of a skilled chef dicing vegetables. He returned the array room a moment after defeating five beasts that appeared to be some type of Earth Dragon, seeing the group gathered in the back to watch his stage, many now staring at him.

He gave a short, quick bow to his assembled audience before turning on his heel and striding from the room, Beth shaking herself free of her reverie a moment later and doing the same, heading back to their suite to rest for a couple hours.