Chương 165: Limitless Path Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Nine

The two of them left after checking their balance, noting that she was already over nine thousand points in this resource drive. They made their way over to the CRA Hall, heading down to their room on the fourth basement floor where they dropped their packs and started their evening routine. After eating and resting for a minute, they bathed and took care of the rest of their cleanup before heading to bed.

The next six days proceeded the same as the last four, with the girls exploring the forest, harvesting more beast cores, and finding a few more precious herbs. They continued this pattern until the second-to-last day, when they ventured super deep into the woods. They were trying to see if they could find anything of insane value, something at or even beyond the level of the mana crystal deposit they had found, but something they would be able to get their hands on themselves and turn in.

It was this deep search that led them to a small area of three hills, hundreds of miles from the city, in the midafternoon. They cleared out a large group of wolves in the area, beasts in the low one hundred level range, before scouting the area. It was Blood's sharp senses, her nose in particular, that led them to their next find. The wolf woman had sniffed out a small opening between three rocks on the back of the rearmost of the three hills, a little cleft that was not much bigger than Blood in her human form.

The passage continued like that for a while before widening out to the point that Blood could easily move around even if she were in her purely wolf form. Both of them pulled out lightstones and attached them to their armor before continuing further down. They were careful of the new area, but still moved at a brisk clip, as they didn't have all that long left in the stage as a whole to explore. It was good that they remained alert as they moved, as they saw the first beasts before the beasts spotted them.

The two beings were something like golems, massive stone humanoids with rough, blocky edges and short, thick limbs. They were in the one hundred tens in level, with one being one hundred twelve and the other being one hundred fourteen. The golems were a great matchup for Beth, and even Blood had much more luck against hardened opponents now that she had Blood Queen's Claws. The two golems were crushed and cut into chunks in no time, and the girls continued further down.

They met more golems as they went, all of them being in that level one hundred ten to one hundred twenty range, which they were able to take care of easily. The further down they went, the thicker the mana felt to Beth, and the more numerous the golems became until suddenly, they weren't. They walked forward for another few hundred feet, the tunnel they were in now being quite broad and tall. Eventually, the tunnel opened up into a massive cavern, hundreds of feet high and more than a thousand feet across.

The place was filled with stalactites, massive shards of stone hanging from the ceiling, while only a few stalagmites jutted up from the smooth stone floor. Their lightstones weren't powerful enough to illuminate the whole space, but just in what Beth could see there were several places that glittered and glimmered in an alluring way. The glittering places were interesting, but a further survey of the room saw that it wasn't all sunshine and roses.

At the edge of the light, far enough that Blood had trouble perceiving what was out there, Beth could see a large shape lying on the ground. It was too far away for the identifying ability of her eyes to work on it, but whatever it was, it was massive. And it was moving. It was only moving a little bit, though, and Beth signaled for Blood to be silent before they moved forward, deeper into the cavern.

As they got closer, the outline of the shape became clearer and clearer, until Beth was able to tell that it was some type of lizard lying on its side. It wasn't until they snuck even closer that she was able to identify the beast, cursing mentally as she read the blurb that popped up in her vision. Level 199 Grand Earth Wyrm Beth didn't know what exactly that meant in terms of it being labeled as 'Grand,' but she did know that the beast was way, way beyond their strength level.

She signaled to Blood to back up before they slowly crept backwards towards the tunnel opening. They managed to back all the way into the entrance of the broad tunnel without waking the Wyrm up, and Beth signaled to move back around a turn in the tunnel before even speaking mentally.' We cannot wake that thing up,' Beth said immediately.' Should we just leave, Sister? We only have a day or so left total…' Blood communicated a little hesitantly.' I think we should try,'Beth said.'

We can get away if we have to, I'm confident of it. Not only that, we won't actually die. Even if we fail here, we're at stage twenty, and that's already really good. I'm willing to take chances on these later stages to get better rewards, either from the stage or the Trial itself.'' Alright, Sister. Just tell me the plan,' Blood replied.' We should try not to make too much noise. Let's see if we can scavenge any ore or any crystals that are loose first.

If we can scoop up a bunch of stuff and get out, we can sell the location for even more points afterwards,' Beth said decisively. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. With a nod in response, Blood led the way back down the tunnel and into the sprawling cavern.

Beth imagined what this place would be like fully lit up, with the glistening stalactites hanging over head, many of them embedded with ore, while there were sections of crystal and metal ores striated throughout the walls and floor. The whole place would likely be a glimmering jewel, were it not for the one or more lizard beasts with overwhelming power sleeping within.

The two split up, sneaking around the cavern while trying to be careful to avoid going near the Wyrm or shining their lights at it, though Beth didn't know if that would garner any reaction. She almost told Blood to stop and get out when she saw the sleeping form of a second Wyrm a hundred feet from the first, but she steeled herself and simply made Blood aware of the second beast. She slowly continued on her path, giving the second Wyrm a wide berth, which is how she almost stumbled into the third Wyrm.

Thankfully, she stopped herself in time, edging away from the truly massive beast, this one over level two hundred and carrying the ancient moniker. Luckily, they didn't have to be too overly concerned about remaining quiet, as the wyrms all snored quite deeply in their sleep, causing the center of the cavern to be filled with a deep, grinding, thumping, rumbling sound.

Beth had spent a little time surveying her surroundings, and now that she had a good idea of the layout of the cavern, she was ready to get to work. The fortunate thing for them, she thought, was that these beasts didn't seem to eat where they slept, as there were no corpses or remains in the cavern.

This meant the area was generally quite tidy, with Beth guessing the reason there were few stalagmites was that the wyrms had crushed most of them into powder when they moved about the cavern, or in their comings and goings. The place was so clean, in fact, that there was very little debris anywhere, though there were some few loose pieces of metal and even crystal.

Beth led the way in scooping up anything that looked even remotely valuable, once again mentally grumbling curses that they weren't strong enough to handle the wyrms, as they were leaving by far the lion's share of the loot in the walls and ceiling. Still, the dozens and dozens of pounds of metal ore and crystals the two snagged were likely worth quite a bit, and they only stopped once they had stuff their packs to bursting.

They carefully and quietly retreated to the tunnel mouth, Beth almost pissing herself as the first wyrm they had spotted started to stir just as she passed. While remaining as quiet as possible, she hurriedly dashed for the mouth of the tunnel, hearing a change in the resonance of the rumbling behind her.' Hurry, Sister! They stir!' Blood sent frantically as Beth covered the remaining distance.' Not helping!'

Beth shot back caustically, nearly plowing into Blood as she dashed into the tunnel, the two booking it at the max speed their boosts would allow now that they were out of the cavern. The noise behind them increased greatly, and Beth heard a low rumbling roar, more like a very angry groan, echo out throughout the underground spaces, but she didn't slow nor look back for even an instant.

They made rapid progress down the tunnel until they got into a section that was rather narrower, still littered with the remains of the rough stone golems they had slaughtered earlier. At least now they knew why the beasts seemed to suddenly stop and they tunnels were empty; nothing was likely to want, or was even able, to get close to the cavern Beth and Blood had just ransacked. They didn't slow down until they were close to the surface, taking a second to walk and stretch out their muscles.

Their blood was still pumping and they took a minute to let their bodies cool down a little bit before getting out of the tunnels and back into the woods. They wouldn't be able to make it back to the city before nightfall, which was annoying, but they could likely make it into the plains by the time it got dark. Not that the plains were safe, but they were certainly safer than the woods would be at night.

Due to battles, and the avoidance thereof, the trip back to the city took until after midnight, Beth having to do a bit of disgruntled arguing with the guards to let them in even with her CRA Emblem. They were eventually let in, and they made their way to the CRA Hall first and foremost. The resource collection point wasn't going to be open at one in the morning, so they might as well retreat to their room and rest before trying to turn in the last of their items and information.

They went through their nightly routine quite quickly before turning in for the night, getting a short five hours sleep before they were up just after dawn. They made their way to the resource collection point on the last day, ready to turn in the last of their stuff. It seemed they weren't the only ones with that idea, as there was actually a fairly long line in the room.

Luckily, the room was rather spacious, and the guards had brought in a third appraiser to help speed up the process of moving through everyone just in the morning. It was likely they would have to bring in even more in the afternoon or the evening, as today was the last day overall of the resource drive and everyone would be looking to make their final turn-ins by the end of the night. When it was finally their turn, they got the same female attendant as they had already turned in to several times by this point.

The two of them opened their packs and began stacking the ore and crystals they had found on the table. It was quite an impressive haul, and there was some muttering in the room as they piled the table high with rare minerals. Beth then asked the attendant if she could bring out the map again as she had information to convey. Once the attendant had the map, which she merely had to grab from behind her, Beth and Blood put their heads together again over it to locate the area with the three moderate-sized hills.

Once they had found the place and described what was there, the attendant rewarded them a whole five hundred points for it. It was a little bit of a bonus since normally the initial payout would have been less, but there was no time for anybody to confirm the place and pull out more resources as part of the resource drive. Speaking of confirming, the green crystals they had found in the lake had been gathered by a duo team of high-leveled Empowered, which resulted in a thousand points being added to Beth's total.

Once the attendant had totaled the minerals they had brought in from the day before, and tacked on the information points, she gave Beth and Blood their total. The overall amount they had gained, which included all the beast cores and sundry items they had turned in, came out to just over thirty-five thousand points, which put them in the top five for Awakened. This stage worked a little different, as they weren't teleported away immediately, but had to wait until the very end of the event to see where they placed.

With everything turned in, they wandered the city for the rest of the day, taking in the sights and sampling multiple restaurants' cuisine. It was a nice bit of unwinding while still in a stage, and they made sure to really enjoy themselves, not thinking or talking about anything serious for the whole time. They eventually made their way back to the resource collection point that night, right at the time it would normally close. It wasn't closed, of course, and was, in fact, still processing turn-ins.

It took more than an extra hour to get the last bits and pieces processed, but was still before midnight when everything was turned in and tallied. The final tallies had Beth just retaining her rank in the top five as number five, and after the score posting they were knocked out of the stage. For performance beyond the stage condition, additional rewards are granted. Reward of compounding experience granted. Applied granted reward.