Chương 184: Limitless Path Chapter Two Hundred Eight

"Damn, I really want one of them now," Sabs said, staring at Beth's fully armored form as they walked.

"Like I said, I'm sure we can get you one," Beth said.

"What else did you two get, by the way?" Sabs asked.

"Blood got her new eyes and a special weapon," Beth answered, gesturing to Blood's eyes before the lupine woman made her new claws appear briefly.

"I got a new skill that I'm going to need to practice with, as well as an elixir."

"Another elixir," Sabs said, wrinkling her nose at the memory.

"Yeah, and it was just as bad as the last time," Beth said.

"It was worse," Blood commented, her own nose wrinkling in response.

"And, of course, the necklaces," Beth said, not wanting to discuss their rewards too in-depth in the hallway.

"It doesn't quite seem like a lot," Sabs said as they stepped out of the elevator and moved across the arena floor.

"Trust me, it's a lot," Beth replied.

"The elixir alone was probably something worth insane amounts, like billions of dollars kind of value. And it's not something you can easily get your hands on, it's basically impossible to find, so it's more like priceless."

"And the storage necklaces," Blood growled out.

"They're basically indestructible and have insane storage capacity." They entered the lounge after that, Beth observing that it wasn't nearly as full this early in the morning as it had been the previous afternoon, but there were still a number of people apart from the Enforcers present. Beth slouched over to Baelvyr's table in the corner, something difficult to do in armor, but she still managed that type of lazy walk somehow.

She pulled out what she still thought of as her usual chair and sat down, ignoring the grunt from Baelvyr, glancing at Blood and Sabs as they took seats themselves.

"What're ya doin' today?" Baelvyr rumbled as he drank from a huge tankard that had a smell between coffee and chili peppers.

"What's in that?" Beth responded with a question of her own.

"It's called 'Hunting Spice'," he replied.

"Is it something we could drink or would that kill us?" she asked.

"The taste'd probably kill ya," he replied.

"What do you mean 'We'?" asked Sabs at the same time.

"What, did you try it?" Beth asked.

"No, and no thanks," she said, scrunching her nose. Baelvyr made another mug appear which was smaller, though it was still nearly the size of Beth's head, and made a large carafe with a little steam wafting out the top appear. He poured about four ounces into the mug and slid it in front of Beth with a small flick from a single finger, the mug making a slight grinding sound as it shuttled across the wood.

She picked it up and stared at the slightly reddish-brown contents a little dubiously before taking a deep whiff, getting a much stronger hint of the spice note now that it was basically right in her nose.

"I thought you said not to scratch the tables," she quipped before taking a deep quaff. The taste was both as she had expected, black coffee and chili spice mixed together, but it also had a savory quality that was particularly strong on the aftertaste once she had swallowed the first gulp, wincing just slightly.

"That bad?" asked Sabs.

"No," she replied before clearing her throat slightly.

"Just didn't realize it was surface-of-the-sun levels of hot."

"Gotta have it hot," Baelvyr grumbled. Beth took another massive swing, drinking down almost half what she had been given before saying, "I need to check out how the neighborhood and the family are doing, obviously. Then I might look around a little today, so don't wait around for me."

"I got plenty a' shit to do, girlie, don't worry about that," he replied. Before anyone could say anything else she heard a shouted "Beth!", turning her head to see both of her sisters had just entered the room. Kim sprinted to her while Soph walked in a dignified manner, though Beth did note her steps were much faster than even her stats would dictate. Beth stood as Kim got to her, knowing what was going to happen and not wanting to try to deal with it while sitting down.

She turned out to be exactly right as Kim threw herself on Beth, wrapping her arms around her neck and hugging her tightly. Beth sighed but hugged her back in response, lifting her off the ground and holding her in the air for a few moments before setting her back down. As soon as Kim was on her feet and had stepped a single step back to look Beth over, Beth moved forward to grab Soph in a giant hug purely because she knew it would massively annoy the tiny terror.

"What the fuck?! Get off me!" Soph cried out, a little muffled from being squished by Beth, who just laughed in response. She gave Soph a final squeeze, eliciting a rather high-pitched squawking sound from her, before setting her down. Soph attempted to punch her in the gut in retaliation, and her STR had certainly improved in the time Beth had been gone, but even discounting Beth's armor, it wasn't enough to make her flinch. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen.

Please report the infringement. The two newcomers sat down at the table before Soph turned to the woman next to her, asking, "Who's this?" Before anyone could answer, Blood leaned over and grabbed Soph in a hug, growling a little as she did so. Soph froze and Beth started laughing with Sabs having a small giggle, which turned into uproarious laughter as Soph panicked and protested, trying to push the much taller and stronger woman away.

"Blood, enough," Beth finally said, managing to contain her laughter for a moment. The wolf immediately pulled back, letting Soph get a breath in again, smiling happily at the girl the whole while, which caused Beth even more laughter.

"Blood?! You're Blood?" Soph cried out, looking first over to Beth then back to Blood, jaw hanging wide.

"That's me!" Blood responded eagerly, going in for another hug and getting held off by Soph.

"She's kinda into you, by-the-way," Beth said with a laugh.

"Can you stop for a minute!?" Soph exclaimed at Blood, causing the lupine woman to sit back, her ears drooping.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to yell," she then said instantly, reaching up to pat Blood's head, instantly perking her up.

"Yeah, at level one hundred, surprise, surprise, sentient beasts get a humanoid form called 'Humanization'," Beth explained, grinning at Soph and Blood's interaction.

"That's crazy! How come we didn't know about that?" Kim asked, eyes widening as she stared at Blood.

"And also, am I crazy, or do her eyes look a little…uh…different?"

"I guess it's a bit of a secret, moreso from us compared to others, but the Enforcers were having a bit of a laugh at our expense," Beth explained, giving Baelvyr a glare that bounced right off.

"The eyes are from the thing we just got done with; they were one of Blood's rewards for how well we did."

"What do they do?" asked Soph, poking at Blood's cheek just below her right eye.

"They let me see more information than regular Identify right now, as well as see the information on items. Other than that, I think they'll let me see through illusions much easier, but I just got them, and I don't really know that much," Blood explained, actually leaning into the finger poke. Any physical contact she got she seemed to relish, even something as small and silly as a little poke.

"So, you're back, now?" Kim asked.

"For a while, at least," Beth replied with a shrug.

"I've got to do missions for the CRA now, and I don't know where that'll take me."

"I don't know that we got three for ya," Baelvyr cut in.

"We might have to send ya to one or two of the other Halls to get all three missions."

"You just got back and now you're doing missions? What missions? What are you talking about?" Kim asked, brow furrowed and frowning slightly.

"It's a requirement for Silver," Soph said with her nose in the air.

"The emblem, that is. Starting at Silver, you can accept missions from the CRA and to get to Silver you have to do three Silver-level missions."

"Thanks, Ms. Know-it-all," Beth replied with an eyeroll.

"Good to see the more things change, the more they stay the same."

"Anyway, we ain't got enough missions here for ya," Baelvyr said.

"Well, we do have two missions here right now, but one of them involves talkin'. A lot of talkin'."

"Yeah, no thanks," said Beth with a headshake.

"Yer gonna hafta do 'em eventually girl. It's just about when ya want the headaches to start," Baelvyr chuckled with a sound like a barrel of rocks rolling uphill.

"Being an adult sucks," Beth grumbled, just causing Baelvyr to laugh even more.

"Alright," he said then, "if yer not trainin' with me today, then get off my fuckin' table."

"Yeah, yeah," Beth said, standing up before sliding the mug back to Baelvyr.

"Thanks for that, it was good."

"Were you drinking alcohol?" Kim asked with wide eyes and an open mouth.

"Ha, if she had a' sip of my booze, ya'd know it," Baelvyr snorted.

"She'd been on the floor frothin' at the mouth."

"It was like spicy coffee or something," Beth said with a shrug.

"But I did drink some booze when I was away."

"Beth! That's illegal!" Kim exclaimed before looking around worriedly.

"Not where I was," Beth said as she started leading the way across the room.

"Besides, who's gonna enforce that shit, anyway?"

"Well, I mean, just cuz you're not gonna get arrested doesn't mean you should do something bad," Kim said firmly.

"You're such a square, Kim," Beth said as they walked down the hall to the lobby.

"Nobody says 'square' anymore, Beth," Soph said with a slight sneer. Beth looked at her then gave Blood a long look, which the wolf picked up on immediately, grabbing the tiny terror and lifting her up in her arms.

"No, get off me, you mutt," Soph protested, wriggling in Blood's grip, but the wolf was far stronger and, truth be told, Soph wasn't actually trying all that hard. If she really wanted to put some effort in, there were plenty of tools at her disposal, but it was more about acting the part than actually not wanting this incredibly beautiful woman to hold her. They moved through the lobby and out front, passing a young man by as he was walking into the building.

Beth was used to CRA Halls being busy, but she wasn't used to her CRA Hall being busy, so it would definitely take some adjusting to acclimate to. They headed for the neighborhood at a brisk clip, not running, but at a very fast walk that devoured the ground.

"So, what's been happening?" Beth asked Kim, having gotten Sabs's answer but wanting to hear what her sisters had to say.

"Ah, not that much," Kim shrugged as they continued forward.

"We've been busy, don't get me wrong, but nothing crazy's happened. At least, not with us…there's been a lot of craziness happening other places in the world. I guess the biggest thing is that some people from the other parts of town moved into the neighborhood? They started living in the handful of houses that were empty, like the one on the opposite cul-de-sac that was waiting to be sold. You remember that one?"

"Yeah, kinda weird with how the housing market was supposed to be so hot that it was empty for a little," Beth replied.

"Yeah, I dunno, but people are living there now," Kim said.

"There's also a handful of people living with some others in the neighborhood now. It's not exactly crowded, but there's definitely more people around, which I guess is a good thing."

"You didn't rent out my room, did you?" Beth asked half-jokingly.

"No way! We don't have anybody else staying with us, but who knows what's gonna happen? Everything's gone crazy…" Kim replied.

"We should take a look at the dungeons, too," Sabs said.

"They definitely won't be useful for you, but you should maybe just see where they're at."

"Holy shit, I didn't look at your level before!" Kim exclaimed.

"You're both over level one hundred! Way over!"

"Yeah, it was a busy two months for us," Beth replied.

"It was over two months, wasn't it?" Sabs asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I mean, it was sixty days exactly, wasn't it? Unless time passed differently here than there?" Beth replied, tapping her chin as she scrunched up her face.

"Actually, it might have been exactly two months," Sabs said, frowning a little.

"I thought it was a week or two longer. Maybe it just felt like that…"

"I'm back now," Beth said, grabbing Sabs and kissing her.

"Ugh, get a room," Kim said.

"Still all alone?" Beth asked with a small smirk.

"And happy that way, thanks," Kim replied with a shake of her head.

"The old maid of the group," Beth said with a chuckle. They continued on to the neighborhood, Beth able to see the walls from further off now. They were almost fifteen feet tall and made of some kind of stone, and some of the blocks definitely had some enchantments carved into them.

It would have been pretty impressive, especially considering that it had all been rebuilt in the two months she had been gone, if she hadn't seen the massive walls and crazy enchantments in the various stages of the Celestial Awakening Trial. It was still a feat, nonetheless, and she took a moment to inspect the wall, running a hand over the stones and looking closely at the enchantments.

"Impressive, right?" Soph asked from Blood's arms where she was sitting up and leaning back against Blood.

"It's more impressive that it got built by us-it was us, right? -and in two months at that," Beth said, throwing the question in the middle at Kim.

"Yeah, we got materials and some other stuff from Jaq for…well, actually, not that much, and we had Lyrissa help a bit with the enchanting. Most of the work was us, though; us as in the whole neighborhood, not 'us' like us right here," Sabs explained.

"Well, I'm glad the place is safe," Beth said as she led the way towards the front gate.

"We also made it bigger than it needed to be," Kim said.

"As in, we made it take up a decent bit more area than just the houses so we had some extra room. The ants are constantly running into it in the north, but they're easy to deal with, even at higher levels."

"How're the levels, by the way?" Beth asked.

"Can't you just check?" asked Soph.

"Not your levels, dummy," Beth said.

"The levels of the beasts around here and in the dungeons."

"Oh," Soph said with a bit of a reddening of her cheeks.

"We can still handle everything fine, for the most part, but stuff's definitely higher than it was."

"Numbers?" Beth asked as they got to the front gate.

"Who-?! Oh, it's you lot," said a sentry from a platform next to the gate inside the wall.

"Come on in."