Chương 188: Limitless Path Chapter Two Hundred Twelve

It was in the heart of the central area that they found something strange, something a lot more than they had expected, though it shouldn't come as a surprise that the heart of the strange area was where they found the real prize. And it was certainly a prize of some kind, as they entered a larger open space, close to a hundred feet to a side and over twenty feet high, that had a strange formation in the center.

The whole place was lit by a pale blue light that pulsed from the formation, which was made up of eighteen pillars, each ten feet high and three feet thick, scattered around the center of the room. Even with her limited knowledge Beth could tell it was some kind of formation, and the fact the bluish-white hexagonal pillars had runescript carved on every face that glowed a very pale blue sort of gave that away.

"I don't really want to walk in there, sister," Blood said, pausing only a few steps into the room.

"I don't blame you," Beth replied, surveying the place with a critical eye.

"What should we do?"

"I think we should take some notes and get some help from someone that actually knows what they're doing," Beth replied.

"As much as I like going face first into danger, we've learned that there's a lot of stuff you shouldn't mess with before you know what it really is."

"Trial still paying benefits," Blood grunted, carefully turning to move around the outside of the room, distinctly far away from the pillars. Beth moved close to the pillars, but still made sure to stay far from the area around which the pillars were placed. She, amusingly enough, used her much-forgotten cellphone to document the faces of the pillars, including using the notes function to jot down what some of the runes looked like.

She was nervous at very first, but soon realized that just writing down runes, at least these runes, didn't cause them to actually do anything. If she had to guess, based on the limited knowledge she had of runes and enchanting, it was because lower-level runes required mana injected into them. They also likely required both a specific substrate and some kind of specific ink to be used in their etching to be able to activate and do anything.

After getting the runes documented, and making sure to avoid going into the area covered by the pillars, they left the labyrinth. It was a little early in the day still, but they decided not to explore any further, which really meant not going down the other "main" tunnel which led to where the dungeon had been. Making their way back to the surface quickly, they hoofed it back to the CRA Hall, entering through a side door and moving through the building quickly.

They were hunting for Lyrissa, starting with the lobby as they made their way to the front desk. Beth stuck her head in the lobby and looked over, seeing only Tazeen at the front desk and a few people in the lobby, she asked, "Tazeen, do you know where Lyrissa is?"

"I believe she is in the library," he replied calmly.

"If not, she is likely in her room, three-oh-four-B."

"Thanks, Tazeen." She walked back down the hallway of the main building to the elevators, Blood trailing silently behind her. She punched the button for the second floor and smirked slightly when the doors basically shut and reopened with barely a pause. She slipped out of the elevator and down the hallway towards the front of the building, finding the library much more easily now than when she had first searched for it.

She thrust the door open to an immediate shushing, scrunching her neck in a little and wincing as she took a second to shut the door behind her with exaggerated care. Walking down the front of the room, she looked through the aisles and the seating areas, trying to see if she could spot Lyrissa. She didn't catch sight of the bombshell Vampyr, but she did see her youngest sister sitting at a table and reading something.

Soph looked up at her and frowned as she walked over, nothing particularly new there, but it was apparently more than her just being crabby.

"Don't thump around in your boots in here," she hissed at Beth.

"I don't 'thump'," Beth replied with a frown.

"You definitely 'thump', you blockhead," Soph replied.

"You do 'thump'," Blood said.

"Wait, you're taking her side?" Beth snapped at Blood.

"Yep," Blood replied, walking over behind Soph and wrapping her arms around the sitting girl's shoulders.

"I hate you both," Beth said.

"Anyway, have you seen Lyrissa?"

"No," Soph said.

"Just 'no'? Nothing more helpful?" Beth growled.

"No. Now stop being loud in the library and leave me be," Soph said, spluttering when Blood leaned down and rubbed her head against the top of Soph's. They left the tiny terror to her books, finishing searching the library before leaving, Beth taking great care to open and close the door quietly this time. She walked back down the hall, frowning down at her feet for a second as her boots made a distinctive loud thumping on the carpet runner in the middle of the hall.

She looked back up and shook her head, dismissing the silly thoughts as they entered the elevator and moved up to the third floor. Beth moved across the hallway and moved down towards the front, finding the room labeled as three-oh-four A before seeing three-oh-four B right next to it. She knocked firmly on the door with her bare hand, having put her gauntlets back in her necklace. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

After a moment, the door swung open to reveal Lyrissa's beautiful face and body, which was barely covered by a slim, short-skirted dress, the vampyr wearing a dazzling smile. She asked, "What can I do for you?"

"Sorry to bother you, but I had a few questions," Beth replied.

"It's alright. Come in," Rissa said. Beth and Blood followed her inside, seeing the difference between the little suite they had in the underworks and Lyrissa's apartment. Behind her door, for instance, was a small foyer instead of the sitting room, with an area to hang up clothes and equipment. The whole thing was the epitome of lavish, with the floor highly polished marble covered by a detailed carpet runner, and the walls a split of dark wood panels at the bottom and highly-polished stone at the top.

Moving beyond the entrance, having stored their boots, which drew a quick, raised-brow glance from Lyrissa, they entered the sitting room. It was larger than the one in Beth's suite, with three large, plush couches arranged in the center, a small cabinet of fine wood filled with expensive drinks, and tables carved of a light wood, polished until they shone. Lyrissa sat on the central couch, leaning back and crossing her legs while resting her right hand on her right knee.

There was a video of some kind of enchanting process on the wallscreen, Beth glancing at it before looking back at Lyrissa, who curled a finger and patted the seat next to her. Beth sat down next to her, their hips almost touching, and leaned back with a sigh.

"How is your couch so much more comfortable?" she asked before Lyrissa could say anything.

"It's why I said you should get something nicer before you left for that Trial," Lyrissa replied with a giggle.

"Think of that poor, gorgeous girlfriend of yours down on that hard, lumpy couch for all those weeks."

"I'm sure Sabs is perfectly fine," Beth replied with a light scoff.

"Anyway, I had some questions for you, if you don't mind."

"Alright, alright," Lyrissa said, laughing.

"What do you need?"

"Can you take a look at these?" Beth asked, pulling out her phone and bringing up the pictures first. Lyrissa leaned over, her ample chest pressing against Beth's arm as she peered at the pictures. Beth just rolled her eyes, knowing this was how Lyrissa was, and scrolled slowly through the pictures. Lyrissa stopped her after a moment and tapped the screen of the phone, but Beth quickly figured out what she was trying and used the fingers of her right hand to zoom.

Lyrissa picked up instantly what was going on and immediately began moving and zooming the image.

"These are interesting," she murmured, still leaning against Beth. Blood had taken a spot on one of the other couches and slouched back, closing her eyes and ignoring the other two.

"These are rather basic," Lyrissa finally commented, a little moue of concentration furrowing her brow and pursing her lips.

"I'm not surprised. They're in an area with level one hundred beasts," Beth replied.

"Let me give you some help here," Lyrissa said, not leaning into Beth so hard, but still pressed against her. She gestured with her left hand, making a tablet appear from thin air. At least, Beth assumed it was a tablet, and she was proven right a moment later when Lyrissa made it light up before she started moving through various screens.

"These are the runes that are key," she said, showing a set of ten runes.

"This one, that looks like two arrows intertwined, is the most complex of the whole set. It is a rune that controls bi-directional spatial movement. Put another way, it is commonly used to control a sequence that is meant for teleportation."

"So, you're telling me that this is a teleportation sequence?" Beth asked as she studied the runes on the page.

"Pretty much," Lyrissa answered.

"You see this one, that looks like a starburst? That's for long-distance movement. This one that looks like four half-circles linked onto a triangle? That's for moving a living being from one point to another."

"So, you think we could use this to go somewhere and still be able to come back?" Beth asked further.

"Yep," Lyrissa replied with a nod.

"As long as the array at the other end is not damaged and has enough power."

"Those sound like some pretty big 'ifs'," Beth said with a sidelong glance at the beauty.

"Nothing's guaranteed," she replied with a smirk.

"It would be even better if you knew runes yourself. You could fix anything that was broken or, in the worst of cases, you might even be able to build yourself a working bypass to teleport back."

"But how long would that take? To learn runes well enough?" Beth asked.

"Oh, I don't know, say…five hundred hours of study? Maybe six?" Lyrissa said, pursing her lips before tapping them thoughtfully with the edge of a playful smile just barely showing.

"I can never tell when you're being serious and when you're teasing," Beth said with a sigh.

"No, that's pretty accurate," Lyrissa said.

"It would take at least a couple hundred hours to get a good foundation. To get to the point you would need to understand all of this is hundreds of hours. To get to the point that you could re-make these is another couple hundred on top of that; depending on your proficiency, it's at least five hundred hours, but it could be closer to seven or eight hundred. It's hard to tell."

"Do I really need to understand these to use them?" Beth asked with a frown.

"Well, no, of course not," Lyrissa replied with a shake of her head.

"But you're going to need to learn them eventually. Certainly, if you want to take your blacksmithing to a high level."

"Wait, what's my blacksmithing got to do with it?" Beth looked over at Lyrissa with wide eyes.

"The higher levels of all professions rely on knowledge from other professions," Lyrissa explained.

"In particular, if you want to make it past Grandmaster, or even to Grandmaster, you're going to need to learn runes. They're vital in all types of crafting, particularly at those higher levels."

"How does that work?"

"High-level crafting uses runes to alter the materials and create the final items," Lyrissa explained.

"A Grandmaster-level crafter will incorporate runes into the material as they work instead of having an enchanter come by after the fact. A Sage-level crafter can use runes for the entire process. As a Blacksmith, you wouldn't even use a forge to melt the metal or an anvil to shape it; you would use runes to manipulate the metal and other materials, fuse them together, and enchant the final product."

"So, I thought I understood the process, but I guess not," Beth said.

"I thought it would always be hammer the metal or other materials, and then have somebody else come along and enchant it. I have to study runes to progress?"

"Not right away," Lyrissa said with a smile.

"But yes, you will have to learn and understand runes to progress to higher-level crafting."

"What's your suggestion, then?" Beth asked.

"Do we go through the formation and teleport to where ever this goes, or not?"

"I would tell some people what you're going to do, if I were you," Lyrissa said with a grin.

"And I would stock up on supplies…but why not? Life's about having adventures, isn't it?" Beth gave Lyrissa a side-eye before sighing and leaning back on the couch, stretching her arms across the back of the couch and looking at what was on the screen. Lyrissa was still sitting close enough for their hips to be touching, but didn't press any further than that. Blood was still sprawled out on a second couch and Beth sighed again before shifting forward and standing, stretching when she did so.

"Leaving so soon?" Lyrissa asked, giving a little pinch-mouthed pout.

"Got too much stuff to do," Beth replied with a shrug.

"Besides, I don't want to spend too long in here. Don't want to give Sabs the wrong idea." Lyrissa got up from the couch with a slight giggle, escorting Beth and Blood to the door while asking, "Oh, I take it you enjoy my company, then?"

"You're both smart and beautiful, Lyrissa," Beth replied from the doorway.

"Maybe a bit too, uh, 'flirty' sometimes, but I can't deny the attraction. Having said that, I'm already happily spoken for, so let's leave it at that."

"Well, of course," Lyrissa replied, leaning against the doorframe after Beth and Blood had stepped into the hall.

"But, you do now know where to find me." Beth just shook her head as she waved goodbye and started back down the corridor, Blood trailing after. It wasn't until they were around the corner where the elevators were that she could faintly hear Lyrissa's front door click shut. She and Blood got into the elevator and rode down to the first floor before heading back into the arena section and the underworks, making their way down to the commissary.

Beth shouldered the door open to several startled reactions, herself finding it a little strange seeing the usually empty shop now having other customers. Jaq, standing behind the counter while watching the others with a critical eye, merely glanced at her entrance with a slight downturn of the corners of his mouth.