Chương 197: Limitless Path Chapter Two Hundred Twenty-One

Beth straightened up after the last kobold was dead, shaking blood off her blade. She pulled a cloth out of her necklace and looked at it before grimacing and storing it again, making a note to get some clean cloths to use on her equipment before storing her blade, still slightly dirty, in her necklace. Luckily, time was stopped in her necklace which meant the blade wouldn't rust, if it even could, but unluckily, it would come out with the blood still wet when she went to clean it next.

She frowned a little and motioned to Blood, the two of them not even needing mental communication to understand each other, the wolf following as Beth led the way back to the Hall. They went in through their usual side door and made their way down to the basement, Beth leading the way to the room. When she opened the door, she was a bit surprised to see Sabs in the room, just gearing up for the day, the shorter woman whirling when the door was opened.

"Beth!" Sabs cried before launching herself towards her.

"That's me," Beth said with a grin, grabbing Sabs when she was about to impact and hugging her.

"Hey."

"What do you mean 'Hey'?!" Sabs cried.

"You've been gone for weeks!"

"Yeah, yeah, we got bogged down," Beth replied.

"Don't just wave it away! Nobody knew what happened!" Sabs exclaimed.

"It's fine, Sabs, it's fine," Beth said, patting her back.

"Let's just chill for a second." Beth led her over to the couch, Sabs with her clothes and just her armored pants on but none of her top armor or boots. Beth pushed Sabs down on the couch and sat down on the coffee table in front of her, wincing as the table groaned just slightly from her weight. She took Sabs's hands and looked at her for a minute before speaking.

"Hey, sorry we were gone for so long," Beth said.

"The only reason we weren't going crazy was Baelvyr said you were fine," Sabs interrupted before she could continue.

"Sabs, easy, easy," Beth said, squeezing her hands.

"Look, I understand, I really do. We said, 'be back later', and then disappeared for a month, I get it." Beth held up her hand to stall Sabs from protesting any more, continuing, " But, you'll have to get used to this. I'm sorry, but that's just how things are, we're going to keep fighting, keep trying to get stronger, and that means we'll be gone, sometimes for long periods of time."

"I'm not sure I really get it," Sabs said.

"Why do you have to just disappear for a month?"

"It's just the level scaling, Sabs," Beth answered, continuing when she saw her raised eyebrow.

"At level ten, we found something to challenge us, and it took a day. At level thirty, we found something that challenged us that took three or four days. At level one hundred thirty, something that challenges us is going to take weeks or months to do."

"I mean, I get it, but I don't like it," Sabs replied, squeezing Beth's hands.

"I wish that you wouldn't just disappear like that. At least, is there some way you could, I don't know, stop in the middle or something?"

"Actually…" Beth said, thinking for a moment, releasing one of Sabs's hands to tap her chin.

"There might very well be a way, though I'm not sure it would work in all situations."

"Oh, really? What are you thinking?" Sabs asked, leaning forward with a gleam in her eyes while she squeezed Beth's remaining hand she had hold of even harder.

"Two things, actually," Beth said, holding up two fingers on her non-squished hand.

"First, we might be able to get you a communicator. That would go a long way to solving this problem."

"Aren't communicators really expensive?" Sabs interrupted with a frown.

"I'm sure we could work something out," Beth replied with a chuckle, leaning forward and giving Sabs a quick kiss on the cheek. She then continued, "The other thing I'm really not sure of is whether we could maybe power-level you."

"I can guess what you mean, but what would power-leveling be?" Sabs asked.

"In video games I would put someone in my party that was low-level and then have the high-level members kill high-level monsters and boost that low-level person quickly," Beth explained.

"I'm not really sure how effective that kind of thing would be on the Limitless Path. I think we'll just have to ask someone."

"We should go talk to Jaq, then," Sabs said.

"But after we go talk to your parents."

"My parents?" Beth replied dully, eyebrows climbing.

"Beth, you were gone for a month! They're worried about you," Sabs answered somewhat hotly, jabbing a finger into Beth's ample chest.

"Let me clean up first, at least," Beth replied with a sigh, leaning forward quickly to steal a kiss before hopping up as Sabs squeaked and heading into the bathroom. Blood had beaten her to the punch, taking a shower while Beth and Sabs had their little argument, just walking out of the large shower stall as Beth entered the bathroom. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Don't," Beth said as Blood walked to the tub.

"What?" The lupine woman asked with a slight frown.

"We've got stuff to do. No time for a bath," Beth said as she hopped in the shower, her clothes disappearing into her necklace.

"Not even a quick one?" Blood whined.

"There's no such thing as a quick bath, Blood," Beth answered.

"And no, I'm going to be done in less than five minutes and then we're out." Blood grumbled as Beth showered, the lupine woman cleaning her teeth in the meantime. Beth showered quickly, making sure to thoroughly wash and condition her hair before scrubbing her body with one of the citrus smelling soaps the CRA provided. She finished with a quick, heavy rinse, the shower having so many settings it made her wonder who would even need all of that.

She put it on one that made her feel like she was getting blasted by a fire hydrant for fifteen seconds, getting well rinsed before shutting the water off and using the heated dry that blew air from several small vents in the wall. It wasn't super-efficient, but she enjoyed the hot air blowing over her body, reveling in the sensation for a minute before hopping out of the stall.

She found Blood still in the bathroom, leaning on the vanity while still in her birthday suit, giving her fur some time to finish fully drying. Beth toweled off before also brushing her teeth, having not done it quite as much as she should have during their many months of grinding, finding using a canteen to wet or rinse her brush annoying. They also hadn't had that much time, or thought they hadn't had much time, trying to get their levels boosted as fast as possible, and now that all turned out to be bunk.

Beth planned on taking some time to actually take it easy now, though she was still going to study and train during that downtime. She finished up and both of them equipped clothes without a thought, the use of their necklaces now having become second nature. They joined back up with Sabs in the living room and waited a moment while she finished her own gearing up, taking much longer than the thought it took Beth and Blood.

They left the room and then the CRA Hall shortly after, making their way to the neighborhood. Beth noted that nothing much seemed to have changed as they made their way to the small community center that acted as the township's base of operations. Entering through the front, they moved down the short hall and entered a room on the left, Beth and Blood following Sabs as they didn't really know where they were going. She led them into a moderate-size room that was probably an office before it was taken over by…

the League of Parents? She didn't know what to call the group that ran the town now and didn't much care, walking into the room and stopping behind Sabs. Both of Beth's parents were in the room as well as Zack and two others that Beth didn't recognize.

"Beth!" her mother exclaimed, rapidly walking over to her and hugging her.

"I'm glad you're alright." Beth returned the hug slightly awkwardly for a moment before saying, "It's fine, mom, I'm OK."

"Where were you, Beth? You were gone for a month!" her mother questioned, a frown on her face.

"Yeah, yeah. We were busy," Beth replied with a shrug, leaning against one of the two tables in the center of the room before standing up when the table creaked.

"Beth," her mother said, but then stopped herself and sighed.

"I understand that you're…different from the rest of us. But I would really appreciate it if you could communicate a little more."

"I'll try," Beth replied with a shrug.

"But I can't really promise anything. I go out to go find something, or explore, or train, and I get caught up in some mess that takes a month to solve. It's going to just get worse, as I get stronger and start doing things for the CRA. I might be gone for months or years at a time."

"I just wish there was some other way. Or some better way to keep in touch," Rachel said, her mother crossing her arms. The others in the room were still gathered around the second table, though Beth could see they were all watching the exchange.

"We have some idea," Beth said.

"Though, everything costs something, these days."

"Is it something that would give us a better idea of where you are or what you're doing?" Rachel asked.

"Eh, sort of?" Beth said, wobbling a hand.

"Blood and I have communicators, which are just what they sound like, like hyper-advanced cell phones. They don't always work everywhere, but they'll work a lot of places where our phones or other things won't."

"These sound great, Beth. When can we get them?" Rachel asked.

"Uhhhhh, that's…well, remember when I just said everything has a price?" Beth replied as she shifted her weight from her right to her left foot.

"We do have some money now, Beth," Rachel responded, not missing the eyeroll she got in return.

"What?"

"Having a couple silvers and having 'some money' are two entirely different things," Beth said, air quoting in the middle.

"So, how much is your 'some money?'" Rachel shared a glance with Thomas and Zack before turning back to Beth.

"We each have almost five gold. If you count some of the money some others have that they technically owe us for some of what we've done the past seven months, we could get more."

"I don't know if that would be enough to buy even one," Beth replied with a shrug.

"It depends on what Jaq has."

"And what about your funds?" Rachel asked Beth with one brow slightly quirked.

"They're mine," Beth said non-chalantly.

"You guys can't keep relying on me to save the day." Rachel opened her mouth to respond but Beth held up her hand and continued, "We'll see how much they cost and then I might help buy one or two, at most. I need my money for a lot of things, all of which is crazy expensive, and I need to keep a huge buffer, as I'll be traveling around and can't afford to find something great for sale or some situation like that and have just pennies."

"Well, it is your money, so we can't really just take it," Rachel said with a sigh.

"We just need a lot of help here, and it would be nice to have some money on hand ourselves. Also, you are important to us, Beth, and it would be nice to know you're safe." Beth just grunted before saying, "Well, I'm still alive, and don't be surprised if I disappear like this, though we'll see about getting a communicator to alleviate that issue. I'm also not going to go anywhere for a while…fingers crossed."

"Fingers crossed? What 'fingers crossed,' Beth?" Sabs asked tersely, eyes narrowing.

"I still have to do some stuff for this first job with the CRA," Beth replied while holding up her hands.

"I'm gonna take at least a couple days first, don't worry, Sabs."

"We'll talk more later," Sabs said, still giving Beth the narrow-eyed glare.

"Is there anything else?" Beth asked her mother.

"Well, no, just…stay safe out there," her mother said, shifting a little before Beth stepped forward and gave her a quick hug, seemingly surprising her.

"I'll be fine," Beth said as she turned and left, Sabs and Blood following behind. She could hear the others in the room speaking when they thought the girls were out of range, her father saying, "She's at that age, Rachel. Independence isn't a bad thing." Beth tuned the rest of it out as they continued down the hall and out of the smallish building. They returned to the Hall rapidly, Beth noting the total lack of cars even during the midday, something she hadn't really had the time to see since coming back.

They were sometimes randomly attacked by beasts when they moved back and forth between the neighborhood and the CRA Hall and, while she didn't think much of them, even something at level thirty would be too dangerous for a big chunk of the population to get anywhere near.

It meant that most people were hunkered down in safe areas, like the major cities that were still standing, while the only ones out and about were like them, people who were pushing themselves higher, walking further down their Paths, and most of them getting around by walking, to boot. Beth led the way through the Hall when they arrived and down to and through the underworks. They reached the commissary rather quickly, Beth opening the doors to find only one person inside other than Jaq.

The young woman was engaged in a discussion with the ornery shopkeeper, though this one wasn't nearly as inimical as the last one Beth had witnessed. Jaq appeared far more bored than angry, though he did answer the question the woman asked, which seemed to disappoint her, judging by how her shoulders sagged and she slumped.

"Don't harass the noobs, Jaq," Beth said as she reached the counter, patting the woman on the shoulder, making her jump.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

"N-no, it's okay, I wasn't paying enough attention," the young woman replied nervously, Jaq rolling his eyes at her hesitance.

"My day just goes from bad to worse," he commented.

"Well, finish what you were doing," Beth said with a gesture, leaning her hip against the counter.

"I-…I think I got everything," the woman said hesitantly before giving Jaq a nod and turning and walking out.

"Didn't mean to scare her," Beth said, scratching at her face.

"She's not as meek as she looks," Jaq said.

"But, regardless, you drove her off, which is good for me. Now, if I can just get rid of you…"