Chương 200: Limitless Path Chapter Two Hundred Twenty-Four

Even with Blood's mapping data, they certainly couldn't avoid fighting, as the huge cavern had even more cave brutes and kobolds present than the last time they were down there. The mana had continued to grow thicker, as it was all over Earth, though it was slowing just a bit. The main effect was that the higher mana concentration areas were still increasing in mana density and complexity, while other areas were slowly building up mana.

That meant that places like this cavern were still changing rapidly, beasts increasing in density and level as every day passed. That meant it was once again a small bit of a challenge for them, as the average levels were up into the one-forties. It took quite some time to chew through a group of level one hundred forty-five enemies, even with them being level one fifty and having new gear, every new level providing just that much more toughness to the beasts.

The fights dragged out a little bit, but Beth didn't ever feel like they were in much real danger, or being greatly challenged, as they spent a couple hours scouting and fighting. They avoided going to the magic dome or the strange portal today, as Beth had an inkling that the two were possibly related, and she needed further study and help with runes to figure out what was going on.

She wasn't sure if they would need to fully figure out what was happening there to satisfy Tazeen and complete their first mission, but they would have to explore the rest of this area, at a minimum. It was some time in the early afternoon when Blood popped up by Beth and signaled her to be quiet and follow. The Brawler did as indicated, silently following the lupine woman through a series of small buildings and around a strange outcrop.

There were a few random beasts along the route that they managed to avoid thanks to Blood's growing ability in scouting and just a little quiet movement largely due to their growing DEX. Eventually, after fifteen minutes, they finally arrived at the far 'corner' of the massive cavern, quite a bit down from where they had encountered the strange portal near the back wall a few weeks before.

Blood led Beth into a small clearing amongst the jumbled rocks they had been navigating, the way opening to a view of the back wall of the cavern. Embedded in that rough stone wall was a large gateway, the border of which was finely carved with both images and script. Beth examined the gate for a moment before speaking to Blood through their mental connection.' A challenge gate?' she asked calmly.' One that scales, as well,' Blood replied.'

I see someone's been doing their reading,' Beth said while giving Blood a side-eyed glance.' Both of us have to pass the test to get Silver. Besides, I know you weren't just laying around doing nothing, and even were bringing stuff up on your communicator in the forge while you were practicing to review,' Blood replied coolly.' I thought you really were just laying around,' Beth responded with a bored tone, getting an elbow in the short ribs for her trouble.' Are we going to try this, or finish the scouting?'

Blood asked. Beth stared at the gateway for a moment, examining the carvings around the circumference, including the script. Challenge gates were like special dungeons that had strict requirements for who could enter and exactly what they had to do to clear the instance. Some of them were also a one-time use type deal, only ever allowing a person to challenge the scenario inside a single time. Ever.

The type of gate in front of them only ever allowed a single attempt, another reason Beth wasn't super eager to dive right in. One of the biggest advantages or benefits of challenge gates was that they provided a large amount of experience to the participant(s), and that was basically the one area where she struggled the least right now with the power inherited from Liveria. This gate was also what they basically least needed right now, as it was essentially a mimic of a beast tide with a few… irregularities.

Fighting against a huge group of moderately strong to strong beasts wasn't something they were really looking for, either for the experience of doing it, or the experience from killing the beasts.' I think we pass on this, for now. Unless you really want to jump in there for some reason?' Beth answered, raising a brow at Blood at the end.' We're mostly done scouting; let's just finish that and leave. I want to take a nap,' Blood said, causing Beth to roll her eyes. Hard.'

Let's get to it, then,' Beth replied, giving Blood a pat on the shoulder before the wolf darted off, disappearing into the maze of buildings and broken stone. The pat had also updated their maps, and Beth herself set off, making much slower time and getting in more fights. Even so, they both continued their scouting, finding little bits and bobs as they made their way through the rest of the cavern they had yet to explore.

They found a handful of coins and a few other odds and ends, mainly a few beast cores and a couple potions that Beth used her eye power to find were barely common grade. Thinking on it, she hadn't seen any consumables that were any better than common grade, perhaps one of the reasons Jaq had dismissed all the ones she had found so far as terrible. All the elixirs had displayed as common, but that was due to elixirs being a type of item that any person could consume at any time.

They operated by their own rules slightly different from any other consumable, even potions. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Beth stopped at a point and checked the time, not needing her phone anymore for that, either, as she could do it on her communicator. Seeing that it was starting to get late, she messaged Blood to meet at the entrance, heading that way herself.

It was always in these moments, at the end of an exploration that she found crazy things, and this was no exception. Moving into a clearing on the far eastern side of the cavern, near the wall where the main entrance was located, she found a small building with two cave brutes slumped outside in a state of heavy sleep, deep snores and all. She had learned well the lesson of being cautious of new situations, but also showing no mercy against any beasts she encountered.

She was well familiar with the beasts, terrain, and possible traps of this area, and so she launched herself across the small clearing and slammed down on the first brute like a meteor. The battle was quick and, dare she say it, brutal, with Beth pounding the two thick-skulled beasts into meat paste in just over half a minute. She moved into the small building, finding only three rooms inside, all packed with high-level kobolds, even compared to her.

This took a lot longer, especially since she didn't call for aid from Blood, just smashing and Crushing her way through the densely packed kobolds with a terrible efficiency that saw blood and viscera coating everything, even the ceiling. She was definitely going to need a shower as soon as they got back, wiping herself down with a large cloth as she made sure there weren't any other foes present.

The first two rooms of the building were empty, other than the kobold corpses, of course, and a random assortment of furniture. The third room was where she stumbled into the real prize, and everything about it was strange. The room itself was strange; it had had kobolds in it, the same as all the others, but it had a set of entirely different furniture, not made from the crude stone like every other building down there she had explored.

Instead, it was made of a very fine dark wood, with cream and tan upholstery of a quite nice fabric. In the center of the room was a small table, enough for perhaps six people to sit around comfortably, though the people couldn't even be as large as a tall elf like Tazeen or they'd be bumping elbows.

On the center of the table was an envelope made of golden paper and, after very careful examination to ensure there were no traps or clever ruses that would blow up in her face, Beth found it was literally made of mana gold turned into paper. She carefully picked the golden envelope up in her hands, turning it over to see a rather impressively elaborate seal stamped on the back in a dark red wax.

Her nose twitched as she inspected the seal closely and she took a very careful sniff, finding the wax somehow had the scent of cinnamon and citrus, a very pleasant combination that somehow fit the object just right. She had a hard time getting anything from the envelope just holding it, but it felt like there were multiple items inside, though they were all rather small, as the envelope wasn't much bigger than a standard-sized envelope that most people and companies would use before the Path appeared.

She hesitantly tried to store the envelope and it disappeared from her hand without a sound. She immediately re-summoned it, and nothing seemed to have changed in any discernable way and, with a shrug, she put it back in her necklace to examine later. She met up with Blood at the cavern entrance, the woman removing her mask before giving her a frown and an ear flick at being left standing without any message.

Beth just shrugged and Blood replaced the mask before loping down the tunnel, leading them back to the surface and to the CRA Hall. They moved down through the underworks to their room, Beth a little surprised that they passed by a young man on their floor, which was not a floor shared by anything other than the laundry and two training rooms. It was always possible he had been training in one of those two rooms, but most people seemed to use either the first floor or the arena floor itself.

Beth shook it off as they finished the walk to their room and entered, finding Sabs on the couch with a notebook in front of her. It seemed she was studying something, likely on the somewhat more expensive communicator Beth had gotten her, in the same manner Beth and Blood studied. She was taking paper notes in a thick notebook with a spiral binding and pre-lined pages, writing with a blue pen in a very neat, fastidious hand.

"How did it go today?" Sabs asked, starting to stand, but Beth waved her back down.

"Fine. We're most of the way done. We're also covered in grime and blood, and I don't mean her," Beth explained, hooking a thumb at her companion at the end, getting a disgruntled grunt for her efforts. She followed the wolf into the bathroom, dropping her gear on the floor instead of putting it in her necklace as all of it needed cleaned and checked for damage. The two cleaned up in the shower, which was the easy part, before Beth started working on her armor.

Blood left her gear on the ground and made use of the tub, which was fine by Beth; it wasn't her armor that would have bloodstains on, it would be Blood's. She snorted to herself a little at the thought as she scrubbed at her armor using the cleaning and maintenance kit she had bought from Jaq some time ago. She was ever more thankful for the necklace, not even having to leave the bathroom to have exactly what she needed just appear in her hand, not to mention all the other conveniences.

When she had finished cleaning and working on her gear, she hung it from several places in the bathroom, chuckling at how their little adventurers household had its own strange idiosyncrasies. Armor and weapons scattered about had become a common sight, as well as various potions and bits of equipment, on top of things Beth was pretty sure were lockpicks or some other device for breaking and entering.

Sabs tried to keep it to a certain level of clean, but it was a bit of a working person's home, with gear and items scattered around. She did get on their case much more severely if they tried to leave containers of food or other trash laying around. Beth didn't mind that much, as she didn't enjoy living in a messy space, she was just too lazy when at home to keep things clean.

She did a sweep every morning of empty bottles and tossed them, assigned that duty as she never cared to keep drinks straight with the other two and often finished off their bottles as well. Beth went out and sat next to Sabs, who was still studying rather intently, laying an arm across the smaller woman's shoulders as she leaned back.

Whether it was from her intense concentration or, more likely at this point, due to long exposure, Sabs didn't even twig to Beth's nudity, continuing to write while her eyes shifted rapidly, staring at a book literally only she was currently able to see. Beth decided to join her figuratively as well as literally, opening a book herself that she was in the middle of reviewing for her Silver exam.

She was still studying when Blood sauntered out of the bathroom quite some time later, the lupine woman glancing at both of them before rolling her eyes and slouching down in her chair. Beth noted her out of the corner of her eye, smirking slightly as Blood got the same faraway look in her eyes as the two of them had been displaying for a while. They studied a little more without saying anything before the wallscreen suddenly turned on, breaking Beth and Sabs out of their concentration.

Sabs turned a sour look on Blood with a bit of a purse to her lips, but Beth intercepted her, saying that they probably had enough of study for the night anyway. They ate quite a bit, even Sabs packing the food away, before resting for a bit without any studying involved. Eventually, Sabs took a quick shower and she and Beth proceeded to go to bed, falling asleep fairly quickly that night. That was more to do with Sabs than Beth as, even though she'd been out fighting most of the day, she wasn't particularly tired.

Sabs, on the other hand, seemed to be pushing herself rather hard as of late, and was exhausted every night. Not that it wasn't displaying obvious benefits, as she had gained more than ten levels in around three weeks and seen a noticeable improvement to her skills. Still, Beth had to remember to ask about how difficult power-leveling someone lower level was.