Chương 325: Limitless Path Chapter Three Hundred Forty-Nine

The entire building was five stories, with the open bazaar at the bottom and an area on the fifth floor where many different vendors had stalls set up selling high-end products. Floors two through four were individual shops with everything from general supplies to liquor to crafting equipment to furniture to clothing for sale. The four of them wandered the building for a little bit before splitting up, with Beth and Sera spending some more time on the first floor while Blood and Tasha went somewhere else.

Beth saw that there were others walking around, including others she assumed were renting time with some of the workers, but they clung to each other rather closely whereas Beth and Sera walked hand-in-hand, fingers interlocked as they browsed the goods. As they walked down another row of tables and stalls, Beth felt a slight tingle across the skin of her left side, subtly glancing that way.

She didn't see anyone immediately beside her or in the aisle they were walking down, and the sensation didn't reappear as they walked. Still, she couldn't forget that odd feeling, getting distracted as Sera was looking at a booth with small bits of jewelry on it, most of which were non-magical in nature. The dragon had been instantly attracted to the jewelry, but after giving it a thorough once over, and listening to the booth worker's pitch, she lost interest.

"What's up?" she asked as she stepped back beside Beth.

"Probably nothing…but, can we walk back down the last row of tables?" Beth asked, steering Sera that way.

"Sure," the dragon shrugged. They did just that, moving back around the end of the row of tables they were currently browsing and retracing their steps. Beth felt the same exact thing at the same exact place, having made sure to orientate herself so the side not 'blocked' by Sera was facing the same direction. She calmly pulled the huge dragon woman by their interlinked arms when she felt it, moving over to a table run by an old man, or what appeared at first as an old man.

The Path made everything so complicated, somebody that looked twenty could be three hundred and one would hardly know it. The man had pure white hair and just a trace of crow's feet at the corners of his eyes, but the rest of his skin was surprising smooth and supple given his apparent age.

"Ah, two beautiful young misses! Can Old Tom interest you in something?" he spoke in a rich, mellow voice with a perfect salesman's intonation, indication the large table in front of him, strewn with many odd and random items.

"I'd like to browse…" Beth started before locking on one item. It might have given away too much, but she reached forward as she trailed off, using her left hand as her right was still interlinked with Sera's.

"Oho, interested in oddities?" Old Tom asked with a big grin, showing two rows of perfectly white, perfectly straight teeth.

"I get a bit of a weird…feeling from this," Beth replied, examining it.

"But it looks odd. Do you know what it is?" The thing she was holding was made of metal, a rectangular prism roughly the size of a decently thick hardcover book. The outside was made of two different kinds of metal, Beth recognizing one of them as white mana platinum from her smithing studies, but the other was an orangish-gold metal she couldn't recognize.

The two metals were arranged a bit strangely, with the object appearing to be made of the unknown metal while the white mana platinum was added in as a series of bands or strips across the surface, almost as if it were sealing the object. Beth got even more interested, and confused, when she used her eye power to Identify the object.?????????????????????????? {?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????} Whatever it was, it had a rather lengthy description, but everything about it she wasn't able to see. Even its name, on second look, was fairly lengthy, and Beth knew that how something showed up even as question marks had some significance. If something had a bunch of question marks, it meant it had more text, though whether that was really better or not was up for debate. Whatever it was, she wasn't getting anything from it even with her Frostflame Eye.

"Can you see anything?" she asked Sera after a moment. The gorgeous dragon frowned at the metal object and her red and golden eyes glowed brightly for a moment before she said, "Nope, sorry. It all shows up as question marks for me. Whatever it is, I have no clue."

"It was found in an old ruin ten years ago," Old Tom explained.

"The team that found it during their exploration had someone with a particularly powerful mana-sensing skill to even locate it. I acquired it from said team-member a year ago, but I've been thinking I got the short end of the stick. Not that much market, even among collectors of oddities, for the totally unknown."

"Nobody could Identify it?" Beth asked with a quirked brow.

"Nope. Even managed to convince Laselle-er, the Blue Queen, to give it a glance. Said it was sealed by something or someone and she didn't have the free time to try to crack that kind of seal, so apparently, it's a pretty powerful one," he explained.

"Hmm, I could sense a twinge of mana from it, but if even Laselle can't ID it…" Beth began the negotiation, Old Tom clearly recognizing it as such.

"Come now! An ancient treasure from some long-lost civilization, and the mystery of the unknown to boot? How could you not be intrigued?" Old Tom began his sales pitch.

"But even an Exalted can't figure it out. At least, not in any reasonable time. I'm just a lowly Awoken, Old Tom. Surely, you can't expect me to pay an exorbitant amount for a paperweight?" Beth shot back.

"A paperweight?! Why, I never! This is a bona fide ancient artifact of unknown origin-" he countered before Beth interrupted.

"And use. And identity," she returned.

"Well, that is true, but such things are still valuable. Who knows what great secrets and treasures it hold?"

"Not even Exalted, apparently," Beth returned in a slightly sarcastic tone with both eyebrows raised, getting a chuckle from Sera, who had been spectating the bargaining like someone watching a tennis match go back-and-forth. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Well, be that as it may, it's still a rare and valuable item, dare I say unique?" Old Tom shot back.

"You may dare, the same way I dare call it a gaudy paperweight," Beth retorted.

"A paperweight you want to buy," Old Tom said leadingly.

"Slightly interested in," Beth corrected.

"I can let you have it, for just a diamond coin," Old Tom finally got tired of the wrangling and started the negotiation in earnest.

"Pah," Beth nearly spat on the ground at the price, or seemed to just contain herself.

"I wouldn't pay a platinum for it."

"A platinum! You'd bankrupt me! I couldn't do any less than ninety!" Old Tom exclaimed, though their fierce back-and-forth didn't even make a dent in the general noise level of the bazaar.

"Ninety for a block of unknown metal that I couldn't even use as a decoration it's so ugly? I'll give you ten platinums, at most," Beth countered.

"You wound me! I wouldn't take any less than seventy-five!" Tom cried, outraged.

"Twenty and I'll make it disappear," Beth said with a big grin.

"Fifty and it's yours!"

"Twenty-five, only because I like you, Old Tom."

"Forty!"

"Thirty. Take it or leave it," Beth finished, putting the metal block down and acting like she would start pulling Sera away.

"Thirty sounds wonderful!" Old Tom exclaimed, practically picking the thing up and throwing it at her. He must have paid a decent bit for it if he was so eager to recoup some coins.

"Here you are, good sir," Beth said with a faux regal air, handing him thirty platinum coins before making the metal block disappear.

"A pleasure, young misses! Let Old Tom know if you need anything else, anything at all!"

"I think thirty platinum is enough random spending for one day," Beth replied with a big smile.

"Of course, of course. Just keep me in mind!"

"Will do, Old Tom," Beth said, this time actually pulling Sera away from the table. Sera waited until they were quite a distance away before saying, "That was a bit odd. Are you really sure that's worth thirty damn platinum? I don't even recognize the base metal."

"The white metal is white mana platinum, I'm pretty sure," Beth replied.

"And I don't know what the orange metal is, but that's not important. I get a really big tingling sensation holding this thing, and my gut's telling me it's important. Thirty platinums for an unknown artifact that supposedly Exalted can't Identify that feels important? Sound like a decent deal to me."

"If it makes you happy, I'm happy!" Sera exclaimed proudly, leaning down to give Beth a very warm kiss before straightening up.

"Thanks, my love," Beth replied, saying it feeling totally natural.

"Aw, you're making me blush, sweetheart," Sera replied warmly, giving Beth's hand a squeeze while chuckling deeply. They wandered the building for a while longer before Blood and Tash reappeared, asking to return to the room. They did just that, heading back out into the huge central courtyard that was between several of the buildings before returning to what Beth was thinking of as the 'main' building.

They made their way back to the room, Beth opening the door and letting the four of them in before closing it behind them.

"I know it's a bit early," Tasha said, "but I'd like to head out to get ready for tonight. If that's all right?"

"No problem," Blood responded happily, leaning down to warmly kiss the small demoness, the tiny woman returning the gesture passionately before breaking off and bidding everyone goodbye.

"I guess it's just us tonight," Sera said with a chuckle, making her clothes and underwear disappear before flopping on the couch.

"She'll be back tomorrow morning," Blood said with a grin, joining Sera in her nudity and couch flopping.

"Time to chill," Beth agreed, shedding her own clothes and flopping on top of Sera, who immediately wrapped both her arms and her tail around Beth. Beth wiggled a little bit, settling into Sera's body and getting very comfortable very quickly before reaching up and overlapping her own arms over Sera's.

"Should we cook or order something?" Sera asked.

"We can order delivery?" Beth answered with a question of her own.

"Absolutely! We can get just about anything delivered to the room. There are totally guests that want to stay in their rooms most of their stay and just order everything in," Sera explained.

"Well, you know what's good, so order us something," Beth replied.

"Sure!" Sera chirped happily, her eyes getting a faraway look for a few moments while she navigated menus on her communicator.

"Done."

"You have an estimated time?" Beth asked.

"Should be twenty minutes, maybe even closer to fifteen," Sera said, giving Beth a nice little squeeze.

"Cool. Let's watch something," Beth said, grumbling as Blood had already taken control of the remote for the wallscreen. The wolf turned on some kind of drama program, which Beth was getting used to at this point, though she couldn't say she really enjoyed them. She would much rather have a fight or a battle on, but she only grumbled a bit at the entertainment. Overall, she was too distracted to care once Sera started nuzzling her and running her hands over Beth's body.

The food showed up before they could at all get carried away, Blood hopping up and bringing it over to the table between the couches.

"Want another dip?" Sera asked a little after they finished eating, gesturing towards the balcony with the pool.

"Sure," Beth replied, sitting up on top of Sera and glancing at Blood.

"I'm good," the wolf grumbled.

"Taking a dip naked is even better…" Sera tried to tempt.

"Hmm," Blood wavered a bit.

"Nudity doesn't matter at the resort, it seems," Beth commented, remembering their day.

"That's true; one of the things I like," Sera said, sitting up and lifting Beth with just her tail.

"You'll find people doing everything here naked, even fighting."

"Fighting?" Beth asked with a huge grin.

"Oh, don't get her started," Blood groaned, following Sera as she easily carried Beth out to the pool.

"Touchy topic?" Sera asked, tossing Beth in the pool with a curse from the extremely pretty girl.

"She's a full-on fucking battle maniac," Blood growled, sliding into the cool water of the pool with a splash. Sera followed last, barely causing a ripple as she entered the water.

"Fighting's fun, though," Sera point out, chuckling as Beth slid up to her back and wrapped her arms around Sera's shoulders.

"Great, not another one," Blood grumbled, leaning against the far edge of the pool and watching the sun set.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Sera calmly, sliding up next to Blood with Beth on her back.

"This is the first time we've taken time off in years," Blood said with a shake of her head.

"And it's always fighting, fighting, fighting. I need more people around who like to relax."

"Hey, I have no problems relaxing," Beth retorted, not letting go of Sera.

"Don't worry, I'll make her chill out," Sera said.

"And I'll make you a fighter," Beth shot back, the two starting to argue back and forth. Blood watched dispassionately for a minute or two before saying, "I'm not sure whether to be less or more worried."

"Why not both?" Beth asked, letting go of Sera to float across the pool for a moment.

"We are definitely taking the full two weeks," Blood said.

"And more, if I have any say in it."

"You're here for two weeks?" asked Sera.

"Yep," Beth replied from partway across the pool, drifting with just small movements of her fingers.

"Could be even longer," Blood said.

"So, we'll have a full week together, at least," Sera said with a grin and a gleam in her eye.

"Or more," Beth said.

"Hehe, I didn't book anyone next week yet," Sera said conspiratorially.

"We could play with the schedule a bit, hehe."

"That sounds even better," Beth said.

"Here, open the display and let's manipulate it a bit," Sera said enthusiastically, scooping up Beth as she gracefully swam across the pool. Perhaps it was due to her draconic heritage, or just the part that gave her the long and powerful tail, but Sera was extremely adept in water or navigating any kind of liquid environment. She easily hopped out of the pool with Beth in her arms and walked over to one of the wallscreens, of which there was one of the small ones for orders out on the balcony.

Beth wrapped her left arm over Sera's shoulders and use her right arm to manipulate the display when they got to it. Sera walked her through what to do, having her make a few strange selections, and then Sera had to do something on her communicator. Afterwards, Beth had to make yet more selections and Sera had to give some responses before Beth could book Sera for the next week, eyes widening at the price.

It was just over two mithril coins to book the dragon woman for seven days, Beth doing some napkin math to figure out that Sera would pull in more than an orichalcum coin a year if she didn't take any time off.