Chương 36: Limitless Path Chapter Thirty-Six

"Oh, he's treating me like that because I'm a Copper? How long till I can be a Silver?" she asked eagerly.

"Nah, he's treatin' ya like that cuz he's an asshole. As for Silver, it'll be a while. Don't get yerself all in a lather; ya need to get a lot stronger and do a lot more before yer there yet," he replied nonchalantly, waving a hand absentmindedly.

"And speakin' of all that, ya ready to actually do some damn work?"

"Yeah, sure. More footwork?" she asked in reply, getting up from the table at the same time as he did.

"As long as ya still act like ya have two left feet," he replied with a rumble, leading her and Blood down to the usual training room. What followed was almost the exact same as the previous day, Baelvyr drilling her relentlessly on nothing but footwork, with only the occasional break for water and a nutrient bar. Beth didn't complain at all, throwing herself into the training wholeheartedly. There was something about fighting; even the training produced a calm and wonderful feeling.

She was starting to realize she might be more of a musclehead than she had thought, the changes to the world allowing her to pursue what she truly enjoyed more freely. It didn't stop her from becoming exhausted, collapsing onto a bench by the early evening.

"At least ya learn kinda quick," Baelvyr rumbled out a compliment.

"Good that ya knew about moving at angles a little before we started, but ya gotta keep in mind just how far yer steppin' durin' a fight. Ya overextend too much." Beth just waved an arm from the bench where she was collapsed, Blood standing behind her and looking down at her with a slightly puzzled expression. Beth lay there for a while after Baelvyr left, just taking the opportunity to rest, before Blood finally nudged her with her muzzle.

Beth sighed and sat up, switching the training equipment out for her own equipment before grabbing Kim's new sword and heading to the elevator. It didn't take very long for her to move up and through the huge structure, making her way out of the same door into the lobby. Luckily, it seemed the popularity of the building had waned, as nobody was in the lobby apart from Tazeen, even Lyrissa. Beth waved to him as she passed, hopping on Blood's back just outside the front doors and riding for home.

There were no surprises today; no boars or bears or anything else interfering in the journey home. It only took the two a handful of minutes to get back to Beth's house, avoiding going through the center of the neighborhood. They arrived in the backyard as it was becoming dark, nobody outside to greet them. They entered through the mudroom, Beth leaving everything but Kim's new sword in the room.

She proceeded to the kitchen, the nutrient bars at the CRA taking care of all her needs, but just not being as satisfying as eating 'real' food. She found Kim and Sabs in the kitchen, sitting at the island drinking tea. She plonked the new sword down in front of Kim before either of them could say anything, then started to get some food and water ready for Blood. As she worked, Kim drew the sword and inspected it.

"This is really made of copper?" she asked, running a finger along the flat side of the blade.

"Yeah. Well, it's made of mana copper, but I think that's just, like, magical copper or something," Beth replied as she continued moving about the kitchen. She put a bowl of pasta in the microwave to reheat for a few minutes before sauntering behind Sabs and wrapping her arms around the older girl.

"Good to see you." Kim rolled her eyes at them before going back to looking over the sword, testing the edge with her thumb. Beth set her cheek on the top of the sitting girl's head as Sabs leaned back into her, releasing a contented sigh. The two stayed like that for a minute, Kim re-sheathing the sword and taking it out to the mudroom. Beth let the older girl go after Kim re-entered the kitchen, but only because the microwave dinged.

She grabbed the food and sat at the island, eating while she listened to the two of them talk.

"Did you have any other trouble today?" Kim asked Sabs.

"Just a higher-level boar. It's definitely something we should check out, if there's a dungeon or something. The ones just wandering up to the development are usually at least level six. I wasn't able to one-shot it like this gorilla," Sabs answered, poking Beth in the side at the end. Beth just grunted in response and kept eating.

"Yeah, I think that's a good idea for tomorrow. Depending on how busy Beth is?" Kim continued.

"I don't have a set schedule," Beth replied after swallowing a mouthful of food.

"I just show up and Baelvyr trains me. I want to get even more training, though, so I might be staying there some nights." She took another forkful of food, but turned to Sabs before eating it, saying "Oh, I asked about an emblem. You have to sign a form. Oh, and pay two gold coins."

"Two golds?!" Sabs and Kim both exclaimed. Beth, with more food in her mouth, just grunted again and kept eating.

"We had to pool our money to buy one sword. And that was only eight silvers. Where do we get two golds?" Kim continued. Beth swallowed what she had in her mouth and said, "We need six golds for your memberships. All three of you should get one. Armor is going to be at least fifty silvers a piece. Sabs' daggers are another ten silvers. So that's at least eight golds and some change. And that's just to get the most basic stuff, not even including basic supplies like potions or camping supplies for long dungeon runs."

"Holy shit, we're poor," groaned Sabs, putting her head in her hands.

"Maybe we could buy some coins?" Kim said.

"What do you mean?" Sabs answered with a question of her own.

"I mean, I think there's people out there selling coins for dollars. Stores and stuff still take dollars, so a lot of people care about them more still," Kim replied. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Okay," Beth said between bites.

"How many dollars do you have?"

"That's…uh…not a lot," fumbled Kim.

"Then that plan's probably not any good," Beth replied as she finished off the food, getting up to rinse her utensils and leave them in the sink.

"Then what do you suggest?" Kim shot back as Beth sat back down.

"Doing it the old-fashioned way," Beth replied calmly.

"And that is?" Kim continued, hitting Beth with a slight glare.

"Hard work," Beth answered. Sabs, head still in her hands, just groaned again in response. Kim joined her, putting her own head in her hands. Beth just shook her head, looking at the two of them moping. This wasn't a very encouraging start to their money-making operations.

"There's really not much else we can do, other than keep our eyes out. If we find anything valuable, like weird, rare plants or something, I might be able to sell them for some money at the CRA. Otherwise, we're grinding dungeons and killing beasts. Relax, it'll be fun," Beth said.

"Fun for you maybe. This is just, like, stressful," Kim replied, lifting her head with a long-suffering sigh.

"Well, moping about it isn't going to change anything. It's getting late, I'm heading to bed," Beth continued.

"We'll circle back up tomorrow, everyone," Kim followed on, motioning for everyone to disperse for the day.

"I'll catch you tomorrow," Sabs said to Beth as the group started to file out of the kitchen, stealing a quick kiss before darting off down the hall. Beth followed along behind, catching the smaller girl at the front door to return the favor. When the two were done with another slightly fumbling kiss, Sabs took the opportunity to escape, darting out the door and down the street. Beth closed the front door behind her with a quiet chuckle, locking it before heading up to her room.

She found Blood already sprawled out in the middle of the floor, clearly ready for bed. Beth quickly hopped in the shower and cleaned up. Once done, she took a quick moment to finish cleaning up for the night. She headed into her room and got some simple clothes on before dropping her phone on the nightstand and sliding into bed. She was out almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. Ding, ding. Ding, ding. Beth woke to her alarm pinging her as usual.

She quickly shut it off and hopped out of bed, not feeling any grogginess after a full night's sleep with her elevated stats. She quickly made her way into the bathroom to freshen up before getting dressed and heading out of the room, Blood trailing just behind. Beth immediately found Wiggles sitting in the hallway outside her door, picking up the massive cat and holding him in her arms as she walked downstairs.

It was a similar routine to other mornings, as she dropped Wiggles in the kitchen on one of the stools before getting water for him and Blood. She then headed out to the front door, opening it with almost perfect timing for her girlfriend to grab her in a hug.

"Morning, sweetheart," Beth said, shutting the door behind Sabs before stroking her hair for a moment. Sabs snuggled against her for a minute, just enjoying the warmth the tall girl gave off, as well as the feel of her strong body pressed close. They separated after a minute, too soon for Sabs' taste, and headed back to the kitchen. Sabs greeted both Wiggles and Blood enthusiastically, finishing petting the huge wolf just as the other girls ambled into the kitchen, Soph in a morning frazzled state as always.

"Where do we start? Ants?" Kim asked, as they worked through breakfast.

"Yeah, stuff should reset basically every day," Beth answered before belching, Sabs elbowing her as she did.

"Sorry. Yeah, let's start with ants, then we'll do wolves. We'll make enough off of that for daggers for Sabs. Then we could go look to see if we can find where the boars are coming from. Or maybe I can do that; don't think we can all ride Blood. I keep forgetting transportation is an issue."

"I'm curious how people get around, in this new way of the world," Sabs said.

"Probably the same ways. Technology still seems to work, as long as you do stuff to it to take account of magic. And there's beasts that are really strong. Blood can basically run at highway speeds just by using a low-cost skill," Beth replied, getting up and leading the group into the mudroom. The four geared up with what equipment they had, Soph finally waking up fully as she commented on Kim's new sword. They exited the backdoor, followed by Blood, making sure Wiggles didn't tumble out with them.

Upon leaving the house, they saw an ant struggling over the earthen berm. The group casually walked up to it, Kim making a hand motion as they got close. She stepped forward and decapitated the beast with a quick slice, marveling at the strength of the new sword.

"It's like I didn't even cut anything. Holy hell," she said.

"Yeah, this stuff's a lot better than what we got from Mr. Jones, no offense to his huge collection. Can't wait to see what Sabs can do with a new set of knives," Beth answered.

"Okay, flirt later," Soph scoffed, passing by the rest as she hopped the ditch.

"I'm a little worried if you think that was flirting," Beth retorted as she easily hopped the berm and ditch. The five continued into the woodlot, Soph and Beth sniping back and forth about what constituted flirting. They encountered several low-level ants as they moved through the wood, the girls not even taking notice of them as they casually sliced them apart. Or, as Soph demonstrated when they entered the patch of meadow before the smaller stand of trees, blew them apart with lightning.

"Easy! You don't need to go so hard on level twos and threes," Beth scolded.

"That was easy. I barely even put any mana into it," Soph replied hotly.

"Damn overpowered mages," Sabs muttered.

"What was that?" Soph asked archly.

"What was what?" Sabs replied with a very exaggerated, wide-eyed look.

"Never mind," Soph said coolly, moving forward with a quick flip of her hair. The girls casually killed several level threes and a level four in the small copse and just into the farmer's field. They walked up the ramp to the nest, Beth charging up Crush and literally slapping the ant at the top's head into pulp. The group continued down into the first floor of the nest, with Beth and Blood hanging to the back while the other three started up a slaughter.

The first floor provided no challenge for the group, as they were just too powerful with the combination of higher levels and leveled skills. The four rooms on that floor flew by with Beth and Blood merely watching. The other three girls tore through the ants, the beasts providing little more challenge than a wet paper bag, Kim's sword showing its worth as her killing speed was increased.

The second floor provided little challenge as well, with the three lower-leveled girls demolishing the ants in the four rooms with ease. Only the last room was of any interest, with two level six ants present. Unfortunately for the ants, Soph's newfound prowess with ice proved a major handicap, as the insects were much more vulnerable to the cold than the wolves.

Soph hitting each ant with a stream of cold before anyone walked into the room virtually shut the two creatures down, allowing even Sabs, with her weaker knives, to kill them with ease. The group made their way down to the third floor, where Kim stopped them after checking the room.

"Level seven in here already," she commented with a glance at Beth, who shrugged in response, letting Kim figure it out herself.

"Okay, since the gorilla isn't gonna help, we'll do it the normal way. Frost Orb them Soph, then be ready to blast them. Sabs, get in there close with me and cut them up. Nothing complex unless we have too much trouble with them."

"No problem," Sabs replied.

"One Frost Orb, the strongest spell there is, coming up," Soph responded with a smirk. Soph moved to the edge of the room and started channeling freezing cold between her hands. It didn't take very long for a small orb of bitter cold to form, flakes of snow whirling in the air in front of the small girl as she focused. When she felt the orb sufficiently powerful, she pushed it forward with both hands, flinging it into the center of the room.

The ants only had enough time to sense the danger and turn towards the tunnel entrance before Soph pulled her hands wide apart with a jerk, exploding the orb almost perfectly centered between the large insects. Kim and Sabs rushed into the room, each peeling off to go after one of the ants. Soph followed in calmly behind them, a lick of flame now appearing above each of her hands.

Kim took her ant to task with ease, a Sweep chopping off a section of its head before she returned the blade in front of herself, stepping forward with a clean lunge, skewering the ant's brain. Sabs had a little more trouble, as her knives, though quite sharp and dangerous pre-integration, couldn't really cut it anymore against mana reinforced creatures. She did manage to snap off one of the legs but disengaged at a command from Kim before doing any other damage.

This opened the ant up for Soph, who had walked a fair distance into the room. Just as the beast was starting to recover from the ice, slowly beginning to move a little, she put her hands together, forming a triangle with her thumbs and index fingers. The flames that had been hovering over her hands moved down between them, and she leaned forward and blew into the gap. A gout of flame several inches thick billowed forward from her hands, encasing the level seven ant in flame.

The temperature differential between magic ice and magic flame was apparently rather extreme, as large sections of the ant's carapace exploded, guts and ichor spuming out.