Chương 393: Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Seventeen

Flying back to their… well, campsite might be an accurate description, but using a multi-mithril coin airship as their tent wasn't exactly slumming it, they decided on just a bit of rest. They likely had a day before they were given more targets, as with Baelvyr out helping, the beast population wasn't really in danger of overrunning the world anymore. Megoria was still dedicating all her energy to the monsters, or the unknown monster, leaving them at loose ends.

Beth wasn't just going to not do anything at all for twenty-four hours, but she could take it easy for a while, spending some time with Sera just being present around her. She did resume her training, spending a few days of subjective time in the gate working on her Swords and Unarmed, just hammering away at enemies far more powerful than her. Nothing she could spawn in her gate was on the level of the monster, so in some ways she had to substitute quantity for quality, though that didn't really make up for it.

It was just enough that she could keep working on her weaponskills, but she figured just fighting tough enemies wouldn't do much once she reached Master. Hell, she would probably have to do a lot more just to hit Master once she got to the peak of Expert, but that was still some time away, especially as it would slow down as she went up through the ranks.

Weaponskills had that happen a lot more, compared to other skills that were much more difficult to raise from one rank to another but were more consistent through that rank. She was focusing more on her Swords as she was behind in that skill and, despite her desire to push one skill to Master to get an advantage over the monster, she wasn't getting a level in three days' worth of work.

Better to just focus on her sword skills in those little gaps rather than barely be able to get in the groove of focusing on her Unarmed before having to stop and go do something else. She could also take advantage of the time to work on Monstrous Blow, which was starting to lag behind her other skills by a bit.

It was a day-and-a-half later of objective time that they got their next marching orders, a single location to fight through a beast tide that was somewhat close to their first location out of the previous two. Well, close in that it was on the same continent and not at the total opposite end, but it was a couple thousand miles from where they had just been. Distance didn't really matter with the airship, and they were in flight for a few hours with Blood in the hot seat before arriving at their destination.

Once again, they found an unusual situation when they arrived, though it wasn't something they hadn't encountered before.

"He's back," Sera muttered, watching the front screen on the bridge.

"He's sure persistent," Blood grunted.

"Normally, I'd give somebody points for effort, but this guy's kinda hopeless," Beth said with a sigh.

"If we had to rely on him to clear this continent, this system's star would burn out before the beasts were even under control. I appreciate the passion, but this dude is kinda, uh, weak?"

"Let's go help him out, and then maybe tell him to knock it off," Sera said.

"Yeah, don't know if he's gonna interfere with what the Seniors are doing, but we should figure out what he's doing and try to get him to at least coordinate. A rogue operator isn't going to help the situation, not one at his level," Beth said with a nod.

"Let's just get the job done first," Blood said, bringing them in low over the center of the tide. Beth led the way down to the cargo hold, thinking they should take some time to check their gear after this fight. She had so many things that she either needed or wanted to work on and so little time to do it, which was crazy to think considering she had a power that accelerated her timestream by ten times, but it never felt like she had enough hours to work on what she needed or wanted.

She shook off the thoughts as they jumped from the ship, a height that would have been unnerving just to be close to before the Path came to Earth now feeling much more like taking a step down the stairs than taking a crazy leap out of a perfectly good ship. The ship went into hover mode and soared up above them, watching for anything flying that would be annoying for them while they slaughtered the tide.

Once again, Delonne was on the edge, slowly kiting beasts from part of the tide away and killing them, trying to keep from getting overwhelmed, just not possessing the skills, equipment, levels, or even mindset to fight the entire tide. He had likely seen their entrance again, as they weren't exactly subtle; Beth's group operated with the stealth and circumspection of an old brick to the face. Still, he ignored them, and they didn't bother with him, focusing on their own areas, though that was a little lopsided.

Delonne's area was a tiny chunk of the tide, while their area was… the entire rest of the tide, which they cleaned up in the same amount of time it took him to kill about seventy or eighty thousand beasts, which was a drop in the ocean compared to the total numbers.

"Interfering again?" he demanded when he marched over to Beth.

"I don't know what your problem is, and I, quite frankly, don't give a shit. We're here to do a job, and that's all we're focused on. If you've got a problem with us killing beasts, for some reason, take it up with your boss," Beth replied to the scruffy man coldly.

"My people and I aren't exactly on…great terms," he said.

"That's tragic, but again, not my problem," Beth told him with a shrug.

"I don't even know why the hell you're so upset."

"It's a matter of pride and, more than that, what happens when you leave?" he said.

"We got ourselves into a hole long before these monsters showed up, and when they're gone, are we going to crawl back out of that hole? I doubt it. I haven't seen a blue sky in more than a hundred years. Do you know what that's like? And all for what? To control a few more miles of forest or some paltry resource? No, if we don't solve this ourselves, then we're doomed in the end." If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"I don't think that's true, but I don't know your situation," Beth said.

"What I do know is, we were brought in to clean up the monsters, and that's what we're going to do. If you don't want a war to start when they're dead, you've got to convince your people to not start cutting each other's throats. Or, ask us for help."

"That would be even worse," he said grimly, shaking his head. Beth took that moment to give him a serious once over, seeing that the man was really not in a good state. His armor, crude as it was already, was dented and chipped and battered. His hair was a mess, even bound with a band, and his eyes looked sunken and hollow. Overall, he was a mess, in more ways than one, and Beth just sighed while shaking her head.

"You've got something to say about it?" he asked, looking back to her.

"I think you need to take a rest," Beth said, rolling her eyes.

"When was the last time you ate? Or slept? Or, more importantly, had a goddamn shower?"

"It's been a long time, for all of it, but I don't have time to sit around and wait," he replied tersely.

"Look, I'm going to try to say this in the nicest way possible, but you can just take a bit to rest. The world's not going to end tomorrow and, to be honest? You're not really doing all that much to help the situation," Beth said.

"Despite saying you were being nice, that was quite rude," he said with a frown.

"Look, dude, I'm telling you right now, we've killed more beasts on this world in the last two weeks than you've probably killed in your life. Hell, than your top ten fighters have probably killed in sum total. I appreciate what you're trying to do but maybe spend some of that time and effort on convincing your people not to go to war. Or back to war, or whatever," Beth said, shaking her head a bit.

"You just don't understand," he said, raising his head and looking at the dark grey sky.

"It's been like this too long. Things have to change, but I don't know how. I don't know how to do it, how to make them listen. Not other than to use force, which is what got us into this whole stupid fucking mess in the first place."

"I don't have a good answer for you, since my answer would be to beat some sense into them," Beth shrugged.

"That or just take over yourself."

"Then I wouldn't be any better than them!" he retorted hotly, his head snapping back to her.

"Boss, you're fighting a losing war on a backwater dirtball that you seem to be the only person that actually cares about," Beth said calmly, staring him in the eye.

"I can't tell you what to do or how to do it, but something has to change. Standing here and whining to me isn't going to make your planet better. If you don't want to be here anymore, then just leave."

"I can't just leave, this is my home! It's all I've got left. All I have to remember them by, and those bastards even ruined that…" he said, looking up at the dark sky again and closing his eyes slowly.

"I'm just so tired. We can't even deal with some beasts attacking us. We've stretched ourselves too thin for too long, and when the beasts and monsters are dealt with, we'll just go right back to killing ourselves under a broken sky. I don't know what to do."

"Sorry, I just can't really sympathize all that well," Beth said, grimacing a little.

"I have a home world, with people I care about, but I'm not so attached to it, so bound to it that I could never leave. I mean, if I had to, and nobody wanted to do the right thing, I'd step up and make sure everything was settled. We say on my world, 'Put up or shut up.' I think that's the position you're in."

"Not a very elegant way to say it, but I understand what you mean," he said with a sigh, looking back at her again.

"Where are the others that came with you?"

"Scouting and getting ready to burn," she said.

"We can't leave so many corpses and death in one place without doing something about it. We'll burn this place clean and then leave."

"And you use your fire magic to do that?" he asked.

"Don't have any fire magic. Maybe should get some," Beth replied with a shrug.

"I have a Mana Physique that lets me control fire and manipulate it."

"You have a Mana Physique?! But you're only at rebirth five!" he exclaimed, staring at her wide-eyed and open-mouthed.

"Yeah, I'm just kinda awesome like that," Beth replied with another shrug, though the huge grin on her face somewhat gave the game away.

"The CRA really doesn't mess around, huh?" he muttered, still staring at her with a shocked expression.

"Well, we might be a little exceptional," Beth said with just a touch of humility.

"We're Silver Emblems who are currently looking to make Gold, and fairly well before we hit a hundred years old. Don't really see that too much, not in a galaxy like ours, from what I've been told. And we've had some really great trainers, some really lucky encounters, and put in tens and tens of thousands of hours of hard work. All that combined pays off."

"Hmm, don't really know much about the CRA, but it sounds impressive enough," Delonne said.

"Not sure how great Gold Emblems that young are, but if you're any indication, then it must be a crazy place."

"Yeah, you guys don't have a CRA Hall or even an Annex here. Why is that?" Beth asked.

"It's a long story," he said with a sigh.

"The short version goes like this; basically, a long time ago, over a thousand years, somebody took control of over half this world. They argued with the CRA, it turned into a massive thing, and the CRA tried to have them removed. That soured even the people who didn't like that leader on the CRA, and the fight only developed from there. A whole bunch of stuff happened over the next twenty years, but worlds do have the right to refuse CRA presence, and we eventually voted on that.

It wasn't even a close vote, either, as it was an overwhelming majority to kick them out. Haven't had anybody here since."

"Assassination isn't part of our business, so I kinda doubt that part," Beth said with a slight frown.

"And the CRA does send people to check on unaligned worlds from time to time, so you've probably had a CRA member here without even knowing it."

"Well, the point still stands," he said with a shrug.

"It started from some small instances, to an assassination, to what was basically just one step short of a war between us and the CRA. I'm not a historian, so I can't really tell you how all of it truly went down."

"Huh," Beth said.

"Anyway, we've got to clean this up. You wanna take a break on our ship? Maybe get a hot meal? And a shower?"

"Well, I don't know…" he hesitated, looking at her for a long moment.

"We don't bite," Beth said.

"Much."

"Fine, fine. It's been forever since I've been truly clean," he said with a sigh, his shoulders slumping and spine bending as the last few years of struggle looked to catch up with him all at once.

"It'll be down in a second," Beth said. Right as the ship showed up above them and started to descend, Blood appeared. The wolf didn't say anything, just giving Delonne a look before boarding the ship ahead of him. The man glanced at Beth, but she just slightly quirked one eyebrow at him and then turned, getting ready to take care of the cleanup. Delonne sighed and followed Blood onto the ship, finding the tall lupine woman waiting for him.

She pointed at one of the doors further down the corridor before turning and heading the opposite way. When he approached the door, it opened onto a large suite, by ship standards, with a big main room and a nice bathroom, which was what he was most interested in.