Chương 554: Limitless Path Chapter Five Hundred Seventy-Six

Killing over and over was, as she had previously established, something she could do for months on end without cease, but sometimes the others needed a little more entertainment than that. Also, she was trying to be very mindful of Sera, both for Sera's comfort, and because, hell, Sera was just so crazy beautiful she always wanted to spend more time with her.

They didn't really have a set schedule, anyway, and it was only about her opening and closing the gate and changing the settings that they had to really coordinate. Beth took a break to spend some time with Sera and gave her stat page a quick check in the meantime.

Name Elizabeth Anne Bell Class Spatial Slaughterer Level 420[11] Strength 33940 Dexterity 16970 Endurance 17450 Intelligence 5850 Wisdom 5850 Free Points 0 Mana Physique True Flame Mana Physique[Platinum] Titles Silver Flame Empress' Inheritor Monster-Slayer One Who Realized Beyond the Self Skills Ancient World Gate[4] Beastly Tyrant Platinum[8] Blacksmithing Expert[2] Celestial Annihilation Platinum[2] Corruption Resistance Gold[9] Dominion of True Fire Gold[1] Elemental Resistance Platinum[0] Focused Meditation Gold[2] FrostFlame Eye Gold[8] Indomitable Heart Gold[9] Light Beyond The Edge Silver[2] Lordly Reconstruction Gold[9] Pain Tolerance Gold[9] Spatial Domain Platinum[1] Spatial Inversion Gold[4] Spatial Mana Detection Platinum[3] Spatial Obliteration Diamond[1] Spatial Resistance Gold[4] Spatial Slice Diamond[0] Spatial Step Diamond[1] Swift Gold[9] Swords Master[3] True Life Harvest Silver[8] Unarmed Master[4] Wealth 1a 3o 21m 81d 99p 14g 66s 34c Emblems CRA Gold Emblem (2000CP) Bonds Blood It had been a while since she had checked, and she was pleasantly surprised to see just how good her page looked.

Seeing a bunch of Diamond skills in her list, well, not a bunch, per se, but three was still way more than pretty much any Enlightened would have, was quite a good feeling. On top of that, the five Platinum skills and nine Gold skills, some of which were just about to hit Platinum, were also very nice to see, showing that her grinding was both worth it and had plenty of room still to go, even in the short term.

The thing that she should really focus heavily on, beyond her weapon skills, was Light Beyond The Edge, as that skill was already so powerful at its current level. If she could push the skill to something like Platinum, or even something far higher, well… As for taking a break and spending time with Sera, she was more than happy to leave her gate open for a week for anybody who needed it and take off.

More than just heading somewhere random and taking some time to rest, Beth had a few places she wanted to take sera, but mainly she wanted to show her Zephyr Prime. She had looked around, and the place was reputed to be one of the best planets in the whole galaxy to live on, another reason why prices for anything above the bargain basement units was sky high.

So many people wanted to live on the planet, and run offices out of it, that space was at a real premium, especially because they didn't allow expansion all willy-nilly and any which way. Despite much of the planet being covered in city, they were very restrictive about what got built and where, so much so that large sections of the planet couldn't have buildings above four stories in height.

"So, where are you taking me?" Sera asked as they left the suite and headed for the teleporter.

"I don't know if you've encountered it before on your travels," Beth answered.

"If not, then I'd kinda like to surprise you with what it is."

"I'm interested," Sera said, stepping onto the teleporter with her. Several jumps later they were at the CRA Hall that Beth had used to get to the Black Ships, showing their Gold Emblems before Beth eagerly took Sera's hand and led her out of the building.

"This place…" Sera said almost as soon as they had stepped on the street, at a loss for words. Beth just smiled at her girlfriend before pulling her along, leading her down the street, though moving slowly so the dragon could take in the sights and sounds. She had done a bit of research after coming here, including downloading a small packet from the Black Ships that had information about the planet.

While she called it a small packet, it was about two hundred pages and had several lists of the best establishments on the planet, including ones that were good for just a quick bite or to relax at, such as sidewalk cafes. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"I can understand why you were so excited to come here," Sera said after they sat at a table at an old red brick café that was nestled amongst a group of cozy two-story buildings.

"I really, really like this place. I wanted to talk with you, and the rest of the team at some point, but you're the important part. I'm thinking of buying a place here, and-" Beth began.

"Yes. Absolutely," Sera said.

"You didn't even give me time to launch into my whole spiel," Beth said with a small pout as their drinks were brought out by a waitress.

"This place is amazing; it's not just the people or even the air, they've figured out how to incorporate uplifting mana into everything," Sera said.

"Oh, wait, you know what the secret is?" Beth said, taking a sip of her drink.

"It's not anything crazy, but they've clearly got multiple kinds of mana working in conjunction to make the place better. It's a little hard to explain, but it's mana working to improve, if you understand what I mean," Sera said, sipping her own drink.

"Damn, this is good, though I smell you've got one of those drinks. Why does it smell so odd?"

"I got a version of hunting spice they say is a special blend," Beth said, taking another sip.

"It's supposed to be several different kinds of the spice, or a similar spice, mixed together. Anyway, is there anything dangerous or anything about what they're doing? It sounds like mind control kind of stuff, which makes me less interested." Sera was already shaking her head before Beth finished, saying, "It's not at all mind control or anything like that, don't worry. The kind of mana they're using, along with several other things I suspect they're doing, is meant to uplift and improve everything around it.

You don't have to worry about it influencing you any more than you would worry about fresh air and clean water making you feel better. I suspect there's also a combination of other stuff happening, like really good social policies and so on, that makes the people here so happy and outgoing. Either way, you were spot on with your initial feeling, this place really is a gem."

"Good. Now, we just need to figure out a place we want to get and get the money together," Beth said happily as Sera finished her drink and ordered another.

"Obviously, we're going to buy somewhere big enough that we can have plenty of people staying there; not just the team, but any other friends or family that wants to stop by. Then, there's location to consider, which I'm made to understand is kinda important in this whole real estate thing."

"Send me what you have," Sera said with a grin.

"I know you've been looking at information already. I want to see what you've already come up with."

"It's not my work," Beth said demurely, sending Sera what she had.

"This mostly comes from the Black Ships, who we have membership with now." She very briefly flashed Sera her token for the Black Ships, seeing the dragon's eyes widen, and by more than a bit." That's why I recognize this place," Sera said. At a look from Beth, she explained, "I recognize the name and the style of building and using mana. I learned about this place a while ago, I think from a big presentation Laselle did, and I've heard people at my clan mention it.

It's a combination kind of thing, but Zephyr Prime made the Black Ships and the Black Ships made Zephyr Prime. You don't get one without the other, and they're two of the most famous things inside, or outside, the entire galaxy."

"Well, that's certainly some recommendation," Beth said, sitting back as she sipped on her drink, still her first cup. She flagged the waitress down, noticing the tall woman giving Sera a very decided scan with her eyes, and not the kind that was leading toward a fight. Attempting to hide her grin, Beth ordered a second cup and some food, mainly something like bagels and a side of bacon. That got Sera hungry or interested, and she ordered her own food before the waitress moved off.

Beth waited a minute, then directed her voice just as Sera; it wasn't something she was great at, not like Baelvyr or some others could do, but she could still speak out loud without others overhearing her. She did it that way instead of by communicator because sometimes, it said a lot if the person you were whispering around could still notice that you were doing it.

"That waitress has the hots for you, by the way."

"I noticed," Sera muttered back.

"Wanna try to seal the deal?" Beth sent her.

"You're even worse than I am," Sera reprimanded, though she was grinning as she scolded Beth.

"That's not a 'No,' " Beth replied with a grin.

"I'll see if she's bold enough to make any kind of move," Sera replied with a lazy wave, dismissing the topic. The waitress, much to both Sera and Beth's chagrin, as she thought it would be pretty funny if Sera hooked up with someone within an hour of visiting the place for the first time, did not make a move on the dragon. They finished their breakfast, though it was more like dinner time for them, while talking just a bit more, before paying and leaving, Beth leaving the place, and the waitress, a tip.

She was tempted to leave a way to contact them for the waitress, but the woman hadn't made a move and Sera didn't seem super interested, so she left it alone. Their next stop was a place in the city on her list of possible houses to buy, as she wanted to see both one of the houses, even from the outside, as well as the district around it. As they walked, Sera did bring up a good point.

"You can, of course, buy multiple houses, but we should keep that in mind going forward. I'm sure there will be, at bare minimum, two other places we'll want to get houses or accomodations that are more long-term than just a suite at the CRA Hall."

"Oh? What are those?" Beth asked, looking up at her fiancee as they walked down the boulevard hand-in-hand.

"Well, one for sure is the City of Mended Dreams. That is, unless you've for some reason given up on the Eternal Depths?" Sera replied with a small grin.

"Oh, yeah, I see what you mean," Beth said with a nod.

"I hadn't even really been thinking of that, but if we start venturing into the depths, maybe even in a few years, we'll probably want a place in the city that has easiest access."

"Right. That's one place, and the other is somewhere I'd suggest, but it isn't as crucial," Sera said.

"Well, don't keep me in suspense," Beth said, squeezing the dragon's hand.

"So, I will preface this by saying I don't know exactly what the CRA does for hosting it's members," Sera said, holding up her other hand and holding up her index finger.

"But, based on you saying you want to keep climbing the ranks beyond Gold, you should look into what you need to get a place on Arbitus Prime. That, by the way, is the planet that acts as the CRA's galactic headquarters for the Milky Way. I know you don't want to play politics and all that, but we should probably have somewhere set aside that is our own place there, particularly if one or more of us gets to Diamond Emblem, and especially if we go even beyond that to Mithril Emblem or more."

"I'm so glad you're my wife," Beth said, moving at a crazy speed to give Sera a kiss on the cheek without interrupting their walking speed or rhythm.

"I wasn't even thinking of either of those things. I'll message Baelvyr first, since it's not going to hurt to coordinate with him about CRA stuff. I'm sure he'll be able to tell me, whenever he next surfaces from, uh, whatever the fuck it is they're all doing."

"Good idea," Sera said, squeezing Beth's hand in response and wiggling their fingers together. They walked across a couple miles of city before arriving at one of the places the Black Ships had currently listed as available. Beth had also taken note that the listings didn't cycle particularly fast, at least not the ones above a certain threshold, and she wasn't sure what that meant about current demand, or even current supply.

This was small manse that had come available while they were in their latest grinding and training session, and it wasn't exactly the right size for what Beth wanted, but it was close. It was also located in a good district and was the kind of place she would like to buy, so it didn't hurt to have a quick look and a bit of a longer walk around the neighborhood to see what the whole place was like.

The small mansion itself was made of some kind of fairly large stone blocks, about the size of Beth's torso, mined from a quarry in the system, or so the information on the house claimed. It was a dark ochre color with gray and silver veins shot through it and looked fairly nice, even if it wasn't the best that Beth had ever seen. The entire property was sat on roughly an acre, which was about forty-three thousand square feet, or four thousand square meters, though that was the total land area.

The mansion itself had a footprint of about ten thousand square feet, taking about a quarter of the land and leaving only a small front yard beyond the wall that separated it from the street. There was a larger backyard that was walled in and had a garden area, a pool, and a small training field. All-in-all, Beth thought it was a pretty impressive place, but if she wanted to buy something in the city, she wanted them to have plenty of space to stretch out.

Hell, the team right now, not including the erstwhile Veren, was nine people, and that also didn't include any family members, plus ones, or any others that might be stopping by. While ten thousand square feet sounded like a lot, she was thinking about them needing something like a dozen bedrooms or bedroom suites to comfortably house everyone, if not even more, and then she selfishly wanted some nice amenities on the inside as well.

They walked on, browsing the neighborhood, though Beth knew basically all the other houses were spoken for and wouldn't be available no matter the price. It was still good to get a feel for the place, which was surprisingly welcoming, given that most of the mansions and buildings had walls around them. The few that didn't were either eateries of one kind or another or a couple facilities for recreation.

The whole place was very tasteful, but it also wasn't shy about just stating what things were, with the one brothel they passed clearly explaining what it was on the sign and forbidding entrance to minors, both entirely reasonable things, in her opinion. Apart from the facilities, the neighborhood was dozens of mansions, some looking like they were very lightly used or hardly occupied, and some with rather a lot of people in and about them.

One was certainly having a party, or maybe continuing a party from the day before, though the noise level was rather low, which was explained when Sera mentioned warding runes in the walls for sound. She wasn't sure she'd be dancing and drinking heavily at the equivalent of ten in the morning, but then again, she'd already done crazier things, and it wasn't exactly a hard-scrabble district of the working poor they were moving through.

This was a district of, while not the richest around, some rather wealthy individuals, or family members of the ultra rich, and they could afford both the time and luxury of partying at their whims. They left the district and strolled the city for a time, Beth just enjoying the company of the tall, powerful, gorgeous dragon girl she still had her heart absolutely set on.

They didn't have a particularly destination in mind, or that's what Beth would like to think, though she did want to stop in at the Black Ships' offices directly, but they spent some time just wandering aimlessly and seeing what there was to find. A bit aimlessly, at least, as they did have the guide that Beth had read through, so she wasn't totally blind or unbiased, but they still managed to discover several interesting places all on their own over the next two hours.

After strolling for a long time, though they could literally stroll for decades without getting tired, the two of them turned their feet towards the Black Ships building and made their way over.