Chương 59: Limitless Path Chapter Fifty-Nine

The day proceeded rather similarly to other days, with the exception being the opponents Baelvyr picked for her. Rather than just the standard training dummies, she faced a variety of opponents from humanoids to four-legged beasts to even wilder beings. They focused on a slew of attack patterns and angles, and while just a human opponent could give almost limitless possibilities, it was also true that Beth would be fighting many kinds of beasts over what could be a very, very long life.

It seemed to her, as she fought the various conjurings that Baelvyr threw at her, that their average skill level was definitely higher than hers. The more she fought, the more certain she became of this idea. As the hours passed, she recognized many times where she was either stronger or faster than the opponent. In some cases, she was both hitting harder and moving quicker, but she still would lose fights to such weak combat phantoms.

She hadn't seen it at first, and once she did it took her a few fights to process, but she eventually realized that this is what Baelvyr and the books had meant when they discussed a skill gap. You could balance out the gap by having stats a good bit higher than your opponent's, but Beth had a suspicion that some of the phantoms that were both weaker and slower than her and defeated her were high Journeyman or even low Expert in rank.

At noon they took a break, Beth drinking enough to water a neighborhood and tearing through multiple nutrient packs. When she had eaten and rested, Baelvyr restarted the combat arena, but with a new twist. He had divided it in half, and now Blood was assigned half of the arena. It had been fine earlier for just Beth to polish her skills, but now that they were both fighting beasts that pushed them to the limit, he had apparently decided it was time to get the wolf involved in the training regimen.

The two were subjected to the same treatment as Beth had undergone during the morning, facing a wide variety of enemies that could be of any sort of physical stat but were all of a greater skill. Beth could feel that it was definitely an improvement over what she had been doing, though it wasn't generating the kind of results that the battle trance had.

Still, it would be an effective way over the coming days to increase her skills, and hopefully Baelvyr had a way to push her over the large hurdle at the top of Apprentice and into Journeyman. They stopped in the late afternoon and returned everything they had used to its places, Baelvyr heading back to his usual spot while Beth and Blood stopped in their room. They took some time to wash, and Beth took a minute to quickly change into one of the now many sets of fresh clothes she had available.

They then left the suite and headed up to the lounge as well, sitting at the table in the back with Baelvyr. The two sat in silence for a while, Beth watching what was playing on the large screen at the front of the room. There was another random fight on, and she watched with mild interest as two contestants squared off in a standard arena. It wasn't much later that the rest of her group trudged in, though Soph, who was last, practically crawled into the room.

They assembled around Baelvyr's table with only some nods to Beth and Blood, so tired that talking was apparently too great an effort. Once everyone had rested for a few minutes, Beth took charge, getting up and urging the rest of the group to do the same. Accomplishing this little endeavor in herding cats, she got everyone moving in the direction of home. They passed through the lobby, where Tazeen stood guard alone, before heading outside and cutting through the woods.

Soph rode on Blood while the others trotted along behind, some more gamely than others. As happened frequently with Beth in the party, the group stumbled into one of the large wild boars that seemed to originate from the northern field. Beth took care of the low-level beast with a single quick strike to the head, moving in on the creature before it was even aware she was approaching. Beth didn't even bother at this point with trying to contact anyone, simply grabbing the huge hog and lifting it over her shoulders.

It was quite a sight they made as they came up to the neighborhood, with what looked like a giant, flopping boar accompanying the group. Beth dumped the carcass just outside their backyard, not worried about it for a few minutes. It was best to take care of the butchering immediately, but the meat would stay good for at least a handful of minutes while she found either Zack or Bill or both.

She trotted off to do just that, not even attempting to delegate to the clearly exhausted group a task she could take care of so easily herself. She didn't need to look far, as Zack himself was walking up the short street leading to the cul-de-sac they lived on. She informed him of yet another kill, much to his chagrin at receiving a task so late in the day.

Still, he was somebody who always got the job done, and he quickly made his way over to grab Bill before they sorted out their tools and headed into the Bell's backyard. Beth, having dispatched that particular duty, headed inside the house herself through the back, taking the time to set her equipment in the mudroom. She kept her pouch with her, as usual, and made her way through the first floor, looking to see where the rest of the group had distributed themselves.

She did not make it past the kitchen, lacking members of the group as it did, before she encountered a new trial; her mother.

"I must tell you I am not happy with you, young lady," Rachel started off with the frown and arched brow that Beth had become quite used to over the years. She knew this was brewing into a hell of a fight already.

"Did we not tell you explicitly that you are to contact us if you will be out late or, heaven forbid, all night?"

"Hey Mom, sometimes I'm going to stay at the CRA Hall," Beth said with a nod.

"Don't give me that, young lady. I will ground you until school resumes, you understand? I am serious about this," her mother replied angrily. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" Beth replied, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared at her mother a little sullenly.

"You're lucky your sister covered for you, young lady, or else you really would be facing a real punishment," her mother continued, the raised eyebrow now accompanied by a wagging finger. After Beth didn't respond for a moment, Rachel continued, "Nothing else to say?"

"I don't really think it's all that big of a problem," Beth replied with a shrug, sighing as her mother continued wagging her finger.

"That's no excuse, Beth! You need to take this seriously," her mother responded with some heat in her voice before sighing, stopping the finger wagging. It was not long before she resumed her earlier harangue.

"What would we do if something happened to you?"

"Run," Beth replied with a slight smirk.

"This is not a laughing matter, young lady," her mother continued huffily.

"It actually wasn't a joke," Beth replied with a frown.

"What do you mean?" her mother questioned, the frustration and exasperation clear in her tone.

"Again, check my level," Beth said a little smugly.

"Okay," responded her mother before narrowing her eyes for a moment. They flew quite wide an instant later, Rachel exclaiming, "You're already level twenty-eight?!"

"You don't have to tell the whole planet," Beth replied with a wince, miming at rubbing her ears.

"Sorry, it's just…rather a shock," Rachel said slowly, taking a few moments to recover her equanimity.

"That's why I said you should run," Beth said, turning to leave the kitchen.

"If it takes me out, nobody around here can stop it."

"We will be continuing this conversation later, young lady," her mother said from the kitchen as Beth walked down the hall, waving lazily over her shoulder as she continued her retreat. She headed up the stairs to her room, followed by Blood. She let Blood in, following behind her and shutting the door before making her way into the bathroom. She cleaned up for the evening, including taking care of brushing her teeth, before heading out into the bedroom and getting into pajamas.

She spent a moment browsing the net before shutting down for the night, putting her phone down on the nightstand before turning off the light and rolling over, falling asleep immediately. Beth was up somewhat early the next morning, a little before seven, and popped right up out of bed. She supposed that was one thing a little bad about the massive improvements to her stats; she never really got the lazy urge to snooze an extra hour in bed.

As soon as she woke up, she was wide awake and ready to get to doing something, not content to lay around anymore than necessary. Heading into her bathroom, she got ready for the day, pulling on one of her sets of CRA clothes once she was brushed, rinsed, and relieved. She made her way out of the room, Blood following along before splitting off to head down the hall toward Beth's sisters' rooms.

Beth herself headed downstairs and wandered around for a minute before she remembered a little thing she had forgotten until now: the seeds from the trial. The seeds were on a cloth on the counter corner, and Beth meandered out into the garage to see if she could find an empty pot and some potting soil. She was able to find both, rather fortunately, her mother always seeming to have some empty terracotta pots, and there being a mostly full bag of soil left from some recent garden work.

She filled two moderately large pots and planted a seed within each. She carried the full pots and their containers up to her room and set them by the two windows at the front, dumping a little water in before returning to the kitchen. Beth continued the usual routine from here, opening the front door to let Sabs in before tightly hugging the petite girl. After shutting the front door, Beth led the way to the kitchen, where the two began breakfast prep for the day.

It wasn't long before the rest of the group mustered at the island, Soph again basically riding Blood down the stairs and into the kitchen. The five of them ate quickly and cleaned up a little messily before getting ready to leave for the day. They gathered up in the mudroom and pulled on their equipment, something that was already becoming second nature to them in this new reality. They exited through the backdoor as they were suited up, gathering in the cool air of the morning in the yard.

While the girls had stopped clearing the dungeons daily to allow for enemies to populate the surrounding area, or 'fresh target practice,' as Zack called it, they decided to do quick clears today. Beth wasn't really in the mood to mess around, and they practically ran to the ant dungeon, ignoring all but a single ant that wandered into their path along the way. They flew through the dungeon itself, all the girls able to handle the first two floors easily, and Beth killing most of the ants on the third floor alone.

She let the lower leveled members of the group tackle the boss room solo, something that didn't take very long and gave them the most benefit. The group didn't even pause for a rest, not having expended terribly much energy, even Soph not needing a break after such light work. They made their way out and southward, heading into the wolf dungeon as soon as they could. More wolves intercepted them on the way than ants had, but the difference in speed was negligible.

Once they had entered the dungeon, they proceeded to tear through it, clearing the minimum number of rooms possible to get the clear bonus. Beth and Blood took part in the boss room, quickly dispatching the large number of lower leveled wolves while the other girls fought the boss and its two higher leveled 'guards.' Cleaning up the dungeon was relatively easy with their strength, and they were out and headed to the CRA Hall a few minutes later.

They moved through the nearby wooded areas rather quickly, not really concerned with non-dungeon monsters. The strongest they had encountered so far were the boars, which were all in the single digits, and any member of the group could fairly easily dispatch one at this point. It was only five minutes or so for them to make the Hall, entering as a slightly disorderly group. Tazeen manned the counter this morning alongside John, who he motioned to as the group made their way through the lobby.

John got up from the stool he had been resting on, following the girls down the hallway to the lounge. Today was a fairly typical day in that the rest of the trainers were still in the lounge, and the girls split up to participate in their regular training. Baelvyr ran Beth and Blood through the same thing he had run them through the day before, dividing the arena into two sections and pushing them with highly skilled opponents. Beth was actually growing to like the training more as they progressed.

She got to fight opponents that were, in a sense, much stronger than her with few risks. The lack of real danger did make it a little less effective, but her skills were still low enough that that small amount wasn't really noticeable at this stage. They took a break around lunchtime, both Beth and Blood eating nutrient packs, of which Blood was clearly not fond.

The wolf forced it down anyway, seeming to understand that this was what was available for this meal, and the two drained more than one bottle of water before returning to the ring. The training continued in much the same manner, but Beth's feelings of improving as time progressed, as well as the fact that Baelvyr kept an ever-changing stream of men and beasts for her to spar with, kept it quite interesting.

The two finished up in the late afternoon, and they took advantage of the room Beth had to shower off, and for Beth to change. They headed back up to the lounge once they were done, the other girls already present, still just as tired as they had been the day before. While Beth was tired herself, her high Endurance meant she still had a moderate amount of energy left. The other girls were clearly working hard, and with their lower Endurance, they were running themselves into exhaustion more easily.