Chương 618: Limitless Path Chapter Six Hundred Thirty-Seven

"Powerful connections?" the elf said, his tone making it clear he was scoffing.

"Some of us aren't total assholes to everybody," Beth replied calmly, getting laughter out of both teams.

"You're backer isn't here now, girl. Don't overstep," the elf said, watching as most of the team he was escorting rolled their eyes in unison.

"Let me make something very clear," Beth said, white fire exploding from her, the ground around both teams shattering as a crushing pressure overwhelmed everyone but Beth and the elf.

"I don't need Baelvyr here to school your lame ass. You ought to learn some manners, or at least to keep your stupid mouth shut before somebody stronger than you with less patience than either my mentor or myself decides to shut you up." Beth had walked forward while speaking, the opposing team not blocking her while she did, not that they were even able to do so. She was now standing face-to-face with the elf, only a couple inches shorter than him but somehow making it feel as if they were exactly the same height.

The elf's face had gone through a whole series of emotions in the span of a few seconds, but settled on a mixture of anger, exasperation, grief, and a slight bit of fear. He didn't reply at first, which certainly made the moment stretch out, but Beth was perfectly comfortable in the role of intimidating hard-ass, and just waited, standing within his personal space and radiating power.

The best case scenario was for him to take a step back, both figuratively and literally, but nearly as good would be if he took a swing at her. She would beat his scrawny ass, which would be fun considering she hadn't had a really thrilling fight for a while, the boss of the dungeon not really counting anymore. It would also be nice to go a few rounds with an Ascended without being interrupted before either she or the Ascended could really get fully warmed up.

"You're still young and naive," the elf said.

"Don't think that just because you've got this little bit of strength, you can go around flaunting it. That will only blow up in your face, and quickly, at that."

"If it's only this little bit of strength, you don't have to respect it," Beth said, grinning in a way that made the elf shift nervously from one foot to the other.

"Go ahead; I'm right here. Take a swing. See how I stack up against a real, genuine Ascended. I'm sure you could put me in my place." The elf's face contorted multiple times, running through a whole gamut of emotions in the span of just a handful of seconds. Beth was silently amused, comparing all the other elves she knew, which was quite a few at this point, and their stoic and taciturn natures in stark contrast to this elf, one who wore his emotions on his sleeve and struggled to act appropriately.

She was watching that struggle play out in real time, hoping that he lost this miniature battle with himself, but it looked like he was just a cut above the last Ascended she had engaged in a little bout of fisticuffs.

"We are here on a mission," he replied coldly, though anger and frustration leaked through in his voice.

"We do not have time to stoop to your level."

"Rich, considering the source," Beth replied, letting her Ideal go, though only externally. She was still holding onto a lot of power as she slowly and deliberately turned and walked away from the elf, ready for him to strike at her back when she was supposedly unaware. Unfortunately, he was really no fun, and just let her walk back to her team without attempting to interfere or attack her.

"If it's not too much trouble, we're going to set up our camp here and start doing clears of the dungeon. Unless, you have some kind of problem?" the team leader of the elf's team asked, the elf frowning and muttering things to himself now that the tension was easing.

"As long as you keep your chaperone there on a short leash, we're fine," Beth replied with a bit of a smirk.

"You-!" the elf replied before being cut off by the team leader.

"I'm sure we can get along peacefully," he said, giving the elf a bit of a glare. Beth was guessing, based on how the other group was acting, that the elf's surliness and aggressive tone and actions were something they had gotten used to and were practiced in working around or even outright ignoring.

"Let us know if you need help," Beth said with a grin before leading her team to the dungeon.

"I think we'll be fine. Anything unusual we should expect," the team leader asked. Beth noted they had foisted off setting up the portable houses on their elven guardian while they joined her team at the dungeon entrance.

"Massive cave system," said Bjorn, peering down at them.

"Lot's of elementals."

"It's also hot as hell," Andrea added, hands behind her head with her fingers interlocked.

"If you're not at the top of Gold in your resistances at the least, it's going to suck some serious ass being in there for a few days."

"Days? Shouldn't it only take a few hours?" asked the woman on the other team that Beth suspected was a sapient monster or had a monster bloodline or inheritance.

"Oh no, this is a level five hundred experience you signed up for," Andrea replied, laughing and shaking her head.

"You're not getting quick and easy once you get to this level range. It's going to take you more than a day if you just try to rush for the boss and get out as fast as possible. If you actually take the time to explore and fight, it's going to take a lot longer." Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"She's right," Val added as the teams both looked at the portal into the dungeon.

"Even what would be considered a small level five hundred dungeon or instance is many, many miles in all directions and packed full of beasts. It's not something so easy to fight through, even with a powerful team. Hell, look at who we have, and we still take multiple days just for one clear."

"Speaking of who you have," said the behemoth-blooded man, glancing over at the elf in the distance who was still prepping their camp before continuing.

"What was that flame thing, exactly? I thought it was just a high-tier skill, but Noren acted too shocked for that. Even for someone with expressions as easy to read as his, that was still a bit odd."

"It's her Ideal," Sera cut in right as Beth was opening her mouth and inhaling to start bragging about herself.

"Don't let her go on about how amazing she is because of it, either. Most of it's down to luck."

"Hey, I'd rather be lucky than good. Look where it's gotten me so far," Beth replied, jabbing a thumb into her chest while still puffing up a bit with pride.

"Don't listen to her," Sera cut in, overriding her wife again.

"Hard work is always the best, and she's worked harder than just about any of us. Just a little luck along the way and she's ahead, for now, but don't underestimate how difficult it was for her to get there."

"Anyway, you guys should just give it a try," Beth said.

"Well, our, uh, chaperone, as you so eloquently put it, is going to need to come in with us, but we're looking forward to it," the short woman on their team that wore full plate replied.

"Good luck on the run. We can compare notes when you're done," Beth said, pulling a spike out of her necklace.

"What is that?" asked the behemoth.

"A spike," Beth replied casually, stabbing the entrance portal to the dungeon. Mana swirled and condensed, though it was a muted light show as mostly the spike was just rearranging the mana that was already present within the structure of the dungeon portal to strengthen the next instance.

"Good luck." With that final shot, Beth and her team stepped through as the other team stared at each other, and the portal, in varying states of shock and horror. The team understood, once Beth had clearly stated it was a spike, just what it was that she was holding, but they hadn't thought she was really crazy to actually use the thing. Spikes were known to most people as team killers, yet another reason they were rare and hard to find, as the general understanding of them meant teams just didn't want them.

Spiking even a well understood dungeon was a good way to get a team slaughtered by encountering something novel, that novel thing now also being much stronger than what the dungeon had previously been like. There were a lot of stories out there about teams using spikes and biting off more than they could chew and losing members, or the teams just disappearing entirely.

For Beth's team to be so casually and confidently using a spike and stepping into a level five hundred dungeon like it was the same as getting ready to dust the furniture was pretty shocking.

"Did they just…did I see that right?" the team leader asked.

"Oh, you saw that right, Del," the monster woman said.

"They spiked a level five hundred dungeon and walked in like it was an afternoon stroll. We all watched it happen."

"They have to be mad," one of the others said.

"I don't know…" Del, the team leader, replied, thinking.

"You remember what happened."

"What do you mean by that?" asked the dwarven woman wearing full plate.

"When we fought them. We eked out, what, one victory? Or was it two, out of a total of ten matches," he said.

"Speaking of ten matches," the brawler of the team said.

"Speaking of?" Del asked, the team turning to the man.

"What about it, Aaron?"

"I didn't see their amazing ace anywhere," the man grunted, crossing his arms over his chest and shrugging a little.

"You know, the guy that cut me apart like so much old cheese, the one I was sure was a Grandmaster."

"That's true," Del said, glancing back at the dungeon entrance.

"Which makes them even scarier," the monster woman said.

"What does that mean, Star?" asked the one that had lost to Beth.

"Think about it," the monster woman, Star, replied.

"They're doing not just a level five hundred dungeon while they're all still Enlightened, without the help of any Ascended, and doing it without their strongest member."

"I don't know about strongest member," Del said with a frown, looking back at the glowing portal.

"Yeah, only because you didn't fight him," the man who had lost to Veren said sarcastically.

"The giant they have on their team is scary enough," Del replied, clearly remembering the crazy beating Bjorn had given him.

"More than one giant," the dwarven woman muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" asked Star.

"Nothing, nothing," the dwarf replied, holding up her hands and rolling her eyes.

"What's all the fuss? Are we ready for this?" asked the elf, Noren, walking up to the group.

"Camp is set up?" Del asked in response.

"The camp is just fine," Noren bit off.

"Then let's do the first run. We should see if we can get a normal run done before they get out of theirs," Del said.

"Why would that be difficult? They only have a few minute lead on us," Noren said.

"Noren, they spiked the dungeon," Del said, sighing.

"They did what?!" Noren shouted. Meanwhile, Beth's group was working like a well-oiled machine at this point, grinding through the dungeon at a rapid, but assured, pace. They were very good at every part of the instance by now, even with little variations that such instances and dungeons could have. A level five hundred dungeon could have a lot more variance, though that was typically restricted to the layout and size, not to any other factors.

They had, however, done the spiked version enough they they had encountered plenty of oddities. The worst they had had so far was a run where it was storming, which would have actually been a bit of a relief, but the storm had caused all the beasts to have some kind of lightning element added to them and their attacks, many of them still with fire aspects as well.

On top of that, it wasn't raining water, but some kind of sulfur-based acid that ate away at the group's equipment and flesh, proving very annoying to have to constantly heal through. The run they found themselves in now was normal, at least at first, but their familiarity with the instance led them to discover a key difference very quickly.

Normally, they would have to be constantly worrying about the wurm beasts attacking them; even though they were few in number, they were a real pain in the ass to kill, and so they were a constant annoyance for the first half or more of the clear. It became clear that this instance was something different, and likely very special, when they weren't attacked by a wurm even after nearly two hours had passed, which would be a record for any time the instance had wurms, which had been every run so far.

This time, they were pretty sure there weren't any of the burrowing beasts at all, as the team had become quite good at sensing the vibrations in the ground and air that the wurms made, though the disturbance in the air was so minute Beth was the only one who could sense it when the wurm wasn't literally right on top of them, and that was only using concepts from her mastery of space to detect the changes in air pressure.

It took a long time, surprisingly, for the change to really make itself known, but when it did was when they knew this instance in particular was going to be a very special run of the dungeon. Sometimes, environmental changes, things like the storm that added lightning, were massive deals that really changed the whole context of the dungeon, which included massively changing the rewards structure. Other times, it was inherent changes in the beasts or the enemies, whether in type or number that did it.

Sometimes, however, it was a change to everything within the dungeon, but a change to one beast in particular, or the addition of one beast in particular, that would radically alter the experience. It was also changes like this, the thing that Beth was staring at right now, that often led to inexperienced or under-leveled team being entirely wiped out by using a spike.

She was sure that it wasn't the boss, either, because they had cleared almost half the dungeon and knew where the boss was, even if they hadn't gotten to its location yet. No, this was not the final boss, but it would likely be a far more difficult challenge, though something that was an even greater reward, given everything that went into it. Beth was just worried that her wife might have a few qualms, but that was quickly put to rest in the next few moments.