Chương 620: Limitless Path Chapter Six Hundred Thirty-Nine

The key to defeating a level six hundred dragon, it turned out, was having someone so powerful that they could drive the beast into a mountain and keep crushing, smashing apart the entire mountain range along with the creature. Beth was just the kind of powerhouse that could use brute force to defeat such a powerful enemy, though it took even her a long time to smash through the hardened defenses of such a powerful being.

It was sort of funny, in a way, that even the mountains and land around them broke and shattered before any of the participants in the battle; a kind of fight that Beth really couldn't have even dreamed of before the appearance of the Path. Of course, the other factor that aided them was Beth's immunity to fire and near total control of the element; fighting a dragon without that power would have been a far more dangerous proposition.

"I can't believe how long that took," Beth said, looking down at the corpse after the fight had concluded, the others sitting or even laying down, resting and recovering from the ordeal.

"We're not the apex species most places because we're soft," Sera said with a note of pride in her voice.

"Not the apex species everywhere," Val commented, which got a chuckle from the group.

"Well, that's true," Sera said, not bothered by the comment.

"There's some scary beings out there."

"And there was a time when his people ruled," Andrea added, slapping Bjorn's torso, which meant smacking his stomach, given their height difference.

"That's also true," Sera said.

"Just glad it was a beast."

"A beast and not a monster?" Beth asked.

"I don't like that look on your face," Val said.

"What look?" Beth asked.

"That mixture of intrigue and excitement. That never bodes well for the rest of us," Val replied.

"Let's leave monster dragons for some other time," said Sera.

"I'm still making a note," Beth said.

"Blood Stars," Val muttered, though the rest were just amused.

"Now, we need to get this taken care of before we finish the dungeon."

"Good thing we have extra help," Beth said. Dismembering a dragon nearly a quarter again as big as Sera in her full form was not a fast process, especially when they had to fight off the other denizens of the dungeon that had sensed the powerful beast's death and now had now fear of invading its territory. The extra help from the Empyreans made the process much faster, and they did the cleanup in the dungeon as the others on Beth's team couldn't freely enter the reliquary, even given her permission.

Not that the rest of the team needed to help, but it did make everything go all that much faster, and had the dragon remains in what could be considered a 'usable' state and ready for whenever the team wanted the parts to craft or to sell. The dragon's heart alone was both massive and incredibly valuable and Beth had managed to kill the beast without the heart sustaining any kind of damage, though best not to mention what had happened to what little brains the creature had had.

After that epic, multi-hour battle that had leveled nearly a third of the dungeon and exhausted the team, they took a short break before fighting the dungeon boss, which was almost a joke by comparison. Not that the dungeon boss, on a spike run, no less, was easy by any stretch of the imagination, but compared to a powerful earth dragon fifty levels higher than it, one that resorting to literally throwing entire mountains at the team as it accrued injuries, the final boss was a bit of a pushover.

Even when it had traces of solar and fusion energy, the rare typing that Mortaine and Laselle needed for their work in the Eternal Depths, it was still an easy kill, though Beth had a harder time manipulating the mana. Solar was enough like fire that it was pretty easy for her to battle against or control, depending on what was needed, but fusion, while producing heat, was a whole different concept that was harder for her to do anything against.

It was a lucky thing the beast didn't have much of the esoteric mana types or abilities, as it would have been difficult for the team to confront. They would have basically had to let Beth solo it if it were heavily aspected to something like fusion, which would have been a slow, tedious process. Fortunately, that wasn't the case, and they were able to kill the boss the same as they had dozens and dozens of times by this point.

The boss wasn't the big draw this time, though, as they were all anticipating the rewards. Even with a spike, the dragon was a mini-boss that was more powerful and dangerous than the final boss by far, but the Path was always fair, if harsh. Fighting such a powerful opponent, killing it, and then quickly clearing the rest of the dungeon proved their strength, and the team would be rewarded commensurately.

Beth herself only got really excited when the killed the final boss and a single plinth appeared with a single item atop it. So far, their dungeon clear rewards had been good, fantastic even, if she was being honest with herself, but nothing had really had that pop, that feeling of giddiness that they had really hit the true jackpot. Beth hoped this would change that and she wasn't at all disappointed when she inspected the item, the team gathered around to all examine it.

Bulwark of Ages {This plate armor was forged from the core of an untamed world that had been transformed by extra-dimensional magic. The wearer of this armor is able to resist any damage sent against them, even the ravages of time and the end of eternity. This armor is not just of Transcendent quality, but is Eternal, the enchanting allowing it to regenerate from any damage while taking less damage from all mana and attack types. 150% increased Strength. 75% increased Dexterity. 100% increased Endurance. Minimum level 500. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. World Manipulation.} The description wasn't particularly crazy, even compared to some things Beth was currently using, such as her greatsword that gave her some control over death, an ability she was still plumbing the depths of.

The part about all of the enchanting equaling something called Eternal, which read a lot like the armor was basically indestructible, was new to Beth and incredible, depending on just how tough the armor was. The piece was a huge set of plate that covered from neck to hip, with shoulder plates, guards to cover part of the upper arm, and even tassets at the waist.

It was made of some kind of metal that Beth was wholly unfamiliar with, entirely black with some gold and silver accents on the shoulders and chest, and it seemed to drink in the light and mana around it. She was almost mesmerized looking at it and had to shake herself back awake and glance at the rest of the team to see them just as stunned, if not more so.

"It's Eternal," Val said breathlessly.

"I take it that's rare?" Beth asked with a slight smile.

"Rare? The kresnik clan in the Milky Way, despite being one of the oldest and most influential, has a single item with enchanting work that makes it Eternal. It's considered the greatest treasure of the clan and is only usable by whoever the current clan head is, and only then under specific conditions. An item like this, a piece of armor with Eternal on it, is priceless," Val explained, still clearly in shock.

"It's an amazing piece," Sera said, examining it closely.

"Have anybody on the team wear it would boost the team's overall power immensely. It's not the same as someone gaining an Ideal, but you should understand how strong it is given that I'm talking about it in that kind of manner."

"She's right," Kris, surprisingly, jumped in.

"My, uh, parents have an item like this. Not exactly like it, uh, but they have something like it and it makes them much, much stronger. Scary strong."

"I guess my other question is what World Manipulation is, then," Beth said.

"It's a type of earth magic that's more powerful than just earth manipulation," Val answered, always happy to hop into lecture mode. Beth was pretty sure she did it subconsciously after her years leading the Young Scions.

"Somebody wearing this armor, even if they didn't have any kind of earth mana or manipulation, would not just get earth manipulation, they would be able to exert control over all the earth in a given range, all the way up to manipulating an entire planet, given they had the stats to exert that much influence and the mana to do it."

"It's stat limited?" asked Beth, frowning a bit as she picked the armor up. It was heavy, insanely heavy, to the point where she was sure someone just starting on the Path wouldn't have even been able to push it over if it were just sitting on the floor. It had to weight at least a couple tons, if not more, the metal it was made of being insanely dense and then being packed with an unbelievable amount of mana.

"It's not really stats limited like there's some kind of hard limited," Val answered, shaking her head.

"It's just the simple theory, or really, the simple fact that you need certain stats to have a certain level of control. The easy way to explain is to think of someone with a hundred Intelligence versus someone with ten thousand. The person with a hundred points isn't necessarily stupider, but they don't have the kind of raw power needed to influence a large area.

"A real, live example would be to compare you and Kris. You have crazy physical stats, to the point that you are physically far stronger than Kris, if we don't count other factors like skills or core powers. You are, however, lagging behind Kris quite a bit in the mental stats department. Now, you certainly have enough for what you need and how you fight and even craft, but you wearing the armor versus Kris wearing the armor would be totally different things.

You could control a mountain range, or maybe a chunk of a continent. Kris could manipulate an entire world, give that the world wasn't massive or insanely mana dense."

"I see. So, would it be bad to have Bjorn or Sera wear it then? It seems perfect for our two tanks, if that's what we want to call them, but they don't have the mental stats that Kris and the others do. Would it be better to boost someone else?" Beth asked.

"It's a tough call," Val said, shrugging.

"There's no real right answer."

"It w-would be a waste, um, if I wore it," Kris added.

"I've been working on my weapon skill, but I'm still way behind everyone else. I also just don't have many physical skills or even spells that enhance my physical performance. Some mages learn body enhancing spells, but not everyone does, and I haven't studied them. The bonuses on the armor are all for physical fighters; having me put it on would j-just be a waste, I think…"

"She's not wrong," Andrea added.

"Having Kris or even Neph or Blood wear it, something like that, wouldn't do all that much good. Kris is our only mage, really, and she needs to be mobile, and she doesn't do much physical fighting. Even a dope-ass armor like this won't make her a powerful physical fighter, and it would weigh her down and encumber her. Same theory for the fast people, like Blood, Neph, and Val. They could use the stat bonuses better, and the World Manipulation is a nice bonus, but they don't like heavy armor.

Both the weight and movement restriction would really suck."

"Don't like earth magic, anyway," Blood grumbled, trailing off as Val stroked her ears.

"Well, if we're focused on the team, I don't need it," Beth said.

"I'm already our ace, basically, with having my Ideal and a good set of high-tier skills that work well together. It wouldn't make me that much stronger to wear it, so I'm out. I guess we go between the remaining four; Andrea, Adam, Bjorn, Sera. Who wants it, all four of you? Then, who needs it? What's the best pick for boosting the team?"

"Would be very nice," Bjorn commented.

"I have earth and stone magic, though not a lot. Could actually use World Manipulation."

"A strong argument, if rather brief," Sera said, rolling her eyes slightly as the others chuckled and Bjorn huffed.

"I would really mind having it, of course, but I don't really need it. I don't really need the World Manipulation, though the stat boost is pretty big compared to my current set."

"Don't forgot how strong it will be," Val said. At a few questioning glances, she explained, "You have to remember this is a level five hundred Transcendent item. It doesn't say it in the description, of course, but that kind of item is strong. Crazy strong. You guys are sort of thinking of it in the same way as the stuff we're all wearing right now, but this is not that. The dragon mini-boss from earlier, the one that was a huge, two hour fight?

Any one of us wearing this could have just stood there and let the dragon hit us and this armor wouldn't have even had scratches on it. We would have taken damage on the lower arms and legs and head, everywhere this doesn't cover, but this isn't just some strong steel with some enchantments on it. This is real, genuine, high-tier armor, the kind that Sages and Empyreans fight over."

"That re-frames things a bit," Beth said, giving a little whistle as she examined the armor again.

"Well, I don't think our tanks necessarily need it," Andrea said with a coy shrug.

"You're just angling to get it yourself," Sera huffed, rolling her eyes.

"Guilty," Andrea said with not a shred of remorse in her voice.

"Well, it's not a bound item," Beth began.

"Does it resize? It doesn't say."

"It will, yes," Val answered firmly.

"Then we can even have different people wear it. It's not going to be stuck with just one person forever," Beth said.

"And, eventually, we'll all get stuff like, or even better. Everyone remember that set of insane armor that Zane has on display?"

"You mean the full suit of white adamantine that that legendary blacksmith made?" Sera asked, quirking a brow.

"Yeah. We're gonna either find, buy, or make stuff like that for everyone, eventually. We're gonna be the strongest team in the universe; at least, that's my goal," Beth answered, confident even through the end bit.

"Let's just have Bjorn wear it for now," Andrea said then.

"It wold be the biggest benefit if he can actually make good use of World Manipulation. We have so many materials, not just to sell, but to get stuff crafted, including the queen's mithril. We're going to have some big upgrades all around when this is done; let's see where we're at then."

"Hey, that was actually sensible," Val said in some surprise.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Andrea asked, grabbing the taller girl and starting to wrestle her, though she quickly started losing to Val's larger number of joints and longer limbs.

"Easy, you two," Beth said, laughing as she tossed Bjorn the armor, the titan grunting his thanks as he caught it and swapped it with his current chest piece.

"Let's get out of here and rest for a bit," Beth then commanded the team.

"Time to drink! Let's party!" Andrea cheered from where she was still constricted by Val.