Chương 621: Limitless Path Chapter Six Hundred Forty

They emerged from their run to find the other team was absent, likely still absorbed in their first run. Beth wasn't surprised; she was more surprised that the team, even though they had leveled and increased in power since their last meeting, was even attempting a level five hundred dungeon in the first place. The power gap, or power jump, of dungeons at level five hundred was absolutely no joke; just fighting against the beasts in a dungeon like that as an Enlightened was already a massive accomplishment.

It was kind of surprising to her that they only had one minder or one person helping them that was at Ascended, especially given that she wasn't all that impressed with the elf that was helping the team. Not that he was weak, being an Ascended and likely having lived quite a while, having the time to level his skills and abilities, but despite that, Beth was pretty sure she could beat his surly ass, given that it came down to a fight.

That wasn't all that likely to happen, and it was even less likely if they weren't ever out of the dungeon at the same time. She wasn't sure exactly what the team was there for, other than gathering some materials from the normal version of the dungeon, but they might not even see the team again. If the other team only needed a couple dozen items or something similar, they might do half a dozen or a dozen runs and then leave, and there might not be a time where their schedules lined up.

Not that she was eager either way, perfectly fine to socialize with the other team or keep her team to themselves as the case may be. They had made a lot of progress themselves, but she knew it was going to take another few dozen runs before they hit everything they needed. Once again, Mortaine's sorta half-ass information about a job was slightly biting them in the ass.

The Exalted had acted as if this was going to be relatively easy and quick for her team given their strength, which wasn't entirely a bad assumption, but he had been too blasé about the difficulty in obtaining the cores from the boss. Considering how specific the requirements were, Beth had known it wouldn't be so simple as doing one hundred runs, getting one hundred cores, then teleporting off and turning them in, but the boss wasn't being cooperative.

They were pretty good at killing the boss, and doing it efficiently enough that they ensured the core wasn't damaged or broken, but that had given them a pile of unrelated cores, one much bigger than their pile of needed cores. It was a shame that at the level they were talking about, and the complexity of the mana typing, they couldn't just go buy the extra cores.

On the other hand, their pile of level five hundred fifty boss cores of various fire and lava types of mana would be worth an absolute fortune on the open market, to the point even the Black Ships would be eager to take them off the team's hands.

Luckily they had enough spikes, for now, that they could keep going without interruption, but Beth was already anticipating having to do another shopping trip to grab more spikes, as well as other supplies, if the rate at which the team was going through their food and, even more concerning, booze, was anything to go by. She tended not to supplement the others' drinking habits all that much, but she did supply some of the basics, and she was going to need to grab everything.

She would also act as gopher for the team, which was amusing considering she was by far the most powerful and, to an extent, the most influential, but being a space mage often enough meant running transport duty. That, and being strong meant that people were less likely to mess with her when she was running around alone, both in not trying to screw her over in prices and in not attacking her.

That trip wouldn't be for a bit, and for now the team was taking a few hours, objective time, to relax and, to her great amusement and slight chagrin, get totally hammered. Beth herself didn't really participate in the drinking all that much, only occasionally throwing back some whiskey or vodka, but she did join in with the others when they were together, even if she wasn't drinking.

She mostly stuck to hunting spice, herself, having found that there were a variety of blends and flavors, much like tea, and that there were also a variety of additives, somewhat unlike tea. She had the redgold salt that she enjoyed, but there were a hundred such options that were specifically used with just hunting spice, though some of them were used elsewhere.

The combinations of blends and additives were endless, and Beth was a little afraid of turning into one of those stereotypes from novels and shows that was always drinking tea and talking about tea preparation and tea blends. She usually took care of that by spending most of her time punching things and not drinking or talking about hunting spice, but it was still something that she was very into outside of combat.

That did put her in the position with the group that she was not just the sober one, but the one slightly high-strung while everyone was partying, as hunting spice was a stimulant, much like she was drinking only coffee while the group drank alcohol. It wasn't really a problem, per se, but it did lead to some amusing situations, like her outmaneuvering Val and Andrea at games of chance and the two not understanding how they were losing so badly.

It led to some less amusing, but still kind of funny, scenarios like her having to carry Bjorn out of the common area and into a bedroom, which was not all that funny for her at the time, though the others found it hilarious, but it was much more funny in hindsight.

She was also keeping track of the group's drinking habits and making sure that nobody went crazy, but even with mana fueled and infused alcohol, it took a lot for anyone in the group to really get wasted and they usually did a good job of self-regulating. Most amusing of all was that her biggest problem was when Sera really got hammered, she ratcheted up to a level of horny that Beth hadn't even thought was possible.

It was a progressive curve, too, with Sera's arousal increasing as her BAC increased, often leading to Sera jumping Beth and dragging her off just by the time Sera was a bit tipsy. Not that Beth was ever going to complain about those scenarios; she just always made sure Sera was cogent enough to be consenting, though Sera was the one throwing her on the bed and leaping on her, not the other way around, and Sera was always very positive about it the next day.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Speaking of next days, their partying and sleeping it off lasted about two days, subjective time, but that was only a couple hours on the outside. When they emerged from the gate, then emerging from Val's house, they found no sign of the other team, including no sign of their passage, which Blood would have been able to detect.

Apparently, they were still neck deep in their first try at the dungeon, which wasn't really surprising, but Beth made sure to make a note to check after every run to see what was happening, and especially after their next run. If they didn't see any sign of the team coming out after another couple runs, at most, then they might have to stop running and set a watch. There wasn't a lot they could do if the team was trapped or dead other than to spend some time just watching and waiting, seeing if the team emerged.

If they never came back out, there were CRA procedures for declaring a team first missing and then dead, which Beth hoped to not have to use, but she knew all the relevant information and steps to take. There were also ways to break into other people's instances of a dungeon, but she didn't even consider that. Unlike a lot of other stuff she encountered, instance infiltration wasn't something that just a little bit more power or a moderate bit more money could solve.

To be able to instance break in a dungeon like this one, for example, she was pretty sure it would take a strong Manumitted, at a minimum. The requirements in both power and knowledge made it an incredibly rare thing to be able to do.

Hell, she was pretty sure the only person she knew or knew of that could likely do it would be Zane, and that was because he wasn't just any Manumitted, but one that knew the kinds of secrets that even lovers of the esoteric and incomprehensible wouldn't even dream about understanding. Even Mortaine, for all that he was a master of dimensional magic, wouldn't have the power or skill to just break into a closed instance that someone else was occupying.

Not from what she knew, at least, but Mortaine was a strange man with strange abilities, perhaps the least understood skill set of any of the powerful figures of her home galaxy. Even so, everything she had read and heard about cracking instances belonging to others said it wasn't something to worry about unless a strong Manumitted or Absolute Authority was really, really upset with a person and wanted to get them at all costs.

Well, or someone like that was rescuing someone, but that was an even less likely scenario. Beth dismissed the distracting thoughts as she pulled out a spike and slammed it into the dungeon, overcharging the next instance that would spawn before her group entered. This time their luck was pretty shit, and the several times after that.

It was a half dozen runs with no powerful secondary bosses or unique enemies, as well as very little good miscellaneous loot laying around, only a pound or two of the rare metals across all the runs. The boss was frustratingly uncooperative during those runs as well, the six runs producing zero of the necessary cores for Mortaine and Laselle's project.

They couldn't all be winners, and the materials they were gathering were already major sources of income, as well as great for crafting, but it was annoying when it felt like they were just treading water and not going anywhere. Still, they had signed up for a long haul with this mission and it wouldn't be something they were getting done in just a couple more days. Hell, it wouldn't be something they were finishing up in another couple months at this rate, though they weren't locked in, either.

Beth took a quick trip, very quick, to buy twenty more spikes from two different places and drop off a batch of materials at Seven Lights. She wasn't foisting off the worst stuff they had, but Seven Lights wasn't getting anything top tier from them right now, most of that stuff being saved for a big transaction she was planning with the Black Ships.

Even though it wasn't the premium goods, in her opinion, it was still stuff that was pretty high value for Seven Lights, at least in terms of crafting materials, which were always rare and in demand. In terms of overall items, she had seen some impressive stuff at the Seven Lights auctions, so what she dropped off wasn't like it was the best they had ever hosted, but it was a large amount of rather high level crafting supplies, which made the managers she worked with for the hour she was there almost giddy.

She was back after just half a day, even that giving the team several days of subjective time to rest and recover. Beth found it a bit ironic that she was almost using the gate in reverse of how she had first used it. It used to be that she would train furiously in compressed time in the gate and then take some time in the real world to rest and relax.

Now, she and her team were fighting furiously in the real world, though talking about dungeon instances like that was stretching the case a little, and taking time to rest in the gate. It couldn't be helped, really, as there was just no way to replicate some things in the gate. She could create the boss beast in the gate, but it wouldn't be a boss, and she couldn't really create the kind of mixed mana boss that was what they needed for the cores.

It turned out, at higher levels and rebirths, they would need to do a lot of fighting and farming in specific instances or places in the galaxy without being able to rely on her gate as a crutch. Still, the way the gate ability vastly extended their rest time and provided them a very safe area that was just as luxurious as they wanted it to be meant they could stay 'out' on missions far longer and be far more put together than other teams.

Having a space mage that could teleport across the galaxy without teleportion pads as a team leader also helped a lot, as Beth could always, protestingly, make a supply run or quick trip if they needed or wanted something. She still hadn't seen the other team, and her team said they hadn't detected anything; they had been in her gate, yes, but they still had sensors outside that would detect any kind of movement nearby.

They would be able to pick up the other team coming out of the dungeon and moving around, which they had done, just not at the same time they were outside. During Beth's team's six runs, the other team had done two, including the first run they were on when Beth's team encountered the dragon with earth mana. She would say it wasn't all that impressive, but, again, it was a level five hundred dungeon, something that was usually considered territory for Ascended.

Even with an Ascended as a minder or support, a team that was otherwise only Enlightened, and not even yet on the edge of Ascended, being able to consistently clear even a level five hundred dungeon that was a good match-up was pretty impressive. Again, compared to Beth's team, who were not just doing clears but spiked clears, the other team seemed slow, but compared to most 'standard' teams out there, they were miles ahead.

Beth doubted a lot of teams, even with a very powerful Ascended, could plow through a level five hundred dungeon while still at rebirths twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, and that wasn't a dig against other teams, but more a statement of just how challenging the increase at level five hundred really was.