Chương 626: Limitless Path Chapter Six Hundred Forty-Five

The special variant elite had been a chore, and a valuable experience for their team, but now it was time to make their way to the boss. The wolf on Beth's team, Blood, spent time scouting and, even though she had very basic stealth skills, she still managed to blend into the terrain and avoid most of the beasts. Star was trying to learn from her, which was a bit ironic, considering Star had better stealth and tracking skills.

There was still something to be said for experience and understanding, however, and the other team certainly had both in spades. The trek to the boss wasn't all clear and easy, but they had crushed much of the dungeon by the team the special variant fell to their blades, and it was just about getting through the last few wurms and the last handful of beasts.

That didn't pose any problems for the combined team, mainly because it didn't pose a single problem for Beth's team, but Del was quite happy to ride their coattails at this point, considering the kinds of gains they were getting. They weren't exactly safe in such a dangerous dungeon, and the extra danger and threat was pushing them to use their skills at a higher level, to fighter harder and, at the same time, more efficiently.

Not only that, they were gaining experience from the dungeon, likely even more because the other team didn't need any. Experience calculations were weird, and it was a whole thing that was half science, half mysticism, but there were a few rules that most everyone agreed on. If one had higher leveled people in their party, those people soaked up more experience, though the difference started to be more minute at much higher levels.

The difference between someone at level twenty and level one hundred was enormous and skewed the scale massively. While the difference should technically be much larger between someone at five hundred and five hundred forty, it didn't quite work out that way. Something about overall level and total experience considered in calculations versus experience earned and contributions… look, it all got rather complicated, and it only got more so as levels increased, not less.

They were able to circumvent a good bit of that because Beth's entire team was currently sitting at a cap, looking like they had just reached it, if their conversation and some of their actions were any indication. Without the other team needing or absorbing any experience, Del's team, who were certainly not at a cap, were getting showered in all that killing hordes of level five hundred thirty, five hundred forty, and five hundred fifty beasts could provide. The boss was a whole different kind of challenge.

Del was very certain that his team simply could not have beaten it themselves, and that was counting that they had Noren and that Noren was going all-out in the fight. It was one of the biggest examples so far that had put into stark focus how much stronger and more skilled Beth's team was, as they didn't treat the boss as a terrible challenge, a daunting horror to be battled for hours.

They, in fact, treated it like it was only a slightly stronger dungeon mob, which it was, to them, as they aptly proved by doing all the heavy lifting. Part of that experience calculation that he had been thinking about early involved how much someone contributed in a fight, which had different weights based on strength and level and damage, but they avoided all that here again.

And he was quite glad for that, considering even Noren only did a minimal amount of damage before the beast was felled, Beth's team pulverizing the thing into a pile of broken limbs, shattered bones, and shredded organs.

"I would say it would be hard to harvest that, but you have a looting skill," Del said to Beth, standing next to her after the fight had wrapped up. Fight might have been a little generous, as it was much more a slaughter than a fight.

"Yeah, we try not to get sloppy, though," Beth said.

"My loot skill really just got to the point where it's not shredding a majority of the things I use it on. There's always value in trying to keep the corpse in an intact state, but we didn't want to drag the fight out and put you guys in further danger. That, combined with we've started having me just loot all the bosses we've been tackling, means we weren't all that careful with this one. We try to leave the corpse a little better than this."

"Looting powers change the game," Del said with a shrug.

"We've been hoping to get our hands on one, but they're very rare and expensive."

"You're telling me," Beth said with a wince.

"I didn't even pay all that much for this one, but it was a lot. Like, multiple orichalcum coins kind of a lot."

"Ouch," Del said, shaking his head as he thought about spending so much on a single skill, even one that would eventually generate returns.

"Dare I ask how much you've had to train it?"

"My team has pretty consistent access to a compressed time dungeon, and even with that, it's taken multiple years and somewhere into the low millions of kills to level it," Beth replied.

"And, keep in mind, its in Gold right now, not Platinum or Diamond. Gold is where it succeeds enough that we're comfortable using it on most kills, and even then, we still don't risk it on some stuff. There was a level six hundred beast in here on one run, a specialized mini-boss that was tougher than the boss. Using the looting power on that could have made us a fortune, but if it went up in smoke…"

"Again, ouch," Del said, frowning deeply.

"Yeah, that's some good information. The stuff on the Net about looting skills is all over the place, but if yours is any indication, we need to be prepped to either spend a crazy amount while we're still fighting, or take a couple lean years where we're solely focused on the person leveling the power."

"Yeah, our dungeon access, and our overall strength letting us just go out to random instances that a lot of other people can't get to, means stuff like that's less of a burden for us, but it still sucked," Beth said.

"Even now, I turn about a third of the things I use it on to dust and mana. Watch, after all that explanation, as I just turn this boss to dust. You guys wouldn't want the slightly mangled body?" Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"That's more than slightly mangled," Del said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, yeah," Beth muttered, trekking down the slope they were standing on to where the boss' body was laying. Del expected something a bit flashy, it was a boss' corpse, after all, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Beth just put her hand on it and the body transformed into loot with a very slight shimmer. It also took only a blink for the whole process to happen; if Del and the others weren't at the level they were, with the stats and skills they had, they might have even been able to see it happen.

"Well, better than dust," Beth said, picking the stuff up off the floor and walking back to Del, where a few others had gathered.

"Got a good core from that one. Here, you guys can keep that."

"Whoa," said Red on examining the core.

"That's quite something," Del agreed, inspecting the core. It was a level five hundred fifty boss core, and had both lava and destructive mana within.

"A Grandmaster, or a Sage, will pay through the eyeballs for this."

"Yeah, we got a couple like that that we're gonna sell," Beth said with a nod.

"Whole reason we were in here was to gather a bunch of cores and that crystal we showed you. Somebody we know through some contacts wants to make something crazy. Probably some wild array or something, I dunno, and they contacted our team to get the materials."

"Yeah, it's a stark difference," Del said. At Beth's look, he explained, "The company that hired us to retrieve materials is a lot different. I don't know what the difference in quota is, and I don't want to know!" Del held his hands up to emphasize the point.

"I just know that were gathering a lot less rare and powerful stuff, compared to the crystal and things. Level five hundred materials are still rare and valuable, but it's pretty crazy to see what spiking the dungeon does. Getting to compare the same dungeon is a new experience, at least at such a high level; the only time we've spiked something is a level two hundred dungeon and the difference isn't nearly as big there."

"That's true," Beth said with a nod.

"I don't know whether I've been lucky or cursed, but I have a lot of experience using spikes. A lot. The difference seem really big at level one hundred or two hundred, but that's when that's all you know. Once you get up to doing level four hundred and five hundred stuff, the difference is way bigger. And it's not just the levels, either, though that is a big part of it."

"Beth! Loot!" Andrea called out, jogging over to the group while holding something in each hand.

"The rewards?" Beth asked, but it was largely rhetorical. They hadn't fought anything else in the last few minutes, so of course the only thing Andrea would have grabbed would be the dungeon rewards. Both teams gathered around to inspect their haul, though Beth was mildly disappointed on seeing the first of the two items. The eternal curse of her finding random daggers, even though they were very good daggers, always persisted whenever she was with the team.

The first of the two items Andrea was holding was an exquisite dagger, with a red blade and black leather wrapped hilt, the pommel glowing faintly with a strange power. Beth didn't even need to use a skill on it to tell it was a very powerful weapon and something anyone who used daggers, whether solely or part of a larger fighting style, would be very, very happy to have.

It was also, of course, aspected to fire in some way, which everything they pulled out of this damnable heat sink of a dungeon was, but people also liked the old reliables, so the fire wasn't going to hurt a sale. The other item Andrea was holding was a little more interesting, though Beth wasn't all that enthused. It was some kind of fluid in a bottle, and she thought at first it might be an elixir, but that turned out to not be the case.

It was, instead, a buffing potion, something that was a bit rarer but that they had seen a decent bit of over the last few years. These kinds of potions did something to enhance the person that drank it, though only for a limited time, after which the person would sometimes enter a weakened state, though that wasn't always the case. Usually with potions, the person would just use a bit more stamina while they were under the potion's effects, so the trade-off was barely noticeable.

There were other potions, and especially some types of pills, that were much harsher and would leave a person weakened or severely injured after use, but this wasn't that kind of item.

"We'd like the potion. We'd be willing to pay quite a bit for it," Del said after examining both items.

"Name a price." Beth glanced at a few others, getting a sharp look from Val, who knew that Beth was a lot more liberal with items these days. She still loved money, but she didn't mind giving a useful item away to someone that needed it and would appreciate it. Rather than argue with either side, she just decided to name a price and get something out of it without ripping Del off.

Yes, the two items were valuable, but one of Del's team members was making heart-eyes at the dagger, and they clearly really wanted the potion. Her team wouldn't use either, as Neph was the only dagger user and she had a really good set already, and the buffing potion was to increase strength, fire resistance, and size for a limited time. Funnily enough, it was about the least useful buffing potion for her team. What, were they going to have Bjorn use it?

He was already the size of a truck and stronger than a demi-god. Sera? She was nearly as big and she could assume her natural form, that of, well, a damned dragon. The strength aspect was nice, but it wasn't something that would be all that big a boost.

"Uh, okay, how about a mithril coin for both?" Beth asked.

"That seems a little low," one of Del's team muttered before the behemoth elbowed them.

"Look, we have so much loot to sell I'm worried we're actually going to crash the market when we get back to civilization, and that's after I made a trip to sell already," Beth said, rolling her eyes.

"We need money right now, but we're not all that hard-up for cash. We wouldn't use either of these items; we have exactly one dagger user, and they have better daggers. The potion would be kinda funny, I guess, but we don't need it either. I know it's cheap, but the dagger's not some world-shattering find, and the potion isn't anything all that great, either. I mean, they're both probably worth more than a mithril each, but we cleared the dungeon together and you guys need the stuff.

Just give us a little and it's fine."

"That's extremely generous of you," Del said, quickly clasping hands with a couple people on his team to exchange coins before producing a mithril coin and handing it to Beth.

"Thanks for the consideration."

"No problem," Beth said, making the coin disappear and nodding to Andrea, who gladly handed the two items to Del. With that wrapped up, they were done there. Del's team was not, of course, but Beth's team had done everything they needed to and more, and so they were heading out. The first thing they were going to do was offload all the loot they had stacked up in storage items, storage powers, pocket dimensions, and more.

Beth wanted to start at the top and work down, in terms of quality, and she was thinking of the merchants when saying that. Her first stop was the Black Ships, who were very interested in just about everything they had. The Black Ships, as had been drilled into them time and again, were an elite trading company, one of the very best in the Milky Way; in fact, if they claimed to be the second ranked firm, who would claim to be first?

Be that as it may, loot from a spiked level five hundred dungeon, which was essentially mid five hundred loot with added mana, was rare and valuable enough that Illiem wanted to at least look at everything, and he meant everything, they had brought out of all their runs. Beth wasn't sure that the Black Ships would buy or auction everything, but Illiem wanted to see every piece they had, and he called in some help to do so.