Chương 63: Limitless Path Chapter Sixty-Three

The three girls performed their standard strategy for a dungeon like this, having Soph start off with a freezing blast before Kim and Sabs dashed into the room. While not enormous, the improvement brought about by the training of the instructors at the CRA Hall was quite clear to see. Kim and Sabs both moved with surer footwork, charging confidently at the outermost two ants of the group before engaging them with their blades.

It was also clear that they had probably each gained a level in their skill proficiencies in working with their instructors, both of them handling their weapons more nimbly. Soph had improved as well, though it was harder for Beth to tell, since Soph had improved a little in the mana efficiency of the spells she created. She had also improved in her targeting of the magic she threw, but against beasts at low levels, this wasn't something that was much of an issue.

It was less than a minute for the three girls to kill the three ants, their increased skill and improved equipment versus when they had first started out making even the level ten enemies pose little challenge. They regrouped, and Beth led the way down the leftmost tunnel going from where they had entered the room. This tunnel was straight, unlike the ones of the previous three floors, and let out into a room similar to the one they had just been in, other than it only had one other tunnel entrance.

This entrance was to their right, leading deeper into the dungeon away from the direction of the third-floor ramp. Beth had already guessed the layout of the new floor of the dungeon, and clearing this room, plus the next couple, proved that true. It was a grid, with a group of rooms all interconnected by straight tunnels, including a central room that had one slightly larger, more important tunneling leading out of it, opposite to the direction of the ramp from the third floor.

That tunnel was their next stop, walking down it after a short rest in the central room, having cleared all other rooms on the floor. They arrived outside the new boss room after a few moments, noting another tunnel to either side, but no tunnel opposite that would lead further into the dungeon. The boss room itself contained four level eleven ants and a level twelve ant princess.

"Uh, that's a little much," said Kim after all the girls had used Identify on everything in the room.

"Blood and I will kill one of the level elevens each. If you're in trouble, we'll step in and help. I think one level each is fine for the day," Beth said.

"Alright. Soph, blast the left half of the room with your frost. Sabs, you and I will move into that half after the frost blast. Beth and Blood can kill the two ants on the right," Kim said, laying out the plan of attack. The plan went quite smoothly, at least, in the initial stages. Beth and Blood had no trouble killing their targets, their strength and skills so overwhelming that there was no doubt in the result. The others engaged the remaining three ants as they had planned.

The problems started here, as Kim and Sabs weren't strong enough to quickly kill a level eleven. This meant Soph was trying to distract the extremely fast Princess-type from range with her spells, with limited success in overcoming the ant's speed. When the princess ant avoided a bolt of lightning from Soph and attempted to grab Kim, Beth had seen enough for the day. While the boss was a speed-type monster, Beth had over double the Dexterity and likely close to triple the Strength of the beast.

She exploded across the room like a rifle shot, easily reaching the ant before it reached Kim. A single kick to the boss's body blew it apart, with an effect even greater than if Beth had forced it to swallow a primed grenade. After the boss had been killed, Beth and Blood stood by while the three girls slowly killed the level elevens. It took them almost two-and-a-half minutes to take the ants out, a time Beth made note of, before they were ready to take a quick break.

Beth asked Blood to explore the two side tunnels, curious to see if her hunch about them was right, the wolf reporting a minute later that the tunnels just went back to rooms they had already cleared. Satisfied, they left after just a minute of rest and headed for the other dungeon, Beth curious to see if it too was changed. The group didn't find anything particularly unusual outside of the wolf dungeon, but certainly noticed changes once they were within.

The trees seemed denser and taller within, blocking more of the morning light from shining through. They were still standing on a dirt path that led deeper into the dungeon, and upon following it, they arrived at the first room. Other than the levels of the wolves increasing just slightly from a few days ago, there wasn't any other difference here. The room wasn't enough of a reward for Beth to stand back and let the other girls clear it, so they simply bulled through it in a moment.

They moved inward to the second room of the dungeon, finding it also little changed. Another quick skirmish later and all the wolves were dealt with, the girls again moving deeper into the breeding ground. This is where things really started to change, as the third room they arrived at wasn't the boss room, but it was full of fairly high leveled wolves. The room had a total of ten wolves within, with the lowest being at level eight and the highest being at level eleven.

The girls all looked at each other after examining the room, frowns and slightly arched eyebrows making the rounds.

"I take it we've had an expansion in size here too?" Beth asked rhetorically while examining the room's surroundings.

"Looks like it. Do you want us to handle it, or will you and Blood participate?" Kim asked in response.

"Sorry, but I'm tired of messing around. We can take time to level some other day. Let's just take care of this and the boss room and leave," Beth replied with a shake of her head. They took care of the dungeon very quickly after that, finding a stronger boss room, but it was nothing before Beth and Blood. They cleaned up in just a minute, only resting for a handful of seconds before gathering themselves and heading out.

Beth wanted to report what they had found to the leadership in town before heading for the CRA Hall. They approached the development directly from the south, crossing over the highway at the red light that controlled the main road leading into the neighborhood. The group received a few stares from the handful of people that were working on figuring out some way of making a gate to be able to seal the roadway without just building an extension of the wall across it.

Nobody actually stopped them, however, Beth wondering if all the blood on them was less worrying and more of an intimidation factor for the neighbors. Stolen novel; please report. They trotted up to the community center, finding Zack outside, taking advantage of some of the last warm days of the fall to work under the pavilion tent. He grunted as the girls pulled up, still looking down at the papers in front of him. When he glanced up a moment later, he let out a quick curse in surprise.

"Are you alright?" he asked worriedly. The girls all looked at each other before Beth replied, "It's not our blood."

"Right. Doesn't really answer the question, but I'll take it as a yes," he replied with a frown.

"What exactly can I do for you? Not running off to train the rest of the day?"

"We will be training, yes," Beth replied quickly.

"Before we go do that, however, we wanted to report in on some new findings."

"Alright, hold one while I get 'em," Zack answered before getting up and heading inside. He returned a moment later with Beth's parents, Bill, and Mr. Jones.

"Oh God, are you girls okay?" Rachel asked with deep concern in her voice, starting to move forward towards them. Beth held her hand up to forestall her mother, the girls all looking at each other once again.

"It's not our blood," Beth repeated stoically.

"Right. Well then," Rachel replied, seemingly at a bit of a loss.

"You should be more careful."

"Anyway," Zack cut in, trying to move the conversation back on track, "what did you have to report on?"

"We encountered a number of changes in the dungeons and wanted to report back before heading to the CRA Hall," Beth replied.

"Both of the dungeons have expanded, adding a new floor in the ant dungeon and a new ring of rooms in the wolf dungeon. There's also stronger beasts in the lower floors of the dungeons."

"And when did this happen?" asked Thomas, the whole group of adults gathered around Zack's table and taking down notes.

"Today was the first day any of us have been in the dungeons in at least two days, so sometime in that time," Beth answered.

"And what level changes?" Zack asked.

"Boosts of one to two levels in the lower floors. The strongest beast around here now is the boss of the wolf dungeon to the south, which is at level thirteen now," Beth continued answering.

"Your group is able to kill a level thirteen, young miss Beth?" Mr. Jones asked in some surprise.

"We didn't kill it," Kim said, shaking her head.

"Beth leapt across the room in one movement and hit it so hard it looked like it swallowed an explosive of some kind." The whole group of adults stopped their note-taking for a moment to stare at Beth, who just shrugged in response. They quickly resumed writing and typing, muttering a little to each other as they went. Finally, they seemed to have taken everything down and were looking to the girls for anything else.

"That's all I've got," Beth answered the stares with a shrug.

"Nope," said Kim, and the other girls all shook their heads.

"Be careful out there. It's quite dangerous," Rachel warned them with a look.

"Oh yeah, we know. But we're fine, nothing's gonna stop us with her around," replied Kim, gesturing to the side with her thumb at Beth.

"That's right," Beth replied with a smirk, flexing her arms.

"Come on, you're falling behind," said Sabs, and Beth turned to see the other girls had already started walking off while she posed. She grunted discontentedly and trotted after them, catching up in only a second. The group made their way to the CRA Hall next, ambling their way into the lobby and heading into the side corridor.

Tazeen was at the front today, and one of his perfectly shaped eyebrows lifted just slightly as he saw the state of the group but, likely because he had some skill that let him determine nobody was injured, he refrained from making any comment.

"Let's go," Beth said, taking the lead.

"Go where? Shouldn't we go to the lounge?" Kim asked, a little unsure.

"I don't want to spend the whole day coated in ant goo and wolf blood. You're welcome to just go right to the lounge yourself," Beth replied over her shoulder as she walked off down the hall.

"Fine, let's go," Kim said, gesturing to the rest. Beth led the whole group around the lounge and down into the underworks of the arena, leading them to her suite on the second basement floor. She pulled her key out of her pouch and swiped it across the pad by the door before standing to the side, gesturing the rest to enter. She entered behind everyone and let the door slide shut behind her. She chuckled as she saw the obvious wonder and excitement on the rest of the girls' faces.

"Wait, this is the room you were renting?" Kim asked, looking around at everything in the living room.

"Yeah, it's one silver per day for the suite. Even includes food and lets you use the laundry room for free," Beth responded with a nod, already stripping off her outer equipment.

"Why are we here?" Soph asked with a slight frown as she poked her head into the kitchenette.

"I know you didn't get very dirty Soph, but the rest of us did. There's a full bathroom here with a separate shower and tub, both of which are awesome. Well, I haven't used the tub yet, but the shower is awesome," Beth replied, shaking her head. The other girls immediately followed suit when they heard Beth's plan, stacking their equipment to the left of the main door. In a move that both Beth and even more assuredly Kim could have predicted, Soph entered the bathroom first and monopolized the tub.

Beth simply ignored her, helping Blood wash off before she showered herself. The other girls took turns with the shower, and the entire rest of the team was washed and dried and ready to go before Soph had stepped out of the tub. They waited another ten minutes before Soph was ready, and Beth led them back out of the room and down to the shop. She had it in mind to stop and grab something, which would also require some work from the group, before they got to the day's training.

They entered the commissary a minute later, empty as usual, and waited for Jaq to appear.

"And why are we down here now? Do you just like to annoy Jaq?" asked Kim with a bit of a puzzled look on her face.

"She certainly does, but is not alone in that endeavor," answered Jaq as he stepped out of the leftmost door behind the front counter, sweeping the entire group with a piercing glare.

"Aren't you, like, a shopkeeper or something?" asked Sabs.

"Why are you always so snippy when people come in to spend money?"

"Don't bother," Beth interjected as Jaq's glower deepened.

"He's got a solid one-star review right now and doesn't care." Jaq's eyes narrowed dangerously as he said, "Other than harass me and eat away my valuable time, did you bringing your troupe of rabble in here today have a point?"

"Uh, yeah, it did," Beth replied, crossing her arms over her chest as she returned his narrow-eyed glare.

"We need stuff to clean our armor. Got anything?"

"One minute," he replied coolly before walking off, disappearing into the center door. He reappeared a few moments later and stepped over in front of Beth. When he waved his hands over the counter, four kits appeared in front of him.

"Armor maintenance and repair kits," he explained tersely.

"These can service a number of different kinds of armor including leather, mana copper, and mana steel. Are any of you rabble a Blacksmith or Leatherworker?"

"I'm interested in becoming a Blacksmith, but no, we don't have any of those skills," Beth replied while shaking her head.

"The skills aren't required to use the kits for cleaning, or for extremely simple repairs, but if you want to repair more serious damage or wear, you'll need to take the armor to somebody with some skill," Jaq replied, rather overemphasizing the last word.

"How much?" Beth ignored his jabs.

"Twenty silvers total," he replied.

"So, five each?" Kim cut in, placing five silvers on the counter. The other two girls followed her example, each placing five silvers down, though Soph was clearly displeased with the expenditure.

"A pleasure," Jaq said after making the coins disappear, using a tone that clearly indicated the opposite was implied.

"Right," Beth replied, stretching the word out overlong, before grabbing her kit and turning to lead the girls out of the commissary.