Chương 64: Limitless Path Chapter Sixty-Four

They returned to Beth's room, where they dragged their gear over to sit in piles beside them as they sat on the two couches. They set the new kits on the table and opened them up to find an almost dizzying array of items inside. There were bottles of oil, needles and thread, bottles of what looked like harsh cleaning solutions, two small pairs of pliers, a small but sturdy hammer, and several other tools and items.

Beth immediately grabbed the control and turned the screen on, causing some little buzz from her sisters and Sabs, before scrolling through the menus. Something she had noticed the other day but hadn't used yet was the capability to access Outernet resources, similar to the computers up in the library. She was able to find some instructions on using the kits after half a minute of searching, and it was rather convenient for the whole group, having the guide up on a massive screen on the far wall.

They set about cleaning as best they could, Beth making the executive decision to grab a set of towels from the bath for the initial major grime removal. She would hopefully be able to get them clean again with a run through the washing machines on a heavy-duty cycle, so they used the towels and some cleaner to remove the dirt and gunk first. The group then took some time following the instructions to thoroughly clean and oil their gear, with Kim attempting a repair job.

She had actually lost a scale on her right forearm from a nasty hit just that morning, and she attempted to use the sewing equipment and a spare scale to fix it. Fifteen minutes of work following a section of the guide specifically on stitching parts to leather created a rather crude, if actually serviceable, repair to her torso armor.

"I got a skill for that," Kim stated in some surprise, her eyebrows inching up her forehead.

"Hm, what is it?" asked Beth." Leatherworking Apprentice[0]." Kim replied with a slight grin.

"After seeing what you did to the arm of your armor, zero is about right," cut in Soph sarcastically.

"See if I don't stitch that head-hole of yours shut," Kim replied menacingly, waving the needle at their youngest sister. The two sisters sniped back and forth as the group finished their work, Beth and Sabs ignoring them as they tried to get through their tasks quickly. The two of them were more eager to train than the two younger girls, both for different reasons. Beth enjoyed fighting, enjoyed growing stronger, and really enjoyed leveling up.

She'd always played video games, and one of the best parts of any game, in her opinion, was seeing the numbers go up. The amount of money you had, the stats of the characters you controlled, even the number of items in your inventory. Now that real life had become similar to a game, she just couldn't get enough of the feeling of seeing her numbers constantly increase, especially with the actual real-world power that increase brought with it. Sabs, on the other hand, was rather different from Beth.

She didn't want to increase her stats to see her numbers get bigger or to fight even more dangerous foes. She was mainly focused on something else entirely; Beth. She wanted to be able to adventure with the younger girl, not just be protected by her, and the only way to achieve her goal was to grow stronger. She was always eager to train the last handful of days because she could actually feel herself growing, her skills and fighting abilities improving rapidly under her mentor's instruction.

She was determined to catch up to her new girlfriend, not to compete with her, but to journey with her. Beth realized after a minute that hurrying didn't really matter, as she had to be the last to leave the room, sighing as she smelled the astringent sting of cleaners and the thick oils rubbed across hardened leather. She and Sabs had finished and put their equipment to the side to wait, not wanting to gear up and sit on the couches.

The other two girls took another fifteen minutes to finish before they were ready to head out, the group leaving the room and making their way up to the lounge. Some of the instructors were present, and some were not. Baelvyr wasn't around, but Beth wasn't particularly worried, having been granted access to even more training resources than they had used so far. Lyrissa wasn't anywhere to be seen either, and Soph stomped off in a huff to find her 'layabout instructor.'

The other two girls met up with their instructors and headed out for whatever training they were up to, leaving only Beth and Elana in the room. Beth made her way over to the central table at the back of the room that Elana sat at and sat down herself. The dwarf was in some type of casual clothes composed of several layers that seemed to shimmer dully in the light. She turned her head to give Beth a hard stare as she sat down.

"That old blockhead not enough for you? You need to bother me as well?" she asked in her surprisingly warm voice.

"Well, I don't have to, but I did hear a nasty rumor that you know Blacksmithing and might be willing to teach somebody new?" Beth queried in response.

"Phew," Elana sighed and then grumbled something short to herself under her breath.

"Yeah, I can teach you, but I have to charge you my regular rate. I'm also not going to be lenient, whatever that old bastard says or does."

"Yeah, so, um, what exactly is the rate for this?" asked Beth a little nervously. She felt like her wealth was a river that endlessly flowed away from her. The more she clutched at the few coins she had, the faster they ran through her fingers.

"The first two weeks' worth of instructions is discounted through a CRA instructor at twenty-five silvers. Every two weeks after that will be fifty silvers until you hit Journeyman rank, then it's a gold every two weeks," Elana replied, staring at Beth as she listed the prices out. Beth barely suppressed the wince at the pricing.

"I have like, forty silvers right now. I can pay for the first two weeks, but I might have to wait a little after that."

"You don't have to do it all at once, it's just that every two weeks are a unit that is used to determine training time and pricing," Elana replied with a smirk and a quick shake of her head, the thick braid her hair was bound into bouncing against her back. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Beth sighed in relief.

"Alright, I'd like to sign up for the first two weeks of Blacksmithing courses."

"Show me the coin and we'll get started," Elana replied calmly. Beth withdrew twenty-five of her precious silver coins and set them on the table. Elana, like all the other seniors, was able to make them disappear instantly with a nearly imperceptible motion of her hand. Afterwards, she reached out with her hand, making a book suddenly appear in it, which she passed to Beth.

"I assume you can read Universal, or do you need the crystal for it?" she asked. Beth replied, "Lyrissa already showed Blood and I the crystal, and I showed the other girls. We can all read and speak it."

"Good. Your first assignment is to read that book. And when I say read it, I mean thoroughly. I want you to be able to answer questions based on the material in that book," Elana said in a serious tone, pinning Beth with a harsh gaze.

"Right, I'll get on it right away. Anything else I should do?" Beth replied.

"Just the book. When you're done with that, we'll talk again. When I think you're ready, we'll go down to the forge," Elana answered with a nod before going back to the tablet-like device she had been looking at when Beth walked over. Beth got up and headed out of the room, followed closely by Blood, and made her way back down to her rented room. As much as she wanted to train, she wanted to get started on the Blacksmith skill track ASAP. It was especially important as she thought about her advantages.

Right now, she could always use the gate power, even if she only used it once a week, to do a week's plus training in a day. She couldn't, however, get training in something like Blacksmithing in the gate, and she wanted to use her time as efficiently as she could. Beth let the two of them into the room and took off her gear before crashing on the couch. She slumped back with her legs propped up on the table before turning the screen on and browsing for something to put on in the background.

When she'd found something vaguely interesting, she tapped it open and then opened up the book Elana had given her, starting to read. Fortunately for Beth, whether it was thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even billions of years, somebody in the time this whole Path thing had been around had figured out how to write introductory books that weren't as boring as watching paint dry.

Though it didn't really seem like it was the same author, the tone and descriptions used reminded her a small bit of the basics book she had read most of in the library. She settled deeper into the couch as she read, trying to concentrate on absorbing what she was running her eyes over. The book wasn't particularly long and was an overall fairly basic introduction to the Blacksmith skill.

It paid particular attention to the basic tools of the trade, discussed some of the basic ores and metals, and laid out some simple techniques. It mainly focused on discussing the rhythm of hammering metal, where to strike to achieve what result, and how long to hit the metal. This last point went hand-in-hand with how long to heat the metal, the section paying particular attention to the colors of various metals, and how they would change color or glow in specific ways at specific temperatures.

Beth was endlessly fascinated with the book, as it really felt to her similar to what a skill book would be like from a game. In a number of different RPGs, the characters could learn skills or abilities by reading certain books, and she thought that this was almost the same thing. She read the entire book cover-to-cover in a single rather long sitting, and her thoughts of skill books came back in full force when a message popped up as she closed the book. Blacksmithing Apprentice[0] acquired.

Just from reading the introductory book that Elana had lent to her, she had managed to acquire the skill at the most basic level. She also suspected, after she had thought about it a minute longer, that it was in how she read it. She had followed Elana's advice and not just sprinted through the entire book, but focused on really comprehending everything she was reading, including the anecdotes about ways beginner smiths had ruined equipment.

Being too hasty was the most common mistake, but several other basic mistakes were pointed out via a quick story example, including hammering the metal too long at certain points in the process, usually the mistake being in letting the metal get too cold for the current work the smith was attempting. Even though it wasn't a very long day, she was tired and turned in with Blood.

Having felt the sting of that twenty-five silver coins price tag, she was going to farm the dungeons by her house every morning, and did just that the following morning, heading back to the neighborhood after her morning routine. After picking up the rest of the group, the five of them headed for the ant dungeon, clearing it quickly.

On exiting the dungeon to head for the wolves, they found a young man in the field fighting the ants, which was nothing so unusual in itself, several people from the neighborhood taking opportunities to do similar. What made him stand out, other than him being alone, was that he was not from the neighborhood. Beth recognized him in only a moment, before she even used Identify on him, as the young man that was arguing with Tazeen the other day at the CRA Hall.

The group watched for a moment as he finished off the ant he was fighting, sustaining a minor cut in the process, before they walked over to him. He had gotten a combat knife from somewhere, which is what he was using against the level three ants he was fighting, and he cleaned it off on the grass before seeming to notice the girls walking over.

"Having a difficult time, James?" Beth asked him, one of her brows arched.

"Yeah, well, a little bit," he replied a little shakily.

"I gotta say, you were right the other day. Even fighting these low leveled guys is tough; glad you stopped me charging out somewhere and getting killed."

"Hey, no problem," Beth replied.

"Glad you're doing okay. We should see about getting you a new weapon at some point."

"Aren't weapons expensive? And don't I have to be a member or whatever to get one?" he asked in response.

"Nah," said Kim, joining the conversation.

"We can get you something that'll work a lot better than that for a few silvers. It's kinda expensive, but we make a few silvers a day when we clear the dungeons."

"Well," he said hesitantly, scratching at the back of his head for a moment with his free hand.

"I really would appreciate it. I'll definitely owe you guys one."

"It's not a problem," said Beth, even though she was wincing a little internally.

"It's really good to see somebody out here fighting, somebody that actually really wants to be doing it. What kind of weapon do you want, a knife?"

"I'd rather have a cool sword, like the one you've got," he replied immediately, his eyes lighting up.

"Well, let's not aim too high," Beth replied with a chuckle.

"Aw, what, too expensive?" James replied, a little downcast.

"Nope," Beth answered.

"Well, yes actually, but also no." Just as James opened his mouth to ask what she was talking about, Beth unslung her sword and held it out to him. He gave her a bit of a suspicious look, but still grabbed hold of the hilt of her blade. And immediately dropped it.

"What the shit?" he exclaimed.

"Language," said Kim.

"It's heavy," said Sabs.

"Yeah, no shit," he replied, giving Kim a quick look, before looking back at Beth.

"You can use that thing?"

"Yepper," Beth replied, grabbing the sword off the ground and tossing it into the air, grabbing it with her other hand once it started falling back down. She sheathed the blade with a smooth motion and looked back at James with a smirk.

"Uh, what's your Strength at, then?" he asked her with a frown.

"I'll just tell you it's over fifty at this point," she said.

"Fifty?!" James exclaimed, absolutely agog at the very thought.

"Yeah, it's not that big of a deal. Come on girls, we shouldn't take up anymore of James' valuable time," Beth said, waving to her group to follow before walking off.

"Hey, uh, thanks!" James called out after them, likely referring to the promised sword.