Chương 80: Limitless Path Chapter Eighty

The ore was a light blue color, with light golden veins throughout. Beth was unfamiliar with this type of ore, but just judging by the enemy it dropped from, as well as its quite high weight, she guessed it was fairly valuable. Jaq could likely figure out what it was instantly, and maybe Elana would be able to make something interesting from it. With a shrug, she tossed it in the backpack before turning her attention to the doors, which Blood was standing guard by.

Walking up to the massive steel doors, she slowly made her way into the opening she had created earlier. The doors still stood ajar, and she made sure her light stone had plenty of time to illuminate the interior, turning slightly to pan the light around the room. What she saw was both impressive and disappointing at the same, and she pushed forward with a slight frown as she inspected the area. The room was large, a rectangle of about forty feet in width and at least seventy in length.

Beth did get a little excited when she saw the room full of racks and shelves and cases. The less exciting part was the overall emptiness of the room, rack after weapon rack standing open and barren. Blood followed in close on her heels, and the two cautiously checked between the shelves and armor stands in the center of the space, Beth not wanting to trip over a sleeping kobold hulk and have an even worse day.

They found no other beasts or monsters lurking in the large and open room, so they proceeded to begin digging for treasure. Seeing the state of the room was yet another tick mark in convincing Beth the area had been generated instead of transported, as the racks and shelves were both pristine and had the feel of having been freshly constructed.

The mine should have been in operation for decades or even centuries based on the wear and tear on the walls, floor, and a few of the objects present, but the Path seemed to get a little confused with some of it and drop brand new furniture in much of the place. She was pretty sure a lot of it had to do with the low mana, but that was something she was still trying to work out.

Blood had begun nosing at the mostly empty shelves, trying to sniff out anything good, or maybe even find a secret switch as she had done earlier. While the wolf was occupied in the center of the room, Beth made a circuit of the perimeter, checking all the racks secured to the walls to see if there was anything useful or interesting. She started by going right from the open doors, starting a counterclockwise sweep of the walls by finding the racks up to the corner entirely empty.

Starting down the righthand wall, she had to walk for some distance before finding anything but air occupying the racks. The first item she discovered in her search was yet another dagger. This one hung on a hook in the middle of a rack in its sheath, and Beth noted immediately that it was smaller than the daggers she had encountered so far. Picking it up carefully, she turned it over in her hands, examining the sheath and hilt.

The sheath was made of very dark grey leather which seemed quite resilient and didn't indent at all from the pressure of her fingers, remaining smooth and unblemished. The hilt had a small circular pommel at the base with some kind of small pattern engraved on each side, and the handle itself was wrapped with a long strip of what appeared to be the same kind of leather as the sheath.

Raising an eyebrow at what looked like high-quality materials, Beth held the sheath in her left hand and drew the blade about two inches. The metal of the blade was pure silver and reflective enough that she saw herself quite clearly in the face of the blade. Examining the blade and looking at the dagger as a whole, she had a sudden thought as to what it was. Re-sheathing the blade, she knelt on the floor and hooked her left index finger in the top of her right boot, pulling the rim open a little.

There was a little strap with a small divot below it, and Beth slid the point-end of the sheath into the divot before tightening the strap across the very top of the sheath right below the opening. As she had thought, the dagger fit perfectly and was likely designed as a boot or hidden knife to be attached within armor or clothing. She straightened back up before turning and continuing down the racks. She found nothing else of interest on the entire right wall, which she found a bit depressing.

She proceeded along the back wall, finding a whole lot more empty space until about two-thirds of the way along the back. Beth stopped dead and stared, a smile starting to slowly creep across her face. This might actually be the biggest find she'd had yet, but she didn't want to get her hopes up before inspecting it closely. Reaching forward, she grabbed the scabbard of a rather large sword and pulled it off the rack.

The scabbard was made of blackened leather that felt entirely solid in her grasp, with a series of golden threads embossed into one face. The scabbard was a little over five inches wide for most of the length before tapering to a point and was just under four feet in length. She admired the scabbard for a few more moments before sliding her hand up to the base just below where the cross-guard stuck out.

The cross-guard was made of a light golden metal, each side being an ornate hook that stuck out about four inches and curled into a wicked point at the very end. The hilt was a little under two inches thick and somewhat long, Beth guessing it measured just under eighteen inches not including the pommel. It was covered in black leather that matched the scabbard, multiple narrow and thin strips having been expertly wrapped to provide both ample grip and padding for the hands.

The pommel was a ring of golden metal, likely what the whole hilt was made from, with a very dark ruby embedded in the center. Grabbing the hilt in her right hand, she lifted the blade in front of her face with her arms slightly extended and drew it about foot. The blade glimmered in the reflected light of the light stone, a light steel with a faint reddish hue. There was a single, thin line of runes engraved down the center of the blade, glowing a faint gold even in the light.

Beth marveled at the blade before drawing it fully, moving the scabbard down to her side as she held the sword point-up in her right hand, examining the weapon in all its glory. The blade itself was about five inches in width for the entire length until the last half foot, where it tapered to a viciously sharp point. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Re-sheathing the weapon after admiring it for a moment more, Beth frowned a little as a problem became somewhat apparent. Unlike her current sword, which was large but not exceptionally long, there was no way she would be able to wear this on her hip. While it was possible to wear a longer blade on her back, the draw would be awkward, especially at first. The second problem with trying to wear it in a back mount was her fancy new backpack, which she would have to likely wear over the sheath.

Well, she had plenty of Strength and Endurance, so she simply held the scabbard in her left hand as she continued her tour of the outer racks. The next find was a small shield. It looked to her like some kind of buckler, only it seemed rather small, with a diameter of not more than sixteen inches. She knew that some ancient shields on Earth were of a similar design, and she seemed to recall seeing something about Roman gladiators often using a small buckler in the arena.

It was made of blackened steel, perhaps the same as the doors, and had two simple straps on the back to attach it to one's forearm. While it seemed of decent make, it wasn't something her group really had any use for at the moment. Deciding it was part of her next bargaining session with Jaq, she tossed it in the backpack and continued. Unfortunately, that was all that was present on the hundreds of feet of racks and mounts lining the walls of the room.

Done with her circuit, she looked around for Blood, finding the huge wolf sniffing at a central shelf. When she approached, Blood bumped her with her nose before indicating the shelf she was examining. On it Beth spotted two little spheres about the diameter of a nickel. Curious, she picked one of them up carefully to examine it, turning it about in the light to get a good look.

It wasn't a gem or mineral as far as she could tell, and, after giving Blood a raised eyebrow for which she got a lupine shrug, she tossed both the spheres in her belt pouch.

"Find anything else so far?" she asked her companion. The red wolf nodded in response and turned to the side, leading Beth to the lefthand side of the room if one was facing the back wall. On a shelf at the front the two came upon a bottle of blue glass, shorter and rounder than what a soda bottle would be. It was sealed with a piece of cork and red wax, and the color apparently came from the fluid inside, as there was a little head space at the top through which Beth could see the glass itself was crystal clear.

The wolf then led Beth down towards the back of the room and a little towards the center. She had found a second object before the two small spheres, and she bumped Beth before pointing at a shelf. Beth glanced over to find a little pouch on the shelf before carefully reaching over and grabbing it. When she pulled it to her and opened it, she found it contained a small pile of scales, as in, scales from some kind of beast or monster that had been harvested and stored within.

She couldn't tell what they were, yet again cursing her lack of a skill that worked on inanimate objects, and she tossed the whole pouch in her backpack. This was all the further Blood had gotten, if one included the two small spheres, and Beth chipped in to help clear the remaining space. It was pretty easy to tell if there was anything there as long as she was a little careful, as the shelves were entirely empty, and an item stood out on them like a sore thumb.

It was too bad all the armor stands scattered among the shelves were empty as she would have liked at least one new piece of armor, but it was already a good haul, so she wouldn't complain… much. As she paced through the shelves, a small item on a top shelf caught her eye. It was a little box, and Beth carefully picked it up and held it in front of her, opening it with caution.

Inside the small green box, she found a handful of supplies all very neatly organized, and it took her only a moment to realize what it was. She had found a small but very fine weapon maintenance kit, and it even included a little square bottle of weapon oil. With a quick nod, she flipped the lid closed and slid the box into her backpack. She didn't find anything else of value before Blood came to get her, leading her to a shelf with the last item in the room sitting atop it.

It was a little box made of a dark blue material with a little silver symbol on the top. Picking it up and inspecting it carefully, Beth decided to open it as well after finding nothing amiss. When she popped the lid of the foot wide by six-inch-deep box open, a wave of overbearing heat slammed into her, immediately drying out her eyes and causing her to cough. She could feel her skin starting to redden and singe a little, so she took a quick look in the box before snapping it closed.

Inside were a bunch of rocks, but not just any rocks, as they glowed with a deep, seething orange light. The rocks were clearly some kind of heat aspected or producing material, and Beth was glad the box blocked all temperature transfer as she quickly stuffed it in the backpack. The two had looted the place clean, other than the shelves and racks themselves, which Beth was in no position to take.

Nor did she have a desire, quite frankly, to be grabbing random furniture and carting it around for the hope of a few silvers. They passed back through the gates as she pondered, heading into the extra-large tunnel before making their way back and back again, winding up in what she thought of as the main tunnel after a little time walking. The tunnel continued a little while before sloping down more sharply than it had previously.

After nearly ten minutes of descending with no new side passages, the tunnel leveled off. Just under a minute later they walked out of the tunnel into a large, open room. At least, it seemed so from what Beth and Blood could see of it from just the light attached to Beth's belt. She did catch sight of what looked like a light fixture set in a large support column further in the room, and she cautiously made her way toward it.

She still had the new greatsword held by the scabbard with her left hand and now gripped the hilt just below the center with her right. Nothing leapt out to accost them before they got to the column of stone, which Beth noted had some details carved in a circle around the base, and Beth tsked in annoyance that she wouldn't be getting another good fight. She examined the fixture on the column and, with only a second's hesitation, reached up and sent a tiny thread of mana into it.

The fixture was like a little glass sphere attached to the column by a round metal bracket, containing within it a little stone for storing mana and radiating it off as light. As the fixture started to glow with a warm, golden light, Beth took a moment to look around the area. She still couldn't see the whole room but estimated it to be about a hundred feet across and thirty high at the center.

She also still couldn't see any obvious dangers such as beasts, and they decided to simply go around and light more of the fixtures on the other five columns in the room. When the room was fully lit, it was revealed to be a large hexagon with all sides of the room being roughly equal in length. The design was very uniform, which also meant that each of the other five walls had a doorway with a tunnel or room on the other side.

The columns in the room were carved at the base with a circle of runes that she couldn't recognize and were otherwise unadorned, if one discounted utilitarian light fixtures as 'adornment.' The walls were of a smoother stone than what the tunnel that had led them here was made of, while the ceiling was slightly dome shaped and so smooth as to be almost reflective. The only part of the room still rough in any way was the floor, as it was not broken as before but did still have a little loose scree scattered about.