Chương 86: Limitless Path Chapter Eighty-Six

She grabbed her gauntlets and slid them back on, locking them firmly in place before making sure pack, pouch, and sword were secured. She moved out of the room and was promptly bumped into by Blood, who rubbed her massive head against Beth's chest and neck, Beth responding by digging her gauntleted fingers into Blood's neck and rubbing hard.

"It's alright girl, nothing we haven't dealt with already," she said, mumbling into the wolf's forehead for a moment. After a few minutes, she pushed the shaggy head of the massive wolf away and rolled her shoulders, resetting herself.

"Let me go see what was worth me getting sprayed in the face," she said to Blood. The wolf just stared at her, Beth realizing after a second what was up.

"Right, I guess you do fully understand everything I say." She led the way back to the office area, moving into the third office and over to the desk. She knelt down and checked the same drawer, holding her hand between her face and the drawer as she finished pulling it open. When no other noxious red liquids sprayed out at her, she finally lowered her arm and peered into the drawer itself. She saw what appeared to be a cylinder of glass hooked up to a little mechanism with a tab that stuck up.

Apparently, when she pulled the drawer open, the tab was flipped and triggered the mechanism to shove the poison up and out in a spray. A crude and poorly slapped together device, but more than enough to give her half a face of poison. She finished pulling the drawer out to the limit of where it could go without disassembling it, looking at the one item inside. It was a crystal and, while Beth couldn't be absolutely sure, it seemed like some kind of memory crystal.

Whether it had information, secret knowledge, a skill, or even something more esoteric, she had absolutely no idea. Yet another one for the Senior Enforcers to look at. It would depend on what the crystal was, but it was likely that it was worth her poison bath and then some. She finished checking the last few drawers in the desk, making sure to block the rest of her face with her armored gauntlet as she opened them, a lesson she likely would not soon forget.

Nothing else of interest appeared during her examination, so she signaled Blood, the two continuing their explorations. This area was presented as being somewhat luxuriously appointed, but the lack of mattresses on the beds and general empty nature put lie to that show. Either fortunately or unfortunately, there was nothing of any interest to the girls in this area, Beth finding a small pile of six copper coins on a shelf, noticing after she grabbed them that she was a little over twelve gold coins in total wealth.

"Alright, girl, time to head back," Beth said with a nod to Blood, leading the way out of the fancier area they were in and back towards the starting area. It took only a handful of minutes for them to reach the surface, and Beth found it was late afternoon, still light but heading towards dark. She mounted up on Blood and the two took off, making the nearly twenty-minute run back to the Hall. They arrived outside to find the Hall the same as always, Beth dismounting before glancing at the statues.

She still hadn't inquired about what exactly was going on with them or what they meant, but that was rather low on a priority list that constantly had more items being added to the top. She gave Blood a pat and a nod before turning and heading into the lobby, the wolf following right on her heels. Beth paused as she entered upon seeing a familiar face standing at the front counter haggling with Tazeen before walking forward again.

The young man, James, seemingly having filled out a little more as he got a few more levels in him, was gesturing at something on the counter as she approached, Blood trailing after. Beth noted it was a small pouch opened to reveal a few crystals inside.

"I can get in with this much, surely," James was saying to Tazeen.

"As I said, I should not be the one to handle this," the elf responded.

"One moment." Tazeen pulled out a strange crystal from somewhere on his person and held it in his right hand up near his face. He tapped the crystal and said something, though his words were obscured. He returned the crystal to wherever he had pulled it from just as James was opening his mouth to protest. Before the words could escape, there was a slight bang as Jaq appeared in the lobby, likely having moved at an inordinate speed from his usual haunt in the basement.

"And what is all this, now?" he asked, glaring around the lobby in his usual manner, as if the building itself had done something to offend him.

"This young man has some items to sell which I believe will exceed the two golds required to obtain an Emblem," Tazeen replied, unruffled.

"I would not want to deny a promising member entry, but neither would I want to take over the duties of our illustrious commissar." Mumbling something that sounded very much like an invective to Beth, Jaq stomped over to the counter before picking up the crystals from the bag and examining them. After looking at all the items present, he turned to James and said, "Two golds and fifty silvers."

"Surely they're worth more than that," James protested as Beth winced, knowing where this was going.

"You can take the money or take your crystals on a long walk off a short cliff," Jaq snapped back.

"Now, now," interjected Tazeen, giving Jaq a slightly lowered eyebrow, a stern admonishment from him. Jaq didn't even twitch, ignoring the elf entirely as he glared at James.

"Take the gold and join the club," Beth said as she walked up to James and placed a hand on his shoulder, noting she still looked down slightly to look him in the eye.

"Everything's negotiable, except with this miser. He'll wring blood from a stone and still consider it a loss."

"Your humor is as dull as your commentary, as ever," Jaq replied with one of his patented frowns, still waiting for a response.

"Well, I'll take the deal, I guess," James replied with a shrug. Jaq immediately made the pouch and crystals disappear, slapping the fifty-two coins on the counter. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Before you just whoosh away, what were they, anyway?" Beth asked him.

"Mana crystals, which I believe you have even brought me before. Nothing special or powerful, but worth a couple dozen silvers each," he replied shortly.

"Anything else?"

"No, no. Go back to your hidey-hole," she replied with an airy wave. With a snort, Jaq disappeared with a louder bang, a wave of air causing everyone else's clothes to flutter, along with the edge of the rug he had been standing on.

"He's kind of an asshole," muttered James.

"He is, but he's super strong and he runs the shop, so what can you do?" Beth said with a shrug.

"Yes, what can you do?" Tazeen said with a polite cough, Beth patting James on the shoulder again before she moved to the side and leaned against the counter.

"I am assuming you would like to use the two gold coins to apply for a membership?" the elf continued, this time re-engaging James in the conversation.

"Yes, please," James replied with a nod, pushing the two golds over to Tazeen.

"Stash the silver coins in your stat screen," Beth instructed James with a wave at the coins from the side.

"Yes," Tazeen interjected again before James could respond, "it's always a good idea to immediately store any loose coins. You will not find any thieves in this Hall, but I am sure there are some on your world, let alone in the wider galaxy."

"Right, sorry, good advice," James replied. As he made the remaining fifty coins disappear into his inventory, Tazeen has set about getting everything ready for the creation of a new Emblem. As soon as the coins were gone, Tazeen slid a form and pen in front of James on the counter, instructing him on what portions to fill out and how.

Once the form had been completed to the elf's satisfaction, he made the pen disappear while sliding the form into a drawer, at the same time directing James where to place his hand to imprint his mana for the CRA's records as well as to link with his new Emblem. Once all the paperwork and processes were complete, James seemed a bit lost. He asked Tazeen a little hesitantly, "I can head back there now, right?"

"Yes," the stoic elf replied.

"Ooooookay…" he answered, seeming a little nonplussed.

"Alright," Beth sighed, giving Tazeen a frown to which he responded with a slightly arched left eyebrow.

"Let me give you the five-dollar tour."

"You don't have to…" James trailed off as Beth walked by and waved an arm at him, indicating he should follow.

"So back here," she began, "are some general areas with different rooms for meetings, relaxation, and so on. There's a cafeteria, but I don't know if anyone uses it."

"We can't eat the food?" James asked as he hurried to catch up, falling in beside her.

"Nah, it's just that the training rooms have stuff in for when people are practicing, and I have a room rented that comes with food. It's all perfectly edible," she replied with a quick shake of her head. Blood made a noise somewhere between a grunt a sneeze in response to the food comment.

"You have a room here? How'd you manage that?" James asked, giving her a bit of a squint-eyed gaze.

"You can rent them," she replied with a shrug.

"They're really not that expensive, as cheap as like twenty coppers a day or something. I have one for one silver a day."

"A silver?" he asked, voice squeaking just a bit on the end of the word silver.

"Isn't that a lot?"

"Nah, I mean, you can clear a simple dungeon like the ones near our family's house once a day and get a silver, and my room is a lot nicer than the cheaper ones, which are still pretty good."

"Hm, still seems pricey," he replied, scratching the side of his head.

"Where are we going now?"

"Gonna take the elevator," she said as they came up to the area with the elevator banks, gesturing at the closed double-doors.

"Wait, wait, wait," he replied.

"They have elevators? Isn't this place, like, magic and junk?"

"They could be magic elevators," Beth replied with a shrug.

"Also, there is technology still, too. It's not all magic and enchantments and stuff. You know that guy that you just sold the stuff to, Jaq?"

"Yeah, the asshole," James replied with a grunt as Beth pressed the call button for the elevator.

"Yeah, he's not really that bad, just gotta get used to it. Also, don't call him that where he can hear you; I'm pretty sure he could wipe out New York with a punch, and I mean the state, not the city," she said as she gestured for James to enter the elevator with them.

"Is he really that strong?" James asked as she pressed the button for the second floor.

"Yeah, definitely. You don't have Identify?" she asked.

"No, I do have Identify. Wouldn't it be rude to use it on people?"

"Nah, not really," she replied.

"The people here are strong enough to sense it, but it's not really considered rude. You should try it in a minute when we get to the lounge with the senior members." She led the way out of the elevator only a second after pushing the button for floor two.

"Did that elevator even move?"

"Yeah, they're all like that."

"And it's not magic, it's like a regular elevator system?" he asked.

"I dunno," she said with a shrug as they walked down the second-floor hallway.

"There's a bunch of stuff I've seen with both technology and magic in this building alone, so I have no idea. Better to ask somebody like Jaq about that."

"Ask the rude guy about the elevator?"

"Well, he will answer questions," Beth replied with a frown.

"And other members will answer questions. Like I was saying, Jaq's denoted as a cyborg when you use Identify on him, and he's also an engineer. He offered to make me a single cybernetic boot once. Anyway, you can ask Tazeen stuff-""You mean the guy who signed me up?" James interjected.

"Yeah, that's him. He's also super strong and knows a shit ton of stuff. Anyway, we're here," she replied, opening the door to the library and leading the way inside. Blood was still silently padding along in the back, just listening to the two talk.

"Where's this?" James asked, eyeing the room with a slight frown and his eyebrows slightly scrunched.

"It's called a library, James," Beth answered with a chuckle.

"I fucking got that," he huffed in reply.

"I'm giving you a little bit of help here before going any further," Beth answered with a laugh, leading him to the row with mainly crystals of languages and general knowledge.

"The rest of the galaxy and even universe uses a language they just call Universal Standard. There's a primer type thing right…here." She stopped in front of the Universal Standard crystal and picked it up, handing it to James. He looked down at the crystal in his left hand, then back up at her.

"Uh, it's a cool crystal?"

"Just press it against your forehead," she replied with a laugh, shaking her head as she grinned at him.

"It's not gonna bite. You'll know when it's done." James gave her a very narrow-eyed frown while weighing the crystal in his hand. After getting nothing from Beth but her continued grin, he sighed and held the crystal up to his forehead. He got the glassy-eyed look that came with absorbing knowledge from one of the crystals, only coming out of it after a minute, blinking as he lowered his left hand before rubbing at his forehead with his right.

"That was…an experience," he said a little hesitantly.

"Don't use any other crystals in here for a day or so," Beth replied as she grabbed the crystal and placed it back.

"Before you're really strong, they stress out your brain. Don't want to fry that walnut with too much info."

"Yeah…" James nodded before sputtering, "Hey, wait!" Beth had already moved back to the end of the aisle and just lazily waved as he grumbled, signaling him to catch up. She led him back out into the hallway and down to the elevators before taking him down to floor one again and leading him to the lounge. She pushed the far door to the lounge open and led the way inside, James stumbling to a halt at the sight. Whether he was overwhelmed from the opulence on display, or from the people, it was a little hard to say.

Beth's sisters and girlfriend were also present, it not being that late, but the group was seemingly done with their training for the day.