Chương 87: Limitless Path Chapter Eighty-Seven

Beth led the way to Baelvyr's table as the other Enforcers present got up and circled the wagons. She sat to the side, a few seats down from Baelvyr and to Sabs' left, taking off her gauntlets and letting them thump on the table before grabbing the petite girl's small hand. James just stood to the side a little awkwardly at first before Beth pointed at the seat directly across from Baelvyr and said, authoritatively, "Sit."

Blood was still standing behind James, unnoticed by the young man, and bumped her massive head into his back, which caused him to stumble a step and squeak in a most undignified manner. He recovered himself and straightened his shirt, which had not at all been mussed in the encounter, before striding over to the chair with all the joy of a prisoner on execution day.

"Relax, boy," boomed Baelvyr.

"We're not gonna kill ya."

"This another one of your little finds?" asked Lyrissa with a smirk.

"Not one of my finds," Beth answered with a wave of her hand.

"We bumped into him some time ago and gave him a little help. He managed to get something worth enough to that robot miser to buy an Emblem."

"Right then, how about an introduction?" Lyrissa asked, turning her smirk on James. Beth was able to immediately notice a reddening of his cheeks, not surprised by that reaction to the stunning vampyr.

"R-right," he began hesitantly.

"M-my name is, uh, James Gordons, and, uh…I want to train?"

"Need to train some assertiveness first," muttered John to a glare from basically everyone but James.

"What? I'm just sayin'."

"Alright, anyway," continued Baelvyr with a rumble in his throat that sounded like a hive of bees the size of horses had gotten loose.

"How d'ya fight, boy?"

"Well, I mean, uh, I use a long knife and a sword. I'm not really married to it, I guess…" he trailed off at the end, shrugging.

"This is the most whiffle-waffle answer…" John muttered before everybody else, including even Blood, shot him a look.

"Fine, I'll shut up."

"So, uh, what exactly is happening?" James asked.

"Well, I guess we should've explained that," Beth replied with a shrug.

"For the first handful of people that come to one of the Halls on a newly integrated planet, the senior members will take some of them as trainees. Basically, one of these people, who are extremely strong and skilled, will teach you how to fight better for a few months, no charge."

"Oh, I see. Does it matter that I don't know what I want to do?"

"Nah, we'll sort ya out," Baelvyr responded.

"Ya ever have any kind of fight trainin' before this?"

"Nope," James shot back immediately.

"You ever think about using a shield with your sword?" Elana asked.

"Uh, I guess?" James replied.

"I hadn't really thought of it, but it might be better than the knife. I, uh, I'm not real good with the knife, if I'm being honest."

"Ya got a winner, 'cept if anyone else objects," Baelvyr nodded at Elana before panning his gaze across the table. Upon receiving shrugs and shakes of the head in response, he gave Elana a nod before leaning back, saying, "Alright, now piss off my table." The rest of the Enforcers dispersed with chuckles and shakes of the head while Elana practically captured James and dragged him over to her usual table. Beth's sisters stood and turned to move to the far door before noticing they were one short.

"You staying?" Kim asked simply, looking at Sabs.

"Yep," she replied, just as simply.

"Don't have too much fun," Kim responded with a wink.

"Ugh, gross," was Soph's singular, brilliant contribution before the two hustled out, eager to get back home and fight over their shared bathroom.

"Alright ya love birds, when I said 'piss off' a second ago, I meant it," Baelvyr grumbled, waving his hand at the two young humans and wolf still at his table.

"Right, right, I'll check in tomorrow before I go out," Beth replied lazily as she stood, putting her gauntlets in her pouch as she grabbed Sabs' hand and led her to Elana's table.

"And what can we do for you," the dwarf raised an eyebrow as she interrupted the speech she was currently directing at a dazed James.

"I wanna borrow him for a few more minutes before you melt his brain," Beth replied, trying to point with the hand that Sabs was holding before grunting in annoyance and pointing with her left hand.

"Show him where the forge is too," Elana said with a nod.

"Already recruited him to the smithing program?"

"I'll make a proper battle crafter out of both of you afore long, just mark my words," she replied, pulling out a screen to start paging through some kind of document. Beth, meanwhile, grabbed James by a shoulder and picked him up from his chair, setting him on the ground with a thump before motioning him to follow. He fell in alongside Blood as Sabs and Beth led the way out of the lounge room.

"Where the hell are we going now?" James grumbled. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"Before Elana convinces you to spend what silvers you have left on a series of smithing courses, I figured you might want new weapons," Beth replied with a glance back over her shoulder, seeing James slouching along after them.

"Don't get anything for signing up?" he asked a little petulantly.

"Free training from some of the best fighters in the galaxy, practically free use of the basic facilities including the cafeteria, and the ability to practice against any opponent imaginable," she answered with a grunt.

"But no, other than that, you don't get anything for signing up."

"Okay, okay," he said, holding his hands up, though Beth had already turned back around.

"I just thought I might be able to get an introductory sword or something."

"Yeah, if you have the silvers for it," Beth shot back.

"That's so-" he started to reply before stopping, both verbally and physically. Beth and Sabs stopped and glanced over their shoulders in unison, smirking as James took in the arena area for the first time. After a minute of gawping, Blood poked him in the side of the neck with her nose, eliciting a slightly high-pitched squawk in response.

"C'mon," Beth said as she and Sabs resumed walking, cutting across the arena floor and heading under the stands. They made their way to the elevators, Beth working the buttons before they all stepped in.

"So, uh, are you two, like, dating?" asked James, scratching the back of his head while looking towards his toes.

"We are, in fact, girlfriends. And not in the female friends sense, if you see what I mean," Sabs responded, holding their interlocked hands up to demonstrate.

"Right, well, uh, that's cool," James responded a little lamely.

"Got a problem?" Sabs returned, her tone picking up a slight edge.

"No, no, no. It's totally cool. I was just wondering, that's all," he replied, holding his hands up defensively as the elevator's doors swished back open.

"Good," Sabs replied definitively, striding out of the elevator and practically tugging Beth along. Beth rolled her eyes as they walked down the hall, James and Blood following along. They made their way to the commissary, Beth throwing the door open carelessly before they walked in. She sauntered up to the counter and finally disentangled herself from Sabs, reaching into her pouch to pull out her recent finds, having to set her gauntlets to the side first.

As she was fishing items out, the central door slid open silently and Jaq emerged, giving them all a narrow-eyed glare.

"Baelvyr and the others aren't enough? I have to babysit as well?" he asked in his usual deadpan manner.

"Always good to see you, too," Beth replied with a big grin. James had spent a minute wandering the displays, but he moved over to the counter now. Blood was sitting off to the side, and Sabs knelt by her and started scratching her neck.

"Got some goods for ya," Beth said, doing her best Baelvyr impression. It earned her a raised eyebrow and nothing else from Jaq, so she crossed her arms under her chest and stared him down. With a sigh, he started looking through the items, holding each up to inspect before setting them down and labeling them.

"Mana potion. Not worth my time," Jaq said, setting it down.

"Mana restore? And how effective?" asked Beth as he was already examining the next item.

"Small amount restored. You'll feel like you swallowed acid and get a mild headache," he replied, setting the next item down.

"This is an inscribing cube used in enchanting. It's a basic model that would suit an apprentice. I would value it at fifty silvers."

"I'll give it to Soph," she replied, putting the potion and the cube both in her pouch.

"An elixir, of all things," Jaq said with a blink, setting it down before her.

"I recommend you use that, but not until you're back in your room."

"Uh, what does it do?" she asked with a slight frown.

"It'll reinforce your body," he replied with a sigh.

"You'll likely get a few points of Endurance, depending on what yours is at. The more important changes are that it will reinforce your body by rebuilding your bones and adjusting your blood. That is why it's called an Ironblood Elixir, after all."

"I take it that it hurts?" Beth asked with a sigh.

"Extremely," he replied with a very slight smirk.

"It will also cause you to…hrm…sweat some rather noxious substances, as well as a few other minor things I will let you discover. I would recommend sitting in the bath."

"Apart from you trying to be clever, I'll take that advice," she replied with another sigh.

"So, uh, what exactly is happening?" James asked.

"I'm being pulled from my vastly more important work to babysit the children. Again," Jaq bit off.

"I'm doing what you did earlier; selling things I find to this miserable bastard. But first, he has to identify the stuff, and some of it I keep," Beth replied with a shrug, Jaq's eyes narrowing further as she insulted him. With a tsk, he picked the next item up and looked at it.

"Barely passible health potion," he continued.

"And before you asked, it heals you when you drink it."

"Thanks chief, couldn't have put that together myself," Beth replied, throwing the potion in her pouch at the same time.

"This is slightly interesting," Jaq continued, ignoring her comments.

"A lockbox with something likely somewhat valuable inside. Give it to your little paramour there; I'm sure John can teach you to open it, given a few weeks or so."

"Rude!" exclaimed Sabs, standing from Blood and glaring at Jaq.

"I was being generous," he replied with a frown.

"Would you like me to give a more accurate estimate?"

"Don't be an ass," Sabs retorted, placing her hands on her hips.

"Don't let him piss you off, hon," Beth said with a chuckle, placing her left hand on Sabs' shoulder.

"He doesn't have to be so rude for no reason," Sabs grumbled, reaching up and placing her hand atop Beth's.

"As sweet as this is, I have things to do," Jaq grumbled, closely inspecting the two small green gems as Beth coughed and Sabs blushed. James just seemed lost, watching what Jaq was doing closely as he went through the items.

"These are wind emeralds," Jaq said with a grunt, setting the gems down in front of Beth.

"One gold each."

"Deal," she said immediately, grabbing the two coins that Jaq made appear on the table.

"Now, this last piece is where your foolish luck comes into play," he said with a slight frown.

"Rather be lucky than good," Beth replied immediately.

"One of your skill would," he retorted with a slight sneer.

"Anyway, so that you all vacate my shop much more quickly, this is a skill crystal. It can teach you a rather basic skill, but one that you lot might find useful."

"Well?" Beth asked as he set the crystal down in front of her and glanced at all of them.

"Remember that a crystal like this can only be used once or twice at a time before it needs to recharge," he warned them with a tap of his finger on the top of the crystal.

"Secondly, don't be in a rush to just learn a skill as soon as you get it. I'm not going to give you a full lesson on this now, but it's better to have fewer skills that are of higher quality and more closely match your path."

"Okay, that's a good lesson non-lesson," Beth replied tersely, "but what is it?"

"It's a movement-based skill called Swift," he replied, interrupted by Beth before he could go any further.

"Bahahahaha," she laughed loudly before ending with a snort.

"I fail to find the humor in a skill name," Jaq said with a frown.

"Right, ahahaha, it's just, ha ha, it's just that Blood has it," Beth answered, still laughing.

"The lupine has Swift?" Jaq asked with a raised brow.

"You shouldn't use crystals you haven't identified yet."

"No, no. We didn't use the crystal or anything. Swift is a skill that she just learned naturally on her own," Beth replied with a wave of her hand.

"I see," Jaq answered coolly.

"If you know the skill, that saves me an explanation. I assume, as always, you can see yourselves out?"

"Hold on," Beth said, dropping the skill crystal into her pouch. Then she gestured to James, "Need to take care of your other customer first." Jaq's eyebrows climbed.

"You know the prices, and I know his level of wealth; I just gave it to him. What is he buying?"

"I assume he'll want armor," Beth said, now staring at James along with the others, causing him to squirm somewhat.

"Y-yeah, armor sounds good," he responded."'Sounds good,' he says," Jaq snorted in response before walking down to the far end of the counter. Beth poked James in the back, causing him to jump with a gasp, in turn causing Beth and Sabs to laugh. She gestured for him to move down to the end of the counter, where Jaq had kicked the scanner platform on.

"Uh, what's this?" asked James, giving the arms on the sides of the platform quite a scrunched-eye look.

"Stand on it and hold your arms out. It'll measure you for armor and whatever," Beth explained, motioning him to hop on. James tentatively stepped up with his right foot, gaining a little confidence when the device didn't grab ahold of him or snap closed. He raised his arms, hesitantly at first, glancing around at the rest of the group. Jaq was examining something under the counter, Blood was sniffing the cabinets, and Beth and Sabs were a lot more interested in each other than anything else.

The device whirred for a second and was silent, James glancing back at it while still holding his arms up.