Limitless Path

Once at the edge, she noticed Blood had trotted a good distance away and stood watching her, her furry brow ruffled. Beth set the plant down in front of herself and dropped into meditation, examining her own condition with the powerful skill. She noted a slew of tiny black dots in what she perceived to be her circulatory system, mainly concentrated in her head and neck. She tapped into her regeneration skill and focused on all the black dots, noticing as she did so that some of them disappeared before she did anything. As they dissolved, she found the lightheaded feeling intensify, though it was dulled by her meditation skill. She assumed the dots that were showing up in her skill were some kind of pollen from the plant, and as it dissolved in her bloodstream, it was forming a chemical or something that was making her woozy.

Beth moved threads of mana using her regeneration skill through her veins and arteries, finding that the threads from the skill could purge the black dots. She noted as she did so that she felt slightly better, but she also saw more dots moving in through her nose and mouth. They landed in her lungs, where they fairly quickly moved into her bloodstream. She also noted the dots seemed alive or guided or, well, something. They didn't circulate through her whole body, but for the most part moved through her circulatory system right towards her brain. She purged more dots before also sending a very careful thread of mana to her brain, very gently focusing on healing the critical organ.

Beth found that just gently pushing the healing mana into her head while focusing on the desired effect helped tremendously. She continued to do this for some interminable length of time, gradually getting better as she went. It was a slow process, the lightheadedness and slight dizziness getting better for a little while before taking a turn for the worse. She continued with the effort, ignoring everything around her, hoping that Blood could keep her safe until she could get herself back under control.

This went on until eventually, after much effort and the burning of much mana, she was totally restored, no longer feeling any of the plant's effects. She stopped her healing for a minute to observe and found that more black dots entered her body. She didn't start healing again right away but watched what happened. She felt herself begin to get lightheaded again, but it took much longer for the effect to start, and it seemed to be far less severe. She stopped meditating and opened her eyes, both to feel the full effect of the pollen and to see if Blood or someone had rushed over and taken the plant away.

She found the dangerous plant still sitting right in front of her, as it had been when she started meditating. Blood was sitting off to the side a way, watching her with brow still furrowed, but she seemed less concerned now that Beth had opened her eyes and was noticeably improved. What really caught her attention, however, was the series of messages she had patiently waiting for her.

Focused Meditation Copper[6] acquired.

Lordly Reconstruction Copper[7] acquired.

Lordly Reconstruction Copper[8] acquired.

Toxic Resistance Copper[0] acquired.

Toxic Resistance Copper[1] acquired.

Toxic Resistance Copper[2] acquired.

Toxic Resistance Copper[3] acquired.

Toxic Resistance Copper[4] acquired.

She was both pleasantly surprised and a little worried. It hadn't been more than an hour, but she was able to not only gain a new resistance skill, but level it to Copper[4] in that time, as well as level her advanced regenerative type skill twice. It showed that the little flower she had, in hindsight, rather foolishly rushed to pick up was actually quite dangerous.

She was a little curious about the skill being labeled as toxic instead of just plain old poison for the resistance. She decided to bring up the description briefly to check what exactly it was that the “toxic” here referred to.

Toxic Resistance Copper[4]

{This skill provides a resistance to the most harmful of foreign substances that seek to destroy the body; lesser substances’ effects are drastically diminished based on this skill’s current level. Acquired through exposure to the most toxic of harmful substances.}

Well, Beth thought, that might have been even stupider than I had assumed it was.

"I think you need to do the same thing, Blood…" Beth said, standing up and moving a little away from the flower. The wolf just looked at Beth, her eyes narrowed and her teeth slightly bared.

"Don't be like that. OK, maybe do be like that, but hear me out," Beth quickly pivoted as the wolf's eyes narrowed further and a very low growl started emanating from her chest.

"Look, this thing is toxic, I get it, it was a dumb idea. But if you breathe the spores and cycle your regen skill you can get Toxic Resistance, which I'm sure will be really useful later on. You could probably sit farther away from it to start and get used to it more gently than what I tried," Beth hurriedly explained, holding her hands up in a placating gesture. "In fact, I would start farther away. Until I get to a skill level where I can teach you Lordly Reconstruction, we're just going to have to be more careful with what you do."

The wolf seemed to consider it for a long while before sighing deeply, her face relaxing back into her normal placid look. She walked over, stopping farther from the flower than Beth had been by a good margin, and sat down, closing her eyes to begin meditating. What followed was an hour-and-a-half of Blood meditating and healing herself while also gradually moving closer to the deadly flower. Beth spent the time guarding the area even though she was tempted to try increasing the resistance further. She wanted at least one of them to be at one hundred percent if anything should happen.

Eventually, Blood seemed to have gotten what she needed, moving over to Beth and smashing her head into the girl's chest rather hard. Beth just laughed as she took a half step back to stabilize herself before she leapt forward, half-tackling the huge wolf. The two wrestled around for a minute before Beth disengaged and stood back up, saying, "No hard feelings?" The wolf moved over and put her huge head on Beth's shoulder, rubbing against Beth's head with the side of hers. Beth returned the gesture, hugging the wolf around the neck and rubbing back against her.

After a minute of this, Beth disengaged and moved over to the flower. She felt a little bit lightheaded, but the sensation was rather small. It also peaked almost immediately, as it didn't get any stronger over time. She picked the dangerous plant up, and the two then decided to return to the door, making their way back over the next hour. They did stop at the stream again to drink deeply and clear out their mouths and sinuses.

When they reached the doorway, Beth threw the red flower into her makeshift pouch before picking it up and moving over to the door. Pushing it open, she made her way inside followed directly by Blood. There was no sense of dislocation or wrongness when stepping through the doors, they simply immediately found themselves on the next floor, the door closing behind.

This time the two found themselves in what Beth assumed was a jungle. She had never actually been to the tropics or any jungle-like areas on Earth herself, but it matched everything she had seen on TV and read about jungles. There were tall trees with leaves that were frond-like and densely packed throughout the area. Between all the trees was thick, lush vegetation that formed a nearly impenetrable wall.

"Well, this looks…fun…" Beth said with a deep frown. Blood simply sighed in response.

Beth set her Awesome Pouch of Cool Finds down on the ground as the door disappeared behind them. She began to look around, trying to find their opponent for this floor and once again, she didn't see anything obvious. She got a bad feeling immediately, just hoping that there weren't another hundred stealth enemies waiting for them.

Beth motioned to Blood as she limbered up before drawing her sword, the wolf starting to patrol out from the center of the moderate size clearing they had appeared in. Blood carefully sniffed around for almost five minutes before finding something out of the ordinary. She headed in that direction slowly, remaining cautious as she continued to sniff the air. She hadn't ventured very far out of the clearing when her caution paid off, thick vines near her head suddenly moving, lashing towards her.

Blood danced back and to the left, narrowly avoiding the grasp of the vines. The attack, however, was not over, as the vines leapt forward again. Blood dodged back further into the clearing, slipping clear of the vines once more. As she nimbly bobbed away from the vines a sword blade suddenly appeared in front of her, descending on the vines quite quickly. The blade slammed the vines into the ground, leaving shallow wounds across four of the five. Beth took this opportunity to use Identify on the enemy.

Level 17 Constrictor Vine

Ominous, Beth thought to herself grimly. It looked like their opponent for this floor was going to be some type of deadly plant. Most plants that were infused with magic would eventually become some type of precious herb or spirit plant, but plants that became overtly hostile were labeled into the category of monsters.

Unlike beasts, creatures that were natural who became infused with magic and acted upon their baser instincts, monsters were beings corrupted in the course of their consumption of mana, becoming twisted and evil. A dangerous plant trying to capture and kill animals and beasts around it was an aberration of its normal nature, and thus was classified as a monster and not a beast.

The distinction didn't really matter too much at this level, as it was more of a technicality. At higher levels, however, it would indicate a level of malevolence and cruelty not found in either beasts or most Wayfarers. Right now, Beth was far more concerned with how to kill such a foe, as chopping up the vines wasn't likely to be enough to actually take out such a plant. She decided the first course of action was to damage the vines to the point of breaking and see where that got her.

The problem with an opponent like this, as she soon found, was she was just confronting some of the creature's ‘arms’ without doing anything to the main body. The vines that lashed out at her were also both long and extremely flexible, harassing her from practically all angles at once. Beth pushed her heightened stats to the limit, wielding her sword at what would have once been a superhuman speed, slashing around her at every angle in rapid succession. Her furious blade-work barely held back the vines, her position tenuous but stable. She understood the challenge of this floor, just the first enemy pushing her to fight up to her current limit, let alone another ninety-nine.

Beth knew she had to do something to break the stalemate, for if two of the plants attacked at once she and Blood would each be tangled up, meaning she had to be able to fight at least one alone, assuming things would get worse later. She focused on observing the vines as she fought them, trying to figure out what exactly the plant was up to. Gradually, it became clear that the vines were trying to injure her or more likely knock her down, at which point they would entangle her. The outcome from there was pretty obvious considering the demented plants were called Constrictor Vines, and Beth had no desire to experience anything the plant had planned.

The problem currently for her was twofold, in that she had no way to access the main body of the plant, and her most powerful and reliable skill, Crush, would do practically nothing here. At least, it wouldn't work on the vines, and even facing the main body, Beth felt this might wind up being a better job for her sword than for her fists. So far, she hadn't activated her other powerful skills, but now that she had the plant's measure somewhat, she decided it was time to seriously fight back.

She started her offensive by suddenly infusing a swing aimed at two vines sweeping in from her right with Monstrous Blow, cutting deeply into the tough, fibrous appendages. The force of the strike also sent the damaged vines hurtling away from her, themselves becoming briefly entangled in the surrounding undergrowth. The plant didn't relent as it worked to free the two damaged vines but continued the assault with the other three in the meantime. Beth was long prepared, however, and struck two swift and precise blows with her skill, each hit landing on a single vine. These strikes didn't prove enough to slice apart the offending appendages completely, but they did more damage and sent the vines further than the previous strike.

Beth pressed her advantage by attacking into the fifth vine, hoping to disable one of the damnable appendages before the others were back to harassing her. She rushed forward in three quick steps, taking the time to heavily charge her attack, flushing both her arms and her entire torso with mana. As she drew close to the middle of the vine it lashed out, attempting to circle her and tie her down, but Beth danced a step to the right and swung her sword in a vicious horizontal arc. Just as the blade was close to hitting the vine, she tensed her enhanced muscles further and pushed the mana in them to compact them further. She didn't really have a set plan but was operating more on instinct and the natural feel she got when swinging the sword and using her skill.

The result was exceptional, as the blade sliced through both the air and the vine with a howl. The force of the blow was so great that the remnants of the vine still attached to the plant monster whipped through the air before slamming into a tree with enough energy that the side of the tree practically exploded where the vine impacted. Beth didn't rest, seeing how effective this was, and she charged the first set of vines she had knocked away. The plant had disentangled these two from the undergrowth but their approach to her had stalled as the monster writhed in agony from her having severed one of its five main appendages. She took advantage of this slight delay, four quick steps bringing her right in front of the vines.